Evesham BOE welcomes new board member
New board member JoAnne Harmon served at her first Evesham Township Board of Education meeting last week.
The board appointed Harmon, after reviewing a pool of candidates, to serve until January. Harmon’s appointment comes on the heels of Rosemary Bernardi’s resignation following anti-Semitic comments made at a May meeting. The board accepted Bernardi’s resignation at the end of June.
Concurrently, the county clerk accepted petitions to fill the one-year position, or the remainder of Bernardi’s term, which will appear on the November ballot.
Whoever wins in November will be sworn in during January’s reorganization meeting, according to school board president Sandy Student.
This is the first time the board has had the task of filling a vacant position since the election date was changed to November. Harmon ran for one of the open positions last November.
Her resume includes Girl Scout leader to a Junior Girl Scout Troop of 17 girls, Girl Scout leader to a Brownie Girl Scout Troop of 10 girls, Evans Elementary School PTA treasurer, Evans Elementary School PTA webmaster and chairperson of E-Communications Initiatives, Evans Elementary School PTA school board liaison and Evesham Town Watch Committee member.
“I’m passionate about providing quality education for all children and bringing the community together to achieve results, especially with two young daughters in the Evesham School District,” Harmon told The Sun last November while running for a board position.
“Combining this passion, with my finance background as a CFO of a division in a Fortune 500 company, along with experience in budgeting, cost benefit analysis and problem solving, I want to make a difference for our children, our community and our district.
“My primary areas of focus as an Evesham School Board candidate are advancement in educational excellence for all children in the district, encouraging community engagement, awareness and involvement in decision-making, fiscal responsibility and accountability and promoting a team atmosphere and shared accountability.”
In other news:
• Business Administrator Dennis Nettleton was honored for becoming a certified administrator of school finance and operations, one of eight in the state. Nettleton was required to pass a two-part exam and adhere to the certification code of conduct.
According to Student, it was a six-month process for Nettleton.
“This is not something you get very easily,” superintendent of schools John Scavelli said. “It gives us great pleasure to honor Dennis.”
• Evesham Township Director of Curriculum and Instruction Danielle Magulick gave a presentation to the board of education on the math curriculum. The department researched, tested and adopted a new math program, which follows common core standards. Additionally, it worked with the Lenape Regional High School District.
According to Magulick, the program will teach students a conceptual understanding to make sense of math, procedural skills and computational fluency, doing math and problem solving, or using math.
“We wanted to thank all our teachers, coaches and supervisors for all their hard work, not just on the curriculum document itself, but obviously for the dedication to our students,” Magulick said.
The next board of education meeting is scheduled for Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. at the Evesham Township Municipal Building, located at 984 Tuckerton Road.
For more information, visit www.evesham.k12.nj.us.
