The first meeting of the Deptford Township Board of Education in 2019 was nearly over before Alex Trebek went to his first commercial break on “Jeopardy!”
The meeting, the annual reorganization of the school board, was over in just over 10 minutes because there wasn’t much re-organizing necessary. The three candidates who ran in the November election (and won) were three incumbents and each was sworn in on Thursday night at the administration building.
Sue David-Kryszczak, Laura Newcomb and Jim P. McDevitt, III were sworn in before the board. Each will serve three-year terms.
Shortly after the ceremony, both David-Kryszczak and McDevitt were re-elected by the board to their previous posts as president and vice president of the board, respectively.
“It’s an honor. I think we have a really good team in place and I’m honored that they would put me back on and I look forward to bigger and better things in 2019,” David-Kryszczak said.
It’s David-Kryszczak’s fourth year as president of the board, on which she’s served for more than seven years. The former state trooper (she retired in 2010) decided to get involved with the township’s school district after seeing its potential impact as a parent.
“My son went through Deptford schools,” she said. “To be honest with you, the summer band was getting canceled way back when and a group of parents got together, along with kids, and presented it at the board meeting. We realized sitting out there we weren’t able to do much, so a lot of us decided to jump on the board so we’d hopefully be able to get some things accomplished for the kids.”
As the new year gets underway, David-Kryszczak is eager to continue to work with Superintendent Arthur Dietz, the administration, and the rest of the board to stay with that objective: serving the students in Deptford Township.
“We’ve accomplished (a lot), we had the teachers contracts settled, we got solar in the schools, we’re getting increased technology, and we’re all on that page,” David-Kryszczak said of her time on the board. “I really think the board that’s in place now, the kids are our No. 1 priority. There aren’t any egoes involved, no ‘me’s,’ it’s all a team effort. And I think that’s where we’ve evolved to … we support the administration and I think everyone trusts each other, and that’s key. We’re all in it for the right reasons.”
