Board approves consent agenda, student representatives and personnel appointments
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Summary
The Somerville Board of Education approved minutes, the appointment of two student board representatives, and a multi-item consent agenda that included personnel hires and program approvals; roll-call votes were recorded as unanimous for the motions presented.
The Somerville Board of Education voted on several procedural and personnel items during the public meeting.
Minutes and student representatives: The board approved the minutes of the Sept. 9 regular meeting and executive session by consensus. The board also approved the appointment of two student representatives for the 2025——2026 school year: Romanjeet Kaur as the Somerville junior representative and Tayah Pappas as the Branchburg senior representative. The student appointments were moved and seconded and passed by roll-call vote.
Consent agenda and personnel: The board approved two large consent motions covering personnel and districtwide items. The first motion approved items 1 through 21 (preschool through eighth-grade and related recommendations). The motion was moved by Mr. Jess and seconded by Mr. Carlson; a roll-call vote recorded all members present voting "yes." The second motion approved items 22 through 69 (ninth through twelfth grade and districtwide items) on the superintendent—s recommendation; that motion was moved by Mr. Jess, seconded by Miss Van Horn, and passed by roll call with affirmative votes from the members present.
Notable approvals on the consent agenda included the creation of a supervisor of humanities position and the district—s recommendation to hire Cruz Garcia for that role, and a recommendation to appoint Karen Kabrook as an assistant principal lead replacement at Vander Veer (detailed item numbers were presented in the board packet). The board also highlighted the MAPS program—s recognition and the district—s AI grant work to support curriculum and staff training.
Executive session: The board convened an executive session to discuss collective bargaining and attorney-client privileged matters; the public meeting resumed later with no action taken following executive session as announced in the motion.