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Berkeley Heights board fails to elect president after three rounds; approves revised meeting date and passes resolutions A–O
Summary
After three unsuccessful nomination rounds, the Berkeley Heights Board of Education declined to elect a president and voted to proceed with business; the board changed its January meeting to Jan. 27, 2025, and adopted a package of resolutions (A–O) with a handful of dissenting votes.
The Berkeley Heights School District Board of Education administered oaths to newly elected members and then attempted to elect a board president — but after three rounds of nominations and votes the board could not produce a majority for any nominee and agreed to move forward without electing a president that night.
Pamela Stanley, who nominated Gail Bradford, urged colleagues to choose Bradford because, she said, “She shows up. She does the work, and she works with the superintendent.” That nomination and other nominations were put to repeated voice and roll-call votes that produced ties or opposing majorities and ultimately failed to elect a president.
The board attorney told the body that, if the board cannot elect a president, the board secretary must notify the executive county superintendent, who may appoint a president, but the board retains statutory authority to act in many areas. “At that point, the board secretary is obligated to contact the executive county superintendent,” the attorney said, explaining the legal process when reorganization votes reach an impasse.
Faced with the impasse, a majority voted to discontinue further rounds of voting for president that evening and either to proceed with other reorganizational business or to allow the secretary to run the meeting in the interim. The board then debated and approved a motion to change the district’s first regular meeting from Jan. 23 to Jan. 27, 2025, after members raised conflicts with the earlier date and administration counsel advised on operational readiness.
The meeting also included a bundled roll-call vote on resolutions labeled A through O. The board completed the votes and the chair announced that the package carried; several members recorded ‘no’ votes on certain items (for example, at least one board member voted no on one policy item discussed during the meeting). The board amended Item M (the district’s purchase/standard operating procedures manual) to include a contingency that the manual be updated to reflect policy 6421’s quotation threshold before further implementation.
The board concluded by moving several unresolved procurement and policy questions to old business for the next meeting and adjourning the reorganizational session.
