The Vernon Township Board of Education on its 2025 reorganization night elected Jennifer Pellet as board president and Charles (Charlie) Semaglia as vice president, administered oaths to newly elected members and approved a set of routine administrative items including the district's meeting calendar, bank depositories, designated warrant signer and the readoption of existing bylaws and policies.

The board's secretary conducted roll-call swearing-in for newly elected members before nominations. Raymond Slam, identified in the meeting as the board secretary, asked Pellet to take the chair after the vote. Pellet thanked colleagues after being installed, saying, "Thank you, thank you for your support. I really appreciate the honor." The board also held a separate roll-call vote to adopt items labeled J1 through J7 on the agenda, including a code of ethics and the district's official newspapers.

Why it matters: leadership and the annual housekeeping votes determine who will set meeting agendas and who carries signature authority for warrants. The readoption of bylaws affects rules the board follows for public comment and meeting procedure.

In the president's race, nominations opened from the floor; Jennifer Pellet was nominated and a vote followed. The roll-call recorded individual yes/no responses (as read aloud during the meeting); following a brief tallying error the secretary corrected the count and announced the motion carried. Pellet then assumed the presidency. Later in the meeting the board nominated and elected a vice president in a separate roll-call; Charles (Charlie) Semaglia received enough votes to be declared vice president after members voted in nomination order.

On administrative items, the board unanimously approved a package of procedural items (items J1'J7). Those items included: adoption of the board's code of ethics; approval of the public meeting schedule for January 2025'January 2026; designation of Provident Bank, P&C Bank and TD Bank as depositories for school funds; naming the board secretary (Freeman Slam was listed in the recommendation) as the person authorized to sign school warrants under N.J.S.A. 18A:19-1; and naming the New Jersey Herald, New Jersey Sunday Herald and The Star-Ledger as official newspapers in accordance with state notice requirements. The board also formally readopted its existing bylaws and policies.

Votes at a glance

- Motion to elect Jennifer Pellet as board president: roll-call recorded (members spoken during roll call: Miss Brock: yes; Mr. Semaglia: yes; Mr. Contino: no; Mr. Fisher: yes; Mr. Krause: no; Miss Pellet: yes; Mr. Sweeney: no; Mr. Accarello/McCarello: yes; Mr. Zimmerman: no). After the secretary corrected a tallying error, the motion was declared carried.

- Motion to elect Charles (Charlie) Semaglia as vice president: roll-call vote followed nomination order; recorded yes/no votes produced a result that the motion carried.

- Motion to adopt agenda items J1'J7 (code of ethics; meeting dates; depositories; warrant signer; official newspapers; meeting locations; readoption of bylaws/policies): roll-call vote recorded as Yes from the board membership present; motion carries.

What was not decided: The board readopted its existing bylaws and policies but did not change them at this meeting. Members noted that proposed changes to public-comment procedures (for example, Zoom/remote-access policy and the five-minute speaker limit) remain under discussion in the policy committee and would require formal revision to bylaws/policies before changing practice.

Looking ahead: Committee assignments and any bylaws updates were deferred for later discussion; members were asked to complete oath/certificate paperwork and to sign the code of ethics at the meeting'or return forms to the secretary.