Kimberly Gallagher is chairing the committee and will manage the board’s volunteer duties and job descriptions.
The Cherry Hill board of education has unanimously approved its first governance committee.
Chaired by Kimberly Gallagher, the panel’s key goal is to ensure that all nine volunteer board members are on the same page about their duties.
“It’s a committee that essentially monitors and manages the board,” Gallagher explained. “So training, roles, responsibilities, making sure evaluations are done on time, compliance and other things – but those are the bigger items.”
The first order of business, she announced, will be to create official job descriptions – with guidance from the New Jersey School Boards Association – for the board, committee members, the vice president and president.
“If we don’t know what we do, we can’t really go forward, right?” Gallagher noted. “And everybody will have input (on drafting the descriptions),” she added, while acknowledging she didn’t understand the full scope of being a board member until she was elected.
Official job descriptions will help the public better understand what board members can and cannot do, Gallagher believes.
“On occasion, friends will come to me and say, ‘Oh, I’m having this issue, can’t you do something?,’” she noted. “And I’m like, ‘No, I can’t.’ So it might be nice to have something where we can point people to.”
Members of the governance committee will rotate depending on a number of factors, including interest levels and expertise on the topics at hand. The first meeting is slated to be held this month on a day to be determined.
“I’m glad that you’re doing this and I’m glad you’re enthusiastic about it because what you described, I think, is gonna be really useful,” observed board member Kurt Braddock.
“It’s a lot,” added Miriam Stern, another board member. “It’s a lot of organizing and tracking and ensuring compliance for nine volunteers who all have very different competing needs, but it will be incredibly beneficial to the board and to the success of the board. If the board is successful, it can only support the success of the district and, ultimately, the students who we’re here for.”
In other news, Superintendent Dr. Kwame Morton briefly addressed how President Trump’s newly signed executive orders may impact the district, including “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” which would essentially eliminate DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) practices in the schools.
That executive order calls on the federal departments of education, defense and Health and Human Services, in consultation with the attorney general, to recommend a strategy for “eliminating federal funding or support for illegal and discriminatory treatment and indoctrination in K-12 schools, including based on gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology.”
“We have received many questions surrounding the executive orders recently signed by the president, and things are changing rapidly,” Morton pointed out. “At this time, we do not have complete information as a district. I’m monitoring developments and we’re following guidance that is provided by the New Jersey Department of Education.
“As information becomes available, we’ll continue to keep the community informed.”
Some Smart Goals at the high schools this academic year include hiring and retaining staff for a diverse workforce that reflects and promotes DEI practices, and establishing an environment where every student feels safe; welcomed; and respected, and benefits from an inclusive culture.
