Page 10 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • November 14, 2012 FLOW Area New representatives elected to K-8, regional boards by Frank J. McMahon According to the unofficial results of last week’s school board election, three new members were elected to the local K-8 school board and two new members were elected to the Ramapo Indian Hills Regional High School Board of Education. Michael Ben-David, Jacqueline “Jackie” Veliky, and Shirley Hermansen O’Reilly were the three top vote-getters in the K-8 school board election and are expected to become new members of that board on Jan. 1, 2013. Meanwhile, Kenneth A. Porro, who ran unopposed for the regional school board, and John Butto, who received the highest number of write-in votes for an unexpired term on the board, are expected to become regional school board members at that time. In the K-8 board election, Ben-David received 1,674 votes, while Veliky received 1,662 votes and Shirley Hermansen O’Reilly received 1,382 votes to win seats. Incumbent Kathleen Schwartz, the current president of the board, received 1,316 votes. Evros Vassillou received 1,294 votes, incumbent Margaret Bennett received 1,142 votes, and Julie L. Kim received 336 votes. There were 5,075 votes cast in the election, representing 64 percent of the registered voters in the borough. The vote totals do not, however, include absentee (mailin) ballots, provisional ballots, or electronic ballots from the storm related displaced residents whose votes were not to be counted until Friday, three days after the election, according to a statewide directive. Ben-David is a life-long North Jersey resident. He received a BA from Rutgers College, a JD from Seton Hall Law School, and his M.Ed. from CSE. He has spent the last 14 years as a school administrator, teacher, and coach. He currently serves as a middle school principal in Wayne. Prior to entering education, Ben-David was a litigation associate at a New Jersey law firm. He served as a judicial intern/clerk to both current Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and Chief Bankruptcy Court Judge Rosemary Gambardella, and he founded a real estate development company. Ben-David has said that the mission of all school districts should be to significantly increase student growth and achievement through a keen understanding of the factors that influence educational success, which are personnel, curriculum and instruction, facilities, and culture. He has said that school districts also have an obligation to the taxpayers to engender excellence in a responsive, transparent, and fiscally responsible manner, keeping taxes low and enhancing property values. Veliky has lived in Franklin Lakes for over 10 years. She now has four children, three of whom are attending the borough’s schools. She has said that the borough’s education system was one of the primary reasons she moved into town. She is the treasurer of Franklin Lakes Boy Scout Troop 34 and of the Franklin Lakes District Girl Scouts, and is a leader for Brownie Troop 94134. She served as treasurer for Franklin Lakes Cub Scout Pack 134 from 2009 to 2012, and was the president of the Woodside Avenue School PTA in 2011-12. She also served as the treasurer for the Woodside Avenue School PTA from 2008 to 2011. In addition, she served on the school district’s Efficiency Study Committee, and many of the related subcommittees and the district wide focus groups. Veliky received bachelor’s degree in accounting and business management from Rutgers University and a master of business administration from the Pace University Lubin School of Business. She became a certified public account in 1997, with the majority of her employment as a manager in the tax accounting department of Prudential Insurance Company Temple plans Chanukah Celebration Barnert Temple invites the community to a Chanukah Celebration on Sunday, Dec. 9 at 4:45 p.m. The event will feature the lighting of the outdoor Menorah and a potluck supper and Latke Taste-Off. Attendees are invited to enter their favorite latkes to the taste-off contest and bring a menorah to add to the festive atmosphere. There will be games, arts and crafts, and Chanukah “gelt” for children. Music for singing and dancing will be provided by NYC Klezmer, a live Klezmer Band based in New York. Attendees are asked to bring an unwrapped toy to be donated to The Center of United Methodist Aid to the Community. CUMAC is devoted to alleviating hunger for those in need in Paterson and in northern New Jersey. RSVP to mary@bilapartners.com. For information about joining Barnert Temple, contact Alice Berdy, membership liaison, at (201) 848-1027. The temple is located at 747 Route 208 South in Franklin Lakes. of America in Newark, where her responsibilities included budgeting, financial planning and analysis, forecasting, auditing, tax law analysis, supervising staff, and preparing and consolidating tax returns. After the birth of her third child, she began to devote her energy to raising her family and working to improve the Franklin Lakes Schools. A parishioner of Saint Mary’s Church in Pompton Lakes and an active member of Franklin Lakes Newcomers Club, Veliky is an active member and volunteer of Woodside Avenue School PTA, the Franklin Avenue Middle School PTA, and the Bergen Academies PPO. She is a volunteer at Oasis and Eva’s Kitchen in Paterson, and for various other church related functions. She also contributes to her children’s sports teams in the Franklin Lakes recreation programs. O’Reilly has resided in town for nine years and has four children who have all attended the public schools. She has worked at Standard and Poor’s, a division of The McGraw Hill Companies, for over 25 years, and she has volunteered at numerous NYC based charities, including PENCIL, whose mission is education based. She has said that the single most important issue facing local public schools today is the balancing of resources within a challenging and continuously evolving legislative landscape. She pointed out that two of the more recent and larger mandates from the state are the adoption and implementation of the Common Core Standards and the establishment of a new teacher evaluation system to be rolled out for the 2013 school year. She said the way the school board manages these two mandates with the limited amount of additional funding available is critical for the children of Franklin Lakes. In the uncontested regional high school board of education election, based on the unofficial results of last week’s election, Porro received 2,755 votes and will be a representative from Wyckoff. Incumbent Elizabeth M Pierce, an Oakland representative, received 1,624 votes; and incumbent Debra Strauss, a Franklin Lakes representative, received 1,175 votes. The unexpired one-year term of former board president Wayne Peterson, who represented Franklin Lakes, will be filled by Butto who received 22 write-in votes, the highest number of the eight people who received write-in votes to fill that position for which there were no official candidates. Butto has lived in Franklin Lakes since 2003. He grew up in Hasbrouck Heights and attended Corpus Christi Elementary School and graduated from Bergen Catholic High School. He is currently the senior financial manager for the Beyer Automotive Group and has been in the automotive industry for 28 years.