Former Board of Education Vice President Keith Tanski has rejoined the school board, having been appointed to a recently vacated seat. He will be filling in for Sam Yodice Jr., who resigned on Sept. 8.
Tanski previously served on the board for five years but lost his seat in this past spring’s elections. Yodice was elected to the three-year term in April 2007 but had to leave his seat citing time constraints.
"I’m glad to be back," Tanski said. "There is a lot going on right now with the district such as teacher negotiations, the state’s district review, etc., and I believe they felt confident with me filling in due to my previous experience on the board."
The Board of Education accepted applications from candidates who were interested in serving the remainder of Yodice’s by Sept. 26. Five people had submitted their resumes according to Thomas DiFluri, board secretary. All five candidates were interviewed by the board at its workshop meeting last Thursday night at Charles Olbon School.
The five individuals under consideration were Tanski; former board member Marilyn Smith; Francie Joseph-Keating, recreation clerk for the borough; Tara Ann Hayek, an educator and administrator; and Sunjay Desai, parent and resident of the borough.
The board had 60 days to appoint a person to the seat but held a vote soon after the interviews. Tanski won with five votes out of eight and was sworn in during the meeting. He will fill the seat until April 2009, at which time he can choose to run in an election to keep his seat and finish the remainder of the term through the spring of 2010.
"I hope to run this April in order to at least finish out Mr. Yodice’s term to 2010," Tanski added.
Helene Webb, board of education president stated during the evening after the vote’s results, "We wanted to have someone who will hit the ground running."
"I’m glad that I have this opportunity to once again be able to serve in West Paterson," he added. "I enjoy everything associated with education, being a teacher myself in Jersey City. I look forward towards getting things done and working to help the students of the borough reach to a level where they should be. We’ve done a lot the previous two years with the district schools’ realignment and the scheduling changes made to include double periods of both anguage arts and math. I hope to assist the BOE towards continued progress."
"It was a smooth voting process overall once we interviewed the five candidates," added DiFluri."The board members are very pleased to have Mr. Tanski back."
