Mat-Ab BOE to fill vacancy

ABERDEEN — The Board of Education will begin interviewing candidates for a vacant seat .

“We have 65 days from the receipt of resignation to fill in the position,” said Charles Kenny, president of the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District board. “The elected candidate will serve until the election inApril 2012.”

Kenny said the board is in the process of creating a plan, and they intend to advise the public by posting the information on the Board of Education website and cable channel.

“We will seek candidates and ask them to submit a résumé along with a letter of intent,” Kenny said. “Thereafter, the board will interview the candidates it wishes to choose from. Based on the interview, the qualified candidate will be selected.”

The board seat was formerly held by Patricia Demarest, whose resignation was announced at theBoard of Education meeting on July 25. Kenny said Demarest gave her resignation that day.

“Her resignation was very short and didn’t explain why she was resigning from the board,” he said.

In an email, Demarest explained that she resigned from the board because her youngest child is attending an out-of-state school. She explained that since she will no longer have children in the district schools, she thought it was sensible to resign.

“I chose to resign during the summer monthswhen board business is usually light so that any necessary meetings to arrange for my replacement would not be burdensome to the other members,” Demarest said.

Demarest has been a resident of Aberdeen since 1997. Four of her children were educated in the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District. She was first elected to the board in April 2003 and served until 2009. After a yearlong hiatus, she was re-elected to the board in 2010.

The board accepted Demarest’s resignation .

“We want to thank her for her many years of service and dedication to the students in our district,” Kenny said.