Board selects Maglione to fill open seat on panel
BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer

ENGLISHTOWN - Dr. Valerie Maglione, a 13-year resident of Manal-apan, has been appointed to fill an open seat on the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District Board of Education.

Maglione will serve until the next school board election in April at which time she or any other resident of Manalapan may run for election to the final year of the unexpired term.

Maglione was appointed to fill the seat formerly held by Dorothy Porcaro, who resigned from the board earlier this fall.

The nine-member board is composed of eight members who are residents of Manalapan and one member who is a resident of Englishtown.

The 10 Manalapan residents who initially applied for consideration for the appointment were Maglione, Judith Tolchin, Eric Gulotta, Debra Carnesi, Tim Tower, Paul Sagnelli, Gina De Palma, Pamela Allison, former Manal-apan mayor William Scherer and former school board member Martin Spindel.

According to board President Anthony Manisero, when the board met to interview the candidates on Nov. 13, Gulotta, Allison and Tower were not available for the interview.

Manisero said the seven remaining candidates were each asked five questions. He said Maglione "answered all five questions to the agreed satisfaction of the board. She was an easy pick. She is a great person and someone everyone on the board is looking forward to working with."

Maglione, 45, was sworn in as a board member that evening. She is a dentist with a practice in Edison, Middlesex County.

She has lived in Manalapan for 13 years with her husband, John, who is an executive with Bristol-Myers Squibb, and their two school-age sons.

Maglione said she has been active in the community and sees her membership on the school board as an extension of her civic commitments.

She said she was the PTA president at the Pine Brook School for three years and is presently active as a religion teacher at St. Thomas More Church, as well as being an active member of HomeFront, an advocacy group for the homeless that operates in Monmouth and Mercer counties.

Maglione said she will more than likely run for a seat on the board next spring. In addition to the one-year term that will be on the ballot, there will be three three-year terms available.

Maglione said she would wait before deciding if she would run for the one-year term or a three-year term.

The seats now held by Manisero, Lucille Benedetti and Joanne Orr, all from Manalapan, will be on the ballot in April.