William Walker, Carole Mineo, Ray Harvey and Dennis Grant were sworn in as new members of the Newburgh Board of Education on Tuesday, February 27. The new members will serve out their terms until the next Board of Education election in May.

Previous board members Darren Stridiron, Deborah Bouley, Renee Greene and Jerry Ryan Lamar submitted their letters of resignation on February 2. Stridiron held the position of president and Bouley held the position of vice president. At a special meeting called on Feb. 6, John Doerre was appointed president of the board with Mark Levinstein appointed as vice president.

The four new board members were selected to fill the vacancies based on the number of votes they received as candidates in the last (May 2023) election. District Clerk Matthew McCoy contacted the four to confirm that they were still willing to serve. Walker and Mineo, both up for re-election last year, return to the board for another period of service. Harvey and Grant, both first time candidates last year, now join the board and other district leadership for the next few months.

Doerre reflected on the recent changes to the board, former board member actions and the direction of the district during an opening statement to the public Tuesday night. “One of the easiest things we can do, any of us can do is to quit. We can quit our job, we can quit and walk away from relationships, we can quit a team or we can quit institutions where we once served. Recently, there’ve been articles and video news stories in the local media regarding former board of education members who resigned their seats and I’m going to use the word resign lightly,” he said. “At one point, in the last two years, each of them pledged to uphold their positions on the board, they took a pledge. They were elected by you, the community, with a reasonable expectation that they perform their job as board members.”

“So while resigned sounds very formal and professional, the real act they performed was quitting, which by default makes them quitters. They quit the board of education but their act was even more egregious and this is what I’m upset about, they quit you, the community that they took an oath to serve and I think you deserve better. Some of these people have now resigned to what they do best, attack others through the mainstream local media along with social media. They’re trying to make their act of quitting an act of righteousness. It is not, it’s an act of cowardice. Sitting before you this evening are five board members, each duly elected by you. We didn’t quit, we won’t quit and we won’t quit on you,” he continued.

“Effective tonight the board of education is moving on and away from the distractions these former board members created over the last several months. Going forward our focus will be 100 percent directed towards our students, our educators, our support staff and our administrators.”

For the upcoming election cycle, Philip Howard and Levinstein will be up for re-election while the four seats filled by the new members will also be up for election. District Clerk McCoy announced on Tuesday night that packets for new potential candidates are available through his office. Those interested in running can contact him at (845) 563-3503 and mmccoy@necsd.net. The election and district budget vote will take place on Tuesday, May 21.