New Hoboken School Board Members Sworn in, Gold Appointed President

Tom Kluepfel, Jean Marie Mitchell and Ruth McAllister were sworn in as school board members on Monday night.

Mitchell returns for the second time — she served for a year in 2010 — and McAllister started her second term. Kluepfel is starting his first term on the board.

For the first time in three years, the board also has a new president. Leon Gold, a member of the Kids First coalition, will be taking over the gavel from Rose Marie Markle.

Markle has served the board as president for the past three years. McAllister was re-appointed as board vice president.

The board members all took their oath and the code of ethics was read into the record by the board secretary. A good reminder, McAllister said, of what a board member is supposed to do.

"You serve your weakest constituents," McAllister said on Tuesday morning. "And that is especially true for the board of ed."

In the coming months, McAllister said, that the board will discuss the "school configuration," which could mean that the district will adopt the middle school model. Before that happens, however, the community can expect public meetings in which the different options will be laid out, McAllister said.