Warren County School Boards Association Zeroes in on AI at Meeting

The Warren County School Boards Association met on Oct. 7 at Architect’s Golf Club in Phillipsburg.

Lisa Marshall (Warren Hills Regional), president of the Warren County School Boards Association, called the meeting to order and welcomed everyone in attendance, both in person and virtually. She led the attendees in the pledge of allegiance, introduced the other members of the WCSBA Executive Committee, and delivered remarks. Dr. Rosalie Lamonte, Warren County executive county superintendent of schools, greeted the Warren County board members and gave updates from the Warren County Office of Education.

The evening’s business proceeded with Lauren Cuervo, senior director of connection at NJSBA, giving the attendees a brief but valuable overview of Workshop 2024: Quest for Student Success. Scott Nodes (Greenwich Township), an NJSBA board of directors alternate, provided the attendees with a comprehensive update on the Sept. 20 NJSBA board of directors meeting, ensuring that everyone was fully informed. Tammy Smith, WCSBA’s second vice president for legislation, who also serves as the treasurer of the Educational Leadership Foundation of New Jersey, gave attendees an overview of the organization.

NJSBA Senior Director of Content Gwen Thornton, who has filled in as the Warren County field service representative, joined the WCSBA members to introduce their two new field service representatives. Warren County members are excited to have Patti Rees, their former county activities coordinator, and Kelly Mitchell split up the districts in Warren County as field service representatives.

The evening’s program was “AI: Embracing the Power of Artificial Intelligence in Education.” Melissa McEntee, public sector education strategic team lead at SHI International Corp., presented. McEntee is a former New Jersey school district administrator.  

Also in attendance were WCSBA First Vice President Jennifer Knittel (Washington Township), NJSBA board of directors alternate Jaclyn Rowbotham (Harmony), WCSBA Immediate-Past President George Babula (Harmony) and Robert Acerra, NJSBA county activities coordinator.

At the meeting, a variety of other important business was also conducted. The WCSBA Executive Committee announced that the next Warren County School Boards Association meeting will be hosted at Warren County Technical School in Washington Township on Monday, November 18, 2024. The topic for this meeting is “Hot Topics Affecting School Boards: Engaging Roundtable Discussions.” This meeting will also invite all newly elected board members in the November election to join. The meeting concluded with a vote of thanks to all the speakers and attendees for their valuable contributions and commitment to implementing what was learned from the meeting in the upcoming school year.