On June 13 at Dr. Orlando Edreira School No. 26 @ 31, the Elizabeth Board of Education hosted an evening of performances and recognitions. EBOE President Charlene Bathelus Dorgely welcomed everyone to the event and began with recognizing the men who serve on the Elizabeth Board of Education, Vice President Stanley Neron and Board Members Jerry Jacobs and Isaias Rivera, as well as fathers, uncles, Godfathers,  mentors, and father figures here in our school community, in the greater Elizabeth community, and everywhere in honor of Father’s Day.

Three performances followed in continued recognition of Multicultural Month, including one that highlighted Colombia performed by students from Dr. Antonia Pantoja School No. 27 and two that highlighted Colombia and Haiti, performed by two different groups of students from John E. Dwyer Technology Academy. A fourth performance, in honor of Juneteenth, was performed by students from Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson (JVJ) STEM Academy.

Following the performances, Bathelus introduced Elizabeth Public Schools Superintendent Olga Hugelmeyer to present the 2023-2024 Governor’s Awards Educators and Educational Services Professionals of the Year for each district school. While introducing the superintendent, she surprised her by sharing with the community that Hugelmeyer had spent years working on completing a doctoral program in education and had just finished to become a member of St. Peter’s University Class of 2024, receiving a Ed.D. in Educational Leadership K-12 from the university’s Caulfield School of Education.

Dr. Hugelmeyer announced the Governor’s Awards Educators and Educational Services Professionals of the Year for each district school, who were presented with certificates from the Board. For more information about each of the 2023-2024 Governor’s honorees, please visit https://www.epsnj.org/GEOY2024.

The Board then presented resolutions to each of the seven student representatives to the Board that served during the 2023-2024 school year. The students were selected by administrators at their schools for their incredible success both academically and within the greater community. Each student has shown a great commitment to their duty of being a student representative of their respective school communities by serving as a liaison between the Elizabeth Board of Education and the student communities they represent. For more information about each of the student representatives for the 2023-2024 school year, please visit https://www.epsnj.org/eboestudentreps.