Monday’s meeting will begin early, at 6 p.m., and will be held in the Board Meeting Room, 425 S. Main St., Pennington
By Ruth Luse, Managing Editor
On Monday, the school board plans to interview the seven Hopewell Township residents who have expressed interest in being considered for the vacancy created by the July 31 resignation of Linda Mitchell, who moved to North Carolina.
The meeting will begin early, at 6 p.m., and will be held in the Board Meeting Room, 425 S. Main St., Pennington.
Following deliberations, the Hopewell Valley Regional Board of Education might appoint and seat the replacement member at that meeting or at a future meeting to be announced. The person picked to fill Ms. Mitchell’s seat will serve until the organization meeting following the April 2009 annual school election.
As of noon Sept. 8 (the deadline for applications), the applicants were: Deborah Chitester, of Newman Court, Hopewell Grant, a housing development located west of Brandon Farms; Laura Desai, of Federal City Road; Edward Rankin Gainsborg Jr., of Washington Crossing-Pennington Road; Brian J. McHugh, of Masters Way, Brandon Farms; Leigh Ann Peterson, of Maple Lane; Kim Robinson, of Harbourton-Rocktown Road; and Neil Seftor, of Blake Drive, Hopewell Grant.
— According to a Web site, Ms. Chitester is a self-employed bilingual speech-language pathologist with Second Language, Literacy & Learning Connection, Pennington.
— Ms. Desai teaches Spanish at Richard C. Crockett Middle School in Hamilton Township.
— Mr. Gainsborg served a member of the Hopewell Valley Regional Board of Education from April 1999-April 2008, when he lost his bid for re-election. He is a forensic scientist III with the New Jersey State Police.
— Dr. McHugh, who has a degree in chemical engineering, works for GlaxoSmithKline in Pennsylvania. He was an unsuccessful school board candidate in the April 2008 election.
— Ms. Peterson, who is employed by Lehman Brothers Inc., has a bachelor’s degree in distributed studies — economics and French.
— Ms. Robinson, who now is a stay-at-home mother, has an undergraduate degree in commerce and a master’s degree in business administration. She has worked in the financial auditing field.
— Dr. Seftor, who holds a bachelor’s degree and doctorate in economics, has held research positions for Mathematica Policy Research from 2001-present. He was an unsuccessful board candidate in April 2007.
Of the nine seats on the regional board, seven belong to Hopewell Township. The other two are split between Hopewell Borough and Pennington.
The letters of application, received by board Secretary Robert Colavita, were to have included qualifications, resume, and reasons for wanting to become a board member.

