By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
MONTGOMERY — Adelle Kirk-Csontos and Judy Humza, the president and the vice president of the Montgomery Township Board of Education and whose school board terms were not set to expire until Dec. 31, resigned unexpectedly from the board Tuesday night.
This leaves the school board with only seven of its full complement of nine members. The school board has 30 days to fill the positions of president and vice president from among the remaining seven board members, and 65 days to fill the two vacancies.
Timelines to fill the two vacancies will be established after the school board president’s post has been filled, according to school district officials. The procedure will likely be similar to the manner in which an earlier vacancy was filled — by advertising the vacancy and conducting public interviews of the candidates at a school board meeting.
Meanwhile, Ms. Kirk-Csontos, the school board president, said Thursday afternoon that it was “with a real heavy heart that I made the decision (to resign), but it was the right one for me.”
Ms. Kirk-Csontos said that she had served for seven-and-a-half years on the school board and that it was “truly, truly an honor” to serve the community. Montgomery has an outstanding school system, a “fantastic” administration and “world-class” teachers, she said.
Ms. Humza, the school board vice president, said in an email that her decision was not lightly made. She said she joined the school board because her children were receiving an outstanding education, and she wanted to ensure that younger children would receive the same quality of education.
But Ms. Humza said she decided to resign because “it has become increasingly difficult to be an effective Board of Education member under continued contentious Board of Education meetings.” School board members need to be focused on providing children with the best possible education, with competent teachers and experienced administrators, she said.
“Montgomery and Rocky Hill deserve the best education for their children and I hope that moving forward, this can be the driving force behind future educational decisions by the Montgomery Township School District Board of Education,” Ms. Humza wrote.
