HOPEWELL VALLEY: Three seek three seats on school board

By Ruth Luse, Managing Editor
   Three seats (three-year terms each) on the Hopewell Valley Regional Board of Education will be filled Tuesday (April 17).
   There are no races.
   Polls will be open from 7 a.m.-9 p.m.
   Those holding the seats are Leigh Ann Peterson and Lisa Wolff, both of Hopewell Township, and Daniel J. O’Connor, of Pennington. Mr. O’Connor is not seeking re-election.
   Those whose names will be on ballots Tuesday are:
   In Pennington — Jon Butler, of Baldwin Street.
   In Hopewell Township — Ms. Peterson, of Maple Avenue; and Ms. Wolff, of West Shore Drive.
   Hopewell Borough’s one seat is not involved in this year’s school board election.
   Mr. Butler — Pennington candidate — has been executive director of Pop Warner since 1991. In 2006, he was selected as the Hershey’s S.T.R.I.V.E Awards’ National Youth Sports Administrator of the Year.
   He also serves as vice president of the National Council of Youth Sports, on the Advisory Board of the National Children’s Literacy and Book Alliance, and on the boards of the Philadelphia Sports Congress, the Mercer County Sports and Entertainment Commission, the Risk Management Committee and the Youth Game Sub-Committee of U.S. Lacrosse, and the board of Hopewell Valley Recreation Foundation.
   Ms. Peterson — Hopewell Township candidate — was born and raised in Ewing Township and moved to the township is 2005. She was appointed to the school board in September 2008 to fill the unexpired term of Hopewell Township representative Linda Mitchell. She won her first three-year term in April 2009.She serves as board vice president and also chairs the board’s Negotiations Committee and is a member of its Personnel Committee. Along with fellow board member, Ms. Wolff, she is co-liaison to the Hopewell Valley Education Foundation.
   She is a senior compliance officer for Barclays Capital Inc. in its Manhattan office. She worked in the same capacity for Lehman Brothers Inc., prior to its acquisition by Barclays. A one-time product manager for Bloomberg L.P., she also headed up testing of a trading system on the NASDAQ stock exchange for OptiMark Technologies Inc., a software company.
   She is a graduate of the Hun School, Princeton, and serves on its alumni board of directors. In 2008 she received its Outstanding Alumna of the Year award. She holds a bachelor’s degree in distributed studies — economics and French — from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She and her husband, Michael Shine, have two sons, Aidan and Patrick.
   Ms. Wolff — Hopewell Township candidate — has been on the school board since 2009 and now serves as president. She has taken an active role on the Education Committee, both as member and as chairwoman.
   She spearheaded the Alternative Resource Advisory Committee, which promotes non-taxpayer funded resources and collaboration with outside organizations seeking to partner with the school district. She has served on the Personnel and Finance & Facilities committees and is a liaison to Hopewell Valley Education Foundation and the Recreation Foundation of Hopewell Valley.
   In the community, she has volunteered with Womanspace since 2002 serving in various roles. She also has been on the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association’s Fest host committee since 2008 and also supports D&R Greenway.
   A sales and marketing consultant, she has had a successful sales and management track record marketing to C-Suite Fortune 500 executives. She has taught sales and sales management courses at The College of New Jersey.
   She holds an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, as well as a bachelor’s degree in CS/Math from University of Illinois. Her husband manages IBM’s Worldwide Project Management Organization. Her two sons attend school in the district.