Politics & Government
Sherman Sworn in on Nutley Board of Education
Nutley school board selects Brenda Sherman to fill one-year term left vacant by Steven Rogers after his election as town commissioner.
Brenda Sherman was sworn in as the newest Nutley School Board member on Tuesday night.
She will fill the unexpired term of former member Steve Rogers, who was elected to the township council in May and resigned from the board. Her term will end in Nov. 2013.
She was sworn-in at the end of the meeting, and said she anxious to attend her first meeting in August.
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"It was great to become part of the board," Sherman said. "I look forward to starting the learning process."
Her interest in the school board goes back to 2004, when she ran and lost by only 12 votes, Sherman said in an interview Tuesday.
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“I’m a Nutley High School girl, and didn’t go to college right away so I could go to school for court reporting,” Sherman said. “I’ve always worked as a volunteer here, including places like the Nutley Family Service Bureau and the Library. I’m like a lot of people in town, I own the house I was raised in.”
Sherman said she is as a paralegal at the McCarter & English law firm in New York City, and has served on the New Jersey Water Supply Commission since 2002.
She graduated from Nutley High School in 1986 and from Montclair State University in 2008.
Her experience attending college full-time at night while working during the day gives Sherman an appreciation for the quality of her education in Nutley.
“I’ve been a paralegal now for four years, and on the water commission for 10 years, so I see the value in continuing education,” Sherman said.
Whether she’ll run for a full three-year term in November 2013, Sherman said she will see how her year on the board works for her.
“It gives me an opportunity to be on the board and give 110 percent, and I will see whether I have something to give back to the community and actually contribute,” she said.
School board members solicited and reviewed 11 applications and interviewed five candidates for Rogers' unexpired seat. The identity of the 11 was withheld, officials said.
Board President James Kuchta said previously that the board decided against having the state School Boards Association pick a replacement, and chose instead to select a replacement as a group.
