Beacon Board Of Education Appoints John Galloway Jr. To 2nd Vacant Seat

John Galloway Jr. is appointed to Beacon’s Board of Education to the 2nd vacant seat.
Photo Credit: Meredith Heuer published in the Highlands Current

John Galloway Jr., a recent graduate of the Beacon High School in 2015 who is Black and ran for a vacant seat on the Board of Education on a platform of his youth and connections to young people in the community, especially the Black community, was appointed onto Beacon’s Board of Education by a 7-1 vote at the regular public Board of Education meeting on 10-26-2020. Kristen Flynn moved to make the nomination to appoint him, and Elissa Betterbid and Craig Wolf seconded the motion.

John was an early applicant for the seat when the first Board Member, Michael Rutkoski, resigned in July 2020. Later in September, a second Board Member resigned, James Case-Leal, citing his preference for the 2 open seats to go to People of Color: Jasmine Johnson and John Galloway Jr.

After a dramatic appointment hearing in which many in the Black community showed up to voice support for both Jasmine and John, only one candidate was appointed at that meeting - Jasmine Johnson - who is a mother, has worked with children in different school settings, and has passion for compassionate education.

After hearing from the community, the Board opted to follow a process to open the seat up to more applicants, and rolling over current candidates. The other two candidates, Barbara Fisher and Travis Fisher, withdrew, John stayed on, and a new applicant, Joseph Puliafito, applied.

After the Board voted to appoint John to the second seat using his rolled over application, Board President Meredith Heuer welcomed John onto the board with this statement: "I want to thank John for applying and sticking with this process. I know it was longer than some people were happy with, but I think it a good process."

Anthony White, who gave the dissenting vote, told the Highlands Current: “He thought the seat should have remained open until the next district election, which is scheduled for May 18, 2021. ‘With the work that the Board has to do during these uncertain times, changing its makeup will impede us,’ White said. ‘Trying to teach board responsibilities to new members and catching them up on past information so they can make informed decisions will make the work the board has to do more difficult and will slow it down.’”

The Highlands Current reported that White noted that he respects the majority opinion and will work with the board to “do everything in its power to make sure students’ needs are being met.”

Currently in at least one of the elementary schools in Beacon, kids are being asked if they think they should have the right to vote, and if so, why or why not. While voting can be a daunting task with a lot of responsibility and need to research one’s decision, one young student observed that it is the fresh perspective of not knowing everything that can lend itself to new ideas and ways of moving forward.