Last year, the NJPSA Board of Directors elected Paul Christopher, Ed.D. to serve as president for the 2021-2022 school year. However, Paul recently announced that he has decided to retire from his position as Principal of Monmouth County Vocational School District – CLASS Academy and is therefore unable to serve his term as president of NJPSA. As a result, the Board held a special meeting on Wednesday, June 23, and made the following shifts in Board roles. Michael Vinella Ph.D, who was slated to be the Vice President, was named the new President. Tom Maganano, who had been elected to be Recording Secretary, has been named the new Vice President. The Recording Secretary will be named at the first Board meeting of 2021-2022.
Paul Christopher has been a long-time member of NJPSA and served in several leadership capacities in our organization and as an Officer of the Board. In addition, he earned distinction as the NJPSA Visionary Principal of the Year and won the Golden Lamp Award for Excellence in Educational Leadership. He has also served as President of Monmouth/Ocean County Secondary Principals Association, Vice President of the Shore Regional High School Board of Education, and Vice President of the Monmouth County School Boards Association among other posts. Paul has been a tremendous advocate for educational leadership in New Jersey and will be sorely missed by the Board and the membership of NJPSA. We thank him for his many years of outstanding service and wish him all the best in his upcoming retirement.
We would also like to congratulate Mike Vinella and look forward to his service as Board President. Mike has worked in East Brunswick Public Schools for 23 years and is now the Principal of East Brunswick High School and the current NJPSA Visionary Principal of the Year (Secondary Level). In addition to his current service as Recording Secretary of NJPSA, Mike has also served on several local, county, state and national committees with the most recent being the NASSP Student Leadership Advisory Committee, NJPSA/NJASA Joint Committee on Educator Evaluation and Graduation Requirements, and the NJDOE Principals Practice Pilot.
Congratulations to Tom Macagnano, who is beginning his 26th year as an educator for the Jersey City Public Schools District and will now serve as NJPSA Vice President. He has served as an ELA teacher, assistant principal, elementary principal, director, and is currently the proud Principal of Dr. Ronald E. McNair Academic High School (his alma mater). Thomas is also the President of the Administrators and Supervisors Association of Jersey City, the coordinator of the Hudson County association, and a field representative for NJPSA. We look forward to continuing to work with Tom in this new leadership capacity.
Please join us in wishing Paul a very happy retirement and congratulating Mike on his election as President and Tom on his election as Vice President of the Board.