Beach Haven Council honors former, long-time members of board of education

MaryLouise Bellingeri and Sandra Close, former members of the Beach Haven Board of Education, received a standing ovation from the public when the borough council formally honored them during a town meeting Monday, March 9, for their dedication to the Beach Haven School.

Photo by Jack Reynolds
The school gymnasium had to be replaced
after Superstorm Sandy damage.

Bellingeri, who did not rerun for a position on the board this year, served as a member for 20 years, leading the group as president for the last five. During her tenure on the board, she also served seven years as a member of the borough land use board. Prior to her election to the school board, she served for seven years as president of the PTA.

Close, a third-generation Beach Haven native whose children also attended the Beach Haven School, served for 18 years on the school board and was vice president for the last two years. She resigned in October when conflict between the board and the public became too much for her.

“It takes a lot of dedication and commitment to serve, even for a few years,” Mayor Nancy Taggert Davis, who presented the honors, told the public. “I know serving on any type of public office is difficult; I can speak from experience. You have to make a lot of hard choices, and no matter how hard you try, you can’t please everybody.”

Taggert Davis also noted that Margie Carnavale, a fifth-grade teacher at the school, was Close’ first-grade teacher. At one time, Close was also a student of Taggert Davis’ at Stockton University.

“The town is so honored to have such a wonderful school, and the people that serve the school should be honored,” Taggert Davis stated.

She noted that one of the students who graduated from the school with a group of 17 others went on to graduate from Southern Regional High School as valedictorian in 2010.

“MaryLou and Sandy worked hard to ensure that the school is academically rigorous and our children receive the best education possible,” Taggert Davis said. “All of us in Beach Haven should be proud of how well our students perform academically and how well prepared they are for high school and for college; it’s just incredible. Beach Haven School students excel at Southern Regional, and they make our community proud. Academic excellence does not happen by accident. In this case, much of the Beach Haven School’s success can be attributed to MaryLou and Sandy and the other members of the school board.”

Both Bellingeri and Close were instrumental during Superstorm Sandy, it was said. Taggart Davis congratulated them for “working on behalf of Beach Haven’s children to ensure that they were safe and that their school year was not lost to the ravages of Sandy.” Although they, too, were displaced by the storm, Bellingeri and Close were active in getting the students to the Eagleswood Township Elementary School, when building damage made attending their own school impossible.

Taggart Davis made it a point to also thank Donna Kilcommons, another former board member who was in attendance at the meeting, for her help during the storm, as she also was displaced.

— Kelley Anne Essinger


This article was published in The SandPaper.