BERNE — A half-year member of the Berne-Knox-Westerlo Board of Education, Matthew Tedeschi, was  of the BKW board of education was elected its president by the board at its annual reorganization meeting July 11.

“I am really excited about what what Dr. Mundell has done,” Tedeschi said this week about Timothy Mundell, who became BKW’s superintendent a year ago.

He cited Dr. Mundell’s notion of using the school’s rural roots in a new agricultural program as  a good example.

Tedeschi says he sees it  as a way to “explain math and science in a different way...It’s not only on how to be a farmer but to use the basics [of science and math] in a way that resonates with students.”

Tedeschi was first elected to the board in a February special election. He came in in a five-way race for two seats and so completed the few months remaining in the term of Earl Barcomb who had resigned after being elected to the Knox town board. Tedeschi  was subsequently  elected to a full three-year term in the May 17 district election, as was new board member Susan Kendall Schanz.

That same district-wide vote saw the passage of a $22.6 million annual budget for the 2016-17 school year, as well as the ousting of the current board president and its only long-time member Joan Adriance. Tedeschi was the top vote-getter among the three candidates who  competed for the two open seats.

The reorganization meeting also tapped Lillian Sisson-Chrysler, a board member since 2015, to be the board’s new vice president.

The  district that has been unsettled by frequent administrative turnover — before the arrival of Dr. Timothy Mundell as district superintendent at the beginning of this past school year, the district had two interim superintendents in a two-year period.  Like his four fellow board members, Tedeschi, 43, is a BKW graduate.  Since his graduation in 1990, he has attended  the graduation of his two daughters from the Hilltown high school.

“They got a good education at BKW,” he told The Enterprise before his first election to the board. “But we’d like to restore  some of  the programs cut in recent years.”

Tedeschi sees BKW as entering a period of greater stability, under new leadership.

“We have a responsible budget,” he said. “Our new business manager, Sara Blood, did a great job, putting it together.”

“I think our district is going to make a name for itself, and I am excited to be part of that, “ he said.

Tedeschi  was involved in the district before his election to the board.  She served on a stakeholder committee formed as part of  the search for a new superintendent that led to the hiring of Mundell.

Tedeschi is graduate of Hudson Valley Community College and a partner in Jaeger & Flynn, an insurance agency in Clifton Park.

Lillian Sisson-Chrysler, 56,  is beginning the final year of her three-year term as a board member.

She first became a member in April, 2015 when she volunteered to fill a vacancy and presented a petition with 317 signatures  supporting her.  She, too, is a BKW graduate, as are all three of her sons.

She has been a special advocate on the board for children with special needs. All of her children required special services while at BKW. She is a licensed practical nurse and earned an associate’s degree in occupational studies form the State University of New York College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill.

A life-long resident of Westerlo, she expressed her hope that “everything runs smoothly and we all continue to work together. We are all there for the same reason: the school, students, and community.”

Mundell recently told The Enterprise that he is busy completing his family’s move to the district from Long Island, where he served as an administrator in a district there.

He is also  busy taking part in the search for a new high school principal after the resignation at the end of the school year of Marna McMorris, after only one year in the job.

“She’s a great lady and I wish her the best,” said Tedeschi, declining to comment on the reason for her resignation.

Tedeschi said that two stakeholder committees are currently reviewing resumes received from 33 candidates for the high school principal job.

He said the process is the same as was employed in the search for the new superintendent that resulted in the hiring of  Mundell

“There was 99 percent agreement on that choice,” he said of hiring Mundell.