P.O. Box 909 ● Trenton, NJ 08605-0909 ● Phone: 609.695.7600 ● Fax: 609.695.0413 ● Web: www.njsba.org/PI

Rancocas Valley Board Member Recognized as State’s First ‘Certified Board Leader’

TRENTON, October 14, 2008 — Edward Bladt, a member of the Rancocas Valley Regional Board of Education since 1999, will receive the New Jersey School Boards Association’s first-ever Certified Board Leader Award – the newest and highest-ranking designation in NJSBA’s Board Member Academy program.

Bladt, a former member of the Lumberton Township school board, is also the immediate past president of the Burlington County School Boards Association.

NJSBA created the Board Member Academy in 1992 to provide formal training for the state’s 4,800 local board of education members. Each year, the Academy offers a wide variety of courses to promote effective school board governance.

Entire boards can work collectively to attain the Board Certification designation, and individual school board members can earn credits to reach the status of Certificated Board Member and then Master Board Member (only 188 have achieved the Master Board Member status). In 2005, the Board Member Academy added the new designation of Certified Board Leader. It is now the highest rank that can be attained through the Academy.

“The Certified Board Leader program is an intensive program that requires an exemplary degree of effort and commitment,” said Harry J. Delgado, NJSBA president. “It involves extensive training in school board leadership, service as school board president or vice president, submission of a portfolio, and participation in a simulation of board leadership or passing of an exam.

“In addition to participating in advanced coursework, Ed has been an active advocate for New Jersey’s public schools,” Delgado said.

Bladt has discussed issues such as school tax reform and the No Child Left Behind law during meetings with Congressional representatives, governors and state legislators, and U.S. Department of Education officials. He has served as representative to both NJSBA’s and the National School Boards Association’s Delegate Assembly, the policy-setting bodies for the organizations. He works as a senior analyst for Lockheed Martin in Moorestown.

Bladt will receive the award at a ceremony during the closing general session of Workshop 2008, the premiere training conference for New Jersey’s local school officials. Workshop 2008 will be held from Oct. 28-30 in Atlantic City.

The New Jersey School Boards Association, a federation of district boards of education, advocates the interests of school districts, trains local school board members, and provides resources for the advancement of public education.