The New Jersey School Boards Association recently welcomed two new staff members to better serve local boards of education.
Caitlin Pletcher has been hired as legal counsel and Jeanne Cleary joins the Association as a field service representative.
Pletcher, previously an attorney in private practice, represented boards of education and regularly advised administrators and board members on various issues, including student/staff discipline, board governance, enrollment/residency, special education, the Open Public Meetings Act and the Open Public Records Act. She also worked at the New Jersey Department of Education, where she assisted the state’s 21 county offices of education with inquiries from school districts, drafted proposed regulations and amendments and analyzed requests that required the commissioner’s approval.
As a member of NJSBA’s Legal and Labor Relations Department, Pletcher will deliver presentations and provide training to members, write articles on legal topics, serve in the rotation as an “Attorney of the Day” and perform other duties.
Cleary, a former two-term board member who once served as vice president of the Scotch Plains-Fanwood Board of Education, will serve as a field representative for Essex, Hudson and Union counties. For the next few months, she will work alongside Patricia Rees and Charlene Peterson to transition services for districts in these counties.
In addition to her board service, Cleary has worked as director of operations for both a public school district and nonprofit community center and has years of leadership experience in parent-school partnerships. She looks forward to supporting boards in their efforts to best serve the students of their communities.