The Port Washington Board of Education selected board members Nora Johnson and Elizabeth Weisburd to serve as its new leadership on Monday.
Johnson will serve as the board’s president and her former position of vice president will be filled by Weisburd. Both decisions were made in unanimous votes by fellow board members.
Johnson served as vice president under former board President Karen Sloan since 2014.
At the meeting, Johnson thanked her fellow board members for electing her and extended her gratitude to the previous year’s board members for their understanding and kindness over the course of the last year.
“I really would not be in this seat tonight if it wasn’t for all of you,” she said.
She said the Port Washington Board of Education makes “an excellent team” and she looks forward to continuing to work with her fellow board members.
Sloan did not seek re-election this year and attended her last board meeting last month, as did outgoing Superintendent Kathleen Mooney.
At that meeting, Johnson described Sloan as brilliant, creatively resourceful, open-minded, generous and incredibly hard working.
“She’s a great facilitator, consensus builder and listener,” she said. “Karen doesn’t rest until every board member is heard and feels heard. She’s been a constant and profound force of positive growth over her four terms on the board.”
Johnson was elected to her current term last year, as was Weisburd, who is in her fifth year on the school board.
Efforts to reach Johnson for further comment were unavailing.
Weisburd chairs the district’s budget and facilities committee where she has overseen multiple successful budgets.
With the budgets she has worked on, the board has been able to conduct a good deal of facility work, Weisburd said.
She said she joined the board because she wanted to get more involved and give back to her community. She has three children who have attended Port Washington schools, and her youngest is to graduate from Schreiber High School in the next year.
Before serving on the board, Weisburd was involved with the school district as a community member on the district’s bond committee and as president of Weber’s Home-School Association. Before her children were born, Weisburd was a special education teacher.
She said she primarily focuses on the budget because it is an essential function of the board and provides the funding for the district and its many programs and activities.
Weisburd said she is looking forward to the next school year in which there will be a lot of changes with a number of new incoming principals and a new superintendent of schools.
“It is going to be an exciting time,” Weisburd said.
Johnson presided over the regular meeting after the election. The newest member to the board, Deborah Abramson-Brooks, attended her first meeting on the board. She and re-elected board member Emily Beys were sworn-in for three-year terms.
