Board appoints Paul O'Brien to fill Plainsboro seat after closed deliberations

The West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District Board of Education on June 17 appointed Paul O'Brien to fill a board vacancy in the Plainsboro seat through Dec. 2025 after interviewing seven candidates and deliberating in closed session.

Board President Miss McKeown opened the evening's candidate process and described the procedure: candidates would speak at the podium for three minutes, answer four identical follow-up questions, and then the board would "recess into closed session" for deliberations, returning to public session to make any appointment. Dr. Aderhold told the meeting that the appointed individual would not be sworn in the same night "because to be sworn in, you have to be fingerprint cleared," and that once fingerprint clearance is completed, Doctor Russo could swear the appointee in to make them an active board member.

Seven applicants were interviewed in public: Hanif Paik, Deborah Vavona, Akshay Upadhyah, Paul O'Brien, Jerry Macon, Jyoti Venkataraman and Khushbu Mahandru. Candidates gave 3-minute opening statements and answered four standardized questions read by the board attorney. After the interviews, the board recessed to executive session to deliberate on the vacancy under the Open Public Meetings Act.

On returning to public session, a motion to appoint Paul O'Brien was made by Luisa and Shweta and approved by roll call. The recorded roll call in favor included Miss Ho, Miss Shetty, Miss Cheniere, Miss Krug, Miss Maliga, Miss Bonsall, Miss Bridal and Miss McKeown. Miss McKeown thanked all candidates and said the decision was difficult; she reminded the audience that the filing deadline for the November election is July 28.

The board's action fills the seat through the calendar year, to be followed by the normal election cycle in November. The board preserved the requirement that the appointee receive fingerprint clearance prior to being sworn in by Doctor Russo.