From being a volunteer lacrosse coach with the district, to working in the corporate business world for nearly 30 years, to teaching and serving as an administrative official at a university, John Farrell, right, has had experience in a wide range of areas that could be beneficial to his new role as West Windsor-Plainsboro’s newest school board member.##M:[more]##
Farrell, of Millbrook Drive, was chosen unanimously on September 23 by the board to fill the West Windsor seat vacated by Stan Katz, who moved to Colorado in August.
School board vice president Robert Johnson, who nominated Farrell for the position, said he brought to the board “a high level of professional experience” that could help him make “solid judgment” on issues coming before the board.
School board president Hemant Marathe said the decision for the board was a tough one because there had never been so many applicants apply for an open spot on the board in recent memory, and that every candidate was highly qualified.
Farrell said he decided to put his hat in the ring simply because he wanted to make a contribution to the community. “Since I retired from corporate America years ago, I’ve been looking for ways to contribute and help, and this opportunity came up,” he said. “It seemed to be an opportunity where I could be complementary to the school board members who are there now and bring a different dimension with my new career in the education business.”
He grew up in Cape Cod, MA. His mother was a school teacher, and his father ran his own construction business. Farrell attended Notre Dame, where he earned his degree in economics in 1975. He also has his M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the Penn.
He worked in management consulting and business strategies for Ernst & Young for 28 years, until the company was sold in 2000. While working in Washington, D.C., for the company, he met his wife, Kathy, who works in healthcare and hospital administration. She moved with him to New Jersey in 1992. The couple have lived on Millbrook Drive ever since, with the exception of the three-year period Farrell and his family moved to Italy as a result of his job. They returned to the same home. He and his wife have two children — Connor, a senior, and the star quarterback for South’s football team, and Colleen, who is in eighth grade at Grover Middle School.
Farrell currently works at Rider University as both a teacher and an administrator. He serves as the assistant dean for graduate programs, overseeing the M.B.A. program and the master’s accounting program. He teaches two classes — international management at the graduate level and personal finance at the undergraduate level. He says there is nothing like challenging a group of undergraduates on their cell phone bills as part of the class. For the past two years, he has also served as the director of the Center for the Development of Leadership Skills at the university.
In the WW-P district, Farrell has been a volunteer boys’ lacrosse coach at High School South and also at Grover Middle School, and his wife has been involved with the parent-teacher associations.
While the board has yet to appoint a member to the finance committee in place of Katz, Farrell says he knows Katz, who was a lacrosse referee. “I know he’s made some great contributions to the system, and I’m here to hopefully help in whichever way I can to take the system to the next level.”
Farrell will serve until April, to complete Katz’s term on the board. He can decide whether to run for re-election for the post.
His appointment came a week after the school board interviewed all 10 candidates who were interested in the seat. The other candidates :
Brett Boal, of Park Hill Terrace, who has previously run for a seat on the board, has a background in statistics, analytics, and information technology. Boal, who has three daughters in the district, is an independent business strategy consultant, and has lived in the township since 1999. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in management science from MIT, and served as an assistant coach for Lightning Lacrosse. He has served as CEO, COO, CIO, and an officer of two NASDAQ traded corporations.
Jay Bryant, of Steele Drive, has also previously run for a seat on the board. He has a background technology, education, and has worked for an educational testing service for a number of years. He has a background in assessments. He also has a background in working in professional development programs. He has a daughter who attended the school district and just began studying at Penn State.
Dondapati Chowdary, of Priory Road, has experience in the biomedical field as a research scientist, and he also has experience teaching pre-med students. He has worked for Johnson & Johnson.
Michael Donnelly, who also has previously run for a seat on the board, lives on Benford Drive and has been a West Windsor for four years. He has four children — one who attends High School South, one who attends Maurice Hawk, and one at Grover Middle School. He has been involved in the local soccer clubs. Donnelly is an attorney by trade.
Beth Hahn, who has lived in the township in the last three years, has four children in the district — three of whom were adopted from abroad. She said she came to the district because of the ESL program it offered. She says her needs were not well-addressed in the previous school district in Essex County. Hahn served as an attorney for the former deputy attorney general for New Jersey. She also was an attorney working on child abuse/neglect proceedings associated with the Division of Youth and Family Services, and now represents parents as designated counsel in the public defender’s office.
Joe Jensen, of Glengarry Way, who has lived here for 10 years, also has two children — a daughter who graduated last year from High School North and is now attending Seton Hall University, and a son, a sophomore at North. Jensen, who works for Pfizer, also has background in construction and management and in dealing with labor unions, various construction entities, and with working on and developing contracts. He has also coached the local Babe Ruth 15s.
William Ku, of North Longfellow Drive, a 13-year resident of West Windsor, has three children. His youngest is a freshman, and he has a daughter who is a junior at South. His eldest just graduated from the high school last year. Ku taught at Columbia University for 15 years, and has worked at Citigroup for 20 years, primarily dealing with corporate finance. He also has a background in working with technology. He says for the first time in four years he has some free time and just wants to give back.
Andrew Lipka, also a father of three — a son who is 22 and graduated from South and later Yale, a daughter who is a junior at North, and daughter who is in eighth grade at Grover Middle School — lives on Partridge Run. He is an eye surgeon and ophthalmologist in Princeton and also has a background in teaching. He has also been active as a coach in the West Windsor Little League and as a team sponsor. He also served as an advisor to the National History Day Club at North, after his daughter, Carolyn, founded the club.
Matthew Ma, of Tiffany Court, is the father of two girls — a junior at North, and a fifth grader. He was educated in China before coming to the United States for his advanced degree. He worked as a researcher at the Panasonic research lab in Princeton for the last 12 years. He is also an independent consultant helping scientists and engineers to create new innovations and develop strategy. He says he has experience in working with people of diverse backgrounds.
