Huntington School Board members have elected Jennifer Hebert and Bari Fehrs to serve as that body’s president and vice-president, respectively, during the 2018/19 school year.
Trustees took the action during the Board’s reorganization meeting this past Monday evening in the Jack Abrams STEM Magnet School auditorium.
In accordance with its internal term limit rules, Trustee Thomas DiGiacomo stepped down as School Board president following three years in the position. He remains as one of the seven trustees after having been re-elected last May to a new three-year term.
Jennifer Hebert elected BOE president
Huntington School Board President Jennifer Hebert.
Mrs. Hebert was re-elected in May 2017 to serve her third three-year term on the Huntington School Board. Her fellow trustees elected her as president of the Board of Education for 2018/19 after she had served as vice president in each of the previous four years. She has an extensive background in education as a teacher and parent volunteer.
Mrs. Hebert and her husband, Jamie have lived in Huntington for 21 years. Together they have a son in his freshman year at Huntington High School; a son who is a freshman at Bentley University and a third son who is in his junior year at Johns Hopkins University.
A Long Island native, Mrs. Hebert graduated from the East Williston School District in 1986. She attended Tufts University in Boston, earning a Bachelor of Arts in 1990 and a Master of Arts in Teaching in 1991.
Prior to moving back to Long Island from New England, Mrs. Hebert worked as a public school kindergarten teacher in Massachusetts for several years. She is currently the director of the pre-school program at St. John’s Nursery School in Huntington village. She has devoted countless volunteer hours to the Huntington School District as a PTA president and treasurer and as a district trustees.
Mrs. Hebert has also served on the district’s Long Range Planning Committee and regularly attended Board of Education meetings prior to her election. As a trustee, she has served on the district’s audit committee.
Mrs. Hebert is widely known as a creative thinker who enjoys learning about all aspects of the district and its educational program and listening to all sides of every issue. She is particularly passionate about public school education and believes the learning experience offered to Huntington students should be among the finest in the nation.
Bari Fehrs elected BOE vice president
Huntington School Board Vice President Bari Fehrs. (Darin Reed photo)
Bari Fehrs was re-elected in May 2016 to serve a second three-year term on the Huntington School Board. Her fellow trustees elected her as vice president of the Board of Education for 2018/19. At the time of her initial election as a trustee, she was serving her third year as the district’s PTA Council president.
A 27-year resident of Huntington, Ms. Fehrs earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at New York Institute of Technology. A past president of the Southdown Primary School and J. Taylor Finley Middle School PTAs, she has been involved in the Huntington School District for more than a decade.
Prior to her election, Ms. Fehrs attended school board meetings for nine years. She has been a member of the district’s Comprehensive Health Advisory Committee, District Shared Decision Making Committee and District Safety Committee and has volunteered with the Booster Club.
Ms. Fehrs takes pride in being well-versed on local, state and national educational issues. She has traveled to Albany to fight for Huntington’s fair share of state aid and met with legislators to advocate for the district. She can frequently be found attending the district’s academic, co-curricular and extracurricular events and has volunteered many hours of her free time with the Huntington Booster Club.
Employed by a local medical practice, Ms. Fehrs leads an active lifestyle and enjoys running and reading in her free time. She has a daughter who is currently a Huntington High School senior and two sons who are district graduates and are now attending college.