After a failed recall effort, a South Jersey school board’s vacant seat is filled — for now

A battle over a vacant seat on the Burlington County Regional school board has ended for now with the appointment of a political newcomer who will become the board’s youngest member.

Burlington County Executive County Superintendent Raymond Marini selected Adwoah Adomako last week to succeed Kerri Tillett until the end of the calendar year, according to a spokesperson for the state Department of Education.

The seat became open in June after a failed recall effort to oust Tillett by science teacher Kelly Stobie and three others. Tillett resigned when her family moved to North Carolina; she then threw her support behind Adomako.

» READ MORE: After a failed recall attempt to oust a South Jersey school board member, her seat is up for grabs again

Marini was tasked with filling the vacancy after the bitterly divided board was unable to decide between Adomako and Stobie. Both had supporters, but neither candidate received the required five-vote majority.

Adomako, 23, was sworn in as an interim board member Monday at the board’s monthly meeting. She will represent Mansfield Township in the regional district, which enrolls middle and high school students and includes Chesterfield, North Hanover, Springfield Township, and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.

The future of the seat is uncertain. Stobie, who teaches in the Burlington County Special Services school district, is on the ballot for the November election to complete the remaining year of the term, and Adomako is running as a write-in candidate. (Adomako could not be certified for the ballot after election officials determined two signatures from her petition were from residents who were not registered voters.)

The board overseeing the sprawling rural district just south of Trenton has been in upheaval since Tillett was targeted in January in what the three petitioners once said would be the first of several efforts against the school board. (They had threatened to next target Radiah Gamble, the only other Black member of the school board.) Stobie and the two others who filed the petition provided no reason for the recall.

» READ MORE: ‘This is absolutely not a threat. This is a promise’: Three women spearhead recall of South Jersey school board member.

Tillett, an attorney and an associate vice chancellor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, vowed to fight to retain her position on the nine-member board, but the recall ultimately failed because the petitioners were unable to gather signatures from the required 25% of the town’s 7,662 registered voters.

Adomako, a program manager for a nonprofit and a 2017 Northern Burlington graduate, has said she plans to host coffee chats and speak with students for her write-in campaign. School board elections in New Jersey are nonpartisan and candidates run under a slogan and not a party affiliation.

“I’m excited for what this means,” Adomako said in an interview Monday. “I feel overwhelmed with a lot of good emotion. I want people to be inspired: `If Adwoah can do it, why can’t I?’ ”

During a meeting in August, some board members argued that Stobie, a mother of five, should get the nomination because, with her name on the November ballot to complete the unexpired term, she would likely win and that would enable a smooth transition. Others said Adomako should be given a chance to mount a write-in campaign.