The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
Board of Education members Ardaman Singh and Sami Shaban were chosen by their colleagues as Board president and vice-president, respectively, at the January 4 reorganization meeting.
Also at the meeting, Board newcomers Erica Inocencio and Jimmie Parker III, and returning Board member Bill Grippo, were sworn in to the seats they won in the November 2023 general election.
Singh replaces Nancy LaCorte, who served as Board president since 2018, with Singh as vice-president.
Singh has been a member of the Board since 2017 while Shaban was elected in 2021.
Singh was among the Board members who had many words of praise for LaCorte.
“It’s going to be very hard for me to fill Nancy’s shoes,” Singh said. “She’s a Warrior for life and she’s been a great friend.”
“Thank you is not enough for the years of service, for giving everything to this district and mentoring us into this role,” she said. “You’re a true leader, you’re a true mentor.”
Turning to Shaban, Singh said, “I think, Sami, you and I will be great partners. We will keep the cohesion on the team and work together. We’ve come a long way, and we don’t want to see anything moving backwards.”
“2024 will bring greater accomplishments and better things,” she said.
Shaban thanked the Board members for voting him in as vice-president.
“I hope that my time on the Board has shown that this is something very, very important to me,” he said. “I will see it through for the children of this district.”
LaCorte, Shaban said, “epitomized what it is to put her heart first and lead by example. I can’t say enough good words about the good that Nancy has done.”
Turning to Singh, Shaban said, “I feel so good that you are our leader. I think our pathway is onward and upward and I think you’re the leader to do it.”
After he was sworn in to his second term, Grippo noted that he will have completed 50 years of public service when his current term ends.
“I hope to see in the next three years a Board that works together,” Grippo said. Three goals he has set for himself include “the early childhood development center, assisting the food bank in expanding their workspace, and the institution of a YMCA in Franklin Township.”
“I want to thank Nancy (LaCorte) for her leadership and integrity and the wonderful job she’s done over the years as Board president,” Grippo said.
Shaban, he said, “brings a fresh point of view to the Board of Ed and a bright future.”
Parker said he looks forward to “doing the work of helping the community continue on its path of improvement, of taking care of the children, making them first and also of bringing the community even closer together.”
Inocencio said that she is “looking forward to serve.”
She said she was still “overwhelmed by the faith and trust” voters placed in her, “and I promise to do my best.
Speaking to Parker and Inocencio, LaCorte said being on the Board is “a lot of hard work, a lot of blood, sweat and tears and a lot of late hours. But you will see how worth it it is, everything it is.”
“To my very good friend Ardaman, you’re going to kill it,” she said. “You’re an amazing woman, you’re so incredibly talented and you think so much about Franklin in general and our schools in particular.”
“Everything we went through to get where we are today … I don’t want to undo that and I think we have the opportunity to keep going in the right direction, and we need everybody’s help to do that,” she said.
The Franklin Reporter interviewed some of the Board members after the meeting:
Here are some scenes from the evening:
