ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Allentown School Board welcomed three new directors, as the board reorganized Thursday.
Daysell Ramirez, Ana Tiburcio, and Zaleeae Sierra were elected to the school board in last month’s general election. They replace Nancy Wilt, Patrick Palmer and Evelyn Santana, who did not run for re-election.
Sierra is only 19 years old and just graduated from Allen High School a year ago. She now works with city youth at Promise Neighborhoods Lehigh Valley.
Returning board directors include Audrey Mathison, Phoebe Harris, LaTarsha Brown, Jennifer Ortiz, Lisa Conover and Andrene Brown-Nowell.
The new board narrowly elected Andrene Brown-Nowell as the new president, with five members voting for her and four members voting for Conover. Former board president Mathison was elected vice president after Conover and LaTarsha Brown declined the nomination.
Brown-Nowell, who has been on the board for a little less than a year, said one of the best decisions she made was to support Superintendent Carol Birks’ appointment. She said vying for school board president was only made after a lot of prayer. She said she wanted to focus on student safety, innovation and mental health as her goals over the next year.
"We're going to work together to make sure that we get this school district where it needs to be.”ASD School Board President Andrene Brown-Nowell
“I plan to continue to do that while in the seat as president but remember, I'm only one vote,” she said. “I'm only here to support my other board members. We're going to work together to make sure that we get this school district where it needs to be.”
Ramirez said her goal is to help prepare students for life after high school. She is a parent of a junior in the district.
“Getting them ready with life skills, social emotional skills and building those so they can go into our community and be strong and be successful adults,” she said.
Tiburcio said she is focused on parent and teacher engagement, especially as part of the Hispanic community of students and families in the Allentown School District.
"I believe our community, you know, is lacking that because of the language barrier and things like that,” she said. “So that's what we're here for.”
