KLSD board selects Williams as new president

Barbara Williams was elected as school board president.

By JEFF MORRIS 

Barbara Williams, who is in the midst of her first three-year term as a member of the Katonah-Lewisboro Board of Education, was elected as president of the board at its reorganizational meeting Monday, July 6.

Marjorie Schiff, a former board president now in her fifth term as a trustee, was elected as vice president — returning her to a position she first held 13 years ago.

Both received unanimous support from the board.

Williams succeeded Lorraine Gallagher, who won reelection to a second term as a trustee in May and served as president for the past year. Gallagher was vice president for a year before becoming president.

The transition to a new president after one year marks a change for the board from a recent history of multiple terms for board leadership.

In 2023, Schiff stepped down after nine years as board president, and was succeeded by Julia Hadlock, who had been vice president. In 2025, after three terms as a trustee, Hadlock decided not to seek reelection, and was subsequently elected to the Lewisboro Town Board. She served as school board president for two years.

Schiff was first elected as a trustee in 2012 and selected as vice president in 2013, making this her second time in that position. She joined the board during a time of district upheaval, serving as a member of the task force that ultimately recommended closing Lewisboro Elementary School, under then-Superintendent Paul Kreutzer. She became president of the board in 2014, and presided over it during the search for a new superintendent following Kreutzer’s resignation, which resulted in the hiring of Andrew Selesnick in 2015. Hadlock was president during the search for and hiring of Superintendent Raymond Blanch following Selesnick’s retirement.

Schiff also led the board through the contentious replacement of the district’s old “Indians” mascot with “Wolves,” as well as a protracted round of criticism from parents over the treatment of special needs students, which ultimately led to a restructuring of student support services and an outside study of the special education department. She is past president of the Westchester Putnam School Boards Association, having served as president from 2024 to this year — the first representative of Katonah-Lewisboro to do so.

Among the remaining board members, Bill Swertfager was just reelected to his second term, and Arwen Thomas Belloni, Carolyn Snell, and Stacey Isaacson are in their first terms, which will expire in 2028. Isaacson was elected in May to fill the remainder of the term vacated by Jon Poffenberger.