BOE Picks Software Engineer to Join the Board

The borough school board this week chose Andrew Berlin to fill the seat vacated by Marsha Marshall.

Berlin comes from a software engineering background and believes his experiences will help address the burgeoning technological needs of the district.

“The face of the technology industry is changing what it means for high schools in the next 10 years,” Berlin told the board earlier this month. “It’s quite a different world that the students are growing up in, with challenges in everything from teachers' contracts and health coverage to what you teach in health class.”

Berlin said he sees the role of the board members as navigating the challenges of the public education environment in Haddonfield.

“I would say it’s a combination of oversight and asking some tough questions followed by strong support,” he said.

“How do you take that set of challenges and package them into a set of really crisp messages that people understand? That’s definitely a thing I can help with,” Berlin said.

Berlin beat out eight other candidates to fill the seat left vacant by Marsha Marshall, who resigned last month to care for an elderly family member. Her seat is up for election in April and Berlin will be required to run for a full, three-year term then should he want to retain the seat.

Board President Steve Weinstein said Berlin will be a welcome addition.

"Although he's relatively new to town, he's got an impressive background in technology and communications and the idea of how we can move the district into using this technology," Weinstein said Friday. "He will help to develop our students to be digital learners, to be ready for all the things like Patch instead of print newspapers. He really has an extraordinary background."

Berlin has two middle school students in the district. He will be formally appointed to the board at its next meeting on Oct. 6.

Haddonfield Patch contributor Matt Skoufalos contributed to this report.