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Schools

Pearl River's Cokeley Attends Final School Board Meeting

Pearl River School District Director of Community Relations and Adult Education Sandra Cokeley is retiring after 23 years with the district.

Sandra Cokeley will finish up her close to 23 years with the Pearl River School District on Dec. 23, but first came her last Board of Education meeting on Tuesday night.

“I did some quick math recently,” said the Pearl River School District's director of quality and community relations. “I calculated I’ve been to nearly 500 Board of Education meetings. We have 22 meetings a year, and I’ve been here about 22-and-a-half years. I can’t even tell you how many Board members we’ve had in that time, all great volunteers. [Bruce] Bond was on the board that hired me. He’s been here longer than I have.”

Cokeley called her last meeting “eventful,” as there was a presentation from students in second grade at Lincoln Avenue Elementary School and the Board announced it will receive more than $1 million after nearly two years of negotiations with Olympus Surgical & Industrial America Inc. as part of the company’s Payments In Lieu Of Taxes agreement.

Cokeley said she’ll miss the district after she retires.

“I won’t miss having to go out to meetings at night, though,” she said.

A few people at the meeting took time to congratulate Cokeley on her retirement and praise her work.

“The most important thing is credibility,” said Pearl River School District Superintendent Dr. John Morgano. “Sandy has established credibility for Pearl River by always telling the truth.”

Cokeley was given a couple of bouquets of flowers at the meeting, as well as a Pearl River hat and t-shirt. Cokeley said she looked up the date of the next board meeting, Jan. 10, and she’ll be in St. Croix on the beach.

“But I’ll be thinking of you,” she said, to which one board member retorted, “We’ll be thinking you.”

Another board member told her she can wear her Pearl River hat to not get so badly sunburnt.

Toward the end of the meeting, Cokeley thanked the rest of the board and other district workers in attendance.

“All the people I have worked with through the years have made my job very easy. Because of all the hard work that you guys do every single day, day in and day out, Pearl River has the reputation that it has because of you,” she said. “I’m just the lucky person that gets to be the spokesperson on behalf of all of you all the time.”

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