At the end June, when Jeff Parrell submitted his letter of resignation to the Roselle Park Board Of Education (BOE), it was the push Donald Chin says he needed to get involved, “I admired Jeff and Marc (Caswell) for being so volunteer-minded; Jeff with the school board and Marc with council, as well as both of them being involved in Boy Scouts, baseball, and coaching. Having a strong interest in my son’s education and education for the other kids in Roselle Park, I thought it was time to step up.”
Having moved to Roselle Park in 2003 with his wife and one-year-old son, Donald Chin had already lived in upstate New York, Virginia, and Michigan where he received his Master of Architecture in 1992. He stated that his work experience as an architect has prepared – as much as it can – for his new responsibility as a member of the BOE, “As an architect, you’re used to working in a team. You work with the client, the contractors, consultants, engineers, sometimes there are lawyers are involved, so you’re part of a big team and you’re usually at the center of it. You also have to be a quick learner because in dealing with specialists, you’re the one who has to kind of understand everything.”
Being someone who did not grow up in the borough, Donald Chin said he plans to bring a perspective and experience from other living environments. On the night he was appointed and sworn in, Mr. Chin immediately got to work on putting his career and life skills to work, “There’s an endless amount of things that you have to be involved with, with meetings, committees, and reports. It’s a bit eye-opening.”
Mr. Chin has already expressed to the Board his interest in attending the School Board convention which is in late October where there will be training sessions and seminars for board members. Applying his quick-learning philosophy, Mr. Chin realizes any training will be beneficial, “That could give me a good background for what a board member needs to know.”
Along with Donald Chin, Phil Woods also applied to replace the vacancy but will now conduct a write-in campaign to become a BOE member.