After three rounds of interviews and 25 days of deliberation, the Monmouth County Vocational School Board of Education voted in Emily Bonilla as the new Communications High School Principal on Oct. 17. Bonilla is set to replace James Gleason who will retire Jan. 1, 2024 after 32 years of service to the MCVSD.
Applicants went through three rounds of interviews, first in front of a review board composed of CHS history teacher Sharyn O’Keefe, Digital Video instructor David Salowe, Photography instructor Amanda FitzPatrick and Mass Media instructor Wayne Woolley.
“What I loved was first thing I was interviewed by your teaching staff,” Bonilla said moments after the board meeting. “It was an intensive process, but it really was important for me that that was the first step in that process.”
A teacher, who asked for anonymity in order to discuss internal deliberations, gave insight into the review process.
“We had set questions that we asked every candidate the same questions to make sure we had a level playing field,” the teacher said. “Then, based upon a rubric scoring, we tallied it up, and administration chose the top four from those twelve.”
The final four candidates — two from inside the district and two from outside — then sat for a discussion with MCVSD principals. Bonilla was pushed forward from this round alongside one other candidate, and after a final one-on-one interview with Superintendent Dr. Charles Ford Jr., she was offered the job.
Bonilla’s educational credentials include a Master’s of Education in Secondary School Administration and Principalship from Thomas Edison State College in Trenton. She also received a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Cinematography and Film/Video Production from Emerson College, Boston, which aided in her film and production career before entering the classroom.
She currently serves as the Vice Principal of Donald M. Payne, Sr. School of Technology in Newark, New Jersey, but has past experience as an adjunct at Brookdale Community College, lecturing at Rutgers Business School and teaching Digital Filmmaking and TV Production at Bloomfield Tech.
Bonilla says she’s been a fan of CHS for a while. She said she’s watched (and loved) videos from Spirit Week activities and following school news in The Inkblot.
“I have read and watched pretty much every single thing that I could find on the internet about Communications High School,” Bonilla said. “I’m just very excited, it has always been a dream to work at Communications High School and I really look forward to continuing with these traditions and supporting everybody, and really getting to know the student body.”
