The winners for this year’s Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District Board of Education election have officially been certified.

Seven candidates ran for the three open seats on the BOE. Two seats were open for Bridgewater and one for Raritan.

Barry Walker and Rebecca Hassouna were elected to represent Bridgewater, while Michael Pepe was reelected to the Raritan seat.

The candidates for the Bridgewater seats were Walker, an incumbent, Hassouna, Hector Menendez and Jarrett Hahn. Pepe, an incumbent, Umesh Agrawal and Jeffrey McNally competed for Raritan’s open seat. 

Walker, who was reelected to a fourth term on the Board of Education and previously served as its vice president, said that he was “excited” and thanked his constituents for “putting their trust in me to be a trustee to ensure the district does all it can for student achievement.”

Pepe congratulated his fellow candidates “for the effort they’ve put into this campaign, along with everyone who took the time to talk to me about the Bridgewater-Raritan schools over the past few months.”

This year, the BOE has several important policies to implement. The most significant of these is the full-day kindergarten program, whose funding was approved in the November 7 election.

Newly elected member Hassouna looks forward to working on these policies.

“It was fantastic to see that the community came out to support full-day kindergarten,” Hassouna said.

The Bridgewater-Raritan School District is one of 11 in the entire state without full-day kindergarten. The same referendum also saw the approval of major infrastructure upgrades to all schools in the district, which the BOE will work to make a reality in upcoming years.

Next year’s election will see candidates compete for three different open seats again.