New business administrator

Familiar face lands job closer to home, By Jennifer Knocha Hardyston — Starting at the end of February, there will be a new face in the school board office in Hardyston Township School district. Local resident James Sekelsky will be taking over the spot vacated by Linda Alvarez when she accepted the same post at High Point Regional High School. Sekelsky, the current mayor of Ogdensburg, grew up in Ogdensburg and resides there today. He was happy to find a position that would allow him to stay in the area. “It was just a dream to say that if I could (I’d like to) come home and work in the area that I’m from,” he said. “I feel lucky, the timing was right and it was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up.” In fact, when he first began his career in administration, one of the first places he sent his resume was to the Hardyston Township School District. “I took a shot, but they didn’t call me back,” he said. Sekelsky is currently School Business Administrator/Board Secretary for the Sussex County Educational Services Commission, which is a special education cooperative made up of 22 districts that provides educational services to public and private schools throughout the area. This has given him a chance to work with schools both throughout Sussex County and New Jersey in general, as the commission provides services to schools as close as Northwest Christian School in Hardyston, and as far away as the Sacred Heart School in Dover. “I’ve put a lot of myself into this job and there are lots of great people here. That’s the part I regret most about leaving. I wish the time hadn’t come but it did,” he said. The board of directors of the commission will be meeting together to make a decision about his replacement. A military background Prior to this position, Sekelsky’s work with the Army took him around the world, from the republics of Bosnia and Georgia and then back to the United States, where he worked at as an instructor as West Point Military Academy before settling in New Jersey. He is also a veteran of both the Persian Gulf War of 1991 and the current war in Iraq.