Gonzales newest member of Hamilton BOE
HAMILTON » The school board has new energy.
Liam Gonzales, a bilingual Ewing High School teacher, has been appointed as Hamilton’s newest Board of Education member.
“I am thankful and encouraged that the board trusts me,” Gonzales said Saturday in an interview with The Trentonian. “Everyone has been very welcoming so far.”
Gonzales is serving in the seat vacated by Cameron Cardinale, the former board member who resigned last month.
At a special July 8 meeting, the board interviewed three candidates and ultimately voted 5-3 to appoint Gonzales as Cardinale’s successor.
After hearing from Gonzales, Janna Sheiman and Christina Vassilou, a majority of the school board members determined Gonzales, a special education teacher, was best suited for the appointment.
“I was impressed that he did a lot of things,” board member Susan Ferrara said of Gonzales, a Steinert High alumnus who had studied abroad before graduating from The College of New Jersey in 2015. “He has a broad background.”
Gonzales is fluent in English and Spanish and serves as a social studies special programs instructor in the Ewing Township Public Schools.
“It’s always good for kids to have a role model like that,” Ferrara said Saturday of Gonzales. “When you can turn around and go places and bring ideas back into the district — that is a real plus. The special education parents should be really overjoyed.”
Board members Richard Kanka, Pam Kelly, Jason McSheene, Angelo Hall and Ferrara voted to appoint Gonzales as the newest board member.
A minority of the board members — Susan Lombardo, Dina Thornton and Albert Gayzik — voted for Sheiman, a local attorney who ran unsuccessfully for Hamilton school board in prior years.
Gonzales will serve for the remainder of Cardinale’s term, which expires when the board reorganizes next January. But the appointed member hopes to be rightfully elected to a full threeyear term come Nov. 3.
“I do plan to run in November,” Gonzales told The Trentonian. “Now technically I will be an incumbent. I think that will be useful.”
Gonzales previously thought about running for school board, he said, adding the timing was right for him to seek the appointment.
“Now, when there was a vacancy,” he said, “I thought I have a particular skillset that would be valuable to the school board.”
The special educator is proficient with technology, he said, adding he also has experience with blended learning and hybrid learning — key skillsets for a district preparing to reopen amid a global COVID-19 pandemic.
“I hope that I can make it less bumpy,” Gonzales said of the immediate challenges facing the Hamilton Township School District, “or when there are bumps I can smooth it out quicker.”
Ultimate Survivor
More than a teacher, Gonzales last year produced a video hoping to be selected as a contestant for the popular reality TV show Survivor.
“I do enjoy the show,” he said, adding he believes it would have been “fun” to compete on Survivor. “It didn’t happen. It was more of a, ‘Let’s apply. If it happens, great.”
“As a special education teacher, varsity lacrosse coach, and youth leader, I change young peoples’ lives annually,” Gonzales says in the YouTube video description. “That is done using personal relationships and by making space for intentional conversations. Many of the students in my classroom or from my youth group do not have stable adult figures in their lives. They are longing for someone to care about them, believe in them, and not disappear when it is inconvenient. I am particularly skilled at making someone feel valued. Not for nothing, most people value those that value them.”
In the six-minute video, Gonzales is depicted in various segments, beginning with him championing his outdoor survival instincts.
Shirtless and showing off his buff physique, Gonzales describes himself as “smart, athletic, fearless” in the video, which also shows him dressed in typical teacher attire.
In the final segment, Gonzales talks about the hardships his family faced when his sister was diagnosed with ALS a few years ago, a nervous system disease that weakens muscles and impacts physical function.
“It is exhausting,” he said in the video, “but we can’t give up. Surrender is not an option. We must survive. ALS is intimidating, but every day we get up and we overcome. Whatever emotional challenges Survivor may present, I have faced greater. And if you elect to put me on that island, you will see someone different than you ever have before.”