Madelyn Sanchez-Berra receives a standing ovation at the RBR Board of Education meeting. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
The last time Red Bank Regional High School senior Madelyn Sanchez-Berra stood before the district board of education, she was so nervous she says she “blacked out.”
Madelyn Sanchez-Berra at Wednesday night’s board meeting. Below, members of RBR’s Dreamers club speak at a board meeting September 11, 2023. (Photos by Brian Donohue and John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
“I was anxious like never before,” she would later write in an essay about the experience.
That was last September 11, when the Red Bank resident delivered a speech against the board’s August vote to eliminate faculty advisor funding for the immigrants advocacy student group the Dreamers Club, in which she serves as secretary.
On Wednesday, things were a little different. Sanchez-Berra got a standing ovation without saying a word.
The board was honoring her for winning the Red Bank Community YMCA’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. essay contest with an essay about what the club – and the fight to save it – meant to her. Following that September meeting, the board voted to reinstate funding, effectively saving the club itself.
With a large crowd in attendance Wednesday, Sanchez-Berra came forward to be honored for her winning essay and basked in the applause for a few moments.
Behind her, even board member John Venino – whose lone vote caused the club to be briefly cancelled and who voted against reinstating it – was clapping.
“While I am grateful to have been acknowledged by my school, I couldn’t help but laugh at the irony of the situation,” Sanchez-Berra said later in an email. “I was being honored by the same school board who caused the adversity I discussed in my essay. It was bizarre, to say the least.”
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