Red Bank's Emily Doherty Honored by State for 30 Years of RBR BOE Service

Red Bank resident Emily Doherty, vice president of the Red Bank Regional High School (RBR) Board of Education, was recently honored by the New Jersey School Boards Association (NJSBA) for her 30 years of service to the board.

Doherty was presented with a plaque at a recent RBR board meeting, according to an RBR release.

“It has been thirty years of pleasure,” Doherty said in the release. "It is a sincere pleasure to be a part of a Board whose members respect one another and put kids first.”

She said that she was particularly thrilled to watch the academic and artistic growth of the school district, citing, for one, the establishment of the Visual & Performing Arts Academy 30 years ago, for which she was a founding board member, as well as the academic progress the district has made.

“The Doherty family moved to Red Bank in 1973," she said. "All four Doherty children are graduates of the Red Bank Borough School District and RBR."

Doherty, a longtime educator, received her masters of arts in teaching from Wesleyan University. She began her teaching career in the Connecticut public school system.

For many years, she taught Life Science at Bayshore Middle School for the Middletown School District. She also taught French at Oak Hill Academy and tutored at Brookdale Community College, the release said.

While raising her children, Doherty volunteered extensively with the Girl Scouts and the Red Bank public schools. She has worked for the State of New Jersey’s Division of Developmental Disabilities for the past 18 years, where she is currently a case management supervisor. She also worked as a crisis counselor at Riverview Medical Center.

Having served as both president and vice president on the RBR board, Doherty was first elected to it in 1983.

She is a strong supporter of RBR’s School Based Youth Service Program – The SOURCE, the release said. "She is most proud to be part of a board that had the vision to support the arts at a time when art was being cut from most high school curricula, as well as contributing to the district’s decision to eliminate the academic tracking system, thus permitting more students to undertake the school’s most rigorous course work," the release said.