School board's 2025 picks: President Yarborough and Vice Prez Matt Wilcox. In a 5 – 2 vote, school board members picked OrLando Yarborough to serve as Yesenia Rivera’s replacement as the president of the Board of Education.Yarborough, a bioscience job-training program director at ConnCAT, won that vote to take on the leadership seat Monday evening at the school board’s first full meeting of the year. The meeting took place in person at John Martinez School and online via Zoom and YouTube.Yarborough was nominated for the top role by Yesenia Rivera, a departing Board of Education member who has spent the past four years as its president. He defeated Andrea Downer, who was nominated for the presidency by fellow board member Ed Joyner.Downer and Joyner cast the sole opposing votes Monday night, while the rest of the school board members voted in favor of Yarborough. Mayor Justin Elicker first appointed Yarborough to the Board of Education in 2022. His first term will expire Dec. 31, 2025. Matt Wilcox and Joyner were re-elected to their current roles as vice president and secretary, respectively. Joyner also nominated Downer for vice president, but she lost the vote 4 – 3, with Mayor Justin Elicker, Downer, and Joyner voting in her favor.After Monday’s executive board vote, Yarborough said he looks forward to continuing his work with his colleagues to ​“serve as a team for NHPS.”He noted that teamwork and listening have been skills he’s improved on while on the school board for the past three years, and that those skills make him feel prepared for the leadership role. ​“It’s not much at all about what I think or what I’m trying to champion, but more so trying to understand collectively what everyone brings that will allow us to move forward,” he said. He concluded that he is honored to serve as president and looks forward to continuing to listen and ​“recognizing the value of good will and intent.” One goal he has as president is continuing to support the district in an ​“upward trajectory.”