Councilman E. Steve Gillingham

Photograph Councilman Gillingham

 

    Steve Gillingham is a career public educator, currently in private practice as School Business & Governance Services LLC and serving as treasurer of the Newark Public Schools.

    Since retiring as Superintendent of Bergen County Vocational and Technical Schools in 1996, Steve has served as consultant or interim school administrator in Newark, Millburn, Ridgewood, Teaneck, Middletown, Englewood, Randolph, Livingston, Montville, Manville, Hasbrouck Heights, River Dell Regional, Rochelle Park, Roselle Park, Bound Brook, Bergen County Technical Schools, Bergen County Special Services, Haledon, Marlboro, Millstone, Wharton, Watchung, Warren, Watchung Hills Regional, Dover, East Newark, Bridgewater-Raritan Regional, Tewksbury, Mercer County Vocational-Technical, and other New Jersey school  districts.

   He was adjunct professor of School Business Administration and School Law at Kean University for 35 years.  He worked for the New Jersey Department of Education as county school business administrator. His other education positions include: Superintendent of Schools in the City of Plainfield, Vice President of Finance at Union County College, School Business Administrator in Eatontown and Willingboro, Teacher at Brielle Elementary School and Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School

   Steve has lived in Mantoloking (with periodic breaks to make a living) since the 1940s. He was a lifeguard for the Mantoloking Beach Association for 15 years and later served as treasurer of the association. He joined Mantoloking Fire Company No. 1 in 1957, served as an officer, and is currently a life member. He has been a member of the Mantoloking Yacht Club for many years and served on the board of governors. He is a charter member of the Regular Republican Organization of Mantoloking.

  Steve was first elected to the Mantoloking Borough Council in 1997 and has been reelected seven times. During his 24-year tenure, he has always been the council’s representative on the Mantoloking joint planning board/board of adjustment, been elected council president nine times, acted as mayor in the elected mayor’s absence, negotiated five collective bargaining contracts with the Mantoloking Policemen’s Benevolent Association (PBA.)

  He has chaired the Finance, Public Safety, Public Works, Garbage & Recycling, Beautification, and Beach Access Committees. He developed the council’s agenda and minutes formats, created a user-friendly budget document, initiated the codification of the Borough’s ordinances, and called attention to and mitigated the potential consequences of New Jersey’s dissolution of the Mantoloking school district.

  In six years working at the Asbury Park Press Steve advanced from reporter to editor. His writing and photography have appeared in Sports Illustrated, Motor Boating, National Geographic Explorer and other publications. He has sailed on the east coast, Caribbean, and in Europe, climbed seven “14ers” in Colorado, kayaked the coast of Labrador, and skied across Iceland’s largest glacier.

  His two daughters, Susan and Lisa, grew up in Mantoloking and now live in Oregon and New Hampshire. His sister, Betsy Wright, lives in Mantoloking. He attended Rutgers University on a football scholarship and earned bachelors and master’s degrees.