Board of Ed appoints Simmons and Donahue

Members of the Monroe-Woodbury Board of Education appointed Kaytlin Simmons and Suzanne Donahue as president and vice president at the board’s Dec. 10 meeting, the district announced last week.

Simmons replaces Dawn Tauber as president after Tauber’s resignation last month and Donahue replaces Simmons, who had been vice president.

Simmons is serving her first term and had been vice president since July 2025. She and her husband have lived in Monroe for nearly 16 years and have twin daughters at the middle school. Professionally, she is the deputy commissioner of operations and chief diversity officer at the New York City Department of Investigation.

Donahue, in her fifth term on the board, is a retired New York City high school teacher and current educational consultant. She is a widow with two adult children and six grandsons, two of whom are district graduates and one of whom is a sixth grader at the middle school. She resides in Highland Mills.

In October, the district announced the resignation of Norise Robinson from the board. Robinson was elected in 2023 to a term that expires June 30, 2026. Last month, a similar announcement was made for Tauber, who was serving her third term, which expires June 30, 2027.

With two open sports remaining on the board, the district is expected to present a plan to fill the seats soon, according to the district.

“The board is in the process of determining next steps,” Monroe-Woodbury Community Relations Coordinator Carole Spendley said earlier this month. “We will share information with our community in the very near future once discussions are complete and plans are in place.”

Spendley said both resignations were for personal reasons and unrelated.