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Board Members

Frank J. Aquino, Chairman
(Term expires 2010)

Frank Aquino is a corporate attorney who has been a resident of Howard County since 1994. He currently lives in Ellicott City with his wife Mary and their three children, all of whom attend Howard County Public Schools. Mr. Aquino has been a public education advocate for many years. His involvement started with efforts to address issues pertaining to overcrowding and redistricting, the need for new school construction, and the funding mechanisms to support it.

Mr. Aquino has served on many school system committees, including the committee to draft a Civility Policy, and multiple terms as a member of the Boundary Line Advisory Committee and the Board’s Operating Budget Review Committee. He also served on the County Executive’s Spending Affordability Advisory Committee. Mr. Aquino has been an active member of the PTA Council of Howard County and the PTA Executive Committees of each of his children’s schools. He is the Baltimore Chapter President of the Association of Corporate Counsel, and he has volunteered his time as a coach for his son’s Howard County Youth Program baseball team.

Mr. Aquino sees Howard County’s number one ranking as an invaluable asset to the community and is committed to seeing that the school system maintains its ranking as the best public school system in the state of Maryland.

Ellen Flynn Giles, Vice Chairman
(Term expires 2012)

Ellen Flynn Giles’ two decades of volunteer involvement with the Howard County Public School System have been highlighted by sixteen years with the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) to the Board of Education, including an eight-year tenure as chairman. Her experience has included service on dozens of Board and school system committees addressing topics from scheduling and curriculum development to policy review and facility planning. She also serves on several other advisory committees, including the Howard County School Health Council and the Superintendent’s District Planning Team.

Mrs. Giles has been an executive member of the PTAs at schools attended by her children and can still be found volunteering at Atholton High School. Her twenty years of service to children was recognized with the Life Achievement Award from the National PTA in 2003. Also active in the wider community, she is a member of the League of Women Voters, Business Women’s Network, and Women’s Giving Circle and serves as a Trustee of Vision Howard County.

Mrs. Giles is an editor and analyst for the energy division of McGraw-Hill. Along with her husband Ron, she has resided in the Scaggsville/ North Laurel area for twenty-two years. Their four children are all graduates of the Howard County School System.

Larry Cohen
(Term expires 2010)

Larry Cohen was born and raised in Queens, New York City. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree and Master’s Degree in Political Science from Brooklyn College in New York City and a Masters Degree in Educational Administration and Supervision from Loyola College in Baltimore. Mr. Cohen worked for the Howard County School System for 28 years in the capacity of principal, assistant principal, teacher, pupil personnel worker, and administrative liaison.

Mr. Cohen’s interests and knowledge in public education and human development have led to his service as a consultant to the Office of Student Affairs at Howard Community College and as a part-time instructor and consultant at the University of Maryland in conjunction with the Howard County School System’s Office of Professional Development. He is a weekly workshop presenter on Leadership for the National Youth Leadership Conference in Bethesda, Maryland, and a frequent workshop presenter and keynote speaker to parents, teachers, and students. Mr. Cohen has been the co-host, co-writer, and co-producer of “Consumer’s Corner,” a long- running public service television show on Fox 45 in Baltimore, and the co-host of a call-in radio show, “Education 2000.”

Mr. Cohen and his wife Rita have two children, Rachel and Susie, who both attended Howard County schools.

Allen Dyer
(Term expires 2012)

Mr. Dyer is a lawyer, computer consultant and blacksmith who resides with his wife Tamara in Ellicott City. He has been a resident of Howard County for 17 years. He holds a bachelor's degree in engineering science from the United States Air Force Academy. He received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Maryland School of Law and is an experienced education law attorney.

Mr. Dyer served as a combat pilot in Vietnam for which he received the Distinguished Flying Cross. He also has served as a flight instructor for Air Force cadets. Mr. Dyer has taught computer science at Anne Arundel Community College, served on the Board of the TeX Users Group, and served as the River Hill Boosters teen driver safety coordinator for seven years. He is the author of Avoiding Power Line Accidents and Propane Systems and currently serves on the board of the Blacksmith Guild of Central Maryland.

Mr. Dyer’s two children are graduates of the Howard County Public School System.

Sandra H. French
(Term expires 2010)

Sandra French begins her third term on the Board of Education after serving from 1992 to 2004. In 2005, she received the Willis Award for Outstanding School Board Service from the Maryland Association of Boards of Education (MABE). She has also received Howard County’s Visionary Leadership for Music Award and the Reading Council’s Friend of Literacy Award. Her leadership positions included Board Chairman and Vice Chairman; MABE President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary and Legislative Committee Chairman, and National School Boards Association conference presenter. She was also appointed to the State Board of Education’s Visionary Panel for Better Schools, the Governor’s Task Force on Class Size, and the Governor’s Task Force on Education Funding.

With an A.B. degree from Muhlenberg College and a master’s equivalent from MSDE, Mrs. French taught in both Anne Arundel and Howard County school systems. For twelve years she advocated with the PTA from the school to the national levels. She presided as President of Howard County PTA Council and Maryland PTA Vice President for Legislation. She received Life Membership Awards from both the National PTA and the Maryland PTA, was nominated for Howard County Unsung Hero, and was recognized twice by MSDE as an Outstanding Volunteer.

Mrs. French is a member of the Achievement Initiative for Maryland’s Minority Students (AIMMS) Council. She serves on the Board of Directors for both the Howard County Arts Council and Rebuilding Together Howard County, and is a graduate of Leadership Howard County. She and her husband, residents of Howard County since 1971, have two sons who are graduates of engineering colleges at Cornell and Clemson Universities. Both attended Howard County public schools, kindergarten through grade 12.

Patricia S. Gordon
(Term expires 2010)

Patricia Gordon was elected to the Board of Education in 2000 to a six-year term and has been reelected to serve a four-year term. She was born in New York City where she received all of her education. She counts among her experience two terms on the Westbury (NY) Board of Education. She holds a BA degree from Hunter College and an MS degree in Education from Queens College, under a US Department of Education grant. She also studied at Fordham University under a Ford Foundation Fellowship, where she received a Professional Certificate in School Administration.

Mrs. Gordon was an elementary teacher and reading specialist in Bedford Stuyvesant in Brooklyn for six years and a guidance counselor in a school in Queens for three and a half years. After returning from her study at Fordham University, she served for over 16 years as principal of Public School 123 in Queens. Following her “retirement” from public education, she served as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Education of York College, a branch of City University, where she taught methods of teaching, language arts, introduction to classroom management, teaching in the inner city school, and supervised student teachers.

Mrs. Gordon moved to Howard County, which is home to her son and his family, almost 15 years ago and quickly involved herself in community and school affairs. She volunteered at Centennial Lane Elementary School, which her grandchildren attended, as a reading tutor. She also volunteered as an adult tutor with the Literacy Volunteers. She served in many capacities in St. John United Church, such as Sunday School teacher and supervisor. She is a member of the League of Women Voters and an alumnus of the Class of 2003 of Leadership Howard County.

Mrs. Gordon was appointed to two terms on the Howard County Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission and was a former board member of the Sexual Trauma, Treatment and Advocacy Center. She has been active in the Maryland Association of Boards of Education (MABE) since she was first elected to the Howard County Board of Education, serving continuously on the Conference Committee, two years as co-chair, serving on the Legislative and Budget Committee, and serving on the MABE Board. She is presently serving a term as President of MABE.

Janet Siddiqui, M.D.
(Term expires 2012)

Dr. Janet Siddiqui has been a resident of Howard County for over 20 years. She lives in Clarksville with her husband and three children. All three children have attended Howard County public schools. Currently her youngest child is in middle school and her middle child attends high school.

Dr. Siddiqui grew up in western New York and attended the State University of New York at Buffalo, where she completed her associate degree in Accounting and bachelor's degree in Biology. She went on to receive her medical degree from Eastern Virginia Medical School and completed her residency in pediatrics at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

For more than 12 years, Dr. Siddiqui has been a pediatrician with Johns Hopkins Community Physicians. During this time she has served the community of East Baltimore and for the past two years has expanded her practice to include the Odenton area. She is on the faculty of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and is a part-time instructor in pediatrics. She also teaches residents in her clinic.

Dr. Siddiqui has volunteered her time at a free health clinic. She has been a member of the PTA, the Citizens Advisory Committee to the Board of Education, and the school system’s Anti-bullying Task Force. She was appointed by the Governor of Maryland to serve on the Patuxent River Commission. In 2006, she presented a case study on childhood obesity at the Howard County American Heart Association Annual Gala.

As a parent and a pediatrician she is committed to children’s education, health and future.

Josh T. Manley, Student Member 2009-2010

Josh T. Manley is a senior at Howard High School and has been active in student government since his freshman year. As the student member to the Board of Education, he also serves on the Executive Board of the Howard County Association of Student Councils, the Executive Board of the Maryland Association of Student Councils, and the Maryland Youth Advisory Council.

Manley has demonstrated leadership and scholarship at the school, county and state levels as an active member of numerous committees, clubs and activities. He served as co-chairman of membership and as president of the Howard High School Alpha Achievers. He has been inducted into the La Sociedad Nacional Honoraria Hispánica and the National Society of High School Scholars and participated as a member of his school’s Debate Team and Mock Trial Team.

In 2008, Manley participated in the Howard County Board of Education’s “What Counts in Education” Community Forum on the FY09 Operating Budget. He served on the school system’s 2009-2010 Instructional Calendar Committee and currently he is serving a two-year term as the student member of the Instructional Materials Criteria/Review Committee.

He attended the 2008 LeadAmerica National Leadership Summit. He was a member of the Howard County student delegation to the Maryland State Department of Education’s Youth Summit on School Violence. He represented Howard High School on the 2008-2009 HC DrugFree Teen Advisory Council and assisted the Howard County Health Department’s Tobacco Enforcement Unit with undercover tobacco enforcement inspections and the prevention of underage drug abuse. Last year, he served as the student member on the planning committee for the Blandair Regional Park.

He is listed in the Who’s Who Registry of Academic Excellence 2007-2008: High School Edition and the 2005-2006 United States Achievement Academy where he received the All-American Scholar Award and the National Award in United States Government.

After high school, Manley plans to attend the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and pursue a degree in International Politics.