Marshall School will have a new principal on Monday. The Board of Education unanimously approved the hiring of Bonita Patterson-Samuels, known generally as Bonita Samuels, to replace Angelica Allen as principal of the K - grade 2 school. Samuels is currently Assistant Principal at South Mountain School.

Samuels received her BA in Special Education, her MA in Special Education, and her MA in Educational Administration from Jersey City State University, according to the school district. Ms. Samuels served as a teacher of the handicapped for the Jersey City Public Schools from 1992-2001. She joined SOMSD in 2001, where she served as a teacher of special education from 2001-2006. Samuels briefly left SOMSD to serve as Supervisor of Special Education in the Jersey City Public Schools, and then returned to SOMSD in February 2007 as the Assistant to the Principal at South Mountain Elementary School. In August 2010, Samuels was promoted to her current position as the Assistant Principal at South Mountain Elementary School.

In introducing her to the Board, Superintendent Brian Osborne said that he is "really excited and very delighted to welcome" Patterson-Samuels. He described the hiring process as "rigorous and competitive," and lauded the new principal's "warm and child-centered leadership style."

Patterson-Samuels lives in the South Orange - Maplewood community and has a son who is freshman at Columbia High School. She told the Board of Education that she looks forward to "together leading Marshall into the next phase."