Freeholder Vernell Wright
Freeholder Vernell Wright, a native of Camden, South Carolina and a resident of the Vauxhall section of Union Township for more than 50 years, began her first term last year.
Freeholder Wright earned her BS in Biology from Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina. She subsequently received her Master’s Degree in Education and the Behavioral Sciences and Certification in Educational Administration and Supervision from Newark State College, now Kean University, in Union, New Jersey.
Freeholder Wright’s teaching career began at St. Helena High School in Frogmore, South Carolina in 1955. Freeholder Wright also taught at Collegefields, a college-based program for inner city boys assigned by the courts, located at Newark State College.
In Union, Freeholder Wright began her career as a Title I Teacher at Jefferson School in 1966. Over the next thirty-six years she served in various positions in the Union Public Schools System. In 1986, she was appointed principal of the Central Six Jefferson School (which became Central Five) where she served for twelve years. In 1998, she was appointed principal of the Hannah Caldwell Elementary School. She remained in that capacity until her retirement in January 2003. In 2005 she began serving as an adjunct faculty supervisor at Kean University until joining the Freeholder Board in 2012.
Since moving to Vauxhall with her family over fifty years ago, Freeholder Wright has continued her commitment to the community, its youth, and senior citizens. Her community involvement has included: The Vauxhall Committee for the Desegregation of Township Schools, Vauxhall Neighborhood Council, Board of Directors – Union Township Community Action Organization, Woman’s Club of Vauxhall, National Council of Negro Women – Vauxhall Section, Union Township 175th Historical Committee, Board of Directors – Boys and Girls Club of Union Township, League of Women Voters.
Freeholder Wright presently maintains affiliation with numerous community and professional organizations including: New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association, United Community Center Scholarship Committee, Vauxhall Senior Citizens, Tri-City Branch – NAACP, First Baptist Church of Vauxhall, Boylan-Haven Mather Academy National Alumnae Association, and the Vauxhall Historical Society. As a member of the First Baptist Church of Vauxhall, Freeholder Wright serves as a member of the Trustee Ministry, Ministry of Christian Education, and Ministry of the Golden Years.
She is the mother of Patricia Johnson-McArthur and the late Anthony Jerome Wright, whose memory the family commemorates with a scholarship at First Baptist Church. She has three grandchildren, Andrea Johnson, Mark McArthur, and Anthony Wright II.
