WESTFIELD — A member of the Westfield Board of Education (BOE) who missed the organization’s last three consecutive advertised meetings could be removed from office next month for violating the board’s established attendance policy.

Sahar Aziz, last year’s board vice president, will have the opportunity to plead her case at the next regular meeting of the board, which is scheduled to be held in mid-September. The board will then make its final determination in accordance with state law.

A motion to add the vote to the next agenda was made by board member Brendan Galligan on Tuesday during the board’s first regular meeting of the new school year.

According to board bylaw 145, read into the record by Mr. Galligan on Tuesday, “a member who fails to attend three consecutive meetings of the board without good cause may be removed from office with an affirmative vote by the majority remaining members” as long as the member’s removal is proposed at the public meeting directly preceding the vote. The district’s bylaws also state that the board will be required to give Ms. Aziz at least 48 hours notice before they can discuss her position on Tuesday, September 19.

Board President Sonal Patel, Vice President Robert Benacchio and members Mary Wickens, Kent Diamond and Kristen Sonnek-Schmelz voted in favor of Mr. Galligan’s motion.

The board’s newest member, Charles Gelinas, voted against the motion and member Leila Morrelli opted to abstain.

“I didn’t know anything about this,” Ms. Morrelli said. “I would have liked the chance to do a little research.”

According to district records, of the 20 meetings that the board held between July 25, 2022 and June 13, 2023, Ms.Aziz was absent from eight and marked late to five others. The district has not yet posted the minutes from the regular meeting held on June 27.

Ms. Aziz came under public scrutiny last year for using her personal social-media accounts to share content that some local residents viewed as anti-Semitic. Several district parents called for her removal from office during a heating meeting of the board held in February of last year. In April, Westfield resident Stephanie Siegel filed an official complaint against Ms.Aziz with the state School Ethics Commission.

The commission has not yet returned its decision. In other district news, students, staff, parents and visitors should prepare themselves for some new policies and procedures when school reconvenes next. “Governor Murphy signed a law at the end of 2022 that requires all school districts to establish a Behavior Threat Assessment Management Team to assess potential crises and identify students who may present a threat to themselves or others,” Superintendent Raymond González, Ed.D., said Tuesday. All members of the new team, Dr. González said, have been trained by the New Jersey Department of Education.

“This is new for us. It’s new for the entire state, so I expect to continue to engage in conversations both in district and around the state to ensure that we are providing as much support and investigative fidelity to the process as possible,” Dr. González said.

Changes also have been made to the district’s online policy, which has been upgraded to include a new webtracking platform called Gaggle. The software, Dr. González said, will enable the district to more carefully monitor student Google accounts to check for signs of “self harm, cyber bullying and other potentially harmful behavior.”

The next meeting of the Westfield Board of Education will be held at 7 p.m. on September 19 in the cafeteria of Westfield High School, located at 550 Dorian Road.