Meet Michelle Casalino

BIOGRAPHY/FAMILY

Michelle Casalino takes great pride that she is a lifelong resident and longtime community advocate. She graduated West Orange Mountain High School as Michelle Lemma (WOMHS Class of ‘81) where she met her husband Anthony (WOHMS Class of ‘80) and together they stayed in our beloved township to raise their three children, all being the fourth generation of Casalino’s to graduate from West Orange High School. For the past 25 years, Michelle has been employed as a Regional Business Director for Madison Commercial Real Estate Services, located in Lakewood, New Jersey. Michelle has an Insurance Producer's License with the NJ Department of Banking and Insurance and is a certified Title Insurance Officer. Additionally, Michelle has over 35 years of mortgage banking and account development experience. 

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

  Michelle's community involvement started in 1995 when she volunteered to serve as a Girl Scout Troop leader and district leader for her daughter and a Cub Scout leader for her sons. She was active serving on the PTA for Redwood, Edison, Liberty, and West Orange High School, primarily focusing on fundraising, which efforts resulted in raising over $200,000 for our schools. The playground at Redwood Elementary School was a project that Michelle helped facilitate, and Michelle co-founded both the Edison and Liberty Middle School After-School Programs partnering with the West Orange Community House to serve our working parents. Michelle served on multiple high school booster clubs helping to raise over $50,000 to supplement costs for our athletes to train and provide award banquets. Michelle's family has been involved with the West Orange PAL for over 50 years not only as participants but also in leadership roles as her husband, Tony, has served as a former coach, Football Commissioner, and Board Member.

 In 2006 Michelle was elected to the West Orange Board of Education and became a certified School Board member. She was elected to serve as Board President twice and Vice President by her colleagues. Michelle worked rigorously to enforce new registration procedures to ensure only West Orange residents attend our schools. Michelle was instrumental in developing new cost-effective policies and procedures related to our school facilities, transportation, and custodial overtime. Through the years, her efforts and support resulted in cost savings of over $2 million and $4 million in awards from grants. Michelle always took pride in providing a quality education for all students while maintaining fiscal accountability.

Michelle was appointed to the West Orange Township Council in 2015 and then elected as Councilwoman in 2016 and re-elected in 2020.  She served as Council President in 2020 and is currently serving as the liaison to the West Orange Board of Education, the West Orange Public Relations Commission, and the Downtown West Orange Alliance. Michelle is also the township liaison to our senior citizen housing complex, the Degnan House. Michelle is a sits on the board of trustees to the Friends of West Orange Public Library and is a member of West Orange/Orange UNICO, and the West Orange Arts Council.