School Board Member Biography

Name: Marcus C. Oladell, IV

Phone Number: 568-2033

Occupation: Hairdresser and Bus Driver

Elected to Board: 2005

Term Expires: 2013

Marcus C. Oladell IV was born in Torrington; then lived in Thomaston, where the storm of 1955 washed his family’s house away.  He graduated from the Lewis S. Mills High School in Burlington.  He spent two years at Central Connecticut State University, studying to be a physical education teacher, but was injured and required knee surgery.  He graduated from the Torrington Beauty Academy, and ran a beauty salon with nine employees in East Hartford for eighteen years, where he developed his interest in people.  He became a school bus driver in 1996.  He has lived in East Hartford since 1972 and has four children.  His two younger children, both girls, are both students in the East Hartford school system.

Why are you a Board of Education Member?
Mr. Oladell has been on the Board of Education since 2005.  He has earned the respect of citizens over the years, and is a good listener: constructive and not intimidating.  He keeps an open mind.  He feels that, after four years on the Board, he understands how things work.  The middle school, in particular, he feels, is poised to become a topnotch school.  Mr. Oladell has a special interest in the ninth grade: “That’s where things happen.”  He has always served on the curriculum committee.  Like other members of the Board, he cares about test scores.