Katherine Brechner, a former president of the Croton-Harmon Board of Education was elected to the board of the Putnam/Northern Westchester Board of Cooperative Education.

Her term is effective Oct. 21, and runs through June 30, 2012.

She served on the Croton-Harmon board  for 12 years,  two of them as president, before stepping down in June.

While on the school board, Ms. Brechner was a founding board member of the Regional Educational Advocacy Districts (READ), a coalition of six Westchester and Putnam school districts formed to focus attention among local and state legislators on the impact and costs of unfunded mandates as well as other concerns.

“I am looking forward to continuing to be involved in education, and serving on the BOCES board will enable me to get a much broader understanding of some of the regional educational issues in the Putnam, Northern Westchester area,” Brechner said. “There will be a learning curve with being on the BOCES board, as it is an organization even more complex than a local district, but I see this as an interesting time in the role of BOCES as New York State focuses more attention on it to provide shared services to help control costs.”

Brechner fills the seat left vacant by the death of longtime BOCES board member John McGuinness of Peekskill.

Before her election to the Croton school board, Brechner worked as a software company representative, a marketing research manager, and a photo interpreter for the U.S. government.

She and her husband, Berl, have three children and live in the Teatown area of southern Yorktown.