An investiture ceremony for the Suffolk School Board Thursday saw one new member sworn in — David Mitnick, representing Sleepy Hole borough.

Mitnick took the oath, administered by Suffolk Circuit Court Clerk Randy Carter, with his left resting on the Bible of a young man he mentored for 14 years and who is now a lawyer, according to wife Doris Mitnick.

Doris Mitnick — who held it during the ceremony — said the Bible had inserted inside its pages the couple’s wedding certificate and a photo of her husband’s mother.

“It’s the culmination of a long career,” Doris Mitnick said of her husband taking the seat on the board that had been held temporarily by one of his challengers, James Perkinson, after Diane Foster’s move outside the borough presented the opportunity. Charles Leavell had also thrown his hat into the ring for Foster’s replacement, making it a three-way race with Mitnick and Perkinson.

Mitnick is a past president of the Suffolk Education Foundation board. After working for decades as a public school teacher, counselor, assistant principal and adult education principal, he retired from the local school district in 2010.

Also sworn in Thursday were the more-familiar faces of Michael Debranski, re-elected after being challenged by former board colleague Thelma Hinton; Linda Bouchard, returned in Chuckatuck after facing off against Dorothy Gamble for the second election in a row; and unchallenged incumbents Enoch Copeland and Lorraine Skeeter.

Debranski and Copeland will continue as the School Board’s chairman and vice chairman, respectively, after no other nominees were put forth during an organizational meeting following the investiture ceremony.