EDISON – The search for a new superintendent of schools is underway for the fifth largest public school district in New Jersey.
The Edison Township Public Schools Board of Education approved an amended superintendent job description on Dec. 17. Board member Ralph Errico voted against the amended job description.
Regarding an individual’s qualifications for the position, board President Jerry Shi said a doctorate will no longer be required, and he said the qualifications were amended to “preferred” master’s degree in administration and supervision.
Another amendment included changing a candidate’s minimum amount of experience from five years to three years.
The superintendent will be responsible for general supervision of instructional programs, as well as supervising research essential to the efforts of the operation of the school system and the improvement of instruction of all grade levels and special education.
Richard O’Malley announced in March he would leave Edison when his contract ended in June 2019. However, O’Malley, who has served the Edison schools since 2011, left on Aug. 2 after he was selected as the new superintendent for Florence One Schools in South Carolina.
Paul Saxton has been serving as Edison’s interim superintendent of schools. The board selected Saxton in June.
Also at the meeting, board members approved the interim superintendent’s merit goals in a total amount of $29,467.95.
“I did five merit goals for myself, then I created five additional goals and wanted to make sure each department had a particular goal,” Saxton said.
The merit goals include increasing the enrollment in computer science classes by 10 percent in grades 6-12; increase the understanding of how to support the conceptual understanding of math for K-5 teachers; and increase the percent passing of Edison High School Grade 10 students by 10 percent on the English Language Arts PARCC test.
Saxton said he will look at the district’s long-range facilities plan. The goal is to develop and submit a district referendum plan to the New Jersey Department of Education by June, he said.
The proposed referendum would involve extensive expansion and realignment of grade level groupings and elimination of problems associated with insufficient classroom space. To advance the goal, the superintendent will facilitate all phases of the referendum plan, which will include input from stakeholders, community presentations and a final plan.
“Other goals are going to be in school security and safety,” Saxton said. “Our school security director will be joining us on Jan. 11, so a lot of things are going to be happening at the time in terms of staff development activities.”
The merit goal includes 100 percent of district administrators, teachers and board members participating in various phases of the development, analysis review and implementation of the district, school, and community based safety and security initiatives.
The five additional non-merit goals Saxton created include conversion of current payroll and financial software, conversion of human resources software, new teacher observation/evaluation rubric and template, new special education reference manual and college handbook for students with disabilities.
