HILLSBOROUGH – Michael Volpe is headed back to his roots.
The former Hillsborough Elementary School Principal and director of Human Resources for the Hillsborough Township Public Schools was named the school district’s new Superintendent of School at the Hillsborough Township Board of Education (BOE) Meeting on Nov. 1.
Volpe, who has been a resident of Hillsborough Township since 1999, spent over 13 years working in Hillsborough before leaving in 2019 to become the assistant superintendent of the Princeton Public Schools.
In December 2021, Volpe was hired to become the superintendent of the Moorestown Public Township Schools.
“I spent 13 and half years of the best time of my career as a principal and director of human resources here in the Hillsborough Township Public Schools. I am one of you, and with all that still said, I still owe this district and that’s one of the main reasons why I am coming back,” Volpe said at the board meeting.
Volpe becomes Hillsborough’s fifth superintendent in the last three years and the third since the start of the 2021-22 school year.
In September 2019, Dr. Jorden Schiff resigned as Hillsborough’s superintendent after holding the position for eight years.
Dr. Lisa Antunes became the acting superintendent when Schiff resigned and was officially selected as the new superintendent of the school district in May.
Earlier this year, Antunes stepped down as Hillsborough’s superintendent after the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office began an investigation into former Business Administrator/HBOE Secretary Aiman Mahmoud, who resigned from his position in the school district on Dec. 20, 2021.
Dr. Kim Feltre took over for Antunes as the school district’s acting superintendent for the remainder of the 2021-22 school year and has since transitioned back to her former post of assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction for the school district.
Daniel Fishbein has been serving as the school district’s interim superintendent of schools since the start of the 2022-23 school year.
After officially being voted in as the new superintendent of Hillsborough, Volpe talked about his core objectives which involves making sure the school environment in Hillsborough is great for both students and staff.
Volpe outlined those areas into two primary questions.
Are what we are doing best for the children? And are my decisions making the job better for staff?
Volpe said he believes attacking both those questions will “help make the education experience great for both teachers and students, and thus grow trust within the Hillsborough community with its stakeholders.”
“Our relationship as a community is symbiotic and not siloed (isolated from others). Our relationship as a community will affect the experience that students have,” he said.
