PLUMSTED – The search is on for a new superintendent of schools in the township. Current Superintendent Michelle Halperin-Krain’s last day on the job is July 21.
Halperin-Krain joined the district in 2016 as Director of Literacy. She has served as superintendent for the last three years and will retire this month after 27 years in public education.
School Board President Susan Potter told The Jackson Times that “the superintendent search is underway. We are pleased to have received many applications for consideration.”
“An Ad-Hoc Committee will be formed whose main focus will be to explore and understand the ramifications of a feasibility study as well as district cost,” Potter added.
During a May 10 Board of Education meeting Vice Board President Justin Burnett stated that the Plumsted Township Education Association (PTEA) and Plumsted Township Administrators Association (PTAA) would not be directly involved with the Ad Hoc Committee. They have, however, contributed to the process.
Burnett said during last month’s Board meeting, “we are looking for our new superintendent and that has been quite the effort right now. Between the personnel team we have reviewed 35 resumes. We are scheduling interviews which is adding five to seven more hours a week.”
“A big shout out to the personnel committee, the PTA and the PTES because they have been involved and it is very valuable insight when we send them redacted information because we have to keep confidentiality,” he added.
“They gave us some really good questions to ask and we are going through the process. We are going to find someone to fill these very big shoes,” he said.
Later in the meeting he and the rest of the Board received some criticism by two district educators about not including the community in the search as well as the manner in which education agencies were allowed to be involved.
Potter told The Jackson Times, prior to the June meeting, “it is the sole responsibility of the Board of Education to hire a superintendent. Confidentiality is the utmost of importance to the Board of Education. However, we are receiving input from leaders of the administrative staff. When we have further information, we will gladly share it.”
Burnett said after the meeting, “we were advised by our legal staff and reached out to the New Jersey School Board Association. We redact everything. We are including them as much as we can.”
High School’s Future
Recent Board meetings have included discussions about the future of the New Egypt High School and the vacant Primary School which currently serves as the Board of Education administration office. Both buildings are located on Evergreen Road.
Potter said that “as of May 31, the total district enrollment is 1,107 students. The New Egypt High School NEHS population is 313 students.”
Township voters approved a December 1997 referendum under which $16.5 million (equivalent to $30.1 million in 2022) would be borrowed to build new school facilities, while the existing middle school would be converted for use as a high school. Later that month, the Commissioner of Education approved the withdrawal, as the feasibility study prepared showed no negative financial impact to either district and would not substantially impact the racial makeup of the students enrolled at Allentown High School which is part of Upper Freehold Regional School District in Monmouth County.
The school opened its doors in September 1999 and admitted 100 9th-graders who would graduate in spring 2003, ending a sending/receiving relationship that had existed for more than 50 years. Recent meetings of the Board have suggested the possibility of closing the high school.
The school was the 151st-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 339 schools statewide in New Jersey Monthly Magazine’s September 2014 cover story on New Jersey’s “Top Public High Schools,” using a new ranking methodology.
Resident Bernard Bahnam asked the Board about the issue. “Have you gotten anywhere with the whole sending students/receiving students.”
Board member Kelly Morgan said, “I’ve been doing a lot of online research as to educate us as to what it would involve. I am diligently working on it and am trying to move forward in understanding the pros and cons as to what it would mean for us if we ever have to go down that road.”
Upcoming meetings of the Board are August 16, September 13, October 11, November 15, and December 13. Executive sessions are held at 6 p.m. and regular meetings follow at 7 p.m.
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