Lack of Math Supervisor Leaves Berkeley Heights Public Schools Leaderless in a Key Content Area

Berkeley Heights is the only school district in the area with no administrative oversight for mathematics students, teachers, courses, and curriculum.

-Written by an Educator in the Community

Berkeley Heights Public Schools (BHPS) no longer has a math supervisor. The role of a math supervisor, particularly at Governor Livingston High School (GLHS) and Columbia Middle School (CMS), was essential to guide students and teachers in math class placement, curriculum, and AP coursework.

A little bit of short-term history: At the April 27, 2023 BHPS Board of Education (BOE) meeting, six of eight BOE members voted for a budget that eliminated the math supervisor and science supervisor roles. This budget was put into place by the Superintendent of Schools Dr. Melissa Varley. Over at least the past decade, both these positions oversaw the curriculum, budget, and evaluation of teachers in each content area. The Math Supervisor position was held by Mr. Andrew (Drew) Ziobro since 2014 and was a high school math teacher at Essex County VoTech prior to this role. Now, Dr. Varley created the Director of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) position so that Mr. Ziobro could not be qualified for the position for he solely holds the Supervisor certification. (There are three levels of administrative certifications in New Jersey: Supervisor; “School Administrator” which includes Supervisor, Director, and Principal; and then a Superintendent certification). The Director of STEAM position was filled by Science Supervisor Mr. Dennis Dagounis, who Dr. Varley brought into the district in fall 2022. While Mr. Dagounis is a very qualified individual in instructing and supervising science, he does not have depth of experience in instructing mathematics.

Recently, Mr. Ziobro has been appointed Supervisor of STEAM in Roselle Schools.

This leaves BHPS as one of the few surrounding districts without an administrator or department head that specifically supervises in math. Bernards, Chatham, Livingston, Scotch Plains, Summit, Watchung Hills, and Westfield all have a full-time math supervisor of whom all individuals have some, if not vast experience teaching in mathematics. BHPS lacks this. New Providence has a Department Head of Mathematics who has vast math teaching experience. The one exception is Madison, whose high school assistant principal has an in-district math teaching background. Mr. Ziobro’s exit leaves BHPS without an administrator with a math background with the exception of CMS Principal Paul Kobliska. While Mr. Kobliska was a math teacher prior to becoming an administrator, a building Principal should not have to supervise a content area because Principals have to run a building. 

As noted in Shauna’s recent article, going into another school year with questions regarding Building Thinking Classrooms (BTC), improvements to math instruction, and proficiencies, it would have been nice to have a math supervisor (Mr. Ziobro) with a math background who had been in that position since 2014. While stated in Laura Kapuscinski’s article on the August 10th, 2023 BOE meeting, BHPS did appoint a “Mathematics Specialist Mentor” named Eric Fontes to Director of STEAM Mr. Dagounis. This mentor is Supervisor of Mathematics at Summit Public Schools (as linked above when discussing all other districts). While knowledgeable in math, Mr. Fontes will not have the same administrative oversight (including performing teacher observations) and background with GL and CMS faculty and courses as Mr. Ziobro when he was math supervisor.

Comparable to Madison, it may be a nice idea for the new GL Assistant Principal (currently in the hiring process after current Assistant Principal Mr. Finley was appointed Principal of MKM) to have a math background, similar to Madison High School.

What GL/CMS parents should be mainly be concerned about is that Mr. Ziobro’s position was cut in-part due to fewer taxpayer dollars going into classrooms and dollars going towards paying a current administrator a $12,000 yearly stipend for OPRA requests (which in most schools and towns is the job of the School Business Administrator/Township Administrator, not a Curriculum Supervisor), legal bills, and an attorney sitting at a BOE meeting for $165 per hour.

The point is that BHPS never should have eliminated the math supervisor position while still hiring for non-building level positions such as a new Assistant Superintendent and a new Director of Elementary Education and Intervention position, two positions that can easily be kept at one (if BHPS simply hired a new Assistant Superintendent with an elementary curriculum background – which could have occurred without anyone losing their job). As BHPS lacks a full time math supervisor thanks to the Dr. Varley’s and six BOE member’s poor decision making, the GLHS and CMS students and math teachers will be negatively impacted.

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