Given A Bloated Budget and a Need to Repair Math & Science, is there a need to employ a full time Assistant Superintendent?

-Written by a non-politically connected Educator in the Community

The past three years, Berkeley Heights Public Schools (BHPS) has been through four Assistant Superintendents. Two of these candidates were only in the role for one year each. The role was recently filled by a recent retiree in an Interim capacity (three months through November 2024). The question is: Why does a school district as small as Berkeley Heights need the broad-role of an Assistant Superintendent?

In 2022, Madison Public Schools, a district very similar in size and demographics to BHPS, decided not to hire a replacement Assistant Superintendent when the current individual in that role became the Superintendent in another district. As noted in a TAP article, then-Madison Superintendent of Schools Mark Schwarz commented, “We are going to divide up [the Assistant Superintendent’s] responsibilities…he was pulled between [Human Resources] and curriculum and instruction. We would like an individual to give their main focus and attention to curriculum and instruction.” 

The split between curriculum and instruction and Human Resources is why ‘broad-role’ is stated in the first paragraph.

While New Providence School District does employ an Assistant Superintendent of Education Services, this individual is also pulled between human resources that includes the roles of Affirmative Action Officer, other roles such as Homeless Liaison, School Safety Specialist, and district Anti-Bullying Coordinator, all while overseeing Curriculum and Instruction and performing teacher evaluations. Meanwhile, Summit Public Schools does not employ an Assistant Superintendent role but rather a series of specific-Director roles (separate Directors of Human Resources, Student Personnel Services, Curriculum and Instruction, and Special Services).

While Madison Public Schools has remained without the Assistant Superintendent role for three years now, Madison employs a ‘Director of Elementary Education’ (similar to BHPS) and ‘Director of Curriculum and Instruction.’ Madison’s ‘Director of Curriculum and Instruction’ is essentially split up at BHPS into the four roles of:

• Director of STEAM
• District Supervisor 6-12 Social Studies and 1-12 World Language 
• District Supervisor 6-12 Language Arts
• Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Instruction, and Student Achievement

The point of listing the above BHPS positions is not to eliminate any but rather express the need that administrative curriculum supports already exist and therefore the restoration of a permanent Assistant Superintendent may be unnecessary.

The proposal for BHPS would be to allow the first three current roles above to remain (Director of STEAM, Social Studies Supervisor, Language Arts Supervisor). These individuals would continue to report to the Superintendent as there is no need for a ‘middle-man’ Assistant Superintendent. The current (and new) Director of Elementary Education and Intervention would remain and report to the Superintendent.

If BHPS were to not hire for the role of Assistant Superintendent but wished to replace that role with an administrative position, a ‘Director of Secondary Education’ could be created to oversee Grades 6-12 (while the Director of Elementary Education currently oversees Grades PreK-5). Or, a ‘Director of Human Resources’ could be created to solely oversee the Human Resources aspect of the Assistant Superintendent role. While adding either position may not be necessary, adding a Director instead of keeping the Assistant Superintendent role would add to a cost savings of $10,000 to up to $50,000 where ‘Director’ is not as high-level as ‘Assistant Superintendent’ in the ranks.

With more money needed to be spent on classrooms, student instruction, and teachers, why should BHPS spend $200,000+, including Admin Assistants, for a permanent Assistant Superintendent?

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