The WW-P school board has hired two new assistant superintendents to take the place of Thomas Smith and Steve Mayer, both of whom left the district to take jobs as superintendents in other districts.##M:[more]##
The two new administrators — David Aderhold, who will serve as the assistant superintendent of pupil services and planning, and Russell Lazovick, who will serve as the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction — both come from the New Brunswick School District.
Aderhold, who is the principal at New Brunswick High School, has served in that capacity since 2006. He has previously served as vice principal at North Brunswick High School and vice principal at Linwood Middle School.
Aderhold, who lives in Hamilton with his wife, Tara, has an undergraduate degree in history education from Rider University, and a doctorate in Educational Leadership from Nova Southeastern University.
Lazovick, who lives with his wife, Laurie, in Branchburg, is the director of elementary education for the New Brunswick School District. He was the supervisor of English and language arts for New Brunswick and a teacher of English there.
He has an undergraduate degree in international business and economics and a master’s degree in English education from Boston University.
School officials said the two new administrators will begin work this summer, a crucial “rebuilding” time, during a period of restructuring the curriculum.
Last fall the school board hired Wil van der Veen and Theresa Moody as consultants for the 2008-’09 K-12 science program evaluation after having finished a review of its math curriculum last year.
And as a result of that math curriculum review, WW-P school officials will be spending considerable time in the coming years to redesign the kindergarten through eighth grade curriculum to offer a full Algebra I course for all eighth graders, based on recommendations from the math program review.
School officials are also looking at factors like increasing the time allotted for math at the elementary level from 40 minutes to 60, decreasing the amount of content to focus more on the rigor of its elementary programs, implementing a quarterly benchmark assessment to track student progress, and implementing a professional development plan. Board members weighed the input the consultants gathered from parents, an overwhelming majority of whom said they feel the current curriculum is not challenging enough, particularly at the elementary level, with the feelings of students and teachers, who agree that 40 minutes is not enough time for math instruction.
District officials are looking at implementing an authentic Algebra I course (which would be offered to ninth grade students) at the eighth grade level. While eighth grade students do currently study algebra in eighth grade, the district currently offers the specific Algebra I course only as an honors track course in eighth grade.
Board members described an extensive screening process they used to find the two new assistant superintendents, who were hired at the board’s June 9 meeting. “We are really pleased that our district can attract such good candidates,” Board President Hemant Marathe said.
Board member Richard Kaye shared a philosophy that Lazovick told the board during his interview. What is his approach to making decisions regarding education? “If it’s not good enough for my child, it’s not good enough for anybody else’s child,” Kaye recalled Lazovick saying.
The board approved the hiring of Aderhold for the period of August 10 through June 30, 2010, at a salary of $144,”000. Lazovick was hired for the same period at a salary of $137,”500.
Smith, who served as the former assistant superintendent of planning and pupil services, resigned to take the job as superintendent of the Hopewell Valley Regional school district. Mayer also resigned to take a job as superintendent — in Robbinsville, where he resides.
