On April 16 the West Windsor-Plainsboro Board of Education accepted, with regret, the resignation of Superintendent Victoria Kniewel and then quickly decided, after a closed session, to appoint Deputy Superintendent David Aderhold as her replacement. Aderhold, who came to the WW-P district in 2009 after serving three years as principal of New Brunswick High School, will be officially appointed at the next Board meeting, on Tuesday, April 30, at 7:30 p.m. at Community Middle School.
Said Board President Hemant Marathe: “We are sorry to see Victoria go. But we are pleased and fortunate to have such a qualified person within the district to replace her. David is so qualified for the job, and we have been so impressed with his performance [as deputy superintendent], that we did not consider any other candidate. We talked to many stakeholders in the district, including union leadership, the teachers’ association, as well as administrative staff, several principals, PTA members, and others, to gauge the reaction to our potential decision. We heard nothing but positive comments about David across the board. David has been more visible recently because of his tremendous work on school security issues and has met many parents one-on-one or in small groups, and they have gotten to know him and feel comfortable with him.”
“People’s only concern is who we will get to replace him. Our biggest challenge will be to find someone to fill his position. Because he has performed so well, he has raised the bar incredibly high,” Marathe said.
Though the board has the power to hire and fire superintendents, as superintendent Aderhold himself will be responsible for recommending a candidate or candidates to the board, which interviews them and then advises whether or not they approve of the choice.
“One of the reasons we made the announcement of our intent to promote David now is to give him two extra weeks to find candidates for his replacement. He will be starting on July 1, and we would like to have his replacement by then,” Marathe said.
“We are very lucky in this district to have such qualified staff. We have five sitting superintendents in the state that come from our district, and David will make six. That is quite an achievement. There was no need to go outside the district for Victoria’s replacement. We knew that even if we had conducted a nationwide search, we wouldn’t have found anyone more qualified than David. So of course we saved the taxpayers money, and we got the best candidate as well,” Marathe added.
Aderhold came to the district in 2009 along with Russell Lazovick as one of two new assistant superintendents to take the places of Thomas Smith and Steve Mayer, both of whom left the district to take jobs as superintendents in other districts.
Aderhold served as the assistant superintendent of pupil services and planning, and Lazovick, also from the New Brunswick School District, was assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. Aderhold had previously served as vice principal at North Brunswick High School and vice principal at Linwood Middle School.
The new superintendent grew up in Ridgewood. His father worked in the printing industry and now works for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). A coach of recreation baseball and football, he has an undergraduate degree in history education from Rider University and a doctorate in educational leadership from Nova Southeastern University. Earlier in his career he taught in Willingboro and then in Bridgewater. Aderhold, who lives in Hamilton with his wife, Tara, declined to sit for a formal interview until after his appointment was made official by the Board of Education.
