After a year of some upheaval at the leadership level, 2026 began on a positive note as new superintendent James Altobello joined the district.
Altobello officially took the reins on Jan. 2, having been unanimously selected as the next superintendent by the board of education on Oct. 29.
He succeeded interim superintendent Edward Forst-hoffer, who himself was appointed in March following the sudden resignation of former superintendent Trudy Atkins.
Atkins was not the only sudden and high-profile departure from the district in 2025. School board president Mike James also quit abruptly in February of last year. James told TapInto Bordentown this was due to “the accumulation of many things over time.”
The district went through protracted and contentious contract negotiations with its teachers’ union until reaching an agreement in December 2024. The conclusion of negotiations brought with it yet another sudden resignation—from longtime school board member Stephen Heberling.
In announcing his resignation, Heberling bemoaned what he described as poor treatment by the community.
On top of all of that, the district also saw state aid cut with little notice in 2025, leaving Forsthoffer and the school board to scramble to adjust the budget for the 2025-26 school year.
Altobello, then, enters a district crying for stability. He has the sort of background that has many hoping he will be just the person for the job.
Altobello joins the district having served as director of administration for the Hamilton Township school district since 2018. Hamilton, the eighth largest school district in the state, has more than 14,000 students and 2,200 staff across 17 elementary schools, three middle schools and three high schools.
Before that, he was a principal for six years in the Middletown school district in Monmouth County.
Altobello’s contract is for five years. His salary for the current school year will be $207,000, rising to $229,828 for the 2029-30 school year.
The new superintendent has a doctorate of education from Rowan University, two master’s degrees in education from Georgian Court University, and a bachelor’s degree from The College of New Jersey. A graduate of Brick Memorial High School, he began his administrative career in Brick, where he served as an assistant principal. He then spent three years in the same role in the Keansburg school district before heading to Middletown.
After working for seven years in a large district, Altobello told the Current that one of the things that made Bordentown so appealing to him is the size of the district.
“I’ve had experience in working in very large districts and very small districts,” he said. “You can really change an organization this size rapidly. You can do a lot of things quickly that can change things for kids rapidly. A big district is like a cruise ship, it changes direction slowly.
“(For example) trying to change primary-grade literacy in 17 schools is going to take a lot more time than how we’re going to change primary-grade literacy in (Bordentown’s) three schools.”
He also said that as he went through the hiring process, he felt a strong sense of community in Bordentown.
“There are a number of people who work in Hamilton, but live in Bordentown who really encouraged me to think about applying for the job. Their passion for the town where they live really drew me to it.”
He is well aware of the budget cuts that Bordentown has dealt with in recent years. He hopes that he can bring a fresh approach to dealing with budgetary challenges.
“Any school district, not just Bordentown, is dealing with different budget cuts,” he said. “My perspective is a little bit different. The way I look at it is, if we’re doing the right things structurally, if we’re able to tie every dollar we’re spending to students, and look critically at the way we are spending those dollars, I look at it as a way to really reflect on what we are doing.”
As the budgeting process for the next school year unfolds, he does not intend to wait and see what kind of state-aid figures are presented to the district.
“We’re not going to sit back and base our decision on what is going to happen or not going to happen,” he said. “There are structural things and systemic things that we have to do better, and we’re working on that right now. I don’t look at it as a state issue. I look at it as a local issue, to be better with the dollars we have.”
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Altobello says that education was always something that was critically important to him. Though his bachelor’s degree is in law and justice, he says that he realized while he was at TCNJ that his passion was working with kids and education.
His father, who immigrated to the U.S. from Italy, started working as a house painter at the age of 14. He never learned how to read in English. “One of the things I say all the time is, your lived experience guides you. I remember going to the bank with my father to deposit a check, and the only thing my dad could do was sign his name. He was essentially embarrassed by that, so he always talked about the power of education.”
He said that one of his priorities will be to instill a certain culture in the district, one that has buy-in from students, staff and the community alike.
“Culture is the most important thing we can do as a school district. If we have a culture where teachers feel important, and students feel valued, we’re going to have great student,” he said.
But, he says, in speaking about culture he does not mean that he intends to impart a vision on students and staff. “What’s important in building culture is bringing everyone to the table. Listening to everyone’s thoughts on where we are as a culture and designing a plan to get us where we want to go,” he said.
“It’s never ‘I and me,’ it’s ‘Us and we.’ If I work to build a culture of Us and We, my focus is setting an example. Of being a collaborative leader, somebody who wants to hear from teachers, from staff, from the community about where are we currently, where do we want to go? To work collaboratively to figure out a path and a plan to achieve those things.”
He said he looks forward to working with the board of education. “The board is representative of the community. One of the things that I always want from the board is ideas, thoughts, opinions, direction. Not just from members of the board, but (also) members of the community. I’m looking forward to meeting the town committee and the city commissioners. The more perspective I can get from a more diverse group of people, the more I’m going to be in a position to move the culture forward.”
He said he also looks forward to including students in district dialogue. “We went through a process very recently to choose a new high school principal (Michelle Spaventa, who started Feb. 2), and I made it a requirement to have student representation on the committee.”
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Altobello knows that budget issues remain a concern. In a February letter sent out to parents in the district, he noted that while new Gov. Mikie Sherrill is required to make a budget address by the end of February, Sherrill may request an extension allowing her administration more time to make budget decisions.
If she does, that will affect the time that Bordentown and, for that matter, every other school district will have time to begin serious deliberations on their 2026-27 budgets.
“Once state aid is released, the district will develop our tentative budget and present it to the board of education in a public meeting where all community members are invited and offered the opportunity to ask questions,” he wrote.
He cautioned community members not to indulge in rumor and speculation about future state aid. Any specific claims that may circulate prior to the conclusion of the governor’s address would not be verified information.
“I ask the community to be cautious about anonymous posts or speculative commentary. While emotions are understandable, relying on and sharing unverified information only increases anxiety and does not reflect the actual work happening on behalf of our students.”
James Altobello, sixth from left, is welcomed by outgoing interim superintendent Edward Forsthoffer as the new superintendent of the Bordentown Regional School District.,
