Staring a new job anywhere may seem daunting, but it may seem especially so if you’re going to be overseeing the programs and services administered to students in one of the state’s top-ranked school districts.##M:[more]##
Not for WW-P’s two new assistant superintendents. Not only do Russell Lazovick and David Aderhold already have experience working together, they both also have prior experience with the district — and their credentials to boot.
In April the district found out that it would be losing two of its highly touted administrators this year — Thomas Smith and Steven Mayer to other districts, where they both became superintendents. But by June, the WW-P Board of Education hired Lazovick and Aderhold to replace them. The two newest additions to WW-P have been on the job for about two to three weeks now, and they say their prior experience in dealing with state regulation is one new perspective that will help them in getting acclimated.
For Lazovick, the new assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, the education field was not his original career choice, but it turned out to be the one for which he had a passion. He grew up in Wayne. His father was a draftsman, who is now a purchasing manager, and his mother has worked for a bank her entire career.
Lazovick, who has an undergraduate degree in international business and economics and a master’s degree in English education from Boston University, realized during his first job at a law firm that he was not happy with his decision to go into economics. While he was at college in Boston, he talked with others about his interests, and decided to begin his career in education. After he earned his master’s in education there, he moved to Las Vegas, where he began as a teacher of English and English as a Second Language and as a coach at the high school level.
He moved back to New Jersey and taught English in New Brunswick, where he rose in the ranks to supervisor of English and language arts and then to director of elementary education for the New Brunswick district.
Aderhold, the new assistant superintendent for pupil services and planning, grew up in Ridgewood. His father worked in the printing agency and now works for the United National Children’s Fund (UNICEF). He loved history and loved coaching — he had coached recreation baseball and football — and decided to pick a career in history education. He has an undergraduate degree in history education from Rider University and a doctorate in educational leadership from Nova Southeastern University.
He taught in Willingboro and then in Bridgewater before becoming the vice principal and then principal in North Brunswick before becoming principal in New Brunswick.
Their careers at New Brunswick overlapped, as Lazovick had a nine-year career there, while Aderhold worked there for three years. Now their individual responsibilities will overlap in WW-P, particularly in the area of curriculum, Lazovick says. The fact that the two have already established a professional relationship while in New Brunswick makes the transition into working with other WW-P officials much easier, they say.
“We both know each other’s beliefs, what each other’s strengths and weakness are, and we know how each other thinks,” said Aderhold, who added that they understand each other so well, they can sometimes complete each other’s sentences. “And we have a similar vision of what we want for kids.”
In addition, “for us, not only did we have a working relationship, but we had the knowledge of the WW-P school district,” Aderhold added. Aderhold says that the fact that both positions opened up at the same time was fortunate, but that he was motivated by his own familiarity with the district. His wife, Tara, who now takes care of the couple’s three children at home in Hamilton, worked for three years as a music teacher at what is now known as Community Middle School. “I knew West Windsor was a place I’d love to come as an administrator,” he said.
At the same time, Lazovick says he had done an internship under his predecessor, Mayer, and with current Superintendent Victoria Kniewel, who at the time was serving as the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, and already had an understanding of the duties of the job.
By the time they were both hired, “we had both built a lot of process and structure in New Brunswick that were ready to be built upon,” said Lazovick.
The fact that Lazovick’s wife Laurie — the couple live in Branchburg with their two children — is also a teacher in New Brunswick, and that Aderhold’s wife is a former teacher in WW-P is a positive thing for the men, who say “it helps from an understanding perspective.”
“It’s not a nine to five job,” said Lazovick. “Our wives knew that coming in.”
Added Aderhold: “They definitely understand the devotion to the students we work for.”
Since the two arrived in the district earlier this month, they have been working on acclimating themselves and preparing for the start of the school year. For Aderhold, this included working with the director of guidance, updating the district’s crisis plan, and not surprisingly, preparing protocols for the district’s handling of the H1N1 virus (more commonly known as the swine flu).
He says he has also met with the school doctor, that he has attended three state meetings already.
Lazovick was preparing for new teacher orientation last week, and says he is working to define the critical roles these teachers will play in the district.
But one thing both men bring to the table is their extensive dealings with state regulation of school districts. The New Brunswick school district was formerly considered to be an Abbott school district, a designation given to 31 school districts selected by the court and legislature to benefit from state financial assistance because of their location in the most economically disadvantaged municipalities.
Their experience in the special state regulations governing the New Brunswick school district, Lazovick and Aderhold believe, they can help the WW-P school district as it deals with the state, which has reformed its policies and regulations and has done away with the Abbott designations. However, at the same time, it is reforming its policies to move all districts under one system. “The state is moving toward a higher level of regulation,” says Lazovick. “It’s moving toward one unified model,” using regulations similar to those they encountered while working in New Brunswick. “We’ve been through this before.”
Added Aderhold: “We can see where the writing’s on the wall.”
Lazovick says one similarity between the school districts is that “a lot of the needs are very similar. This profession of teaching really is a profession.”
However, there are differences in culture, and he is meeting his colleagues and getting to know them so that the transition can be smooth. Another difference is the level of involvement of the district’s students and parents.
“It was a unique challenge in New Brunswick to get the kids involved,” said Lazovick. “Here I was getting E-mails before I started.” Added Aderhold: “It’s a breath of fresh air.”
One change in store specifically within the district with regard to curriculum is a crucial “rebuilding” time, during a period of restructuring the curriculum, most notably with regard to math.
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 spent considerable time redesigning the curriculum to offer a full Algebra I course for all eighth graders, based on recommendations from the math program review.
Lazovick says that the changes will be implemented this year, with seventh graders taking pre-algebra and eighth graders taking Algebra I. The process was set up before he took his new position, and he will be coming on board to monitor the progress.
Aderhold says he will spend time looking at programs already in place that fall under his responsibility. One of the upcoming things on his agenda will be the special education review the district has been planning, he said. He says he will be working on setting parameters for that review process.
But in terms of immediate goals, the two new administrators say they want to have a solid opening for school. “I want to make sure the teachers have what teachers need,” said Lazovick.
Assistant Principals Appointed. Other administrative changes to the district include new assistant principals at Grover and Village. At Grover, the new assistant principal is David Argese, who has spent the last five years as the district’s K-5 math and science curriculum supervisor. Sam Hendrickson, the former assistant principal at Grover, moves over from Grover to take the assistant principal position at Village.
Argese has an undergraduate degree from Trenton State College (the College of New Jersey) and has done graduate work at Arcadia University, Georgian Court University, and Rider University, where he recently completed his principal certification.
He started off his teaching career with two years at Notre Dame High School in Lawrence, coming to WW-P as a teacher at Community Middle School. From there, he became a teacher at Grover Middle School when it first opened in 1999. He left the district for about a year to become a K-12 math supervisor in Hillsborough before coming back as WW-P’s math and science curriculum supervisor, where he has been for the last five years. “I am very excited and honored to come back to Grover,” he said.
