MINE HILL TOWNSHIP BOARD OF EDUCATION CANFIELD AVENUE SCHOOL 42 Canfield Avenue MINE HILL, NEW JERSEY 07803-3085

A Recognized School of Excellence Joanne Calabro, Ed.D Interim Superintendent Michael J. Donow, RSBA Interim Business Administrator

August 22, 2013 Dear Parents, Teachers, Staff and Town Residents, I hope you are enjoying your summer. As our school year came to an end, I know that everyone was unsettled and concerned by all the administrative changes. I wanted to take this opportunity to reassure you that change can be a good thing. Change gives us the opportunity to reevaluate where we are and what we need to continue to have Canfield Avenue School stand as a lighthouse district, lighting the way towards academic excellence. As of July 1st, we were joined by Dr. Joanne Calabro, our new interim superintendent. Some of you had the opportunity to meet Dr. Calabro at our June board meeting but please feel free to stop by her office anytime to say hello. Dr. Calabros first challenge, before she even began her duties, was to hire a new assistant to the superintendent. After 12 years at CAS, Julia Coyne has departed for a new opportunity. We wish her all the best in the future. Dr. Calabro promoted our school secretary, Angela Sabatino to this position. Angela has transitioned seamlessly and we wish her the best in her new position. Dr. Calabro was successful in hiring an experienced school secretary, Lori Bullock who looks forward to greeting you each and every day. In addition, Dr. Calabro has also hired a part time Spanish teacher, Rosamaria Pontoriero, as well as lunchroom and instructional aides. The most important position to fill in our school is the position of school principal. Dr. Calabro wanted a new approach to filling this position, especially as she herself was new to our community. She developed a principal search committee made up of two personnel committee board members, two teachers, two staff members, and two parents (one choice parent and one Mine Hill parent). She and I were also committee members. She felt that this way the CAS community was represented and involved in picking our new school leader. I want everyone to understand the process and feel confident that the best, most qualified individual was hired. This group was charged with finding someone whose educational knowledge was as vast as his heart for our children and community was. This process took several months and we are confident and excited by our final candidate. This individual's name is Adam Zygmunt. Mr. Zygmunt comes to us from Rockaway Township and is currently the vice principal in charge of 7th and 8th grade at Copeland Middle School. His district participated in the TEACH NJ pilot. His district was the only district in the state that participated in both the teacher and principal pilot. Mr. Zygmunt is certified in the Danielson model through Teachscape and is extremely knowledgeable about the Achieve NJ requirements as well as SGO's (Student Growth Objectives), Common Core Standards and in PARCC testing requirements. All these are new initiatives are being required to evaluate our teachers and students by the State of New Jersey, and are far reaching and detailed programs. Mr. Zygmunt has a BA in Biology and was on the Deans List all four of his college years. He has an MS in Administration and Supervision. He is the co-author of three science research articles and he was Teacher of the Year in 2009-2010. Additionally, he is an online graduate professor of education for Concordia University.

The board of education conducted two extensive principal searches. The first round received 26 applicants. Dr. Calabro did not select the candidates to be interviewed. The personnel committee of the board made that determination. After the board selected candidates to be interviewed, Dr.Calabro informed the committee they selected one of her relatives. I decided that Dr. Calabro was not to reveal how this relative was related to her. The reason for this decision was so that the interviewing committee knew there was someone related to Dr.Calabro but would not be influenced by knowing who the person was; nor would the candidate be unfairly dismissed because of the relationship. Six candidates were selected to be interviewed. Out of the six candidates, the interviewing committee selected two to bring back for a second round of interviews. At the same time it was decided to conduct a second more extensive search for candidates which yielded another 42 applications. From this group, three names were selected by the personnel committee to be interviewed should the interviewing committee not feel strongly about the two candidates at the end of the second round of interviews. Prior to the second interviews starting, Dr. Calabro informed the committee that one of the two finalists was her son-in-law. Dr.Calabro recused herself from the second interviews. During the interview, the interviewing committee discussed the pros and cons of having this person as principal and how this relationship would work and how all this would affect our community and staff. After the interviews concluded, the committee had a lengthy discussion about both individuals and felt strongly no further interviews were necessary with these individuals or the other three we had as back up. It was a unanimous decision that Adam Zygmunt, who is Dr. Calabro's son-in-law, was definitely the man to lead Canfield Avenue School into the future. The board members also discussed some safeguards we would put in place to see that everyone could be comfortable in this situation. They included that we would bring an outside experienced superintendent to observe and evaluate Mr. Zygmunt. Mr. Zygmunt would not be given tenure under Dr. Calabro (he would need two more years after she has left to get tenure), and should there develop a conflict of interest that cannot be resolved, Dr. Calabro has offered to resign as a solution. As Dr. Calabro is an interim superintendent, her contract is for one year and there is a thirty day out clause in her contract. She can be renewed for a second year if the board so wishes. We discussed with the county superintendent the possibility of hiring Mr. Zygmunt prior to interviewing him to ensure that this was legal and that he would meet the requirement for the exception to our Nepotism policy, which he did. We confirmed this again prior to him accepting the position. We needed to get written approval from the county superintendent of schools and have received the approval. Mr. Zygmunt is excited and looks forward to being a part of our community and cannot wait to start making relationships with everyone. With this in mind, I would like to invite you to our special board meeting, next Tuesday, August 27th at 7:00pm. After the short meeting, we will be hosting a meet and greet. PLEASE feel free to attend with your children so that they too can get join in our excitement. I hope this letter, as well as the meet and greet, will put your fears to rest and you can be as excited as we are for the year to begin. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at walilko@canfieldsch.org. Enjoy these last days of summer and see you all soon! ************************************************ Mary Jo Walilko Mine Hill Township Board of Education mailto:walilko@canfieldsch.org