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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 Michael J. Donow, RSBA
Interim Superintendent Interim Business Administrato
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 continueto 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 tosay hello. Dr.
Calabro’s 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 bestin 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 andinstructional
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, andtwo parents (one
choice parent and one Mine Hill parent). She and I were also
committee members. She fel
that this way the CAS community was represented and involved in
picking our new school leader. I waneveryone 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 finacandidate.
This individual's name is Adam Zygmunt. Mr. Zygmunt comes to us
from Rockaway Township and iscurrently the vice principal in charge
of 7
th and 8
th 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 extremelyknowledgeable about the
Achieve NJ requirements as well as SGO's (Student Growth
Objectives), CommonCore 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 theYear in
2009-2010. Additionally, he is an online graduate professor of
education for Concordia University.
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The board of education conducted two extensive principal
searches. The first round received 26 applicants. DrCalabro 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 theyselected 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 unfairlydismissed 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 iwas decided to
conduct a second more extensive search for candidates which yielded
another 42applications. 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 workand how all this
would affect our community and staff.
After the interviews concluded, the committee had a lengthy
discussion about both individuals and felt stronglyno further
interviews were necessary with these individuals or the other three
we had as back up. It was aunanimous 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 needtwo 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 approva
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 makingrelationships 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 fee
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 [email protected].
Enjoy these last days of summer and see you all soon!
************************************************
Mary Jo WalilkoMine Hill Township Board of Education
mailto:[email protected]
