Public invited to meet two N.B. supt. finalists
Burlington supt., Rimmer make the final cut
By marilyn duff
Staff Writer
The North Brunswick Board of Education has narrowed its superintendent search to two finalists including high school Principal Dr. Robert Rimmer.
Residents will get a chance to meet and talk with the two finalists Monday and Wednesday.
The second finalist is Dr. Wendy Schadt, superintendent of the Pemberton Township School District in Burlington County.
Schadt will meet with residents at 7 p.m. Monday at Linwood Middle School on Linwood Place, and Rimmer will meet with residents at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the same location.
The two sessions will be facilitated by Sampson Brown, director of field services for the New Jersey School Boards Association, which has been assisting the board with the search.
The board has a regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday at Livingston Park School.
The board is interested in knowing what residents feel are the strengths and weaknesses of the finalists, based on criteria established at the beginning of the search process.
The two sessions will last about an hour each, according to Acting Superintendent Robert Turco.
Residents will be able to ask questions, Turco said, and will be provided feedback forms to be collected by Brown and taken into consideration by the board before it makes a final decision.
After next week’s sessions, "the board will decide on a time when we will name the new superintendent," Vice President Rita Goldstein said Wednesday. "We will have a better idea of the time frame of that decision during our regular meeting on Tuesday."
The two superintendent finalists will also tour the district buildings next week and meet with members of the North Brunswick Township Education Association and the North Brunswick Administrators Council, Goldstein said. Rimmer, of course, already has firsthand knowledge of the district.
Meanwhile, Turco said Wednesday the state School Ethics Commission ruled that board member Craig Rosevear can continue to participate in the superintendent selection process.
Township resident JoAnn Orbin filed a complaint Nov. 15 challenging Rosevear’s participation because his wife, Dr. Carol Rosevear, is a district principal and the new superintendent will be her boss.
The Ethics Commission would not confirm the decision Wednesday because it had not been signed by the deputy attorney general and did not return calls for expected confirmation Thursday.
Schadt has a doctorate of education from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and a master’s degree in educational administration and a bachelor’s degree in health and physical education from Trenton State College (now the College of New Jersey) in Ewing.
She has worked in the Pemberton Township School District since 1977, first as a teacher and as schools superintendent since 1997.
The 5,700-student, preschool-12th grade urban special needs district is the largest in Burlington County with 11 schools including a high school, middle school and nine elementary schools.
Before becoming superintendent, Schadt served as principal for eight years at the Helen A. Fort Middle School in Pemberton, and before that as assistant principal of Pemberton High School, which serves 1,500 students.
A former health and physical education teacher, Schadt coached varsity girls’ field hockey and basketball, varsity track and field, and junior varsity girls’ softball.
Rimmer has been principal of North Brunswick Township High School since July 1995, where, according to his résumé, he initiated 35 new courses and coordinated the school’s successful application for the prestigious Blue Ribbon School of Excellence award.
Prior to working in North Brunswick, Rimmer was a student assistance coordinator in Millburn Township. He taught high school English in West Milford and was a supervisor of language arts there.
He has a doctorate in education administration and supervision from Rutgers University in New Brunswick; master’s degrees in educational administration and supervision, and student personnel services from William Paterson College in Wayne; and a bachelor’s degree in English from LeMoyne College in Syracuse, N.Y.
There was an effort to nominate Rimmer for the position in November, with the board splitting 5-4 to table the motion. Board President Connie Corbin, Vice President Rita Goldstein, Robert Haws, who made the motion, and Barbara Snepar supported Rimmer’s nomination.
The other five board members preferred to continue the search and accused the four-member minority of compromising the integrity of the search by supporting the Nov. 14 nomination.
A month later, at the Dec. 12 meeting, a large crowd of former board members, as well as high students and residents, criticized the board for the direction of the search, and many expressed support for Rimmer.
The board began the search after former Superintendent Dr. Alan Elko resigned at the end of the last school year to take another position.
Turco, a former assistant superintendent who stepped in as acting superintendent, was scheduled to retire Jan. 1, but agreed to stay on until the end of the month. He said Wednesday that he is looking forward to the next phase of his life.
"I had never expected this to go on so long," he said, but noted that such searches "seem to be taking longer now."