Hazlet administrator will replace Klavon
Quinn to jump to Matawan-Aberdeen district in August
Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School Dis-trict officials chose to stick close to home in their choice for a new school superintendent.
The school board voted last week to appoint Matawan resident Bruce Quinn, who is currently serving as an assistant superintendent of schools in the neighboring Hazlet school system.
According to school officials, Quinn will take over the helm of the school district Aug. 27, with Joel Glastein, assistant superintendent acting as interim superintendent after current schools chief Michael Klavon leaves the district for his new post in the state Department of Education at the end of the month.
"We are really excited about this. [Quinn] has documented leadership ability. He lives in town, he knows our situation, and he is qualified in every way," said school board President Gerald Donaghue of the decision to appoint Quinn.
"He is a hard worker, and I’m confident that he will be able to help us with some of the important issues facing us since he has expertise in those areas," added Donaghue, citing the September construction referendum and the fallout from this year’s school budget, which failed at the polls by a large margin.
"Working in my hometown will give me an opportunity to give back to a community that I dearly love," Quinn said Tuesday in a telephone interview.
"I’m looking at this as not only an employment opportunity but an opportunity for public service," he added.
Quinn has held his current post in Hazlet since September, after holding the post of business administrator and board secretary since September 1998.
Before Hazlet, Quinn spent several years in the Red Bank school system as the assistant superintendent for business, after holding the post of acting superintendent of schools in Hunterdon County. His tenure in Red Bank included one year as acting superintendent, while the district searched for a permanent replacement for their schools chief.
Prior to that, Quinn worked in Matawan-Aberdeen for 11 years, leaving his post as the assistant superintendent for personnel and business in 1990.
Quinn said that he feels the skills he will bring to the post will be a good match for the needs of the school district.
"First and foremost, I think we need to improve relations with the community," he said. "We are also going to need to deal with fallout from the budget cuts and the impact on student programs."
"At the same time, we also need to improve educational instruction with the goal toward bringing up state test scores," added Quinn.
In addition to test scores and a focus on curriculum, Quinn said he is ready to take on the district’s construction referendum, which is slated for September.
"I’m planning to spend a lot of time informing the public and getting them to understand the need for this project and the reasons behind it," he said.
After the referendum, Quinn said that he would like to see the district take an active role in working to change state funding formulas that some feel discriminate against middle income school districts in order to bring tax relief to communities such as Matawan and Aberdeen, while allowing them to maintain the quality of their schools.
"We need to see some kind of revision in the funding formulas because it is becoming very difficult to go out and ask the voters to approve a major tax increase year after year," said Quinn.