PLUMSTED — Philip J. Meara, the assistant superintendent in the Plumsted school district, has been named superintendent of the Freehold Borough School District. The announcement was made Monday night by Freehold Borough school board member Lynne Coulson.
"It is with much pleasure that the board announces the appointment of Philip J. Meara to serve as the superintendent of schools effective July 1. Mr. Meara comes to us with extensive experience in the public education field, having spent the past 30 years as a teacher, principal, director of curriculum and instruction and assistant superintendent in the Plumsted Township School District," she said.
More than 30 inquiries and at least 20 completed applications and résumés were submitted for the position. The pool of candidates was then forwarded to the board for review and interviews.
"As a result of this extremely thorough process, there were many qualified candidates, but Mr. Meara was the candidate that stood above the others. Mr. Meara comes to us with an extensive list of accomplishments and his reputation as an administrator is flawless. This became even more evident when the board conducted the site visitation and reference checks within the past few weeks. It was not uncommon to hear that Mr. Meara is ‘totally committed to the children’ or that ‘he works very well with staff and parents,’ two very important aspects on the list of criteria established by our school community. Likewise, he is known as a self-starter, creative thinker and an all-around nice person," Coulson said.