Superintendent to retire in July

Bzdewka ends 36 year career

By: Stephanie Brown
   JAMESBURG —District Superintendent and Grace M. Breckwedel School Principal Shirley Bzdewka announced last week that this will be her last year with the district.
   Ms. Bzdewka will have spent over three decades working in education when she retires on June 30, 2007.
   "In the last 36 years, my priority has been the well-being of children," she said Tuesday. "That has always been my primary goal — to do the best that I can to guide the children. My philosophy is simple: Be ethical, be honest and do the best job that you can."
   Ms. Bzdewka came to Jamesburg in 1998 after serving 25 years in the South Brunswick school district. She worked as the John F. Kennedy School principal for five years, then took on the dual role of district Superintendent and GMB principal in 2003, replacing Richard Ballard. Ms. Bzdewka earns an annual salary of $115,000.
   "I could tell you that I wouldn’t have wanted to spend my last nine years anywhere else than this town," said Ms. Bzdewka. "It’s a community where everybody works for a common goal — what’s best for the children."
   Ms. Bzdewka said she and her husband have been discussing retirement for a number of years.
   While she said she is looking forward to retirement, Ms. Bzdewka said this year will be "business as usual."
   "I’m looking forward to spending time with my family and slowing my life down a little, but I’m very much looking forward to the rest of this year," she said. "I want it to be the very best year that I can make it. As I said, it’s business as usual until July 1."
   The board accepted her letter of resignation during the Sept. 21 meeting.
   "I have enjoyed working with Ms. B," said Board of Education President Don Peterson. "It was a learning process for both of us. Her effort and her desire to do good by the district were probably her greatest assets. Everything she’s done, she did so thinking it would make the district better. I will sorely miss working with her."
   The process through which the board will appoint a new superintendent/principal is a long and tedious one, said Mr. Peterson, which is why Ms. Bzdewka announced her retirement so far in advance.
   First, he said, the board will decide how to gather input from the faculty, staff and community members to determine what criteria the new superintendent will have to meet.
   "It’s not a short process," Mr. Peterson said. "You want to give everybody in the community that has a stake a chance to be heard. You want to ideally satisfy as many of their needs as possible. Then your chances of a success are increased because more stakeholders are on board with new superintendent."
   The board has two options for gathering the community’s input, Mr. Peterson said. It can appoint a committee that will do the research and make a recommendation to the board or it can enlist the New Jersey School Boards Association. The NJSBA is a federation of district boards of education that advocates, trains and provides resources for advancement of public education in the state, according to its Web site.
   Mr. Peterson said using an independent facility, like the NJSBA, instead of creating a committee from members of the community has its benefits.
   "Sometimes you can be too close to the process to get the kind of information you want," he said. "An outside source removes that internal complication."
   After the information is gathered and presented to the board, Mr. Peterson said the board will set the criteria, which could be as early as the end of October.
   Then the board will advertise for the position, probably in January he said.
   Resumes will be reviewed, applicants will be screened and, Mr. Peterson said, if all goes well, a new superintendent could be appointed in May 2007.