By Eileen Oldfield Staff Writer
The Board of Education unanimously appointed Aiman Mahmoud, of Jackson, as district business administrator/board secretary, Monday.
”The position of business administrator and board secretary is pivotal to the success of any school district,” said Mr. Mahmoud at the meeting. “It is truly an honor to have been selected to serve the children in this school district.”
Mr. Mahmoud, currently the business administrator/board secretary for the Asbury Park School District at an annual salary of $135,000, will join the Hillsborough School District on Jan. 20, or sooner if released from his contract in Asbury Park. His salary will be $142,000.
Mr. Mahmoud has been at the Asbury Park district for about two and a half years. The five-school, 3,500-pupil Asbury Park district has a school budget of $72 million.
In contrast, Hillsborough has about 7,700 students in the district’s nine schools, and a budget of $100.6 million.
Asbury Park is one of the so-called “Abbott districts,” lower income districts which successfully sued the state over school funding.
The district currently receives nearly 81 percent of its funding $57 million this year from the state.
Per pupil spending tops $18,000 per year, but during Mr. Mahmoud’s tenure, the district has cut per-pupil expenses by $1,549.
Hillsborough spends $11,279 per student.
”Mr. Mahmoud possesses a strong technical knowledge of school business administration,” said Hillsborough Superintendent Edward Forsthoffer. “I also found him to be very trustworthy and creative. Finally, his personality lends itself to working as a team and collaboratively within the district.”
Although the Asbury Park district has drawn the attention of the state Department of Education, which will be naming a special monitor to oversee finances in the district, Mr. Mahmoud’s work was praised by department officials.
”Asbury Park’s been a troubled district for some time,” Rich Vespucci, Department of Education spokesman, said. “The monitor may be more to control the actions of the board. Overall, the keeping of records is being done properly.”
Dr. Forsthoffer said the Board of Education and administration knew about the problems in Asbury Park prior to selecting Mr. Mahmoud for the position in Hillsborough.
”We knew about it, but we knew the monitor was there for lots of reasons,” said Dr. Forsthoffer. “When we spoke to the (administration) people in Asbury Park, they were sad about him (Mr. Mahmoud) leaving. He’s been the stabilizing force in the district since he’s been there.”
Mr. Mahmoud has also worked as director of operations in Community School District 31 in Staten Island, N.Y., and as the finance director for the New York City Leadership Academy.
Mr. Mahmoud’s appointment follows a three-month search after former Business Administrator Thomas Venanzi resigned in August.
According to Dr. Forsthoffer, the administration interviewed six candidates from the applicant pool. Board President Neil Hudes interviewed the two leading candidates to determine a final candidate. Dr. Forsthoffer and Scott Rocco, director of human resources, visited Asbury Park and conducted a background check before the entire board interviewed Mr. Mahmoud.
