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New schools chief says he’ll be ‘very visible’

Thomas Butler: ‘I’m not here as an agent of change. At the same time, if issues come up, I’ll deal with them’

By John Tredrea, Staff Writer
   He knew on his first day at work that education was the right field for him. That was in September 1962.
   That he try education in the first place actually was a friend’s idea, not his own.
   Thomas Butler’s first teaching job was at St. Mary’s High School in Jersey City.
   ”It’s near the Holland Tunnel,” he recalled in his office on South Main Street in Pennington one afternoon last week. “I taught English and social studies. From the minute I met the first class I loved it. I knew this was for me.”
   Dr. Butler, who took over as Hopewell Valley’s interim superintendent of schools Sept. 1, originally planned for a business career, probably in insurance, after his discharge from the U.S. Army. He was taking graduate-level business courses and working in retail in Newark — he sold shoes for a while — when an associate suggested he try teaching instead.
   Dr. Butler’s receptive ear helped move him to several other career changes as well, all within education. After he’d been at St. Mary’s awhile, someone suggested that he “go west,” as Dr. Butler put it last week.
   ”So I did,” he said. “I went to Plainfield. That felt pretty far west of Jersey City back then.”
   He taught junior high school in Plainfield for four years. During that time, someone suggested he consider school administration.
   ”They convinced me,” Dr. Butler said, and he became an elementary school principal in Middlesex. And he has been in school administration ever since, holding several superintendent and interim superintendent positions. He comes to Hopewell Valley from Delaware Valley Regional Schools, a high school district in Hunterdon County. He has led school districts in Haworth and Chester Township. He also has served in interim posts in Montgomery, West Windsor-Plainsboro and Lawrence school systems.
   Even a short conversation with him makes it easy to see why someone would recommend administration to him. For one thing, his conversation is very well organized. The things he says almost could have been written and revised. But he comes across as friendly and calm even as he is succinct, well-informed and balanced. He looks at you when he listens to you and when he talks to you. There is only attention involved in the look. No pressure. When he does speak, a lot of ground seems to be covered in not very much time, but still no haste seems involved.
   ”My role as interim superintendent is moving forward with the educational plan already in place,” he said. “I’m not here as an agent of change. At the same time, if issues come up, I’ll deal with them.”
   He said he plans to make himself “very visible” by attending many school and community events. “My motto in that regard will be ‘you’ll never know I don’t live in Hopewell Valley.’ I’ll be around that much,” he promised.
   Dr. Butler grew up in Bayonne and Jersey City, where he attended Snyder High School. He and his wife Donna, who currently works as a substitute teacher in Bridgewater, have lived in Martinsville for 34 years. Both have been volunteer emergency medical technicians (EMTs) there since shortly after moving to town. Dr. Butler has trained EMTs as well.
   ”Donna and I are not riding actively with the squad anymore,” he said. “We retired from that not long ago. We work on the administrative end now.”
   ”Martinsville is a small town and the area was still quite rural when we moved there,” he said. “There was no real downtown or town center. Donna and I joined the squad as a way to get involved in the community.”
   They rode on many hundreds of rewarding and challenging ambulance runs. “We delivered a baby once,” he said. “Donna and I were both on the crew that made that run. It was a girl. We still see her and her family around town. My wife has seen her as a student in Bridgewater.”
   Dr. Butler’s career in education is just four years short of spanning a half-century. When you ask him what are the main things he’s learned, his background in business reveals itself.
   ”This is a people business,” he said. “Communication skills are critical. If you want people to be successful, communication is the real key.”
   He paused and added: “My other corollary sounds like a bit of cliché, I know, but it really is true. It’s that ‘the customer is always right.’ In this situation, the customers are the students, parents, staff and taxpayers. My job involves listening to their concerns and issues and explaining to them, as completely and cogently I can, why I make the decisions I make.”