WEST WINDSOR-PLAINSBORO: Dutch Neck principal gets new post

By Kristine Snodgrass, Staff Writer
   As part of a restructuring of administration at the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District, the principal of Dutch Neck Elementary will move to a new position as supervisor of elementary education.
   The Board of Education appointed Scott Feder, who has served as principal at the school since 2000, to the position at its meeting Tuesday night.
   ”In this role, Scott Feder will work to align and articulate the K-5 instructional program,” superintendent Victoria Kniewel said in a statement. “In addition, he will help to build a collaborative professional development model that is structured, sustainable and targeted; such a role will help the district meet its strategic goals and create a new sense of greater achievement for all students with a stronger, more defined program in the elementary grades.”
   Mr. Feder will continue to serve as principal of Dutch Neck until a replacement can be found. In this period, he will begin to get his feet wet in the new job, he said.
   Though it will be “definitely difficult” to leave the school, its teachers and families, he said he is eager to start the new “collaborative” position. He will work as a supervisor for all six elementary schools in the district, he said.
   ”The excitement will be able to work at a different level with all the other teachers and administrators,” he said. “That’s going to be an amazing opportunity.”
   With the recent retirement of a district supervisor, the district had an opportunity to restructure without increasing the number of administrators.
   ”The district felt this was an opportunity to look at how we administrate,” Mr. Feder said.
   He will work with teachers and administrators in all six schools to enhance the elementary program, he said.
   Out of the “hundred” different goals he has in his new position, Mr. Feder said he would like to increase communication among teachers so that, for example, second grade teachers will share their curriculum with each other, as well as the immediate upper and lower grades.
   He also has the goal of working on professional development and induction programs for new teachers, he said, focusing on “how to retain them and how to make them great.”