MILLSTONE: Board OKs contract for new schools chief

By Joanne Degnan, Staff Writer
   MILLSTONE — The contract for the new Millstone schools superintendent, Scott Feder, was unanimously approved by the Board of Education at its annual reorganization meeting May 3.
   Mr. Feder, who is expected to begin working in Millstone in early August, will be paid a base salary of $155,000 a year, School Business Administrator Bernie Biesiada said May 4.
   New state regulations cap school superintendents’ salaries using a formula based on student enrollment and Mr. Feder’s salary complies with the allowable compensation level set for a district of Millstone’s size. Joseph Passiment, the acting executive county superintendent of schools, already has approved the contract and Mr. Feder signed it several hours before the school board voted on it.
   The new superintendent of schools was introduced to the district at the board’s April 26 meeting, but his contract could not by law be voted on until the board reorganized and its incoming members were sworn in May 3.
   Mr. Feder, 42, of Plainsboro, is currently the superintendent of K-8 Rumson School District, where he is paid $148,000. Prior to joining the Rumson district in 2010, Mr. Feder was the principal of the Dutch Neck Elementary School in West Windsor for nine years, and served one year as the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District’s director of elementary education.
   Millstone’s last permanent schools superintendent, Mary Anne Donahue, earned a base salary of $161,087 when she retired last August. John Szabo has been serving as the district’s interim superintendent since her departure.
   Four recently elected school board members also took the oath of office on May 3. John Saxton, Salvatore Casale and Suzanne Marasco were sworn in to three-year terms; and Kevin McGovern took the oath for a one-year term.
   All the winners of the April 27 school election were incumbents except Ms. Marasco, who won as a write-in candidate for the seat formerly held by board member Holly Deitz, who did not seek re-election. Voters also approved the district’s $31.67 million budget (containing a flat $23.37 million tax levy) on April 27 by a 40-vote margin, the first school budget to win approval in eight years.
   At the reorganization, the board unanimously chose Mr. McGovern to serve again as its president and David DePinho to serve again as vice president. Amy Jacobson was the unanimous choice to continue serving as Millstone’s representative on the Upper Freehold Regional Board of Education.
   Mr. McGovern said the board would continue to have three separate standing committees handle operations, education and policy. Personnel matters would be handled by the board as a whole, he said.
   The operations committee will include Mr. Casale as chairman, and Mr. Saxton and Margaret Gordon. The education committee will be chaired by Denise Touhey, and include Dr. Jacobson and Patrick Whalen. The policy committee will be chaired by Mr. DePinho and include Ms. Marasco and Mr. McGovern.