Board hires new high school principal

Monks staying on until mid-September

By:Eric Schwarz
   A "steamer trunk full of experience." That’s how Daniel J. Lane, 57, of Cream Ridge, described his more than 30 years of working in education, writing, acting and other pursuits.
   The Board of Education on Tuesday hired Mr. Lane to replace Manville High School Principal Kathleen W. Monks, who is leaving for a position in Branchburg. Mr. Lane accepted the job after the board offered it to him Aug. 22. He was in the
district Thursday and Friday doing preparatory work and meeting with Ms.
Monks before he officially starts his job.
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Monks to stay on until mid-September

   Manville High School will have two principals until Sept. 18 under a motion by the Board of Education on Tuesday night.
   In addition to Daniel J. Lane, who officially started work Wednesday at $80,000 a year, the board voted to keep Kathleen Monks as principal, even though she is taking a supervisor’s position in Branchburg.
   The decision came partly to allow Ms. Monks to help the school form schedules, which board members and administrators concede are being prepared very late in the summer.
   School starts Sept. 6, and as of Tuesday night, the district had just started working on the high school’s master schedule.
   Francis X. Heelan, the superintendent, said he told Ms. Monks that she could leave the district Aug. 31, the day after Mr. Lane was to start, pending approval by the board.
   The board had approved Ms. Monks to leave Sept. 18 and on Tuesday stuck to its earlier vote by denying her the chance to leave earlier.
   Dr. Heelan said extending Ms. Monks’ stay in Manville was not "absolutely necessary."
   "But would it be helpful?" he asked. "Yes."
   Nonetheless, he said most companies "want to make a clean break" by not allowing employees, especially those in leadership positions, to continue after their successors start work.
   Board members James Kelly and Susan Asher voted to allow Ms. Monks to leave early, but they were outvoted by their colleagues.
   Board member Andrew Zangara abstained from voting and member Phil Fuccille was absent.
   Ms. Monks, taking a vacation day Wednesday, was not immediately available for comment.
   Mr. Kelly, a science educator at East Brunswick High School, was perhaps the most critical of the lack of scheduling in Manville.
   The schedule problems were compounded by the fact that the district and teachers union are at impasse in contract negotiations, and that new staff members were being hired throughout the summer.
   "After looking at last year’s master schedule, why not let her leave?" Mr. Kelly said. "I have worked in five high schools. Ninety percent of the schedule is set by the time you leave in June."
   Mr. Lane’s hiring also came in a split vote of the board.
   Ms. Asher and board President Timothy Calvo abstained from voting.
   And board member Jeanne Golden voted no. She suggested that the district use existing staff to run the high school, and suggested James Brunn, principal of Alexander Batcho Intermediate School, for the high school position.
   Dr. Brunn last week said he is happy with the ABIS position and did not apply for the high school job.
   Ms. Golden and Mr. Kelly on April 11 voted not to extend Dr. Brunn’s contract and thus to deny him tenure, though the principal was nonetheless approved by a majority of the board.

   James Brunn, principal of Alexander Batcho Intermediate School, interviewed Mr. Lane and three other candidates, along with the Board of Education and Superintendent Francis X. Heelan. Dr. Brunn called Mr. Lane "very student-oriented."
   "I think he’s a very self-effacing man, not a braggart," Dr. Brunn said. "He’s someone who can roll up his sleeves and get done what needs to be done."
   As Manville High School principal, Mr. Lane will oversee nearly 400 students in ninth through 12th grades when classes start Sept. 6.
   "I’ll talk to the entire student body on the first day," Mr. Lane said. "They’ll get to know me on a day-to-day basis. "If you demonstrate to them what you believe in, they respond in kind."
   Mr. Lane said Manville High School’s SAT scores are above average, but can
be better.
   "The board and the superintendent have a strong desire to improve the achievement levels of this high school, to make it more academic," Mr. Lane said.
   He said he appreciates the flavor of Manville and the camaraderie he feels with Dr. Heelan and Dr. Brunn, with whom he met for 90 minutes Aug. 21.
   Manville has a population similar to that of Ridgefield Park, where Mr. Lane worked as supervisor of curriculum for almost three years, until July 1999. Mr. Lane took off from work for more than a year for personal reasons.
   Mr. Lane interviewed in Manville on Aug. 21-22. Before then he had not visited the borough since the 1980s. He spent a day touring the downtown, visiting Manville Public Library and learning how Hurricane Floyd affected the borough.
   "It still has a lot of quaintness," Mr. Lane said of Manville.
   "I was pleasantly surprised by revitalization of the downtown, the Marketplace," Mr. Lane. "Adesa had replenished the community rather nicely."
   Adesa Auto Auctions is the borough’s largest employer, with about 500 workers, according to a 1999 report by Dun and Bradstreet Corp., an investor information company.
   Mr. Lane has served as a college instructor in English since 1968 and as a public school administrator throughout North Jersey and Central Jersey.
   Before his work in Ridgefield Park, Mr. Lane worked as vice principal of Asbury Park Middle School, and in supervisory jobs in Orange Township and Mahwah public schools.
   He also served as an associate professor of education at Fairleigh Dickinson University of Teaneck, an adjunct professor of English/humanities at Bergen County Community College in Paramus, and since 1985, as an adjunct professor at New Jersey City University, Jersey City.
   Mr. Lane earned a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s in reading
and English education at Jersey City State College, now NJCU, in 1966 and 1967 respectively.
   He also studied reading and English education from 1972-78 at Fordham University in New York.
   Mr. Lane will earn $80,000 a year for the job.
   Mr. Lane has written professionally about educational curricula for the Ridgefield Park district newsletter, and "short story stuff, a couple of TV treatments."
   Mr. Lane has two brothers, Nathan, a stage, television and movie actor, and
Bob, who works in the flood hazard division of Transamerican Insurance in
Hasbrouck Heights.
   Though Nathan Lane is famous, Daniel said, "I don’t want to trade on that."
   Mr. Lane said he’s proud of his brother’s success but would rather talk about
the other connections he can bring to Manville.
   He looks at Jack Welch, the chief executive of General Electric Corp., as
"my idol" for his work in "building morale" in the company.
   Mr. Lane carried with him Friday a 1998 magazine article which refers to Dr. Welch
as "America’s Number 1 manager."
   "My attitude is, everyone is important," Mr. Lane said, "from maintenance
workers to cafeteria workers to the superintendent and the board."
   He also remembers Charles Winans, a high school English and drama teacher
who was "a real artiste" at Brooklyn Prep, an all-boys Jesuit high school.
   Mr. Winans encouraged Mr. Lane to act and sing in the chorus. One of the
plays the boys performed was "The Mikado," with boys playing the female parts.
   "I’m a very private person," Mr. Lane said. "I enjoy my time with my family."
   To that end, he doesn’t plan to move from his farmhouse in Cream Ridge in
Upper Freehold Township, Monmouth County, where he lives with his wife and
five children.
   It’s a 32-mile drive one way to Manville, compared to an 80-mile trip to
Ridgefield Park.
   Mr. Lane’s wife, Marcy, is a part-time kindergarten teacher in Upper
Freehold Township.
   Their children are Kirsten Lane, 27, a ballerina and actress; Jeremy
D’Errico, 22, a computer programmer; Jon D’Errico, 20, a sophomore at West
Virginia University; Amanda D’Errico, a sophomore at Allentown High
School, and Shannon Lane, 7, a first-grader at Upper Freehold Elementary
School.