At the last meeting of the Roseland Board of Education, on Thursday, July 14, the Board accepted the resignation of recently-hired Superintendent Dr. Michael Ryan. For those parents and community members who were unable to attend the meeting, I, Anna Gordon, would like to share, on behalf of the Board, some of the circumstances that brought us to this point.
The Board responded to requests for greater inclusion by employing a superintendent search process that reflected the community's feedback. On April 4th, the Board emailed Noecker parents to encourage them to complete a survey to identify important qualities in our next superintendent. Also, the Board asked for parents to participate in the interviewing process. Teachers were also offered to provide their names if they were interested in participating in the interviewing process. The willingness of parents and teachers to volunteer their time to participate in the interviewing process was overwhelming, and, during the April 28th meeting, two teacher and two parent representatives were randomly selected to serve on the interviewing committee.
In an effort to select the best superintendent candidate as soon as possible, the Board hired the New Jersey School Board Association to assist in generating a pool of appropriate candidates and the interviewing process moved swiftly. During a fifteen-day period in May and June, a committee comprised of Board members, parents, teachers, and administrators, reviewed applications and participated in two rounds of interviews. Guided by the input from the interviewing committee, the Board offered the position of Superintendent to Dr. Michael Ryan.
To ensure that Dr. Ryan could begin serving as Superintendent in time for the upcoming school year, the Board convened a special meeting during the afternoon of June 28th at a time when three Board members, the minimum number of members needed for the Board to hire a superintendent, were available. Two Board members who had prior commitments were unable to attend the special meeting. At the special meeting, The Board approved the hire of Dr. Ryan and an article in The Progress published on June 30th announced the hire.
Dr. Ryan requested that I hold off on emailing the Noecker parents about his hire until he was able to provide a firm start date. I honored that request. Unfortunately, and to my shock and disappointment, as well as that of the Board, on July 8th, before a firm start date was established, Dr. Ryan advised the Board of his intention to resign as superintendent, citing unforeseen personal circumstances. Having not advised the parents via email that Dr. Ryan had been hired, the Board did not send an email announcing his resignation; rather, Dr. Ryan's resignation was discussed at the most recent Board meeting on Thursday, July 14th.
The Board has benefited greatly from the input of the community and the superintendent search process has been received positively. Indeed, The Progress lauded the Board for embracing inclusion in the superintendent search process in a May 19th editorial. The decision to hire Dr. Ryan was met with enthusiasm, particularly by the members of the interviewing committee. While Dr. Ryan's resignation comes as a disappointment to the Board, we are confident that by using the input from so many people representing various segments of the Noecker community as our guiding principles, we will find the right candidate for Superintendent as soon as possible.
We will continue to update the community regarding the developments in the superintendent search as the information becomes available. We thank the Noecker community for its patience and support throughout this process.
Respectfully,
Anna Gordon, President
Neal Goldstein, Vice President
Julie DiGiacomo, Member
Scott Gorman, Member
Jean Perrotti, Member
Anna Gordon
RoselandBoard of Education