NJASA Names Three Regional Superintendents of the Year

On behalf of NJASA, I am pleased to announce the three regional 2010 Superintendents of the Year. They are:

· Southern Regional winner – Raymond J. Brosel, Jr., Superintendent, Voorhees School District;
· Central Regional winner – Mark J. Finkelstein, Superintendent, Middlesex Regional Educational Services Commission; and
· Northern Regional winner – Robert K. Gratz, Superintendent, Hackettstown Public Schools.

All three regional superintendents are remarkable educational leaders with vision, imagination, and compassion for the students they serve. Their accomplishments exemplify what every chief education officer should achieve.

Southern Regional winner Brosel is highly respected in both the state and national educational communities, as well as the New Jersey Legislature. An effective spokesperson with 36 years experience as a school administrator, he assumed the helm of the Voorhees School District in 1986. Prior to serving as the 2004-2005 NJASA President, he held every leadership position of NJASA and chaired the NJASA Legislative Committee for a decade.

Central Regional winner Finkelstein is a dedicated, hard-working professional who continually strives to improve the quality of education for all students. He served as a school board member for the New Brunswick Board of Education for 17 years and was elected President of the statewide New Jersey School Boards Association (NJSBA) in 1994. Finkelstein continued his relentless efforts by serving on the NJASA Executive Committee for several years before becoming the Association’s Treasurer, Secretary, President-Elect, and 2005-2006 President.

Northern Regional winner Gratz, the Warren County Representative to the NJASA Legislative Committee, began his professional career as a Social Studies teacher in the North Hunterdon-Voorhees Regional School District, in 1975. Prior to his present Hackettstown superintendency, he served as superintendent of the Belvidere School District and the Newton Public Schools.

This is the second year of NJASA’s new selection process to choose three regional - Southern, Central and Northern - Superintendents of the Year winners.

The next step in the process for the three regional winners will be the selection of a New Jersey Superintendent of the Year to be the state candidate to participate in the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) National Superintendent of the Year Award program. A committee of NJASA Past Presidents and prior New Jersey Superintendents of the Year will select the 2010 New Jersey Superintendent of the Year, who will be announced in October.

The selection qualifications for the State and National Superintendents of the Year include: meeting the needs of their students, demonstrated communication strength, a commitment to professional development and growth, and significant community involvement. Additionally, at the state and regional levels, NJASA has a fifth qualification that addresses service to the Association and its members.

AASA will announce the National Superintendent of the Year at its Annual Conference on Education in February 2010. The recipient of this prestigious honor will receive a $10,000 college scholarship for a student at the high school where the superintendent graduated.

Congratulations and best wishes to the 2010 New Jersey Regional Superintendents of the Year!