Input Sought on Somerset Hills Superintendent Search

The Somerset Hills Board of Education was holding a second meeting at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 15, to ask parents and other residents what they would like to see in a new superintendent to replace However, written and online input still is being gathered.

The meeting was scheduled to be held in the community room at 25 Olcott Ave., in Bernardsville.

School Board President Donna Coons said that residents also can fill out forms online at the Somerset Hills school website. The online is due by Dec. 7, according to the online form.

Written forms also will be available at the she said.

The K-12 Somerset Hills school district serves Bernardsville, Far Hills and Peapack-Gladstone. Students from Bedminster attend Bernards High School on a tuition-paying arrangement with that township.

Miller's announcement earlier this year that he will be retiring at the end of the 2012-13 school year prompted the district's to begin the search for a new top administrator.

The regional school board voted in October to hire the New Jersey School Boards Association to guide the search for a new schools superintendent to replace Miller. The association will be paid a $12,000 fee.

As part of the search, the school board then set two meetings, on Nov. 13 and Nov. 15, to ask for public input on what characteristics residents would like to see in the next superintendent.

Board members then expect to meet with Gwen Thornton, field service representative for the NSSBA, to talk about how the superintendent search will be conducted, Coons said last month.

In an era when it's frequent for school superintendents to hop from school system to school system, Miller has spent the past 35 years in the Somerset Hills district, where he said he began as a teacher of various technology classes at Bernards High.

He said he later became district curriculum supervisor, vice-principal and assistant superintendent before he was appointed superintendent 10 years ago.

On Wednesday night, he was lauded by the Bernardsville Borough Council and Mayor for his handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. The school district, on Miller's recommendation, already has selected the extra days that schools will be open to make up for time lost for the hurricane and its aftermath.