Fair Lawn schools chief Norcia will leave to take position in Morris County
The Fair Lawn superintendent will be stepping down after six years helping to lead one of Bergen County's largest school districts.
Nicholas Norcia announced Tuesday that he is resigning effective July 23 and will move on to become superintendent at the Morris Hills Regional District in Morris County.
“This decision was not made lightly,” Norcia said in a letter to the community. “I have spent the last six years working in Fair Lawn and I have been honored to serve as your superintendent. This was a difficult decision, but it is one that I have made after careful consideration.”
Norcia said Wednesday that it was a "privilege and honor” to serve the school district, which always “stressed a high level of education for all students.” He thanked the staff, students, parents, community and school board members for their support since he started serving in 2017.
Appointed in 2018
Norcia was appointed to the position in July 2018. Before that, he served as Fair Lawn's assistant superintendent of students service, overseeing special education programs, according to the district website.
Fair Lawn had more than 5,300 students at the end of the last school year, state data shows, putting it second only to Hackensack in Bergen County.
“Our staff has always impressed me with their unwavering dedication to our students, and we are lucky to have them making an impact on their lives daily,” Norcia said. “While this decision to resign was bittersweet as I open the next professional chapter, I am leaving with a great sense of pride of my time leading this great district.”
Norcia said he was proud of the connections the district was able to make with the community, including partnerships with Fair Lawn Rotary, the Borough Council and the Police Department. He also cited Fair Lawn's efforts to welcome Ukrainian refugees and “being there for families through good times.”
Search for new superintendent to begin
School board President Ron Barbarulo said Norcia's departure is a “tremendous loss."
“I’ve known Nick since he came to our district as special education assistant superintendent,” Barbarulo said. “This was his first job as a superintendent, and I think he’s grown tremendously in the job and has done an outstanding job of leading our district.”
Barbarulo said the board will contact search firms and request proposals as soon as possible to begin looking for a new superintendent. He hopes to start the search in May and believes the district will probably need to put an interim superintendent in place for the beginning of the next school year, he said.
Morris Hills-bound
The Morris Hills Regional District includes two high schools, Morris Hills and Morris Knolls, and serves the towns of Denville, Wharton, Rockaway Township and Rockaway Borough. The district has almost 2,600 students, according to state data.
Stephanie Noda is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: noda@northjersey.com
Twitter: @snoda11
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Fair Lawn NJ school superintendent Norcia leaves for Morris Hills
