'Getting harder and harder': Why are Monmouth County school superintendents quitting?

Five Monmouth County school superintendents have announced plans to leave their jobs in the past four months, including the leaders of the county’s two largest districts.

Only one of the departing administrators, Eric Hibbs of Marlboro schools, left to take a similar position within the state. The others either went outside New Jersey or took a different type of job.

“It is a hard job, and that is part of it. It is getting harder and harder and harder to do the job,” said James Stefankiewicz, who left the superintendent post at Ocean Township Schools last month after nine years for a teaching position at St. Peter’s University. “The last couple of years with COVID was crazy. There are so many things. The community in Ocean has been great, but there are a lot of things.”

The departures appear to be part of a national trend, according to The Hechinger Institute, a nonprofit education research outlet at Columbia University. They revealed in a 2022 report that about 25% of top school administrators had left their jobs during the previous year, up from a usual turnover rate of 10% to 15%.

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Research suggests that superintendents have become overwhelmed with issues related to COVID-19, a more vocal and outspoken parental base and more community efforts to influence curriculum.

'I don't want to play anymore'

“Superintendents stood by their districts when they thought this would be a couple of months,” Molly Schwarzhoff, executive vice president for Ray and Associates, a superintendent recruiting firm, said in the Hechinger report. “It’s a whole different ball game now. Once we saw what we were up against … a lot of people just said, ‘I don’t want to play anymore.’”

A 2023 report in Phi Delta Kappan, an education newsletter, found that 63% of superintendents surveyed “have grown worried about their personal mental health and well-being” due to work-related stress and abuse.

“Things are getting more difficult, clearly,” said Richard Bozza, executive director of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators. “COVID and now that we are back, figuring out what is taught in health curriculum and the impact of social media made that much more difficult.”

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Locally, in addition to Stefankiewicz and Hibbs, who is now superintendent in Washington Township in Gloucester County, the exiting administrators include Charles Sampson of the Freehold Regional High School District, the largest in the county; Mary Ellen Walker of Middletown schools, the second largest; and Freehold Borough Superintendent Joseph Howe, who has been in the post for less than two years.

Sampson, who was the highest-paid Shore superintendent with a $260,000 salary, is leaving in November for a similar post in Mamaroneck, New York, where he will earn $310,000 annually under a new three-year deal.

Walker, who has been put on paid leave through the end of 2023, announced her departure last month, but offered no plans for her next position.

Sampson and Walker did not respond to requests for comment. Hibbs declined to comment when reached.

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Middletown Board of Education President Frank Capone said Walker was granted paid leave so that she could help with the transition to the next superintendent.

“We are grateful for Mrs. Walker's leadership during an extraordinarily difficult time” Capone said via email. “The board and senior leadership are hyper-focused on not only ensuring continuity but continuing to move the district forward. … Mrs. Walker will continue through Dec. 31st to help provide transitional support for the district.”

Middletown appointed Assistant Superintendent Jessica Alfone as acting superintendent as of July 1 to serve at least through the end of 2023.

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Walker, who has worked in the district for 25 years, became superintendent in 2020 after the departure of former superintendent William George, who had served for three previous years.

Walker took over the top administrative role just as the COVID-19 pandemic was forcing districts to provide remote instruction in 2020 and deal with masking issues. More recently, Middletown has become one of three local districts instituting controversial policies requiring that parents be notified if students seek to change their gender identity.

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Things beyond your own school

Howe, who left Freehold Borough for an administrative post at the Rutgers University Graduate School of Education, said the public school post has become more complicated.

“You have to have awareness about what is going on in a bigger context than just your own school district,” said Howe. “There is a lot of interaction with departments we never interacted with before, different state agencies in terms of health and keeping our students safe, which is always a priority.”

Although he had only good views of his former district and offered praise for the work environment and staff, Howe said more issues were in the daily mix than in the past.

“There is always something different and something new that is of concern,” he said, noting COVID-19, expanded state mandated lessons and even the recent wave of smoky days from the Canadian wildfires. “We had to worry about the air quality outside when school ended.”

Joe Strupp is an award-winning journalist with 30 years’ experience who covers education and several local communities for APP.com and the Asbury Park Press. He is also the author of three books, including Killing Journalism on the state of the news media, and an adjunct media professor at Rutgers University and Fairleigh Dickinson University. Reach him at jstrupp@gannettnj.com and at 732-413-3840. Follow him on Twitter at @joestrupp

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Monmouth school superintendents quit jobs, leave the state