North Haledon chief of schools retiring. District will soon name a successor
NORTH HALEDON — Nicholas Coffaro, who has been at the helm of the K-8 district as schools superintendent for almost nine years, will retire at the end of June.
The Board of Education, meanwhile, is expected to name his successor in the coming weeks.
Coffaro, 58, was hired in July 2014 to take over for interim schools Superintendent John Petrelli. At the time, the district was in a bad place financially — staggering from a budget deficit of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
As a result, the new leader sometimes found himself in an unpopular spot. “I had to make difficult decisions, early in my start here, which a lot of people frowned on,” he said in a recent interview.
The situation was so dire that, in November 2015, trustees announced there may be need for oversight by a state monitor.
In the end, it was not necessary. The school board made cuts to the district’s spending plan and thought of creative ways to generate capital. In March 2016, for example, trustees approved a sale-leaseback program that used textbooks as collateral to achieve $250,000 in revenue.
That he was able to help the district dig out of such a hole is something to be proud of, Coffaro said.
“You have to embrace the challenges,” he said.
“There were definitely a lot of obstacles to overcome,” he added, “but we worked together, and we’re in a great place right now.”
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Coffaro began his career as a teacher of health and physical education for the Morris Plains K-8 district in September 1991. He arrived in North Haledon after serving as coordinator of a special needs program in Pequannock Township, and as school administrator in Cranford and Lyndhurst.
Coffaro, whose wife, Gina, is the schools superintendent of the Oakland K-8 district, said he is eager to spend more time with his family. The couple have triplets, who will soon graduate from Ramapo High School in Franklin Lakes.
He is also an adjunct professor of education at Bergen Community College, and he said he may look to expand his role at the Paramus campus.
Coffaro receives an annual salary of $175,134, according to pension records.
“The board wants to thank Mr. Coffaro for his nine years of dedicated service,” said Lucy DeNova, the school board president. “We wish him success in his next chapter.”
DeNova said the school board was finishing contract negotiations with Coffaro’s successor, who was chosen after multiple rounds of interviews from a pool of 31 candidates.
Philip DeVencentis 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: devencentis@northjersey.com
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: North Haledon NJ schools chief retiring, district announces
