Administrative changes at Middletown district
Middletown South principal retires and interim is named
BY JAMIE ROMM Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — A retirement and several new hires and promotions were announced at the Board of Education's Dec. 17 voting meeting.

Mark Kelly, an employee of the district over the past 30 years and the current principal of Middletown High School South, will retire effective Jan. 1. His retirement is one of a slew of changes the district will be seeing in the new year.

Superintendent Karen Bilbao took the time at the meeting to say some words about the departing principal.

"Mr. Kelly has provided a great service to the Middletown district as our high school principal bringing stability and strong leadership to the building at a time when it was greatly needed," Bilbao said. "Earlier in Mr. Kelly's career, he served the district as a guidance counselor at Thorne [Middle School] and at Thompson [Middle School] and was an assistant principal at Thompson as well."

According to Bilbao, he went on to High School South as an assistant principal before becoming principal in 2003.

"Mr. Kelly will be greatly missed at High School South by staff and students, and we wish him the very best in his retirement," Bilbao said.

She said that Kelly has been a great principal over the past five years.

"Mr. Kelly was just the type of leader High School South needed when he took the helm," Bilbao wrote in her superintendent's update for December. "His calm, but strong and consistent style was appreciated by staff and students alike, and he brought stability to the building that has continued to thrive. His presence at South will surely be missed."

Taking Kelly's place on an interim basis from Jan. 5 through June 30 will be George Hart.

Hart, who will be paid a stipend of $500 per day, is the current director of student advancement at St. John Vianney High School in Holmdel and is a former elementary school principal for the Matawan-Aberdeen School District.

Bilbao said that at this time of year it is difficult to find an adequate applicant pool for an administrative position, as the reason why an interim principal was named.

"We had two internal candidates within the school, but at that point I did not find it appropriate to choose one or the other to be interim or acting principal," Bilbao said. "Making that decision of one or the other gave one an unfair advantage, and I did not find that an appropriate thing to do at the time."

Bilbao explained why Hart was chosen and why the assistant principals were not placed in the interim position.

"This way in appointing an interim candidate, we found a very experienced and qualified interim candidate," Bilbao said. "It was at the point that we gave an opportunity to our interim principal to really be a part of our administrative team, allowing the existing administrators opportunities to stretch out to other roles in the building and really giving us an opportunity for us to see them in education leadership roles."

Also moving around in the district will be High School South Assistant Principal Thomas Olausen, who will become the new principal at Nutswamp Elementary School at an annual salary of $112,850.

"We are very excited about Mr. Olausen becoming the new principal," Bilbao said after the board voted on his appointment, an assessment agreed upon by the rest of the board.

Olausen will be replacing principal Anne Facendo, who was named the new director of humanities for the K-12 district at the Nov. 24 meeting.

"The position draws on Ms. Facendo's great strength and knowledge of literacy," Bilbao said in her Superintendent's update. "She will be overseeing the district's curriculum implementation in language arts and social studies in grades kindergarten through 12, as well as the way reading and writing are taught across all the subject areas."

Another position change in the district was the appointment of Sean McNeil as district supervisor of early childhood education at an annual salary of $87,440.

McNeil is currently a preschool teacher at New Monmouth Elementary School.

He will oversee the new preschool expansion program in the district.

McNeil's position is effective through June 30, when the district will receive funding for the preschool program in the next school year from the state.

According to Bilbao, if the funding from the state is not received, the position will not be lost, since the district can look into placing it in the budget.

Contact Jamie Romm at

jromm@gmnews.com.