Community Voices: What’s Lost When Districts Stop Promoting From Within

 A wave of external hiring can lead to loss of institutional knowledge and damage the culture of a school,

Written by an Educator in Our District

Since 2019, Berkeley Heights Public Schools (BHPS) has gone through significant administrative change, especially at the Central Office level. In this time, BHPS has had two Directors of STEAM, three Directors of Elementary Education, four Business Administrators, and four Assistant Superintendents. None of these statistics count interim administrators, which has occurred at the Business Administrator (three different individuals) and Assistant Superintendent (one) offices.

Currently, the following BHPS Central Office positions are external hires, coming from another district since mid-2023:

• Superintendent (start date January 2025)
• Assistant Superintendent (start date April 2025)
• School Business Administrator (start date August 2025)
• Director of Elementary Education (start date August 2024)
• Director of STEAM (start date October 2023)
• Supervisor of Social Studies and World Language (start date August 2025)
• Supervisor of English, Media Centers, and Music (start date August 2025)

Especially important is that the top three positions in the district (Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent, and the Business Administrator), all while strong hires, started in 2025. The exception at Central Office is the BHPS Director of Special Services, who has been an in-district administrator since 2012.

In the past two years, we saw the Assistant Superintendents of New Providence, Chatham, Millburn, and now Livingston elevated to the Superintendent position of their respective districts. Especially to note in Livingston is their incoming Superintendent moved his way up as a teacher, Supervisor, Assistant Principal, Principal, and Assistant Superintendent, all in Livingston. Recently in Cranford, their high school Principal of nine years became the Superintendent. The Principal of a K-8 school in Cranford became the Assistant Superintendent. Principals have also been promoted to the Assistant Superintendent position in Westfield and Millburn in recent years. All of which in this paragraph has led to continuity and stability.

The most recent time a Principal was promoted in BHPS was in 2015, when then-Governor Livingston High School Principal Scott McKinney became Assistant Superintendent. However, as a 25-year veteran of the district (including as a Social Studies teacher), in 2019, Mr. McKinney was not promoted to Superintendent and has since departed for another Superintendent position. This is where the external hiring accelerated in Berkeley Heights. A similar action occurred in 2024 when then-Acting Superintendent Robert Nixon, who served as Governor Livingston High School’s Principal starting in 2015 (following McKinney), was not granted the Superintendent position. Mr. Nixon has since left to become Principal of Millburn High School and his position was filled with an external hire while either one of the two current Assistant Principals (one a 12-year veteran of the district, another one a 25+ year educator and 3-year BHPS administrator) could have filled the GL Principal position. Examples in BHPS over the past decade have not led to continuity and stability.

Other promotions have occurred internally, such as in both the early childhood school Principal positions and the Director of Special Services, but there have been few (and as noted above, eight recent external administrative hires). 

Qualified teachers should become Assistant Principals or Elementary Principals in-district. Qualified assistant Principals should become Principals. Qualified Principals should become Central Office administrators, if they wish to. Assistant Superintendents should become Superintendents. Without this, districts suffer the loss of institutional knowledge which has occurred in Berkeley Heights with a loss more than anything gained.

None of this is to say that any current administrator in Berkeley Heights – or external hire elsewhere displays subpar performance. However, districts should have an unwritten rule that for approximately every one external hire, there should be internal promotion as an internal hire offers institutional knowledge and experience of the staff, students, the budget process, the history, and most importantly, to improve the culture of the school and the district as a whole.

Submitted directly by the author; content reflects their own views

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