Superintendent Search Back to Square One

After a lengthy search, the Moorestown Board of Education was unable to find its next superintendent.

Board Member Matthew Simeone said last month from the search process, which .

However, following a special board meeting Tuesday night, he said the district no longer has a candidate.

Simeone did not explain why the candidate was out, but said the district now faces three ways forward: restart the search, hire an interim superintendent or a combination of the two.

Though the board did not settle on a plan of action Tuesday, Simeone indicated it would be difficult to find a permanent replacement for outgoing Superintendent John Bach before his tenure ends this summer.

“Our preference would be to find a long-term solution,” said Simeone. “While it’s not a perfect outcome, it’s by no means a disaster … We were prepared for this.”

He said it would actually be easier to find an interim superintendent, should the board decide to go that route. Gov. Christie’s cap on superintendent salaries—superintendents can’t earn more than the governor’s $175,000 salary—has severely limited the pool of talent, Simeone explained.

“Eighty to 90 percent of the superintendent pool is gone … That’s the reality of what the cap has done,” he said, explaining that superintendents at other districts simply aren’t willing to make a lateral move to come to Moorestown to make the same amount of money they’re already earning.

An interim superintendent could be hired either from within or outside the district, Simeone said, but reiterated it was “too soon to tell” which way the board would go.

Bach will end his five-year tenure as superintendent at the end of the 2012 school year.