Sunday, August 26, 2012
Jim Opiekun said New Jersey is a 'hostile work environment' for superintendents.
Former Kinnelon Public Schools Superintendent Jim Opiekun will be starting the school year with a new district for the first time in over a decade this September. According to the Floral Park Dispatch, Opiekun was hired in July as the new superintendent of the Floral Park-Bellerose School District, a school district in Nassau County on Long Island. Opiekun, who retired from Kinnelon in May before the high school commencement ceremony, said New Jersey is a difficult state to work as a superintendent in. “I would say from a superintendent’s standpoint, the only good thing about being a superintendent in New Jersey is that you understand what it is to live in a hostile work environment and I just hope that I never created that for anybody …
Friday, May 11, 2012
Kinnelon Superintendent James Opiekun reflects as he prepares to retire from district.
For the first time in ten years, Kinnelon Public Schools Superintendent James Opiekun's name will not be read aloud as a speaker at the Kinnelon High School commencement ceremony this June. At the end of May, Kinnelon will say goodbye to Opiekun, who is retiring from the district. Opiekun came to Kinnelon in 2002 after serving as superintendent in the East Rutherford school district. He has worked for 24 years combined as a superintendent and before that, worked his way up the administration ladder after beginning his career as a high school history teacher. Opiekun described the last decade of his work with the district in three phases. In 2002, he said he walked in to two major issues the school district was faced with: ongoing recovery …
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Opiekun to retire at the end of May.
The Kinnelon Board of Education has not yet chosen a candidate to replace outgoing Superintendent of Schools Jim Opiekun. Board President Margaret Zybrick answered a question of former Kinnelon Board of Education Member Deborah New at the board's meeting Thursday about where the district stands in the process and Zybrick said the district went through two rounds of job postings and has conducted interviews. Zybrick said the board has researched the candidates and that there will be more to report on the selection of a candidate shortly. "We're ironing out those details," Zybrick said. Opiekun, who has served the Kinnelon school district for 10 years, will be retiring at the end of this month. The search for a new superintendent began in …
Monday, February 6, 2012
Money for project raised by Kinnelon Soccer Club.
Kinnelon Soccer Club players already knew there's no "I" in team, but their parents and the Kinnelon school district proved this point recently when the entities joined forces on a project to repair drainage issues on the Stonybrook School field, where the club plays. The repair job, which includes the installation of a drywell and is only projected to take one day, is scheduled for completion on Feb. 11 and will cost between $3,500 and $5,000, Kinnelon Soccer Club Board Member Mike Petruccelli said. But all of the money being spent to repair the field has been raised by the club, costing the school district and taxpayers virtually nothing. "Due to the particularly wet year, a problem emerged when a corner of the soccer field became …
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Kinnelon school officials and borough underage drinking committee discuss needed measures.
Less than 10 percent of the students who are sanctioned by the Kinnelon school district's substance abuse penalties are referred to the program by police, according to Superintendent Jim Opiekun. Opiekun shared this information, and detailed the intervention measures the district takes to ensure safety of students who may be abusing drugs or alcohol, with the borough's Underage Drinking Ordinance Advisory Committee Monday. The citizen committee is tasked with making recommendations on an ordinance the borough is considering that would allow police to charge underage individuals found drinking or in possession of alcohol on private property. Kinnelon High School Principal Dr. Wayne Merckling accompanied Opiekun as the school district …
Monday, January 9, 2012
A look ahead at what's to come this week on Tri-Boro Patch.
Many boards of education in the tri-boro have still not met in the new year. This week, that will change with not only routine meetings, but a special meeting in Kinnelon where the community will have the opportunity to provide input as to what qualities they would like to see in Kinnelon's new superintendent. We'll have coverage of that and more this week. Here's a look at what's happening:
peanut622
3:03 pm on Monday, August 27, 2012
I read... Thanks Chris Christie scare another off...thanks more ›