The 2023-24 school year is complete and students have settled into summer vacation mode. But for Brad Siegel, the work is just starting.
Hired in March, Siegel started his new assignment as superintendent of the Mountain Lakes School District on Monday. A resident of Wayne, Siegel comes from the Upper Saddle River School District, where he served as superintendent for the past six years.
"Joining Mountain Lakes, I recognize the importance of sustaining an elite public school district in which our board of education, staff members, families, and students prioritize education," Siegel stated on the district website. "That high expectation is what motivates and excites me stepping into this role."
His five-year contract was approved in March, calling for a first-year salary of $228,000 with annual increases reaching $256,616 in the 2028-29 school year. Siegel was collecting an annual salary of $187,408 in Upper Saddle River.
Reached on Wednesday, three days into the new job, Siegel said he's busy meeting staff, touring the buildings, looking in on summer sessions and "hiring staff, because that is a 12-month job."
Mountain Lakes superintendent's new priority
His early priorities will include negotiating a new send-receive tuition rate for students from neighboring Boonton Township, who attend Mountain Lakes High School. But said he had no update on that process, which has raised tensions between the two towns' school districts.
Siegel comes from a district similar in economic demographics to the one he now runs. Mountain Lakes and Upper Saddle River are largely wealthy, residential communities that land near the top of the New Jersey list of highest median incomes. The Upper Saddle River District, however, does not include a high school. Three schools cover grades K-8 while the district sends its high school students to Northern Highlands Regional in Allendale.
The Mountain Lake School District includes the high school, Wildwood Elementary, Briarcliff Middle School and the Lake Drive School, a regional school for deaf and hard-of-hearing students that serves 12 counties.
Siegel was hired after a superintendent search committee was formed late last year to recruit a replacement for Fetherman, who retired at the end of the school year. The former superintendent oversaw a major expansion of Mountain Lakes High School and led the district through the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 during his five-year term.
A 'Laker' lover
Prior to his five years in Upper Saddle River, Siegel was the K-12 director of curriculum, instruction and assessment for Bergen County's quad-districts (Allendale, Ho-Ho-Kus, Upper Saddle River and Northern Highlands Regional.) He holds a doctoral degree from Teachers College at Columbia University through the Arts & Humanities Department.
Siegel also is familiar with the character of "Laker" life that is integral to the identity of Mountain Lakes borough, a planned community founded in 1910 and crafted around seven lakes.
"I appreciate the special and unique qualities of being part of a 'lake' community, as I grew up and now raise my family in a different 'lake' community (Pine Lakes in Wayne)," he wrote in his statement to the community.
"Over the past few months, I had the opportunity to meet many stakeholders from the Mountain Lakes School District at scheduled meetings and even through some unexpected encounters," Siegel stated after his appointment. "Both of these qualities consistently marked these interactions: the drive for learning and connection to the community."
An interim super in Upper Saddle River
Upper Saddle River has embarked on its own search for a new superintendent. Applications were due to the search committee last month. Meanwhile, C. Lauren Schoen has been hired as interim superintendent at a per diem salary of $825.
Schoen most recently served as an interim superintendent in West Orange. Her career also includes superintendent posts in Rochelle Park, Mahwah, Fort Lee and the Ramapo-Indian Hills High School District.
William Westhoven is a local reporter for DailyRecord.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com Twitter: @wwesthoven
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