With each new year, a myriad of new staff members join the West Morris Central community. This year was especially exciting, however, as WMC also welcomed a new superintendent.
A former middle teacher of language arts and social studies, Dr. Barbara Sargent is excited to begin her third superintendency at West Morris Regional High School District. In this position, she hopes to engage with and support the superintendents of sending districts and increase opportunities for enrollment in IB and AP curriculums in the high schools. While she hasn’t been involved with an IB school before, she is excited to learn more about the program and how it can be improved here, stating that she enjoys “[seeking] out those opportunities to be at the bottom of the learning curve again.” She expressed gratitude to all of those who have been patient with her as she figures it out.
One of the most important philosophies for Dr. Sargent is keeping student and teacher voices in mind in all of her decisions. She has shown this dedication through shadowing students to experience their classes at Central and will soon do the same at Mendham in order to get a better understanding of the student experience at both high schools. Even though it’s harder for her to get to Mendham (as Central is much closer to the board office), she makes an effort to schedule in times to visit their classes and activities as well, stating that “…I think just in general, you make time for the things that matter, you schedule the things that matter, and so that’s what I do.” In addition to shadowing students, Dr. Sargent has also established a student advisory panel that will meet with her and both principals throughout the school year. She hopes to encourage students to advocate for themselves and their opinions as it is an important life skill.
When asked about her policies on canceling school due to extreme weather conditions such as snow or heat, Dr. Sargent responded that her goal is always to “…protect and guard our instruction with our students.” On days where road conditions are made dangerous, she takes the safety of both teacher and student drivers as her utmost concern, checking in with local police departments as well as other superintendents to determine what the safest and most sensible decision would be. On days where heat seems excessive, she walks throughout the building to get a feel for what the students and teachers are actually experiencing and makes the decision based on whether or not the heat seems to be impacting instruction. There have been discussions about adding further air-conditioning before her arrival, and she hopes to “carry that torch forward.” She plans to be more transparent about the discussions in the fall.
While passionate in her career, Dr. Sargent wasn’t always sure that she wanted to be a superintendent. She grew up in the small blue collar town of Bound Brook, working her way through an undergraduate education at Rutgers University (then known as Rutgers College), a master’s degree at Rider University, and a doctorate in educational administration, principal certificate, and chief school administrator license from Seton Hall. The first in her family to go to college, Dr. Sargent put in hard work and dedication into her education, paying for it through working thirty hours a week in jobs such as waitressing, assembly line work, part-time clerical work, house cleaning, and being the “ultimate babysitter.” She was led to become a superintendent, a role which she sees as “just being a school principal in a much larger place,” by her desire to have “…a little more influence over a whole department or help more with school leadership.” Despite this being an unexpected change in the course of her life, she is incredibly happy with her decision, explaining that “[a]t any moment of the day, I get to walk in and see smart teachers engage with kids, I get to see kids excited about their learning.” She referred to West Morris Central in particular as a “beautiful mix of intelligence and wisdom.”
However, “superintendent” is not the only role that describes Dr. Sargent. She also is a group fitness instructor on the weekends! As separate as the two jobs may seem, she claimed that “…it keeps my heart and my head in teaching… the elements of good lesson planning, differentiating instruction, building relationships with your students… that all still fits in that environment.”
The Paw would like to extend a warm welcome to Dr. Sargent!
