Mahon takes the reins as interim super
Candidates to fill the district vacancy narrowed down to four
Robert Mahon [pictured above] has taken over as the Asbury Park school district’s interim superintendent.
He will temporarily fill the vacancy left by Superintendent Denise Lowe until a new superintendent is appointed. The district voted not to renew Lowe’s contract in November 2012.
This is Mahon’s second time at the post. He also served as interim superintendent four years ago before Lowe’s appointment, he said.
Mahon brings with him 55 years of experience in the field of education. He began his career in Woodbridge, NJ, in 1958 as a high school English teacher. He stayed in the Woodbridge district and began his administrative career as the assistant principal at John F. Kennedy Memorial High School in 1954 and before he occupied the same position at Colonia High school in 1968.
In 1971, Mahon left the Woodbridge school system for Ocean Township, where he began his tenure as Ocean High School’s principal. He landed his first superintendency there in 1974. He served in the position for 21 years before retiring in 1995.
His main objective is to “keep the district moving in a forward direction,” he said.
This is his third week on the job. In the three weeks since his appointment, he has worked to familiarize himself with the “key people,” the overall administrative structure and the current challenges the district faces, Mahon said.
Student achievement is at the top of that list of challenges, “as it is in any school district,” he said.
Current obstacles in the Asbury school system include middle school and elementary enrollments on the rise while “high school enrollment is way down,” he said. This year, fifth grade enrollment alone increased by 90 students while the high school’s total enrollment is around 350 students.
Besides these issues, the new superintendent will take on a failing school district in a year the new statewide teacher evaluation system goes into effect. Mahon will work closely with the new superintendent at the beginning of the school year to ensure a smooth transition, he said.
The Asbury Park Board of Education is in the process of conducting second-round interviews to fill the superintendent vacancy this week, according to Mahon. After the first round of interviews, they have narrowed the candidates down from six to four. There are “no in-house candidates,” he said.
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