TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON—Dr. Jill Mortimer, hired in January 2022 on a five-year contract as superintendent of the Westwood Regional School District, wrote the community last week to announce she plans to retire.
She’d taken some time off for back surgery and recovery earlier this year — working from home after her interim superintendent, Kenneth Rota, stepped down a couple of weeks ahead of schedule, in June, citing personal reasons.
Mortimer’s update to parents and guardians Aug. 28 led with cheers over children returning to school on Thursday, Sept. 7, and later lauded the district’s building and grounds team under director Glen Becker.
“Our staff members are enthusiastic about the new school year. We are ready, and we are determined to continue to provide the students of this district with a caring, top-notch education! Your children mean the world to us, and we cannot wait to see them,” she said.
Then she wrote, “Today, I am announcing the fact that the board will soon secure a search firm to find a replacement for me. My resignation for the purpose of retirement will depend upon whether they find a suitable candidate for the 2024–2025 school year. I will consider staying on if they do not.”
She said, “I am grateful to the board for having faith in me, and my nine years of service to the district have been wonderful. This is a special place.”
On Aug. 29 she told Pascack Press taking an early retirement was long a part of her plan.
“I’ve been in education for 31 years. This position and this district have been the pinnacle of my career; I’ve had a wonderful time here.”
She said, “Recently in my tenure as superintendent I’ve assembled a very high-achieving administrative team, with some new hires that are really making things in the district great,” and that “Whoever comes in next will have a good strong administrative team behind him or her moving forward.”
As in her letter to parents, she lauded Kelly Riedel as the district’s new director of school counseling and wellness, and Denise Velez as new director of elementary education.
Mortimer in her letter reassured on class sizes, advised of an Aug. 31 strategic planning presentation [after our print deadline for this issue], shared highlights of the summer administrative retreat, touted an overhaul to gifted-and-talented programming, and updated on air conditioning and the Washington School expansion.
She also touched on NJDOE mandates, defended the district’s “controversial issues” policy, the anticipated Aug. 31 formation of a required School Threat Assessment Team, and “the tenor in the WWRSD community.”
The K-12 district, serving families from the growing Township of Washington and Borough of Westwood, has been a flashpoint on several issues in keeping with national drama reverberating through school districts in the wake of the pandemic.
Mortimer’s five-year contract stipulated $242,500 in base salary for 2022 and more than $262,000 by the fifth year of service, anticipated in 2025–2026.
She began serving on Aug. 1, 2021, stepping up after the departure of embattled superintendent Ray González, whose tenure included both the bond referendum that allowed for a true middle school in Westwood and unprecedented challenges wrought by Covid-19.
She was hired Jan. 27, 2022 by a 6-1 vote.
Mortimer on challenges, opportunities
In our interview Aug. 29, Mortimer, of Wyckoff, said she hoped she’d be remembered for outreach on students’ mental health, the smart use of data, and a commitment to systems thinking (“a way of making sense of the complexity of the world by looking at it in terms of wholes and relationships rather than by splitting it down into its parts”).
We also asked her about the district and activism. She said, “I think activism is good; it’s a signal of our freedom of speech in this country. I think as educators and as superintendent my attention is focussed more on the students. I think sometimes the public may not understand that.”
She said, “We’re sensitive to what’s going on on social media in terms of the political rhetoric, but it doesn’t really affect our day-to-day functioning.”
On the “tenor” in the district, Mortimer had just written parents of “recent media coverage of the district and the inaccurate statements that have been made by some stakeholders. As the superintendent, I am charged with making educational decisions in a manner that enables our students to succeed within the parameters established by applicable state statutes and regulations.”
(See also Mortimer’s letter to the editor, “Schools chief dings policy coverage,” Aug. 14, 2023.)
She said, “For the staff, parents and members of the public who are worried about the direction of the district, I want you to know I will take a firm stand on any requests that are made of me that are not in compliance with state mandates. I will also continue to enable staff members to do their job, as they are the experts in the field.”
Mortimer said “I, along with the administration and staff, intend to focus on academics and not be sidetracked by agendas that center on social and political issues. I have been in contact with the NJDOE, and they are ready to intervene if needed.”
She said, “I am looking forward, not backward, and I am being selective in what I give time and attention to (not local politics). I am squarely focusing on your children and their education.”
Asked what went into her decision to retire, she reiterated that it was her standing plan to take early retirement in her mid-50s and that she wasn’t feeling pressure to step down, either in terms of her medical care or from other sources.
“I’m on the mend with the back. I don’t have the pain that I was having, and I’m grateful for that. I’m not leaving in any way, shape, or form related to any health issue.”
Mortimer said, “I love it here, I love my administrative team; we’re excited for school next week. Yes there’s a lot of noise in the district but I go to my training and my professionalism — and my focus on the students and academics and data and student achievement — that’s what takes 90% of my day, at least. The rest of it is the political piece and the community piece.”
We asked about the pressures of the job and whether they led in any way to her interim superintendent, Kenneth Rota, pulling up stakes early, amid scrutiny on how the administration and board reconciled district policy and calls for the display of Pride flags on school grounds during Pride month.
“He was supposed to stay to the end of June — he resigned for personal reasons; it’s his personal business,” Mortimer said.
She added, “We talked every Friday afternoon and more frequently as needed. We were in touch and communicating frequently. I think he did a great job for us and he came in with a lot of enthusiasm and I was able to pick it up from home the last two weeks of June, the recuperation period.”
We noted Mortimer’s focus on students’ mental health, and she agreed this was a priority.
“We have 2,800 students. I don’t know every student’s name but I know quite a few. When I get involved with something it’s because the student is really struggling. I’ve seen heartbreaking situations here — and throughout my career — and if we can do more to support those students in the educational environment we’re going to do it.”
We also asked about her focus on data as pertains district test scores, which have been criticized in the community. “What have we learned?”
She said, “We’re working on our math, primarily, because our state test scores show that our math is weaker than our language arts, so through new textbooks, professional development, new courses, our director of secondary education — I was strategic in my hiring because our director of secondary education is a former math teacher, and so is Dr. [Nicole] Ferlise, principal at the middle school.”
Asked, “What should people understand about test scores and the district that they might not?” Mortimer said, “That there are benchmarks that are established by the New Jersey Department of Education for our state test scores, and each year we’re supposed to increase the percentage of our students who are achieving proficiency by a percentage point or two.”
She said, “So there’s actual accountability on the part of the NJDOE; we don’t just report these numbers as a compliance mandate. We’re actually trying to improve them on an annual basis.”
We asked, “And is the district successful in that?”
Mortimer said, “We exceeded our progress toward meeting the standards. We were recognized by the state DOE last year for that.”
By the numbers, the NJ DOE reports of the district’s 2,777 students in 2021-2022, 67.7% performed to state goals on English Language Arts and 56.2% in Mathematics, both registered as in the green, satisfactorily working toward a long-term state goal of 80%.
Of those students, 17.2% had a disability and 8.5% were economically disadvantaged. The four- and five-year graduation rates were 96.7% and 98.2% respectively: goals met
The district comfortably outperformed the state averages on college enrollment, AP/IB course enrollment, and dual enrollment, which gives high school students a leg up on college coursework.
Asked about district test-score critics, Mortimer said, “The problem is the NJDOE doesn’t provide us enough of a context for the state test scores. They give us the state average, which obviously a wonderful district in Bergen County should be able to far exceed the state average; but what they don’t give us, and they used to, is the county average, or a comparable-schools average.”
Mortimer said, “When we take the time to look at how we’re doing compared to other districts, while the passing rate may seem low we’re in good company.”
Next week: News from the Aug. 31 meeting of the WWRSD school board.