Mystery Surrounds Woodbridge Assistant School Superintendent's Departure

The sudden departure of the second in command has set tongues wagging in the township.

Lois Rotella, the longtime assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, was mysteriously missing from her job in the last week. Board of Education administrators have not returned repeated phone calls about what happened to Rotella, and whether her leaving was her choice or not.

Neither Schools Superintendent John Crowe or Business Administrator Dennis DeMarino were available for comment.

Julie Bair, director of special services for the district, was left in charge on Friday. She said she had "no comment" about Rotella's fate.

"You can call her and ask her for her comments," Bair said before hanging up.

Rotella, who lives in Edison, also had nothing to say when she was contacted.

The district has been notoriously tight-lipped about matters since various schools have been under investigation by the State Board of Education's Office of Fiscal Accountability and Compliance. 

The state came into the district earlier this year to investigate three schools because of a high number of wrong-to-right erasures on the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (NJASK) standardized tests.

One of the three schools, Ford Avenue School, was eventually cleared, with a warning that if the school testing exhibits similiar number of wrong-to-right changes in future tests, the state investigators will be back in force.

The two other schools, Avenel Street School 4 & 5 and Ross Street School, are still under investigation, and the results of those inquiries have not yet been released. Several of the schools had changes in principals after the investigations began.

The investigations were based upon the 2010 NJASK tests. The statistic results of the 2011 test, and this year's test, have not been released.

Rotella's assistant superintendent job was advertising for applicants in a online post dated August 1. 

The Board of Education advertised on August 2 that they would be holding a special meeting on Tuesday, August 7, where they will "immediately retire into closed session to discuss personnel matters."

The special meeting will be held at 6:30 pm at Oak Ridge Heights School in Colonia.

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