Somerset Hills Schools Will Open With New Administrators, Tentative Contract

The Somerset Hills School District will open the doors of its three schools on Thursday with a projected enrollment of 2,056 students, and a tentative settlement on a teachers' contract that had remained unresolved through the previous school year, according to information from Schools Superintendent Peter Miller.

There also will be a number of new top administrators in the regional school district, Miller said. The new Bernards High principal is Scott Neigel, and new Bernardsville Middle School Assistant Principal is Shawn Kelly, Miller said in an email.

Gretchen Dempsey is now assistant principal at the Bedwell Elementary School, and Colleen Butler will fill the position of K-8 curriculum coordinator, he said. Butler's position was created as a result of an administrative reorganization to enable the district to provide more curriculum support for K-8, Miller said.

The 270-member Somerset Hills Education Association and the school district have reached a tentative agreement, but details of the settlement have not yet been released pending ratification by SHEA and the school board, Miller said.

He said ratification discussions will be taking place this month. The previous contract with the SHEA expired at the end of the 2011 school year.

The majority of the regional school district's students are from Bernardsville, Peapack-Gladstone and Far Hills. However, Miller said 253 tuition-paying students from Bedminster Township will attend Bernards High this year, as per a continuing arrangement. Miller said enrollment is comparable to last year's.