County Superintendent OKs Plan for Parlapanides to Manage Seaside Heights

The Central Regional School District and the Seaside Heights Elementary School are now effectively one K-12 district, under a shared services agreement approved by Ocean County Executive Schools Superintendent Thomas Dowd.

The approval, announced Thursday night at the Central Regional Board of Education meeting, means that effective immediately, Central Superintendent Triantafillos Parlapanides is the superintendent of both districts. 

"I'm very excited," Parlapanides said at the meeting. "Seaside Heights has always sent us great kids, but now we'll have them six years sooner."

Seaside Heights students already attend Central Regional Middle School and High School as one of the five sending districts. Seaside Park, Island Heights, Ocean Gate and Berkeley are the other four.

Parlapanides said the four-year contract for shared services - which matches the remainder of his current contract as Central's superintendent - will allow for revisions in curriculum that will provide academic stability for the students in Seaside Heights.

"We'll add the Rutgers writing throughout the curriculum program," he said, to help improve language arts skills.

Parlapanides also said they will apply to have Seaside Heights become a choice school, which he hopes will help provide some emotional stability for the students as well, by adding permanent students to a district that has a significant transient population.

The Seaside Heights Board of Education had voted in April to withdraw from an agreement with the Toms River Regional School District for supervision of its single elementary school, citing the scandal surrounding former Toms River Regional superintendent Michael J. Ritacco.

"Nobody wants to be associated with Toms River anymore, because of the whole Ritacco situation," Seaside Heights Board Vice President Todd Genty said at the time. "The last year has been very rocky because of the indictment of Michael Ritacco. It was time to part. We just want to get away from Toms River completely."

The switch will also translate into savings for the 120-student Seaside Heights Elementary School. The district was paying a Toms River principal $122,000 a year to oversee the small school, Genty said.

"It's a little school," he said. "I don't need a full-time principal for 120 kids."

Central Regional Business Administrator Kevin O'Shea said at the time that Central would hire a new principal at a lower salary. The district has since hired Christopher Raichle to fill that role.

Raichle, who also was hired as the Central Regional girls lacrosse coach Thursday night, had been the principal at the Monmouth-Ocean Educational Services Commission's BEST Academy in Tinton Falls.

That school serves classified students in grades 6 through 12, according to its website. Raichle's three-year contract in Seaside Heights provides for a salary as principal of $82,000, with 2 percent raises the second and third years, and he will receive a stipend of $7,310.

Parlapanides said Raichle is already bringing innovative programs to Seaside Heights, including an X Camp next week for students who are attending the school's summer academic program.

Parlapanides also praised Raichle's coaching ability.

In 12 seasons at Shore Regional, Raichle turned the girls lacrosse program into a powerhouse at the Shore, with his teams winning eight Shore Conference championships and five straight NJSIAA sectional titles from 2005-2009. The program also has been nationally ranked, rising to No. 21 in 2008 among high school girls lacrosse programs.

"I'll never settle for mediocrity, not as long as I'm superintendent," Parlapanides said. "As long as I'm alive I'm not going to drink from the cup of mediocrity."