The Heart and Soul of Central Regional

I'll sleep when I'm dead.

That's been Tom motto from the time he was a boy growing up in Seaside Park. And it still is for the peripatetic superintendent of the Central Regional School district.

The 38-year-old Parlapanides doesn't tool around in a BMW or other high end car. He's still driving the 2000 Mitsubishi Montero he bought back in 2000. He has no time to buy a new car.

"Maybe next year," he said during an interview in his office on the 98-acre campus off Forest Hills Parkway. "I'm just too busy. You'are only as good as what have you done for me lately. You have to keep moving."

Parlapanides' full first name is Triantafillos. But those who know him, which includes just about everybody in Bayville, call him Tom or Trian. The students call him "Dr. P." His two brothers, Charley and Vlas, call him Tree, his college nickname.

His work ethic was born early. His parents, Wallace and Angela didn't have much money when their children were growing up.

"My dad was always working two or three jobs to give us the best," Parlapanides recalled. "He really instilled that work ethic. If you want to accomplish anything, you're going to have to work."

Big man on campus

The young boy followed his father's example. A 1991 Central Regional graduate, he was class president, a tackle on the football team, and was voted "Most Popular and "Did the Most for Central Regional."

"We Greeks are very gregarious people," he said. "I think that's helped me in a lot of areas."

His battered mustard and burgundy-colored football helmet still occupies a prominent space in his office. The scrapes and smudges on the helmet tell a story. Parlapanides can reach back in time and recall each game he played.

"That's Pinelands," he said with a smile, pointing to one smudge. "The blue one is Mon Don. Black is Point Boro. My senior year was awful. Four kids on the team failed cooking and they were ineligible. How do you fail cooking?"

Longtime Central Regional board member and current Board Vice President Denise Pavone-Wilson admits she had a few reservations when Parlapanides was hired back in 2008, because he was so young. But she soon changed her mind.

"He knows exactly what he wants to do and he does it," Pavone-Wilson said. "He just wants to help Central. He's the most energetic person I know. He loves the school. He's married to Central. He knows every child."

Parlapanides puts in long hours and is there for every event.

"He's there for everything," she said. "He will stay until 12 at night writing reference letters for kids. He's wonderful. We love him."

Parlapanides has accomplished more in the three short years he's been at the Central Regional helm that most past superintendents.

"I have a board that listens to all my crazy ideas," he said. 'I'm a very competitive person. I just want to get things done yesterday. I'm always pushing, pushing, pushing."

"He's anxious to get things done quickly," said former longtime board member , who was just elected to a seat on the Township Council. "Our job is to slow him down just a little bit in some areas. I'm happy to have him on board."

Parlapanides managed to help get a passed in January 2011, despite an incredibly sour economy. The question squeaked through by 18 votes. He and the school board put the money to good use immediately.

The roofs on the aging main section of the high school and the original single-pane windows from the mid-1950s were replaced over the summer. The entire campus, on well water for decades, is now on city water.

And thousands of are now perched on fields behind the high school. They are part of a project designed to provide most of the Central campus' electricity needs and were built without taxpayer funds as part of a power purchase agreement.

The kids come first

The Parlapanides' brothers Charley and Vlas, who wrote the r have nothing but praise for their middle brother.

"We always tell people Trian is the best of the three of us Parlapanides boys," Charley said. "Because it is the truth. He is the George Bailey of Seaside Park.  He truly lives to serve and help other people. That is how he derives his own happiness."

Parlapanides has always worked hard and sacrificed for "the greater good," Charley said.

"That is a beautiful thing," Charley said. "He's always had that, for as long as I can remember. Growing up he was always a leader, whether it was as class president, which he was all through middle school and high school or on the football field where he was team captain. Trian is all heart, and I feel blessed to have him as a brother."

Vlas has worked on Wall Street and in Hollywood. But he says he's never met anyone who works as hard and accomplishes his goals as Parlapanides.

"Every decision he makes as a superintendent has the kids’ best interest at heart," Vlas said. "And if that means he has to work from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. every night, to get it done, he’ll do it. His sacrifice, dedication, passion and unselfishness are unparalleled and I’m not just saying that because he’s my brother. Anyone that truly knows him will tell you so."

"He’s an inspiration to me and always will because he actually does something laudable without expecting anything in return," Vlas added.  "And in being the person he is he makes a difference in kids’ lives and looks out for the community at large.  And what can be great than that?"

Parlapanides has a doctorate in executive education from Seton Hall University; a master's degree in administration from Georgian Court University; and a bachelor of science degree with a history concentration from Villanova University.

He taught various courses at Central's middle and high schools before taking a teaching and supervisory stints at Egg Harbor Township Middle School. He was principal at Shore Regional High School before he returned to Central in 2002 as principal of the middle school.

He was selected as Central's superintendent in 2008. The Board of Education in August voted unanimously to give him a five-year contract.

What was it like to come back as superintendent?

"It's a tremendous honor," he said. "It makes me want to work even harder. I want to leave it better than when I found it."

A hands-on administrator

Parlapanides is not a desk-bound superintendent. He frequently walks the halls of both schools, greeting students and staff by name and picking up an occasional candy wrapper off the floor. Sometimes he'll hop on the bike he keeps in his office and pedal over to the

"In 10 seconds I'm at the middle school," he said

Parlapanides credits a "phenomenal" school board for the district's progress.

"They'll say 'Tom, go do it. Kevin,  (schools business administrator Kevin O'Shea) you watch him.' I've been very fortunate."

You're only as good as the people around you," he said. "I think we are moving in the right direction."

His next mission? Getting the 2012 budget passed. The went down by 106 votes. Parlapanides has vowed to do whatever it takes to get the budget passed in all five sending towns.