South Brunswick board bids fond farewell to student services head
BY CHRIS GAETANO
Staff Writer

SOUTH BRUNSWICK - With a heavy heart, the Board of Education accepted the resignation of Director of Student Services George Scott at its Monday meeting.

Scott, who has been working in education for 37 years and in South Brunswick for 10, will be leaving the district to pursue a career in family therapy. In his role as director of student services, he was responsible for overseeing matters such as special education, home instruction, counseling, school nurses and managing education for homeless students.

Many members of the board took the time to praise Scott for all the work he has put into the district over his decade there, and recalled his expertise and professionalism.

"It's very difficult to say goodbye to someone I've worked with who has provided such a tremendous service to this board," said board member Matthew Speesler, a pediatrician. "He is truly a champion for education in this district. I've worked on a number of different issues with him involving the school physician, policy regarding [automated external defibrillators] and so on, and George has always managed to do the research to know exactly what is going on. And talking to George, sometimes I thought I was speaking to another physician because he knew so much about these things."

When voting on accepting his resignation, some board members hesitated before casting their yes votes, with Speesler even saying "Reluctantly, yes" when placing his.

Scott's career in education had largely centered around Central Jersey. He started as a speech therapist in Hamilton before moving on to administration in that same town. After that, he worked as the director of student services for East Windsor, where he remained until he began his work in South Brunswick. Scott said that after 37 years in education, he felt it was time for a change, though he doesn't think that the transition between school administration and family therapy will be that dramatic a transition.

"[I'm] moving from one kind of work from kids with families and into another," said Scott.

In his decade serving in the district, Scott has seen South Brunswick's schools go through many changes, from major building renovations to a host of new state and federal legislation. However, he said that the way the schools have changed the most has been sheer demographics, with higher numbers of students demanding new ideas to accommodate them.

"The district has grown dramatically, the demographics have changed dramatically, and with that have been the needs of the kids both from an educational point of view and from a social and emotional heath point of view," said Scott.

He added that one of the lessons he'll take from working in South Brunswick is that when people work together, one can always find solutions to a problem.

Scott said that what he'll miss the most are the friendships he's made since he began working in the district, both in administration and in the schools themselves. He said he'll also miss the opportunities he had to work on things in the community in general, such as the Safe and Caring Schools initiative and the community resource team. On the other hand, he said he will be happy to leave behind the bureaucracy that would sometimes frustrate him at his job.

Scott said that he is confident that the district is in a good place right now and feels that whoever eventually replaces him will face a challenging but rewarding experience.

"I have been given opportunities just to meet my own personal professional joys and needs, and I'm going to miss that. However, the district is in very, very good hands, it is very solid, and whoever winds up doing the jobs I did will, no doubt in my mind, do a wonderful job with it and take it to a new level," Scott said.