Thomas A. Smith, one of the top administrators in the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District, is expected to be appointed the next superintendent of schools for Hopewell Valley. The Board of Education will vote on a contract with Smith at its meeting Monday night, said Mel Myers, board president.

Under the terms of the agreement, Dr. Smith would begin June 1. The contract, which calls for an initial salary of $170,000, extends through June 30, 2013.

Known as an energetic leader with an inclusive decision-making style, Smith, 42, has served as West Windsor-Plainsboro’s assistant superintendent for pupil services and planning since 2005. In that position he oversees special education, athletics, guidance, nursing services, community education, district policy development and enrollment monitoring and forecasting. He is a former special education teacher.

Dr. Smith’s career has been on a steep trajectory since switching his focus to education in the early 1990s. A TV and film major at Trenton State College, he had spent a couple of years making commercials in Manhattan when an experience coaching Special Olympics athletes caused him to rethink his professional goals. Working with challenged youth gave him a personal satisfaction that had eluded him in the production studios of New York and he decided to return to TSC, this time for a degree in teaching.

With his master’s in teaching behind him, Dr. Smith started his career at the Newgrange School in Hamilton, teaching special needs students in grade 3-8. In 1994 he joined the faculty at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School, before the district built its second high school, where he worked as a special education teacher and coached the boys’ varsity lacrosse team.

Four years later he was named the district’s assistant director of special services, responsible for special education programs in grades 6-12 and English as a Second Language program K-12.

In 2001 he moved to the much smaller Spotswood School District, where he became part of a three-person administrative team as director of special projects/special services. He credits his tenure in the cash-strapped district as giving him valuable experience in budgeting and fiscal management.

In 2005, he returned to West Windsor-Plainsboro, where he was named to one of the district’s highest posts.

In taking the helm in Hopewell Valley, Dr. Smith comes to a district roughly half the size of West Windsor-Plainsboro but one with strikingly similar characteristics: a high-achieving student body, a strong faculty with a high percentage of advanced degrees, a supportive and engaged parent community and a well-educated community with high expectations. Both districts also operate schools spanning nearly a century in age.

The two districts have adopted many of the same progressive curricular models – including the highly regarded Responsive Classroom program in the elementary schools and the Everyday Math curriculum – and have tapped national leaders in educational theory, such as author Grant Wiggins, for staff workshops. Both systems share a strong commitment to technology. Earlier this year, West Windsor-Plainsboro acquired Infinite Campus, the same online student information system now being rolled out in Hopewell Valley.

Hopewell Valley is familiar territory for the incoming superintendent who grew up in neighboring Ewing Township and, as a competitive tri-athlete for more than a decade, has spent considerable time training and bicycling along Valley roads.
 
He now lives in Upper Freehold Township with his wife, Louise, a special education teacher, and their three children, aged 7, 5 and 2 years old.

In addition to possessing an active lifestyle, Dr. Smith is an accomplished carpenter. In the 1990s he restored and occupied an 1852 Federal-style farmhouse in Upper Makefield Township in Bucks County. The house is part of the quaint and well-preserved Dolington Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

A former member of the board of directors of Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Mercer County, Dr. Smith belongs to several professional associations, including the Council for Exceptional Children, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development and the Kappa Delta Pi Educational Honor Society.
 
Since 2005 he has taught graduate-level courses in education as part of the adjunct faculty at Rider University.

Last June, Dr. Smith was part of a delegation of U.S. educators who traveled to China as part of the College Board’s Chinese Bridge Program. A joint project with the Office of Chinese Language Council International, it brings U.S. educators to China to broaden their knowledge of local culture and language.

Dr. Smith holds a master’s degree in educational leadership from The College of New Jersey and a doctorate in educational leadership from Seton Hall University.