Atlantic City Superintendent of Public  Schools,
Fred Nickles will retire following the  2012 School Year
By HARRY HURLEY

First Reported on Tuesday, May 24, 2011  (7:25 p.m.)
Update: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 (5:30  a.m.)

HarryHurley.com broke the news  first last evening that long-time Atlantic
City Superintendent of Public  Schools, Fred Nickles intends to retire at
the end of the 2012 school year ...  on e year from now.
Fred Nickles will be joining us on-air for his  first interview in just a few minutes.

Before Fred Nickles became Superintendent, the  position of Superintendent
of Pubic Schools in Atlantic City had been a sad  revolving door of failures
and other bad experiments.

The reason for this is really quite simple and  we pin-pointed it 12 years
ago when Fred first became the Interim Superintendent  in Atlantic City.
To succeed in this position, you need a rare  blend of educational skill
sets to run a large school district ... coupled with  the political acumen to
deal with the political insanity that comes along with  the position.
Over the years, the Atlantic City Board of  Education has been both
competent at times and dysfunctional at other times ...  depending on the
particular era.

One thing I know for sure, the Atlantic City  Public Schools District has
taken great strides under Fred Nickles leadership.
When Nickles arrived the district was in Level  2 Monitoring and under the
microscopic control of the New Jersey state  department of Education.
Test scores were low. Morale was even lower.  Leadership was absent. There
was no cohesive educational delivery system  present. In short, the district
was a mess.

Fred Nickles changed all of that. Test scores  have consistently risen and
morale throughout the district has never been  better.
Under Nickles leadership, he led the  construction and  successful
completion of many new schools and large  rehabilitation projects throughout the
district ...  including: The New York  Avenue School and Sovereign Avenue
School, an elaborate renovation to  the Chelsea Heights School, and the
refurbishing of the Dr. Martin  Luther King Jr. School and Uptown Complex.
Fred Nickles is presently leading the construction of two more new  schools
at Richmond and Pennsylvania avenues.

Before Fred Nickles, the Atlantic City Public Schools  District was in the
news on a regular basis and typically for the wrong  reasons.
Fred will be very difficult to replace. Rarely in  education do you see a
leader who can handle the complex matters of achieving  educational results
... while also having the pedigree to be able to handle the  political
realities that come with the Atlantic City job.

Fred was the right guy at the right time. And, his  rare background as a
former Mayor, Freeholder, New Jersey Assemblyman, CRDA  Board Chairman and the  former Superintendent of the second largest District in  the region (Egg Harbor Township) has served Atlantic City very  well.