New Schools Chief Stays on Front Line

Alexandria Taps Problem-Solver

He began the article: "Dear Tom Cruise: I want you to meet my daughter."

Morton Sherman described a popular, active girl who struggled with depression and tried to kill herself at 15. He wrote that even as a school superintendent married to a special education teacher, he and his wife could not stop the sophomore. They wondered what they had done wrong.

"When a child breaks a leg, we put a cast on it. When we have a headache, we take aspirin. When the flu season starts to break out, we all run for shots," Sherman wrote. "So must it be for the mental health of our children."

A personal appeal to those like Cruise -- who has criticized psychiatry and the use of antidepressants -- Sherman's 2006 article in an American Association of School Administrators magazine gives insight into the New Jersey schools chief named Monday as Alexandria's superintendent. His criticism of the education system's ability to deal with mental health fits with his reputation as an administrator who jumps to the front lines of issues.

Alexandria School Board member Yvonne A. Folkerts interviewed 40 people in Tenafly, N.J., about Sherman before he was hired.

"They said to me, 'I hope you guys are ready,' " she said. "They said, 'The only thing we had to ask him was to slow down a little bit because we couldn't keep up.' "

In a unanimous vote, the board awarded Sherman, 58, a contract for $250,000 a year through June 2012. He replaces Rebecca L. Perry, who left in January. Sherman begins Aug. 15.

Board members praised Sherman for raising academic standards and narrowing achievement gaps. They described an administrator who gets to know teachers and students and has made board members promise to host get-togethers for him to meet the community.

Sherman, superintendent in Tenafly since December 2005 and before that in Cherry Hill, N.J., for eight years, doesn't deny that he's the type to answer e-mails at 3 a.m. He's also not shy about reaching out to broad audiences. After a threat appeared on a Tenafly school door, Sherman appeared on a daytime talk show about school bullying. He also joined other superintendents recently in signing a letter opposing the Challenge Index that Washington Post reporter Jay Mathews uses to rank high schools.

"If [Alexandria is] looking for someone who is going to look at what's happening and examine it and look for ways to improve it, they've got their man," said Lynn Trager, assistant superintendent in Tenafly.

Trager also was a principal in the South Orangetown School District in New York when Sherman was superintendent there from 1992 to 1997.

"Every decision he makes is with each individual student in mind," Trager said. "Every meeting you have with him, he asks the question: 'How will that impact the students?' And you have to be ready to talk about that."