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    Kathryn Forsyth, Director
    609-292-1126

For Release: June 1, 2005

State Board Approves DOE Staff Changes

The New Jersey State Board of Education today approved the appointment of Assistant Commissioner for Finance Richard Rosenberg to the position of Deputy Commissioner, effective July 1.

Rosenberg, of Cranford, replaces Dr. Dwight R. Pfennig, who has announced he will be resigning effective June 30 to accept the position of Superintendent of the Pocono Mountain School District in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Before joining DOE in 2002, Rosenberg worked in the South Orange-Maplewood School District for 38 years. He began his career as a social studies teacher, and later served as the Assistant to the Superintendent, Business Administrator and Deputy Superintendent. He holds Master’s degrees in Russian history and educational administration.

The State Board also approved two other changes among DOE senior staff:

Assistant to the Commissioner for the Central Region Penelope E. Lattimer, Ph.D., will assume Rosenberg’s Assistant Commissioner title* and Yut’se Thomas, currently the Director of School Funding, will be named Assistant to the Commissioner for Finance and will oversee that division within DOE.

Dr. Lattimer, who currently oversees DOE operations in the six central New Jersey counties, serves as Acting Mercer County Superintendent and leads DOE’s high school "small learning communities" pilot project, joined the department in 2003.

A resident of New Brunswick, she was the New Brunswick Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction prior to accepting her current position. She had also served as Principal of the Gibbons School, a demonstration high school located on the campus of Rutgers University.

Thomas, who resides in Plainsboro, joined the department in 1991 as a planning associate. She became Director of the former Office of Fiscal Standards and Efficiencies in 1999 and was appointed to her current post in 2001. She holds a Master’s degree in economics.

* Note: DOE is the only department in New Jersey state government in which the number of Assistant Commissioners is set by statute.

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