NJ Education Report

Trenton Public Schools officially announced the departure of Superintendent Rodney Lofton, who had 18 months left on his contract, reports the Trenton Times. Interim Superintendent Raymond Broach, late of Ewing Public Schools, will stay on, possibly in a permanent position.

The troubled district has been much in the news after a state-appointed fiscal monitor discovered $3.2 million in unpaid bills to private special education schools, another $6.7 million in other unpaid out-of-district tuition costs and employee health benefits, and a scandal in which 80 teachers billed the district for $2 million in homebound instruction for kids who either weren’t eligible or didn’t exist. (See earlier coverage here.)

However, financial oversight is looking better, even if education isn’t. (A recent ranking placed Trenton Central High at No. 317 out of 322 high schools.) A new audit gave the district high marks.

Said The Times,

Instead of ending with a $1.9 million deficit, as it did in 2009, the district ended the 2010 fiscal year with a $3.5 million surplus, thanks in large part to the privatization of the district’s money-losing cafeterias and a clampdown on out-of-district schools that had been charging for special education students who were not attending classes.

You can look at Trenton Public Schools’ $238.4 million budget here.