Massimino Officially Takes Over As Woodbridge Superintendent

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — Wednesday night's Woodbridge Board of Education meeting was the final one where Dr. Bob Zega was superintendent of Woodbridge public schools. Zega was not at the meeting.

On Thursday morning, July 1, Dr. Joseph Massimino officially took over as the new superintendent of the Woodbridge school district.

Massimino had previously been assistant superintendent for the district, so this is a promotion for him.

Zega was the Woodbridge schools superintendent for the past eight years and it was a major surprise to many in town when the Woodbridge Board of Education chose not to renew his contract this past February.

All five members of the BOE's negotiations committee — Joseph Velez, Sue Bourdin, Akshar "AJ" Sidana, Ezio Tamburello and Marie Anderson — voted against renewing Zega's contract.

They instead decided to give the top job of running the district to Massimino.

Zega will become a principal at one of the Woodbridge schools; which school has not been decided yet.

Patch has asked, and no Woodbridge BOE member has ever told us why Zega's contract was not renewed. Zega himself has also repeatedly declined to talk about it.

"The board chose not to offer me a contract. My current contract will expire at the end of June. I am still tenured in several different administrative positions in the district, but I don’t know yet where I will end up," was the last Zega told Patch in April.

At the meeting Wednesday night, Tamburello spoke very highly of Zega's time at the helm.

"When he (Zega) came in eight or nine years ago, it was a dark time, it was a dark period in local education," Tamburello said publicly at the meeting. He was referring to a school testing scandal that hit Woodbridge schools in 2015. "We had state investigators in our schools, harassing our employees, trying to get to the bottom of cheating on tests, etc. The term I heard most was Zega 'righted the ship.' I believe he righted the ship then ... and he was tasked to lead the district through the pandemic. I choose to remember his work ethic. I think he was the consummate professional. I wish him good luck and God speed."

Zega led the Woodbridge school district through the past tumultuous year of the coronavirus pandemic.

With 26 schools and more than 13,000 students, Woodbridge is one of the biggest school systems in the state of New Jersey.

Related: Zega Ousted, Woodbridge Gets New School Superintendent (April 26)

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