West Long Branch Schools Superintendent Leaving To Take Same Position in Barnegat

West Long Branch Schools Superintendent Karen Wood is leaving the district to take the same position in Barnegat.

The Barnegat Board of Education hired Wood to replace recently departed Jason Bing.

Karen Wood was hired at a special meeting of the Barnegat Board of Education earlier this month, and will start July 5, said interim superintendent Bob Mahon.

West Long Branch allowed Wood to leave before a contractually required 60-day notice period was complete, Mahon said, which will allow her start in Barnegat earlier in the year.

An Ocean County resident, Wood has headed West Long Branch’s schools for three years, Mahon said. She began her career as a music teacher in Lacey, he said, and after that was an administrator in the Galloway Township and Absecon school districts.

Mahon said Wood’s varied experience recommended her to the Board, as did her ideas for programming in the district

“She’s young and enthusiastic, and she spoke very knowledgably about the current status of education in the state,” he said.

Bing left the district this spring to head the Bloomfield School District in Essex County. He had been superintendent in Barnegat since July 2009.

Wood will attend the next Board of Education meeting, said Mahon, which takes place Tuesday, June 21.

Wood could not be reached for comment on Thursday.