Another leader resigns from Camden-based RAC

The man who in the last year was in charge of setting up the new state-run Regional Achievement Center in Camden resigned last weekend.

In a nondescriptive Aug. 28 letter, David Hardy told state Education Commissioner Chris Cerf that he was stepping down from his position as executive director of the RAC for the Camden and Burlington County region, effective Sept. 27.

Hardy, 32, did not cite a reason for his leaving, and said he would help in the transition of his departure.

"I feel, as a team, we have built a strong instructional foundation that I hope will be helpful to students across our region," Hardy said in his letter to Cerf. "I have learned a tremendous amount about myself as a leader and even more about the challenges and triumphs in creating transformational change to our most challenging school districts."

The regional achievement centers were established as a result of the federal No Child Left Behind waiver, which allowed New Jersey to institute its own corrective plans and provide on-the-ground support to assist struggling schools. Twenty-three of Camden's 26 schools were targeted for special assistance.

The Camden RAC's price tag in salaries for Hardy and 12 others is $1.8 million.

In an interview last month, Hardy said setting benchmarks for the RAC a year after being established was "premature." In the last year, he said, he and his staff have helped school principals develop new curriculums and amend their school-improvement plans.

The Camden-based RAC is one of seven in the state established in August 2012 to improve academic performance in the state's lowest-performing districts. Its staff is to provide support to Camden and Burlington Counties' struggling schools.

State Department of Education officials did not respond to questions on whether Hardy would be replaced.

Because of the state takeover of Camden schools, the RAC structure is being reconfigured so that there aren't two points of leadership, Cerf said last month. In the last year, Hardy reported directly to the state department, not the Camden school board or superintendent.

Before coming to Camden, Hardy was the founding principal at Achievement First East New York Middle School, part of the nonprofit Charter Management Organization, which operates K-12 schools in Connecticut and New York.

He started his education career at Teach for America as a language arts and reading teacher and a coach in the Miami-Dade School District in Florida.

Hardy, who could not be reached for comment Thursday, did not disclose in his letter where he was going to work next.

He is not the only state-appointed education administrator to leave an educational leadership position in Camden within a year.

Bing Howell, serving as the special assistant to the deputy commissoiner of education, assisted in recruitment for the Camden-based RAC for five months before heading on in May to the Tennessee Department of Education's Office of School Improvement.