Skip to content

A town square for an unsquare town

redbankgreen

Standing for the vitality of Red Bank, its community, and the fun we have together.

RBR NAMES EX-PRINCIPAL AS NEW SUPER

mr-s1By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

Jim Stefankiewicz (right) is returning for Act II at Red Bank Regional High School, this time to take the reins as superintendent.

Stefankiewicz, RBR’s former principal, was appointed Wednesday night as superintendent, filling a gap left by Howard Lucks, who left the post earlier this month to tend to his ailing wife.

Former superintendent Edward Westervelt will keep Lucks’s seat warm until Stefankiewicz, who is currently assistant superintendent for the Middletown school district, steps into the new role sometime in April.

His return to Red Bank comes a little more than a year after leaving the high school to become assistant superintendent in Middletown.

“For me, it’s just an opportunity that came up at this time that was very difficult not to pursue,” Stefankiewicz, 43, said. “It’s a fantastic educational institution and I think I was deeply immersed in the community, the programs that existed there. So when the opportunity arose to come back as superintendent, it really appealed to me.”

Stefankiewicz, who lives in Ocean, served as RBR’s principal from 2006 to 2009 and ushered in new programs, including the freshman academy, the highly-successful block scheduling and nationally-popular AVID program.

Coming from the much larger district in Middletown, with a $140 million budget and approximately 10,000 students, Stefankiewicz said his year-plus in Middletown primed him for the top slot back in Red Bank.

“The experience I’ve gotten in Middletown has been incredible,” he said. “It’s hard not to chart your growth exponentially. There’s so much that happens that you can’t help but learn a lot very quickly.”

Although Stefankiewicz will return to RBR in the final months of the school year, he’s anxious to get back to work in familiar territory, he said.

“I’m really happy to come back to the kids and the community I love,” he said.

Under the three-year contract, Stefankiewicz will earn $147,500 annually.

Remember: Nothing makes a Red Bank friend happier than to hear "I saw you on Red Bank Green!"
redbankgreen Classics
Partyline
Red Bank 5K Fun!!!
Red Bank Classic – June 14th, 2025 (photo by Partyline contributor Adam Kaplan)  
RAINBOW OVER RED BANK
Saturday, before and after the storm that rolled through town. (photo by Partyline contributor Thomas Doremus)    
Mini Ballers Bring the Heat at Fusion Basketball School
As the temperatures heat up, so does the competition in the mini baller clinic at Fusion School of Basketball. These little tykes are intens ...
DOZENS OF PLEIN AIR ARTISTS “PAINT RED BANK”
Plein air artists take over town for first ever "Paint Red Bank" event. (click to read)
RED BANK: SIGN ON ICONIC DANNY’S STEAK HOUSE COMES DOWN
The sign hanging from the shuttered Danny's Steak House comes down ten months after a manager reported Danny's Steakhouse would be back "bet ...
FOR YANKEES FANS, GOOD TRASH PICKIN’
A collection of framed photographs of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and other New York Yankees greats was placed curbside along with a ...
RED BANK: NEW HANDICAPPED PARKING, WEST SIDE MEETING PLANNED
New handicapped parking sign West Side advocate had pressed for is installed, with meeting planned to discuss other concerns. (click to read ...
SUNSET AT SUMMER’S START
Crazy sunset clouds shot from Monmouth Boat Club on the Friday evening at the start of Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer. ...
SIDEWALK GOES FROM WORST TO FIRST
P (photo by Brian Donohue) What had been, in our estimation – and apparently in the eyes of the several people who have emailed and te ...
RED BANK: PEERING FROM ON HIGH, ACROSS THE DECADES
Roofers on the Azalea Red Bank top off the project in the shadow of a sculpture depicting another generation of construction workers who toi ...
BRICK FACELIFT CONTINUES ON MONMOUTH STREET
A million-dollar brick sidwalk makeover of Monmouth Street in Red Bank continues.
JAY AND SILENT EAGLE
A very loud blue jay squawks at an indiferent bald eagle in a treetop alongside the Swimming River in Red Bank this week. (Partyline photo b ...
PIZZA LOVING SQUIRREL SPOTTED IN RED BANK
Pizza squirrel spotted in Red Bank. (click to read)
GET YOUR MA SOMETHIN’ NICE AT THE RED BANK FARMERS MARKET
It’s a beautiful and sunny Mother’s Day for the first instance of the farmer’s market, held every Sunday, beginning in May ...
SIGN? WHAT SIGN?
Folks in Red Bank Wednesday exercising their riparian rights to access tidal waters first encoded into Roman law in 500 AD and later adopted ...
FANTASTIC MR. FOX
Partyline contributor captures photo of backyard fox.
STRIPER RUN AT MARINE PARK
An angler pulls in a striped bass from the Marine Park bulkhead Tuesday evening. (photo by Partyline contributor Boris Kofman)  
COLD AS CANADA? CHECK.
A pair of goose sculptures propped atop an air conditioning unit on River Street in Red Bank.
SUNRISE OVER A GLASSY NAVESINK
Sunrise over the Navesink River, seen from NJ Transit Train 3320. (photo by Partyline contributor Karly Swaim)  
A BLAST FROM THE PAST
NJ Transit "heritage" locomotive makes an appearance at the Red Bank station.