A message posted on the district website said only that the district is mourning the passing of Dr. Jonathan Ponds.
Ponds was principal to students at the Parsons Elementary School in North Brunswick from 2012 to 2015 and also served as a superintendent and principal in Moonachie.
Ponds also had experience working as a special education teacher, basketball coach, vice principal, and dean of students, his bio on the Montclair Schools website said.
The district's director of secondary education Damen Cooper announced Ponds' death in an email Friday morning, July 12, according to NJ Advance Media. Services were forthcoming.
Mayor Dr. Renee Bakserville issued a statement Friday evening, saying Ponds exhibited selflessness in his four-year tenure as superintendent.
“We are inestimably grateful to the Ponds family for lending Dr. Ponds to us for a short but impactful time, during which he moved Montclair Public Schools closer to becoming a more excellent stable school system. “We bid you, ‘Good night Sweet Prince, and bands of angels singe thee to thy rest.’” (Hamlett).
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