TCNJ

20 The College of New Jersey Magazine When Lamont Repollet graduated from Carteret High School in New Jersey — his seventh school in 13 years as the oldest of eight children of two Army veterans who moved frequently in search of work — he was planning to attend Hampton University, a historically black institution in Virginia. But then the bill came. "I just didn't have the money to go," he says. He had been admitted to the EOF program at what was then Trenton State College, but had let deadlines pass without securing his spot there. "I was desperate, and I called up and begged Mr. Boatwright. This was a Wednesday, and the program started on Saturday. He gave me a chance and said OK." Repollet majored in communications, met his future wife in fellow student Darlene Spears '94, and after graduation worked for Prudential as a telecommunication analyst. "I was at work one day and thought, 'I don't like this. This is not me,'" he says. What he did like was working with the kids he was coaching in basketball at Carteret High. A Trenton State alumnus told him about the alternate route program for people who hadn't majored in education but wanted to become teachers, and he was soon teaching middle school math in East Orange. He earned a master's degree in education from Kean University and a doctorate from Nova Southeastern University and was on an administrative track as vice principal at Irvington High School before heading back to his hometown, first as a middle-school vice principal and then as principal of Columbus Elementary School in Carteret. "That's where the magic started happening," he says. "We went from the lowest academic-rated school in the district to the highest." Similar results followed at his next stops: Carteret High School, where he was principal for a decade, and Asbury Park, where he led a swift turnaround in his four years as superintendent. In January 2018, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy chose him as the state Commissioner of Education, the first African American to hold the post. "It all goes back to what Mr. Boatwright taught me: He gave a chance to me, so I've always thought I should give people opportunities to be great," he says. At his confirmation hearing before the state Senate Judiciary Committee, Repollet wore a small lapel pin: "EOF," it read. LAMONT REPOLLET '94 STATE EDUCATION COMMISSIONER

• Cover