Current leader of Barnegat School District says he plans a long tenure in Ocean City
OCEAN CITY – Brian Latwis was hired Thursday evening to be the new superintendent of the Ocean City High School District starting in the 2026-27 school year.
He currently is superintendent of schools in the Barnegat Township School District in Ocean County south of Toms River.
The Ocean City position has been a revolving door of leaders since the retirement of longtime superintendent Dr. Kathleen Taylor in the summer of 2021.
Latwis said he expects to be in the district for a long time.
After Taylor retired, there have been multiple temporary interim leaders who filled the spot while the board conducted searches and a “permanent” superintendent who lasted a year and was looking for a new job only a few months after being hired. Current superintendent Dr. Christian Angelillo, who is finishing his second year on the job in June, surprised the board earlier this year by announcing his plans to retire.
The Ocean City Board of Education unanimously approved hiring Latwis at the meeting Thursday. Board President Kevin Barnes said the board worked diligently to find the next leader of the school district. Barnes said doing that is the school board’s most important duty.
Latwis, 46 years old, has been in education since 2002. He was a special education teacher at Monroe Township High School who then became a department coordinator. When he left Monroe, he became the director of special education in the Keansburg School District, a position he held for about five years.
He moved to the K-12 Barnegat School District as the director of special education, and then ascended to the superintendent’s position, which he has held for the past eight years. The Barnegat district has about 3,800 students in six schools.
Latwis said education is “pretty much a family trait.”
“My mother was an educator for years and when I went to college, it kind of just appealed to me. I just enjoy that coaching mentality. I enjoy teaching, I enjoy learning,” he said. “It just kind of spoke to me and I jumped into it and never looked back.”
Asked what attracted him to the Ocean City School District, he said, “When you look at Ocean City you see the passion for the whole child. Academics is obviously very important, but you see athletics really thrive here, you see a lot of different initiatives that are in place to work on the social, emotional and the mental health of the student.”
“There’s just a number of different things that really were very attractive about the district,” he added. “I am super excited to be here and super excited to partner with everybody here and work to kind of build on that success.”
He and his wife have twin 14-year-old daughters.
He expects to be commuting to the district for a while, acknowledging their girls are going to be freshmen in high school next year and wants stability for them.
“It’s about 45 minutes (to here) from my house, so it’s not bad at all. I kind of actually enjoy that time.”
He noted his family has vacationed in Sea Isle City for the last number of years “so we’re kind of familiar with the area. And this is just a beautiful area.”
When asked about the multiple leaders the district has had over the past five years and whether he is making a long-term commitment to the Ocean City district, Latwis said, “Yes, 100 percent.”
“I think if you look at my resume, you’ll see that I spent 10 years in Monroe. I spent five years in Keansburg. I came further south because my daughters were very young so I wanted to be a little bit closer for that,” he said. “I’ve been in Barnegat now for over 10 years. I’m not somebody that wants to jump around. I like to establish roots. I like to feel like you’re part of something special. I feel like you’re part is something that you’re growing. And then I like to be there for that process to play out.
“You know, ideally, I envision this as being something that I would do for the remainder of my career so I have no intentions of leaving anytime soon.”
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
