Longtime Principal, Board Secretary Retiring From Toms River Schools

TOMS RIVER, NJ — The Toms River Regional Schools will be losing two longtime district employees in the coming months.

Ed Keller, the principal at Toms River High School North, and Wendy Saxton, who is the board secretary and the district's director of finance, have announced they are retiring.

Subscribe

Saxton's retirement, as of July 1, 2026, was accepted at the March 18 Board of Education meeting, and Keller's retirement was accepted at the April 29 meeting. He is leaving as of Aug. 1.

Saxton's replacement was announced at the April 29 meeting. Patricia C. Smith, who works for the Hazlet Township School District as its treasurer, will become the administrator of finance beginning July 1 at a salary of $181,000.

Saxton, who has worked for the district for more than 40 years, is well known to many as the woman reading out the agenda and holding roll call for votes during school board meetings.

While she has served as board secretary since 2004, Saxton also has held a critical role as the district's director of finance, serving as business administrator William Doering's right-hand as they earned the district its 11th straight certificate of excellence in financial reporting from the Association of School Business Officials International.

Keller started in the district as a teacher in 1992, according to his LinkedIn bio, and worked as a supervisor of instruction before becoming an elementary school principal in the district. He became principal at Toms River North in 2011.

He had a salary of $184,309 in the 2024-25 school year, according to data from the state Department of Education.

Saxton earned $166,667 in the 2024-25 school year, according to the state data.