April 23, 2019
To the Office of the Governor:
Effective Friday, April 26th, I hereby resign from my position as the Chief Executive Officer
(CEO) of the New Jersey Schools Development Authority (SDA).
It is with a heavy heart that I leave the SDA, but I am proud of the work we have achieved
together over these past months to serve our 31 SDA Districts.
I’ve worked my entire life fighting for the rights of New Jersey residents. As the CEO of the
SDA, I worked hard to fight for our most vulnerable population: our kids. I made the decision to
resign after much deliberation because the work of the SDA should be about delivering highquality educational facilities for our students; politics should not be in the conversation. We need
to keep the focus on providing a thorough and efficient education for New Jersey’s most
vulnerable children regardless of their zip code.
During my tenure, we opened four schools in Garfield, New Brunswick, Newark and Vineland
as well as broke ground on new facilities in Camden, Millville, Passaic and Pemberton among
other achievements. As the SDA CEO, I was also committed to bringing diversity and inclusion
to our staff and opportunities for small, minority, veteran, women-owned businesses. In addition,
under my guidance, the SDA made a concerted effort to reach out to many community
organizations, business organizations, and other stakeholders throughout 31 SDA districts.
Building new, high-quality schools in some of our most under-served communities is critical to
the future of our State. I’ve worked my entire life fighting for the rights of New Jersey’s most
vulnerable residents and that is the spirit I brought every day to the job of the SDA CEO.
I share Governor Phil Murphy’s vision of bringing a stronger and fairer New Jersey to all
residents, including our children. I thank Governor Murphy for giving me this incredible
opportunity and look forward to the future success of the organization.
Sincerely,

Lizette Delgado Polanco
Chief Executive Officer
New Jersey Schools Development Authority