Saddle River Day School Announces Jalaj Desai to serve as Head of School

The Saddle River Day School is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Jalaj Desai as the Head of School, effective immediately.

Mr. Desai holds a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering and two Masters degrees; one in Computer Science and one in Educational Leadership. He began his teaching career at Dwight Englewood where he taught Upper School math classes, advised a Financial and Consulting Club, and coached soccer and tennis. Prior to coming to SRDS, he was the head of the Math department at Rutgers Preparatory School; he was also the Director of the Business and Entrepreneurship Program.

He joined the SRDS community in 2017 as the Upper School Division Head and distinguished himself by adding new programs, expanding extra-curricular activities and driving student engagement. In June 2019, he accepted the appointment as Interim Head of School. He and his team implemented an aggressive enrollment initiative over the summer and completed numerous projects on campus prior to the school year starting. They have worked together to build a more collaborative and engaged community of faculty and staff, while driving important initiatives like safety and security and launching the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Jalaj has demonstrated an incredible level of commitment to the SRDS community with his strong presence in the Lower, Middle and Upper Schools as well as amongst faculty, staff, and parents. Jalaj and his wife Anoli are the proud parents of two SRDS Lower School students: Maanya ’29 and Mehr ’32. We are excited to have Jalaj and his family as part of the SRDS community, and we look forward to his continued success in this role.