Requirements for a new superintendent
This is my sixth year as Riverhead Central Faculty Association president — and, boy, has it been a wild ride. We’ve had five superintendents since I was seated, and by July 1, we’ll have our sixth.
Under the terms of our contract, the Association is permitted two representatives on each and every administrator interview — except the superintendent.
Picking a superintendent is the sole purview of the Board of Education and will always be the defining decision of any BOE that has the privilege to select the new leader of our school.
After sitting on so many administrator interviews, there is only one statement a candidate has to make that completely turns me off: “Your test scores are low.” I immediately say to myself, “This person should not work here.”
I want to say, “Thank you, Captain Obvious. You don’t think we know that?”
If they say, “Your test scores are low … and I can fix them,” I immediately disqualify that person from consideration. I know that, like many who have come and gone before them, they have the arrogance to believe that they can “fix” Riverhead.
I want go on the record: We don’t need someone to fix us. What we actually need is someone to support us! And a superintendent cannot support us unless they get to know who we are, what we do, why we do it, and takes the time to figure out how we got here.
We tell every single new admin who comes here from the outside that Riverhead is different. And their usual response is: “Everybody says that about their district.”
There are a multitude of challenges we face.
Our district has seven different ZIP codes, four different fire departments and spans three different townships.
We are overcrowded — and it doesn’t look like a capital project is anywhere in our near future.
We have a local town government that has at times been overtly hostile to our district and our students who live outside the town’s borders.
We have a local IDA that hands out tax abatements like party favors.
We have a local charter school that has siphoned $85 million from our coffers just since 2018 — and that number will only grow with its proposed expansion.
We are responsible for educating the incarcerated youth at the Suffolk County jail and those students are reflected in our graduation rate.
Some of our students come from upper-middle-class families and some live in abject poverty. We have students who have had a complete educational experience since they were toddlers and we have students with interrupted education. And we also have students who have suffered unspeakable traumas.
None of these intangibles is measured through a test. What we do here is so much more than a score.
I was talking to an elementary teacher recently about a situation in her classroom. It was a Monday morning and the students were eating school breakfast. She turned around for just a second and when she looked back, one of her students was covered in milk. A teacher in another district might have yelled at the child, but she knew this child likely hadn’t eaten the entire weekend and this was the first real meal they’d had since lunch Friday. This kid was starving.
News flash: This teacher does not work at Phillips or Roanoke. This situation is not an anomaly. It happens more often than all of us would like to admit.
The staff here at Riverhead go above and beyond for our students, day in and day out. It’s about doing all we can with limited resources at our disposal to meet students’ most basic needs. For us, it is not only about test scores. Here at Riverhead, it is about survival.
We are not Three Village. We are not Miller Place. We are not Plainview. We are Riverhead.
That being said, I have to say that both interim superintendent Ms. Pedisich and interim superintendent for business Dr. Cartisano are remarkable leaders, seasoned Long Island superintendents — and I know this has been an eye-opening experience for [them].
Both have led with compassion and taken the time to listen to various stakeholders across the district. They have made decisions that I have not agreed with; however, any decisions were made after careful thought and reflection [about] what is in the best interest of the district. And our organization respects that.
They are here for our district — and we need leaders who are cut from the same cloth.
After the years of turmoil, we have had at the District Office, we don’t need to be fixed. We need to be supported and we are dying to be led.
To the Board of Education: A lot is riding on the selection of our next leader, and we are counting on you!
Mr. Wallace, of Calverton, is current president of the Riverhead Central Faculty Association.