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GREENBURGH, N.Y. – After whittling a field of more than 30 superintendent candidates down to a final three, the Greenburgh school board is nearly ready to make a decision.
The board will begin deliberating Friday and is hoping to have a superintendent selected by the end of this week, said Terry Williams, president of the Greenburgh Central School District 7 Board of Education.
“The goal is Friday,” Williams said Tuesday. “But we will deliberate until we get a decision.”
The school district is searching for its first permanent superintendent since the end of 2011, when Ronald Smalls retired.
In the final part of the process, the Board of Education will host a series of meet-and-greet events for three straight nights, beginning Wednesday. Williams will moderate the events.
First up will be Woodlands High School Principal Ronald Ross, who was appointed interim superintendent in January. From 5 to 6:30 p.m., Ross will field questions from the community in the high school cafeteria.
He will be followed Thursday by Anthony Cavanna, the superintendent in West Orange, N.J. Robert Copeland, a superintendent in Piscataway, N.J., will wrap up the sessions Friday.
At Tuesday’s Board of Education work session, a few parents questioned what they called a rushed selection process.
Amy Huang said the board had not given the community ample time to weigh in on the search. “Some districts take 18 months, and yet you’re trying to clamp everything into three days,” she said.
The community had plenty of time to weigh in, and few residents turned out when they were given the opportunity, board member Lloyd Newland said. Information has been available online, he said, and only two or three residents came to the information sessions around Greenburgh.
“We tried our best to reach out to the community,” he said. “I don’t know what more we can do to get the word across.”
The timeline of Greenburgh’s search — which Williams characterized as lasting months — was comparable to many other districts, he said. And ultimately, the decision is up to the Board of Education, he said.
“You all voted us here to do this job,” Williams said. “Let us do our job.”
Comments (6)
Wowza! GC7 truth. There are some many offensive statements in your rant I'm not sure were to begin. You offend and entire population of YOUR COMMUNITY and make many, many assumptions. Stereotype much, eh? Diversity you say? Reread your entire offensive rant (The lady doth protest too much, methinks) and them go back and re-read my post.
FACT: The school district DOES NOT WANT 700 MORE KIDS TO EDUCATE.
FACT: Some of those 700 wouldn't ever put their kids in the district, ever.
FACT: Many of those 700 would like to use the district AND HAVE, AND HAVE PULLED THEIR KIDS OUT because of lack luster performance AND THE OVERWHELMING FEELING OF WHAT YOU JUST DESCRIBED IN YOUR RANT. .Let the 700 leave, buh-bye! Some of them wouldn't have their nannies kids in class with their entitled kids anyway. If we question we should "MOVE" say what?! my kid goes for free and will go to the same college.
See ya in a few years, at the Freshman admissions meeting!! NICE! What do you mean by this Free?Everyone who lives here wants to live like the "better districts" but doesn't want to pay to live IN the "better districts". LOL, whew, What a JOKE! Everyone? Really? REALLY?
FACT: You need to check yourself. THIS is why there are problems. Seems like I struck a cord.
Do you want the truth???
1. Mr. Williams is CORRECT! We (who actually voted) elected The Board members. If you don't like their votes, they have an end to their term...rally your supporters and make something else happen! Why bash the VOLUNTEER board members, it's easy to sit back and critique all public officials. Who else has a job that's constantly evaluated by others, who have NO PRACTICAL CLUE what it takes to do the job. Are you an ex-Board member or for the FEINER HATERS, ex-town Supervisor that KNOWS how difficult the execution of the job? Stop yelling and berating these people and try to work WITH them...after all, your GOAL is for the betterment of your children right??
Only children act like internet bullies, targeting volunteers and calling them fraudulent!
2. Mr. Smalls' integrity was questioned and then he left...no one wanted that to happen, well, where'd that leave the district?? I question the "interity" of people who nicely live amongst us all, then question the "integrity" of ELECTED OFFICIALS....pick your family up and MOVE! What integrity have YOU if you want to live here but bash our officials? If you think all your fellow voters are dumb enough to keep electing the same people without integrity...LEAVE, don't stay on what you think is a sinking ship. You stand around the sinking ship complaining about the captains instead of patching up holes and asking how to help!! Get off, your weight is helping to sink those that are trying to stay afloat!!
No damn manners!
3. Tootired, aren't you TOO TIRED of bashing Greenburgh and it's officials?? Not a serious question, I’m just putting that out there because its obvious that you enjoy it. You said, “People don't want to openly discuss it for fear of being called racist so EVERYONE suffers in silence." Well, if it looks like a Duck, walks like a Duck, and Quacks...well you get the point. Maybe they ARE racist! Stop being afraid of being called a racist...Let the 700 leave, buh-bye! Some of them wouldn't have their nannies kids in class with their entitled kids anyway.
None of this is new to Greenburgh or it's history. History has been known to repeat itself hasn't it? So, get out now, go, go RUN and take your complaints to some school that will laugh at your bickering while they soak up your tens of thousands of dollars yet my kid goes for free and will go to the same college.
See ya in a few years, at the Freshman admissions meeting!!
4. Has anyone thought (Ha! Imagine THINKING throughout all of this) that MAYBE the community is AWARE of the search, but they are not out trying to fight their elected Board members on their decision. They TRUST that the Board will elect who is best for the district. Why insult and criticize the dedication of the community members that are too busy parenting instead of trying to micro-manage an elected Board of Education! I’m SURE the process was longer than 3 days!! To find 30 candidates, it’s taken longer than 3 days…just foolish rhetoric to make the scared, upper middle classmen want to join in the attack! Attack, attack!! They don’t have to open the process up to you, it’s not a RULE, they’re opening up because they’re trying the BEST that they can to be transparent…yet THEIR integrity is in question.
5. Hartsdale has in fact already turned to dust! Everyone who lives here wants to live like the "better districts" but doesn't want to pay to live IN the "better districts". LOL, whew, What a JOKE! This is unincorporated GREENBURGH, which means in school, your kid sits next to a kid who's parents may not be married, may not be educated or may not work, may not speak English or be able to read! They call it DIVERSITY! Hartsdalers like it for the multiple program funding and programs for their kids but don't like the ghetto-fabulousness of their Fairview counterparts. If you want diversity, you want it for the good AND bad. So DUSTY Hartsdale will continue to be, so long as it's educating kids alongside with poor, Black, Spanish speaking Fairview.
Be careful, your son or daughter may want to marry or mate with one of those Fairview kids who's family is bringing down your property values. RUN NOW!!
And that's the truth!
correction: It is BIASED and the "BOE" happily perpetuates it.
starry night: You may be right. Hartsdale has already turned to dust and, yes, it is because of Feiner. What's really funny is that the BOE, despite have no taste for Feiner, operates just as he does. They suck the life out of the entire unincorporated area while spending ridiculousness amounts of tax payer money to serve a handful of people. The GC BOE has done as much damage to the TOV/GC area as Feiner has.
sorry to report but hartsdale has already turned to dust. if (and its not very likely) edgemont incorporates, the rest of the unincorporated area of the town will continue its ongoing slide all overseen and abetted by supervisor for life paul feiner and his fellow career politician diana the sphinx juettner. your water bills are skyrocketing. millions of dollars where illegally sent to the valahalla school district. millions more may be due the fortress bible church. stop believing feiner's press releases. the emperor has no clothes and greenburgh is in political shambles "governed" by feiner's lemmings.
"And ultimately, the decision is up to the Board of Education, he said."
“You all voted us here to do this job,” Williams said. “Let us do our job.”
How smug.
ayh2c2002: I totally agree with you. There is nothing but "fuzzy math" thrown at the public at every turn. There is a rush to appoint a new Superintendent. I believe that it will be Ross and the board is just going through the motions, for show. Ultimately, this is how the district operates. The low turn out to meetings is reflective of just this. The board does what it wants to do. It does NOT want the entire district to come out to question or have concerns. " Let us do our jobs" = give me your money, let me do whatever I want and go away.
The real issue has always been why the district deflects reaching out to the ENTIRE community. It appears that they do not want to encourage any of those other 700 kids to enroll. They are perfectly content to use the enormous surplus of tax dollars, provided by those families who send their children to private schools, at their whim to mismanage, poorly educate, overpay, spend on frivolous items and activities......only servicing a fraction of the entire district. It is BIASED and the BOA happily perpetuates it. There have been many, many reports of incidents by families of those 700 where when they have looked to the district for services the distinct MUST PROVIDE to those children, have been DENIED those services or been treated poorly and unfairly. People don't want to openly discuss it for fear of being called racist so EVERYONE suffers in silence. Ultimately, it will be the demise of the GC7 District/Hartsdale/Fairview as Edgemont will eventually succeed in incorporating causing an unrecoverable loss in town tax revenues and Hartsdale will turn to dust because they will have nothing to hold on to......not even the school district. The end.
Mr. Williams: Carry on.
The board president Mr. Williams is correct in that the board of ed (volunteers) are entrusted to select the superintendent. It's an important job and should not be taken lightly, meaning that the board members are not there to advocate for their own children, but rather for the good of the district and all children from PK-12.
The board are entrusted with the job to select a superintendent that will be good for all the schools of Greenburgh, not just the high school or elementary. Our new superintendent needs to exemplify impeccable integrity and commitment to academic excellence. And YES, STANDARDIZED TESTS DOES MATTER, if it doesn't matter then why does almost 700 students from Greenburgh attend private/parochial school?
Greenburgh is consistently noted as one of the best place to live, it's often called the "best hidden secret" in Westchester. As one mom noted so eloquently last night, we need to bring up our schools and make Greenburgh the BEST place to live and send our kids to school in.
Also, I saw for my own eyes last night that the board of ed is practicing "FUZZY MATH" with money. How is it that 45K is transferred to different places for a math enrichment program for 10 kids done without total consent from the board?? One board member said she was under the impression this enrichment was grant paid (with no cost to district). Another board member asked if what was done was "Legal"??? And another board member said "fund transfers happen all the time" with a hand wave. All this makes me want to look into this matter further!!!
Finally, Mr. Newland, the board member, who mentioned numerous information session was actually talking about the community meeting where the school budget was being presented. Mr. Newland is correct, there was low turnout from the community due to LOSS OF CONFIDENCE from Greenburgh residents.