Hogan's Back: West Hempstead schools superintendent chats with the Herald about his return

Six weeks have passed since the Aug. 9 fire that nearly burned down the George Washington Elementary School annex and sent its superintendent to the hospital, and things have gone back to normal in the West Hempstead school district.
Each of the district’s five schools opened as expected on the first day of school, Sept. 7, and Superintendent John Hogan joined his colleagues, staff and students the following week, happily returning to his post on Sept. 13.
Hogan spoke with the Herald about his return to work, the affects of the fire on the district and what’s ahead in the coming school year.

Q: How you feel about everything that's happened?

A: It feels great to be back. I’m very appreciate, obviously, of the efforts of the firefighters and the paramedics and the EMTs when I had my difficult in August. I can’t say enough about them. I was very blessed that they were there that night.
I can’t say enough about the work the Board of Education did and the administration team, starting with [Deputy Superintendent Richard] Cunningham and [Assistant Superintendent Ann] Peluso and [George Washington Principal Theresa] Ganley, the maintenance workers. I mean, the work they did in terms of not only getting GW back online and ready to open up on Sept. 7, but also by way of completing the summer work and having all the buildings ready to open on sept. 7. That’s exactly how an administrative team is supposed to work.

So I’m really appreciative of that and gratified that it went so well.

And the other thought that comes to mind is — personally, I’m just humbled by the outpouring of concern and the prayers that came my way in the past month, and that was from the entire West Hempstead community and my colleagues throughout the county. It was just overwhelming and very humbling.
I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again — I’m really blessed to be working in a school district and community like West Hempstead.

Q: How did you react when called to the GW fire?
A: As superintendent, anytime that you’re called and told that there’s a problem at one of your buildings — in this particularly case, that there was a fire at one of the buildings — that’s certainly disconcerting. Your immediate thought is for the health and safety of anybody that might be in the area and then, of course, once that’s taken care of — and in this case, once the fire’s taken care of — your thoughts start to turn to what … you have to do in terms of maintaining and taking care of the building and getting the building ready to open.

Q: Were you jolted into action?
A: I have thirty-three, thirty-four years experience as a teacher and as an administrator, so when things come your way, you really shift gears. You go into crisis-management mode and you fall back on your experience and things that you’ve done in the past, and you do what you need to do.

Q: What needed to be done?
A: Certainly, we lost the portables, but Mrs. Ganley — and I can’t say enough about the work she’s done over the past month — was able to make some adjustments in terms of the building. All the first grades are housed in classrooms and the building opened very smoothly. They’re off to a great start.

Q: Are you enjoying your return to work?
A: It’s wonderful to be back. It’s wonderful to face the challenges of the school district and to be working again with the administrators and the faculty for the benefits of the boys and girls. I’m really, really glad to be here.

Q: What’s up for the school year?
A: I’m excited about the coming school year. We have a number of things that we want to do. The first thing that we’ll be working on this year is the revision of our strategic plan, which is in its third and final year: we’ll be forming a new strategic planning council to review the original plan and set some goals for the next three years.

We anticipate that in short order the Board of Education will be forming a residents’ budget advisory committee … because we know that the financial situation of the state and the county and, certainly, the local school districts is still going to be a challenging one.               

We’re just looking to do things that will help us better serve the students. We’re really looking forward to this school year and I think we’re all excited to be back, and we’re going to move forward from there.

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