By MIKE CAPUTO
The search is the school district's second attempt at finding a superintendent to replace Leon Campo, who is currently serving as its interim leader for the 2008-2009 academic term.
Campo, who has served 34 years in the East Meadow school district, postponed his plans to retire after the 2006-2007 academic term to assist in the initial superintendent search. After that search came up fruitless, Campo fulfilled the school board's request to serve as interim superintendent for the 2008-2009 academic term.
The decision to keep Campo on board for another year was spurred by a final superintendent candidate's decision to withdraw after receiving hate mail from a community group that launched a campaign against the school board and its external search firm, School Leadership, LLC. A second finalist withdrew for personal reasons, but said he also received similar letters.
At last week's school board meeting on Aug. 28 at the Salisbury Center, Lou DeAngelo, assistant superintendent for Human Resources, presented a memo outlining the second superintendent search. In the letter, DeAngelo wrote of the "unwarranted attacks and baseless accusations" against the two final candidates, the "maligning of credentials and credibility" that the search firm was subjected to and the possible litigation that the district and the school board faces from the candidates and/or the search firm.
The process will begin with an advertisement to be placed in the New York Times on Sept. 14. After the screening of documentation, several administrators will conduct in-depth interviews between Nov. 10 and Nov. 26. From Dec. 1 through Dec. 15, the school board will be presented with a number of qualified candidates. The district anticipates a superintendent to be appointed by
January.
Campo, whose agreement is contingent upon the district's pursuit of a new superintendent, urged all board members and administrators to uphold the promise of confidentiality throughout the new search.
"The last plan was wrecked," said Campo, who does not plan on participating in the new search. "Incredible people were actually driven out of the process and that can't happen again."
School board news and notes
Tax levy reduced
The school board authorized a tax levy reduction for the 2008-2009 academic term.
Several properties that were previously tax exempt were placed on the tax rolls by the Nassau County Department of Assessment after the East Meadow School District established the tax levy for 2008-2009. Those properties generate $273,111 in additional tax revenue. The school board decided to take those funds, and send it back to the taxpayers by amending the tax levy downward by that amount.
Trustees disagree over minutes
The process of approving minutes from the last meeting, which typically opens the agenda for most school boards, took nearly an hour and was tabled for a future undetermined date.
Several school board members disagreed over the voting process at the July 1 reorganization meeting, which resulted in the approval of Brian O'Flaherty as president, and Walter Skinner as vice president.
The disagreement was over whether there were legitimate vote tallies taken for two nominees, Skinner and Trustee Peggy McQuade-Kaplan, and the final vote counts.
Trustee Steven Jacobs, who initiated the conversation, said at the meeting he merely wanted the record to reflect the correct events.
"I believe the minutes should properly reflect what transpired," he said.
Although the school board members aimed to vote on revised minutes, a decision was not reached and they decided to table the matter.
Next meeting
The next meeting of the East Meadow Board of Education is a work session on Thursday, Sept. 4 at 6:30 p.m. in the Salisbury Center, 718 The Plain Rd., Westbury.
Comments about this story? MCaputo@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
