By:JOSEPH KELLARD
With the new school year just days away, the Long Beach City School District is suddenly in the market for its fourth new principal of the year.
Long Beach High School principal Richard Shear has left the district to take the same post at Locust Valley High School. Longtime vice principal Neal Maffei has assumed the duties on an interim basis as officials form a search committee to locate a new principal.
I have total faith in his ability to lead the school, Superintendent of Schools Ron Friedman said of the new acting principal. Maffei has been in the school district for nearly 20 years.
Shear had been granted a controversial early tenure appointment two years ago by former Superintendent Elliot Landon, just before Landon departed for the Westport School District in Connecticut. Shear had not yet served the mandatory three-year probationary period that is supposed to precede a tenure appointment at that time.
Friedman said the timing of Shear's departure certainly could have been better, but added, We are very lucky to have a seasoned veteran available to jump right in.
Whomever the district hires as a replacement will follow in the footsteps of many new faces to join the district this year. When doors open, the district will have 52 new educational staff members. Fourteen of them will be in newly-created positions, and three will be new principals.
The group we've hired is really an excellent mix of people, from young and old, experienced and new, inside and outside the district, and with a racial and ethnic diversity, Friedman said.
He added that almost all of the newly-created positions are teaching positions at the middle school and high school. They were created in order to accommodate the new nine-period day, which in turn accommodates the new higher standards that the state requires. Friedman added that the hiring of new teachers is directly related to the teaching that is taking place: more courses and more students.
Of the three new principals, two are from within and one is new to the district.
Serving as vice principal of the Middle School since 1995, Joane Tom became the school's principal after Fred Brand retired from that position earlier this year. During her term as vice principal, Tom was also vice president of Secondary School-LBTA teacher's union. Tom worked as a math teacher for 20 years before she joined the Middle School, where she started Student of the Month Programs, ran a mentoring program, and became a member of the South Shore Anti-Bias Consortium. She was voted Educator of the Month
