Superintendent search begins, ‘healing’ continues

Interim Superintendent Leon Campo, PTA Council President Donna LaScala and Board of Education President Joseph Parisi posed for this photo for the district newsletter to show their commitment to building a stronger school-community partnership this academic year and beyond, LaScala said.

Courtesy East Meadow School District

This timeline was laid out in the district newsletter, "Steps to Learning."

Courtesy East Meadow School District

• 
• 

When community members walk into Superintendent Leon Campo’s office in the Salisbury Center — which also bears his name, in honor of his decades of service to the East Meadow School District — they will see a pile of stuffed animals in front of a fireplace. But according to Donna LaScala, president of the PTA Council, a wall covered this inviting corner of the room just one year ago.

That wall came down when Campo, who has 35 years of administrative experience in East Meadow, came out of retirement in July to lead the district when Louis DeAngelo announced his own retirement. LaScala said that the change in scenery was hugely symbolic of what has gone on in the district since Campo took the helm once again: the development of transparent, communicative relationships among administrators, faculty and residents.

Timothy Voels, the principal of W.T. Clarke High School, said that many East Meadowites who felt alienated and ignored by the central administration prior to Campo’s return would prefer to simply be thankful that they have moved past darker times and focus on the search for a permanent superintendent. However, Voels believes the school community should reflect on what it has learned from the negative experiences in recent years as well as the positive changes of the past six months as the search begins

“We have to continually reflect on the past and let it guide us in a positive direction,” he said. “There’s still a bit of healing going on in the district, both within the walls and outside, and that will help us to springboard into the next era.”

Setting up the search

At the January Board of Education meeting, President Joseph Parisi outlined preliminary plans for the superintendent search, which will begin this summer. The board has agreed to partner with School Leadership LLC for the search.

Campo, who became superintendent in 2006 and retired in 2009 when DeAngelo took over, will remain in the position until June 30, 2017. A unanimous school board, with staff input and the support of the community, asked Campo to stay on for another academic year as they re-establish working partnerships vital to the well being of students and staff, Parisi said. He added that the new superintendent would benefit, as he or she will join both a stable and progressive school system.

“Having him in place allowed us to do a more focused and extensive search,” Parisi said of Campo. “We want to take advantage of his expertise.”