District search to begin Jan. 1

The Franklin Square Board of Education plans to officially begin its search for a new superintendent in January, board officials said last week.

The school district has had an interim superintendent, Dr. Anthony Pecorale, since last summer. School board President Joe Armocida said in an interview last week that he was hopeful that the effort to find a qualified replacement for Dr. Thomas Dolan, who left at the end of last year to work in Great Neck, would be completed by late April or early May, if everything goes according to plan.

“We haven’t started the process yet, as in we haven’t gone out and done any advertising,” Armocida said. “We’ll be placing our advertisements in early January. At that point we will put ads in the papers and through school publications and try to get the word out.”

Armocida said that the board is taking the search very seriously, and will likely spend a great deal of time reviewing resumes and considering applicants before settling on a small group who will be interviewed by a number of board members, administrators and parents. “The board does the initial process, and then there will be some committees formed once the board narrows down the candidates,” he said. “We will certainly have a committee of administrators, as well as a committee of teachers and a committee of parents, members of the PTA and that sort of thing.”

Searching for suitable candidates for superintendent can be a difficult task. Some districts — East Meadow, for example — have had interim superintendents for years during lengthy searches, and have sometimes made a final choice only to have the candidate drop out.

But Armocida said he does not think it will be difficult for Franklin Square, a district with a solid reputation statewide, to find a qualified candidate who wants the job. He said he anticipated a big response, including from current superintendents in the area. The Board of Education, he explained, has agreed on a set of criteria.

“We’re looking for an applicant that has central office administration experience and has qualities that we feel are going to be necessary to be an administrator in a district that runs K through 6,” Armocida said.

When he took over as interim superintendent in May, Pecorale made it very clear that he knew exactly what his role would be. “The first and most important part of [my] job is to set up for hiring a long-term, full-time superintendent,” Pecorale said. “During the period of the time I’m there, the job is to hold the district there to maintain the good programs and, if necessary, do whatever we can to work with the programs that need improvement.”

Now, Pecorale said, his role is much more involved with the practical aspects of that search, from preparing the application for the position to helping make sure the district attracts the best candidates. “There are a lot of superintendent openings on the Island and nearby, so competition is going to be very, very keen,” he said. “There could be as many as 40 openings for superintendent positions in Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester.”

Pecorale said he believed the right candidate for the job would be someone who has strong elementary district experience as well as an understanding of suburban Long Island and the ability to create and sustain a “high-powered educational program.” He added that the board was planning to winnow the group of candidates down to between three and five before members of the community will have a chance to meet them.

“My job,” Pecorale said, “is going to be to make sure that they get the best candidates applying for the position.”

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