Meierdiercks says goodbye to Sewanhaka H.S. district

Warren Meierdiercks, Sewhanaka’s Central High School District superintendent for the past five years, will retire on June 30.

Once a student in the Sewanhaka school district, Meierdiercks served the district in different roles for 37 years, including as a teacher, chairperson, basketball and baseball coach, assistant superintendent for finance and operations, and superintendent. He announced his intent to retire on Dec. 20.

“My career in the Sewanhaka District has been one of my life’s greatest blessings,” Meierdiercks wrote in his resignation letter to the school district. “A graduate of Sewanhaka High School, I have always felt myself fortunate indeed to have been chosen to work in the school district I attended, and in the community I have called home. And I will never be able to truly convey to you how proud I have been to be your superintendent.”

Meierdiercks, whose wife also graduated from the Sewanhaka district, said he feels very connected to the district and its large , surrounding community, and is retiring with mixed feelings.“It was a very difficult decision to reach,” he told the Herald in January.

Meierdiercks said that he is planning to spend his retirement relaxing and traveling throughout Europe.

Relaxing will definitely be an easier task for

Meierdiercks said that one of the biggest hurdles he’s faced as superintendent is limited financial resources due to state aid cuts, especially those made during the 2010-11 school year, which affected the district’s 2011-12 budget. He worked tirelessly during on the 2011-12 budget, which was $162.26 million — a $5.95 million increase over the district’s 2010-11 spending plan. Seventy-three percent, or $4.35 million, of the increase was due to the rising costs of state mandates, he said.

Dr. Ralph Ferrie, of New Jersey, will become Sewanhaka’s new superintendent on July 1.

Ferrie, who will bring 34 years of educational training and 24 years of training in administration to the district, served as an assistant professor at Georgian Court University, the superintendent of schools in the Three Village, Monroe County Township and Absecon City Public school districts. He also served as a middle school principal for nine years in Marlboro, New Jersey.

Meierdiercks said that he wishes Ferrie “nothing but best of luck” in his new position as Sewanhaka’s superintendent.