Schools

District 13 superintendent to retire

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After four years at the helm of Valley Stream Union Free School District 13, Superintendent Adrienne Robb-Fund will retire at the end of the school year.

“It’s a very personal decision,” said Robb-Fund, who will officially step down on June 30, 2015. “I am looking forward to opening new doors and really spending much more time with my family…the timing is right for me, my husband and our family.”

Robb-Fund began her career in education at a state institution in Connecticut after graduating with a degree in special education from the University of Connecticut. She worked as a special education teacher in Massachusetts while she worked toward her master’s and doctorate degrees from Boston University.

She and her husband returned to Long Island, where she grew up, when she began her tenure as an assistant principal in the William Floyd School District in Brookhaven in 1982. She served for more than two decades as an elementary school assistant principal and the director of reading instruction in the Wantagh school district. She then spent six years as assistant superintendent of elementary education in Commack.

She was hired as District 13’s superintendent in 2010. Frank Chiachiere, then board president, said Robb-Fund’s experience as a director of reading instruction was a major part of the board’s decision to hire her.

“She is so embedded in literacy and reading and language,” Chiachiere said at the time. “That really put her over the top.”

Robb-Fund said she will have fond memories of working in the district. “I really did enjoy everything about the district and the work we did. It’s such a vibrant and diverse district, it really is a great place to work…It’s an elementary district, and we all have a common goal: to focus on the children and make sure we’re doing everything we can to educate them and help them grow.”

Toni Pomerantz, vice president of the board, said Robb-Fund’s retirement had been expected, though the timing wasn’t clear until now. “It was part of our district’s strategic plan to eventually replace the superintendant.”

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