Dr. Deirdre Hayes, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction in the Herricks School District attended her final board of education meeting on Dec. 11. She will be retiring after more than 10 years of service on Dec. 31.
“I don’t know what we would have done without you, honestly,” Board of Education President James Gounaris said. “You’ve made our staff even better than they were, and you always found a way to include everybody and make everyone feel they were important to you and that you were concerned for their well-being.”
Hayes, with her seat adorned with balloons and a huge bouquet of flowers presented to her by the board obscuring her face, returned the warmth of her colleagues, stating that her time in Herricks was the most enjoyable of her professional life.
“I just want to thank all of you,” she said. “Herricks is a special place to work. I know I say this all the time, but I’ve worked a lot of different places during my career, and this really is a special place, and I am very grateful and honored to have been able to work here.”
Hayes will be succeeded as Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction by the recently-appointed Christine Finn, who assumes the position as of Jan. 1, 2015. Finn comes to Herricks from the Carle Place School District, where she is currently holds the same position.
Super Search
As for the search for retiring Superintendent of Schools Dr. John Bierwirth, Gounaris indicated that, after a long, exhaustive search where a plethora of individuals were carefully screened, the process is ongoing .
“Our hope is to have an announcement at the next Board of Education meeting on Jan. 8,” he said. “We have focused on a few candidates, and we think we have a good fit. We will continue the process, and hopefully have someone selected by the next meeting.”
Bierwirth will remain as superintendent until the end of the 2014-2015 school year.
Teaching Hires
Also, the economic climate of the Herricks is on the mend, according to Gounaris. In recent years, financial issues forced major staffing cuts upon the school district, resulting in vastly increased class sizes; something many parents have lamented for some time. However at the Dec. 11 board meeting, Gounaris noted that the district was hiring two new teaching assistants for Searingtown Elementary school’s fourth grade.
“Those teaching assistants will give additional support to the classes that are kind of full here,” he said. “The two assistants will be split among the three fourth grade classes, not assigned to any one class. Based on their schedules, the Searingtown principal will send them where they are needed. And the way that things are looking financially and with enrollment numbers, things are looking good for the fall.”
Bierwirth said that Herricks is poised to create even more new teaching positions come next year; the new additions to staff were held off until such a time that the district financial situation could ensure their permanency.
“It looks now that we should be able to restore the class size guidelines across the board,” he said. “We have gotten some relief, mainly with costs associated with the pension plan, and one of the things we committed to was, if we added things back next year, we wanted to try to make sure that whatever we added back we could sustain for the years ahead instead of having to make cuts again.”
