At the most recent board of education meeting held at Garden City High School, President Angela Heineman announced that the district had selected Dr. Kusum Sinha as its finalist to be the next superintendent of Garden City Public Schools. Sinha will be succeeding her predecessor, Dr. Robert Feirsen, who had served in that role for a dozen years until he announced his plans to move on to the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) as a director of the Institute’s Program for School Leadership and Technology. As soon as Feirsen made his announcement, the district went in to high gear to find his successor, not only hiring search consultants Deborah Raizes and Dr. Robert Roelle of Hazard Young Attea & Associates to aid in the search, but asking for public input via a pair of community forums in September. It was here where residents were invited to join in and help establish a profile of the characteristics and experience that taxpayers would like to see in the new superintendent and to aid the board in formulating critical interview questions for the slate of candidates. In the meantime, Dr. Alan Groveman was brought aboard on Aug. 1 to serve as Interim Superintendent of Schools for the Garden City Public School District.
Currently, Sinha is serving as assistant superintendent for human resources and leadership development for the Chappaqua Central School District. She began her professional career as a social worker and moved into educational administration almost 19 years ago as assistant and then director of Pupil Personnel Services for the Goshen Central School District. Since then, Sinha has worked in upper level positions in a number of other school districts including Croton-Harmon UFSD, Ramapo Central School District and Briarcliff Manor UFSD before winding up in Chappaqua. She holds numerous degrees including an Ed.D in Instructional Leadership from St. John’s University, and MS in Clinical Social Work from Columbia University, a BS in Social Work from Dominican College of Blauvelt and an Associates Degree in Liberal Arts from Orange County Community College. The board of education will be executing its last piece of due diligence by conducting an on-site visit with Sinha in Chappaqua sometime in early March. The board plans to introduce Sinha to the Garden City community at a special meeting on March 13, to be held at Garden City High School at 7:30 p.m., with a reception to be held immediately following the board meeting.
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