High School Principal May Decamp
Scott Farina is looking for a new job in his native Pennsylvania

By Kate Maier

Carissa Katz Scott Farina, the East Hampton High School principal, pictured here in 2004, may be moving to his home state of Pennsylvania in the fall.

(03/22/2007)    After nearly four years of stability at East Hampton High School, Scott Farina, the school’s principal, announced to faculty that he is considering a job in his home state of Pennsylvania, causing a small crowd of supporters to speak on his behalf at a school board meeting Tuesday night.

    “The best that I can say is it’s personal and professional issues,” Dr. Farina said of his decision.
    According to Mike Tracey, the school board president, and Raymond Gualtieri, the district’s superintendent, school officials have known for some time that Dr. Farina was seeking employment elsewhere. “We found out in June of ’06 that he had been looking,” said Mr. Tracey on the phone yesterday.

    But teachers, many of whom felt that Dr. Farina had established a sense of optimism and stability at the school, which had gone through seven principals in the 10 years prior to his arrival in 2005, were unaware of Dr. Farina’s plans. Six teachers and one parent spoke at the meeting, imploring the board to “do whatever they can” to persuade Dr. Farina to stay.

    “I will tell you that Scott Farina has turned this high school around from something fairly close to a crisis,” said David Douglas, who has taught at the school for 11 years. “I urge you in the strongest language that I can summon to urge him not to leave,” he said to the board. “He’s been a gift to our school, and a gift to our students.”

    Diane Spina, a teacher at the school for 15 years, recalled tumultuous times when the high school cycled through principals who just didn’t seem to fit its needs. “We were an unhappy faculty, and we didn’t like feeling that way,” she said. “Dr. Farina turned us around and made us start feeling optimistic. It will break our hearts for Dr. Farina to leave.”

    One parent, Ellen Cooke, said that she had traveled from Montauk to East Hampton for the third time that day to show her support for Dr. Farina. She would not have sent her son to East Hampton High School, she said, if it had not been for him. “I believe in what’s happening here,” she said. “I would hate to see that roll backward.”

    According to Ms. Cooke, more parents and faculty members would have shown their support at the meeting if they’d had time to organize. She had only come to the meeting, she said, because she’d heard the news while picking up Chinese takeout in Montauk.

    Other teachers said that Dr. Farina’s ability to listen, compromise, and communicate made him particularly suited to the job. Some said they were devastated by his recent announcement that administrators from a Pennsylvania school district were to be at East Hampton High School yesterday to observe him. Representatives of another district, also from Pennsylvania, will be at the high school tomorrow to see him at work.

    Mr. Tracey called The East Hampton Star yesterday morning to dispel any rumors that personal or business conflicts had played a role in Dr. Farina’s decision. “He’s leaving, and he’s been planning on leaving for some time,” he said, “for no reason other than his family,” who live in Pennsylvania.

    While he expressed regret at Mr. Farina’s decision, “I don’t think anyone on the board is remotely surprised,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of good people, and life goes on.”

    Dr. Gualtieri said that he has worked with Dr. Farina, “on and off,” for the past 17 years, mostly in Pennsylvania. The gig at East Hampton High School was Dr. Farina’s first job in New York. “This is a personal issue for him,” he said. “He’s got to do what he’s got to do.”