New Year, New Principal

­The Amagansett School has a new principal. Brigit DiPrimo starts in the position Thursday, while Thomas Lamorgese, who had been appointed interim principal in June following the resignation of Robert Brisbane, has been named interim administrator on an as-needed basis, also effective today. The school board voted to appoint Mr. Lamorgese to the new position at its meeting on Tuesday morning.

Ms. DiPrimo comes to Amagansett from W.S. Mount Elementary School in Stony Brook, where she was assistant to the principal. Prior to that role, she was an elementary educator for 14 years.

“We’re delighted,” Eleanor Tritt, the district superintendent, said Wednesday. Ms. DiPrimo, she said, “has a great background in curriculum, instruction, and technology, and has done a lot of staff development previously. We know she’ll be a great asset in helping us move forward in implementing the Common Core standards.”

The school is also fortunate to have had Dr. Lamorgese as the interim principal, Ms. Tritt said. The administration will “rely upon his knowledge to help us make a smooth transition,” she said.

The New York State Education Department has designated the Amagansett School a Reward School, Ms. Tritt told the board. “This is in recognition of the achievement of the students over a period of years,” she said, as well as an indication that special-needs students have also demonstrated achievement and growth.

In a detailed presentation to the board, Ms. Tritt reported good test results from AIMSweb, which provides academic assessments in reading, math, and language arts, and the Northwest Evaluation Association, a not-for-profit organization offering educational products and services. Amagansett students compare well to the other East End districts, where students are typically among the highest scorers in the state. “Our students always perform favorably in comparison to both Suffolk County and the state,” she said.

“We can see that the percentage of students achieving growth has increased as well,” Ms. Tritt said. “That’s reflected in the state indicating that we are a Reward School. We feel that our efforts are on the right track, but of course we want to always continue to do better and see how we can help our students achieve at higher levels consistently.”

The school’s summer program, she said, was very successful. “We know that when students are not participating in a program over the summer, they do typically regress slightly. We’re very pleased that we were able to offer a program that was not only academically but socially enriching for the children,” she said, citing participation in events at South Fork museums, farms, and libraries.

In developing goals for the coming academic year, a statement by the state School Boards Association “reflects the constant conversation on the state level and the national level,” Ms. Tritt said. College preparation and career readiness are popular areas of emphasis, “but the discussion of the School Boards Association is that, to most people, what’s important is not only the academics and career but also a well-rounded citizen of the community, someone who can lead a successful, productive life and contribute to the community.”

Long-range goals at the Amagansett School, she said, will always focus on development of well-rounded students through encouraging creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving, and communicating the importance of responsibility and respect for others.

School staff will incorporate an appropriate use of technology, Mr. Tritt emphasized. “We still want to maintain personal interaction among people and to use technology where we feel it can support the program.”

A new school website went live at the end of last month. “We’re going to be working with teachers to develop their own web pages as a way of communicating with parents,” Ms. Tritt said.

Finally, the superintendent reminded the board that the school must comply with state mandates, including new data-privacy legislation, auditing, and provisions of the Affordable Care Act. “We have a very healthy set of objectives set out,” she said, “but we feel excited, invigorated, and ready to go.”