Springs Finds Superintendent

At Monday’s meeting of the Springs School Board, Barbara Dayton, its president, announced that the four-month-long search for a school superintendent had ended. The name of the school’s new top administrator will not be released until a contract is signed, probably next week.

The new superintendent will replace John J. Finello, who was due to retire in December 2016 but agreed to stay on until a successor was found. Mr. Finello has been receiving a $975 per day as part of his contract amendment.

Monday’s announcement elicited frustration and disappointment from several members of the public. Dina Scalia, a mother of three Springs students, said the lengthy search had been a waste of money when the school principal, Eric Casale, was widely considered by both parents and staff to be the perfect candidate for the job.

“I am not alone in saying that I am very disappointed Eric will not be this school’s next superintendent. No one knows the school better than he does, and for us to have gone on a long and expensive search to bring in an outsider  is really a shame,” she said. Ms. Scalia, who works at the school as a hall monitor, added that Mr. Casale had promised a budget that would save the school approximately $200,000.

“He’s the only one who roams the halls and actually knows what this school needs‚” she said.

School needs were also discussed later in the meeting when Ms. Dayton offered an update of the building expansion plans. “We asked [the architects] to scale back from their previous proposal,” she said, adding that the firm continues to focus only on the school’s most pressing needs, such as a new gym and the right amount of art and music space. Ms. Dayton said the board felt positive about the progress, and that a public hearing on the developments will take place within the month.

During a budget workshop session, Carl Fraser, the interim school business administrator, had little to report since last month’s session. The proposed budget for 2017-18 is $28.113 million, an increase of 1.75 percent over last year. The budget, he said, will not pierce the state-imposed cap of tax levy increases, remaining below it by $20,758.