Springs: New Assistant Principal Hired
Springs School, which has been without an assistant principal since last May, announced at a school board meeting on Monday night that it had hired Cleopatra Panagiosoulis, who will assume the post soon.
Ms. Panagiosoulis last worked as an assistant administrator for data and instruction at the Evergreen Charter School in Hempstead.
On Monday night, board members voted to allow the district to prepare her contract. The resolution did not appear on the evening’s agenda.
“We’re ready to roll,” said Dominic Mucci, the outgoing interim superintendent, who presided over the night’s two-hour meeting. “We had 168 applicants for the position.”
Later in the evening, he said that Ms. Panagiosoulis, who is fluent in both Spanish and Greek, had moved through the lengthy hiring process with the highest rankings. In addition to her work at the charter school, for the past three years she has also done data work for the Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services.
A graduate of Hunter College, who completed a Master’s degree at Stony Brook University, Ms. Panagiosoulis has also spent several years in the classroom, working for seven years in Manhattan and the Bronx as both a kindergarten and first-grade bilingual teacher. After leaving the classroom, she also worked for four years as a literacy coach and as a data specialist at P.S. 65 in the Bronx.
The hiring of Ms. Panagiosoulis follows the resignation last May of the school’s prior assistant principal, Katherine Byrnes. Louis Aiello, who has helped cover some of Dr. Byrnes’s duties in the interim, will stay on as a part-time employee. He will continue overseeing special education.
In other news, the board welcomed Jay Finello, the new interim superintendent. His first day, along with the students, was Monday.
“It was a smooth transition,” said Mr. Mucci, who will remain at his post over the next couple of weeks.
“It was a great day and it’s wonderful to be here,” said Mr. Finello. “I was most impressed by how easily and seamlessly everyone settled into their first day of school. There was a lot of teaching and learning going on, like they hadn’t missed a beat.”
“I promise to try and continue us on a path of excellence, which is something the district prides itself on,” he said.
In other news, Eric Casale, the school’s principal, led a presentation related to the most recent New York State test scores, which were released over the summer, and which showed declines in schools across the state.
“You may have a heard a collective scream across Long Island — us being one of them,” said Mr. Casale, who viewed the past year’s tests, which were tied to the Common Core, a new set of national learning benchmarks, as a baseline.
“The test scores are important but they’re not reflective of our students,” said Mr. Casale. “We see this as an opportunity for growth, but not for labeling a student a 1, 2, 3, or a 4.”
In terms of enrollment, Mr. Casale said the numbers were up, with 711 students in prekindergarten through eighth grade. Last year at the same time, 671 students had enrolled. Though he said new students were scattered across all grades, kindergarten and pre-K both saw higher than normal enrollment this year.