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Election results, hiring of new principal controversy at forefront of Smithtown BOE meeting
BY LEAH CHIAPPINO LCHIAPPINO@TBRNEWSMEDIA.COM
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The Smithtown Central School District Board of Education held its first meeting following the recent election that passed the district’s budget, reelected BOE president Matthew Gribbin, and trustee John Savoretti; Kevin Craine was elected to fill the seat of outgoing trustee Jerry Martusciello
Education
Gribbin started the May 23 meeting by thanking the community for passing the budget.
“That gives us the opportunity to continue to build on the curriculum that we have [going] forward and to expand our programs and opportunities and just continue to provide for our students,” he said.
Gribbin said he was honored to have been reelected, and congratulated trustee Savoretti with incoming trustee Craine on their wins. Savoretti and Craine ran on an opposing ticket to Gribbin.
Superintendent Mark Secaur also expressed appreciation for the budget being passed and congratulated the winners of the election. He said he had heard from the community regarding the level of security at voting sites in the school building.
“What I heard concerns me as well and we will be taking steps to address these concerns,” he said.
The conversation during the public comment portion of the meeting turned to the hiring of Martine Francois-DePass, an assistant principal in the Longwood Central School District who was a candidate for Smithtown Elementary School principal. She was scheduled to be voted on by the board at the meeting. Francois-DePass, a Black woman whose credentials include an M.S.E. in curriculum and teaching from Fordham University and an advanced certificate in educational leadership and administration from Long Island University, withdrew her name from the process before the meeting.
Also conversant in the Haitian Creole language, according to her LinkedIn page, Francois-DePass faced a slew of attacks on social media for tweets supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and racial justice. Her Twitter account now states it “doesn’t exist.” Without mentioning her by name, Secaur confirmed Francois-DePass was no longer being considered for the position.
“It would not be appropriate to discuss personnel matters in a public session but I can share that that candidate withdrew from the process,” he said. “I could also tell you that the district administration and the Board of Education is going to continue its conversations about the hiring process in a manner that will render the best possible candidates.”
Laura Campagna, a parent, expressed disappointment over Francois-DePass withdrawing from the process.
“It wasn’t about credentials,” she said. “I think the candidate was very well credentialed and I believe that I being a member of the school community as formally a school psychologist, I know that the process is very vigorous to hire all candidates. I really am very disappointed because I know this person was dragged through the mud on social media. I fear that the community coming after people like that will stop talented candidates from coming to interview in this district and it will cause tremendously bad effects on our schools and on our community and our home values.”
Katie Kensinger, a lifelong Smithtown resident, said with feeling, “We must recognize the significance of hiring administrators who bring diverse perspectives on social issues to the table in Smithtown,” citing the number of students of color presently enrolled in the district.
“There’s been several instances over the last several years that we have found ourselves both as a district and a community in both the international, national, local papers and not in a positive way for racial bias,” she said. “ It’s not new … what happened over the last couple of days was disgusting.”
A spokesperson for the district in a statement confirmed “the candidate withdrew from the hiring process,” but declined to comment further on the matter.
Francois-DePass did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
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