Schools

Gelinas Junior High Gets New Interim Principal

Former social studies teacher and Ward Melville principal returns to Three Village.

With Gelinas Junior High principal Gus Hueber tapped to head the new alternative high school program, an interim principal – who's not new to the district at all – will step into his post at Gelinas this coming school year.

As Hueber transitions to the Three Village Academy, the Board of Education on Monday appointed Tom Colletti to the post of interim principal at Gelinas. Colletti already has 34 years of service in Three Village: he first spent 12 years as a social studies teacher at Gelinas before becoming the social studies chair at Ward Melville HS. He later became an assistant principal at Ward Melville, principal at Murphy Junior High, then principal at Ward Melville.

Colletti retired from Three Village in 2008, and since then has served as an interim principal in the East Moriches school system and part of a year in the Plainview-Old Bethpage school district. He will begin his interim post at Gelinas on Aug. 26.

"I'm thrilled to be back," he said. "It's like coming home again."

He said he is looking forward to working with many of his former colleagues at Gelinas, and said he has spent the past few years immersed in current topics in education, including the new, rigorous Common Core curriculum and the annual professional performance review system.

"We have a lot of challenges ahead. I'm just looking forward to leading the school forward," he said.

The details of Colletti's contract with Three Village were not immediately available.

At Monday's meeting, superintendent Cheryl Pedisich said she was excited for Colletti to return as an interim principal and for Hueber to lead the new Three Village Academy.

"We felt that for this year, to place somebody in these positions, we needed to have individuals with excellent experience," she said, "and both Mr. Colletti and Mr. Hueber [have] backgrounds that lend themselves very nicely to that."


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