Parents Blast School Officials' Plan to Swap Principals

Tempers flared at Tuesday's school board meeting as parents packed the room to protest the Three Village school administration's plan to re-assign the principals at Mount Elementary and Setauket Elementary beginning July 1.

"Personally I don’t think this is a good idea," said Sean Lynch, a Mount Elementary parent. "... I take it to heart when you want to remove our principal. I don’t see where the structure is for my children. ... Now my kids have to learn somebody else. I personally do not see any reason for this change at all."

Gary Brown, another parent, said: "The principal problem I see with this is the loss of institutional knowledge, the loss of teacher relationships, the loss of student relationships. Your principals were doing a fine job in both schools."

School administrators last week announced the re-assignment of Dr. Nathalie Lilavois, formerly the principal at Mount, to Setauket, while switching Kathryn White, formerly the principal at Setauket, to Mount. However, with White taking maternity leave next year, an interim principal will fill her shoes temporarily. 

When a shouting match broke out towards the end of Tuesday's initial public participation session, board president Dr. Jeffrey Kerman asked his fellow board members whether anyone wanted to entertain a motion to adjourn into executive session. However, no such motion was made.

Towards the end of the meeting, Superintendent Cheryl Pedisch responded to one parent's request for schoolwide meetings with the newly reassigned principals by agreeing to make it happen.