Two Riverhead Central School District assistant superintendents will leave the district at the end of next month, according to an agreement set for a vote at tonight’s special school board meeting.
Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education and Educational Services Lori Koerner and Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Education, Grants & Student Outcomes William Galati have opted to accept a one-time retirement incentive offered by the district. Both administrators signed the retirement incentive agreement yesterday. Their retirements will be effective on June 30.
The agreement allows each administrator seven days to revoke their participation.
The district will pay both administrators the value of 1½ months salary for each year of service within the school district, as well as the value of all their unused vacation and sick days remaining at the end of the year, calculated at 1/222 of the administrator’s salary, according to the agreement.
By agreeing to take the incentive, the administrators will not be paid any other retirement or terminal allowance benefits from the district, according to the agreement.
Together, Galati and Koerner oversee the school district’s K-12 curriculum. Both received raises from the school district during this school year. Koerner’s current salary is $211,666 and Galati’s salary is $206,504.
Koerner was hired by the district as executive director for curriculum and instruction and professional personnel in 2019. She was promoted to the assistant superintendent position in 2021.
Galati joined the district as an assistant principal in 2021 before being promoted to an executive director position in 2022; the position created by the school board in an administrative restructuring. He was promoted to assistant superintendent in January.
Koerner was administratively reassigned at home and investigated by the school district for allegedly grabbing and pushing the district superintendent’s confidential secretary, Rodney Parrish. School board president Colin Palmer said in January that the investigation into Koerner was completed and found no “provable wrongdoing.”
Palmer has said that the school board brought in Interim Superintendent Cheryl Pedisich, who retired after a 10-year long tenure as superintendent of the Three Village School District, “specifically to restructure” the school district.
The resolution states that the agreement is in the school district’s economic interests.
Palmer did not immediately return a call requesting comment.
According to the agreement posted online, the retirement incentive was offered to any non-aligned central office administrator with at least two years of service in the district, who is eligible to retire from the New York State Retirement System as of June 30.
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