In the Riverhead school district, we don’t need to be ‘fixed.’ We need to be supported — and led.

This is my sixth year as Riverhead Central Faculty Association president . . . and boy, has it been a wild ride. We have had five superintendents since I was seated in this position and by July 1 we will have our sixth.

Under the terms of our contract, RCFA is permitted two representatives on each and every administrator interview — that is, every administrator interview except the superintendent.

Picking a superintendent is the sole purview of the Board of Education and will always be the defining decision of any Board of Education that has the privilege to select the new leader of our school.

After sitting on so many administrator interviews, there is only one statement a candidate has to make which completely turns me off, and I immediately say to myself, this person should not work here.

“Your test scores are low.” Each time I hear that I want to say, “Thank you, Captain Obvious! You don’t think we know that!”

And then if they say, “Your test scores are low — and I can fix them,” I immediately disqualify that person from consideration. The mere utterance of the phrase, “I can fix them” triggers a negative visceral response. When I hear that, I know, like many who have come and gone before them, they have the arrogance to believe that they can “fix” Riverhead.

I want to go on the record: We don’t need someone to “fix” us. What we actually need is someone to support us.

And a superintendent cannot support us unless they get to know who we are, know what we do and know why we do it — and then they have to take the time to figure out how we got here.

Every single new admin from the outside who comes here, we tell them Riverhead is different. And their usual response to that statement is, “Well everybody says that about their district.”

There are a multitude of challenges we face.

There are seven different zip codes, four different fire departments, and three different townships in our district.

We are overcrowded and it doesn’t look like a capital project is anywhere in our near future.

We have a local town government that has at times been overtly hostile to our district and our students who live outside the town’s borders.

We have a local IDA that hands out tax abatements like party favors.

We have a local charter school that has siphoned $85 million from our coffers just since 2018, and that number will only grow with its proposed expansion.

We are responsible for educating the incarcerated youth at the Suffolk County jail and those students are reflected in our graduation rate.

Some of our students come from upper middle class families and some of our students live in abject poverty. We have students who have had a complete educational experience since they were toddlers and we have students with interrupted education.

And we also have students who have suffered unspeakable traumas.

None of these intangibles are measured through a test. What we do here is so much more than a score.

I was talking to an elementary teacher a few weeks ago about a situation in her classroom. It was a Monday morning and the students were eating school breakfast. She turned around for just a second and when she looked back at her class, one of her students was covered in milk.

A teacher who worked in another district might have yelled at the child. But it was a Monday morning, and the teacher knew that the child had likely not eaten the entire weekend and this was the first real meal they had since lunch on Friday. This kid was starving.

News flash: this elementary teacher does not work at Phillips or Roanoke. This situation is not an anomaly. It happens more often than all of us would like to admit.

The staff here in Riverhead go above and beyond for our students, day in and day out.

It’s about doing all we can, with limited resources at our disposal to meet the most basic needs of our students. For us, it is not only about test scores — here at Riverhead it is about survival.

We are not Three Village, we are not Miller Place, we are not Plainview.

We are Riverhead.

With that being said, I have to say that both Interim Superintendent Pedisich and Interim Superintendent for Business Dr. Cartisano are remarkable leaders.

They are both seasoned Long Island superintendents and I know for a fact that this has been an eye-opening experience for them both. They have both led with compassion and taken the time to listen to various stakeholders across the district.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Both have made decisions I have not agreed with and some that I have not been happy about at all. However, any decisions they have made were made after careful thought and reflection and every time either of them make a decision to go in a certain direction, it is because you feel that is what is in the best interest of the district. And our organization respects that.

I don’t have to agree with every decision they’ve made or with every decision any superintendent makes, but there has to be mutual respect for one another other and the role we fulfill as mutual stakeholders in Riverhead.

I can honestly say, not only do they both have my respect, they both have my admiration. Leading in this district is hard work; it’s not exactly a cushy retirement gig. That is why I know they are not here for themselves, they are here for our district. And we need leaders who are cut from the same cloth as they are.

After the years of turmoil we have had at the district office leading up to today, we don’t need to be fixed. We need to be supported — and we are dying to be led.

We are Riverhead.

Lastly, to the members of the Board of Education: A lot is riding on the selection of our next leader, and we are counting on you.

Gregory Wallace is the president of the Riverhead Central Faculty Association. He lives in Calverton.

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