The Riverhead Board of Education has extended by one month the deadline for applications for the superintendent of schools.
The original Dec.13 deadline was extended to Jan. 17.
Riverhead school board President James Scudder said the deadline for applications was extended after consultation with Eastern Suffolk BOCES Chief Operating Officer David Wicks. Eastern Suffolk BOCES is assisting the district with the search.
“He told us of a few inquiries that were made by potential candidates but they did not submit an application. We felt that this may be due to how close the deadline was to the holidays and extending the deadline might give a few of those people time to decide if they are going to apply or not,” Scudder said in a text message today.
“It is not a reflection on the candidates who have already applied,” Scudder added. “Every candidate is being looked at seriously for consideration.”
The school board launched the search in November, with the goal of hiring a new permanent superintendent no later than March and the expectation that a permanent hired would be in place on or before July1.
Scudder said the board does not anticipate that extending the application deadline will delay hiring a new superintendent.
Riverhead has been operating with interim appointments in the district’s top leadership slots. The district has had an interim superintendent since October 2023, when the school board hired retired Three Village Central School District Superintendent Cheryl Pedisich for the role, after the Riverhead Superintendent Augustine Tornatore resigned.
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The school board on the same day hired retired Miller Place School District Superintendent Maryanne Cartisano as interim assistant superintendent for business. She replaced Assistant Superintendent for Business Rodney Asse, who was “reassigned at home” from Oct. 24 through Dec. 25, when his resignation took effect.
Pedisich has worked to reorganize the district’s central administration, streamlining and restructuring top district administrative positions. The district hired two more interim assistant superintendents, an assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction and an interim superintendent for human resources and eliminated or consolidated other administrative posts. The superintendent and all three assistant superintendents are interim appointments.
Pedisich and Cartisano were originally hired through the end of the 2023-2024 school year, but agreed to stay on for another year.
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