The Riverhead Central School District is eliminating three central administration positions to cut costs in the next school year.
The roles of executive director of elementary education, director of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and director of humanities are all being cut in the 2025-2026 budget, Interim Superintendent Cheryl Pedisich said.
The district plans to redistribute the responsibilities of the STEM and humanities directors among five new administrative positions. Each administrator, or “chairperson,” will oversee a core subject area — math, science, social studies, English and foreign language — while teaching part-time at the secondary level, Pedisich said.
The duties of the executive director of elementary education will be assumed by the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, Pedisich said.
“We had some difficult choices to make; we had to look at our whole administrative structure,” Pedisich said in an interview. “…We didn’t want to start eliminating teachers. Keeping class size at the elementary level was a major focus. So it became a balance.”
The staffing changes were announced and approved at last night’s Riverhead Board of Education meeting.
The school board also held a public hearing on its 2025-2026 budget plan ahead of the May 20 budget vote. The $211 million budget plan would increase expenditures by nearly $10 million — or roughly 5% over the current budget. The plan calls for raising the district’s levy by the cap of 2.16% to generate an additional $2.3 million from property taxes.
“It’s our belief that this is an instruction-based budget that is coupled with a sound financial plan,” Assistant Superintendent for Business Marianne Cartisano said during the hearing.
Robert “Bubbie” Brown of Riverside questioned the school board’s decision to eliminate administrative positions that “directly impact teaching and learning,” especially when the state Department of Education has cited the district as needing improvement.
“Given this reality, shouldn’t strengthening teaching and curriculum support be a top priority, rather than eliminating it?” Brown said.
“I’ve seen this happen before, in many different instances — smoke screen — and I can see people eliminated from positions that do a job and do it well, but they are excessed because of other reasons,” Brown said. One excessed administrator, Gretchen Cotton Rodney, is one of only two Black central administrators.
“And growing up in this community has given me a sense of inherent paranoia, and I’ve seen things — ugly things — happen to good people in this community, and it irks me, it bothers me,” Brown said.
Pedisich responded that the district is adding a second literacy coach at the elementary level.
“There is definitely a plan in place to address the loss of these positions,” she told Brown. “We do understand that the people who have been providing this support have done a wonderful job,” she said, citing the budget as the impetus for the change. The restructuring will also “provide more direct support,” she said.
Brown was the only person to comment on the budget.
The budget vote will take place on May 20, from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Riverhead High School. The budget requires a simple majority to pass. Two incumbent school board members — President James Scudder and Trustee Matthew Wallace — are the only candidates on the ballot. More articles about the 2025-2026 budget can be found here. A line-by-line copy of the budget is available on the school district website.
Also during the May 6 meeting, the school board:
- Recognized high school science teacher Riley McHugh for winning the Long Island Science Technology Engineering Math Education Leadership Association 2025 STEM star teacher award.
- Recognized middle school science teacher Melanie Orlowski for winning the Science Teachers Association of New York State intermediate level science teacher of the year award.
- Recognized several students for volunteering for the Earth Day celebration at Golden Acres Organic Farm in Jamesport.
- Recognize the musical talent of high school senior Ramion James, who performed a song on the keyboard at the meeting.
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