An end of an era: David Enos retires after 27 years as Riley Avenue principal

At the start of every school year, Riley Avenue Elementary School Principal David Enos has greeted students for their first day with a big smile and his jovial personality. 

Next year will mark the end of that 27-year-long tradition. Enos, 60, is retiring after a career in education spent primarily as the leader of the Calverton public elementary school. In an interview this week in his office — which was filled with packages of sweet treats and other retirement gifts — Enos reflected on his career as the Riverhead Central School District’s longest serving principal in recent memory.

“There was something here that was obviously special,” Enos said. “And this is a long run, and a run like this is not common these days…You may have an administrator for 27 years, but they would be in different positions. This is literally in [Riley] 27 years.”

For Enos, his time at Riley has gone by in a flash. Coming to Riverhead “feels like yesterday,” he said. 

Enos grew up in Rhode Island, and his love for working with children began in his youth, when he worked as a summer camp counselor at 16 years old. He has always had a natural rapport with children, he said, which inspired him to pursue a career in education. 

Children are the world’s “most precious resource” — “magical,” “authentic” and “powerful,” Enos said. 

“The responsibility is quite substantial, that you’re taking care of someone’s child and trying to educate someone’s child,” Enos said. “It’s an important responsibility.”

Enos taught in secondary-level social studies and history in Rhode Island for several years before moving to Long Island to become an assistant principal at the K-8 school in Springs, on the South Fork. (“I was supposed to go back to Rhode Island, where I’m from, but I forgot,” he joked.) 

He had just received tenure in Springs when he began to shop his resume around for principal positions.

“I was very happy there, but I wanted to be a principal at some point,” Enos said. “So 27 years ago, I decided to go on principal type interviews to try to get some experience, and here [in Riverhead] they kept calling me back.”

Enos, then 33, got the job. It was 1998, and Enos was suddenly the young leader of a school with a veteran teaching staff. He saw is role as the “coordinator” of the school community, supporting Riley’s students, their families and their teachers in every way he could.

“I was starting off new, as one of the youngest people. And now, obviously, full circle, I’m one of the oldest. It’s like the cycle of life,” Enos said. “But it’s been a journey that has literally gone by so quickly. It’s incredible.”

Over his tenure, Enos has seen the surrounding community change. The farms once surrounding the school transformed into housing developments; Parent Teacher Association meetings shifted from daytime to the evening; security measures tightened. Riley, when Enos started a K-3 school, added fourth grade. 

Student enrollment fluctuated too. There were around 500 students when Enos started, he said. That peaked around 650 during his tenure and has now returned to around 500. 

But what never changed, Enos said, was the tight, familial relationships between the parents, students and staff members at the school.

“He’s like no other person I’ve ever known in any of the schools that my kids have been in,” said Kim Pokorny, president of the Parents’ Association of Riley Avenue. “He is just amazing. He is always smiling, always positive. Everything is always for the kids to make sure that they have a great school experience.”

“I’m so happy for him. He’s been there a very long time and deserves a very happy retirement, but we are very sad to see him go,” she added.

Enos’s career has spanned so long that many former students during his tenure now have children attending Riley — walking the same halls — and some even work on the faculty.

“What a blessing. It’s a kind of a gift — you can’t put a price on that,” Enos said. “It’s the human piece, the human connection that we pride ourselves on over here as the Riley family. And to see people return to the Riley family, and to come visit me on an ongoing basis, and to have families of their own, it really does take you through the life cycle. It really is a very thrilling experience.”

At the same time, Enos raised his own family in Riverhead. 

“My own kids went here, which is not common,” Enos said. His deal with them: “I’ll behave, if you behave.” Having his three children in the building made the job “a total commitment.” Now, his grandchild attends Riley. 

Enos described working with kids as “rewarding” and “authentic.” A student’s relationship with their principal, he said, should be filled with regular, positive interactions. 

A handmade portfolio — stapled construction paper labeled “Letters for Mr. Enos” — sits in front of the long table in his office, now covered almost entirely with snacks and mementos gifted for his retirement. The makeshift mailbag is filled with dozens drawings and notes made by Riley students wishing Enos well in his retirement.

Enos samples a few of the papers. One encourages him to go have fun at Six Flags in retirement. Another says, “Congratulations on your retirement. You were the nicest principal.”

“This is authentic. This is real,” Enos said.

“It’s powerful,” he added.

The school’s teachers are also making him their own gifts. One is a scrapbook filled with poems and other notes addressed to Enos, each entry themed for a letter of the alphabet. A stanza from one poem reads:

“I have not counted down,” Enos said of his retirement. Some people keep a clock on their phone or a calendar to mark the days until retirement. 

Not Enos. 

“I’m gonna go right up into the bell and then jump and make the leap,” he said.

How does retirement make him feel? 

“Old,” he said with a laugh. 

Then, more seriously, “Reflective. And I’m very thankful.” 

“The opportunity to serve and to work with the children of the community — that’s kind of priceless,” Enos said. “It really is. It’s kind of priceless to mold these young minds.” 

Enos said he plans to spend more time with his family, but is also thinking of ways to stay active in the community. 

“I’m thinking about different capacities to continue to serve,” Enos said. “I’m a Riverhead guy.”

Taking over as principal at Riley is Gary Karlson. The Wading River resident is currently Roanoke Avenue Elementary School’s assistant principal and previously worked as an elementary school teacher. 

Karlson said he has “been getting a master class in the teamwork that goes into making this building what it is” from Enos. He said he looks forward to continuing Enos’s legacy “and finding places to help this building shine and working with the team here.”

“It’s no surprise that the community has the sentiment that it does for Mr. Enos,” Karlson said.

For Karlson and Enos, the transition is a full-circle moment. Enos was on the hiring committee that recommended Karlson for his first job in Riverhead. Though Karlson has never worked in Riley, he has worked with Enos in other capacities in the district — and as a parent while his own children attended Riley.

“I think we’ll be in good hands,” Enos said of passing the torch to Karlson.