Riverhead’s assistant superintendent for business is leaving the district for a new job in Sag Harbor.
Colleen Card, who was hired by Riverhead as assistant superintendent for business in May, has been appointed school business administrator by the Sag Harbor Union Free School District, effective Nov. 1. The Sag Harbor board of education approved the appointment at its meeting Tuesday.
Superintendent Bob Hagan said Card told him she’d be leaving on Wednesday. It was not expected, he said in a phone interview Thursday. “It’ll be a good match there for her, he said.
“We have a plan in place and we’ll be fine,” Hagan said.
Card succeeded interim assistant superintendent for business Marianne Cartisano, who was hired by Riverhead in October 2023. Cartisano was hired as a per diem consultant in the role of executive director for business operations, a temporary position created to assist the newly appointed assistant superintendent for business during the transition. Cartisano’s consulting agreement with the district covered July 1 through Dec. 31.
Cartisano is already in place and will step in to oversee the business department after Card leaves until the position is filled, he said. The district has already sent out a job posting to fill the position, Hagan said.
“We’re still very strong here. We’ve got a great [business] department,” Hagan said, “so we’re not concerned.”
Card did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Hagan credits Cartisano with getting the district’s business office back on track after a change in leadership in 2022. An audit by the state comptroller’s office covering the period from July 1, 2022 through April 30, 2024 found problems across multiple areas of the district’s financial operations in the district.
During the audit period, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations Rodney Asse, who was hired in 2022 by then-Superintendent Augustine Tornatore, led the business office. At the same time, there was turnover in the district treasurer’s position, which was filled by three different people.
After Tornatore and Asse both left the district abruptly in October of 2023, the board appointed an interim superintendent, Cheryl Pedisich and Cartisano as interim assistant superintendent for business.
Pedisich handed the reins over to Hagan last year and Cartisano stayed on as a consultant through the end of this year for the transition to Card, according to district documents.
Prior to Asse’s hiring, the business office had been led for more than a decade by Sam Schneider, who was ousted from his position in October 2021, with no public explanation by the district. An ensuing investigation and forensic audit by an independent accounting firm found no evidence of fraud, embezzlement or malfeasance.
The comptroller’s audit was publicly released by the comptroller’s office in December, but was available to district personnel prior to that date. In January, Cartisano reported to the board of education that all of the auditor’s comments had already been addressed.
“There were seven audit comments. And I’m proud to say, out of the seven audit comments, every one of them had already been rectified” before the audit report was issued, Cartisano told the board in January. “Because when I got here in October of ’23, we’d already started fixing things. That’s why you hired me to be part of this transition team,” she said.
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