Augustine Tornatore

Riverhead Central School District Superintendent Augustine Tornatore and the district’s top business official, Rodney Asse, have resigned their positions. 

School Superintendent Augustine Tornatore is on a leave of absence through Oct. 23, according to a resolution passed by the Board of Education, acting at hastily called special meeting this afternoon. Another administrator has been reassigned to home pending an investigation.

Tornatore's base pay rose from $235,000 to $250,000, a 6.38% increase. He also received a $2,500 increase in the district's contribution to a tax-deferred annuity and will be paid a $15,000 vehicle allowance.

Riverhead Superintendent Augustine Tornatore said the new assistant superintendent, whom Tornatore hired last year while at Liberty K-12 School District in Newburgh, “was not the top financial person“ in the Rochester City School District when it overspent its revenues by $42 million in 2018-19, leading to a state comptroller’s audit and the appointment of a state monitor. Rodney Asse did “a fantastic job” at Liberty as its business official, Tornatore said, and has “a good reputation.”

Riverhead School Superintendent Augustine Tornatore had an electronic privacy sweep done at the district's Osborn Avenue offices last fall, according to documents obtained by RiverheadLOCAL through a Freedom of Information Law request.

A five-year strategic plan to guide the school district's goals for budgeting and learning will be developed by a steering committee set to begin its work next week, Riverhead Central School District Superintendent Augustine Tornatore said.

The recent cyber attack on the Riverhead Central School District is believed to have been “specifically targeted" at Riverhead, according to Superintendent Augustine Tornatore. 

The Riverhead Central School District will hire a business official to act as assistant superintendent for finance and operations, after longtime district administrator Sam Schneider was demoted and administratively reassigned pending an investigation into unspecified allegations from an employee.

All students, teachers, staff and visitors in K-12 schools should follow the Centers for Disease Control guidance, which urges universal mask wearing and social distancing due to the circulating and highly contagious delta variant, the Suffolk County health department has advised school officials. Riverhead School Superintendent Dr. Augustine Tornatore says he hopes the district will have its plan in place by the end of this week.

The school board reappointed Laurie Downs as president but could not agree on a vice president last night. Trustees Brian Connelly and Colin Palmer were sworn in, as was the new Superintendent Dr. Augustine Tornatore.