By Deborah S. Morris
deborah.morris@newsday.com
As controversy continues to swirl in the Huntington School District over the demotion and later reinstatement of its high school principal, the man at the center of the turmoil dismissed rumors he was stepping down.
“I haven’t resigned and I don’t plan on resigning,” said Richard McGrath, school board president, before a regularly scheduled meeting of the board last night.
McGrath did not attend the meeting because of a previous commitment.
“I have a meeting at my company headquarters in Dallas,” said McGrath, a tax accountant. “The trip was already planned and I couldn’t get out of it. It has nothing to do with last week.”
McGrath, board president since July, district superintendent John Finello and school board vice president Robert Lee were named in a discrimination lawsuit filed by Principal Carmela Leonardi on Aug. 17 after she was demoted.
In the lawsuit, Leonardi alleged the three officials were systematically trying to remove her over her desire to help Hispanic students. She said she was transferred to a post heading the district’s alternative high school, a position created specifically for her by McGrath.
In her suit, Leonardi says district officials’ contempt for her grew after a January board meeting at which she translated for Spanish-speaking parents.
About 35 percent of the high school’s 1,200 enrollment is minority.
At two packed board meetings last week, including a special meeting Thursday night, Leonardi received overwhelming support from those in attendance. At Thursday’s meeting, the seven-member board reinstated her by a vote of 5-1. Lee did not attend that meeting.
During Thursday’s public comment portion, Jefferson Primary School Principal Margaret Evers told the board she, too, had been scolded by a board member for translating part of a Back to School Night speech into Spanish.
McGrath has declined to comment on Leonardi’s transfer, but now that she has been reinstated he said he wants to move forward.
“Dr. Leonardi is my kids’ principal,” he said. “She made the appeal and she was reinstated, so I’m behind her. We’re all behind her.”
Leonardi’s attorney, Steven Morelli, has said they will “wait and see” before deciding whether to proceed with the lawsuit.
2 comments:
John Finello is a great person and educator. He has served the Huntington Union Free School District well for many, many years.
I would never belive that he would do anything to the administrators under him to hinder the children's success in his school district.
I'm sure this case is without merit.
My sister was at that Jefferson back to school meeting. She says that maybe 2% of those in attendance were hispanic. She was upset that after leaving her job in NYC early to attend, the meeting took twice as long because of Evers translating for just a few. Translation could have taken place in the back. Many parents were so upset, they got up and walked out.
This is a principle who locks the student bathroom doors and only leaves the one nurses office bathroom available for the entire school. She has ZERO credibility with me!!
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