UPDATED: Kelly Fallon Named New HHH Superintendent

Turns out the Half Hollow Hills School Board didn’t have to go far to find the district’s next superintendent.

After a nationwide search with more than 25 applicants, the board named Kelly Fallon to the position at its meeting Monday night.  

Currently the district's deputy superintendent, Fallon will replace Sheldon Karnilow, who announced his in March after a decade leading the district. 

“It’s an honor and a privilege for me to be here tonight,” Fallon said after the board unanimously approved her appointment before a standing room only crowd at the . “For the last 17 years, I have been in awe of this community in terms of the commitment to education that is found here.”

Fallon’s appointment is effective on Sept. 1 as she will take the reins from Karnilow after working with him on the transition through the summer. 

Karnilow said the search for a replacement was “tremendously rigorous,” but in the end, the board turned to Fallon, who Karnilow called “an incredible, loyal ally.” 

“I’m extremely confident that she will move this district forward in the very positive way that it has been and even help us to reach new heights,” Karnilow said of his successor, who came to Half Hollow Hills in 1995 to serve as principal after being in teaching and assistant principal roles in the Bay Shore, William Floyd and Lindenhurst school districts. 

Fallon, who holds multiple degrees in education and administration from Dowling College and C.W. Post and currently serves as an adjunct professor at Touro College, moved into the administrative offices after five years at Paumanok, climbing the ranks to deputy superintendent last November. 

With family and friends, including her husband, Frank, and three daughters in the crowd Monday, Fallon was emotional in thanking those who have supported her along the way. 

“To my husband, he is the inspiration,” she said of Frank Fallon, who retired as principal of Fifth Avenue School in Bay Shore last year after nearly three decades. “He is the person that has told me I’d be able to do anything that I wanted to do.”

With plenty of moving parts in the district as it gets ready to swear in next month and welcome a new assistant superintendent of finance and facilities, hiring a superintendent from within its ranks was the logical choice, board trustee James Ptucha said.

“Her drive, experience, her working knowledge with all of the administrators and employees of the district, she is going to make as smooth of a transition as anybody we could have ever hoped for,” Ptucha said of Fallon. “There’s going to be a lot change and someone who actually knows the system is going to absolutely help.”