Rye Neck Honors Students & Staff, Talks Salaries

It was a night of awards, thank yous and passing of the gavel at the Rye Neck UFSD Board of Education meeting last night.

Superintendent Dr. Peter Mustich awarded tenure to ten teachers to take effect September 2010.

"Tenure isn't about the act of receiving permanent employment," he said. "It's about celebrating outstanding teachers."

Elementary school Principal Marge Longabucco and middle school teachers Allison Reynolds and Leah Englander presented certificates to all their students who participated in Math Olympiad and the Tri-County Science Expo. For the first time in eight years, F.E. Bellows had a student, fourth grader Kohdai Komoriya, who had a perfect score in all five Math Olympiads. He is one of 68 students out of 86,877 participants who received that honor.

Although they are technically still in elementary school, fifth graders Robbie Alter and Nadine Eenkema van Dijk placed first in their respective categories for the middle school division at the Tri-County Science Expo. Robbie entered the math and computer category and Nadine's project was in earth science. Six graders Alina Maki and Olivia Thurman placed third in the environment division.

Four retirees were honored and PTSA President Julia O'Shea and Board Trustee Evan Heller passed their torches. Bonni Gottlieb will take Heller's place on the board on July 1^st.

In his farewell speech, Heller addressed some parents' displeasure with the high compensation of the superintendent and top administrators. There are often "whispers going around the community about administrators and Peter's [Mustich] compensation," he said. "I can assure you that our board is rarely unanimous about anything. But as relates to how we acknowledge and reward our administrators," he continued, "we are unanimous. And no need for more whispers. Let's just please accept my and our view of this."

Dr. Mustich's newly renewed contract will officially be voted on at the July 1^st meeting. He and the top administrators will receive a 2.5 percent raise and Mustich's contract will be renewed for another five years.

"We consider ourselves very fortunate to have such a high quality leadership team," said board President Heidi Sickles.

Sickles also addressed the Village of Mamaroneck's decision to consider revoking the four-way pedestrian stop at the intersections of Boston Post Road and Barry Avenue. The Board of Education has decided to write a letter to the VOM Board of Trustees expressing their concern for the safety of their students and to urge the village to further study this issue before deciding to "do away" with the pedestrian only phase.

Parents will also be happy to hear that the board has changed the 2010/11 school calendar to include more night time parent/teacher conferences. This will lessen the amount of half days at the beginning of the school year.

The reorganizational Board of Education meeting will be on July 1, 2010, time TBD.