Pearl River Appoints Musich Director of HR, PR

Diana Musich became well acquainted with performing a wide variety of tasks as the principal at Cornwall Middle School the last six years.

The Cornwall School District does not have a human resources department, so those responsibilities fell to the building principals, who also often handled community relations.

"Being in education, we are always working on PR," Musich said. "We are always working on communication with the public. We are a school and we have to be involved with our communities."

Musich will put those various skills to work when she takes as the Pearl River School District's director of human resources and community services Sept. 1. The Pearl River Board of Education approved her appointment to the position Wednesday.

"This is an amazing community," Musich said. "It is a reputable district and such a wonderful community. This type of position was a very exciting opportunity. I was very lucky to be even put in for consideration for this job. I feel very, very fortunate."

"It's going to be a large task, that position," said Superintendent of Schools Dr. John Morgano during Wednesday's meeting. "You will be doing all of the HR work and once (current Director of Community Relations) Sandy Cokeley leaves (in December), you will be doing the community services part. So we have an office for you, but you won't be in it much."

The position was created in June as part of a reorganization of the district's administration. Once the board approved the creation of the new position in June, the hiring process began.

"We went through 60 or so resumes and interviewed 13 or 14 people," Morgano said. "(District Director of Operations) Quinton (Van Wynen) and I did the screening to move seven people forward to the committee. The committee made the recommendation to send three people to the board. Of those three people, the board selected Diana as the best candadate.

"Part of the reason for that is that Diana in her current job, they don't have a personnel department, so she has experience dealing with the personnel in her building."

"It is something I was always interested in," Musich said. "By not having the layers of additional support in Cornwall because they are also a lean district, I was able to gain some experience in those areas. I was interested in working with different bargaining entities, working with different people, hiring and supervision. They are all very important in education today."

Morgano also pointed to more general abilities that Musich brings to to Pearl River.

"The best qualifications, there are two for this job -- intelligence and personality," Morgano said. "Between the HR part and the PR part, you definitely need both of those. She had them and she has some experience."

Before going to Cornwall, Musich was a middle school principal at Mornoe Woodbury for six years. She taught Spanish at the elementary and middle school levels in Tuxedo before moving into administration.