The Plainedge School District has narrowed their search for a new school superintendent down to two candidates.

The two candidates who are vying to replace Superintendent Gene Grasso, who announced in March that he would be retiring from the district, were chosen from 50 applicants. Richard Lerer Educational Consultants narrowed the field down to eight applicants for the Plainedge Board of Education to interview. Dr. Ronald Friedman and Dr. John Richman are the two candidates that the board has narrowed the search down to.

On Monday Friedman met with Grasso, the administrative management council, the Administrative Assistant for Personnel and Operations Thomas Gibbons, the School Business Official Ida Brtalik, central office staff, leaders of support staff unions, student leaders, teacher union leaders, PTA Council presidents, and the community. On Tuesday, Richman met with the same groups.

Friedman is currently the deputy superintendent of schools for the Elwood School District, where he previously served as assistant superintendent. He has been with that district since 1989 and previously worked in the Long Beach, Hicksville, Lawrence, and Brooklyn Public School systems in different capacities. He has his doctorate from Hofstra University in educational administration.

Richman is currently the assistant superintendent of schools for the Rockville Centre School District, where he has been since 1997. Previously he worked for BOCES, Berkshire Public Schools, College of St. Rose, NYS Department of Education, Vanderheyden Hall, Troy City Schools, Majestic Developers, and Newburgh City Schools in various capacities. He has his masters in special education and educational administration and his doctorate in educational administration.

On the Monday and Tuesday evenings, the superintendent candidates concluded their meetings with a question and answer period for community members.

Prior to introducing the candidates both nights, School Board President Josephine Reder spoke about the strong pool of candidates that the board had to choose from. She noted that what they were looking for in a superintendent is a strong instructional leader.

On Monday night Friedman met with community members. In introducing himself he noted that there are many similarities between the Elwood School District and Plainedge, the most obvious one being that both areas are solely school districts rather than separate towns. The districts also have a similar student body, atmosphere and size. He explained that Elwood is one of eight school districts in the Town of Huntington and that when he began they were the highest taxed district in the town and that it is currently number three.

Friedman answered many questions from residents about his educational policies and his visibility as an administrator. He stated that he planned to be highly visible not only at the schools but at after school functions and athletic events and around the community.

Many of the questions asked revolved around tenure and his feelings toward renewable tenure. He said that in Elwood they use the clinical supervision model for teacher assessment. He went on to note that he did not have tolerance for inappropriate teaching in probationary or tenured teachers and went on to explain the procedures he uses to deal with those situations.

Another major concern was whether Friedman planned to follow the district's strategic planning and shared decision making. He noted that he believes in the lean and simple strategic planning but planned to follow the suggestions made by the shared decision making teams. Other concerns raised dealt with inclusion, which Friedman said he believes very strongly in. When asked about the contract dispute that went on for two years in Plainedge, Friedman responded that he would have sat down face to face with the teachers and tried to settle the situation sooner.

Richman was faced with many of the same questions on Tuesday night. In his introduction he answered many residents' questions and also noted the similarity between Rockville Centre and Plainedge. He said one of his main objectives, if chosen as superintendent would be to discover why, when the districts are so similar, Rockville Centre has such a high level of achievement and Plainedge seems to be falling behind.

When asked about renewable tenure, Richman said he didn't think it would ever happen but he said that he has a system of rating teachers from which he has gotten some positive feedback. In response to the question of his visibility Richman stated that he recently received a jacket from the athletic department at Rockville Centre because of his support at the athletic events. He added that when he was presented with the jacket he was told that he was the only administrator to ever receive that recognition.

In regard to special education inclusion Richman noted that his plan includes all students and doing everything possible to ensure that every student receives a Regents diploma.

A question that both candidates faced was their disciplinary policy. Friedman expressed his belief that suspension does what it is intended to do and affects the student while Richman stated his belief that suspending students is a paradoxical concept that just makes them want to misbehave so they don't have to go to school.

Both candidates expressed concern about their meetings with the students. They noted that the students were not happy with their school and felt that there was no school spirit. Friedman and Richman both said that this is a situation that they would like to remedy as well as remedying lingering negativity among staff following the contract disputes.

When asked why he was interested in working at Plainedge, Friedman responded, "It's a nice community. From everything I can see it's a very solid, good community. I'm looking for a home, both professionally and personally in the sense that I will give my heart to it."

In response to a similar question about why he wanted to make the move to Plainedge Richman responded, "I like the kids. I think that I can have a positive impact on the district. It's waiting for good things to happen and I'm not seeing why good things aren't happening."

The board is hoping to have a final decision by the end of this month so the new superintendent can begin learning everything about the district as soon as possible.