Taddiken Announces Leadership Changes in Edgemont

Edgemont will promote from within. That's what was announced at the October 11th Board of Education meeting when Edgemont Superintendent Nancy Taddiken presented her administrative succession proposal for the district. Assistant Principal Devan Ganeshananthan will assume the role of principal at Edgemont High School effective February 1, 2012. Dr. Friedman, the current principal who is scheduled to retire on August 31st, will assume the role of Assistant to the Superintendent and work in the District Office and also help Mr. Ganeshananthan through the transition period. Assistant Principal Mike Curtin will assume the role of Director of Curriculum and Instructional Technology for Grades K thru 12 on July 1, 2012 and will also move to the District Office. The proposal was unanimously supported by the BOE.

The district will search for two new Assistant Principals to fill Mr. Ganeshananthan's and Mr. Curtin's positions. Assistant PrincipalMonseliu's exact position will not be filled when she moves to Florida at the end of December. The three existing assistant principal positions will be consolidated into two positions. Ms. Taddiken felt that she will first look internally to fill these two positions and then conduct an external search if necessary. Taddiken also mentioned that her current contract runs till July 1, 2013 and she has not yet decided if she will retire or not at that time.

Most parents that I spoke to were very happy with the announcements and were glad that both Mr. Ganeshananthan and Mr. Curtin had been promoted. Both are very well liked by many parents in the district. Some however expressed regret that an external search was not conducted to make sure that the best people were hired for these positions but did not have any problems with Mr. Ganeshananthan and Mr. Curtin filling these positions; they would have just preferred to have seen an extensive search. However Ms. Taddiken noted that Mr. Ganeshananthan was hired after an extensive search for his previous position (replacing Mr. Tim Hoss as junior high assistant principal). Previous to coming to Edgemont, Mr. Ganeshananthan was a house principal at New Rochelle High School.

At the same BOE meeting, the district's independent auditor made a presentation and discussed the current financial state of the district. The district brought in $500,000 more in revenue than expected and spent close to $4 million less than expected. The excess funds were added to the fund balance for future use. Looking ahead ... the situation is difficult. Evidently the money that the school district has to contribute to various employee benefits including the teachers retirement system has increased significantly from last year. The auditor doesn't see how the school district can possibly meet these financial demands and stay within the New York State 2% budget cap. However the BOE can decide to present a budget to the community above the 2% cap and trust that parents will approve the budget by the required supermajority of 60%. Last year's budget passed by more than 60%.

At October 19th's PTSA Parent Forum (EHS Library at 9 am), Ms. Taddiken will review the succession plan with parents and community members and will do so again at the evening PTSA Parent Forum on Thursday, November 3rd. The evening meeting will take place at 7:30 pm in the high school LGI room and will also feature a presentation by EHS "Study Skills for Success" teacher, Mr. Doug Weitz.