The Amityville School Board, already in the process of interviewing candidates for School Superintendent, has decided it will not make a final decision and select a new superintendent until the newly elected school board members are seated after July 1. According to School Board President Stephanie Andrews the board reached that decision after three members of the current board—Toni Bean, Sam Williams and Carolyn Chikazunga—kept a candidate waiting for more than an hour while reviewing his/her personnel file.

"I think that is extremely disrespectful and I wouldn’t want that to happen again," said Andrews. "We will proceed in a more professional manner after July 1."

But according to Chikazunga, the board’s decision is simply "a ruse,"

"They advertised for a new superintendent in October and we have continued to ask when we were going to begin the interviewing process" said Chikazunga. "The answer we always got was that they (the four MAC Pack members who represent the board’s majority) were not ready. It was obvious to me that they were not serious about moving in a timely fashion."

Andrews said that's absolutely not true and had the board already made its decision, it would not have spent time reviewing the qualifications of candidates and setting up interviews.

"The only problem we had was that they (Chikazunga and trustees Toni Bean and Sam Williams) kept the candidate waiting while they took more than an hour to look over the file."

The candidate’s personnel file was available to the board because he or she is an employee of the district and Chikazunga said that she, Williams and Bean had some concerns they wanted to review.

"That is why we asked for the file," she said. "But as usual there was no communication between the board president and the Superintendent. Had there been some communication, that file would have been there earlier.

Bean, who was reviewing the file at length, agreed and added that there was no exchange between board members of the evaluations they had each drawn up on the candidates. "I have requested these evaluations several times and to date they have not been provided to me," said Bean. "It is obvious to me as well that this board has a predetermined candidate."

Chikazunga added that there was also no agenda for the evening, adding to the confusion. As for the board’s decision to delay the selection of a new superintendent, she said that’s fine with her. "This will be their candidate and that’s the way it should be," she said. "They will either fly or fail."

The district initially received approximately 50 applications from those seeking the position. The candidates were narrowed down and the board came up with a total of six candidates they called in for personal interviews. They are now in the final round of interviews and will be making a selection between three finalists.

The new candidate will replace Superintendent of Schools Rhoda Pierre, who is stepping down in September.

In other school business,

•the board is expected to receive an update on the status of the Park Avenue project;

•has been in receipt of a report on the project’s masonry work which was described as failing to meet bid specifications in many areas.