Aliyya Swaby Photo
Diah: Creed? Co-op? Depends on day.
Amid infighting over filling positions for the coming academic year, Hyde/Creed School was assigned its second temporary principal in three days — and this time the Board of Education won’t get to approve the decision.
Superintendent Garth Harries sent that message in an email to board members Wednesday evening.
The email, obtained by the Independent, comes two days after a contentious three-hour executive session where board members and Harries debated the school’s personnel changes, among other issues.
Harries told the Independent he upended those changes, without board input, because he is prioritizing getting schools to open smoothly this fall under the most competent administrators.
At a 10-minute-long special board meeting right after Monday’s executive session, the board approved former Hillhouse principal David Diah as a temporary assistant principal for the former Hyde School, now called the Dr. Cortlandt V.R. Creed Health and Sports Sciences High School. Diah was expected to be the assistant principal for just a month, during which the superintendent would start the full hiring process for the permanent principal position.
Hyde/Creed has not had an assistant principal for the last few years, Harries told the Independent, meaning Diah would essentially be taking the role of the sole existing administrator position at the school in that month. Mayor Toni Harp said at Monday’s meeting that he was welcome to apply for the permanent role.
But Harries decided a better person to help transition Hyde/Creed for the first month would be Laura Roble, current assistant principal at Co-op High School, who was an administrative intern at Hyde/Creed two years ago. Diah will then take her place as assistant principal at Co-op for the first month. Both are expected to apply to the permanent Hyde/Creed principal position.
“Given that we made the decision to open school with an AP, bridging to the point when we appoint a principal in September, I have decided that it is best to have an AP who is already familiar with the school, its culture, students, and staff. Laura Roble was an intern at Hyde/Creed in 2014 – 2015. She is currently an AP at Co-op, where there is a strong established team poised for a smooth opening,” Harries wrote in the email.
He said in the email that he consulted with former Hyde/Creed principal Zakia Parrish, Co-op Principal Val Jean Belton, Gil Traverso, high school director of instruction, and the administrators union.
Harries usually submits his recommendations for hires or transfers for all positions to board members, who then decide whether or not to approve them. This time, he said, his transfers are not up for prior discussion for the board.
“This will not be a permanent reassignment or an action on the bluesheets — she will take on the work, starting tomorrow morning, while maintaining her official assignment at Co-op. In the same period, conversely, David Diah will be assigned to support opening at CO-OP as an AP. When the dust settles after the principal appointment, both will be assigned to (or back to) a permanent position as P or AP as appropriate. Note that I expect that both will be applicants to the Creed principal job,” he wrote in the email.
Harries told the Independent he is making the best decisions to get schools running smoothly in late August. “The key determinant is who can go and open that school effectively,” he said.