Rally for suspended Hempstead schools chief rolls into board meeting

Dozens of Hempstead residents and church leaders rallied Wednesday to protest the suspension of Superintendent Regina Armstrong and demand her reinstatement to lead one of Nassau County's largest school districts. 

Protests began at 4 p.m. as a group of Baptist ministers and others gathered in front of the Hempstead district's middle school, and they continued at a 6 p.m. school board meeting in the same building. The later demonstration was abruptly cut off by the school board president, Victor Pratt, drawing objections from some participants. 

"We want her [Armstrong] to return to her position immediately, and maybe some of those board members need to be dismissed themselves," said one clergyman, Phillip McDowell. 

McDowell is moderator of the Eastern Baptist Association of New York, an organization that includes two churches in Hempstead.

On Sept. 5, a majority of Hempstead school board trustees voted to place Armstrong on administrative leave with pay pending a review of her conduct as schools chief. The suspension vote was 4-1, with Trustee LaMont Johnson the only dissenter. 

At the Wednesday night board meeting, Johnson read a formal statement, calling for Armstrong's return to work and praising her role in helping to boost high school graduation rates in a district formerly plagued by teenage dropouts.

"I don't think we should abandon the person who was captain of the ship when the water was rough," said Johnson, a former board president 

The current president, Pratt, had said shortly after Armstrong's suspension that the action was taken due to policy disagreements between the board majority and superintendent. As an example, Pratt cited an incident when the Hempstead district allegedly allowed its high school building to be used for a regional administration of the SAT college-admissions exam without board approval. 

Pratt emphasized, however, that the policy disputes he cited did not include any acts of criminal wrongdoing by Armstrong. 

"This is not the result of anything criminal or scandalous," Pratt told Newsday earlier this week. 

At the Wednesday evening meeting, Pratt declined to discuss the suspension further, saying it was a personnel matter where privacy rules apply. Pratt also ruled that audience members would not be allowed to discuss the suspension, drawing protests from some clergy and others who had hoped to speak. 

A former superintendent, Susan Johnson, has been appointed to serve again in that position on a temporary interim basis through Oct. 9 at least. Johnson is to be paid $800 per day under an arrangement approved by the board's four-member majority. 

Under a parallel agreement, Armstrong will continue to be paid full salary and benefits through the end of the school year in June. The school chief's contract provides an annual salary of $310,000, along with an additional $29,047 in benefits and other compensation, according to state records. 

Until her suspension, Armstrong had spent her entire career in the Hempstead district, which enrolls about 5,400 students. Many other students who reside in the district attend public charter schools, which are independently run. 

As superintendent in 2023, Armstrong saw the district's high school restored to good academic standing after languishing for decades on the state's needs-improvement list.

Despite improvements, Hempstead remains one of only two districts on Long Island that have been assigned state-appointed monitors to help with improvement efforts. 

Armstrong started her work in 1990 as a second-grade teacher and later served as a curriculum specialist, assistant principal and principal. In July 2013, she became associate superintendent for elementary curriculum and instruction before she was named acting superintendent in 2018.