Eastport-South Manor schools chief resigns, officials say
Mark Nocero, superintendent of Eastport-South Manor schools for the past nine years, resigned abruptly from his $249,000-a-year job on Wednesday, March 16, 2016, according to district authorities. Credit: Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services
Mark Nocero, superintendent of Eastport-South Manor schools for the past nine years, resigned abruptly Wednesday from his $249,000-a-year job with more than a year remaining in his contract, district authorities said.
School board president Kenneth Cooke announced Nocero’s departure at a well-attended public meeting Wednesday night, saying the schools chief planned to retire. Board members declined to further discuss the circumstances behind Nocero’s move, citing rules of confidentiality.
Nocero did not return calls from Newsday on Wednesday and Thursday.
Several residents who attended the meeting said later that local opposition to the schools chief had grown in recent years over what was perceived as a pattern of bias against female school administrators in the district.
Residents cited, as an example, the ouster in 2011 of Susan Kenny, a popular principal of Eastport Elementary School, after she failed to gain job tenure.
“There’s been a history of this in the district,” said Marion Diener, a former board member.
District officials said that Joseph Steimel, principal of Eastport Elementary School, would move into the superintendent’s slot on an interim basis, starting Thursday.
A temporary replacement for Steimel at the elementary school is expected to be made within the next day or two, the district said.
Nocero had worked in Eastport-South Manor since 2005, serving first as assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction before taking the top job, according to district spokeswoman Colleen Bowler.
Nocero’s employment contract, most recently renewed in July 2014, would have allowed him to remain as superintendent through June 30, 2017. That’s according to documents posted by the Empire Center for Public Policy, a nonprofit think tank based in Albany.
Steimel served as principal of Eastport-South Manor Junior Senior High School starting in 2005, before moving to Eastport Elementary in 2014, Bowler added.
Speculation regarding Nocero’s absence from the superintendent’s office has swirled about the district since last week. Typically, when school administrators are moved out of their jobs both they and board trustees agree that terms of the departure, including any contract payouts, will be kept private.
That didn’t keep district residents from raising questions about Nocero’s resignation during a 20-minute public discussion Wednesday night.
Trustees had few answers for frustrated residents, saying they were legally prohibited from discussing details.
“We are doing what’s in the best interest of our community and the school district,” board member Marie Brown told Newsday.
The sprawling Eastport-South Manor district straddles the border of Brookhaven and Southampton towns, and has about 3,600 students.
Smaller districts serving the Eastport and South Manor communities merged in 2003, then launched construction of a single school housing all secondary grades. The project, supported by millions of dollars in state financial aid, has long been cited as a model of district consolidation.
Nocero served as schools chief during most of the district’s existence as a single system.
John Hildebrand is Newsday's senior education writer and has covered school news and policy issues affecting Long Island for more than 40 years.
