Hempstead school officials pay 2 superintendents, raise rate for 1, as search for permanent leader continues
Hempstead interim schools Superintendent Susan Johnson at a school board meeting Sept. 18. Last week, the board raised her pay rate from $800 per workday to $1,500 through Nov. 13. Credit: Jeff Bachner
The Hempstead school district continues to pay two superintendents, one of them at the rate of $1,500 a day, as officials search for a replacement to lead the large Nassau district, which remains under state monitorship.
The school board last week extended the contract of Susan Johnson, a former superintendent appointed last month to serve again in that role through Oct. 9. The board raised her pay rate from $800 per workday to $1,500 through Nov. 13. She is not receiving benefits.
The vote was 4-1, with trustee LaMont Johnson voting against the extension.
Johnson also was the lone dissenter when the board last month voted to place Regina Armstrong, the district’s superintendent since 2018, on administrative leave pending a review of her conduct.
Board members did not discuss the superintendent’s search at a public meeting Wednesday.
Board president Victor J. Pratt did not respond to a request for comment Thursday. LaMont Johnson and Armstrong also did not respond to a request for comment.
Armstrong, while on leave, will continue to be paid until the end of her contract on June 30, said Sylvia King-Cohen, a district spokeswoman. State records showed her contract provides an annual salary of $310,000, with an additional $29,047 in benefits and other compensation, Newsday previously reported.
School board members did not say what led to the district’s review of Armstrong’s conduct, but Pratt previously said her suspension was due to policy disagreements between her and the board majority and did not include any acts of criminal wrongdoing by Armstrong.
Before her suspension, Armstrong had spent her entire career in the district, starting in 1990 as a second-grade teacher. Over the decades, she rose through the ranks to lead one of the largest districts in Nassau County, enrolling about 5,500 students.
Under her tenure as schools chief, graduation rates in the district improved, rising from 54% in 2018 to 82% in 2023, though still slightly behind the state rate of 86%.
In 2023, Armstrong saw the district's high school restored to good academic standing after struggling for decades on the state's needs-improvement list. Despite improvements, Hempstead remains one of only two districts on Long Island to have assigned state-appointed monitors.
Years of financial mismanagement and poor graduation rates prompted state lawmakers to adopt legislation to install the monitor. William Johnson, a retired Rockville Centre schools superintendent, has been the monitor in Hempstead since 2020. Albert Chase is the monitor in Wyandanch schools.
Dandan Zou covers education for Newsday. Previously, she worked for a community newspaper in Maryland and a personal finance magazine in Washington, D.C.
