LAKE HUNTINGTON, NY — A late addition to the Sullivan West Central School District Board of Education meeting agenda on March 8 took many by surprise when Superintendent Dr. Nancy Hackett’s resignation was publicly announced.

Dr. Hackett will retire effective August 1 after six years at the helm of Sullivan West and a career in education that began in 1975 as a physical education teacher.

After the meeting, the Cochecton resident said that she was leaving with confidence that the district is in great shape, thanks in part to strong community support.

“It’s been a very special place to be,” she said of the district that hired her in May 2012 as a first-time superintendent.

The school board simultaneously approved signing an agreement with the Western New York Educational Service Council to conduct a superintendent search at a fee of $16,000 plus expenses.

Dr. Hackett said she looks forward to spending more time with her husband John and their two children, who reside on the West Coast, as well as “dabbling in research” and exploring teaching options at the college level.

“This news took the wind out of our sails, but you certainly have sailed us straight to the top,” president of the board Rose Joyce-Turner said to Hackett.

Board member Lucas Arzilli agreed, “I think we are in a better place than where we started six years ago and we have you to thank for that.”

Kathy Meckle, a board member who was part of the hiring process, said, “You have a gut instinct when it’s the right person. I’ve always been impressed how Nancy was always out in the community and really became a very important part of the community. You’re really going to be missed.”

Hackett grew up in Tonawanda, earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary classroom education while majoring in physical education at SUNY Brockport, and taught P.E. at Hilton High School for 11 years.

After a break to raise her son and daughter, she later began working at Monroe Community College and taking administrative courses that led to earning a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Rochester.

A private-school teaching job at Harley School in Rochester transitioned into becoming athletic director and then principal.

Dr. Hackett was in her seventh year as the principal at Brighton High School, which was considered one of the top-performing public education schools in the country, when Dr. Ken Hilton retired from Sullivan West, creating the superintendent vacancy.

Her departure will coincide with the August 1 retirement date of 31-year district clerk and secretary to the superintendent, Peg Luty, as announced last month.

Football update 

Athletic director David Franskevicz updated the board on the outcome of controversial deliberations over how Bulldogs football at the modified and junior varsity (JV) levels will be handled.

While Sullivan West will convert its varsity program to eight-player football with a 12-member roster, the JV team of freshmen and sophomores will have the option of playing either eight or 11-man games, “whatever fits the need at the time,” Franskevicz said.

Some 10th graders may opt to join the varsity team, which will play against Eldred, Livingston Manor-Roscoe-Downsville, Pawling, Dover, Tri-Valley, Fallsburg, and Pine Plains.

The school will field a Modified B team of 7th and 8th graders who will compete against Tri-Valley, Port Jervis, Liberty and Goshen teams. 

In other business, the board amended the district calendar after registering 11 snow days as of March 8, having exceeded their budget of nine. April 2 will now be an instructional day. If another make-up day is needed, May 25 is targeted as a current Superintendent Conference Day. Next to go would be the first day of spring recess, March 25, if winter weather continues to complicate the schedule.