(Editor’s Note: Smoke Signal reporters planned to attend Monday’s Board of Education meeting. However, due to suggested COVID-19 precautions, they chose not to attend the meeting and instead used the livestream for its reporting.)
During the Board of Education’s meeting this past Monday, Superintendent Erik Gundersen read more than 70 letters that expressed support for Interim Principal John Puccio to become the permanent principal of Pascack Valley. While the community did not find Brian Hutchinson, the Emerson Junior-Senior High School principal who was approved to be principal, unfit for the job, they believed that Puccio was the right choice.
Due to the concerns of COVID-19, the general session of this board meeting was available through a livestream via YouTube. The public was able to call-in during comments from the public, speak at the meeting, or write letters beforehand on a Google Form. Comments from all three platforms are listed below.
Members of the faculty at Valley have expressed their discontent as well, as Elena Spathis, a world language teacher at PV, writes that she has “felt privileged to work under” Puccio’s leadership, and believes that he has proven himself worthy as principal.
Lauren Bacsik, a teacher at PV, states that Puccio makes the staff and students “feel like they have a voice”, while like many others, requesting that the board hold off the final vote until the COVID-19 pandemic has died down.
Barbara Borghi, a world language teacher at Valley, says that Puccio “puts his face to his beliefs and his money where his mouth is,” and that he could, “hit the ground running” if he were named principal of PV.
