Tomorrow will be Steven Guarini’s last day working in the Springs School District as its business administrator. His long commute from Nassau County prompted his departure after just 10 months with Springs, school officials said this week.
“We know it was hard for someone with a very young family to be working such a distance away from home, so we certainly understand that he is moving on and we wish him all the best,” said Barbara Dayton, the Springs School Board president, during Tuesday’s board meeting.
For the remainder of the 2023-24 school year, Springs will have help from two neighboring districts. On Tuesday it appointed Tom Mager, Amagansett School’s full-time business administrator and treasurer, to serve as its part-time district treasurer.
“He’s very dedicated and committed to Amagansett, but he’s willing to help Springs out,” said Debra Winter, the Springs superintendent.
Springs also signed an intermunicipal agreement with the East Hampton School District providing for East Hampton’s assistant superintendent for business, Sam Schneider, to help Springs prepare its budget and manage its finances until a permanent successor to Mr. Guarini can be found.
The idea for these shared services was generated by Springs, which also lost its prior business administrator, Robert Doyle, midyear. He was with the district from July 1, 2022, to Jan. 3, 2023.
Such a shared service is “something people out here would like to see,” Ms. Dayton said. “Thank you to the East Hampton School Board for thinking this is going to work. We’re very excited about this opportunity.”
East Hampton’s school board has yet to approve the contract, but approval is imminent, according to Adam Fine, the East Hampton superintendent. “We assessed our capacity to support this endeavor because shared services make sense on the East End,” he said. East Hampton already provides maintenance for Wainscott and bus maintenance for Montauk and Springs, in addition to certain bus routes for students attending BOCES programs.
“We will continue to explore additional shared services over the coming year,” Mr. Fine said.
According to the agreement, if the system is both successful and still necessary after June 30, renewals are possible on a year-by-year basis. Springs will pay $10,000 for Mr. Schneider to help out through the end of the current school year.
Springs is not the only district that has struggled to fill the business administrator role. The Bridgehampton School District, according to its records, has also had some recent turnover in that position, with its most recent business administrator resigning in January. Bridgehampton also lost a business administrator in June 2023.
In other Springs School District news, the board approved an agreement allowing school board members to participate in the district’s health insurance plan provided they pay 100 percent of the costs, with no contribution from the school itself. District records show that Erik Frederickson, the board’s vice president, is signing up for this program.
A new extracurricular school club, the Video Club, has received a $1,000 donation from Steven and Louise Bergersen and another from Christine Ganitsch for $2,000. A parent, Jose Lopez, has donated new lights for the campus’s School Street entrance.
The district has accepted retirement letters from two longtime employees, Ilaine Bickley, a math teacher, and Sheri Walters, the daytime custodian.