District residents got their first chance to meet the new Tonawanda City Schools superintendent during Tuesday night’s School Board meeting.
Whitney Vantine was formally introduced as the successor to Barbara Peters, who is leaving next week to become superintendent of the Elmsford School District in Westchester County. Vantine’s five-year contract was approved by the board at a special meeting last week, but he could not attend.
Tuesday night, Vantine said he’s thrilled to be back home with his family in Niagara County. For the past three years, Vantine served as superintendent of Cold Spring Harbor schools on Long Island. His family remained in Youngstown during that time. Before that, he was the top administrator in Lewiston-Porter.
“I’m ecstatic about being in the City of Tonawanda School District. It gives me an opportunity to come home,” he said, adding that Tonawanda will be the fifth district in which he’s served as superintendent and, he hopes, is the one where he finishes his career.
“I’m just elated to be able to come back home and finish up my career here,” he said.
Vantine has a daughter who attends Buffalo State College and a son who is a junior at St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute in Kenmore.
A Hamburg native, Vantine said he had been looking to return to Western New York.
“I put my hat in a few rings and Tonawanda always seemed to be the one that kept coming back to the top. I like the size, I like the closeness.”
His first priority when he starts July 14 will be to get input from various administrators and staff members on key concerns within the district. “I don’t want to come in with any preconceived notions that I’m going to fix this and fix that.”
Of his at times rocky tenure at Lew-Port, which included some spats with members of the Lew-Port School Board, Vantine said that’s in the past and that there were some differences of philosophy, but that it is still a fine school system.
In other business Tuesday night, the school board:
n Heard Tonawanda Education Association President Ron Sesnie say that he has filed a claim with New York state stating that the board’s June 17 meeting announcing Vantine as superintendent was held in violation of the state’s open meetings law.
“The community has a right to know when this board conducts business,” Sesnie said, adding that this is not the first time he has raised the issue with the board.
n Recognized Peters’ six years with the district. “This has been one of the greatest opportunities,” Peters said. “I will be back. You will see me again. This is still home. It will always be home.”
n Honored teachers Frank Pirrone and Bruce Steltzer, as well as Middle School Assistant Principal Kathy Tassy.
Contact reporter David J. Hill at 693-1000, ext. 115.
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