Springs Business Administrator Retiring At End Of School Year

Springs School Business Administrator Michael Henery can officially say the expansion project was not only his biggest undertaking, but his last.

That’s because the school’s five-year treasurer announced Monday his plan to retire at the end of the school year. His decision, while he said difficult, became more clear over the past year. He is bidding farewell June 30 to spend time with family.

“I don’t think I’ve ever gotten over COVID-19. It’s just taken a toll on me,” he said during the October 18 Board of Education meeting, when his retirement was accepted. “My wife retired back in March. It’s time for me to move on — spend time with my grandkids and my son and really enjoy the fruits of being grandparents. But it’s been a pleasure working here.”

Superintendent Debra Winter entered the district with Henery, and said she couldn’t have gotten settled in the way she did without him.

“I’m so grateful you’ve been here,” Winter said. “You took on this capital project and grants for additional funding. We’ve seen only exceptional audit reports since he’s been with us. We wish you only the best in retirement.”

Board President Barbara Dayton also thanked him for his leadership.

“You’ve been a valuable presence here in our school,” she said. “It will be very hard to replace you. I’m not looking forward to that at all. But I understand where you’re at in life.”

Trustee Dave Conlon appreciated the notice, giving the district extra time to begin its search.

While board member Timothy Frazier added it’s bittersweet, he said Henery should be proud to have seen the district through its expansion project, to which a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Monday afternoon. The building and grounds overhaul was paid for by a 2018 voter-approved $23 million capital project, $16.9 million of which was bonded, to address the district’s aging facilities, as well as health and safety upgrades.

“You’ve taken us through this massive improvement and have been instrumental in putting this all together. You’ve been a huge part of making things go smoothly and getting us through difficult times,” Frazier said. “ I hope you feel a great sense of accomplishment. What a way to go out — having finished such an incredible project. I don’t think people realize all that you do on a daily basis. You should have a lot of pride.”

Henery also helped the district to its recent “unmodified” opinion, the best possible outcome, from Doug Zimmerman, a partner with the New York City-based EFPR Group. An external audit was done at the end of last school year, with the results of the report coming in Monday.

“We came in with a fresh set of eyes, did a detailed risk assessment within the district and pointed to what’s of most concern and did detailed testing,” Zimmerman said at the board meeting. “There were no issues in the operation of any of those.”

“There were also no deviations from the audit plan. Everything went as anticipated,” he continued. “All records we requested were readily available — we had outstanding cooperation of management and the entire staff in the business office — we issued a clean report on required and allowed communication. All was appropriate.”

While it’s the first time the company has worked with the district, Zimmerman has been a certified public accountant for 25 years, with his company specializing in performing audits, doing over 175 annually. Twenty-five of those, on average, are of public school districts, some of the largest of which include Brentwood, Sachem and Albany. The company also works with East Quogue, East Hampton and Amagansett.

“It’s comforting that you [work with smaller schools] because we are different than the larger districts and we have different needs,” Frazier said. “It’s also been very personalized, as you’ve been able to get to know our district and our community.”

Zimmerman said his team of 40 professionals know there’s no one-size-fits-all approach — that every district has different issues depending on size, location and the makeup of the community.

“It’s great to hear we’re in good shape,” Dayton said.

Honors To Staff Members, And District

The board also recognized Athletic Director Whitney Reidlinger, physical education teacher John King and bus driver Daniela Munoz.

Reidlinger and King were on-site to help a referee, Russ, who had collapsed during a game on school grounds.

The referee attended Monday’s meeting and addressed the board, saying that day was “quite an adventure.” He returned October 18 for a rematch between Springs and East Hampton, just 10 days after the incident, to thank those who rushed to his aid.

“I had experiences over the years, but this one was much worse than I anticipated. Everyone, even the kids, were exceptional,” he said. “Part of the reason I came back out here today was to see them and thank them. They even inquired at the hospital to see how I was doing. There’s so many negatives out there, so to come out here and support the positives, it’s a no-brainer.”

Frazier thanked the referee for the work he does, and for supporting the district and its students, saying it does not get recognized enough.

“It means a lot you coming here,” Dayton said. “I’m happy to see you here and to see you’re in good shape.”

Munoz was honored after she pulled over and called 911 to report a child under the age of 2, alone, in the middle of the street. She stayed with the infant until police came.

“She saved this little boy’s life,” Winter said.

The district also accepted its 2021 Engineering Excellence Diamond Award earlier this month from ACEC New York — a community of engineering companies — for its sanitary system upgrade project. The award was earned in partnership with Melville-based H2M Architects + Engineers. Springs School was the only school district to receive an award.