Local Resident Named New Yorktown Schools Superintendent
The search for Yorktown School District’s new superintendent of schools ended at home.
In a written statement released Friday, the Board of Education announced it had selected Dr. Ronald Hattar, a resident of Yorktown, to succeed longtime Superintendent of Schools Dr. Ralph Napolitano, who is retiring at the end of the school year after an 11-year run.
“The board believes that Dr. Hattar’s educational vision and passion will be a great complement to the already outstanding work being done in the district, by our wonderful and talented administrators, faculty and school community,” said Board President Jackie Carbone. “We welcome Dr. Hattar to our Yorktown school community.”
Hattar, who has been the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction in the Eastchester School District since 2011 and also serves as president of Putnam/Northern Westchester BOCES Curriculum Council, emerged from a field of 40 candidates from 11 states. The Yorktown Board of Education conducted several months of interviews with finalists.
Hattar, who holds an Ed.D in Educational Leadership from Manhattanville College, stated he was “committed to academic excellence while providing an educational experience that supports the development of a student’s emotional, social, athletic and civic self.”
“It is an honor to have been selected to continue the wonderful work already being done in the Yorktown School District and I look forward to helping the organization to reach even higher levels of success,” Hattar said.
Terms of an agreement with Hattar, who officially takes over on July 10, will be finalized by the Board of Education at a public meeting in the near future.
Under Napolitano’s tenure, Yorktown was named a State School District of Character in 2015 and a National School District of Character in 2016, one of only four districts in the nation to receive that designation. In April, Napolitano received a School District Leadership Award in Character Education at the Champion of Character Banquet.
“It is difficult to leave such a welcoming place as the Yorktown School District where I have come to know, love, respect and appreciate so many people,” Napolitano said earlier this spring. “While I am not sure what will come next in this unchartered stage of life, I know I will always look upon Yorktown as my second home.”
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