Former Social Studies Chair Named Interim Principal of New Rochelle High School

Written By: Robert Cox

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — New Rochelle High School will be led during the coming school year by two familiar faces; a veteran educator and a longtime NRHS leader. Collectively, they have vast experience at the school. Steven Goldberg, who served 30 years as chairman of the NRHS social studies department, will serve as interim Principal for 2020-2021. Camille Edwards-Thomas, a former House Principal and interim Assistant Principal, will return to the school as the permanent Assistant Principal.

The appointments were made tonight by the New Rochelle Board of Education. Mr. Goldberg and Ms. Edwards-Thomas will take their positions in the school of 3,400 students on July 1, 2020.

“With these two stellar educators and administrators, we have found the ideal team to lead New Rochelle High School, the crown jewel of our school system, through these uncertain times for the coming year,” said Board of Education President Amy Moselhi. “In their years of service – decades, in Mr. Goldberg’s case – they have demonstrated a deep love and commitment to the high school, its students and this community.”

Mr. Goldberg serves as co-director of education for the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center (HHREC). He is President of the National Social Studies Supervisors Association and former president of both the National Council for Social Studies and the Westchester Lower Hudson Council for Social Studies.

After leaving NRHS in 2017, he was called on to complete the report for the Middle States Association that led to the renewal of the school’s accreditation. The experience, he said, gave him an even broader perspective on the school.

“I am beyond excited to return to New Rochelle High School,” Mr. Goldberg said. “Most of the people I know and developed connections with are still at the school. I am eager to re-establish those relationships and build new partnerships to serve our students.”

Mr. Goldberg taught social studies for 16 years at Edgemont High School before coming to New Rochelle as the social studies chairman. He holds a Master of Arts in East Asian studies from Yale University and a Bachelor of Arts in history from the University of Rochester.

Ms. Edwards-Thomas, a longtime New Rochelle resident, is currently an Assistant Principal at Albert Leonard Middle School. She served as interim Assistant Principal for NRHS during the 2018-2019 school year. Previously, she served five years as a House II Principal at NRHS.

“I am thrilled to be back at the high school, and I am looking forward to partnering with Mr. Goldberg,” she said. “Working together in the school we both know so well, we will be able to make a deep and lasting impact on student’s lives.” Ms. Edwards-Thomas is thrilled to be back at NRHS in a full tenure track position. New Rochelle High School is where her heart is.

Before she became House II Principal in 2013, she served five years as a school and community facilitator in the District. She is devoted to addressing students’ needs from entering the school to acceptance in a college and was honored last year with the “Educator of the Year” award from the New Rochelle branch of the NAACP.

Ms. Edwards-Thomas is studying for a Doctor of Education degree in organizational leadership from Northeastern University and expects to complete the requirements later this year. She holds two Master’s degrees, one in School Administration from Mercy College and another in childhood education from The City College of New York.

Mr. Goldberg and Ms. Edwards-Thomas will take over the District’s largest school at a time of uncertainty brought on by the Coronavirus COVID-19 crisis.

“These appointments will place the school in the hands of two well-known and trusted educators at a critical time when those qualities matter most,” said Superintendent Dr. Laura Feijóo. “Regardless of what our eventual plan is for starting school in September, this is the right team in spirit, in background and instructional expertise to lead the school.”

8 thoughts on “Former Social Studies Chair Named Interim Principal of New Rochelle High School”

  1. dr dorsett Posada is great counter and a great person with a good heart she was very nice to me and I worked on her floor for 31 years and I knew her daughter zenya when she was born if you see her or hear from her that frank cannata was worried about her and her daughter to please get in touch with me with all this going on it’s very scary the end of the world

  2. It has been really good to read comments so clearly on the same page with my thoughts and issues I have as a New Rochelle resident fairly new, just approaching 4 yrs. High school and property taxes yet no real leadership and a cavelier attitude like, well you just have to expect that it’s going to go up every year… Yet are New Rochelle residents getting the quality education they deserve especially with so many paying into a school system they don’t use?

  3. Me Goldberg is a saint dr dorsett Posada is the best guidence counseler

  4. Glad I do not have a child in NR school system. Concerned still not only do I have nieces & nephews in the system i pay outrageous school taxes. Looking to move from the area. Between Cuomo and the NR school government, I’m pretty much done!

    1. You are not alone. We have already seen a decade of residents leaving New York State. It is not hard to imagine that will continue if not accelerate as a result of the pandemic.

      The proposed school budget uses about $7mm in fund balance. This is treated by the Board as “their money”. They talk about State Aid and Federal money as if it falls of a tree. Then their is loc property taxes, cell phone taxes, etc. In reality, it is all YOUR money taken from you in different ways by different government agencies. The fund balance they have is because they OVERTAXED you for years. It is not “found money”.

      You represent the hidden cost to the conduct of this new ideologue school board. People do not “stand and fight”, they leave. The people who leave include the education-sensitive parents. It is why we have seen black-flight with 650 black students who live in NR but whose parents put them in private schools.

  5. A good question to consider:

    Why, over the past two years, has New Rochelle been unable to hire highly-qualified administrators from school districts with excellent reputations?

    Instead, we hire the desperate or forlorn: cast-offs from among the worst school districts in New York State (Greg Kern of Newburgh, Laura Feijóo of NYC, Alex Marrero of East Ramapo) or retirees looking to make a quick buck (Tom Ryan, Peter Scordo, Steve Goldberg) or failed internal hires (Anthony Bongo, Joe Starvaggi, Magda Parvey, Tawanda Robinson).

    The answer, from speaking to people in the education business from around New York State is that New Rochelle is the place careers go to die, that talented people who can go anywhere do not want to work in a dysfunctional school district under a rogue board run by incompetent yet arrogant amateurs.

    Any administration and school board that would not only hire Adofo Muhammad as NRHS Principal given his self-published public online profile but defend that hire as the community came to realize they were seeking to put a fellow-traveler with traffickers in hate speech into the second most important job in the District is not simply incompetent but so idea logically and politically driven they would sacrifice the future of children, the community and real estate values on the altar of “wokeness”.

    The problem at this point is beyond any short-term cure. The damage is done. We now have a school board that is beyond repair, flailing about as psuedo-experts in school administration, hiring sock-puppets instead of educational leaders and “playing at” Superintendent.

    That ANYONE thinks recent hires and people elected to the school board are the “solution” only highlights how far the City School District of New Rochelle has fallen. We are in free fall with no end in sight.

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