By Sarina Trangle
The hard-driving principal of PS/IS 49 in Middle Village plans to retire before the end of the academic year after delaying his plans to help the school plan an expansion.
Anthony Lombardi, 55, said he had an ally in former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration and began thinking about switching to the private sector as the end of Bloomberg’s term approached. He said he put off his retirement plans until March 3 to work on the school’s plan to add about 240 additional students.
During his 17 years at PS/IS 49, Lombardi made headlines for aggressively weeding out teachers he deemed ineffective and acting as a prototype for Bloomberg’s move to give principals more hiring power.
But the principal is now facing a civil lawsuit filed by a former PS/IS 49 teacher in December charging him with forcing her to give up her job after she ignored his advances and sexual harassment.
Lombardi, an Astoria native now living in Ridgewood, said the federal suit had no bearing on his decision.
He scheduled pension meetings in preparation for retirement back in December 2012 and notified the DOE that he was planning to retire Dec. 1, 2013.
The teacher filed the suit against Lombardi in late December 2013.
“I’m looking forward to getting all the facts out to the public,” Lombardi said, noting that the city is not investigating the allegations. “This was my life. I enjoyed every day of work, even the tough ones.”
He has no immediate job plans.
After starting as a public school teacher in 1984, Lombardi became assistant principal of PS 61 in Corona in 1990 and took the helm of PS/IS 49 in 1998. Because he believed the school was underperforming, Lombardi immediately began beefing up professional development and observing staff to ensure the training was implemented.
At times he convened a hiring committee because it gave Lombardi some control over personnel decisions during a time when the city permitted teachers to transfer into schools with vacancies without interviewing for the jobs. He went on to help Bloomberg’s team revise teachers’ contracts to give principals autonomy in hiring.
Lombardi said these tactics led the school to become one of the most 200 improved in the state and a state-designated reward school. He also shed staff from PS/IS 49.
“The UFT, they’re probably happy he’s leaving,” PTA President Alicia Vaichunas said. “If a teacher makes a mistake, he’s going to call you out on it …. He’s demanding. He wants success.”
Lombardi incorporated Friday assemblies into PS/IS 49, at 63-60 80th St.. During these 50-minute sessions, teachers have time to plan and collaborate while the principal discusses news and student behavior with their pupils.
“It’s part of developing good citizenship,” he said.
PS/IS 49‘s integration of art and music into other academic subjects has been a hit with parents. Lombardi praised a sixth-grade architecture program that has students study the industry’s history, from ancient Roman developments to the modern era, while learning about corresponding eras in world history and practicing proportion, ratio and other math skills.
Lombardi extended the school day by an hour for middle-school students and implemented a Saturday academy for at-risk pupils and those who wish to learn instruments.
The campus expanded by 30,000 square feet and began adding middle-school grades five years ago. But Lombardi said overcrowding still plagues PS/IS 49 and surrounding schools. Now a second expansion is planned to accommodate roughly 240 additional students in the next few years, Vaichunas said.
PTA members said they hoped the DOE would consider Assistant Principal Richard Hallenbeck for interim acting principal because his familiarity with PS/IS 49 would help him steer it through the transition.
“When Lombardi told the PTA, the executive board, there wasn’t a dry eye,” said Dorothy Russo, vice president of the PTA. “He’s going to be a hard act to follow. Everyone loved him.”
Reach reporter Sarina Trangle at 718-260-4546 or by e-mail at strangle@cnglocal.com.
