The Herricks school board on Wednesday appointed James Ruck, a 48-year educator who has worked in five school districts, as Herricks High School’s interim principal.
Ruck has a “wealth of experience” as a teacher, principal and superintendent in Westchester and Suffolk counties and shares many of Herricks’ values, district Superintendent Fino Celano said.
“Everyone who we’ve spoken to who has worked with him has just praised him for his knowledge, his talent and his ability to work with people — parents and students and teachers,” Celano said. “He really is a caring and child-centered, student-centered, principal.”
Ruck, 72, will officially start at Herricks Aug. 15, when current principal Samuel Thompson will leave to become principal of Farmingdale High School.
He comes to Herricks from Elwood-John H. Glenn High School in Suffolk County, where he was principal for two years. He also spent 24 years — including 13 as superintendent — in the 15,500-student Sachem Central School District, the largest suburban school district in the state. There he managed a $242.7 million budget and oversaw a $228 million capital projects referendum.
Ruck knew little about Herricks before he met Celano and other district administrators on July 25, but found he and Celano share a strong focus on students’ social and emotional well-being, he said.
He is not “turning the place over” at Herricks High, he said, but aims to support the school’s high academic performance, “rich” curriculum and diverse extracurricular activities. He’ll also continue his practice of eating lunch with students in the cafeteria, he said.
“I know what good high schools are all about, and it’s about everybody having a niche, and you want to create niches for people, kids and teachers,” said Ruck, a lifelong Northport resident.
Ruck will be Herricks High School’s third principal in three years as he takes over for Thompson, who is leaving Herricks after a year to return to Farmingdale, where he was an assistant principal for eight years.
The situation is familiar to Ruck, he said. In 2006, he was supposed to serve a six-month stint as the interim principal at Harrison High School in Westchester County, which had gone through five principals in 10 years. He ended up staying for seven years before leaving in 2013.
Despite the turnover, Celano said Herricks High School’s strong core of teachers and departmental leaders, as well as the school board, are a force for stability.
“While there’s a change in leadership, the vision will remain the same,” Celano said.
The fact that Ruck shares the district’s goals eases the transition as Herricks also works to create an Advanced Placement capstone course for seniors and expand its classroom technology, Celano said.
The district will conduct a full search for a permanent principal in the spring, a process that takes about three months, Celano said.
Asked if he would consider taking that job, Ruck said, “It’ll have to be a match.”
“Too soon to say that, but would I say impossible?” he said. “I would have said impossible when I went to Harrison and stayed for seven years.”
