WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. February 19, 2013:

Former Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors reached at his home in Sutton, Massachussetts, told WPCNR this morning, he has not been contacted by the Board of Education as a possible interim superintendent of schools for the city, while the Board of Education considers whether or not to search for a new Superintendent to replace Dr. Christopher Clouet.

 “I have not heard from them at all,” Connors told me, though he said he had been telephoned by a person from White Plains, not a member of the Board, who informed him of Dr. Clouet’s decision to leave the district last week.

Dr. Clouet was appointed Superintendent of Schools for the Union Free School District of the Tarrytowns  last Thursday night and has officially accepted the Tarrytowns  job, according to a Tarrytowns district spokesman Friday morning.

A member of the Board of Education told WPCNR Monday evening the Board needed a couple of weeks to sort things out as to how they were going to proceed, having just learned of the impending departure of Clouet last week.

Previously two Board members told WPCNR that Clouet wanted to reopen his contract, and the board did not want to reexamine his contract, since Clouet had 2-1/2 years remaining on it.

 Clouet had been earning $227,000 as White Plains Superintendent, and has been hired by the Tarrytowns for $253,000 according to the Tarrytown Board of Education Agenda last Thursday.  The White Plains Board member I spoke with last night said Clouet had not yet officially resigned from White Plains.

I asked the White Plains Board member  if the Board had been in touch with Connors,  the member said that since Connors left White Plains he had talked with the district and kept up contacts.

 Asked specifically if the Board had talked with Connors about possibility of helping out, the Board member said, “Of course we have.”

Asked if the Board had to release Clouet from his contract officially, the board member said they did not believe the Board had to do that.

Mr. Connors was the Superintendent Dr. Clouet replaced in 2009 when Clouet came to White Plains from New London, Connecticut.

Mr. Connors retired from the White Plains Schools in June 2009, and after applying for Superintendent positions in Worschester, Massachussetts  in 2008 and Nantucket, Massachussetts in the spring of 2010, he accepted the position of Interim Superintendent at the Hastings-on-Hudson School District for 2010-12, while that district searched for a Superintendent. After one year of searching, Hastings found no one that they could come to an decision on.

The Hastings district rehired Connors for a second year as an Interim Superintendent for 2011-2012, hiring  Dr. Roy Montesano in January of 2012, for the 2012-2013 year, with Mr. Connors finishing up his Interim assignment at the end of June, 8 months ago.

Connors told me he lived in White Plains for the two years he was Interim Superintendent in Hastings.

The President of the Board of Education, Rosemarie Eller, has not returned a WPCNR call asking for a statement about Dr. Clouet's departure, and for clarification of whether Connors is being considered as a "go-to" option to fill the Superintendent position either interim or otherwise.