Bruce Apar’s Blog

When now-suspended Yorktown High Principal John Sullivan first arrived at the school as an interim principal three years ago, one of the first students to strike up a relationship with him was Andrew Steinmetz, who had the distinction of being class president all four of his high school years.

Young Mr. Steinmetz, whose family is close friends of ours, is a natural leader. He is a freshman focusing on communications and politics at the University of Pennsylvania, and it would surprise no one who knows him to see him in the future as a high-profile media personality, perhaps holding forth on TV for the 2020 Presidential Election.

It’s also no surprise that he and his YHS cohort — which includes past class officers Ari Cohen and Kate Tessi — are planning to be present Tuesday, Feb. 26, at the Yorktown Board of Education meeting where Mr. Sullivan’s suspension is scheduled to be addressed and adjudicated. Presumably, the options are: the suspension will continue, with no immediate resolution of his status; it will end, with his reinstatement as principal; or it will end, with his termination as principal.

“Some of us will be speaking,” Andrew told me Saturday, Feb. 16, from the Philadelphia campus, where he was pledging a fraternity. “We think there will be a pretty large turnout of current students and some of them will be speaking too.

“In talking to many of the students in the building now, everybody wants to have their voice heard.”

He allowed as how even alumni like him and the others are concerned about the impact of a possible change in leadership and how it might affect YHS students, something about which he has direct experience.

“Are they going to have their principal back or be thrown into transition? Change in leadership is a difficult thing. It took us a couple of months to adjust to Mr. Sullivan when he came in. It takes awhile for a new administration to gain the trust of the student body.”

Mr. Steinmetz continues, “As difficult as a transition as that is, Mr. Sullivan made it easy because of his accessibility to students. I was in his office every single day just having normal conversations. That’s something a lot of administrators lack, the ability to have a level conversation and connect with young people. That’s something he excels at.”

The Yorktown High Class of ‘07 graduate told me that he is “trying to understand the other side of the story here. I’m trying to take an objective look at this. There’s no reason why the district would draw such negative attention to itself if they didn’t have justification to do it, but I just don’t see the rationale for it.

“I think it was done for personal reasons, kind of a power struggle, but people can work around it.” He is referring to the icy relationship between the principal and Yorktown Schools Superintendent Dr. Ralph Napolitano, who issued the suspension (see story on home page of NCNlocal.com).

He also remarks that the high school has seen marked improvement under John Sullivan’s leadership, a point on which there is a broad agreement in the community of parents and students.

“He is an excellent principal,” continues Andrew, “and the buillding needs him around to continue its progress.”

Just about all of the reaction and commentary on the Sullivan suspension has emanated so far from his supporters and sympathizers, in large part because Superintendent Napolitano and the Board of Education have stated that they are prohibited from commenting publicly on personnel matters. However, they presumably will be commenting on this personnel matter at the Feb. 26 Board of Education meeting at Mildred E. Strang Middle School (7:00 p.m. in the cafeteria).

That leaves an inference that they choose not to comment on it until then, perhaps on advice of legal counsel, or perhaps they have a game plan that calls for revealing reasons on Feb. 26 that are a lot more compelling than a missed meeting and incomplete performance evaluations of staff.

If that’s in fact where all this is leading, Andrew Steinmetz, for one, would find it unsettling: “It’s not going to be good if they [Board of Education] pull a trick play out and we all are supporting him and didn’t know there was more information, and we all look foolish. I really hope this whole thing all works out.”

The Yorktown High Class of 2006 graduate said he was planning to get in touch with Dr. Napolitano to share his sentiments in support of his principal and friend, John Sullivan.