HAMBURG, N.Y. (WBEN) - Richard Hughes will no longer be the superintendent at Frontier Central Schools.
The Frontier School Board on Tuesday night voted on a "mutual agreement" between the superintendent and the board to part ways "in the best interest of the district and will allow Dr. Hughes to pursue other opportunities".
"I came to Frontier knowing it was already a great school district," Dr. Hughes said in a statement read by the board. "What quickly became apparent was that its people are what makes it such a special place. My time at Frontier, I am proud of all we accomplished. We added communication tools, including our website, thought exchange, Facebook, and smartphone apps, along others. We invested heavily in our technology infrastructure, personnel, and training, well before the pandemic. Frontier is now able to take advantage of the learning benefits offered by anywhere, anytime learning, as a one-device to one-student district. We created and improved academic opportunities to help all students succeed, such as the high school reach program, learning pathways, STEAM, MTSS, and the expansion of academic coursework. We managed taxpayer funds well despite the ongoing uncertainty of state aid and the pandemic. We recently completed a five-year strategic plan to place a hyper focus on academics, social-emotional learning, and communication. We have created and completed capital projects to improve our facilities including a new multi-use field and a long-term plan that was presented tonight. All these accomplishments and more will positively impact our Falcons and community for decades to come. I want to sincerely thank our staff, faculty, administrators, and board of education, for their tireless work on behalf of our Falcons. Most importantly, I want to thank our community for being so supportive of our schools and for welcoming my family and I. This is not an end, but the beginning of a new journey."
A message to Hughes was not immediately returned. Board President Davis Podkulski sent a statement to WBEN reiterating his comments made during Tuesday night's meeting that Hughes was leaving the district.
"The Board would like to thank Dr. Hughes for all his efforts and hard work with the District and we wish him well in his future endeavors," Podkulski said.
Colleen Dugan has been named acting superintendent. She was previously the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction.
Hughes' handling of hybrid learning led to a vote of "no confidence" by the teachers. FCTA President Amber Chandler told WBEN in October the hybrid learning model makes teachers uncomfortable with the education students are receiving and claimed Hughes misled both parents and teachers about the reopening plans this year.
"I was not privy to any information ahead of time," Chandler told WBEN. "I was watching the school board meeting like I always do. As a union, we had called for his removal back in early October based on our schools reopening plan and I guess this is the process. I don't know what happened behind the scenes but we're looking forward to new leadership."
Students at Frontier are currently operating in a remote model. The board said they have plans to resume a hybrid model.
"I think teachers are getting the hang of the more complex things," Chandler said. "Our biggest issue had been trying to live stream while we had students in front of us. We didn't have any training on that and we didn't have the technology to do that. We didn't become one-to-one in our district until the end of October, maybe early-November. It was really an impossible situation that teachers were put in."
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