Come next spring, the Greenburgh-North Castle Union Free School District (GNC UFSD), a special act district in partnership with St. Christopher’s Inc., will be operating under a new superintendent-elect, Dr. Carolyn McGuffog. McGuffog, who worked for the Pleasantville School District as the assistant superintendent for special education since 2004, will move into her new role when Dr. Edward Placke, having announced his departure in July, retires in March.
Unanimously chosen by the USFD board among a pool of nearly 40 applicants, McGuffog—who worked in Pleasantville schools for 26 years as a school psychologist prior to her position as assistant superintendent, receiving the Gil Trachtman Leadership Award in School Psychology in 2013 from The New York Association of School Psychologists—will enter her five-year contract in February with an annual salary of $225,000. Beyond her education experience, McGuffog works as a Clinical Director for the Doctoral Psychology Internship Program in Pleasantville and as a Clinical Psychologist at a private practice in Westchester County.
After serving the 500-student special act district for 12 years, Placke will be transitioning out of GNC UFSD into a new role as Executive Director at Green Chimneys, a residential treatment school in Brewster and Carmel for children with social and emotional needs.
School Board President Dr. Robert Maher is confident that McGuffog is more than prepared to take on the challenging position, saying in a statement that she “will have big shoes to fill, but she’s a seasoned leader that will come and hit the ground running.”
