The Garden City Board of Education held a special meeting on Wednesday evening to handle several pressing personnel issues, including the appointments of a principal for Locust School and an interim principal for the high school.

The board approved the administration's recommendation to hire Adam Winnick as principal of Locust School to replace Matthew Gaven, who recently resigned. Winnick has a bachelor of arts degree in communication from SUNY Geneseo, a master of arts in elementary education and a certificate of advanced study in educational administration from Hofstra University. He has been director of the cultural arts program since 2005 and a fourth-grade teacher since 1999 at Jericho Public Schools.

"He will be an outstanding member of a great trio that we have at the primary level," said Garden City Superintendent of Schools Dr. Robert Feirsen.

Dr. Feirsen will cover the position if Winnick is unable to leave his current district in time for the beginning of school. Letters will be mailed to parents to keep them updated on the situation.

At the high school, the board approved the administration's recommendation to hire an interim principal for a year to replace Hank Hardy, who recently resigned to accept a district-wide directorship in another school district. According to Superintendent Dr. Robert Feirsen, the district was looking for a candidate with "deep experience in running a high school."

Francis (Frank) Banta has gained extensive experience as an interim high school principal: he served at North Shore High School from Sept. 2005 through June 2006; at Roslyn High School from Sept. 2004 through June 2005; at Paul D. Schreiber High School from Sept. 2002 through June 2004; and at Harborfields High School from Sept. 2000 through June 2002. Previous to that, from 1991 to 1998, Banta was superintendent of schools at Oyster Bay-East Norwich Central School District. He will start his new position in Garden City immediately.

"Frank brings to us tremendous experience and a real commitment to high school education," said Dr. Feirsen.

In other school district news, School Board President Kenneth Monaghan announced that the bids for the Middle School field rehabilitation work are being reformulated and are expected to be publicized next week. The district is tightening the specifications on the irrigation system for the property based on meetings with an engineering group, consultants in the field and outside vendors.

"The expectations are still that we are within the bid prices we talked about," said Monaghan. In May, voters approved a serial bond which included $4.2 million to purchase the 11.6-acre field and $985,000 to rehabilitate the property.

Due to the bid delay, the fields will now be available for most of the fall season. A portion of the land will be covered in sod so that a section can be available for use for the following fall season. A crossing guard will not be needed until the spring to cross Middle School students to temporarily use the fields at St. Paul's across Stewart Avenue.

Also, residents should expect to receive their school year calendars in the mail by the beginning of next week.