Donatuti Pitches Parental Involvement in Springs School Board Race

After spending a lifetime in education, former principal Dennis Donatuti is ready to continue his activity in the education field as he challenges Board Vice President John B. Grant for his seat in the upcoming school board election on May 15.

"I've been involved in education for more than 40 years," Donatuti said in an interview on Monday. "I have a desire to get involved, so I've attended a few meetings, raised a couple questions. And I think I can be an asset to the school board if I run and get elected."

Donatuti earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from SUNY Brockport, and upon graduation worked in the South Huntington School District for nearly 20 years before coming on as John Marshal's principal in the mid-1980s, where he stayed for 10 years before taking an early retirement. Donutati has also studied at St. John's University and Oxford University. 

Following his time in East Hampton, Donatuti worked at three overseas schools - at the American Schools of The Hague, Brasilia, and Recife - which offer expatriates and others interested an American curriculum. Donatuti said that his international experience would be beneficial in Springs, where he said he's seen the community change a lot.

"When I was in The Hague, we had kids from 46 different countries attending our school," he said. "At Brasilia, 25 percent of kids came to school speaking English. And we had to prepare all of these kids to get a high school diploma."

Throughout his time as an educator, Donutati said, one of the most important factors he's noticed in the success of a child has been parental involvement in the kids' education. He said John Marshall didn't have a Parent-Teacher Association before he arrived, and after he left the school, a couple of PTA presidents had gone on to be teachers themselves, one went to work for an early childhood learning center, and another to work in school administration.

"All four said 'You lit a fire,'" he said. "I'm very proud of that."

Moving forward in Springs, Donatuti said he would like to see a similar involvement.

"What I would like to see is genuine parental involvement in many, many more aspects of the educational process than parents are presently participating in," he said. Donatuti pointed back to parental involvement in selecting teachers at John Marshal as one particular example.

"Children make tremendous academic gains when parents are part of the process," he said. "And parents are thrilled with the way the school is functioning."

Donatuti said that if he were on the Springs School Board currently, he would vote in favor the proposed budget.

"Not only that, but I would give the administration a round of applause," he said. "Springs did an excellent job ... Is everybody going to be happy? Absolutely not. We lost positions and programs will be curtailed. But that's the nature of education at this time."

The  takes place in Springs on May 15, at the school gym, between 1 and 9 p.m.