Westbury names Bronx native its new school superintendent

Westbury’s school board has chosen a new superintendent to lead one of the most diverse districts on Long Island, nearly a year after the board announced it would not renew the incumbent’s contract.

Tahira A. DuPree Chase, 48, will start July 1, the district said. Her base salary will be $275,000 a year.

"In every way, Dr. Chase is the right person at the right time to join the Westbury family," said board president Robert Troiano before its members voted 7-0 to hire Chase at a Wednesday meeting.

Chase, a Bronx native, has been the superintendent of Greenburgh Central School District in Hartsdale, in Westchester County, since 2014.

Eudes Budhai, who has been Westbury’s superintendent since 2017, was named superintendent for Nyack schools in Rockland County in April. His last day in Westbury is May 31. His base salary in 2020 was $259,996.

Roger Bloom, assistant superintendent for personnel, will serve as interim superintendent in June.

"I want you all to know that I do not take this privilege for granted," Chase said at Wednesday’s virtual meeting. "To whom much is given, much is expected. And you will have my utmost commitment to the work ahead."

Chase worked in the Mount Vernon City School District for seven years before joining Greenburgh in 2012, first as assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction and then superintendent, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Chase will oversee a district of six schools with nearly 5,000 students — 74% of them Hispanic and 22% Black in school year 2019-2020, according to the most recent state data.

The board’s majority decision last summer to not renew Budhai’s contract drew strong pushback from community members. An online petition that circulated at the time collected more than 1,500 signatures.

Budhai’s leaving marked the departure of the last superintendent of Hispanic descent on Long Island’s 124 school districts, said Dafny Irizarry, president of the Long Island Latino Teachers Association.

"We are the largest minority group on Long Island with at least 26% of the student population," she said. "Yet we will not have, after his last day as superintendent of Westbury, any other superintendent of Latinx heritage or Hispanic heritage. That is obviously very troubling."

Trustee Pedro Quintanilla, who objected to not renewing Budhai’s contract, said the decision showed "a lack of sensitivity" to the constituency but said he believed Chase would take the district "to a higher level."

Isabella Lomax, treasurer of the Westbury PTA Council, said she will keep an open mind. "We all agreed we’d give the person coming in a fair shot," said the mother of a fourth-grader in Powells Lane Elementary.