Remembering Superintendent Charles T. St. Clair
When J. Taylor Finley wrapped up a 34 year career in the Huntington School District with a six year stint as superintendent the School Board replaced him with Dr. Charles T. St. Clair, who would stay in the district for just four years.
This was an interesting time in the history of the district. Jefferson Elementary School had recently opened, a $1.425 million addition to Huntington High School was about to be built, plans were on the drawing boards to demolish Roosevelt Elementary School on Lowndes Avenue and replace it with a new structure as part of the town’s urban renewal initiative. A new junior high school on Greenlawn Road was also about to go up. It would eventually bear Mr. Finley’s name.
Dr. St. Clair earned his undergraduate degree at Duke University and obtained a master’s at Penn State and a doctorate at New York University. Prior to coming to Huntington, he was a superintendent in Connecticut and was past president of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents.
To read the history of the Huntington School District during the period of Dr. St. Clair’s tenure is more than a little eerie. There were tumultuous standing room only School Board meetings, organized community groups protesting against the tax rate, teacher salaries and district policies, administrative shuffling between buildings, parents angry with elementary redistricting plans and several budget defeats.
During his stay in Huntington, Dr. St. Clair became a full-fledged member of the community, serving on the board of directors of the Family Service League, the Rotary Club of Huntington, the Suffolk Tuberculosis and Public Health Association and the Huntington Historical Society. He was also very involved in the local Methodist Church.
The year 1967 proved to be an eventful one for both the district and Dr. St. Clair. Districts across Long Island struggled to pass their budgets. Huntington’s went down to defeat twice. Only after numerous positions and programs were eliminated and the institution of the unveiling of a sports program at the junior high school level was put on hold for a year, did residents pass the budget.
School Board meetings were sometimes rowdy affairs, with plenty of finger-pointing and shouting. Complaints about teacher salaries were frequent. In the midst of the budget controversy came another one involving the creation of a 325 student sixth grade school in a wing of two-year old J. Taylor Finley Junior High School.
Assistant Superintendent Christopher R. Vagts was the point man for the Finley proposal, having to sell apprehensive parents on the need for a redistricting. One of the meetings drew 500 concerned parents to Finley’s large group instruction room, where Mr. Vagts explained the district planned to operate the sixth grade school at Finley for a period of three years. The classroom program there would be identical to the one offered at the other nine elementary schools in the district and there would even be a separate, fenced off playground for the younger students. Parents remained apprehensive but the proposal was adopted and the students were relocated.
Around this same time, Jefferson’s founding principal, J. Allen Matthews requested an extended sick leave of absence. He was replaced by Frank Marlowe, who was transferred from Lincoln Elementary School. Elementary science coordinator Michael Picozzi took over at Lincoln as principal.
Smack in the middle of all of this, Dr. St. Clair announced he was leaving Huntington effective July 1, 1967 to become superintendent of the Wantagh School District, replacing the retiring Dr. William J. Krum, Jr. At the time of his resignation, he was serving as president of SCOPE, the Suffolk County Organization for the Promotion of Education. He had been a member of SCOPE’s board of directors since its founding.
Dr. St. Clair was replaced by Mr. Vagts, but tensions in the district did not cool down. Difficult contract negotiations led the Associated Teachers of Huntington to call a strike. It was the first such teacher strike in the state. The community became polarized.
Mr. Vagts was named acting superintendent on July 1, 1967 and given a five year contract as superintendent on January 17, 1968. He submitted his resignation from that position in July 1968, but stayed on until his successor, William Keough assumed the job on January 15, 1969. Mr. Vagts then served in various central office positions for the next 12 years, retiring as assistant superintendent for instruction on August 30, 1981. At the time of his retirement, he was the Suffolk County historian.
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