WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. September 3, 2004: Mario Scarano is officially leaving his post as Athletic Director of White Plains High School. The man who created  the Fall Winter and Spring Sports Awards Recognition Dinners, the man who presided over an athletic program that has won 87% of its competitions last year, the man who inspired a coaching staff to further academic excellence as well as athletic excellence, the man who oversaw the weight training room in the Tigers sports complex in South House, was officially the Board of Education has decided not to rescind his retirement Wednesday evening.

Mario Scarano Handling the Big Details at South House in early August. The WPHS Athletic Director  for the last six years will be moving on, because the White Plains Board of Education has decided not to rescind his retirement as he requested in an impassioned plea to the Board of Education Wednesday evening to stay on the job. Mr.Scarano will be continuing his Athletic Director duties until Thursday of next week, and hopes to continue consulting to aid in the transition to a new Athletic Director. Mr. Scarano said he hoped to perhaps move on to a college position, but presently has no concrete plans. Photo by WPCNR Sports

Mr. Scarano, in an interview today with WPCNR said he had nothing but praise for the coaches, high school staff, nurses, secretaries and administrators he has worked with at the high school and throughout the district during the last six years. He said he was proud of how the WPHS program has gotten better and better over his tenure, both academically and on the fields and the courts. He said being Athletic Director was something he loved doing that it wasn't a job to him, and thanked all whom he has worked with and the kids for all their contributions to the athletic program.

Last February, Mr. Scarano had proposed splitting the post of Athletic Director and Coordinator of Health into two positions, because he felt the demands of supervising both the athletic program and the health curriculum were too much for one person to handle alone given the size of the WPHS program and the new demands the state was placing on the health program. Scarano told the district at that time that he would continue as Athletic Director if the district were able to split the two positions, otherwise he would retire. Then the Board of Education said it would consider splitting the two positions.

The Board delayed making that decision to split the position until July. Mr. Scarano had put in his retirement papers with the district by then as he was required to do, and did so when the Board had not indicated that they were going to split the position. After Mr. Scarano had learned the Board had indeed decided to follow his suggestion to split the position, he applied to the Board of Education to rescind his retirement. Mr. Scarano asked to speak to the Board to make a case for his continuing on as Athletic Director. By that time, the School District had already posted the positions of Athletic Director and Coordinator of Health programs.

After a postponement due to the illness of the daughter of Board of Education President Donna McLaughlin, the Board of Education met in Executive Session Wednesday evening to hear Mr. Scarano and consider his request.

After hearing Mr. Scarano, according to a WPCNR source familiar with the Executive Session proceedings, the Board voted 7-0 to not rescind Mr. Scarano's retirement. Our source said that some twenty applications had already been received for the positions of both Athletic Director and the Health position.

There had been strong lobbying of the Board of Education to keep Mr. Scarano for the Athletic Director post. However, apparently the Board, as Mr. Scarano put it, "decided to move in a different direction."

Superintendent of Schools, Timothy Connors, was unavailable for comment Friday afternoon. Mr. Scarano said he would be meeting with Mr. Connors next Thursday to discuss his staying for a transitional period as a consultant while the decision on who his successor will be is made.