{"id":207636,"date":"2026-04-23T20:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/207636\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T20:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T20:34:11","slug":"christopher-r-zublionis-named-new-plainedge-schools-superintendent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/207636\/","title":{"rendered":"Christopher R. Zublionis named new Plainedge schools superintendent"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new Plainedge schools superintendent has been appointed, nearly eight\u00a0months after its former schools chief abruptly departed.<\/p>\n

The school board\u00a0announced on Tuesday<\/a> that Christopher R. Zublionis will be the district\u2019s new permanent superintendent starting this summer.<\/p>\n

Zublionis, currently the North Shore Central School District superintendent, will replace Carol F. Muscarella, who was appointed to lead the district on an interim basis this past fall.<\/p>\n

School board president Joseph Beyrouty said in a statement Wednesday that the search process included input from all collective bargaining units and the community through digital surveys and multiple forums. The board appointed District Wise Search Consultants, a Woodbury-based firm, to assist.<\/p>\n

“Dr. Zublionis checked all of the boxes,” Beyrouty said. “He brings nearly three decades of experience, most recently as superintendent of a similarly-sized district. In every conversation, it was clear to the board that he was a thoroughly decent person who shared similar values to the Plainedge community.”<\/p>\n

Zublionis, in an emailed statement Thursday, said, “While it was not an easy decision to leave North Shore, I’m deeply grateful for that experience and proud of what we accomplished together. I’m excited to begin this next chapter in Plainedge and for the opportunity to partner with the family, faculty, staff and community to support students and build on an already excellent program.”<\/p>\n

His contract will run from July 2026 through\u00a0June 2031, the school board announced at a meeting on Tuesday.\u00a0His annual salary was not available.<\/p>\n

Before serving as North Shore Central\u2019s superintendent, Zublionis was that\u00a0district’s\u00a0assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.<\/p>\n

He had\u00a0previously been a social studies teacher, baseball coach\u00a0and union building representative in the West Babylon and Syosset schools before moving into administration as director of social studies and a building principal in the North Shore district, according to a letter sent to the Plainedge community announcing his appointment.<\/p>\n

The Plainedge district serves about 2,800 students.<\/p>\n

Zublionis will be the district’s first permanent school leader since Edward A. Salina Jr., a 14-year veteran in the post, abruptly left in September.<\/p>\n

The district was required to pay Salina more than $900,000 following his departure for unused sick and vacation time as well as the balance of his salary, Newsday previously reported<\/a>. Officials said the payout was “contractual.”<\/p>\n

Officials at the time declined to say why Salina left.<\/p>\n

Muscarella, a retired principal of the district’s John H. West Elementary School, took over after his departure.<\/p>\n

Darwin Yanes\u00a0is a native Long Islander and Stony Brook University graduate who covers education. He previously covered\u00a0the Town of North Hempstead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new Plainedge schools superintendent has been appointed, nearly eight\u00a0months after its former schools chief abruptly departed. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[67,9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-207636","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-education","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-new-york-state","13":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}