Two familiar faces to fill admin vacancies at PCSD

Four administrators have announced their resignation from the Port Chester School District in the last two months.

Middle School Principal Patrick Swift, Park Avenue Principal Rosa Taylor, John F. Kennedy Elementary School Principal Judy Diaz and Executive Director of Human Resources Ivan Tolentino will walk out of their respective buildings for the last time on June 30.

At the June 13 Board of Education meeting, it was announced that personnel decisions had been made. One position will be shifted back to its status quo, while two others have been filled.

Bryant Romano, who stepped into the co-principal role alongside Swift at the middle school in Fall 2023, will be sole building head at the start of the 2024-25 school year. Meanwhile, Port Chester High School Assistant Principal Juan Sanchez will be filling Tolentino’s role.

The man taking over Park Avenue School is more of a fresh face—though he brings along a familiar name.

“James Craig Dreves is being recommended as principal of Park Avenue School,” Superintendent Dr. Aurelia Henriquez announced at the meeting. “He has deep roots in our community, and we are thrilled to welcome him back home to Port Chester.”

Dreves, an alumnus of the Port Chester School system, has spent the last 16 years in education. He worked as a history teacher in Rye City for seven years, followed by an eight-year stint as an assistant principal in Ossining.

He made the transition to principal in 2022 at the Upper Nyack Elementary School.

The Dreves name is known to many in Port Chester.

His father, Jim, served on the Board of Education for 27 years, from 1991 to 2018, and the current board is in the process of naming a garden in his honor.

The Rye resident is slated to step into his new office on July 15, and his contract is for four years.

According to Henriquez, the district is in the process of searching for a new principal for John F. Kennedy Elementary School.