School district hires athletic director
KINGSTON, N.Y. » School trustees unanimously have approved the hiring of Rich Silverstein as district athletic director at an annual salary of $125,000.
The board voted at a Board of Education meeting Wednesday evening.
Superintendent Paul Padalino said he was pleased with Silverstein’s characterization of how important the job is.
“When we were looking for a new athletic director when (Glen) Maisch retired, ... one of the things I said ... was I was looking for someone who thought this was their dream job and we’re finding them,” he said. “Rich came in and sat down and, within the first five minutes of our conversation, he said ‘this is my dream job.’ That was it ... and I knew we wanted to get Rich here because that’s the attitude our student-athletes deserve, that our coaches deserve, that our community deserves.”
Silverstein, who spent the past two years in the same position for the Pine Plains school district, began working for Kingston several weeks ago through an administrative appointment intended to have the upcoming fall sports season begin smoothly.
“My entry plan would be about just making sure that all the coaches are appropriately licensed, all the positions are appropriately filled by the best candidates, making sure all the facilities, all of the equipment, all of the needs for the kids basically are there,” he said.
“As I progress on and I get more comfortable with the district, then I’ll take a good look at some of the specifics,” Silverstein said. “For example, improving communications. There’s a new (district) web site that’s coming up, so I’ll work with our web designer to be sure that we have better social media (and) better ways to communicate with the parents.”
Silverstein was previously assistant director for Section I, covering 80 school districts, for three years after spending 13 years with Solomon Schechter School in Westchester County, where his last four years was spent as an athletic director for Woodlands High School in a neighboring district.
Silverstein said success at Pine Plains, which had five section champions in 201617, came from having “gifted athletes and talented teams.”
Silverstein is a 1987 graduate of Indiana State University and received master’s degrees from SUNY Brockport and the College of New Rochelle.
Asked if he had an affection for a particular sport, Silverstein responded: “I’ve coached 20 years of high school soccer and almost 20 years of high school baseball. Those are my two favorites.”