Newburgh School District Acting Superintendent Lisa Buon is pressing on with plans for new programs and new hires before a new school board takes over. This all comes as she moves forward with a lawsuit against the district. Opponents of Buon's ambitious moves are also threatening legal action if her plans go through.

Buon said Tuesday she faced retaliation from district leaders back when she was a school principal because she criticized the current reading program. This is one of a handful of reasons she is suing the school district in federal court, according to the lawsuit filed in April.

"I was not OK with the fact that we had a reading program that was failing children," Buon said during an interview at her office. As the district's top administrator, she is still trying to push through a research-based reading program to replace the current program. She is also moving forward with plans to eliminate 15 administrative positions and hire at least seven new administrators. She has about three weeks to do this. Two newly elected board members who oppose Buon take their seats on July 2. Instead of the current five-member majority that supports Buon's agenda, there will be a six-member majority that opposes Buon. Those six members will have the ability to reverse much of Buon's changes, as well as the power to fire Buon. "This is not the role of an acting superintendent," former school board member Dawn Fucheck said in a Zoom interview Tuesday, adding that she would support a board vote to dismiss Buon. "They (acting superintendents) are supposed to maintain continuity of leadership. They're supposed to provide stability for the district. These actions are anything but stabilizing." In a letter to the school board last month, the School Administrators Association of New York State said it will take legal action over dismissals of administrators. The organization said the district is violating state labor laws by nixing union positions in bad faith. Buon has heard the criticism and remains unfazed. "When the building is burning, when the district is burning, you can't just pour water on it," Buon said. "You gotta call in the fire brigade."

The outgoing, Buon-supporting majority has two June meetings to pass some of Buon's changes before the next board takes over.