Sherrill Murray-Lazarus has been appointed the new principal of Peekskill High School by the Peekskill City School District Board of Education, effective July 22.
Murray-Lazarus is the first woman to serve as Peekskill High School principal. She replaces retiring principal Vincent Burruano.
“I am looking forward to getting to know the school, the faculty, my new colleagues in the district, and of course the students,” Murray-Lazarus said. “I bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm to Peekskill and I want to build bridges and make connections.”
Murray-Lazarus brings many years of teaching and administration to her new position. She served as principal of the Roy C. Ketcham Senior High School in the Wappingers Central School District from 2003 to 2009. She was Ketcham’s assistant principal from 1996 to 1998 and then the Wappingers District coordinator of social studies and second language from 1998 to 2003. During her tenure as principal, Ketcham and its 2,000 students frequently earned regional recognition as a “Hudson Valley’s Best” High School and national recognition from the MSNBC Challenge Index of the Top 1,000 High Schools in the U.S.
Prior to her career in administration, Murray-Lazarus began her teaching career in Newburgh as a Spanish teacher. She speaks four languages in addition to English: Spanish, French, Italian, and Hebrew. She has also been the principal of a K-10 religious school. Whatever the size of the school, she concludes: “Building a good administrative team and developing the skills of the other leaders in the school to accomplish what we need to do is the key to success.”
Murray-Lazarus graduated from SUNY Oswego and received two graduate degrees from SUNY New Paltz. She is a doctoral candidate in educational administration at North Central University.
Murray-Lazarus in her free time enjoys skydiving, skiing, quilting, and reading and writing poetry. She has extensive volunteer interests, including the Wappingers Falls Rotary Club, and is an advocate on issues related to chronic Lyme disease and its impact on adolescents.
“I want to continue making a difference for students,” Murray-Lazarus said. “When I became a high school principal, I fell in love with my work. Being a high school principal is difficult and demanding, and at the same time it’s the best job in the world.”
Look for Mercury’s new interview with Mrs. Lazarus soon.