A Poignant Farewell for PS 89 Founding Principal Ronnie Najjar

PS 89 Principal Ronnie Najjar receives a standing ovation from parents, students and staff during her farewell celebration at the school she has led since its beginning in 1998. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

PS 89 Principal Ronnie Najjar has taken the stage of her school’s auditorium hundreds of times, but never like this. As she stood before a room filled with adoring parents, students, former students and staff on June17, the school’s first and only—and now retiring—leader for the past 28 years took a long, emotional pause before she could speak. 

“I’m trying really hard to be in the moment,” she said, “because it’s so overwhelming.”

Najjar’s farewell remarks to the PS 89 community, reflecting on the challenges and joys of leading the Battery Park City school for nearly three decades, capped a ceremony filled with speeches of praise, and presentations of gifts and honors that kept the principal fighting back tears throughout.

What emerged from those laudatory speeches was the picture of a leader attuned to every voice—grown-up’s and child’s, who made each feel supported and welcomed: the mother whose family had arrived from Brazil knowing no one and navigating the system as a foreigner; a mom of three from Maryland who each year planned to return “next year” but couldn’t bring herself to leave the school; the once deeply worried parent of a special needs child who Najjar reassured “would be fine”—and was—in the school’s inclusive kindergarten class. 

“When you meet someone who totally could change the trajectory of your existence, and your child’s existence, not only is it memorable, but it is truly life changing,” the mother, Deirdre Featherstone, told the gathering.

“The door was always open, and somehow, no matter how busy she was, she made every person who walked through it feel like what they had to say mattered,” said guidance counselor Karen Berman. She recalled how she and Najjar were a “tag team” when it came to conflict resolution among students. “She would ask a thoughtful question, I would ask the follow-up questions,” Berman said.

“We became pretty good partners in helping kids uncover the truth,” she added, “which in elementary school is often buried somewhere between three different versions of the story and a very dramatic eyewitness statement. Looking back, we could probably have started our own detective show, ‘Law & Order Elementary School Unit.’”

Thao Vo, the current vice principal, will succeed Najjar, and parent coordinator Christina Rossi will become vice principal. Both positions are initially interim. Rossi announced at the celebration that a plaque will be mounted outside the school’s auditorium, dedicating the space to the principal “in honor of her dedication to children, families and staff.”

In her speech, Najjar recalled that “in this room I have congratulated over a thousand students—many of whom are here tonight—as they walked across the stage as a symbolic ending to their elementary years. And it was in this room that we sheltered our teachers and students on 9/11 while we waited anxiously for word on when we should evacuate the building, not knowing that we would not return for five months.” 

“And in 2020,” she added, “it was in this room that I stood completely alone on this stage in an empty building and spoke to my graduates in their homes, wishing that we could have the simple joy of joining together in person as a community.”

Najjar, who had taught at PS 234 for 10 years before taking PS 89’s position as founding principal, said the move “absolutely terrified” her. 

“In 1998, our very small staff of 12, along with families willing to take a risk, blindly joined me on this journey,” she recalled. “Everyone poured their hearts into PS 89. They trusted me and each other, and together we lifted the school off the ground.”

What comes next? Najjar told the Trib that she is undecided about the future. “I have to think about what my life’s going to be like without a September that I’m not in school,” she said. “Since I was five years old, going to kindergarten at PS 107, I have never not been in school in September. Think back. Elementary school, high school, college, teaching.”

“I’m not sure,” she added, “what I’m going to do on that very first day of school when I’m used to being downstairs and welcoming families and doing all the things that you do right before school opens.”