By KYLE WIND
Freeman staff
kwind@freemanonline.com; twitter.com/KyleatFreeman

HURLEY, N.Y. — The principal of Ernest C. Myer Elementary School, who was placed on paid leave for two days at the beginning of this week, now is on paid leave “until further notice,” the Kingston school district superintendent said on Wednesday.

In Ardrea Lambeth-Smith’s absence, Myer will have Jo Ellen Gibbons as its acting principal, Superintendent Paul Padalino said.

Gibbons currently is the district’s director of humanities. She previously was principal of Harry L. Edson Elementary School in Kingston for 10 years and has served as head of the Kingston Alternative Learning Program.

Of Lambeth-Smith, Padalino said he will not comment further “until all the facts are in.”

Padalino has declined to say what prompted the leave — calling it only a personnel matter — but last Thursday, he told the Freeman the school district was investigating an allegation that Lambeth-Smith took home a piano that had been donated to the Myer school in May. He said at the time that the complaint was not being treated as a theft and that the principal was not said to have tried to conceal taking the piano home. He also said the piano was back in the district’s possession at that point.

On Friday, Padalino said he could not discuss the complaint any further because it had become a personnel matter. On Monday, he would not say if Lambeth-Smith’s  leave was connected to the piano allegation.

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