Recent months have seen a typical level of turmoil in the district’s leadership, as board members have battled over allegations of campaign improprieties in last May’s election, which led to a shift of power on the board.

Shortly before the election, the old majority had voted 3 to 2 to hire a new superintendent on a four-year contract. Under the previous superintendent, a state audit found that the high school had a longstanding practice of improperly boosting students’ grades from failing to passing to improve the district’s statistics. The new superintendent was Shimon Waronker, a former army intelligence officer who had started several schools in New York City and was a favorite of the former city schools chancellor, Joel I. Klein.

Dr. Waronker, who has a doctorate in education from Harvard, quickly brought in some of his former associates from New York City. At his urging, the outgoing majority on the board entered into a $450,000 contract with a Brooklyn-based nonprofit he founded, the New American Initiative, and approved the hiring of four master teachers, whose job, Dr. Waronker said in an interview, was to implement “teacher rounds,” a form of collaborative professional development modeled on medical rounds.

Dr. Waronker denied tenure to the principal of Hempstead High School, Stephen Strachan, accusing him of failing to report weapons confiscated at the school and of keeping some weapons in his office. He later said Mr. Strachan claimed a doctorate from what Dr. Waronker called a “diploma mill.”

As soon as the new faction took power, it put the brakes on Dr. Waronker’s agenda, firing the master teachers and canceling the contract with his nonprofit. It also fired a law firm that Dr. Waronker said was investigating possible corruption in the food service program and rehired two other law firms that an external audit had found to have charged exorbitant fees. It reinstated Mr. Strachan, who in an interview said he was “not aware of there being any truth” to Dr. Waronker’s accusations.

Over just a few days in January, Dr. Waronker posted a letter on the district’s website, accusing the board majority of stymieing his effort to transform the district and of “patronage, vendettas, threats and cover-ups.” The State Education Department released a scathing report prepared by a retired superintendent, detailing the district’s record of dismal results and questionable spending, and effectively criticizing both the board and Dr. Waronker. And, the next night, in a raucous meeting, the board majority voted to put Dr. Waronker on leave and ban him from school property.