Top school job posted

Committee not expected to act on superintendent until after the first of the New Year

Posted 10/16/14

The Warwick School Department has posted the position of superintendent of schools, currently held by Richard D’Agostino.

School Committee chairwoman Bethany Furtado said she doesn’t …

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Top school job posted

Committee not expected to act on superintendent until after the first of the New Year

Posted

The Warwick School Department has posted the position of superintendent of schools, currently held by Richard D’Agostino.

School Committee chairwoman Bethany Furtado said she doesn’t expect a decision on a new superintendent until after the start of the new year, out of respect to school committee members up for re-election, including Furtado, vice chairwoman Terri Medeiros and Eugene Nadeau.

“We’re not going to act on a decision before the first of the year with three of the five school committee members up for re-election,” she said during a phone interview yesterday. “It’s fair and appropriate to wait.”

Furtado said typically with job postings, interested parties have a minimum of 30 days to apply, but said it could be even longer than that, potentially extending as far as the end of the year in December.

Furtado said the last time the school department conducted a nationwide superintendent search, it started in October and public interviews weren’t held until June. For that search, a consultant was hired for $25,000 to assist in the search.

“We can get the posting out and do the process fairly and adequately in-house,” Furtado said yesterday.

D’Agostino, who was serving as acting superintendent after former superintendent Peter Horoschak was abruptly placed on administrative leave in September 2012 before his contract was up in July 2013, was appointed in February 2013 as the new superintendent of schools through July 2014.

Rather than post the position and search for a new successor right away, a process that was expected to take approximately seven months, School Committee chairwoman Bethany Furtado said at the time it was important to establish a permanent superintendent, as the school department was facing a number of tasks, including long-term facilities planning, teacher evaluations and budget formulation.

In December 2012, a joint agreement between the Warwick School Committee and Horoschak announced his retirement, details of which were not disclosed by either party.

Horoschak, who had served as superintendent of six other school districts around the country, was hired in 2007 as Robert J. Shapiro’s replacement, who retired after 50 years in the school district as a teacher, principal and superintendent. Horoschak was given a three-year contract, which was renewed for another three years in 2010.

In a phone interview yesterday, Furtado said D’Agostino’s contract was extended for the 2014-15 school year, with the position to be posted in October, as the district was considering school consolidation.

“The posting was delayed due to looking at school consolidation and the upheaval with doing that all at once,” said Furtado, adding it would have been difficult to handle school consolidation, if approved, while also searching for a new superintendent.

Administrators get increases

In other school news, the school committee approved Tuesday night administrative step increases to steps 4 and 5, for an approximate total cost of $21,000.

Rosemary Healey, legal counsel and director of human resources for the school department, said while a range of salaries exists at the step 3 level for administrators, the increase between steps amounts to roughly $1,500. She said salaries for administrators at the step 3 level ranges from a small school principal at $93,000 to a secondary school principal at $109,000 to a senior director at $117,000.

Schools Chief Budget Officer Anthony Ferrucci said approximately $45,000 had been budgeted for such a move, so there was more than enough to cover the $21,000 cost.

“The administrators receiving these step increases worked full-time last year to reach their goals and objectives and I’m happy to approve them,” D’Agostino said during the meeting.

The school committee also approved the posting for a Common Core Coach position.

Healey explained the position is for one year only to utilize professional development funds to hire a trainer to come in and provide services to a number of administrators, department heads, teachers, and leadership teams for both elementary and secondary schools regarding Common Core state standards.

“As we attempt to move toward Common Core, to do our due diligence and be fair to faculty, it’s only fair to have additional professional development for principals, department heads and teachers so we’re not left behind the 8 ball with Common Core state standards, with respect to the PARCC [Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers] test,” said Dennis Mullen, director of secondary schools.

“The PARCC test involves very rigorous questions, so it’s important to start on this work with principals and teachers,” added Lynn Dambruch, director of elementary schools.

In other action, the committee approved an approximate $150 reimbursement payment to committee member Jennifer Ahearn, whose tire was slashed while she was parked at Toll Gate High School for last month’s school committee meeting.

A discussion preceded the vote regarding whether or not a policy should be developed on how to handle personal injury or property damage to a school committee member that occurs while said member is on school grounds at a school committee meeting. The request for a policy was made by committee member Eugene Nadeau.

Healey said thousands of cars park in school lots, where there’s no security to keep watch over them.

“Many vehicles park in our lots with all kinds of damages, dents and dings and we don’t know if they happened while on our grounds and in our lots,” Healey said. “Out of respect to students and faculty, which we treat the same where they assume their own risk when parking in our lots, I have a concern with providing different treatment to school committee members.”

Furtado said she could not support a policy to compensate school committee members when other people in the district are not covered in the same way.

Although Healey said she offered to reimburse Ahearn for the tire that was punctured on her vehicle, Ahearn was requesting to be reimbursed approximately $600 for all four of her tires, as she was told all four had to be replaced as a safety precaution.

“If we agreed to replace all four tires, the school department becomes the insurer of all activity, including criminal activity, on school grounds,” Healey said.

Although a police report confirmed Ahearn’s tire was indeed punctured, Healey said there was no proof of who committed the act.

“We can’t establish that it wasn’t anything more than a random act,” she said.

The motion to reimburse Ahearn for one tire replacement at approximately $150 was approved by a 3-1 vote, with Ahearn abstaining and Nadeau voting against, as he hoped the reimbursement would have been closer to $300 to cover the work of replacing the tire.

The school committee’s next meeting is scheduled for Nov. 18, with time and place to be determined.

While D’Agostino is quoted in this article from Tuesday night’s school committee meeting, he could not be reached for comment regarding the posting of the superintendent’s position.

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