NEWS

Cathy ‘ran’ schools, now it’s time to enjoy retirement

By JOHN HOWELL
Posted 11/16/22

When her husband Joe Bonang retired from his plumbing business, Cathy thought of all the things they could be doing together while they have the means to do them (from skiing, biking, bowling to …

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NEWS

Cathy ‘ran’ schools, now it’s time to enjoy retirement

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When her husband Joe Bonang retired from his plumbing business, Cathy thought of all the things they could be doing together while they have the means to do them (from skiing, biking, bowling to traveling) and decided it was time for her to retire, too. What it means, as Superintendent of Warwick Schools Lynn Dambruch said recently, is that the department is losing its director.

That brought a laugh from Cathy, who always has a smile. But Dambruch knows what it takes to run the department of more than 890 teachers, about 50 administrators, a staff of 400 clerical, teacher assistants and custodial workers – not to mention interfacing with 8,000 students and in many cases with their parents and relatives.

Answering the superintendent’s phone, Cathy is usually the first to learn of a situation whether it is a father who is upset that his son was given what he considers unfair detention or a burst water main that flooded the Toll Gate High cafeteria. Cathy is the district’s listener. She’s even keeled and delivers unsugar coated answers…with that smile.

It hasn’t been easy.

Her worst day, she relates without hesitation, was when the district announced it would serve sun butter and jelly sandwiches to kids who hadn’t paid past due lunch invoices. Gel Penta of Gel’s Kitchen was appalled that kids were tossing the sandwiches in the garbage. She posted the story that went viral.  An avalanche of calls and emails followed. Across the country the Warwick school system was being portrayed as mean and nasty. The claim was that kids were being shamed in front of their peers and how could the department allow that to happen? Sides were divided between those who said Warwick was doing the right thing, to how administrators could be so cold hearted and they should be run out of town. Interestingly, Cathy found that the range of calls came from the same phone number even though the callers were different, leaving her to wonder who was behind fermenting such a firestorm. She never found out.

Then there was the positive community response mounted by Gel and Mike Penta who – through Gel’s Kitchen – raised more than $40,000 to pay off the lunch debts. Corporate donations flowed in enabling the department to establish a fund to ensure all students would be entitled to the same lunch offerings regardless if they could pay for it. 

And how much is in the fund today? Cathy had the answer without consulting her computer that is on a standup desk. 

“It’s $119,000,” she said, pointing out that the program is managed by Westbay Community Action.

Cathy grew up around the corner from the school administration building, formerly Gorton Junior High School, on Hope Street. She lives next door on Beatrice Avenue and walks to work. Before administration offices on Warwick Avenue closed, she used to ride her bike to work. Cathy attended Greene Elementary and Gorton before earning her diploma from Veterans High School. She went on to CCRI, then called Rhode Island Junior College that was known as RIJC, pronounced as REJECT, she recalls with a laugh. 

She married Joe when she was 19 and they have a daughter, Jen (Jennifer Randall), who went through Warwick schools and today is a teacher at Pilgrim High School. They have two granddaughters, Sydney who was valedictorian of the 2022 Toll Gate Class and now at Northeastern and Hailey who is a current senior at Toll Gate. 

Cathy indirectly started working for the school department as a lunch aide for Aramark that provides school meals. When Jen went to high school, Cathy took a fulltime job with the school department.

“I’ve worked many, many jobs, retail, catering, banking to a plumber's helper” she said.

For a time she worked with former councilman Michael Brophy who was the director of the Warwick Drug Abuse program. Her connections led to her volunteering for the mayoral campaign of former Eugene McCaffrey. She was one of the McCaffrey girls who accompanied the candidate on the campaign trail in their eye-catching high white boots. 

Of the jobs she’s held in the department, her time at Veterans Memorial High School stands out as unique and most memorable. She loved being in an office close to the students and a member of a staff that just clicked. The late Gerald Habershaw was the principal and he brought the school staff and teachers together as a team.

“We can’t replace what we had,” she laments. 

The consolidation of schools that came later was a tough time. With the decline in the student population, closure of elementary schools was the first step. It didn’t come easily as neighborhood groups fought to save what was a focal point to the community and to save their kids from being faced with new teachers and making new friends. On the secondary level, Aldrich and Gorton Junior High Schools were closed as was Veterans High School that was repurposed as Vets Middle School. The school closures were emotional. Being in the superintendent’s office, Cathy was at the center of it. 

She started in the system when Robert Shapiro was in command. She worked at Pilgrim, Toll Gate, Vets, Oakland Beach and in administration. She moved into the Superintendent's office seven years ago. Prior to Dambruch, she worked with Phillip Thornton who was at the helm during the era of consolidations. 

Covid delivered a whole new series of issues and challenges for schools. With development of a vaccine, Cathy assumed command of running community clinics held at Vets. She works closely with the police and fire departments. With the $350 million bond on the ballot, she coordinated information sessions about the plan to build new high schools at school open houses and for the public. It’s a job that doesn’t slow down and can be tiring.

“But, if you have a bad day just go downstairs,” she said. 

Downstairs in Gorton is where Sherman School has been housed since the school was forced to remain closed because of mold when in-person teaching resumed. Cathy finds relief in seeing and being with the kids in a teaching environment. She has served as a mentor for the Mentor RI program and is on the board of VOWS, Volunteers of Warwick Schools. Cathy’s advice to her successor, Teresa Tedeschi, who comes to the Warwick system from Leviton Manufacturing in Providence where she served as executive assistant to the vice president of sales, “is to not take things personally.”

Cathy, retirement

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