The Burlington County Times is reporting in today\’s newspaper that the Gloucester City School District has hired Paul Spaventa (photo) as superintendent.
According to the Times, Spaventa has been school district superintendent in Mount Holly for two years. He was offered the Gloucester City job July 18, said Louisa Llewellyn, president of the Gloucester City Board of Education.
She said Spaventa and the board signed a contract during Thursday\’s school board meeting. Contract details were not disclosed.
Llewellyn said Spaventa was the first choice of the district. What convinced board members he was the right man for the job, she said, was their visit to Mount Holly.
\”The people there were all so positive about him,\” she said Friday. \”I think that was the final selling point.\”
Spaventa and Mount Holly school board President Carol Johnson did not return messages seeking comment Friday.
Llewellyn said Spaventa will start as an assistant superintendent in mid-November. He\’ll serve in that capacity until Dec. 31 when current Superintendent Mary Stansky officially retires.
Mount Holly residents have long suspected Spaventa was planning to leave, and some criticized the school board for giving him a $5,000 raise at a time he was said to be looking for a new job. The increase raised Spaventa salary to $128,000.
Stansky receives $175,000 plus benefits.
Johnson said last month, however, that Spaventa\’s contract called for an annual salary review and the board gave him a raise because he\’d earned it.
Spaventa\’s departure marks another in a list of resignations from the district this summer. Longtime business administrator Theresa Margiotta and Anthony Dent, principal at the Holbein School, have left the district, as have a number of teachers.
The district contract with Mount Holly Education Association, the teachers union, expired June 1. What role Spaventa will play in those negotiations in his remaining months is unclear.
However, association President Marilyn Melchionni said last month, \”We will dance when he leaves. I think this will make negotiations easier. I don\’t think he\’ll have any weight to pull. We\’re a lot more optimistic now. Hopefully things will get settled a little bit quicker.\”
Melchionni did not return a message left on her cellular phone Friday.
Source http://www.phillyburbs.com/
Nineteen candidates expressed interest in the job of Superintendent. The field was narrowed down to Spaventa and Gloucester High School Principal Jack Don.
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