Is Woonsocket's Gerardi Pawtucket's next superintendent?

By ETHAN SHOREY, Valley Breeze Staff Writer

PAWTUCKET - Just days after the School Committee finally hashed out the makeup of a new school superintendent search committee, The Valley Breeze has learned that school officials may already have someone in their sights to replace outgoing Superintendent Hans Dellith.

In fact, school leaders to the north are apparently so sure that Woonsocket Superintendent Robert Gerardi Jr. is planning to leave that city for his native Pawtucket that they'll consider his request to offer him a contract extension at a meeting planned for tonight, Nov. 18.

"He has received phone calls urging him to apply for the job, and that he has the support to get the job in Pawtucket," confirmed Woonsocket School Committee Chairman Marc Dubois late last week. "He did divulge to me that Pawtucket is his hometown, he lives in Seekonk, and he has many friends and associates in Pawtucket.

"We may be offering him a new contract to stay here," said Dubois.

The man Gerardi calls his friend and mentor, Dellith, appears to be pushing for the Woonsocket school chief to succeed him as superintendent when he leaves at the end of the calendar year.

When asked specifically about Dellith, Dubois confirmed that the Pawtucket superintendent was one of several school officials who called Gerardi to tell him that, if he applies, he has the support to become the next superintendent of Pawtucket schools.

Dellith did not return a call seeking comment but Gerardi denied to The Breeze Monday that he has spoken with Dellith specifically about the Pawtucket job, although said he is very interested. He said when asked that any comments made by Dubois to the contrary were likely "a misunderstanding."

"Most of my career and most of my life was spent in Pawtucket. I've maintained my friendships and have a deep history there," said Gerardi. "I love Pawtucket and I've had a lot of requests for me to consider it."

Gerardi said that, while he has a great fondness for his home city, he also loves what he's doing in Woonsocket.

"It will be a tough decision one way or another," he said.

Pawtucket city and school officials said that while Gerardi as superintendent may be the rumor flying around, they believe he should be interviewed only as part of the greater superintendent search process now in progress.

Pawtucket School Committee Chairman Jim Chellel Jr. said he hasn't heard Gerardi's name mentioned as a possible candidate for the Pawtucket post, nor that he is the heir apparent to Dellith.

"I hope that's not true because I don't want this search committee to be a dog and pony show," said Chellel. "Someone had to take leadership in making us move forward (with a search committee), and that's what I did."

Mayor James Doyle, who teamed up with Chellel to compromise on a search committee that includes representatives from the schools and city, said Monday he will not be happy if he finds out that Gerardi already has the support he needs from the School Committee to become superintendent.

"If that is the case, then I would be very disappointed," he said. "I just want the best candidate possible, and if someone has been guaranteed a job, that would be very disappointing."

Chellel said he can't imagine that Gerardi truly has the support he needs as of right now to become the next superintendent. For that to be true, he said, at least one member of each faction on the School Committee, one of the three men or one of the three women, would have to be siding with the other, a scenario he can't believe is possible.

Making the suggestion even more unlikely, said Chellel, School Committee member Amy Breault-Zolt has already indicated her desire to offer the superintendent position to Pawtucket's Deputy Superintendent Kim Mercer.

Chellel did add that he would like to see a superintendent from an urban district like Woonsocket be Pawtucket's next head of schools, noting the similarities between the two.

Gerardi, a former technology teacher in the Pawtucket school system, has three children and is married to wife Kristen, who is currently an art teacher in Pawtucket.

According to Dubois, Gerardi is making a salary of $150,000 a year as part of a contract that expires a year from next June.

Less than two years into his first three-year contract, Gerardi has a salary that is the same as that earned by Dellith, who has served more than 12 years as Pawtucket's head of schools.

Prior to taking the job in Woonsocket, Gerardi served as assistant superintendent under North Providence Superintendent Donna Ottaviano.

Dubois indicated that while the School Committee may offer Gerardi an extension tonight, there is likely no chance he would get a raise on his current salary, which he said is $22,000 less than former Woonsocket Superintendent Maureen Macera earned when she retired.

Said Dubois of Gerardi, "We don't want to lose him, everyone respects him, but we're also not going to break the bank to keep him."

Chellel said he wants to emphasize the importance of searching far and wide, "not just here in Rhode Island," as the "important work" of finding a new superintendent proceeds.

The search for a new superintendent in Pawtucket has already taken a number of twists and turns before it's even started in earnest, as School Committee members have argued over who should be included on the search committee.

The School Committee finally approved a compromise task force last week that allows at least some representatives and appointees from the mayor's office and City Council on the search committee.

The final composition of the task force appeared to happen by accident after School Committee member Amy Breault-Zolt provided the deciding vote in saying no to a search committee that would have included high school students, one from each of the high schools in the city, and excluded Commissioner of Education Deborah Gist or her representative.

"I screwed up," Breault-Zolt told Dellith as he marched away after questioning her on why she voted against the revised search committee.

Breault-Zolt said Monday that she became confused about what she was voting for "after about six votes.'

"It got to the point that I didn't even know which motion I was voting on," she said. "I would like to reconsider to exclude Gist, add students and principals."

Instead of excluding Gist, Breault-Zolt was in the minority in voting against a task force as presented in writing by Chellel, one that includes:

* All seven School Committee members;

* Gist or her designee;

* Doyle or his designee;

* City Council President Henry Kinch or his designee;

* One non-candidate for superintendent from the Administrators Association;

* Non-certified employee union President Diane Drape or her designee;

* Pawtucket Teachers Union President Charleen Christy or her designee;

* Two community business leaders appointed by Doyle;

* Two unrelated parents of Pawtucket students appointed by Chellel;

*And two unrelated non-parent Pawtucket property taxpayers appointed by Doyle.