Back to Schenectady?
Schenectady’s choice for its next superintendent mulling city’s offer.
If contract negotiations go well, a veteran school administrator who cut his teeth in the Schenectady school district as a special education teacher and principal could become its next superintendent.
Anita Murphy with Capital Region BOCES, which presided over the search for a new superintendent, said school board members decided to move forward with the search process and offer the candidate the job after meeting Wednesday evening in executive session to discuss the matter.
That person, after talking it over with family, informed the district through BOCES on Friday that they were still interested in the position, added Murphy.
Citing impending contract negotiations, she declined to identify the educator, but noted that contract negotiations with attorneys involved could take upwards of a month.
The Times Union has learned that Pedro Roman, currently an assistant superintendent in the Newburgh Enlarged City School district in Orange County, is the candidate the district is negotiating with, according to sources who confirmed Roman’s candidacy, but said they were not authorized to provide the information publicly.
Roman did not respond Monday to a message left on a work and personal email listed under his name. He could not be reached at his office number; Newburgh schools on Monday switched to a “remote synchronous day for faculty and scholars” because of the expected snowstorm, its Twitter account said.
Asked Monday about Roman, school board President John Foley declined comment.
He did, however, confirm that the district would soon begin contract negotiations with “the remaining candidate.”
Board member Andy Chestnut on Monday also refused to comment on Roman.
Fellow board members Ann Reilly, Cathy Lewis and Bernice Rivera, did not return a message left on their cellphones.
Roman is no stranger to the Electric City or Capital Region.
Before going to Newburgh, Roman worked in the Schenectady school district as principal at the Lincoln Elementary Community School from 20092016, dean of students at Oneida Middle School, and served for nearly eight years as a special education teacher at Oneida and Schenectady High School, according to his Linkedin page.
That online resume also shows that Roman studied at Sage Colleges, where he earned his doctoral degree in education with a focus on educational leadership and administration.
Roman also attended The
College of Saint Rose, where he obtained his master’s degree in special education and teaching and then later earned a certificate of advanced study in educational leadership and administration.
Roman, who speaks Spanish, received the Hispanic Heritage Unsung Hero Award from the Hispanic Heritage Committee in 2014 and is CEO of Roman Educational Consulting firm, according to Linkedin.
The website describes the 42-year-old Roman as a “experienced educational leader with a demonstrated history of working in the education management industry.”
Roman would succeed Larry Spring, who abruptly resigned on March 25, the same night, the Board of Education appointed Aaron Bochniak as acting superintendent.
The Times Union later reported exclusively that an internal investigation prompted by a sexual harassment complaint triggered Spring’s departure from the $204,064-a-year post, which he had held since June 2012.
Spring has maintained his innocence.
On the day his resignation was announced, Spring and the school district reached a separation agreement that stipulated Spring would not take legal action against the district, and neither party would speak or write negative or disparaging comments about the other.
The five-page agreement, which includes Spring’s onesentence resignation letter, also includes a confidentiality clause.