City Hires Longtime Educator
Paul Salina Lands Support Services Policy And Strategy Position
NEW BRITAIN — Just a few months after ending his education career of four decades, Paul Salina has been named to a high-level department head post in New Britain’s city government.
Salina, 70, started Monday as acting director of support services, a new position that pays $90,000 a year.
The city did not say how long Salina will serve, nor whether the job will continue after he vacates the position.
Salina will oversee information technology, municipal building management and emergency dispatch services. Mayor Erin Stewart’s staff described it as a job focused on policy and strategy, with emphasis on launching renewable and clean energy projects, SMART City initiatives and similar cost-saving measures.
“Paul brings decades of exemplary management experience and intimate knowledge of New Britain to this position that will help to strategically move our community forward,” Stewart said in a statement.
Salina is well-known in the city. He began as an elementary school teacher in New Britain in 1970, moved to the high school as band director in 1978, and then went into administration in the 1990s. He retired as high school principal in 2003.
Eight years later, however, he was hired out of retirement to serve as chief operations officer of the 10,000-student school system. Despite the title, he largely functioned as deputy superintendent. For several months in 2016, he was acting superintendent while the school board sought a replacement for Kelt Cooper.
Superintendent Nancy Sarra began dismantling the chief operations officer job in 2017, reassigning many of its duties and reducing Salina’s salary from $146,000 to $90,000. He retired last year, and soon afterward she announced the appointment of Michael Foran to a new post: deputy superintendent.
In a written statement Tuesday, Salina said “I am grateful that Mayor Erin Stewart has selected me for this position, seeing in me someone in whom she can trust, using my educational leadership skills to relate well with our families and city staff members in fulfilling my duties.”