District chooses school’s chief
POTTSTOWN >> Stephen Rodriguez isn’t acting as superintendent any more.
Monday night the Pottstown School Board ended a 16-month search for a new superintendent by unanimously hiring the person who has been doing the job temporarily for the last year.
To be fair, when former superintendent Jeff Sparagana retired in June, Rodriguez was serving as hu- man relations di- rector and agreed to serve as “acting superintendent” but said he did not want the job of superintendent.
But evidently, after the school board went through its first round of candidates and could not find anyone that it could agree to hire, Rodriguez had a change of heart
and threw his hat in the ring.
In the first year of his new four-year contract, Rodriguez will make essentially what he is already making — $178,000 — which is comprised of a base salary of $168,000 and a $10,000 contribution to his retirement account, according to Solicitor Stephen Kalis.
Each year after that, Rodriguez will receive the
same $10,000 retirement contribution and a base salary that rises by 3 percent each year, said Kalis.
That means on July 1, 2018, his base salary will rise to $173,040 in addition to the retirement contribution; $178,231.20 on July 1, 2019 and to 183,178.14 by July 1, 2020.
His contract expires on June 30, 2021.
Rodriguez will continue to get the same health care insurance he received as a member of the administration, Kalis said.
Despite the extensive
search, conducted by the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit at no charge to the district, Rodriguez has continued a Pottstown tradition of hiring from within.
Since at least 1991, every Pottstown superintendent has come from among candidates who already work in the district.
Rodriguez first came to Pottstown in 2005 as the principal of Pottstown High School from the Hamburg Area School District, where he had been working as an acting high school principal
there.
In 2013 he was tapped to be the district’s human resources director.
Although the vote was unanimous — board members Katina Bearden and Emanuel Wilkerson were absent — one board member expressed reservations about Rodriguez’s promotion.
Kurt Heidel said he has been “conflicted about this decision for several reasons,” one of which was Rodriguez’s professed disinterest in taking on the responsibilities of superintendent a year ago.
Heidel also said that as a participant in the first round of the superintendent search, Rodriguez had an unfair advantage in knowing what board members
were looking for, the issues that were important to them and the things that had disqualified the first round of applicants.
Heidel said he ran for the school board to “change the status quo” in Pottstown and believes a fresh look at the issues Pottstown faces would have been helpful. He also noted that he believes the school superintendent should live in Pottstown.
Board member Thomas Hylton, the board’s most fervent advocate of borough leaders, employees and teachers living in the borough, came to Rodriguez’s defense however.
Rodriguez, said Hylton, “is a known quantity and he has proven he can do the job. I find nothing more frightening than the idea
of giving a three-year contract to someone you don’t know and then finding out it won’t work out.”
He pointed to the recent experience of the Wilson School District in Berks County, which conducted a nationwide search for a candidate who did not last nine months.
Hylton also said Rodriguez’s agreement not to hire an assistant superintendent continues administrative savings that mean Pottstown is now paying 5 percent less in administrative costs than it did five years ago.
Other board members praised Rodriguez.
Susan Lawrence, the board’s newest member, said he “does a wonderful
job,” speaking as both a parent and a board member whose has children who work in the district.
Board President Amy Francis said she is “thrilled with this hiring and I look forward to great things for the district.”
Student board member Nyles Rome congratulated Rodriguez and added “my grandma loves you.”
The vote Monday night occurs four weeks before the primary election which may decide the new face of the school board which will have to live with Rodriguez’s contract.
Seven candidates have filed to run for the four open seats and only two of them are incumbents.
As Monday’s meeting wound down, Rodriguez thanked the board for its confidence in him and said he would do his best for the students, the district and the community.
“The journey has just begun,” he said.