Doing the Administrative Shuffle

The retirement of Dr. Robert Stevens, shown here explaining the

new elementary attendance boundaries, will result in a

shifting of administrative personnel.

Just two months after the school board named a new superintendent, there is another shake-up in the district’s administration as the result of another departure.

The resignation of Robert Stevens, who served most recently as the assistant to the superintendent, was unanimously accepted by the school board Monday night.

Stevens, who has been with the district for 12 years, is retiring.

The vacancy in his position resulted in a number of changes at lower levels of the administration, apparently.

The most immediate of those is that Pottstown High School Principal Stephen Rodriguez will become the district’s Director of Human Resources, starting July 1.

Stephen Rodriguez

When that happens, he will receive a 7 percent raise of more than $8,000, to $125,546 annually.

Also on the move is Franklin Elementary Principal Mia DiPaolo, who will become a principal in Pottstown Middle School for the fifth and sixth graders.

Mia DiPaolo

Her salary of $108,752 will remain unchanged.

DiPaolo’s move if the result a decision made last year to move all the district’s fifth graders to the middle school.

This decision followed the one to close Edgewood Elementary School and to expand and renovate Lincoln, Franklin and Rupert elementary schools. Barth is currently being renovated, but will not be expanded.

Another move comes with the additional responsibility of supervision of the nursing program and all out of district placements for LaTanya White, who is currently the supervisor of virtual alternative learning, increasing her salary to $76,300 per year.

One result of all of this is that the district will need to search for a new high school principal Sparagana confirmed Monday night.

He said he has decided to move toward having “directors” in charge of various departments rather than assistant superintendents.

“We looked at other districts our size from around the state and they were using both kinds of models,” Sparagana said Monday.

Calista Boyer

The primary difference is that directors are part of the same administrative group as principals and thus serve as “at-will” employees, whereas assistant superintendents, like superintendents, have individual contracts, usually over a several-year period.

Another vacancy in need of filling will be the post of Franklin principal.

Of course the district would have one principal without a building, Edgewood’s Callista Boyer, when the school year begins, and Lincoln elementary’s current principal, Treena Ferguson, is there on a temporary basis.

Whether either of those employees would end up at Franklin remains an open question.

Follow Evan Brandt on Twitter @PottstownNews