Board members seek to oust Salerno

WINSTED — Three members of the Winchester Board of Education have put forward an official request to formally begin the process of removing Superintendent of Schools Blaise Salerno from his post as the town’s top educator due to “grave reservations as to his leadership and judgment.�

At the Tuesday, June 8, regularly scheduled meeting, Raymond Neal, Paul O’Meara and Carol Palomba submitted a signed letter to school board Chairman Kathleen O’Brien asking that the board “initiate the process� of removing Salerno “for cause and with immediate effect.�

“We have no confidence in his ability to manage our district, no belief in his ability to execute his mandate with even minimally acceptable standards of performance, and no faith that he is willing to be open and transparent with this board or to be held accountable for his actions and inactions,� the board members stated in their June 7 letter.

The three continued, stating they feel Salerno has “failed to manage the district’s financial affairs within budget,� failed to properly disclose “such matters� to the board on a “timely and accurate basis,� and has “either failed to ensure or certify� that the district’s employment practices are “consistent with the requirements of the law.�

Neal, O’Meara and Palomba added that they also feel the superintendent has “failed to structure an educational model for our district that is consistent with our needs and resources.�

Although she did not read the letter aloud, Chairman O’Brien accepted the letter from her fellow board members in public session at Tuesday’s meeting.

O’Brien said the board would address the request for removal during the superintendent’s annual evaluation meeting on June 15, beginning at 6:30 p.m. The meeting’s location has been tentatively set for the Probate Court room at Town Hall.

Salerno did not immediately respond to Wednesday morning comment requests before The Journal’s deadline.

Over the last several weeks, Salerno has come under increasing criticism regarding his management of the school district’s finances, in particular the fact that the district is running a deficit for the current school year.

School business manager Edward Evanouskas reported at Tuesday’s meeting that the budget shortfall now stands at a $64,000 deficit for the 2009-10 school year, which ends June 30.

Salerno has come under fire from some town officials for his administration’s failure to provide town officials an accurate financial picture of the school board’s books in a timely fashion.

Most recently, O’Brien said Tuesday she was frustrated with the fact that the new school year begins in only a matter of days and the Board of Education has yet to see or review the 2010-11 budget document.

O’Brien said the board had expected to receive the new budget at that night’s meeting.

“We’ve known for two weeks now what that number is,� O’Brien said to Salerno and Evanouskas, referring to the May 25 town budget referendum.

“It’s up to the superintendent and finance director to present that to this board,� she said of the 2010-11 budget.

In response, Salerno said his office has been so focused on bridging the district’s current budget gap there has “not been much time for 2010-11.�

O’Brien added that reviewing the budget document for the new school year is also important  because it will allow the board to identify how many teachers and staff members it may or may not have to layoff and then notify those employees by the end of this month.

“We need to know,� she said.

Salerno responded by saying that if the layoffs are due to budgetary issues, the board can send out lay off notices at any time.

“That might be true, but I don’t think it’s appropriate,� O’Brien said.

“These people need to know what we are going to do,� she said of school staff.

The school board then set a special meeting for June 22, beginning at 7 p.m., at Town Hall, for the board to review the new budget document.

“I would like to see a solid document before us on that day,� O’Brien said.

In addition to financial issues, Salerno has also been critcized for his management of staff members — as well as his administration’s transparency with personnel issues — after it came to light last month that the district’s pupil personnel services director had a several-month lapse in her teaching certification while continuing to work within the Winchester school system.

Catherine Tower, who came to the district in October 2007, was out of compliance with the state’s certification requirements from Oct. 1, 2008, to June 30, 2009.

During recent Board of Education meetings, some parents and residents have accused Salerno, as well as some school board members, of trying to cover up Tower’s certification problems to hide their perceived lack of oversight. They have demanded that the superintendent immediately resign and step down from his post.

Although she told The Journal Tuesday that the decision was unrelated to the certification issue, Tower submitted her resignation to the superintendent late last month in order to take a position with the Wheeler Clinic, a private nonprofit human services agency, starting Aug. 1 (see related story Page A1).