B-W School District Does Some Restructuring

Perhaps it was fitting that Dr. Randal A. Lutz filled in for an under-the-weather Dr. Lawrence C. Korchnak in the superintendent's chair at the Baldwin-Whitehall School Board meeting on Wednesday night.

Lutz will replace the as the 's newest superintendent , and Lutz is already making changes around the district, including a big one on Wednesday.

By an 8-0 vote (board member Nancy Lee Crowder was absent), the school board approved Lutz's new professional organization chart for the district, effective Thursday.

The chart, which lays out the district's chain of command from the school board on down, eliminates the practice of employing two assistant superintendents and instead installs a director of programs position.

The director of programs, as determined later on Wednesday by another 8-0 vote, will be Darlene DeFilippo, who assumes her new post on March 1 at a salary of $96,425 per year. DeFilippo will continue to serve as the principal of  until that time.

Patricia Fusco, W.R. Paynter's vice principal, will take over as Paynter's head principal on March 1 at a salary of $86,000 per year thanks to another 8-0 vote by the board.

Lutz and Dr. John D. Wilkinson had been serving as co-assistant superintendents for the district—Lutz at the elementary level and Wilkinson at the secondary level—but Wilkinson will now be the district's lone assistant superintendent as Lutz focuses on the 2012-13 school year budget as part of his transition into his new role as district superintendent.

Lutz explained the new position being filled by DeFilippo as a way to pick up some of the duties that he had as an assistant superintendent, such as helping to design the district's core curriculum, instituting intervention programs—such as Title I, Title II and Title III—and pursuing grant money.

"As far as moving forward," Lutz said, "this is a position that would effectively be federal programs coordinator, state coordinator, as well as looking at the intervention-types of things that we are doing as a district."

Board member Nancy Sciulli DiNardo applauded Lutz's chart (see media gallery near the top of this page) and offered some motivation for all district employees.

"This is not to say that this is going to be the perfect organization chart for this district," DiNardo said, "but I'm glad to see that you (Lutz) were very aggressive.

" ... We have to hold people accountable. That's the bottom line. Managers have to manage, people have to do their jobs, and we have to, as a board, have the guts to support administration when they bring us tough recommendations.

"I don't have much tolerance for people who work with kids who don't their jobs, at all. Your (Lutz's) message should be loud and clear: 'Step up or step out.'

" ... And that means everybody. Everybody has their function, and everybody has their job."

Check back with the Baldwin-Whitehall Patch later on Thursday for more odds and ends from Wednesday night's school board meeting.

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