WEST SPRINGFIELD — The School Department’s assistant superintendent won’t be replaced.
As Vito Perrone, who formerly occupied that position, prepared to depart for his new role as superintendent of the Hampshire Regional School District, West Springfield Superintendent Stefanie Raschilla told the School Committee that she is reorganizing the district’s leadership team into a “cabinet” of equals.
Instead of an assistant superintendent, and below that position a curriculum director, business manager and technology coordinator, the superintendent’s cabinet will now consist of a chief of finance and operations — essentially the same position as the current business manager — and an executive director of community relations and educational services, an executive director of compliance and secondary education, and an executive director of instruction and elementary education.
“It does not cost the district any additional funds, because we are changing three positions in the central office to three different positions,” Raschilla told the School Committee on June 18.
Adam Tarquini, the district’s business manager, will stay in place as the new chief of finance. In addition to managing the budget, he also has oversight on human resources, transportation, food services and facilities. The offices that handle those tasks report to him.
Neil Gile, whose job title was previously director of curriculum, instruction and assessments, will take the role of executive director of instruction and elementary education. According to the draft plan approved by the School Committee, he will continue to be responsible for coordinating district-wide curriculum, testing and teacher training, but will also take on the supervision of West Springfield’s kindergarten and elementary school principals and curriculum coordinators for literacy and social studies.
The other two executive director positions will be filled this summer with new hires, replacing Perrone and the currently vacant technology coordinator job. The new executive director of community relations and educational services will be responsible for the district’s technology and communication systems, the English language learner program, the enrollment and pre-enrollment family outreach programs, and services to homeless students.
The executive director of compliance and secondary education will be tasked with answering records requests, complaints and grievances under state and federal law, as well as managing special education, student safety and health services. This office will also oversee the director of special services and the principals of West Springfield High School and West Springfield Middle School.
“This plan certainly provides the clarity, the specific role clarity, which has been lacking” in the past 20 years, said School Committee member Colleen Marcus. “People [will] know who their direct supervisor is, and Superintendent Raschilla is the supervisor of everybody.”
School Committee member Diana Coyne said on June 18 that the plan “made a lot of sense,” both for the new cabinet members and for the superintendent herself. She said she welcomed the broader responsibilities for the curriculum and business directors. Turning to Raschilla, she said, “I think it will allow you to be able to focus, as well, on that strategic level.”
A spokesperson for the superintendent said the two administrators whose job descriptions are changing, Gile and Tarquini, will continue with the salaries they had been budgeted to earn in fiscal year 2025 in their former positions. The salaries budgeted for the other two former positions, assistant superintendent and educational technology coordinator, will be pooled to provide funding for the two executive directors to be hired.
One role of the assistant superintendent — being the deputy to step in for the superintendent when she is ill, on vacation or otherwise away from work — is not assigned in the draft cabinet plan. That role will be taken by whatever cabinet member has the most years of experience.
Perrone had served as assistant superintendent in West Springfield since mid-2020. He had previously been the principal of West Springfield High School since 2015.
Following the departure of Superintendent Timothy Connor in summer 2022, Perrone served as acting superintendent for most of the 2022-23 school year, until Raschilla was hired. Perrone had applied for the superintendent job in West Springfield but was not named a finalist.
Before coming to West Springfield, he was the high school principal in Easthampton. He almost returned to that city as its superintendent in 2023, but Easthampton officials withdrew their offer days later after some were offended by him addressing them as “ladies” in an email.
Hampshire is another school district where Perrone has a personal connection, as he lives in Westhampton, one of the member towns.
