{"id":8596,"date":"2013-10-30T06:49:15","date_gmt":"2013-10-30T10:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=8596"},"modified":"2013-10-30T08:16:12","modified_gmt":"2013-10-30T12:16:12","slug":"casd-appoints-dr-leonard-fitts-as-interim-superintendent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=8596","title":{"rendered":"CASD appoints Dr. Leonard Fitts as interim superintendent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fitts says he looks forward to working with diversity, opening communications<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

By Kyle Carrozza<\/strong><\/span>, Staff Writer, The Times<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMGP3450\"<\/a>

New Interim Superintendent Dr. Leonard Fitts speaks to the administrators, staff, and citizens present at Tuesday’s press conference.<\/p><\/div>\n

CALN \u2013 The Coatesville Area School District School Board announced the appointment of Dr. Leonard Fitts as interim superintendent at a press conference held at the 9\/10 Center on Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Fitts, who has experience as a superintendent of multiple districts, will begin duties Wednesday while acting superintendent Dr. Angelo Romaniello will resume his previous duties as assistant to the superintendent, and acting assistant superintendent Teresa Powell will resume her previous duties as Director of Middle School Education.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must continue our work to make this the best, the finest district in the valley. We must remember that education, through our schools, is the gateway to opportunity for children,\u201d Fitts said. \u201cThat\u2019s our purpose; that\u2019s my vision; that\u2019s my commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fitts said that he is looking forward to the challenge of being superintendent, especially in such a racially and socioeconomically diverse community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI work with diversity from its richness \u2014 its richness in terms of its people, its culture, its values, and its orientation. So what we want to do is to take that rich culture, and we want to learn how to blend it because when you blend the richness of culture, you can get a phenomenal product,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The newly appointed interim superintendent said that, while he is familiar with recent controversies surrounding the district, it is his job to move forward, rather than looking back.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my moment in time to go forward and not to go backward,\u201d he said. \u201cWhatever is in the archives is in the archives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fitts also stated that he will look to open lines of communication in coming months, possibly using the campus television system or newsletters to reach the community.<\/p>\n

Fiits served as interim superintendent of schools for the Berlin Township Public Schools in New Jersey, as well as in districts in the Glassboro, Camden and Willingboro areas. Trained as a psychologist, he has experience as a building principal and as a county superintendent.<\/p>\n

School board members said that Fitts has agreed to be superintendent for six months but is willing to stay up to a year, should the board not find a new superintendent by then.<\/p>\n

Board President Neil Campbell said that the board has been discussing finding a new interim superintendent for the past two or three weeks. The board felt that the move was necessary in order to help move the district forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing against Dr. Romaniello, I think he did a fantastic job as acting superintendent; but at the same time, we listened, we heard from everybody in this community, and we knew that we had to do something,\u201d said Campbell.<\/p>\n

The district will be working with the Pennsylvania School Board Association to find a permanent superintendent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fitts says he looks forward to working with diversity, opening communications By Kyle Carrozza, Staff Writer, The Times CALN \u2013 The Coatesville Area School District School Board announced the appointment of Dr. Leonard Fitts as interim superintendent at a press conference held at the 9\/10 Center on Tuesday afternoon. Fitts, who has experience as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":8604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3,101],"tags":[166,29,3034,3033],"class_list":["post-8596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","category-schools","tag-board-of-education","tag-coatesville-area-school-district","tag-dr-leonard-fitts","tag-superintendent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}