Haverhill’s Assistant School Superintendent Jared Fulgoni. (WHAV News file photograph.)
Rejected in March to head Haverhill Public Schools, Jared Fulgoni is headed to Amesbury to serve as interim school superintendent.
Fulgoni was selected Monday night by the Amesbury School Committee to succeed Superintendent Gary Reese. While the job title suggests temporary, Fulgoni told WHAV, officials were “always looking for someone who would commit to staying on.”
“Being in a smaller community that is really supportive of education makes this a really a nice opportunity. There are only four schools as opposed to 17 in Haverhill,” Fulgoni said, adding, “It gives me an opportunity to engage with students, teachers and families of Amesbury in a way I wasn’t able to in a larger school district.”
In addition, Fulgoni said, Amesbury is building a new elementary school, which will require work similar to that he performed when Haverhill’s new Hunking School was under construction.
Fulgoni, of Kittery, Maine, said he is hoping to begin his new job as soon as possible. Before he can start, he must negotiate an agreement and salary with Amesbury and terminate his contract in Haverhill.
Fulgoni has been Haverhill’s assistant superintendent for nearly two years. He came to the city in 2012 as principal of Hunking School and later became, as of 2015, the district’s director of strategy and accountability. In his bid for Haverhill superintendent, Fulgoni received two out of seven votes. The remaining went to incoming Salem Assistant Superintendent Margaret Marotta.
In August 2016, Superintendent James F. Scully described Fulgoni’s promotion to assistant superintendent as “one of the strongest recommendations that I have made.”
In announcing his assistant’s selection, Scully told staff in an email Tuesday, “It has been my honor and privilege to work with Jared. His character, demeanor, and ability to manage a school system, in my opinion, are second to none. He is a faith filled gentleman who pours his heart and soul into what he does and he always put the interests of the children and staff at the forefront.”
In an apparent reference to a rift between members of the Haverhill School Committee, Scully wrote, Fulgoni “is not deterred by the politics of some in public education.”
A year ago last March, Fulgoni reluctantly became involved in an ongoing debate about placing solar panels on school roofs. That’s when an unused part related to similar panels on City Hall roof blew off the building and smashed through the rear window of Fulgoni’s Volkswagen Golf.