Published: June 25, 2008 12:32 am      

NIAGARA-WHEATFIELD: District names new superintendent

WHEATFIELD — After a closely guarded search process, the Niagara-Wheatfield Board of Education unanimously appointed a new superintendent at a special meeting Tuesday.

From an initial pool of 25 candidates, Carl Militello, 51, was hired at a salary of $155,000, effective Aug. 1.

Militello comes from the Carthage Central School District near Watertown where he has served as superintendent of schools since 2006 and was paid $147,000 annually. Carthage is a district of about 3,200 students, Militello said. Niagara-Wheatfield has an enrollment of about 4,200.

Board president Maureen Kaus said what drew the board toward Militello was that he shared a similar “instructional philosophy” to the one Niagara-Wheatfield maintains.

“It’s very child-centered — he believes very much in rich literacy all the way through school,” Kaus said. “I think he values people very much and that’s what Judy (Howard) did too — you put good people in good places and let them do their jobs.”

Outgoing Superintendent Judith Howard announced her retirement in March after 10 years leading the district. Her contract ends Aug. 31.

Accomplishments during his relatively short tenure at Carthage include having schools go from being designated by the state Education Department as “at risk,” or in need of improvement, to being named high-performing, Militello said.

Militello is originally from Angola and attended Buffalo State College to earn a bachelor’s degree in elementary special education and a master’s degree in special education. He taught as a special education teacher in the Lakeshore Central School District for seven years before becoming an assistant principal and then principal. He was named superintendent for Wellsville Central Schools in 1997 before leaving to lead Dunkirk City Schools in 2000.

Militello said he will be moving to the Niagara-Wheatfield area by January and called returning to Western New York “like a homecoming.” He has yet to tour the district facilities and meet with district staff, but said that will be his first order of business in August.

“We will do a series of meetings and receptions — I have an entry-level plan and we’ll map out that for the first 30, 60 and 90 days,” he said. “The first part is building relationships with as many people as we can through these entry-level meetings.”

The search process for Howard’s replacement, which lasted three months, was kept strictly confidential. No information about candidates was released by the board during the search. Kaus said this was a measure that prevented scaring away potential candidates.

“You’re lucky you get a lot of candidates to run anymore,” she said. “And a lot of them would like the process to be confidential until they get to the very last stage because their name may be in other places. And I’m sure that they appreciate the confidentiality in their own district.”

Since March, the board had screened 25 candidates and narrowed a field down to three finalists. Kaus said she and board vice president Sam Monin visited the Carthage district to meet with stakeholders and conducted phone interviews with staff from Militello’s previous districts.

“That went back eight years,” Kaus said. “We felt pretty comfortable that we knew the background quite well.”

After visiting Carthage, the board agreed on Militello and members opted not to visit the home districts of the other two finalists.

Stakeholder meetings with the newly appointed superintendent have yet to be scheduled.