• 
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

Official's departure fuels talk of school district reorganization

JANESVILLE — Superintendent Karen Schulte said she's thinking about reorganizing another part of the bureaucracy that runs the Janesville public schools.

Schulte already is reorganizing the business services department. Instead of replacing Business Services Director Doug Bunton, she's hiring a chief financial officer and restructuring how other parts of the business department are supervised.

Now, with the announcement that Director of Administrative and Human Services Steve Salerno is leaving at the end of the month, Schulte has another opportunity to reorganize.

Salerno supervises the district's human resources functions and is the immediate supervisor of all the principals.

Schulte would not say how the department might be changed, but she said she talked to school board President DuWayne Severson about it last week.

Salerno will be leaving just as negotiations on the 2009-11 teachers contract are getting under way.

"I need to discuss that with the board, most definitely, because he's a major player on the negotiations team," Schulte said. "... I'm concerned that we have someone in there with strong leadership skills."

Salerno also supervises the district athletics director, but the board has cut that position for the coming year, leaving two high school assistant principals to handle high school sports.

If Schulte wants to hire a new human resources director, she'll likely have at least several from which to choose. One day after Salerno's move was announced last week, Schulte received two calls from people outside the district who were interested in the job.

Schulte said that level of interest tells her that Janesville is an attractive district.

Salerno's salary was $124,500 this year.