Why has BKW interim administrator resigned?

The Enterprise — Michael Koff

​The secondary school at Berne-Knox-Westerlo has seen recent turnover in leadership; the latest to leave is an interim assistant principal and athletic director, John Metallo.

BERNE — As an interim assistant principal in Berne-Knox-Westerlo’s secondary school, Dr. John Metallo was the primary disciplinary figure for students for the three months he was employed by the district.

He noted this, denying flatly any inappropriate interactions with students or colleagues at BKW, as a group of girls and their parents have claimed. He acknowledged he was given feedback on his administrative style, but said it wasn’t “actionable” and had nothing to do with his resignation.

“I went there every day. I did the best job I could possibly do,” Metallo said in an interview Tuesday. “No parent ever spoke to me about any problem, no student ever spoke to me about any problem, and I tried to do the best job I could do. Maybe people had the wrong impression of me.”

He went on, “My style isn’t one maybe they’re used to there, but it was nothing like touching somebody or whatever.”

In contrast to the female students' claims, Metallo said he was in the lunchroom about once a week.

In October, Metallo was appointed for the rest of the school year, to be paid $300 per day. His resignation in January was accepted unanimously by the BKW School Board. He was hired for the newly created assistant principal position after Brian “Jeff” Keller resigned as dean of students at BKW, having started in February, to become assistant principal at Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk.

Board President Joan Adriance said this week she was given no reason for Metallo’s leaving and declined to comment on her reaction to his short time at BKW.

Addressing the alleged touching of hair and rubbing of shoulders, Metallo said he was “not overly” physical with anyone. He added later that he has been married for 43 years and has children.

“My guess is this is coming from one parent or two parents that are disgruntled about something, because that’s the way it usually goes,” said Metallo.

At 65, Metallo said he would return to retirement, from which he came to work at BKW.

“I was driving 40, 50 miles a day and just wanted to enjoy retirement more,” he said of his reasons for resigning. “Christmas vacation came up.”

During the break, Metallo said, he went to North Carolina, where he saw the Tar Heels, his favorite basketball team, play at the University of North Carolina. As a coach, Metallo was influenced by Dean Smith, who led UNC. He said any random dollars he gave to BKW students must have been for people wearing the team’s colors, light blue and white.

“Would I give a kid [a dollar] once in while? Sure,” Metallo said. “I’ve been a huge North Carolina basketball fan for years and anybody that knows me knows that.” He said he has done that throughout his career and likened it to the doughnuts he brought in for students on Fridays as an administrator in another district.

Asked whether students ever hurried away from him at BKW, Metallo said he never saw any, saying he was present in the hallways and classrooms as part of his duties.

“I was very visible. I’m around the school a lot,” he said. “I visit classrooms, which I think was a little unusual for BKW, but I think there should be an administrative presence, stopping in, saying, ‘Hello.’” He went on to explain that an administrator’s presence can be preventative and show students that the administrator has an interest in day-to-day activities at school.

“I wore a suit and tie to school every day. I probably looked different than they’re used to seeing,” said Metallo, trying to figure out why students would say he made them nervous. “I really don't know. I am charismatic. I am around a lot.”

Metallo has held several superintendent and principal positions in districts throughout the Northeast, earning awards and accolades along the way. From 2002 to 2005 he was superintendent of the nearby Middleburgh school district.

Beginning his career as an administrator, Metallo was a principal of Mayfield High School and superintendent at Fort Plain when they both were regarded as New York State Schools of Excellence.

He resigned as a principal in Torrington, Connecticut, in 2008 as the superintendent pushed him out and publicly alleged that he had “engaged in inappropriate behavior with female faculty members and with female students,” and that he “defrauded the retirement system,” according to newspaper accounts in The Register-Citizen, based in Torrington.

The Torrington superintendent lost her job, The Citizen reported, after the school board there questioned her management of Metallo and others at the school who she made accusations against, The Citizen reported. A civil suit Metallo filed against O’Brien and the Torrington School Board, arguing the accusations were false and defamatory, ended in a settlement in 2012, but Metallo told The Enterprise he could not talk about it as part of the agreement.

“It was substantial,” he said of the settlement.

It’s not clear whether the allegations against Metallo at BKW were a factor in his resignation.

In general, Charles Dedrick, district superintendent for Capital Region Board Of Cooperative Educational Services, said he would not favor limiting what a previous district could tell a prospective employer about a non-tenured administrator’s background.

“I think the days of making those silent deals are long gone,” said Dedrick. “I don’t make them and I don’t recommend anybody make them. That’s not good practice.”

Metallo was appointed by the BKW School Board on the recommendation of the interim superintendent, Joseph Natale. Dedrick said his regional organization, which sometimes acts as a clearinghouse for interim superintendents’ résumés, was not involved in Metallo’s hire.

“It’s a personnel matter and any references and things are personnel,” Natale said, when asked about how Metallo was vetted before being hired.

He added, “We looked into his experiences and some of his background.”

Natale declined to answer specific questions about how he responded to parents’ concerns. He referred to forthcoming information in requests for documents made by The Enterprise. While Natale is preparing responses to the Freedom Of Information Law requests, the district’s designated official for handling FOIL requests is the business administrator.

Brian Corey, the school’s principal while Metallo was at BKW, did not return calls seeking comment on his role.

In a recent article in On Board, published by the New York State School Boards Association, Jeffrey Honeywell and Ryan Mullahy, attorneys at Girvin & Ferlazzo, P.C., a firm that has served as counsel for BKW, wrote about the caution districts should exercise when using the Internet to check the backgrounds of potential hires.

“For legal reasons, many employers avoid doing social media checks or even Google searches during the hiring process,” they wrote, explaining that knowledge of what someone has said online can lead to costly discrimination claims.

“Employers that choose to conduct research on employment applicants use the Internet or social media can minimize legal exposure by dividing the research and interview/hiring functions among different school district staff,” Honeywell and Mullahy wrote.

Honeywell, who advises Berne-Knox-Westerlo, was not available for comment on Wednesday. Mullahy declined to comment because the district is a client of his firm.

More Hilltowns News

  • The two towns — one rural, one suburban — will now essentially share affordable housing credits so that Guilderland can use Knox’s typically unused credits to satisfy its large waiting list, while Knox is still able to claim them for its own residents as needed. 

  • A driver crashed into a Rensselaerville home early Sunday morning, causing it to go up in flames. The driver and an off-duty paramedic who assisted in the rescue both suffered only minor injuries while the occupants of the home were uninjured. 

  • As Berne-Knox-Westerlo Superintendent Timothy Mundell laid out the district’s progress toward its next budget while the district waits on lawmakers to finalize a state budget, conversation centered around one of the few things the district can control at this point — whether or not to go ahead with its annual bus purchase.

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