By RUSS OLIVO

WOONSOCKET — The newly hired superintendent of schools will earn $150,000 a year for the first two years of a three-year pact he signed with the unanimous consent of the School Committee Monday afternoon.

Schools Supt. Robert J. Gerardi Jr. would receive his first raise in the third year of the pact, when his salary is slated to increase at the same rate as the Consumer Price Index. The CPI is calculated by the federal Department of Labor and is usually similar to the rate of inflation.
The School Committee voted on the pact in open session, then signed it, after a brief, private meeting with the new superintendent in the McFee Administration Building. Appointed two weeks ago, the assistant superintendent of North Providence High School is scheduled to succeed Schools Supt. Maureen Macera Aug. 14.
“Both sides were very reasonable and fair in our dealings, which lends itself to a long and happy relationship,” Gerardi said after committee members voted. “We tried to have a basic contract without a lot of frills that are sometimes negotiated.”
School Committee Chairman Marc Dubois called the contract “very basic” and “fair.” He said Gerardi will start out earning $22,000 a year less than Macera, superintendent since 2005, was earning this year. But the School Committee agreed to pay her higher salary on condition that she simultaneously fulfill the formerly full-time duties of an assistant superintendent, a position focusing on teaching and curriculum that will remain vacant for the foreseeable future.
“We’re looking at other things,” said School Committeewoman Eleanor Nadeau. “We just have to see how the funding goes.”
Members of the School Committee shook hands with Gerardi and officially welcomed him aboard after signing the pact. Drafted by legal counsel Richard Ackerman, the contract had been in the hands of school officials for a week to give them a chance to review it before voting, said Dubois.
“We’re delighted we have such a good candidate,” he said.
Beyond salary, Gerardi’s contract also contains these provisions:
n An option to renew for a fourth year with a pay hike equivalent to the CPI.
n The same health and dental insurance coverage provided under the collective bargaining agreement with members of the Woonsocket Teachers Guild. The School Department picks up 85 percent of the premium - Gerardi pays the balance.
n The superintendent will receive 30 days of paid vacation the first year, with the figure increasing to 35 for each year the committee does not employ a director of teaching and learning, a position with duties similar to those currently fulfilled by Macera in her role as assistant superintendent. Gerardi will be allowed to carry over no more than 15 unused vacation days in any given year, meaning his maximum vacation time in either of his last two years will be 45 days.
n Fifteen paid sick days per year, with unused sick time carrying over into subsequent years of the contract. Gerardi will be paid for any unused sick time upon the expiration of the pact. If Gerardi is absent more than five days in a row, or more than 12 days in any 20-day period, the School Committee may order him to undergo a physical in order to determine whether he is fit to continue working.
The pact calls for the School Committee to conduct its first formal evaluation of Gerardi’s job performance in February 2010. At any time during his tenure, however, the panel may terminate the superintendent for just cause, the specifics of which must be spelled out to Gerardi in writing. The contract provides no explicit list of transgressions that might be grounds for such a termination, with one exception - the superintendent’s inability to perform his duties for 45 or more consecutive school days. If the School Committee ever does exercise its authority to fire the superintendent, he may ask for a hearing to address the matter.
A resident of Seekonk, Mass., Gerardi, 45, said after signing the pact that he has already begun attending meetings with Macera and getting to know staffers in the school system better. He said he looks forward to starting his new job, which he applied for expressly because he thought the needs of the district were ideally suited to his education, experience and skills.
Gerardi, who earned his doctorate at Boston College, said he did his dissertation on using data from standardized test scores to improve instruction. The state Department of Education currently lists city schools as being on “progressive support” status, in large measure because of poor student achievement on the New England Common Assessment Program, or NECAP, a barometer of academic performance throughout the region.
“I knew what hard work was going on here and I felt my skills lent themselves to the needs of the community,” said Gerardi. “My goal is to help support what we’re doing right and work with RIDE to get those scores up.”
Gerardi said his other major priority as superintendent will be to oversee the continuing construction of two new middle schools on Hamlet Avenue.
Assistant superintendent of North Providence High School since 2005, Gerardi says his background is well suited to dealing with the problems of urban school districts, including those in the Blackstone Valley. Before coming to North Providence, he was principal of Hugh B. Bain Middle School in Cranston for two years, and for four years before that, he was assistant principal of Jenks Junior High School in Pawtucket. Gerardi was also assistant principal of Pawtucket’s Tolman High School from 1996 to 1999.
Gerardi and Victor Mercurio, director of secondary education in Warwick, were both selected as finalists for the superintendent’s job. A 20-member search committee, co-chaired by School Committeewoman Nadeau and Linda Majewski, recommended Mercurio as its first choice, but he turned down the position shortly after he began formal contract negotiations with the School Committee.