Laurel Highlands chooses interim superintendent
Retired Freedom district chief tapped to fill role vacated by Wallace
The Laurel Highlands School Board hired an interim superintendent at a special meeting Wednesday after the previous administrator abruptly retired last week.
The board voted 8-0 to hire Jeffrey Fuller, who had a lengthy career as a school administrator, most recently as superintendent of Freedom Area School District in Beaver County. Fuller was hired effective immediately at a daily rate of $775.
“The students and community of Laurel Highlands School District deserve the opportunity to heal, restore faith and move forward,” Fuller said in a statement read at Wednesday’s meeting. “I’m honored that the board of directors has entrusted me with the opportunity to support their team as we navigate these processes. I look forward to joining the Mustang family.”
After Fuller retired from his superintendent position in 2021, he went on to work for the state Department of Education, eventually serving as deputy secretary for elementary and secondary education before retiring in 2023.
Most recently, he co-founded Total Synthesis Administrative Support Services, a company that meets with districts to find substitute school administrators.
Board President Marcus DiNunno said the board was connected with Fuller after reaching out to Intermediate Unit 1 Executive Director Donald Martin for help in filling the vacancy.
DiNunno interviewed four potential candidates, including Fuller, who “rose to the top,” he said. Fuller then met with the board in advance of Wednesday’s vote.
“I thought that was the best fit moving forward,” DiNunno said after the meeting. “The most experienced, well-rounded individual.”
DiNunno said the district prioritized outside candidates to avoid stretching the current administrative group when they were short.
“If we would have placed somebody internally in that position, you would have been trying to fill a gap somewhere else,” he said. “We needed that extra body in here, and I thought getting somebody from outside of the area, outside of the district, would bring a fresh perspective to the district, and maybe help us with professional development and seeing things in a different light that we’re not accustomed to.”
Former Superintendent Jesse Wallace announced his retirement in an e-mail sent to district personnel at the end of the school day Thursday. The board also voted Wednesday to accept his retirement, with board member Joe D’Andrea adding “regretfully” to his vote.
Assistant Superintendent Jessica Scott and Director of Curriculum and Education Randy Miller were put in charge of administrative functions at the district until the interim superintendent could be found.
Fuller told the board he will be the face and voice of the district, communicating with the faculty and community as much as possible, DiNunno said.
“He said he’s a very visible person,” DiNunno said. “He’s going to be in all of our buildings, going around meeting people, checking on things. So I think that it’s a good fit.”
Fuller’s appointment will last for up to one year, or less, if a new superintendent is selected before then.
DiNunno said he anticipated the district would post the superintendent position sometime after the beginning of 2027. It will be a “very broad” posting to draw in outside candidates, as well as any internal ones, DiNunno said.
DiNunno hopes the board will be able to make a final decision by the end of March, allowing the new hire to start over the summer.
Fuller’s outside perspective will likely mean at least one change to recent board actions, DiNunno said.
At its October meeting, the board approved a resolution granting Timothy Berggren, an attorney with the law firm Peacock Keller, the power to put administrators on paid leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation. DiNunno said that was tied to the completion of a report from the MBM law firm, which the board had tapped to review whether administrators had followed district policies regarding mandatory reporting.
“They would have identified a few people that they may have wanted further information from, or a further a different setting, and that would have been a precursor to facilitating that,” DiNunno said.
None has been placed on leave so far, he said.
The board had hired MBM to prepare the report following the arrests of high school teachers Martin Gatti and Daniel Cervone last spring on sexual misconduct charges. The board fired Gatti, while Cervone resigned in advance of what board members said was a termination vote.
An attorney was chosen so the power to put people on paid leave would rest with an unbiased third party, DiNunno said.
With Fuller now in charge of the district, those decisions should go to him, DiNunno said.
“That resolution will kind of be void because you have somebody now who is completely unbiased, and they’re short-term,” he said.
DiNunno had two messages for the community.
First, the board is looking forward with the best interests of the community and the students in mind. Secondly, he said, “we’re not taking anything lying down.”
“We’re acting as things come to us,” he said. “You’re not prepared for a sudden retirement of your main guy. So there are several things that we’re working through, but we’re doing it as quickly as possible. I don’t believe that doing nothing’s an option.”