WATERBURY, Conn. — The current Waterbury Schools Superintendent will no longer serve the school community. A letter obtained by FOX61 from the city addressed to Superintendent Dr. Verna Ruffin informed her that the Board of Education did not renew her contract, which expired Monday, July 8.
The letter explains that Ruffin is no longer required to provide services to the district as she packs up her things. She has to vacate the superintendent's office by Thursday afternoon, the letter stated.
Ruffin will continue to receive compensation and her benefit package from the city until October.
"I want to thank you for your years serving the children of Waterbury and our education community," Mayor Paul Pernerewski, Jr. said in the letter to Ruffin.
The notice comes after months of back and forth between the mayor, the school board, the Waterbury Teachers Association and the superintendent about whether or not to extend Dr. Ruffin’s contract. The matter was brought up in an April school board meeting.
Ultimately, Pernerewski said he was against extending it for a long period of time due to what he said were communication issues and an overall sense that parents and teachers within the district were not happy with the way things were being run.
"From the time I started running for mayor, I've met with people in the community, I've met with the city employees, I've met with unions. And, with education, the one thing that I heard consistently during the campaign, and after assuming office was about this poor morale within the education department, the lack of confidence that the teachers had in the superintendent, the fact that they didn't feel they were being backed up," Pernerewski said. "So, it was all coming to a head, the contract happened to be up at this point.
Those feelings were solidified through a recent survey of more than 700 Waterbury teachers where WTA's president, Kevin Egan, said the majority of the educators expressed similar concerns.
"The resulting were overwhelming damning in regards to teachers did not feel safe, teacher morale was down, teachers wanted to leave the district, they felt that the superintendent was not in touch with what was really going on in the classroom," Egan said. “We brought some of these concerns to the superintendent first, then the board. And we just felt like the superintendent was not addressing many of our concerns in a timely fashion.”
The survey also came on the heels of a Department of Justice investigation into the district’s treatment of students receiving special education, which Pernerewski said Ruffin failed to inform the city and the school board about.
As Ruffin's contract was coming to a close on July 8, Pernerewski said he learned of a second investigation. This time, the Office of the Child Advocate and Disability Rights Connecticut were referring Waterbury and three other municipalities to the DOJ for civil rights violations for special education students. Pernerewski said he learned the district was also notified two years ago about that second investigation.
"When I asked her to send me the paperwork, that's when I realized, that within that letter, they said that they had notified us in July of 2022. But, it had never gotten a response after the initial acknowledgement of the letter," Pernerewski said. "That's it, I just saw, that was sort of the end of the road for me. I just didn’t really see any way to go forward."
Before learning this, Pernerewski said he was willing to extend Ruffin's contract for one year instead of the initial three years the board was asking for. However, he said he decided to veto the decision to extend the superintendent's contract at all after looking at that letter from the DOJ.
“Education is critically important. We face a lot of problems in Waterbury, and I think when you start looking at the poverty and the crime and the other issues, if we don't solve the education process, we're never going to solve of all those other problems as well," Pernerewski said. "So, this is the fundamental building block that we really have to get a hold of here in the city."
Following Pernerewski's decision to veto Ruffin's contract renewal, the school board did not call for a special meeting to argue against it. By default, the mayor said that means the end date of July 8 for the contract stands.
From here, the board will have to select an interim superintendent, and the district will start a national search through an outside consulting firm for a permanent replacement. Pernerewski said that process could take ten months to a year. However, he feels it's necessary to find the right candidate.
"I am convinced and I still am today, that if the superintendent, the teachers, and the principals are not all on the same page and pulling in the same direction in an urban district like Waterbury, we're never going to be able to solve the problems and make sure that our students are being fully educated," Pernerewski said.
Egan also said though it is an unfortunate result, it's for the betterment of the district.
“We’re going to start with a clean slate which is really the best position. I couldn’t imagine, even with another one year contract with Dr. Ruffin in place, how that would go because there were so many questions. And those types of questions don’t get answered in a year," Egan said.
A comment from Ruffin was not made immediately available upon request via email and text.
However, when the topic was brought up in April's board meeting, Ruffin said, “I do disagree with you, mayor. You’re not going to be able to solve this. We’re going to be able to. Because no one person can solve some of the issues that we face."
Comments from the leaders of the BOE, including the president and vice president, were also not immediately available upon request.
BOE Commissioner Thomas Van Stone Sr., however, said in short that he feels the decision to find a new superintendent is "a long time coming" and "if anything, long overdue."
Stone Sr. said the board will be having its regularly-scheduled workshop meeting Thursday, where they will go into an executive session and talk about next steps.
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Julia LeBlanc is a reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jleblanc@fox61.com Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
Leah Myers is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. She can be reached at LMyers@fox61.com
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