Engravalle Assumes Duties of Acting Superintendent

Tuesday started like any other day for Steven Engravalle. He arrived at the Fort Lee Board of Education central offices on Whiteman St. earlier than anyone else—4:45 a.m. on that particular occasion—and he knew he would be the last to leave.

But Tuesday wasn’t just another day at the office for Engravalle; it was his first as Acting Superintendent of Schools, a role he will serve in for at least the next four months, and there was a lot of work to be done.

“I was very excited; I’m not going to lie,” Engravalle said Tuesday. “I didn’t sleep too much.”

Engravalle was appointed Acting Superintendent by the Board of Education after now former Superintendent Raymond Bandlow announced in late August that he was leaving the district to take over as Superintendent in Beacon, N.Y. and the board held a special meeting to take public comment on Engravalle’s appointment after having tabled a resolution to appoint him at a regular meeting about two weeks prior.

Speaking early Tuesday afternoon, Engravalle said, “It sets a good example when the boss is the first guy in the door.”

Besides, Engravalle, who says he’s an “early-riser” anyway, had his first big decision to make early Tuesday morning, and then some actual housekeeping to do.

The decision was to make sure that all six Fort Lee schools could open for the day with thousands of people still without power from the weekend storm and plenty of tree limbs still on the ground. Engravalle was candid about his belief that schools shouldn’t have been open on Monday, but that wasn’t yet his call.

“I was concerned with the opening the previous day,” he said. “I’m not sure if we should have opened. However, everything did work out for us, thankfully.”

And by Tuesday afternoon, it looked like Engravalle’s decision to open schools as scheduled on his first day on the job—something he called “making sure the trains could run”—was the right one, although he did note that the central offices and remained without Internet access.

“[On Tuesday], the district had to submit its application for state school aid (ASSA), which is very important; we actually transplanted central office staff to the high school,” Engravalle said, adding that payroll also had to get done, something that also requires Internet connectivity, so that too was temporarily moved to the high school.

The new Acting Superintendent’s next task in the still early hours of Tuesday morning was to physically move into the superintendent’s office, which had been occupied until the previous day by Bandlow. Engravalle said moving in “was important for me to do” right away.

“I wanted to hit the ground running from day one,” he said. “I want folks to be comfortable. I want there to be as smooth a transition as possible. It’s no secret that this district has dealt with its fair share of transition, its fair share of turnover, its fair share of new faces and new ideas, and I just wanted people to feel comfortable that day, when they already knew me, but I looked like I’m settled in the first day.”

Engravalle made it a point to visit Fort Lee High School Tuesday morning, and said he would have visited other schools if he didn’t have to be back at the central offices for meetings. Later, he planned to attend the boys’ high school soccer game—the Bridgemen were playing in the first round of the state tournament—but that was only after working with Buildings and Grounds staff and Fort Lee’s Athletic Director earlier in the day to make sure the field was cleared of a covering of snow that hadn’t yet melted.

“I’m very proud of the boys soccer team; very, very excited for them,” Engravalle said. “I think we’re the fourth seed in the tournament. We had to make sure the field was clear of snow. And thanks to the ingenuity of our terrific, terrific staff for Buildings and Grounds, they figured out how we can actually plow our field turf. That’s no small task so kudos to them. Otherwise we couldn’t have had the game.”

Still later in the day, Engravalle planned to meet with the school board’s Curriculum Committee to review candidates for Acting Assistant Superintendent, Director of School Counseling—the position Jamie Ciofalo will be leaving in December—“and any other positions that are open at this time.”

Engravalle said the central office is currently “very understaffed,” a situation he pointed out is “certainly not unique to Fort Lee.”

“We’re not going to skip a beat,” he said. “That’s what I want to be clear on.”

He said filling Ciofalo’s position, for example, was critical, calling the Director of School Counseling’s job “an essential piece.”

“Making sure college applications are handled; all of our counseling programs, K-12, are handled properly; our standardized testing needs are taken care of, as he managed that for 9-12; those are huge responsibilities that we need to make sure that they’re aptly covered and aptly cared for,” Engravalle said.

Looking to the immediate future, Engravalle identified “creating increased transparency for the community” as an important goal.

“We need to make sure that folks trust the process, and when they’re informed is when they’ll trust the process,” he said. “If it deals with personnel issues, of course those are legal issues you can’t discuss, but there is nothing to hide in public education; it’s full disclosure. So we’ll do the best we can to keep everybody informed at all times. That’s the goal. If everybody is informed at that level, we’re not going to have the rumor mills that we had. And that’s important to me that we squash that kind of stuff.”

Calling Fort Lee a “great town” with “a lot of pride,” Engravalle added that he plans to “continue to be always accessible,” and invited anyone with concerns to “come in and talk.”

“We’re proud that we’re more fiscally responsible than a lot of school districts, and we do get better results in a lot of areas,” he said. “But we want to make sure that people realize their money is being spent well and that the systems that we have here are great for the children. That’s what creates a great school community. We’ve got to bring back a sense of Fort Lee Pride. We’ve got to start bringing back traditions, creating new ones and building a bridge to the community.”