North Kingstown School District Announces Permanent Superintendent

NORTH KINGSTON, RI —The North Kingstown School Department, which has for the past few years faced several school official resignations and scandals, has found a new superintendent, the school announced in a news release Friday.

Dr. Kenneth Duva, who has 23 years of experience in public education as a teacher and administrator, will join the North Kingstown School Department on July 1, school officials said.

Duva has served as Jamestown School Department's superintendent since 2016, helping the district toward a 2023 National Green Ribbon School District Sustainability award, 4 and 5-star rated schools, and a 2018 National Blue Ribbon School. He has extensive experience in special education, according to North Kingstown school officials.

"On behalf of the members of the North Kingstown School Committee and School Department, we welcome Dr. Duva," Dr. Erin Earle, Chair, North Kingstown School Committee, said in the news release. "His professional background, passion for education, and commitment to our town make him an excellent choice to be the next leader of NKSD.”

The most recent interim superintendent, Frank Pallotta, has represented North Kingston School Department since January, when former interim Superintendent Judy Paolucci resigned after just about two months on the job.

The embattled school district has seen multiple resignations in the past few years in the wake of scandals involving school officials.

Former North Kingstown High School basketball coach Aaron Thomas resigned in June 2021 after being accused by former students of asking students to strip naked in his office for so-called "fat tests." Students said Thomas had been doing so since the 1990s. Thomas denied any wrongdoing.

According to WPRI 12, which first reported the story, Superintendent Phil Auger kept Thomas on as a coach for more than two years after some students came forward. Despite denying he did anything wrong and saying he would have acted faster if he knew the extent of the allegations sooner, Auger resigned in March 2022, with Assistant Superintendent Denise Mancieri resigning shortly after.

Following Thomas' resignation in June 2021, he was hired at a nearby Catholic school, where school officials said they were unaware of the allegations against Thomas. Thomas has since been charged with child molestation and sexual assault, court documents reveal.

The school district concluded two separate investigations involving two teachers in January 2023. One of these investigations involved a middle school teacher who avoided being fired after agreeing to resign at the end of the school year following accusations that they stalked a pre-teen girl. The other involved a high school teacher who was put on leave amid allegations of inappropriate behavior with students but was reinstated after school officials said they determined he is not a threat to students.

Attorney Timothy Conlon, who represented the family of the girl who they say was stalked by a teacher and is also representing a group of former students who accused Thomas, questioned in January if anything will be done to create formal records showing complaints against teachers so that other districts are aware before hiring them.

"What if anything has been done to create a formal record such that subsequent potential employers have notice of the facts and circumstances surrounding the investigation?" Conlon said. "We have one instance of a teacher that was the subject matter of an investigation resigning from NKSD and getting a position in another system down the road. Does NKSD intend to do anything differently?"