Calls for Gateway school board member to resign come after racially charged text message

A Gateway School Board member who is the subject of a federal lawsuit has doubled down on his innocence as calls for his resignation grow louder.

Paul Caliari, 46, of Monroeville is currently serving a two-year term on the Gateway School Board. A federal lawsuit filed Jan. 1, which also names Gateway School District as a defendant, claims a text message he sent to other board members was racially charged.

The racial discrimination suit claims the school board chose Don Holl, a white man, as the district’s new athletic director in February over Korie Morton-Rozier, a white woman married to a Black man, after Caliari inquired in that text whether she “date(ed) the darkies.”

The news of the text message’s existence 10 months after it was sent has sparked outrage in the community.

“It’s disgusting,” said Kenneth Huston, president of the Pennsylvania NAACP. “We’re calling on his resignation. We want Paul Caliari to resign.”

Caliari said he believes the lawsuit is the fruit of a political attack made against him by fellow board member Rick McIntyre and that he will not resign.

“I hope people will hold their judgment until they see everything come out,” Caliari said.

Caliari said he thought he was texting a college friend when he mistakenly sent the text to the school board and superintendent group text in February. He said he and the friend were catching up on old times had at Waynesburg University, which at the time was called Waynesburg College.

“As we were talking, a girl’s name came up. Sorta like ‘you remember so and so?’ And I was like, ‘yeah, she was dating the Darkeys,’ referring to Lisa Darkey’s family,” he said.

Caliari said he thought Darkey, a former basketball star at Waynesburg University, had two brothers named Brian and Pete.

Caliari said Darkey attended the small college from 1990-94. Darkey was named the Presidents’ Athletic Conference freshman of the year in 1991, according to Waynesburgsports.com, a website affiliated with the university’s sports program.

Caliari attended the school from 1991-95.

Waynesburg University officials were not immediately available to comment.

“I thought (Brian and Pete) were her brothers. But they don’t exist. I was wrong,” Caliari said. “I don’t even know who we were talking about that brought it up. And I don’t think she has brothers. I think she only has one. I’m not sure.”

As for Morton-Rozier, Caliari said he was a strong proponent of her and that he liked her for the job.

“And then Don Holl had a great interview, and he was recommended from our administration. If that’s who they wanted, I was comfortable with that. But I was strongly supporting (Morton-Rozier) all along,” he said.

Caliari’s original defense of the text was that he went to college with a pair of brothers – Brian and Pete – whose last name was “Darki.” In that same text thread with school board members and the superintendent, Caliari said one of his friends used to date the wife of one of the brothers and was asking what had become of her. “I told him she started dating one of the darkies,” he said.

Huston, the NAACP president, doesn’t buy Caliari’s stories.

“I mean, seriously? That’s what they used to call us in the Jim Crow era,” Huston said. “It’s terrible. I’m just so upset.”

Huston also serves as the head of the Allegheny East NAACP chapter and lives in Monroeville. He has a 13-year-old son who attends Gateway schools. For years Huston has advocated for transparency in the district’s hiring process and ways to close the achievement gap between white and non-white students.

There are 3,430 students enrolled at Gateway School District, according to state data. Of those students, 51.4% are white and 26.5% are Black. Another 7.9% are Asian and 8.8% are two or more races. Around 5% are Hispanic.

Phillip Woods — who at the time worked also as a West Mifflin Area school administrator — was hired as part of the district’s newly formed $135,000 program designed to bridge the achievement gap. The aim was to bring black students’ test scores to levels achieved by their white peers. The part-time position was under a two-year contract. He now works as a principal at Woodland Hills High School.

At the time, Woods’ hiring was controversial because many wanted a full-time equity director. The NAACP threatened legal action.

Woods declined to comment for this story.

Huston said the lawsuit underscores the need for transparency and an administration that reflects the equitable values of the district’s “phenomenal” students and teachers.

“There is a total lack of transparency in how board members make decisions on minority hires,” he said.

Huston said he has notified the national NAACP of the incident and plans to hold a virtual press conference Wednesday.

Millie Chatman, a Black woman from Monroeville who has two children enrolled in the district

said the school board as a whole should experience repercussions for sweeping the incident under the rug.

She said school districts, including Gateway, have a “Safe to Say” app that allows students to anonymously report potential threats to officials.

“So you want these kids to report misbehavior or scary things, but these grown adults stand by for almost 11 months before anybody said anything?” Chatman said.

Anita Morgan, a Black Gateway parent who lives in Monroeville, said the whole situation is “disturbing.”

“We’re in the year 2021, and we’re still having to deal with such things,” she said. “I find it completely outrageous that the school district has not addressed this.”

Gateway Superintendent Bill Short was not immediately available to comment.

Caliari is a former Monroeville councilman, having served for Ward 5 until 2017, when he chose not to run for reelection. He instead was one of nine people who applied to fill a Gateway School Board vacancy in April 2018. Former board member Jack Bova ended up filling that seat.

Currently, Caliari simultaneously serves as chairman of the Monroeville Municipal Authority, the governing body that oversees the municipality’s water and sewer treatment.

This recent lawsuit is not the first time Caliari has been involved in controversy.

A council candidate at the time, Caliari threatened to hit another resident in the mouth during a 2013 council meeting.

He was also recently criticized by a former fellow board member on the municipal authority for slipping by a union contract with salary hikes during the coronavirus pandemic. The former board member also criticized Caliari for leading the firing of the authority’s solicitor, Bruce Dice, and hiring a new attorney, Bob Wratcher, during the same June meeting.

McIntyre, who at the time of the text exchange was Gateway School Board’s vice president, denies the lawsuit was a political attack.

“That’s about as believable and credible as his original Darki story,” McIntyre said. “I think he’s feeling cornered, he’s lashing out and taking anybody with him instead of doing the right thing — apologizing and resigning.”

McIntyre has said he should have come forward sooner but that he didn’t want to hurt Morton-Rozier or the school district. McIntyre added he does not believe that the decision to hire Holl as athletic director was racially motivated.

Holl was hired Feb. 11 after a 7-1 vote by the school board. Board member Susan Delaney dissented and board member Brian Goppman abstained. Holl’s hiring came hours before Caliari’s text.

Both Delaney and Goppman declined to comment.

Board member Mary Beth Cirucci, who was president of the board at the time of Holl’s hiring, defended the board’s decision in a statement.

“Mr. Caliari’s comments had nothing to do with Mrs. Morton-Rozier not getting the job as athletic director,” Cirucci said. “Gateway hired the best candidate for the job, period.”

She, like Caliari, mentioned that Holl was recommended by administration “after their thorough interview process.”

“I had the top three candidates sit before me for the interview process and in my opinion, Mrs. Morton-Rozier performed the worst out of all three candidates,” Cirucci said.

The school board scheduled an executive session to discuss litigation but ended up canceling it because the district solicitor, Dice, was unavailable, McIntyre said.

Goppman, the board president, said the executive session has not been rescheduled.

Dice was not immediately available to comment.