Gateway School Board member mired in racial controversy resigns

A Gateway School Board member wrapped in a racial controversy has resigned.

Paul Caliari, 46, of Monroeville submitted a letter announcing his resignation, effective immediately, on Thursday according to an announcement posted on the district’s website.

Gateway Superintendent Bill Short wrote in the announcement that he and board president Brian Goppman received Caliari’s resignation.

Neither Short not Goppman responded to requests by the Tribune-Review to obtain the resignation letter. Caliari declined to share the letter.

“Gateway School District takes the safety, well-being, and concerns of our families and community very seriously,” Short wrote. “The District will always strive to be a leader within the classroom and with policies that respect and reflect our diverse population. The Gateway School Board will ensure that steps are taken to continue our mission and that diversity and equity are celebrated. Our children and the communities of Monroeville and Pitcairn deserve nothing less.”

Short’s letter to parents did not explicitly explain the reasoning Caliari provided for resigning. Instead, Short wrote the former school board member’s resignation “follows the recently published text message that he erroneously sent to the Gateway School Board. We are unable to comment further at this time due to pending litigation surrounding this text message.”

Short and Goppman were not immediately available to comment.

Caliari and Gateway School District were named in a federal racial discrimination lawsuit filed Jan. 1 that 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 a group text to district officials whether she “date(ed) the darkies.”

Discovery of the text led to outrage in the community and demands for his resignation.

Among those who urged he step down were the local and state NAACP chapters, residents, Gateway parents and Gateway School Board member Susan Delaney.

Caliari’s departure followed a vow to not resign and an explanation of the text as a “misfire” meant for a different person. He also said the lawsuit is the fruit of a political attack by fellow board member Rick McIntyre.

Reached after submitting his resignation, Caliari said stepping down was the best decision he could make for his “family and the kids in the school district.”

“People didn’t want to hear the truth. Peoples’ minds were made up,” he said.

Caliari doubled down on his version of how the events leading up to the lawsuit unfolded, blaming it again on a perceived rivalry between him and McIntyre.

McIntyre has denied launching any kind of political attack.

“I’m not real sure what I did to incur (McIntyre’s) wrath like this but he’s got a lot of people that believe him. And at the end of the day, we didn’t need this,” Caliari said, adding he hopes the board can put aside the “distraction” in order to continue to focus on getting students back in school and provide them with a great education.

“The people that know me know that this is not a question — that I am not a racist,” Caliari said.

Pressure for his resignation mounted on Wednesday when Delaney, the lone Black member of the Gateway School Board, called for his departure “in an effort to save our Gateway School District further unnecessary pain, embarrassment, tension and division.”

Delaney said her call for Caliari’s resignation did not come easy.

“I have spent the past week, or to be more precise, the past 11 months, praying, meditating, contemplating, crying, waiting and enduring countless sleepless nights because of the actions, or rather inactions, of the Gateway school board. I refuse to be complicit and silent in protecting the board or any board director if it means compromising my strong code of ethics and integrity,” she wrote.

When reached for comment, Delaney said now it is time to get back to supporting students, taxpayers and stakeholders.

Also Wednesday, the Pennsylvania NAACP held a virual press conference where officials further decried the alleged racist text as “an injustice to all students making an effort to acquire educational excellence.”

Todd Hollis, the attorney representing Morton-Rozier, has said his client is grateful for the community support she and her family have received but that she is feeling “anxious.”

“And they’re concerned,” Hollis said. “Now they’ve had to explain why there’s so many people talking about their mom. They’ve had to explain what the issues are. You know, as a parent — as a single father — these are conversations that you should not have to have with your child.”

Nevertheless, he said, he continues to encourage his client that “this is something that we must do. This is something that everyone needs to be a part of. Because, at the end of the day, regardless of what happens in this lawsuit — it is not about money, it is about change.”

Before his stint on the Gateway School Board, Caliari served one term as a Monroeville Ward 5 council member until 2017, when he chose not to run for reelection.

He currently serves as chairman of the board for the Monroeville Municipal Authority, the entity 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.

When running for election on the Gateway School Board, he said he would work to keep the district’s academic performance excellent by “never getting behind that curve” when it comes to providing the latest technology to students. He also said he hoped to improve the strained relationship between Monroeville Council and the school board.

“I want people to remember that I joined the school board because I’m invested in our community,” Caliari said after resigning. “I’m invested in not only my children, but in every kid’s education in this community. I did my best.”

Caliari has three children, two of whom are students in the school district.

Though he declined to speak on the lawsuit on Thursday, Caliari initially defended the text as a “misfire.”

He said 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.

When the lawsuit and the text surfaced, however, Caliari’s story changed.

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.

Waynesburg University officials declined 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.”

The Pennsylvania school code says the district has 30 days to fill the vacant school board seat.