State, local NAACP chapters reiterate need for Gateway School Board member to resign

The leader of the local and state NAACP chapters further denounced an alleged racist text from a Gateway School Board member and again called for him to resign during a virtual press conference Wednesday.

Kenneth Huston, the Pennsylvania NAACP president, said Gateway school board member Paul Caliari’s text sent in February was racially discriminatory and “serves as an injustice to all students making an effort to acquire educational excellence.”

Caliari is named as a defendant in a federal racial discrimination lawsuit 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 with other board members whether she “date(ed) the darkies.”

Gateway School District is also named as a defendant in the suit.

The school district and its solicitor, Bruce Dice, have not responded to requests for comment.

Caliari has said he will not resign and thinks the lawsuit is the result of a political attack. He explained the text as a “misfire” meant for a different person.

Huston, who is also the head of the NAACP’s Allegheny East chapter, said the alleged racist text “cannot and will not stand” and emphasized the need for an equity director to help the district bridge the achievement gap between white and non-white students.

Huston also said the district has a history of “racial insensitive issues” among its staff.

He referenced the district’s move in 2012 to cut the athletic director’s position to half time, when the postion was held by Terry Smith, a Black man. The board also moved to prohibit an athletic director from simultaneously serving as a coach, even as Smith was already coaching the football team.

The move prompted Smith to file a lawsuit with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He received a $32,000 settlement two years after the filing from the district in order to keep the case from going to trial.

Huston said the school board rescinded that policy “in the cloak of night” to allow Don Holl, a white man who also serves as the high school football coach, to be the athletic director.

Holl’s position as athletic director is a full-time position, according to district records.

“This is extremely troubling,” Huston said.

The policy, enacted by the school board in 2012, states the “part-time Athletic Director and all other administrators will be prohibited from holding supplemental contracts with the district.”

That 2012 policy was rescinded during a special board meeting held July 25, 2018, according to district records. The board voted 7-1. Board member Brian Goppman dissented and former board member Jesse Kalkstein was absent.

Board member Rick McIntyre said the policy was not changed for Holl. Instead, he said, the school district was having difficulty finding a tennis coach and decided to allow a district principal to serve as coach in order to keep the tennis program alive.

“It was first discussed during a policy committee meeting, then discussed at a study session and then voted on at a meeting to put it on 30-day public display and then a vote,” he said. That process is typical of all district policy changes, he said Wednesday.

Todd Hollis, the attorney representing Korie Morton-Rozier, was also present during the NAACP’s virtual press conference. He reiterated what the lawsuit is all about, which is his client’s hiring process.

“(Morton-Rozier) is married to an African-American man, she is very qualified for the position of athletic director and has been. And I believe that she would have gratefully accepted the fact that she didn’t get the position if that evaluation process was simply on the basis of her qualifications,” he said.

Hollis said the decision to hire someone should not be predicated upon who that person loves.

“This has nothing to do with the good work that all of the many teachers at the Gateway School District are doing on behalf of our kids,” he said, adding that he, too, has a child within the district.

Hollis said Morton-Rozier is grateful for all the community support she and her family have received but that she is “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.”

Hollis and Huston both said they are willing to sit down with the district to discuss what that change might look like moving forward.