Cocuzzo blames board after Piperato’s resignation

Pleasant Valley school board Treasurer Kenneth Cocuzzo accused fellow board members of creating a hostile work environment for Superintendent David Piperato that may have contributed to his recent resignation during the board meeting Thursday night.

“While I’m sure it was not an easy decision for Dave, I’m also certain the hostile work climate engineered by some on this school board — for their own personal and self-serving reasons — factored into his thinking,” Cocuzzo said.

Cocuzzo described this climate as one of “mistrust,” in which “even the smallest of issues was placed under a microscope.”

“Constant second-guessing of our superintendent served no purpose other than to harass him and undermine our efforts toward becoming a 21st century school district,” Cocuzzo continued. “Dave, you really deserved better from the entire board, not just the half who saw the value of what you brought to Pleasant Valley.”

After the meeting, Cocuzzo identified Vice President Donna Yozwiak, Laura Jecker, Delbert Zacharias and Leonard Peeters as detractors of the superintendent.

“I’ve seen a pattern of these four saying ‘no’ on everything that doesn’t come from one of them,” Cocuzzo said.

“I find that if an individual board member wants to accuse other individual board members of harassment and undermining the superintendent and putting our names on record, that is a serious accusation,” Yozwiak said the day following the meeting. “As an elected official, it’s my job to question, evaluate and decide on the best items needed for the district. And in doing so I always rely on measurable data.”

Yozwiak continued, “Show me the data to better inform me — I do not view that as undermining the superintendent or harassing him. I view that as doing my job as an elected official and not just rubber-stamping any recommendation that is presented to the board under the guise of a need or a want.”

Yozwiak referenced her many years with this school district. She has lived in this community for over 40 years, worked in the school district for 38 years, and three of her children graduated from Pleasant Valley.

“I have a serious vested interest in this community and the education of its children and the needs of the taxpayers, and I will never rubber-stamp a recommendation or a motion for approval without solid information to back up my decision,” she said.

“I don’t see myself as a harasser or an underminer,” Yozwiak said.

After the meeting, Cocuzzo described Piperato as one of the best superintendents he has known in his 30-year career as a journalist.

Piperato is good with people, a quick thinker, decisive, organized and makes the most of resources, Cocuzzo said.

Piperato addressed the issues raised by the 2018 grand jury report that accused school district administrators of bullying and other offenses, Cocuzzo said.

“It wasn’t a mess that he created; he came in to clean it up,” Cocuzzo said. “These folks, the ones that are his detractors, don’t appreciate a thing that he’s done about it.”

Piperato also brought in more administrators “because we did not have this district set up properly,” Cocuzzo said.

While Cocuzzo identified division within the board, he also emphasized that the board continues to work together.

“But honestly I really think, even if we have differences, we do talk,” he said. “We have disagreements, (but) we agree to disagree.”

“Dave Piperato was and is the best person for the job,” Cocuzzo concluded. “I’m just sorry he’s going to Easton, but they’re getting one hell of a superintendent.”

Yozwiak said she learned about Piperato’s resignation through a local newspaper.

“I was certainly miffed that no one could pick up the phone, email or text board members the fact that our CEO had resigned,” she said. “It really caught me off guard when I was getting phone calls from community members asking me about the resignation when I knew nothing about it.

“Actions like that need to stop,” Yozwiak continued. “We need communication on our board prior to things breaking in the news.”