Pappalardo starts July 1 as Apache Junction schools superintendent

By Richard Dyer
Mail | Twitter: @RHDyer

Robert Pappalardo, who has worked in the Apache Junction, Florence, Queen Creek and Laveen school districts, has been hired as Apache Junction school district’s next superintendent. His first day will be July 1.

The salary starts at $160,000 for a superintendent, according to an AJUSD job posting.

The Apache Junction Unified School District Governing Board voted 3-2 on May 18 at a special meeting following a short closed-door executive session to approve a superintendent employment agreement with Pappalardo. Dissenting were Bobby Bauders and Cami Garcia.

The superintendent job became available after a severance agreement for then-Superintendent Heather Wallace was approved at an April 10 meeting of the AJUSD Governing Board that did not include public comment, discussion or debate.

Pappalardo was principal at the sixth- through eighth-grade Desert Shadows Middle School in AJUSD, working there from 1998 to 2007; the school has since been closed.

He recalled working to bring the Desert Shadows state education grade up from failing to winning a state award.

“When I was here — if you remember, Desert Shadows had a bumpy road — we had an ‘F’ at one time and then it went to a highly performing school. We won a Golden Bell Award — the only school in this system to win any kind of national or state award. So I would like to bring that back, that being an award-winning school throughout the district,” Pappalardo said in an interview before the decision by the AJUSD Governing Board.

“My passion is we need to do whatever is in the best interest of our students — we have to make that possible so that they get the kind of education that allows them to pursue whatever they would like to pursue after high school. That starts foundationally at (kindergarten) and works through the system,” he said.

Academics, sports and arts are some of his priorities as a superintendent.

“Academics are a priority, sports are a priority, the arts are a priority — because you have to have all three to have balance for your kids. And for the parents, because they want that. We should be able to offer what all of our surrounding school districts are offering. And we get that by attracting students and parents,” he said.

Pappalardo, who has lived in Gold Canyon since 1998, recently was a contractor with AJUSD working with educators.

“We have great personnel... We are in a quest to be a premier school district, is how I see it,” he said.

“I’ve raised my kids here. Both my kids attended schools here. So I’m invested here. I’m here because I want to help,” Pappalardo said.

Prior to working at AJUSD, he worked in Laveen as an assistant principal at Maurice C. Cash Elementary School, then became principal there.

“I’ve been in Queen Creek. I went from Apache Junction to Florence — opened two schools in Florence, a K-eighth (Circle Cross) and Poston Butte High School at my time there,” all as principal, Pappalardo said.

He has three degrees from Arizona State University, including a doctorate. While the Arizona Department of Education website states he has a standard professional superintendent, PreK-12, certificate starting March 2023, it was a renewal from years ago, Pappalardo said.

AJUSD has three elementary schools, a junior high school and a high school. The district is from Meridian Road on the west to the town of Queen Valley on the east and from the Goldfield Mountains to the north, south into the San Tan Corridor. Communities served include Apache Junction, Gold Canyon, Peralta Trail, Queen Valley and unincorporated Pinal County land in-between.

Special meeting

No public comment, discussion or debate was allowed at the May 18 special meeting, which didn’t sit well with Gold Canyon resident Roberto Reveles, who had planned to speak.

“I would ask first of all for a report of the entire process including the substance of the executive sessions as is permitted in the Arizona Revised Statutes; and the providing of minutes which have been absent from this entire process. And I think that the public deserves to know what has transpired with all of the candidates,” he said when the board was in a closed-door executive session.

Reveles on May 11 attended an AJUSD forum that featured two other superintendent candidates — Erika Copeland, an employee of the Queen Creek Unified School District and Dr. George Martin, from the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind.

“No report on the so-called community forum where the public was invited to listen to the two candidates who appeared and yet the public is in the dark. What happened to that? The public remains in the dark on the entire timeline for this most-important decision that this board has been called to make,” he said. “Why have the public not been permitted to learn what the decisions have been behind the closed doors?”

Al Dimauro, who has lived for six years in unincorporated Pinal County near Apache Junction, attended the special meeting to learn about education issues in the district. He had hoped to be able to speak to the board during a public comment section, but it was not the agenda.

“Well I’m kind of tired of what direction we’re all going and what they’re doing to our kids. So I thought I would get involved and get educated so that I have a clearer picture,” he said when the board was in a closed-door executive session. “I’m very disappointed in how things are being run and I think the only way I can do anything about it is to start getting involved, getting more grassroots of how everything is going so that I can speak up with more knowledge.”

Board comments

Bauders, who voted against approving the superintendent employment agreement, said he would work hard to help Pappalardo become the best superintendent he can be.

“That is my commitment to both the community and Dr. Pappalardo. However I am very disappointed in how this process has played out. Dr. Pappalardo was not included in the community forum where the board presented two highly qualified candidates. To me that is a disservice to the community and I’m not OK with that,” he said in voting. “I just wish that this board would have conducted itself in a more-transparent manner.”

Garcia, who voted against the agreement, recalled how Pappalardo was with the district when she went to school at AJUSD.

“I was one of his students. I lived it and I’d like to think that I came out somewhat successful in that education,” she said in voting. “Transparency, I believe, has not been laid out to the community as I would have liked it to be. I feel a little bit of betrayal and I think we could have done a better way of doing things.... I’m going to vote ‘no’ just because of the way the process transpired.”

Board Vice President Gil Cancio likened Pappalardo being hired to a World War II U.S. Army general being called in as a replacement.

“We are in a situation, I feel, where we need somebody to take charge, turn things around and let’s make this district the best district in the state for its size. There are a lot of deficiencies. We have the potential for being an ‘A,’ ‘B’ district — not just a ‘B’ school,” he said in voting. “There is no reason we can’t do better than what we have. It’s a matter of attitude.”

Cancio recalled how American forces faltered when first fighting German Gen. Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps in 1942, Gen. George S. Patton was brought in as a replacement commander.

“And I think with that kind of an attitude keeping and setting high goals and keeping the bar high we can achieve a lot more than what we have and we can hold our heads up high instead of ‘Oh well, we’re just Apache Junction. We should be satisfied with C’s and D’s.’ No. We should be shooting for A’s and B’s all the time,” Cancio said. “And I think Dr. Pappalardo with that attitude brings a refreshing change. I therefore vote ‘yes.’”

Board President Dena Kimble said the search for a superintendent has been a long process.

“(M)aybe we’re not perfect and things didn’t go as planned as we wanted to, but we are here now. And now it’s up to us to move forward,” she said in voting. “We have a new leader in this district and our kids deserve nothing but the best. AJ has been kicked to the curb so many times. We have good kids here, we have good staff here. We just need to move forward and do what’s right for the children. We deserve to be an excellent school district.”

Board member Gail Ross said after the meeting that Pappalardo is the best choice for superintendent.

“I looked into Dr. Pappalardo’s background and I felt that he was going to have the experience to change things in a very speedy manner,” she said.

Ross recalled telling Pappalardo that she agreed with Cancio’s take on him being like a Gen. Patton.

“I said, ‘He just stepped one step shy of saying you are our George S. Patton.’ That, to me, is the way I feel about him. So I liked what he said and I just went one step further and said that to the doctor,” Ross said.

Richard H. Dyer can be reached at rdyer@iniusa.org, or on Twitter @rhdyer. To voice your opinion on this story, connect with us at AzOpinions@iniusa.org.

Richard Dyer
Managing Editor | East Valley
@RHDyer

rdyer@iniusa.org

Meet Richard
Richard Dyer has worked at Independent Newsmedia Inc. USA since 1987, starting his career in Apache Junction as a copy editor and being promoted over the years to work as the editor of the Mesa Independent, news services editor for the East Valley office in Apache Junction, managing editor for the East Valley office, news services editor for the East Valley office and eventually also for the newspapers at INI’s then-Chandler office, managing editor again and as a news editor covering Apache Junction/Gold Canyon and Queen Creek. He helped start the Florence Independent while the news editor covering Apache Junction and Mesa news. In January 2023, he became associate managing editor for the East Valley newspapers and in August 2023 became managing editor for the East Valley newspapers of Chandler/Tempe, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Florence, Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon, while also reporting on Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon.  

Community: Since 2009, he has worked as a volunteer to design The Blue Guitar Magazine, Blue Guitar Jr. magazine and Unstrung magazine, which are projects of The Arizona Consortium for the Arts; and since 2014, has been overseeing the art submissions. 

Education: University of Arizona with a master of arts in journalism and a bachelor of science in agricultural communication. Also continuing education at Mesa Community College in welding in a metal art sculpture class.

Random fact: Saw his first tornado on May 31, 2010, which was classified as an EF-2, as part of a stormchasing tour group.

Hobbies: He is an artist of welded-steel sculptures, selling his artwork at juried and non-juried art shows.