Christopher Peak Photo
Michael Pinto at Monday night’s school board meeting.
(Updated) The Board of Education Monday night voted to approve Mike Pinto as the school system’s new chief operating officer (COO).
Pinto is to begin the schools job on March 5 at an annual salary of $145,000. Pinto currently serves as deputy director of the city’s Department of Transportation, Traffic & Parking.
Pinto said he is “honored” to take a job with New Haven Public Schools, which has been a part of his family’s life for four generations.
Starting in 1915, his grandmother attended Worthington Hooker Elementary School, and his grandfather taught history and Latin at Fair Haven Junior High School. Pinto himself briefly attended Hooker, and he now walks his daughter to school at Edgewood Magnet School.
Pinto said he hoped to be a problem-solver, as he takes responsibility for keeping 40 schools running smoothly.
“I recognize the magnitude of this job,” he said. “I think I’m collaborative, and I also try to be pragmatic. I don’t need to be right. I just want to get the job done.”
Pinto replaces Will Clark, who left the schools COO position last month after 11 years to take a similar job in Waterbury. Clark signed a separation agreement on Jan. 4 with the schools superintendent in which he got paid $102,797.54 not to sue or make disparaging comments about the Board of Ed or top officials (except to federal or state law enforcement officials or other government investigators).
No word on whether, in light of the agreement, Pinto will be asked to sign his own prenuptial …
Mayor Toni Harp confirmed the appointment on her latest appearance on WNHH FM’s “Mayor Monday” program, during which she also said that she is not taking the published advice of the Rev. Boise Kimber to fire Kimber’s former schools-activism ally, city youth services chief Jason Bartlett.
Click on the video below to watch the full episode of “Mayor Monday.”
WNHH’s “Mayor Monday” is made possible with the support of Gateway Community College and Berchem Moses P.C.