Forest City super to step down

ROBERT VADELLA

BY CAITLIN HEANEY

Times-Shamrock Writer

Forest City Regional School District’s superintendent plans to leave his post before his contract expires at the end of the year.

Robert J. Vadella is in his seventh year as superintendent and informed the school board Monday night (Feb. 14) that he is pursuing “other opportunities” and challenges.

“I have some interviews scheduled, and so the district has been told,” he said Tuesday.

Vadella has looked into other superintendent jobs as well as positions outside public schools. Which job he takes depends on what surfaces and how well his search goes, he said.

Vadella’s contract expires Dec. 31, but he anticipates leaving in August.

“It’s a matter of it’s a good time to move on,” he said.

School board Vice President William Kupus said he was shocked that Vadella was stepping down.

“Nobody believed that he was going to be leaving,” Kupus said.

During his time at Forest City, Vadella brought in new books to help students with PSSA exams, Kupus said, and more students are studying and trying to improve their test scores since then.

“I know he’s going to be missed,” he said. “He did a lot for our school.”

Vadella is most proud of the high school’s pre-engineering program and the elementary school’s pre-kindergarten program.

“They were both initiatives I had introduced to the board, and I was really happy that the board supported those,” he said. “And they are both doing very well.”

A graduate of Carbondale Area High School, Vadella served as principal for more than 10 years at Bald Eagle Area High School in Centre County and worked in that district’s central office for four years before becoming Forest City’s superintendent.

Working at Forest City was a “good opportunity,” he said, and it also brought him closer to family. His mother was from Forest City, and he still has relatives there.

“It was good to be home while my parents were around,” he said.