Clouet Talks About Chip Salvestrini and New Athletic Director Search
The clock is ticking on the Chip Salvestrini era as the athletic coordinator for the White Plains City School District. Come Friday afternoon Salvestrini will turn out of the White Plains High School parking lot for the last time and head back to Danbury High School for his second stint as their athletic director.
With Salvestrini leaving Friday, one of the biggest school districts in the county and region will not have a current athletic director. The fall athletic season begins around August 20 and two fall sports varsity teams don’t have a head coach.
Christopher Clouet, superintendent of White Plains Schools, described the search for a new athletic director and head of physical education for the district in an interview with The White Plains Examiner.
Clouet pointed out that Salvestrini had resigned and was not let go by the district when he wasn’t offered tenure.
Salvestrini countered that the feeling that he was given by the people who run the district is that he wasn’t welcomed in the future of White Plains Athletics.
The district did post a job opening on the OLAS school job website this spring for a new athletic director without the responsibilities of running physical education. Salvestrini applied for this position and was informed by a human resources liaison for the district that he wouldn’t be granted an interview.
Clouet countered the notion that the athletic director and head of physical education would be two separate positions, saying that wasn’t necessarily the case.
Clouet said that the district might consider a candidate to run both athletics and physical education, as Salvestrini has done for the last three years, if the candidate interviewing has the correct skill set to handle both tasks
“We’re very proud of our athletic programs here at White Plains. We need a leader that is going to help us go to the next level,” said Clouet. “Academically is my main area of focus but I think of athletics being paired up with scholarships. Sound mind and a sound body. I’m looking forward to the new AD to being able to help us to maintain the good programs we have and even bring them to the next level and by that I mean encouraging more families from private schools to give our programs a look and seeing us do more in terms of postseason/sectional playoffs.
Clouet is happy Salvestrini is the new athletic director at Danbury, but feels the district needs to make some changes.
“I’m happy for him that he has landed on his feet. I think he deserved it because he’s a good man and a good AD,”said Clouet. “I just think what we’re need here in terms of the accommodations of the PE (physical education) and AD piece, if we go with that model, it is something that we want to look in another direction.”
Clouet continued, “Another challenge for the new AD is going to be to work on developing and clarifying out eligibility rules. We need to make sure that those are crystal clear to students, parents and staff alike and that’s something that is a work in progress in which we need to finalize.”
Clouet seemed less than thrilled at the way this has been handled in recent years.
“I think we have some room for improvement,” said Clouet. “This will be an area of focus for the new regime.”
As for the open varsity coaching positions, Clouet hopes to hire a new athletic director first and then fill these coaching positions.
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