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Calitri Stepping Down After a Career in Public Education
Two-term VSBA president Junius Calitri stepped down from his post at the end of last month. President-elect Peter Herman took over the reins in November. From the Board Room profiled Calitri for the first piece in a series on members of the Board of Directors. Did you know "Juni" started with the VSBA long before he served on his first school board?
Calitri was born in New York City and raised in the Bronx, the second of four children. Both his parents were educators. His father also pursued a successful writing career. He attended public schools in New York, graduating from DeWitt Clinton High School. Though he describes himself as having been an average student, he soon discovered a pursuit that became a lifelong passion- competitive swimming.
While in school, Calitri swam often and avidly. He won city- and state-wide championships specializing in freestyle, and continued to excel in the pool long after graduating. He attended New York University from 1935-39 during which time he won a junior national title, and after school won the Lifeguard Championship for the City of New York. Calitri kept on swimming, entering competitions through the 1980s.
After his year as a lifeguard, Calitri served as a chief grounds instructor for Army Air Force pilots for a year during World War II, and afterward he followed his parents into teaching. Much of his career was spent at the Putnam Valley Central School across the river from West Point, New York, where he taught for ten years before being hired as the district administrator. He was their administrator for fourteen years and then went to the town of Garrison as the CEO for six more years and it was during this time he formed his first connections to the Vermont School Boards Association.
Former VSBA director Charlie Nichols hired Calitri as a labor relations consultant for school boards, first on a part time basis, but by 1977-78, Calitri had moved to Vermont and was negotiating full-time. Although now retired, Calitri has stayed involved in labor relations and helped to negotiate the first joint teachers contract for Addison Central Supervisory Union five years ago.
Calitri continued to support public education when he began serving on local school boards in the mid-1990s and he joined the VSBA Board of Directors soon after. When asked what quality of a good school board member is most important, Calitri has a definite answer. "Board members must be aware that the job they have is to provide the best educational experience for the boys and girls in their school district." He is concerned that with the constant fuss over school funding and paying for education these days, that a board’s ultimate responsibility, to the children, can be obscured or lost.
Calitri lives in Cornwall with his artist wife Klara, and they have three grown children. In retirement, he has served as the president of the Home Health Agency for Addison County, and as president of the Counseling Service of Addison County where he is still on the board. Recently he has been assisting Klara in hosting several shows in Vermont for her work, featuring ceramic and monotype pieces.
