O Come, Emanuele Says, to Life After 49-Year Career

By Grace Rauh, STAFF WRITER

FREMONT — The small study on the second floor of Guy Emanuele’s spacious home, where the Fremont school board member and former New Haven superintendent reads his daily e-mails, has the feel of an athlete’s trophy room.

The wall beside his computer and dark wooden desk is covered with framed proclamations and engraved plaques from local and state politicians. On the back wall, black-and-white photographs of a younger Emanuele reading to students and standing with some of the first teachers and administrators in the New Haven school district are reminders of the length and breadth of the 75-year-old’s career in public education.

Tonight, it comes to an end. After 49 years of working as a teacher, counselor, administrator and school district trustee, Emanuele is bowing out of the public spotlight and stepping down from the Fremont school board.

The slight, gray-haired education icon, long considered a voice of reason on the Fremontschool board, announced in November that he would retire from the board in January, several months before the end of his term.

He is concerned about his health and plans to spend more time with his grandchildren in Southern California, he said. Emanuele wears a hearing aid and has trouble speaking at times, from atrophy of the voice box. He is not sick but navigating the usual aches and pains of old age, he said. The board is expected to appoint a replacement later this month.

An East Coast transplant who grew up in Oil City, Pa., of Sicilian-born parents, Emanuele began his teaching career in 1956 at Barnard Junior High School, now Barnard-White Middle School. After working as a counselor and administrator for several years, he was hired as the school district’s superintendent in 1976.

When he took the post, the New Haven school district had existed for only 11 years, and there already had been three superintendents. The city and school board were polarized politically, and according to present Union City Mayor Mark Green, the district had a reputation for low-quality schools.

The first Roman emperor, Augustus Caesar, is famous for saying, “‘I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.’ And I would say that’s what Emanuele did,” Green said. “He found New Haven a district of bricks and he left it a district of marble. … He was the most important person in the school district’s history.”

Under Emanuele’s 22-year tenure as superintendent, New Haven created an alternative high school, passed several bond measures and focused on educating students through athletics, arts and extracurricular activities, in addition to academics. The school band flourished, and the superintendent hired a young man named Tommie Lindsey to teach at James Logan High School. Lindsey now is a nationally renowned debate coach who leads one of the top forensics programs in the country.

In an era when education money seems increasingly tight and the testing stakes are high, Emanuele’s vision of holistic education can seem unattainable or, at least, improbable. But as a superintendent and school board member, he has advocated for top-notch extracurricular activities to keep students engaged throughout the day and into the night. He believes it is cost-effective to establish athletics and arts programs on campuses because they keep students engaged and out of trouble, he said.

“I’m really an old-fashioned guy,” Emanuele said this week. “(I want) to educate the whole man, not just in science and language, but in music and athletics. That is part of developing a positive character, a good character.”

Former New Haven school board member Linda Fernandes, who served on the board for 28 years and retired in 2004, said Emanuele’s background in teaching and counseling was one reason he was able to sustain a record-long career in the school district. He rose up from within New Haven and had earned the respect of his colleagues, she said.

He also had a way with children, particularly troubled ones, and he was known for creating jobs for students with academic troubles or behavioral problems, in the school district office, where he could keep an eye on them.

“He never got out of the role of caring for each and every individual student,” Fernandes said. “That was impressive.”

Emanuele retired as superintendent in 1998. Several years after he left, many local residents believe, the school district began a downward spiral, leaving its glory years behind.

The alternative high school the board created under Emanuele was shuttered, and Emanuele’s successor, Ruth McKenna, was fired in 2002 as students and parents protested outside her office.

However, some blamed New Haven’s undoing on Emanuele and his “rubber-stamp” board. The former superintendent was criticized for his leadership style and blamed for leaving behind a school board that didn’t question administrators.

Emanuele conceded this week he “may have caused” some of the problems that plagued the school district after his departure, but said the school board had to share in the responsibility.

“I can tell you there’s no such thing as a rubber-stamp board, anywhere,” he said. “A good board will always, and should, support strong, effective leadership.”

After leaving New Haven, Emanuele, a longtime Fremont resident, was elected to the school board. Fremont schools trustee Nina Moore said her colleague and friend brought to Fremont invaluable experience and understanding about how school districts are run.

“When he came onto the board, which was before I was on (it), there had been a lot of turmoil,” Moore said. “Guy has a really calming demeanor and a balanced approach to things. … He brought a sense of order and civility back to the district and the board.”

Moore, one of the more garrulous school board members in Fremont, noted that Emanuele has the ability to say much in few words.

Several years ago, when the board was drafting a statement of vision for the school district, Emanuele suggested all trustees share their personal vision with the group.

He started everyone off by saying, “My vision is we never give up on any student. Even when that student may have given up on themselves,” Moore said. “That is an incredible philosophy. He lived by that philosophy.”

The Fremont Education Foundation and the Fremont Unified District Teachers Association are hosting a reception for Emanuele before the school board meeting at 6:30 tonight in the Fremont Education Center, 4210 Technology Drive.