“I’ve got to get to know the community,” Lolli said. “Getting to know everybody is imperative.”
Lolli, 53, of Middletown, has been Springboro’s acting superintendent since the resignation of David Baker, effective July 1.
He was hired last week, the same night the board hired Bonnie Milligan, former treasurer of the Warren County Educational Services Center, to act as the district’s interim treasurer. Milligan replaces Eric Beavers who resigned to become treasurer in Fairborn.
The district also is divided between levy supporters and voters pressing for cost cutting before backing a levy.
“I’m hoping to bring those groups together,” Lolli said.
Seated with Lolli at lunch, teacher Tonya Kerns expressed gratitude to him for taking over the district’s reins.
“There are a lot of difficulties,” said Kerns who remembered Lolli coaching baseball in Middletown in the 1980s and 1990s.
Education is a second career for Lolli, a Middletown native who worked his way up from laborer to middle management at AK Steel before heading back to school.
Lolli, who played on three state championship teams while attending Bishop Fenwick High School, has degrees from Miami University and the University of Dayton.
He has worked as a teacher, coach, assistant principal and principal in Middletown, Kent, Stow and Hudson during the past 16 years.
He also lives with an experienced school administrator, his wife, Elizabeth Lolli, superintendent in Monroe.
“I bounce stuff off her every once in awhile,” he said. “She’s my rock. She listens to me when I vent.”
Still Lolli, previously an assistant principal at Springboro High School, said he never pictured himself as Springboro’s superintendent until he was approached by former board president Craig Colston last year about taking over for Baker, at least on an interim basis.
Lolli then won over other board members, while a nationwide search was conducted.
On Nov. 16, the board voted unanimously, after more than two hours in executive session, to pay him $105,000 a year to run the district.
He pledged to work for cost cutting and reform, and to dispel any perception of mistrust in the district.
“I have to address that and change the perception of everyone in the district,” he said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2261 or lbudd@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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