School Business Administrator of the Old Rochester Regional  School District Paul Kitchen has stated that he will resign from his position after working with the school district for less than a year.

Kitchen started working at his current position on Jan. 7, 2019 and said that he will resign due to personal reasons, and does not have an exact end-date scheduled at this time.

Kitchen replaced Patrick Spencer, who passed away on Oct. 1 after serving the school district for more than four years. Kitchen was previously the business manager at Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School, where he served for about two years. Kitchen also served in business management positions for school districts in Fall River, Fairhaven, and Freetown-Lakeville.

In a meeting on July 1, Rochester selectmen Greenwood “Woody” Hartley expressed his concerns about Kitchen’s resignation, which the selectmen referred to as “very disturbing news.” 

“We lost a person who I thought was an incredibly competent business manager,” Hartley said. Hartley added that he was concerned as to why the administrator resigned from his position. Hartley also said that in his opinion, Kitchen’s job as School Business Administrator is “a much more critical position than almost any of them.”

Selectmen Paul Ciaburri added that at the time of the July 1 meeting, the teachers’ contract had not been finalized, adding to his concerns about Kitchen resigning as an administrator.