Sal Goncalves, superintendent of Bloomfield schools, will be retiring at the end of the month after 50 years in the district.
A first-generation American, he grew up in Bayonne and attended Bayonne High School.
“I was blessed with the parents I had and the grandparents, on my mother’s side,” he said. “Mom is Italian and Dad is Portuguese. Mom’s parents bought a home in Bayonne and my dad walked by her home everyday and took a shine to her. Her name is Rose and Dad’s is Manuel. Mom came here with her parents and spoke Italian. My dad spoke Portuguese and learned Italian as he learned English. He came over alone and lived in a cold-water flat on New York’s Lower East Side.”…