When Domino’s Pizza President Patrick “Hat Trick” Boyle picked up the phone early on March 13, he was initially puzzled to find a school superintendent on the other end. “I thought it was a prank call,” Boyle recalls. It was Frances Gallo, superintendent of Rhode Island’s Central Falls School District, who credited Boyle and Domino’s “turnaround” efforts as inspiration for her decision to fire all 6,489 teachers, administrators, and students at the district’s only high school. In recent months, the pizza company has made over its entire line of pies—redoing the “cardboard” crust, spicing up the sauce, and switching to higher-quality cheese. “There comes a time when you have to make a change,” explains Boyle. Gallo—and others—agree. But some wonder whether the district has taken the “domino theory” too literally. “I was with the superintendent until she made all the twelfth graders start over in Kindergarten,” said one Central Falls parent. “Sometimes a ‘fresh start’ makes sense, but I think the district went a bit too far.”
“Oh Yes They Did,” by Nick van Derson, Washington Roast, March 25, 2010