The principal of Pawtucket’s largest public elementary school was indicted by a Providence County grand jury yesterday on charges that he repeatedly sexually assaulted a child in the city in the late 1990s.

Raymond Dalton, 51, principal of the Elizabeth Baldwin School for 13 years, was indicted on three counts of first-degree molestation and two counts of second-degree molestation, all against a former Baldwin student no older than 14, allegedly committed between Jan. 1, 1995 and Dec. 31, 1998.

The indictment does not specify where the alleged sexual assaults happened or whether the alleged victim was a Baldwin student at the time.

Schools Supt. Hans Dellith refused comment, referring all questions to the school district’s lawyer, Steven Robinson.

School Committee member Nicole Norquist said only that Dalton would not be at the school today. “We will have somebody handling all the media,” Norquist said.

School board member John Baxter Jr., reached in Kansas where he is spending the holidays, said the superintendent had been trying to reach him but he did not know why. When informed of the indictment, Baxter said, “I’m very disappointed. That doesn’t sound like the Ray Dalton I know. It does come as quite a surprise to me.

“I’m sure the legal system will do its due diligence and we will live with whatever the outcome is,” Baxter said.

Dalton was the principal of the Potter-Burns School in July 1995 when the school board appointed him to head Baldwin. The school, at 50 Whitman St., has an enrollment of more than 600 students in kindergarten through grade 6.

Dalton is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges in Superior Court, Providence, on Dec. 17.

tpina@projo.com