Five members of the Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee appealing to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for help running their committee.
Título original
Amherst-Pelham School Committee Letter to state education commissioner
Five members of the Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee appealing to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for help running their committee.
Five members of the Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee appealing to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for help running their committee.
August 22, 2016
Mitchell D, Chester Ed.D
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
75 Pleasant Street
Malden MA 02148-5023
Dear Commissioner Chester,
We represent a number of members of the Amherst Pelham Regional School Committe, to seek your
assistance in dealing with a crisis in our community. Our school committee has become dysfunctional and
non-responsive to a significant portion of the community. Certain members have incited members of the
public so that meetings of the School Committee have deteriorated in shouting matches where certain
people are threatened because of their race. The work of the School Committee cannot move forward in
this environment, and with the recent forced resignation of the Superintendent, the school district is
stagnating. We therefore request that you consider offering us immediate intervention or assistance so
that the important educational work of the district can move forward and the students of the community
do not suffer the consequences of a school district in disarray.
ur district has a long standing commitment to academic excellence and social justice. Itis one of the
highest performing districts in the state. We have been recognized by the state for our success in meeting
the needs of our diverse student population. This record of success is now profoundly imperiled.
For several years our school administrators, especially our superintendent, have been the target of
harassment by a small group of community members and two members of the regional school committee.
This bas included, but is not limited to, threats, defamation, bullying, and breaches of contractual rights.
Six (6) weeks ago, in response to these attacks, our superintendent issued a lawyer’s demand letter
seeking a settlement to separate from the district, During the ensuing six weeks, the school committee has
‘met for more than twenty (20) hours of executive session to negotiate a settlement and avoid litigation.
Although we believe the superintendent was unfairly attacked, this request is separate from that concern,
ur request is based on the ongoing inability ofthe current school committee to function as a
collaborative body. We no longer feel capable of sitting in private or public sessions with two of our
colleagues who routinely engage in the following:
-Name-calling
Bullying in meetings
-Obstruction
Complete disregard for other committee members’ and the public’s time by stonewalling conversation by
dominating the discourse
“Harassment by calling members multiple times a day
Routinely leaking documents
-Posting negative and false characterizations of fellow committee members and school employees on
social media
Publicly disrespecting the committee, the district, and its employees by perpetuating false public
narratives about individuals and bodies in the newspaper and social media-Hrassing and accusing central office staff of not releasing personal property and calling the police 0 the
scene
“Knowingly violating the superintendents contract in the process of her evaluation and refusing fo redress
the situation when given the opportunity by the regional chair
“Consistently undermining administrators and committee members in public meetings
“Rallying political supporters fo augment the intimidation and bullying of school committee ‘members and
school employees
[Asan example in our most recent and fifth executive session regarding the superintendent, one member
reatoned the committee with litigation if said committee did not agree to redact names and personal
information from exeeutive session minutes and the superintendent demand letter. When members
expressed concer about intentionally violating open meeting law, the individual membes said if the
cr ievite did not tedact, he would definitely sue, and followed by saying, “I'll et you. When another
committee member asked, “Are you threatening us?” he replied in the affirmative.
\We are continuously witnessing knowing and wanton disregard forthe laws and policies that guide our
public service, and yet feel impotent to stop it i we ae to stay within the laws guiding our serics Be
rae nal committee members and not be subject to vicious and public attacks by a small but vocal segment
of the community.
“The level of vitriol by these two members has brought deep emotional distress to all of us who are signing
tha later, More importantly, however, ithas rendered our roles as public servants untenable and
sa fective, The depth of bullying and animosity has made our work literally impossible and puts the
district at enormous tisk.
‘Two valued school committee members have recently resigned primarily due tothe dysfunetion ofthe
current committee.
Our inability to fulfil our obligations of school committee members i especially dire given the important
car tpming up tis year, including contract negotiations with all three unions, ongoing discussions of
Mirrepional assessment method, and the potential of consolidating the regional middle ané high school,
ou fel as an ongoing effort to regionalize our elementary schools for fiduciary and educationa! reasons,
Finally the district will need to search for anew superintendent, This is adifiult askin any disc but
eine Ge made nearly impossible in a district with the level of dysfunction within our school committee,
We request a meeting with you as soon as possible to discuss this urgent mater
Sincerely,
Laura Kent shone
Katherine Appy| phone|
Sarah Dolven
‘Anastasia Ordonez
Phoebe Hazzard
ce; Senator Stanley Rosenberg
Representative Ellen Story
peerett Tohnston, Senior Associate Commissioner, Accountability, Partnerships and Targeted
Assistance