A meeting meant to highlight what residents hope a new superintendent will bring to the table ended up focusing on the Springfield School Committee itself at times.
Gathering at the Brightwood-Lincoln Elementary School Tuesday, members of the school committee’s Ad Hoc committee held another public input meeting.
The meetings are meant to have residents describe what qualities a future superintendent should have as the district seeks to replace the retiring Daniel Warwick.
Boycotts, allegations, and a fiery press conference
Some participants offered feedback, but throughout the nearly two-hour meeting, other speakers, like student Naomi Edwards, focused on the search process itself as well as allegations made by members of the school committee.
“Our mayor knows who the candidates were that have been cut. Our mayor knows who applied, as you mentioned, a relative of Joesiah Gonzalez applied - he should not have known this,” the student said. “Instead of simply adding [students] to a process that's already been corrupt, we should start fresh.”
Referencing an effort to add students to a committee reviewing superintendent applications, Edwards brought up allegations made by Mayor Domenic Sarno during a press conference two weeks ago.
Back on April 12, Sarno, who chairs the committee, accused members of “pushing for their own preferred candidates who did not make the cut.”
The accusations came after several members boycotted a school committee meeting, including the committee’s Vice Chair, Joesiah Gonzalez.
“Vice Chair Joesiah Gonzalez is trying to orchestrate to have a specific individual who did not meet the minimum qualifications and, as it’s been told to Mr. Collins and I, is a relative of the Vice Chair Gonzalez,” Sarno said.
Gonzalez has told WAMC he cannot comment on the claim, but noted no member of the school committee should have access to candidate information.
“-his confidence to assert such a claim publicly speaks to an issue relating to the process itself,” he said in a statement. “My public record can attest that whenever I am aware of a potential conflict of interest on a matter, I have recused myself and will continue to do so.”
At the same press conference, another school committee member, Christopher Collins, claimed that while no one knows who the 11 applicants are, he and others were made aware that at least three have been publicly discussing their applications and claiming they were not going to be interviewed.
Rejected agenda items and a lack of student representation
Another point of contention that surfaced during Tuesday’s input meeting – a lack of students on a screening committee designed to review superintendent applications.
The 13-member body was formed to review applications deemed to have met the job’s minimum requirements by a third-party law firm. According to Collins, they’ll be interviewing candidates in the coming weeks.
After that, the Springfield Public Schools website states they will recommend “a final slate of candidates for consideration by the School Committee.”
However, both members of the public and school committee members have voiced concerns over the committee’s lack of student representation.
A spot on the committee was reserved for a student, but went unfilled after no applications were received.
Multiple groups are represented in the entity, including parents, teachers and other community members - the student seat went to the parent group.
As time went on, though, an effort to get a student added after the fact gained steam.
It culminated, in part, when Gonzalez attempted to introduce two items for the committee to vote on – one of which would have added a student to join the screening process.
The other, however, would have allowed the screeners to consider applications that did not meet minimum requirements.
Gonzalez cited concerns shared by the screening committee when putting the item forward, but was met with rejections by school committee leadership, leading to the boycotts.
Legal opinions on the matter and others were requested of the law firm handling the applications, leading to findings that indicated an open meeting law violation may have occurred when Gonzalez proposed said items.
Progress, but calls for a halt and restart
Since then, Collins has attempted to get approval for two students to be added to the screening committee – something Gonzalez is OK with.
But when it came time to vote earlier this week, he moved to have the matter tabled.
“I'm not prepared this evening to amend the search currently, as it stands, because I think, and I have reason to believe, that it may be flawed, as it stands today, due to the public comments of the chairman of the school committee that made allegations - whether or not he can substantiate it raises a larger question,” he said at the Ad Hoc meeting on April 22.
Speaking with reporters a few days later at the input meeting, the vice chair said the search process needs to be halted so members can be responsive to the concerns they have, including allegations made by other members.
State lawmakers also made an appearance Tuesday. Springfield Senator Adam Gomez and Representative Carlos Gonzalez both spoke, ultimately calling on committee members to listen to the community.
Also speaking Tuesday was Collins, who emphasized that half of what Gonzalez and other committee members had been seeking was right in front of them during Monday’s vote and was ready for initial approvals.
An approval from the Ad Hoc meeting would have put the item on the full committee’s agenda for Thursday, April 25.
Collins also said that the search process is continuing as planned, making a restart seem unnecessary.
“I don't see a reason to - I see that the process has progressed exactly the way it was designed to progress. It's at the point where the screening committee is going to start doing their reviews,” he said. “Nothing is different, it is going along just exactly as it was designed.”
Springfield is home to the second-biggest school district in Massachusetts as well as New England, with at nearly 23,700 students enrolled according to the state.
Daniel Warwick, its current superintendent, announced in January that he plans to retire at the end of the school year.
