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Date: 4/13/2022
HAMPDEN/WILBRAHAM – Despite just getting underway, the superintendent search in the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District (HWRSD) has School Committee members at odds.
School Committee Chair Michal Boudreau announced at the April 7 meeting that the New England School Development Council (NESDEC) would be attending the April 21 meeting to go over the superintendent search timeline and answer questions about the process.
School Committee member Bill Bontempi said NESDEC had posted the open position in March. “How can you advertise the position if you don’t even have a profile for it?” Boudreau told him that the advertisement was alerting people to the opening and not a fully fleshed-out job invitation.
“I wouldn’t trust them selling soup,” Bontempi remarked. “It seems like NESDEC is just doing what they want.” He said the process was being rushed. “Stop focusing on politics,” he said.
Boudreau denied that politics were involved. She said all of Bontempi’s questions can be answered when NESDEC meets with the committee.
“Be mindful of your tone when you’re talking to the chair,” School Committee Vice Chair Maura Ryan admonished Bontempi. She took issue with him “scolding” Boudreau.
“I’m not scolding her,” Bontempi pushed back. “I think this entire committee needs to be scolded. Shame on us for rushing through this.”
School Committee member Sean Kennedy interjected, “I don’t think we’re steering in the dark. I think Michal has it under control.” He said NESDEC put out the ad before the profile was created. “It’s not how I would have done it,” he said, but it was still a valid approach.
Bontempi asked who had created the language for the invitation to apply for superintendent. Boudreau said the verbiage had been shared with the committee via email and members had commented on it.
Bontempi went on to say the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) has put out full profiles for the searches on which they are working. He called NESDEC’s approach, “amateurish.”
Ryan asked Bontempi to hear out the NESDEC representative. “What I don’t want is to see you spending the next few months at every meeting saying we should have used the MASC,” she said. She reminded Bontempi of his own words at previous meetings, stating the vote of the committee outweighs individual opinions. She said the committee had to be “on the same page.”
Budget Plan B
Director of Operations, Finance and Human Resources Aaron Osborne explained that the towns may not accept the assessments as they were voted on by the committee. At issue is the $300,000 to replace network switches. The only capital needs item that the district did not absorb, the cost of the switches would be split between Hampden and Wilbraham, with the latter responsible for $240,000.
Osborne said the district had been under the impression that they had communicated the need for network switches, which allow the district to access the internet, while the Wilbraham Finance Committee and town leadership did not feel it had been sufficiently addressed.
Kennedy asked how to avoid the “communication gap” in the future. Osborne told him the Wilbraham Board of Selectmen had asked that the district talk to them directly about large financial matters, rather than through the Finance Committee.
He said this was the first time the 10-year-old building has required a capital expenditure and the district and towns had to feel their way through the process.
“This will not be the last capital item Minnechaug needs,” Osborne said. He said leadership from the towns and the district need to iron out a mechanism for these circumstances in the future.
Bontempi said there was no attempt to “obfuscate” the district’s need for the switches and that they were included in the paperwork presented at the second roundtable, conducted on March 3. “I was a little taken aback,” that Wilbraham was unaware of the switches, Bontempi commented.
Ryan remarked that she was not expecting it to be on the assessment, but Bontempi said it had to be because it was not a part of the operational budget. He reiterated that everyone at the roundtable discussed the use of ARPA funding for the capital projects. Otherwise, he said, that money would have been wrapped into the budget.
By law, the district must present the final assessment to the towns at least 45 days before their Annual Town Meetings. That cutoff was March 25, and therefore the committee could not revote the budget.
Moving forward, Osborne said there were a few options to solve the dilemma. Both towns had some funding from the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) that could be used to fund the switches.
Bontempi said it seemed like the switches were a “pretty reasonable” use of ARPA. Superintendent Albert Ganem said that “everyone” agrees that ARPA money can be used for this need, but the towns were not yet ready to assign the funding.
If the towns decide not to use ARPA funding, the district could ask to amend the assessments and remove the amount for the switches on the floor at the Annual Town Meetings.
Osborne said it would be possible for the district to “limp along” for another year without replacing all the switches. He said the core switch should be replaced, however, because if it fails, none of the schools would be able to access the internet.
Ryan checked with Osborne that funds from the Excess and Deficiency account could be used to cover the core switch, if necessary. He confirmed it and said, “I would implore you to look at that.”
During Public Comment, Marc Ducey, chair of the Wilbraham Finance Committee, contended the switches should not have been placed on the assessment because doing so made the money part of the budget and the wrong way to pay for it. He said the town’s Capital Planning Committee had never been made aware that the switches were a “top need.” Osborne refuted that point and said he had personally discussed it with capital planning in both towns and that it was on the budget paperwork.
Communication protocol
Ryan shared concerns about the way communications were sent from the committee to the community and legislators. She pointed out that the protocol has all communication go through the chair and be signed by all committee members. However, letters to legislators penned by Bontempi on behalf of the committee early this year included a photocopied page with signatures of the School Committee, which she said had been attached without her knowledge.
Bontempi said that it was not “plausible” to collect member signatures during budget season and send the letters in a timely manner. He added that the committee had always had electronic signatures on file. Ryan asserted that a photocopy of a previous document is not an electronic signature. She also noted, “It just didn’t look professional.”
On a related note, Ryan asked that personal opinions be kept out of communication with town officials. This was in reference to a message sent by Bontempi regarding the use of Thornton W. Burgess School. Bontempi said his message was sent as a concerned citizen and not a district official. The committee agreed that a concrete policy should be drafted.