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Date: 5/23/2023
AMHERST — Dr. Douglas Slaughter, finance director for the Amherst-Pelham Regional School District, was selected to serve as acting superintendent at an emergency School Committee meeting on May 18.
The combined panel of the Union 26 and Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee chose Slaughter from three candidates finalized for consideration to fill the seat left vacant when Superintendent Michael Morris announced on May 12 that he would be taking an immediate medical leave.
The remaining two candidates were Dr. Trevor Baptiste, a former Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee member and chair, and Dr. Susan Hollins, who is a retired superintendent from the Greenfield Public Schools. All three had submitted letters of interest in filling the position and had been chosen from an initial field of eight candidates originally proposed by board members.
Morris’ leave announcement followed accusations of transphobic and improper actions by three staff members toward LGBTQIA+ students at Amherst Regional Middle School. The allegations, which included claims of Title IX policy violations, were first detailed in an article in the high school newspaper, The Graphic.
The three staff members have since been placed on leave and an investigation into the allegations was initiated.
A no-confidence vote in Morris by the Amherst-Pelham Educator’s Association, the union representing staff and educators, quickly followed as did a call for the resignation of Assistant Superintendent Doreen Cunningham.
On May 15, the School Committee hosted a meeting in executive session followed the next day by a nearly six-hour long meeting at the Amherst-Pelham Regional High School library. During the public hearing, a multitude of speakers including parents and school district staff members on differing sides of the issues addressed the committee, many calling for the ouster of both Morris and Cunningham as well as changes to the current school environment. Some speakers also voiced support for Cunningham and the staff members accused of the improper actions. Cunningham had also issued a statement indicating she did not wish to be considered for the acting superintendent position.
Comments were presented in person, via recorded voicemails and emails read aloud by committee member Jennifer Shiao, after several minutes of policy discussions within the committee over whether the public reading of the email comments by a committee member was appropriate and within guidelines.
Also speaking at the May 16 meeting, which did not enter executive session at any point, was Cunningham, who expressed her intentions to remain in her position.
“Today is yet another dark day in the Amherst community and I hope we can work together to bring our community jointly back to the light …I am not resigning and I’m looking to the possibility to working with the community to make the necessary changes,” Cunningham told the room. “Supporting our LGBTQA+ youth has been a nationwide conversation and I’m grateful to have this conversation in Amherst too, though I wish it were under better circumstances.”
Following public comment and discussion, committee members offered their initial candidate proposals for the acting position and scheduled the second emergency meeting for May 18.
A more sparsely attended meeting compared to the vocal, overflow crowd at the protracted meeting of May 16, the May 18 proceedings began with additional public comment offering criticism for the selection process, outrage over the handling of the issues involving students and the endorsement of individual candidates.
The committee chose to not have the remaining candidates speak before the open meeting.
Members of the committee submitted their recommendations for candidates and justifications, some based upon the potential benefit of impartiality in the case of Hollins who was the only candidate from outside the district. Despite support for his background and ability, discussions moved away from Baptiste due to a lack of some experience and onboarding challenges.
Citing experience, qualifications and district familiarity, a motion was brought forth nominating Slaughter to fill the acting superintendent position.
The motion was passed by the nine members of the School Committee by a vote of 7-1 with one abstention.
The Union 26 committee passed the motion by a vote of 5-0.
In expressing their support for Slaughter, several members of the committee made note of the fact that he currently holds a superintendent’s license, a certification Pelham member Margaret Stancer related he had gone out on his own to acquire.
“That says something positive about Dr. Slaughter,” Stancer said.
Committee member Sarahbess Kenney was also among those putting her support behind Slaughter.
“He is currently licensed which is a huge plus, he has experience leading large departments which takes a specific skill set which we are going to need in running not just, there are lots of departments that are going to need oversight. Working in finance requires that you have ability for foresight and to see where things are headed and what steps need to be taken to kind of drive the train where it needs to go,” she said.
Preliminary details on term length and compensation for the acting superintendent role were outlined by the committee and set at $700 per week up until Sept 30 based upon the potential return of Morris.
A deadline for finalization of the agreement was set for May 25.
Slaughter gave a verbal acceptance to the committee’s offer without offering further comment, at which point his position went into immediate effect.