One of the responsibilities of a journalist, according to the Society of Professional Journalists, is to be vigilant and courageous about holding those with power accountable. To that end, after two months of research and interviews, in February—while still editor-in-chief and a publisher of the paper—I ran the story in the Harvard Press about the charges and the evidence that the school superintendent had made exceptions to special education spending procedures for School Committee members. School Committee Chairwoman Willie Wickman called me after the article ran and said that she had no reason to believe that anything “untoward” was done and that the School Committee holds the superintendent accountable for decisions. Since that time, the Press and other local papers have run several news articles about the issue.
At Annual Town Meeting in March, citizens put forward a petition requesting an audit of, among other things, the spending approval process and adherence to it.
In June the School Committee gave the superintendent a positive performance review and extended his contract for a year longer than his current contract—one year before it needed to.
The School Committee has responded to citizens’ concerns … well, actually it hadn’t responded at all to citizens’ concerns until Monday night’s meeting. What the committee has done, under the leadership of Ms. Wickman, is cite confidentiality as an excuse for inaction, refer to any facts brought forward as rumors and innuendos, and deflect attempts to get the committee to look into the facts. One case in point: Longtime Finance Committee member, town auditor, and certified public accountant George McKenna wrote his management report for the town audit and questioned some checks paid directly to School Committee members. Ms. Wickman’s public response was that the checks Mr. McKenna looked at should not have been part of the audit and that the recipient of the checks was not, as stated in the report, the chairman of the School Committee at that time. She challenged Mr. McKenna’s professional competence and questioned his integrity, which, from my experience as a Finance Committee reporter for the old Harvard Post, is beyond question.
It’s evident that the committee has not held the superintendent accountable for his decisions and has not looked into the evidence, which includes publicly accessible copies of payments made to School Committee members.
Another citizens’ petition will be presented at Special Town Meeting next week. This petition asks that the School Committee be censured for extending the superintendent’s contract while so many questions remain unanswered.
Although censuring a board whose members we elected to office is a serious matter, when the elected board—in this case the School Committee—ignores its responsibility to voters, censure is the only option available. Voters, like journalists, need to be vigilant and courageous about holding those with power accountable.
Laura Andrews
Scott Road
