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HOLDEN, Mass. — Although Superintendent Thomas Pandiscio submitted his letter of resignation last week, members of the Wachusett Regional School Committee will not consider whether to accept it until their next meeting on Sept. 10.
On Aug. 13, Pandiscio sent an email to the school committee members announcing his resignation, though making it clear that he would stay on as long as he was needed.
The superintendent's current contract would have expired on June 30, 2014, and would have automatically renewed until June 30, 2016.
Though school committee member Norman Plourde, of Sterling, put forward a motion on Monday to give a vote of confidence to Pandiscio and not accept his resignation, the committee was unable to vote on the matter due to a rule preventing action on new business the same night it was presented.
The committee voted 8 to 7 against suspending the bylaws to vote on the motion, with some citing concerns that five members were absent and would not be a part of such a vital decision.
Though the decision would be delayed, members of the school committee still spoke out on the issue.
Member Cynthia Bazinet, of Holden, supported Plourde's motion, and said that the stewardship of the district under Pandiscio "has been and remains professional, capable, and forward thinking.
"The leadership team at the District office has never once wavered in its commitment to the students of the region, while trying to keep this tenuous financial ship afloat," she added. "It is in the best interests of the District’s students that Dr. Pandiscio remain in his position as Superintendent for the duration of his contract."
Member Stacey Jackson offered a counter-motion to hold a disciplinary hearing for the superintendent, adding that it was atrocious that reasonable questions from school committee members were often met with belittling responses from Pandiscio.
Selectman Bob Lavigne was in attendance at the meeting, and said that he believed the board should have a full discussion with as many members as they can get to discuss what is in the best interest of the board.
"But in the end, they also need to talk to Dr. Pandiscio and see if he actually wants to stay or not," he said.
While he saw the committee was "unfortunately very fractured" by the situation, he hoped that members could find a way to work together toward the best interest of the kids and the district.
"I think Chairman [Duncan] Leith said it best when he said we still have a great school district that's a destination for a lot of families, regardless of what's going on right now, and it's only going to get better if everyone works for the same goal — and that goes for the school committee, the selectboards, the parents, and everyone."
Comments (26)
It seems incredible to me that responsible members of the School Committee would propose not accepting Mr Pandiscio's resignation. Clearly, the adminsitration of the school district is in financial turmoil and much of that has to be laid at the doorstep of the management team. While Mr Pandiscio did not create the double books that are the latest issue, he absolutely was responsible for daily management of the budget execution - if he didn't know the finances as well as the CFO- then he was not doing his job. Either way the responsibility is at his doorstep and losing his job is exactly what should happen to this $200,000/year employee. Fianlly- for the School Committee to act as though it's employee is "the indispensable man" is to willingly turn over it's authority to him. Anyone with experience in managing people and organizations understands exactly what the pitfalls of this approach are. If you are so terrified of losing the Superintendent when you have this kind of justification- you will no longer have any authority over your own employee.
The question really needs to be- how does the WRSD move foreward? There currently seems to be very little detailed oversight of the resourcing of the school district by the School Committee, and the budget proposals at the town meetings seem to be predicated on a rubber stamp theory with no alternatives between full approval and utter catastrophe. Voters are not presented with credible alternatives, and from I have observed the School committee doesn't have the detailed knowledge to provide those alternatives. They essentially take what the Superintendent submits and pass it along. This clearly is not a method of doing business that works in an era of constrained funding. I fear that until we get both a new Superintendent and a hands on School Committee we will continue to have more of the same.
“The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public moneys.”
- Thomas Jefferson
Poor dwilliams, like her friend Ms. Deminimus Maximus she has missed the totally obvious.
Ms. dwilliams states: “Details, details, deatails(sic). There are no details.”
I wonder what part of the more than $3 Million in mistakes Tom Pandiscio and crew made (that we know of) she missed. I wonder what part of they spent $1.2 Million MORE than they had in their checkbook did she miss. What part of Sue Sullivan totally missed a $1.5 Million mistake in her own insurance an employee benefits budget dwilliams missed? What part of their $383,645 mistake she didn’t catch?
Ms. dwilliams asks for “Details, details, deatails(sic)”. Aren’t the district’s more than $3 Million in mistakes enough details for you Ms. dwilliams?
Mistakes are not dirty and mistakes are not corruption, edmeyer. So, no, there are still no details of either of these baseless allegations.
to Time for a change--
i asked you on another thread but you didn't answer, so I hope you see this one. can you elaborate on the 'dirty' and 'corruption'? i've seen claims like this here and there but never any details. maybe someone else can explain?
Details, details, deatails. There are no details.
For all the charges that get thrown around like so much flotsom, the entirety of the detail is that certain members have been on the committee for more than a few years and are thus culpable for corruption in office. Mind you, they were also on the committee when Katrina hit New Orleans, when AIG went under and when the Pats failed on several occasions to win the Super Bowl,
These, too, are their fault.
Norman and Cynthia, please amend your motion and give Mr. Pandiscio a substantial pay raise to recognize his "being professional, capable, and forward thinking."
You might as well throw in a "bully bonus" for each time he belittles, shouts at, or otherwise insults committee members.
And if he declines to stay - well, you can always bring Al Tutela back!
And keep the gong show going...
Ms. Deminimus Maximus continues with her rhetoric (its a conspiracy no wait its a witch hunt, no wait its...) but she continues to ignore the FACTS of the situation.
What part of more than $3 Million in mistakes just over the past nine month (that we know of) doesn't she understand.
Perhaps if we allow Tom Pandiscio to make another $3 or $4 Million in mistakes......
I'm going with witch hunt. Classic witch hunt. When do we throw the three members in Chaffins Pond to see if they float?
Max, What was meant is that the issues here are not about personality or personal attacks. This is a deflection from the important issues. If you really want to make the "offensive comments" issue the central theme, then I think you are missing the point. I have had so many offensive and slanderous comments made toward and about me by members of the Wachusett District over the years that I've learned to just let them roll off my back. But I will say that if administrators are offended by such comments and want to make an issue of them, then I would recommend that they refrain from making them to others. Some of the worst things I've ever been called in the Wachusett District were names lobbed at me within the walls of the Administration Building by none other than an administrator. I now understand this took place with others who also spoke up and raised some tough questions. There's an old saying that you can usually tell as a journalist that you are close to the truth or about to uncover something big when people start calling you names and circulating that you are "trouble" and "crazy." That's just a skin toughener. When you find such lies documented against you in federal files, auspiciously by a Wachusett District police officer who then denies in the presence of a witness that they ever did or said such things, then you really have to wonder about who the worst and most damaging dirt slingers in the District are, and why they would feel they need to go so far. Which brings us to the question of corruption. Your experience is limited, Max, because frankly, you are a cheerleader for a team that in many people's minds right now may be cheating on the field. They have a right to raise questions. These are valid concerns, based on the evidence that has come forward recently.
Mr. Meyer's list names specific people, accuses, tries, and condemns them in the court of public opinion. He wants their scalps. He incites the mob, who demand further resignations. What evidence has come forward against these three people? Or others on the committee whose names have been smeared? What were the charges? When was the trial, because I think I missed it.
Whether you were mistreated in the past or you have questions in need of answers or someone called you a name have nothing to do with my point about a witch hunt. There is no reason on God's green earth that these school commiittee members should be hounded into resigning just because someone keeps repeating their names.
I happen to believe (in my limited experience) that the campaign to rid the school committee of its strongest education supporters and to do it in the guise of sweeping out corruption is not a distraction but is the most insidious aspect of this whole sorry mess.
It is a witch hunt. If successful, it is a purge without due process.
Mr. Meyer reviewed the District books in 2006, and probably at other times. I do not know if he has reviewed the most recent books. The Wachusett District's attorney, BTW, tried to block him from reviewing the books in 2006, and Mr. Meyer persevered and got it overruled by the Sec. of the State - the argument being that a citizen has the right to know how their money is being used. Personally, I think all of the spreadsheets Peter Brennan had designed should be posted on the Internet for all citizens to see how their money is being used. When Ed invited me to review the District books with him in 2006, we found that one of the three committee members he has asked to resigned signed off on questionable expenditures. The Inspector General's Office also found questionable expenditures that slipped through the cracks around that same time. The fact that this member continues to retain a seat and is now embroiled in additional financial oversight issues is evidence enough to me that there probably is someone more qualified to hold their seat. Anyone who chairs or co-chairs a School Committee that has missed the kinds of checks and balances necessary to avert this kind of financial fiasco should seriously consider stepping down. Pandiscio has taken responsibility for poor oversight, to his credit. So should anyone who was chairing the committee during this time. They have a responsibility to the public that elected them. My hope is that the state will come in and review the books as well as interview concerned citizens.
Great idea Mr. Plourde. Let’s just keep Tom Pandiscio on and let him make another $3 Million worth of mistakes next year. No big deal.
Duncan Leith, Margaret Watson and Cindy Bazinet? Sure let’s keep these old timers on too. Year after year they missed all of the mistakes under the Tutela regime. They stood by and watched the high school building project run $15 Million over budget and they twiddled their thumbs when we were sued for another $6.4 Million.
They missed last year’s $383,645 budget mistake. No big deal. They missed the $1.2 Million overspending mistake last month and they also missed the $1.5 Million mistake in insurance and employee benefits costs. Again, no big deal. Don’t worry be happy right Maureen?
Wasn’t it their job to catch these mistakes? They didn’t – AGAIN! WHY?
Why bother fixing the problems and financial mistakes that continue to plague the district year after year? Why bother hiring a competent superintendent and a competent business manager at reasonable salaries? Let’s just keep Tom Pandiscio (and his sky high salary) on the payroll (last year we paid Tom Pandiscio $52,951 more than the Commonwealth paid Governor Deval Patrick. What’s wrong with this picture)? Heck let’s go for the quad fecta and keep Duncan Leith, Margaret Watson and Cindy Bazinet on too.
How many more multi-million dollar mistakes are we going to allow? How many more firings, resignations and reinstatements are we going to suffer through before we finally come to our senses and actually fix the problems.
It is time for Tom Pandiscio to leave and it is time for Leith, Watson and Bazinet to accept responsibility for their repeated failures to catch any of these mistakes. It is time for Leith, Watson and Bazinet to resign and quietly follow Tom Pandiscio out the door.
"A cloud of critics, of compilers, of commentators, darkened the face of learning, and the decline of genius was soon followed by the corruption of taste."
--Gibbon, E., The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
As a student of Classical Rome, respectfully, this quote has little applicability to the issue here discussed. Moreover, it was made in a context where the concept of freedom of speech was virtually unknown, at least as we've known it for the past 230 years or so.
And, ironically enough, one of the principal phenomena that led to Rome's downfall was, in fact, public graft and corruption amongst its leaders that went unchecked by Rome's citizens.
Several years ago, the Nashoba District found itself in a similar situation. I believe both the superintendent and business manager resigned or were fired. The state took over for 5 years to straighten things out. Missing/missappropriated money. I would have to go back to the news of that time and check my facts, but I'm pretty sure that's what happened. At this juncture, the school committee is so compromised that for them to make any decision regarding management is questionable at best. I think the people of the Wachusett District would be best served with the state taking over - whether the superintendent stays or goes. That will give the District much-needed time to make tough and important decision, get a sound audit from which to base better decisions, and the skills needed to create greater transparency so that this kind of situation won't occur again. The School Committee has already shown itself to be incapable of sound judgment, and if the key leading members are unwilling to step down and give their seats to new members who understand sound budgetary practices and good leadership, then seasoned state officials need to come in and show them the ropes (and read them the riot act, too). Nice mixed metaphor. As for witch hunts, I have said it before, this is not about personality and personal attacks. We have a mess, folks, and it was created by poor leadership that included longtime committee members who should have known better based on their vast experience on the committee. Calling it a witch hunt is just trying to turn a very serious matter into a a personal tiff, which this clearly is not. There's a lot at stake here, but no witches hanging from them. And if there's a stray witch or two, I don't see anyone lighting any matches.
I would agree with everything the person who referenced the Nashoba incident spoke of, especially the State stepping in and the school committee members stepping down- all of them. Town taxpayers in all five towns should demand their Board of Selectmen request the State takeover and that no person sitting on the school committee or having a place in the current administration be allowed in any way to participate in the clean up of the financial mess. This is a disgrace to all the good things education stands for and an embarassment to all of the five towns that must now bear the additional weight financially of this preventable disaster. They say "money is the root of all evil and greed is the avenue by which evil travels" and it is a shame that our district had to prove that to be true, not just with one Superintendent but two nonetheless.This is surely a sad epilog for the Wachusett district, for its students, teachers and town taxpayers who provided the requested support and in turn got the shaft.
Not about personal attacks? Have you read the posts on this crisis? Have you seen the language describing the superintendent and certain school committee members? Fraud, corrupt, trading votes for favors, dishonest, dangerous ... Those are not personal attacks?
A witch hunt is a serious matter indeed and a witch hunt is currently taking place in our community. Mr. Meyer recites a list of names over and over of three people who must resign from the school committee. Why? Because they have been there a long time and "should" have caught errors that took place recently. Another commenter adds two more names. Why? Who knows. By this morning the first two people to post call the entire committee corrupt and one calls for further resignations.
None of the people named has been charged with anything but they must resign so that their resignations can be touted as proof of wrongdoing, their reputations and record of service shattered on the basis of nothing.
And you don't see a witch hunt?
Granted, there was yelling. Tempers flared. Tensions are high.
Do you watch the Holden Select Board meetings? On at least two occasions have you heard the bellowing from Selectman Mark as he and Chair Renzoni arm-wrestle over possession of the microphone?
No? I see. Only the incivility at school committee meetings is worthy of note. It depends upon who is doing the yelling.
Hey, where's Ed?
Long night. He must be sleeping in.
Ahhh, another glorious day dawns in Holden and the town criers are out already with their baseless charges of corruption. It's a great thing that, at least in corners populated by reasonable people, no one is adjudged corrupt until there is an actual foundation that an actual crime was committed and that the person or persons charged is the one(s) who committed it. Here, of course, there is nothing more than the ill-informed and politically motivated bloviations of the same few who have axes to grind and, quite frankly, are in positions to know better.
Take good 'ol "Pat Henry." Now there's a name to inspire all that's good in government, right? "Give me Liberty or give me death," and all that good stuff. Well, in reality, this guy got up this morning knowing full well that whatever happened last night he was going to blindly call the committee out for what he perceives to be official corruption because he just "knows" that crimes were committed. No investigation. No finding of criminality. No charges. No trial. No nothing. Just "Pat Henry's" new brand of justice: Give me heads or give me, heck, I don't know, perhaps a pacifier. And this guy is in a position of prominence in this community? God save us all.
(By the way, "Pat," we might have been able to excuse your being unaware that the prevailing rules of order that control SC votes dictate any such motion to accept or reject the superintendent's resignation could not be raised and voted upon at the same meeting because you weren't there last night, but it was clearly indicated in the article above. Or is it that you want to dispose of those rules, too, and leap straight to convictions and sentencing?)
And you, "Time for a change," which members are you talking about? There are so many. Or is this, too, another case of "Ready. Fire! Aim."?
Actually, I think we can pretty well tell who you're talking about: the ones who the self-appointed education committee spanking czar Ed Meyer is always going on about. Why do you take marching orders from him, anyway? Can't you see that he's just in it to settle old scores because certain members of the committee actually work damn hard to provide for the educational opportunities our children have here?
And you're embarrassed? I would be too, if I were found here or anywhere else repeating his decade-old mantras.
But hey, if you're so embarrassed, then perhaps you should move to a district that costs you less and has better student achievement. Would that make you feel better? Well, all I can say is good luck finding that district; it doesn't exist.
That meeting was an embarrassment. I watched it from home. Everyone there (school committee members and district staff; e.g. the superintendent) should be forced to sit down and watch the meeting again and see how they acted. The Superintendent yelling at members for asking questions, the unfounded accusations thrown around, the blind allegiance to what has been shown to be faulty, bickering about overriding existing policy put in place for a reason, etc. Most disgusting to me is the blindness of some members (both old and new). Have some fortitude, don’t be a lamb. Yes let’s support the captain that was at the helm when the ship was just driven onto the rocks because since he was so competent to beach the ship why not continue to keep him running the boat. The superintendent has done a great job of brain-washing certain members that he is the only one who could possible lead the way out of this condition he and his staff put the district in. You typically don’t see that anywhere else in business, and yes running the WRSD is a business.
And to makessense, his only mistake was having confidence in the business manager? He should have been at least spot checking that work and would have seen problems, if the business manager was incompetent why didn’t the guy two offices down know that; the superintendent fell asleep at the wheel and made grave mistakes. Moving on is right, move on with a new leader not replacing broken with broken.
And the witch hunt continues. From three names to five names to...the entire committee is corrupt and dirty.
You have out-McCarthy-ed McCarthy. Everyone is on your list!
His only mistake was having confidence in his incompetent Business Manager. The firing of Brennan was long overdue, lets move on
Damage control at its worst! Sept 10th?? Show him the door now! This committee is corrupt. He IS the problem.
Give me a break! This is government corruption at its worst! These school committee members are dirty! I am embarrassed to live in this district!