Despite promises that weeks of mysterious negotiations with Superintendent Maria Geryk would be explained, Amherst-area families are still in the dark.
They know that Geryk is out after a controversial tenure at the top of the regional school system. But how that change came about, who initiated it and why elected officials believed it best to pay her a substantial sum are questions that still beg answers.
The lack of an explanation, which Laura Kent, chairwoman of the Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee, suggested Aug. 9 would come within days, risks eroding public confidence in the school system. To be sure, she is in a difficult position, and she has embraced the principles of disclosure and transparency. “I recognize the public’s questioning of the details of the settlement, and it is my hope that in expediting the approval of the executive session minutes and the documents to be released, that the community can digest the thought processes of each committee member,” she said.
At a back-to-school event Tuesday on the Amherst Town Common, families interviewed by the Amherst Bulletin and Gazette expressed support for the school district, as their children frolicked nearby, in this yearly time of hope and expectation.
But parents indicated they would like answers. “It would be interesting to know more about what the School Committee did or didn’t do,” one parent mused. Another said of Geryk: “I don’t know if she wanted to go, or if there was a push or some pressure the other way around …. I don’t feel like I have enough of the background to pass any judgment.”
That view is measured and important. The community deserves to hear from school officials why they deemed it necessary to let Geryk out of her contract two years early – and not only that, to pay her $309,238 in severance. Geryk has declined repeated requests to explain what happened.
Clearly, talks in multiple executive sessions concerning Geryk’s future were consumed by fretting over a possible legal fight. While the official minutes of those sessions have not been released, the Amherst Bulletin and Gazette obtained draft minutes, which remain available at gazettenet.com.
These documents show committee members struggling to reduce an initially higher financial demand from Geryk. And the draft minutes reveal division among committee members over the wisdom of acceding to her demands, which had been expressed through an attorney. Three committee members rejected the idea of paying Geryk, but a majority agreed to settle on the equivalent of 18 months’ pay.
Now, it appears the community’s legal expenses continue to mount, as Kent seeks advice from lawyers about how to go about releasing minutes of the executive sessions amid calls from some members to redact details.
The newspapers have submitted requests for critical public documents that can shed light on how elected officials handled this mess: the “demand letter” Geryk submitted to the committee, the severance deal the panel reached with her representative and the official executive session minutes.
Geryk is gone after six and a half years as superintendent. She had admirers and detractors, as is the case with most in high-profile public positions. Only by knowing precisely why she left – and evaluating the validity of those reasons – can the community assess whether a larger problem exists.
That examination might bring school officials and stakeholders to a new sense of what the roles of superintendent and school committee should be. It might help guide the search for her successor and identify the skills needed most in the next school leader.
Along the way, awareness of the fault lines in this little earthquake — and the financial and emotional wreckage — might encourage people to turn down the heat a bit on public discourse involving management of the school district. That doesn’t mean caring less. But it does mean working together toward what’s best for the schools, students and families.
That will be difficult. No doubt, fingers were pointed during this dispute and many feel the fight is not over. Amherst needs to understand and heal from the acrimony over Geryk’s abrupt departure. But it all starts with knowing what went wrong.