AMHERST — With more than $250,000 scheduled to be paid to former Superintendent Maria Geryk on Wednesday as part of a severance deal approved a month ago, the Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee is preparing to release a demand letter from her and minutes from closed meetings showing how members came to approve the payout.
The committee Tuesday voted 5-2, with members Stephen Sullivan of Shutesbury and Trevor Baptiste of Pelham voting against and Vira Douangmany Cage of Amherst abstaining, to approve minutes from four executive sessions, spanning more than a dozen hours in July and August, in which members deliberated on how to deal with the end of Geryk’s tenure as superintendent.
The committee is expected to release the initial informal email sent to the committee by Geryk’s attorney, the formal demand letter, a response from the attorney and the severance agreement with the minutes on Wednesday.
Chairwoman Laura Kent read a statement that the $309,238 agreement with Geryk was the most fiscally responsible decision and will help preserve the reputation of the district.
“Many questions have arisen about why the committee just didn’t turn this matter over to the insurance company,” Kent said. “The insurance company will not get involved unless there is active litigation, and the insurance company will not cover lost wages or claims due to a potential breach of contract.
“The school committee considered the potential cost of legal fees, lost wages, premium increases and the overall cost of a multiyear litigation case with potential damages assessed at the end of it,” Kent added.
Both the regional and Union 26 committees agreed to the deal Aug. 9, with Sullivan, Baptiste and Douangmany Cage voting against it.
The planned release of more details related to the agreements comes after the district already paid Geryk $42,236 for accrued but unused vacation time on Aug. 24. On Wednesday it will pay $253,725 for one and a half years of salary, longevity and annuity. The remaining money Geryk is owed will be paid in fiscal year 2018.
Kent said getting the documents out to the public is a matter of being transparent, and will capture the decision-making process and the assessment of risk made by members of the committee.
Unofficial minutes obtained by the Gazette last month indicated that both Douangmany Cage and Baptiste were opposed to any settlement with the former superintendent, even at the risk of litigation, and that other members, including Darius Modestow, the former chairman of the Union 26 Committee, had reservations about the legitimacy of Geryk’s demand.
The committee originally planned to approve the release of the minutes at its Aug. 17 meeting, but Kent was forced to delay after requests made by some members that their names be removed from attribution. But after speaking with the committee’s attorney, and the attorney general’s office, she said she learned this would be an intentional violation of state open meeting and public records laws.
Before the vote Tuesday, Baptiste asked for an amendment to the minutes to reflect that he argued for a need to do the superintendent’s annual evaluation first so the committee might have reason to fire Geryk, rather than face litigation. Baptiste said he had a list of several reasons termination was the preferable course.
Baptiste also read a statement asking Kent to use a privacy exception related to public documents in which the minutes could prevent accusations made by a former employee from becoming public, calling these “specious, unfounded allegations” that will have a chilling effect on volunteers stepping forward.
A portion of the demand letter, written by Michael Long, who represented Geryk in her capacity as a member of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, allegedly focuses on an executive session held by the Pelham School Committee last spring.
Even though an account of that meeting was attached to the demand letter, Kent said the regional committee cannot release the actual minutes from it, since the meeting was not under the region’s jurisdiction and is also focused on an ongoing incident.
“Those minutes are privileged under the Pelham School Committee,” Kent said.
Emily Marriott, who serves on both the regional and Pelham committees, said Geryk’s demand letter makes allegations that cannot yet be rebutted.
“This is one person’s side, and not necessarily accurate, and allegations that have not been proven in any way,” Marriott said.
Marriott added that she believes quotes and accounts from the Pelham School Committee executive session were taken out of context by Geryk’s attorney.
Kent praised her committee colleagues for the amount of work they have done since July, which she said shows commitment to children, despite the resignation of Leverett representative and vice chairwoman Sarah Dolven and the recent departure of Modestow.
“As a community, there must be a commitment to support our schools and constructively work in partnership with our leadership teams,” Kent said. “It’s up to all of us to decide if we will learn from this year’s events, and move forward for the sake of our children and the future of our schools.”
She said the committee will work with the Massachusetts Association of School Committees on training and workshops to give guidance to improve its work.
This will begin at the committee’s Sept. 13 meeting, when it will have a retreat with Dorothy Presser, a field director for the state association of school committees.
