SOUTH HADLEY — The embattled head of a South Hadley charter school will not be allowed to attend graduation or other school events after a board of trustees vote Tuesday.
Trustees of the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Public Charter School also voted to extend Scott Goldman’s paid administrative leave indefinitely — three weeks after he was placed on leave while a select six-member panel of board members coordinated an investigation into claims Goldman stoked fear and intimidated students.
Now, unless the board or select panel takes action to reinstate Goldman, he will be on leave until the end of his employment on June 30. He announced last year he would resign at the end of the school year.
Goldman’s attorney, David Monastersky, said barring Goldman from graduation at the Calvin Theatre in Northampton was a violation of his rights to freedom of speech by association.
After the meeting, James Donnelly, the charter’s attorney, said the board was not violating anyone’s rights, saying the school rented the Calvin, and adding the board has the authority to expel students and fire staff.
“The fact that it’s (the school) a public space does not mean anybody can enter it at any time,” Donnelly said.
A Wellesley law firm tasked with digging into the complaints is making progress, said board president Geoffrey Sumi.
“There is a sense in the PVPA community that Mr. Goldman’s leave of absence should be extended pending completion of the investigation,” Sumi said.
Before the board voted Tuesday, Lisa Cappello, a representative on the charter’s Personnel Advisory Board, urged extension of Goldman’s leave, citing four unnamed staff members who submitted comments to the PAB.
The teachers took aim at Goldman’s decision to rebut allegations against him in public on May 9, as allowed by the state’s Open Meetings Law. Goldman also forwarded copies of his 40-minute speech to the Gazette, teachers, parents and students.
“Students were confused and upset when they received his detailed letter in their inboxes,” Cappello said one teacher told the PAB. “They talk about knowing who is referenced in the letter and this results in fear about further interactions with Mr. Goldman.”
Stephen Therrien, an 18-year-old senior who graduates Thursday, said Goldman returning would create “chaos.”
“I imagine at least in the student community there would be chaos,” he told the board.
Still, some on the board worried they were not taking an accurate reading of the building because not all staff members are represented by the PAB. Another concern was whether the board would subvert the role of the select panel and implicitly level judgment against Goldman by taking the vote before the end of the investigation.
The final language of the motion passed unanimously with member Alison Noyes abstaining.
In other action, Sumi rebutted three Open Meeting Law complaints Monastersky filed on May 16.
Monastersky said a May 2 agenda posting mentioned “litigation” but was not specific enough.
He also took issue with a note board member James Barnhill passed to Donnelly at the May 9 meeting and that word of Goldman’s public comment on May 9 leaked outside the board.
Sumi did not admit fault in any of the cases.
He said the May 2 executive session was never held. He said Barnhill could pass the note to Donnelly because the communication was not a “deliberation” among a quorum of members. He said that information disseminated about Goldman’s public rebuttal was not deliberative and therefore not a violation of law.
“On a personal note, I’ll add that I’m truly dismayed by attorney Monastersky’s Open Meeting Law complaints,” Sumi said, “which I, in consultation with counsel, see as frivolous. … The intent in filing them is simply an attempt to harass and embarrass this board.”
The board voted to authorize sending its account of the complaints to the attorney general’s office and to Monastersky.
During the public portion at the end of the meeting, Monastersky said he was “happy” to hear the board never entered executive session and that he disagreed with the other rebuttals, saying the attorney general’s office would likely have to sort out the disagreement.
He said it was improper of Sumi to speculate as to the motivation behind the complaints. And he said one board member in particular should not have voted.
Monastersky did not name names during the meeting, but afterward he said board member William Decherd, also a PVPA teacher, filed one of the grievances against Goldman.
“I’m astounded that a board member who has actively filed a grievance and is explicitly involved in one of those has not recused himself from these proceedings,” he told trustees.
Jack Suntrup can be reached at jsuntrup@gazettenet.com.