3 principals, others back superintendent; union votes censure

The School Committee, in a 4-3 vote, Sept. 25 moved the process of the superintendent’s contract forward after hearing 16 school administrators, union leaders, teachers and parents express a range of views. Three principals praised Nate Levenson, the union voted to censure him and one parent urged collaboration.

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School Committee member Ron Spangler moved to establish a Superintendent Contract Subcommittee to enter into negotiations for a contract extension for Levenson after delivering an eloquent address that, on balance, expressed support for the embattled superintendent.

 

"Instead of undermining him, we on the committee need to be creating the conditions in which he can succeed, and working with him to achieve that success," he said. "We are his bosses, and we need to be good ones too."

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Before the 4-3 vote, board member Joseph Curran offered an amendment, asking the committee to consider hiring another lawyer, someone who could assess the legal exposure the schools may face after dismissing in August teacher Chuck Coughlin and Ottoson Principal Stavroula Bouris.

“I don’t think we should vote on this tonight,” he said, noting his concern about the canceled July 30 School Committee meeting and that the board is “relying too heavily on Alan Miller.” He is the committee’s attorney who investigated e-mails involving Coughlin and Bouris.

Backing Curran and seconding his motion was board member Denise Burns, who said she had the “gravest concerns … If we vote to do this tonight, we are disenfranchising about half our community. . . . I know I need more time.”

Curran’s amendment was defeated, 2-5.

Board member Sean Garballey signaled his opposition to Spangler’s main motion, to establish a contract subcommittee, when he offered a lengthy list of issues in which he said Levenson fell short: the treatment of crossing guards, who had hours cut in 2006; the failure to inform teachers whose jobs were cut; how longtime business office employee Dottie O’Neil learned her job was to be cut  (she continues to work for the schools, in another position).