The Pittsfield Public Schools have been shaken by a series of scandals among administrators at Pittsfield High School. After the dean of students was arrested December 11th on federal charges of alleged large-scale cocaine trafficking, other staffers have been put on leave due to pending misconduct investigations including claims of inappropriate relationships with students. After Monday’s vote, Springfield firm Bulkley Richardson & Gelinas will be tasked with an impartial inquest into the situation.
“They were selected based on the fact that they're an established law firm, about 100-year-old law firm," said school committee chair Dr. William Cameron. "They have extensive experience in doing business and institutional investigations of employee wrongdoing.”
Cameron broke down what the investigation specifically calls for.
“The firm, which is the law firm in question, will conduct a limited series of interviews of key witnesses, in particular, of each of the individuals named herein and anyone else who has or purports to have actual knowledge of what has been alleged against current or former Pittsfield High School administrators or educators," he told the committee. "Those educators and administrators are named. To seek out such other credible sources of information related to the various allegations that have been made, as might be found in the course of the interviews. To form a professional judgment based on whatever can be learned that substantiates or fails to substantiate the allegations that have been made. To make such recommendations to the school committee as the investigator deems warranted as a result of what has been learned, and to provide the school committee with a report of its findings.”
Ultimately, the Pittsfield school committee will decide how to respond to the probe’s findings.
“This investigation will be an impartial inquiry into what can be determined actually to be or not to be the case, and it would have to then be the basis, in lieu of an investigation we ourselves would do of ourselves, it would have to be the basis for taking any kind of appropriate action as a result of finding that there's merit to any of these cases,” explained Cameron.
Attorney Mary-Lou Rup, a former Massachusetts Superior Court associate justice, will lead the investigation.
“The amount paid under this contract is at the rate of $275 per hour for attorney Mary-Lou Rup and other Bulkley Richardson & Gelinas attorneys, and $110 per hour for paralegal services,” Cameron continued.
Committee member and former Mayor Sara Hathaway said she was surprised to hear the parameters of the investigation.
“This was not what I expected at all in the scope of services," she said. "I thought we would be looking at problems in our system more than looking at the allegations, and frankly, the allegations are going to be addressed by the U.S. attorney and state [Department of Children and Families], I is my understanding. So, I thought we were going to look more at things like whether our social media practices need to change, whether our background and CORI check systems have flaws, whether the mandated reporting is occurring as it needs to occur, more these kind of things about our system. Our human resources department is very skeletal in terms of staffing- Is that part of what we need to address?”
“This is the first of two, shall we say, outside inquiries that is going to take place," Cameron responded. "This one is an investigation in lieu of having our own staff conduct an internal investigation. The second agreement – which has not yet been drafted, but which I have contacted Mirick O'Connell, which is a Boston law firm – will be doing an audit of art of our human resources practices, how we vet employees, staffing, if there’s adequate staffing to conduct the human resources for an employer of close to 1,200 people.”
The probe is expected to be completed by March 31st, though Cameron said he expects it to take less than three months. The next Pittsfield school committee meeting is set for January 8th.
