Tuesday, August 4, 2015

3 Secret School Meetings: Minutes Revealed

Current Regional Public School includes Amherst, Leverett, Pelham, Shutesbury grades 7-12

Interestingly enough the Amherst Regional School Committee never met in Executive Session to finally approve the $120,000 payment to former math teacher Carolyn Gardner and $60,000 to her esteemed attorneys.

But they did discuss the situation under the protective cloak of Executive Session three times prior to the sealing of the lucrative deal.

 Regional School Committee went into Executive Session at 8:00 PM last night

And of course they had to meet in Executive Session last night to approve those Carolyn Gardner related Executive Session minutes after my Public Documents request.



And I was glad to see secretary Deb Westmoreland and HR Director Kathy Mazur take far better notes than the Amherst Select Board did a few years back when former Town Manager Larry Shaffer suddenly flew the coop.


The discussion this article has stimulated on Facebook is nothing if not interesting, perhaps even more so than the original article.  (Keeping in mind Kurt Geryk is the husband of School Superintendent Maria Geryk.)

11 comments:

Dr. Ed said...

Good job. Thomas Jefferson once wrote that "no government should be without censors and where the press is free, none ever will be." (NB: He was using the Roman definition of censor and not the current one.)

Larry Kelley said...

Thanks. I'm sure the Gazette will catch up to this (in a couple weeks).

Anonymous said...

There's a curious note in the final minutes: Why would Ms. Gardner's attorney request that the school not respond to the MCAD complaint? Isn't it to be expected that the defendant would file a response?

Larry Kelley said...

Yeah, that caught me eye as well.

Maybe they knew there could be a quick settlement and they would not have to do any more legal work, like reading the response.

Downside of hiring lawyers on a contingency basis rather than by the hour.

Dr Ed said...

I read it differently -- as a demand and not a request. It's why I have contempt for that firm, if not the profession in general.

Anonymous said...

Real question:
Does Maria Geryk know that she has a Billy Carter*problem?
Kurt Geryk's Facebook posts, linked in your post, are truly astounding. These are from the spouse of the highest paid public official in greater Amherst

*Or Roger Clinton, or Hugh Rodham, or Don Nixon....

Larry Kelley said...

Yes, I believe she does.

Usually his rants are short lived (because she puts her foot down), but this one has been going on f-o-r-e-v-e-r.

Maybe Maria went on vacation and left him back in Amherst.

Anonymous said...

Mmmm, Billy Beer!

Anonymous said...

Whenever Maria Geryk after she leaves ARPS (& she will leave eventually,right -- maybe even before the end of her long contract -my elementary students will be in HS by then), her future employer should be forewarned that Maria's spouse is part of the package. Not all future employers might be as tolerant of a spouse's antics as ARPS and the town of Amherst seems to be.

Anonymous said...

Kurt isn't our Bill Carter. He's our Virginia Thomas:

On October 9, 2010, Virginia Thomas left a voicemail message for Anita Hill, whose accusations of sexual harassment complicated her husband's Senate confirmation hearings 19 years earlier. In the voice mail, Thomas said that Hill should apologize to Thomas's husband. Hill responded that she believed there was nothing to apologize for and said that her 1991 testimony about her interactions with Clarence Thomas was truthful. A couple of months later, Virginia Thomas said that the message to Anita Hill "was probably a mistake" and from her point of view, "a private matter".

Anonymous said...

What is the AFD letter that Kurt keeps ranting about, and who wrote it?