By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — The School Committee voted 4-1 to ratify Superintendent Tom Geary’s contract during a July 23 meeting.
Geary was appointed as the school system’s permanent superintendent in early July. He began working for the district in July 2006 as the School Department’s finance director. His title was changed to assistant superintendent of finance and operations in the fall of 2022. Geary was appointed acting superintendent last December after former Superintendent Kristen Vogel went on a medical leave of absence, and was named interim superintendent in late February.
School Committee Chair Kate DePrizio said Geary will be receiving a two-year pact that will run from July 23, 2024 to June 30, 2026.
“Superintendent Geary’s current contract has been renegotiated,” said DePrizio. “Revisions have been made to term dates, title and grammatical errors only.”
DePrizio said Geary will continue receiving the $218,000 salary that was previously negotiated when the School Committee appointed him interim superintendent last winter.
The pact stipulates that, “Should the School Committee decide not to renew Mr. Geary’s contract, the School Committee shall notify Mr. Geary of non-renewal by certified mail on or before Oct. 1, 2025.”
“Failure of the School Committee to provide notification of non-renewal by that date shall automatically renew the contract for an additional one-year period, which shall automatically terminate on June 30, 2027, if not earlier terminated in accordance with this agreement or by mutual agreement of the parties,” the contract states. “Should the School Committee not renew Mr. Geary’s contract as superintendent, he shall automatically revert to the position of assistant superintendent of finance and operations from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2028.”
School Committee member Jamie Hayman, who voted against appointing Geary as superintendent because he wanted a “full and transparent search” to be conducted, said he had a “couple of concerns” about the contract.
“We haven’t actually discussed this as a committee,” said Hayman. “In talking to Tom, I also respect the fact that we typically don’t do this in public. This is something that is generally done in executive session. My request would be to move this vote to the next meeting and put an executive session on prior to that meeting to discuss the contract in general.”
DePrizio opposed Hayman’s request.
“I don’t think that is a fair assessment of what has happened,” said DePrizio. “This is an existing contract and the revisions are minor in nature. They are term date related and title related, and are not salary related.”
DePrizio said the contract includes citations of state law “that are relevant to making (Geary) a superintendent versus an assistant superintendent.”
“The contract has been sent individually to all members,” said DePrizio. “Everyone else has given feedback and weighed in.”
Hayman said the School Committee has “typically weighed in a meeting format” when discussing contracts in the past.
“That is the purpose of an open meeting,” said Hayman.
DePrizio said, “Contracts are not negotiated in public in open meetings.”
“That would have been in executive session,” said DePrizio. “Since there was not a drastic change to this contract, it seemed very reasonable to respect the Open Meeting Law and do that in the format of sharing the former contract, sharing the revision of the contract, giving that information to each member and allowing each member to come back to myself or Tom. Everyone but you came back to me. I don’t think that motion is warranted or needed at this time.”
School Committee member Jim Dillon agreed.
“There is nothing new in this contract from the last one we just voted on,” said Dillon.
Hayman said the previous contract entailed having Geary serve as interim superintendent for a year.
“It was a combination of two jobs,” said Hayman. “It was the superintendent position and he was also going to take on some of the director of finance responsibilities. I feel that compensation needs to be commiserate with experience. I think it is worthy of us discussing it in an executive session. I don’t think it is appropriate and I don’t think it is fair to Tom to try and hash it out like this.”
Dillon asked Geary if he was “good with us voting on this tonight?”
Geary said yes.
DePrizio said the contract had already been “negotiated.”
“To go back, I would have to renegotiate the contract we just negotiated,” said DePrizio.
“Who negotiated it?” asked Hayman.
DePrizio said the School Committee “negotiated” the contract.
“No we didn’t,” said Hayman. “We never sat down and talked about terms. We never sat down and did any of that. The job has changed.”
DePrizio said Geary’s job will still include the superintendent and assistant superintendent of finance and operations responsibilities.
“The job description still embodies the two roles he was doing previously,” said DePrizio. “It is still the finance director role and it is still the superintendent role. It’s the same as it was in March.”
School Committee Vice Chair Kristen Grieco Elworthy said Geary’s work responsibilities moving forward “hasn’t changed.”
“It is now just going to be for two years,” said Elworthy.
School Committee member Jenny Sheehan concurred with Elworthy’s viewpoint.
“It’s not like we are hiring someone new and starting with a fresh contract,” said Sheehan. “Tom was already here with the contract that was already negotiated. All we are doing is changing the terms of it.”
Elworthy reiterated that the School Committee “is not hiring an assistant superintendent of finance and operations.”
“Tom is absorbing that role for the most part into the superintendent role,” said Elworthy. “This job continues to encompass those two roles. The original plan going into the coming school year was to have a superintendent and an assistant superintendent. It will be a two-person leadership team instead of a three-person leadership team. Money wise, we are seeing a savings from our prior leadership structure.”
Dillon said changing Central Office’s leadership structure from three people to two people is saving the town money.
“Tom is doing a great job,” said Dillon. “Considering the workload these two people are going to have, it is a tremendous value for the town of Lynnfield. I am looking at 15 other towns who have three people in central office, and are spending over $550,000. We are going to have two people spending about $400,000.”
After the discussion, DePrizio, Elworthy, Dillon and Sheehan voted to ratify Geary’s contract. Hayman voted no.
Assistant superintendent search
DePrizio also said the Assistant Superintendent Search Committee will be interviewing semifinalists for the job on Tuesday, July 30 and Thursday, Aug. 1 in executive session.
The search committee consists of Geary, DePrizio, Dillon, Lynnfield High School Principal Tricia Puglisi, Elementary English Language Arts/Social Studies Curriculum Director Maureen Fennessy, Lynnfield Middle School special education teacher Donna Pantazelos, LMS/LHS English Language Learners Coordinator Megan Valentine, parent representative Chris Mattia and parent representative Amanda Sheehan.
DePrizio said the School Committee will be voting to appoint the next assistant superintendent after a public interview with the finalist or finalists is held. The next assistant superintendent will succeed former Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Kevin Cyr, who recently left the district after agreeing to become the Masconoment Regional School District’s teaching and learning director.
