By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — A group of residents continued calling for School Committee member Kate DePrizio’s resignation during an Oct. 22 meeting.
During a Sept. 11 meeting, DePrizio accused School Committeeman Jamie Hayman of violating the board’s “ethical standards” by trying to seek “preferential treatment” for his children. She did not present any evidence when making the accusations, which a staff member has now confirmed was unfounded (see separate story).
Additionally, DePrizio claimed that Hayman “threatened” her and her children, and called her an expletive during a phone conversation before the Sept. 11 meeting. Police Chief Nick Secatore recently stated in a police report that he “did not hear threats that are of a criminal nature or Jamie mention her family” while listening to an audio recording of Hayman’s side of the conversation.
At last week’s meeting, Apple Hill Lane resident Steven Grasso read portions of email exchanges he had with School Committee Chair Kristen Grieco Elworthy and Vice Chair Jenny Sheehan into the public record. He asked both women if they supported DePrizio’s allegation she had the School Committee and Superintendent Tom Geary’s support for reading the letter on Sept. 11.
“I disagree with this,” Elworthy wrote in response. “I did support Kate writing a letter to Jamie. I disagreed with some of the contents of the letter because of concerns with Jamie’s children being brought in. I did suggest changes that were not incorporated. I knew she was reading the letter aloud; I was under the impression that the attorney required her to do so. I believe she stated the same in the Sept. 11 meeting. The day or so before the meeting, in a phone call, I suggested to Kate among other things that we read that letter during our executive session the night before and discuss as a committee, and perhaps summarize or otherwise address in our public meeting. She refused, and again, my impression was due to the attorney’s requirement to read in public. Based on the information I had, I believed a conversation about protocols with Jamie made sense at the time and so I did not have an issue, overall, with there being some sort of communication to Jamie. But the only reason I went along with doing it in public was due to my understanding that the attorney required it.”
Sheehan echoed a similar opinion in her email response to Grasso.
“I was never asked for my opinion on the letter,” Sheehan wrote in response. “I was told by Kate that the lawyer was advising the notification. I was also told by Kate that Jamie had been previously notified by a former School Committee chair, warned verbally and now staff were complaining. Ultimately, it’s the chair (Kate’s) decision about reading the letter, and she said she was doing so on the advice of (counsel). Thinking all these details were true, which I had no reason to doubt at the time, I did not push back that hard on her decision. Kate called me the night before, on Sept. 10, to notify me that the letter was finalized and would be read in its entirety at the meeting. In the time since the Sept. 11 meeting, I have come to learn that many of the things used to justify the public reading of the letter were either misrepresentations, miscommunications or simply not factually accurate. Had I known then what I know now, I would have done things differently.”
Grasso asked Sheehan if she feels DePrizio misled her.
“I do, but I don’t know if it was on purpose,” said Sheehan. “I am not going to speak to another’s intentions or state of mind if I am not that person. That feels inappropriate.”
Grasso also recalled that DePrizio claimed during an Oct. 16 meeting that Police Chief Nick Secatore did not undertake an investigation into her allegation that Hayman threatened her and her family. He provided Secatore’s email response to that question to the Villager.
“We have released the same information to everyone that has contacted the department regarding this issue,” Secatore wrote in response to Grasso’s question. “I received a report. I am the reporting officer. What was reported to me was investigated and determined to be a civil issue and was closed, as is stated in the report.”
Grasso said the citizens’ group that is circulating petitions seeking to place a question on a ballot that would recall DePrizio is “not going away.”
“There is no path forward with you here,” said Grasso. “You need to resign. Jamie and his family never should have been brought into this whole thing. That was egregious and was a fireable offense. There is no explaining out of it. It was intentional and we are going to continue to ask for your resignation because there is no path forward. This committee cannot function with the two of you on it. This is a huge distraction. If you can’t do it for yourself, do it for the community. Just move aside and let them and the Select Board choose an adequate replacement to get us to April.”
Phillips Road resident Deirdre Donovan criticized Elworthy for stating that DePrizio and Hayman were behaving the same way.
“To equate Kate DePrizio’s actions with any actions that Jamie Hayman may have taken is just a false equivalence,” said Donovan. “I had some professional development training recently about the manipulation strategy of DARVO (Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender). That’s when the offender works very hard to swap places with the victim. That’s what is happening here. No one has attacked you Kate. We are just asking for you to resign. I think it is quite obvious that you have lost trust of the community and the working relationship with the committee. I ask you publicly to immediately resign from the School Committee.”
While West Tapley Road resident Lisa Lopez said she appreciated Elworthy’s statement, she said, “It doesn’t change my opinion quite frankly.”
“I don’t know how Jamie would trust going to anyone at this point to follow protocol,” said Lopez.
Lopez said she has “disagreed” with a number of DePrizio’s decisions over the past three-and-a-half years, particularly over the past 10 months.
“I disagreed with cutting the library media specialist at the high school,” said Lopez. “I disagreed with the appointment of a superintendent without a search. I disagreed with the class size policy change and moving resources to the elementary schools, which I know is controversial. If I am honest, as a high school parent, I actually felt like there were times you were walking a line of preferential treatment when discussing your own children in that context of child class sizes. But I am not on the committee and I was, and I am, very frustrated with some of these decisions, but I accepted them. I am not willing to accept what happened at the Sept. 11 meeting and the way that it was handled. It was unacceptable behavior and continues to be an enormous distraction for this district. You need to resign so this committee can move forward and do the work that they need to do. Not doing so would perpetuate this distraction. We are not going away and will not accept what happened. It is going to start costing the town money. It’s no secret we are going through this recall if we go down that path. I am requesting that you resign the position so that this group can move forward.”
Summer Street School PTO Co-President Sarah Kelley also called on DePrizio to resign.
“Kate, I worked alongside you to help get your seat on the School Committee, but I am now sitting here today asking for your resignation,” said Kelley, who also serves on the Finance Committee. “You have done irrevocable damage to your reputation as a member of this committee and you have lost both the trust of the community and your own committee. There is no path forward for this committee with you continuing to have a seat at the table and it is causing a distraction for the real work that needs to get done.”
Kelley also addressed Hayman while making her remarks.
“Jamie, I love your family and I wish the best for them, as I can only imagine how hard this has all been for all of you,” said Kelley. “But I also sit here today asking you to take the high road, and move on with focus and in a collaborative way, so you can once again come together with the rest of the committee to have productive results on important initiatives for our schools because we are certainly going to need that in the coming six to nine months. As Summer Street School PTO president, I would never in a million years initiate a text exchange with a teacher. I would respect a staff member’s privacy and go through the proper channels of an email exchange.”
Kelley said School Committee members do not “all have to agree” on the various issues facing the school system.
“But we do have to find a way to move on and move forward or our kids in our schools are going to be the ones that are getting hurt the most,” Kelley added.
