Page | of 3 Maria Geryk - Re: concern Please STOP this conversation now. Fro To: Trevor Baptiste; Maria Geryk; Amilcar Shabazz Date: 11/14/2014 11:54 AM Subject: Re: concern Please STOP this conversation now. ce: Katherine Appy; Sarah Dolven; Darius Modestow; Michael Mortis; Lawrence Rick Hood To All Please STOP this group conversation now. Its a clear violation of Open Meeting Law. ‘Any further discussion needed on this should be done with a non-quorum meating of members. Thanks, Rick >>> Maria Geryk 11/14/14 10:37 AM >>> Deer Shabazz, While | am deeply offended that you have characterized me to the full school committee in a public document as a liar, am going to set your negative comment aside, because | believe its in the best interest of the ongoing work of the school committee and this district to do so at this time. If you want to have an Executive Session which pertains to litigation and not to my performance, you may of course do so. Since | am assuming your questions to be of a legal nature, you may want to reschedule so that Gini Tate can attend to directly address the standard components included in any settlement agreement in which this district has ever participated. If you have a question about the settlement offer that informational, please share your question so that I can respond. Ifitis the fact that you have a plan to discuss my performance, piease let me know with sufficient time so that | can have my attorney present. Sincerely, Maria >>> Amilear Shabazz 11/ 1472014 9:10 AM >>> Greetings Maria, Trevor, and All nope we can discuss the matters in you email fully in executive session. From what you wrote previously and what Trevor has explained to me you are misrepresenting Trevor's actions. One does not need to assess his speaking style, we know it. He made a non sequitur analogy in explaining why he did not support a making a settlement offer of a haif milion dollars, Its a lie to make that into a discussion firing you. ‘Second, my concem for an executive session arises from information | received about the settlement offer you made to Gardner on behaif of the School Committee that seems to be cifferent from what discussed with us. Itis that potential difference that I seek clerty from you on ‘Shabazz >>> Maria Geryk 11/13/14 11:09 AM >>> Shabazz, Tam not in a position to assess Trevor's spealcing style or the underlying intention of his comment. I shared with Trevor directly my concerns whieh I believe is professional and respectful rather than my continuing to be concerned without his clarification. My point remains the same that it is highly inappropriate and problematic for the Chair of the SC to discuss buying the superintendent out of her contract with a member of the public. In terms of your noted concem below, I am fully confident in the manner in which I have handled the Gardner issues and the subsequent complaint. I have been supportive and respectful of Ms. Gardner, file:/#/C:/Users/westmorelandd/AppData/Local/Temp/XP grpwise/S465ED8BSECONDA..._ 11/17/2014Page 2 of 3 have met the obligation regarding investigation, took that obligation seriously and diligently, and have exceeded the responsibility as an employer to provide supports fo our employee. This is also the opinion of two independent attorneys who have fully reviewed this situation as well as the Amherst Police Department. I have worked collaboratively with the school committee to keep you informed of this issue over the course of the last year. We have held a number of executive sessions where I briefed the SC in full about this situation and updated you all on steps taken to support Ms, Gardner. In fact, the minutes reflect your praise of how I have addressed this issue. When working toward a resolution, I asked the Chair and Vice Chair in to hear my thoughts about next steps and to seek their input. They provided that input, which was consistent with my actions. I am surprised that you now have concerns, which were not raised at our last executive session when there was ample opportunity. My responsibility as superintendent is first and foremost to our children and our districts. I have taken action on behalf of both, and will not respond to public pressure which is inconsistent with that responsibility Finally, your statements regarding my performance have breached my contract. If the SC decides to post an executive session to discuss how I have addressed this situation, please notify me in advance in accordance with State law so that I can have my attomey present. Trevor I ask your reply to this request and given that Maria Maria >>> Amilcar Shabazz 11/12/2014 11:22 AM >>> Hi Maria & Trevor (and all), | pray that you two can sort through this communication Kerfufle. | think we all know, including Trevor, that he is 1prone to making analogies that are sometimes non sequitur and do not advance the conversation in a straightforward way. That is not to say that he does so to mask any hidden agendas. Quite the opposite. He is one of the most honest people | know and ifhe has lost confidence in your ability to lead our district | expect that he will say 0 directly and straight up to you. ‘That does bring up a related concem. | and perhaps others are deeply concerned about your handling of this Gardner matter and the implications it has for hurting our shared, collaborative work of achieving the district's mission (of Excellence in Teaching and Learning for Al. The way You presented things in our last Executive Session was incomplete ‘and nat very collaborative. 1 would like for us to go into Executive Session again on this matter as soon as possible and wil not attempt to deliberate in this email Ine spirit of unity, faz Amilear Shabazz, School Committee Member Amherst-Peiham Regional Schoo! District hitovwww amps ora/contact_us/amherst- petham regional sch Chair. Equity Task Force, Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools hitpviwww arps.org/admin'stralion/echool_committeslregional_ scho ‘construction] The School Equity Task Force of the Regional School Committee meets next on Wednesday, November 13, 2014 at 6:00 pm. LOCATION: ARHS Library. hitouwww.arps.orgicalencar >>> Maria Geryk 11/10/14 1:27 PM >>> Dear Trevor, |.am writing to follow up on our conversation after the Pelham SC meeting last Thursday in the parking lot, This conversation has been on my mind over the course of the weekend. I am sending this email to the Regional SC given the ongoing litigation regarding Ms. Garciner. ‘When we spoke on Thursday night, you shared that @ community member, Ms, Dougnamy, spoke with you regarding file:///C:/Users/westmorelandd/AppData/Local/Temp/XPgrpwise/5465EDSBSECONDA... 11/17/2014Page 3 of 3 Ms, Gardner's MCAD complaint recently, and strongly suggested finding a resolution. In this conversation, it was suggested that if settlement was not reached the community would again activate. | shared with you that Ms. Douangmany had also contacted me by email, and my response was to let her know that unfortunately when people file a claim and/or contact attomeys, | can not ionger talk about the situation, As | said on Thursday evening, | believe you should respond in the eame way and encourage people to have Ms. Gardner's attorney contact the Districts atlomey if they want to discuss a resolution. | also note that the entire Regional School Commities has ‘been instructed in writing not to speak about this situation to anyone. As the Regional School Committee Chair, itis problematic that you continue to choose fo speak to members of the public about this matter. During the lengthy conversation that you had with Ms. Douangmany, you apparently made a comparison between me and Ms, Gardner that | find concerning, You reportedly made a financial comparison regarding paying a large settlement lo Ms, Gardner and buying me out of my contract. You stated something which suggested that buying me ut of my contract would be a greater benefit to the district in order to effect greater change, While you assured me that you are not in favor of buying me aut of my contract, Ihave to say that you raising this with a community member who is likely to run again for school committee and who may have influence over my contract makes me question your real commitment to my leadership in the district. Discussing the possibilty of buying the superintendent out of her contract with a community member is not acceptable in any way. While your assurance was appreciated, | candidly cannot understand why you would raise the topic of buying me out of my current ‘employment unless that was being considered. | do not know another reason why this topic would arise. This is not a comment that | could set aside, and therefore felt it was important to share my concer. Sincerely, Maria Jsers/westmorelandd/ A ppData/Local/Temp/XPgrpwise/S465EDSBSECONDA... 11/1 2014Page 1 of 1 Maria Geryk - follow up to our Chairs meeting on Friday Maria Geryk mazurk@arps.org 11/16/2014 1:56 PM follow up to our Chairs meeting on Friday gerykm@arps.org Hello, ‘Thank you all for rearranging your schedules to attend @ meeting late on a Friday afternoon. While this was a challenging conversation, it was critically important for me to share my concerns with you directly. | believe we ended ‘our meeting with reasonable outcomes and decisions. For clarity, | have noted our agreements and next steps. Trevor agreed to take care of a number of the follow up items. -He will contact Gini Tate to see if she is able to attend the executive session on Tuesday to update the SC on the MCAD complaint, If she is unable to attend, it was agreed that an executive session would not be held and would be ‘scheduled at a time when the attomey would be able to attend, He will seek clarification regarding whether the SC could hear public comment regarding the MCAD complaint or if that alone would put the district at risk with our insurance carrier. -He will contact Andy and John to be sure that they are coming to the SC meeting to present the RAWG update and next steps. Trevor also decided that having a police presence made sense for Tuesday night. This was discussed because of the knowledge that community members are being rallied to attend the meeting, end the expressed concem regarding the actions of some community members during a recent event. Trevor is going to let me know if he would like to request specific officers to attend. ‘As agreed, | will create the timeline for the pracess for amending the Regional Agreement, ‘We left without clarity of the next steps regarding the actions of Shabazz. As we discussed, its the responsibilty of the Committee to address the behaviors of the members. | appreciate your acknowledgment that the actions of ‘Shabazz were highly inappropriate in his role as a school committee member, specifically breaching my contract by ‘evaluating me publicly outside of the cycle, and by his calling me a liar. In addition, we discussed the information shared publicly through his SC Facebook page where he calls his SC colleagues white supremacist, and where he posts the Justice for Carolyn invitation to attend the SC meeting. These actions put our district at risk, and are potential SC ethics violations. Therefore, the SC must address these behavior, and we acknowledged that it is the responsibilty of the SC Chair to determine how to address these issues. | expect that there will be @ response sent to all SC members so that they understand that the actions displayed are unacceptable and can not be continued. ‘As we discussed, SC members must understand the importance of their role and their responsibilty as an employer to act in a professional manner. | will work on the timeline on Monday and will send it out to the group for review as soon as possible. Respectfully, Maria file://{C:/Users/westmorelandd/AppData/Local/Temp/XP grpwise/S468AD28SECONDA... 11/17/2014