Adams-Cheshire Superintendent Resigning at School Year's End
CHESHIRE, Mass. — Adams-Cheshire Regional School Superintendent Kristen Gordon will resign at the end of the school year.
Gordon tendered her resignation to the School Committee on Monday and asked the board to modify her contract.
"I want to take this opportunity to formally announce my resignation as superintendent effective at the end of this school year," Gordon said. "I apologize for any undue concern that may have been generated by what was a personal decision that took me longer than anticipated to reach."
The committee unanimously voted to accept her resignation and adjusted her $115,000 a year contract to end June 30.
Gordon said she will continue to work hard for the district in her remaining months.
"I am looking forward to working hard for the school district, which I love and that raised me, until my last day of the job," Gordon said. "Serving as superintendent of the Adams-Cheshire Regional School District has been a tremendously valuable experience, and it will serve me well as I peruse other opportunities in education."
School Committee Chairman Paul Butler thanked Gordon for her years of leadership and thanked the public for their patience.
"I just want to thank everyone for their patience during this very trying time for all of us, and I know how difficult it has been on the superintendent as well as the School Committee," Butler said. "I certainly want to express my appreciation to the years the superintendent has served this district.
"We have been through a number of difficult issues, and I certainly appreciate what you have done and we wish you well going forward."
Gordon will be paid for her remaining sick and personal time and will help with the transition once a new superintendent is hired.
She was hired in 2012 to replace retiring Superintendent Alfred Skrocki after leading Plunkett School as principal for a number of years. Questions about her status with the school district arose after she had been absent for a period of time.
Cheshire resident Gary Trudeau and Adams resident Jeffrey Lefebvre asked the committee about rumors they have heard regarding the superintendent and her resignation.
Butler asked that rumors without any evidence not be discussed.
"We are not going to listen to rumor, and if you want come in with a bunch of rumors with no basis of truth we are just not going to listen to it," he said.
They also asked the committee when the Feb. 4 executive session minutes will be released.
Butler said it could be some time if the executive session had anything to do with personnel and it will be up to the chairman to determine if they are appropriate for release at the time when the minutes come before the committee for review.
School Committee member Darlene Rodowicz agreed.
"Here we have a personnel matter and we have been dealing with it with respect to the personnel," Rodowicz said. "We have done everything above board, we have legal counsel involved to guide us through this, and we want to protect the district."
She added the School Committee members were the only ones in the executive session and any information that did not come directly from a member was rumor.
Trudeau said he would contact the attorney general's office if the committee did not provide the minutes from the executive session.
Adams resident John Cowie asked if the executive session had anything to do with financial matters that would affect town budgets.
District attorney Jeffrey Grandchamp answered by citing the district's policy.
"It's the district's policy whenever money is found to have been misappropriated or misallocated to take action up to an including dismissal of the individual and in every case recovering money," Grandchamp said. "If money has been taken it is ordinarily referred to the district attorney's office. You can look at our record of that, and that has not happened in this case ... there has been no charges pending against any district personnel."
Rodowicz asked that the public trust the committee to do what is was elected to do. She added that the School Committee has continued operations and has been working on the budget.
"We have been working on the budget and one will be coming forward," she said. "Work has not stopped because Kirsten has been out ... we are doing our jobs, someone was out for a few weeks and we have continued to run the district."
Adams Selectman Jeffrey Snoonian thanked Gordon for "putting her heart into the job" but said he was disappointed the School Committee never had an official statement of any kind.
"When the rumors started flying I would have liked to have seen a cohesive statement from the committee, it didn't have to pertain to anything specific," Snoonian said. "I know it's difficult but I just know it is the biggest budget item we have, and I think there is a little extra care that has to be taken."
Rodowicz said Gordon deserved privacy.
"There is a law that allows folks the right to privacy when they are going through a personal issue," she said. "Kristen is in a pubic position, but even with that she is due the decency of her privacy and I think it is shameful the rumors going around."
Butler agreed.
"I think we certainly wanted to be sensitive to the superintendent, and if she told me to tell the media she was taking personal time we would have done that, but again we try to be respectful to her," Butler said. "I know sometimes that comes with a lack of information, and we are well aware of that, but we are where we are tonight and we need to move forward from here."
Tags: ACRSD, resignation, superintendent,
