Pittsfield School Committee Requests Redacted PHS Report
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The School Committee and City Council have requested a redacted report of the Pittsfield High School investigation that concluded last spring.
On Wednesday, the committee approved member Ciara Batory's request to release the PHS investigative report with proper redactions by Feb. 18. The previous day, City Council members made the same request, but left the deadline up to the School Committee.
Five past and present PHS staff members were investigated for alleged misconduct, and allegations were found to be "unsupported," according to executive summaries released by the former committee.
"The fact that the City Council has urged transparency here speaks volumes. When another elected body looks at a situation and says the public deserves answers, we should listen because trust isn't built by asking people to take our word for it," Batory said.
"Trust is built by showing our work. Honesty will always shine, and secrecy will always create doubt."
It was noted that the report will be heavily redacted and might provide less information than the summaries. The School Committee will review the document before it reaches the public.
"In preparation for the meeting, I have been told by legal counsel that what will be released as a redacted version will have less information than what was in the summary report," Mayor Peter Marchetti, chair of the committee, said.
"That's what I can share."
Batory asserted that the district cannot move forward by asking families to trust major changes in the district, such as the middle school restructuring, "while holding information they paid for, information that directly impacts their confidence in the system that serves their children."
"Let me be clear. I'm not asking us to be reckless," she said. "I’m asking for a redacted release, a legal release so we protect students' privacy while giving the community the truth they deserve."
Daniel Elias was the lone vote in opposition, standing by the previous committee’s actions.
He worried that releasing the report would impede participation in any future investigations or cause legal issues, and said the state records supervisor’s in-camera review is what made his decision.
"We asked the state. At first, they said, 'Release it,' but then they said, 'You can appeal, because you have a lot of information that is incomplete at this point, and so you can complete the information and then resubmit it.’ When that happened, the state looked at it, and they said, 'Do not release this report,’" Elias said.
He saw the executive summaries as an attempt to meet the public halfway.
Batory, who also requested the report last year as a citizen, cited Ward 1 Councilor Kenneth Warren’s administrative appeal to the state office of public records.
After Warren's records request, Supervisor of Records Manza Arthur determined that the Pittsfield Public Schools met their burden to withhold public records. During Tuesday’s council meeting, he addressed "red herrings" raised by past School Committee members and challenged that ruling.
"They say that the investigation was for potential disciplinary reasons, but it wasn't. It really wasn't. All the significant instances that had been investigated had been investigated previously, and they were found without merit. And if they would have told us that, or told the public that, there might have been some difference of what was necessary. The investigation was the result of public pressure for transparency, not for discipline," Warren said.
Tags: investigation, PHS,
