This story by Christina Dolan was first published in the Valley News on August 29.
HARTFORD — At a tense meeting this week, residents accused the Hartford School Board of procedural wrongdoing related to the departure earlier this summer of former Superintendent Tom DeBalsi.
The board pushed back against residents’ allegations relating to DeBalsi’s departure, initially declining to discuss the matter before the board’s chairman later described a “straw poll” the board took in an executive session that allowed him to pursue a severance agreement with DeBalsi.
Over the course of more than two hours of public comment, residents asked the board to explain exactly when and how the decision came about to pay DeBalsi, who had a year remaining on his contract at the time of his departure, a severance package worth nearly a quarter of a million dollars in salary, benefits and unused sick and vacation time.
“It’s a sore subject six ways to Sunday,” Hartford resident Danielle LeMay said, noting that DeBalsi’s payout was “more than I could even think about selling my house for.”
LeMay was among about 25 people who attended Wednesday night’s meeting in person in the Hartford Area Career and Technical Center. Another 20 or so attended via Zoom.
The discussion comes after the board announced in a July 3 news release that DeBalsi had “tendered his resignation to the Board,” to “return to his roots as a teacher.” The initial announcement made no mention of a payout. This week’s meeting followed a July 18 special board meeting during which residents raised similar concerns.
On July 12, a second announcement referred to DeBalsi’s departure as a “retirement,” saying that “paying him a severance equal to a year’s salary and benefits was an appropriate recognition of his service to the district.”
In addition to the size of DeBalsi’s severance, residents also criticized the board for blurring the boundaries between confidential matters and public information, noting that there was no public record of the decision itself.
“I understand that there’s a need for closed sessions and that you have to do some sensitive business outside the purview of the public,” White River Junction resident Zachary Scott said. “But generally you have to come out of those kinds of sessions and take actions in front of the public.”
Board members pushed back on the notion that their votes are public information, even though Vermont statute 312 requires that the results of any votes taken by a public body be made in open session and included in meeting minutes. Members of a public body who violate Open Meeting Law may be found guilty of a misdemeanor and fined up to $500, according to Vermont statute 314.
The board met on June 12 for the routine evaluation of the superintendent, board member Peter Merrill said, and “no action was taken at that meeting.”
Toward the end of the public comment period on Wednesday, though, board Chairman Kevin “Coach” Christie acknowledged that he took what he termed a “straw poll” of board members during the executive session of the June 12 board meeting.
That straw poll, he said, gave him the authority to privately and individually negotiate a severance package with DeBalsi and to hire an interim superintendent. Caty Sutton, former director of curriculum, assessment and instruction for the district, became interim superintendent on July 1. Her contract extends through next June.
Although the June 12 decision involved the dispersal of public money, Christie contends that it did not need to be made public.
“You would not note the straw poll in the minutes,” he said.
His assertion that the decision was not made in public was also supported by other board members.
“My comment on how I voted is ‘no comment,’” longtime board member Nancy Russell said. “It’s none of your business how I voted.”
Board member Doug Heavisides, when asked the same question, replied that his vote is “privileged information.”
Some board members also hinted that the severance may not have been in recognition of DeBalsi’s service to the district.
Merrill said that the arrangement “was not the outcome I wanted.”
“If any of you think we’re so stupid that we would not have known what the reaction was going to be, think again,” he said, referring to the public backlash that followed the release of the severance payment.
“I can’t tell you that reason, but let me assure you that there was a reason,” Merrill said. “It is the best outcome that could have happened under the circumstances.”
To Wilder resident Colin Butler, that sounded less like a parting gift and more that “there’s something going on with him that caused you to think you needed to pay him so much money,” he said.
“You squandered a quarter of a million dollars on some arrangement with DeBalsi that we can’t be told details of,” he continued. “That doesn’t feel like transparency.”
The discussion became heated at times, with raised voices, and pleas for decorum from attendees.
Scott said he was disappointed in the tone of the board members in their interactions with residents.
“There are board members who become condescending when they feel frustrated that the public is frustrated,” he said.
The next Hartford School Board meeting is Sept. 18 at the Hartford Area Career and Technical Center.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Hartford residents criticize School Board for former superintendent’s severance.