Should LeClerc Stay?

Might Don LeClerc stay on as Norfolk elementary schools’ superintendent? Maybe not, but that’s what several people at a public hearing this week called for.

LeClerc said late this week he is still planning to leave in June. “I have made my announcement to retire. At this point, this is what I plan on doing,” he said in an email message to The Norfolk Boomerang.

The Norfolk School Commit­tee held a public hearing this past Wednesday night about a plan to explore sharing a super­intendent with the King Philip Regional School District. But about halfway through the two-hour-plus meeting, much of the commentary from the floor centered on bringing LeClerc back next school year.

LeClerc, who didn’t attend the committee meeting this week, announced last month that he plans to retire June 30, a year before his contract expires, apparently over disputes with the School Committee. LeClerc disagreed with the School Committee’s vote Jan­uary 6 to continue pursuing a shared superintendent with King Philip, saying it would hurt Norfolk’s elementary school system. But when he told the committee later that night that he intended to retire, he told the members that it wasn’t just about the superintendent issue and that he had been thinking about leaving for some time. His job performance review from this past October shows that at least some School Com­mittee members have criticized LeClerc’s leadership. Still, School Committee members say they were shocked when LeClerc said he was leav­ing, and they say they have made efforts to talk things over with him.

“It came as a complete sur­prise to us after the meeting that he was tendering his res­ignation.

… We were stunned. We were like, what happened? Where’d this come from?” said School Committee member Ross Gilleland. “And we asked him, ‘you know, think about it, Don. You know, call us, let us meet with you and talk about it. That was Wednesday. Friday he turned the letter in. We asked him to think about it.” But some supporters of LeClerc say the School Com­mittee ought to make another attempt to try to get him to stay on, given that the school district is about to embark on construct­ing a new school building to re­place Freeman-Centennial. “I really feel like we need somebody with inside knowl­edge

on the ground to see that through day to day during the construction, and we’ve lost the two key people to do that,” said town resident Julie Redlitz. “Can we look at keeping Don?” she said. “… In my mind, maybe he’s missed a thing here, he’s missed a thing there, as we all do. But he’s done an ex­tremely good job with the de­sign of the school. And he’s got a lot of people on board, and a lot of people really like him. And I’ve heard that he’s done a great job with the budget. … Lots of us would love to see Don stay on for consistency, and perhaps ask him to stay on for another year.”

Redlitz suggested that the friction between LeClerc and the School Committee may not be LeClerc’s fault. “Another big concern that I have is we have this superin­tendent that many people seem to really like, and seems to have developed a great relationship with a lot of the town admin­istration. Why is he having a hard time getting along with our School Committee, and what’s to say that that problem isn’t go­ing to exist with the next super­intendent?” Redlitz said. “With­out making any accusations I would like to understand what happened, and what we can do to fix that, and can we look, is this an option? Can we look at bringing Don back?” Earlier, Mike Kulesza had charged the committee with managing LeClerc poorly, “I’ve been watching the School Committee meetings, and I got to tell you something: I think there are certain members of this committee that have mi­cromanaged the hell out of our superintendent. I don’t think it’s fair to him. I wouldn’t take his job if it was the last job in Mas­sachusetts, quite frankly. The job of this committee is budgets, policy, and strategic planning. If you go back, and I challenge anyone to go back and look at the meetings of this School Commit­tee, there are certain people on this board, and I think you have agendas, you’ve micromanaged our superintendent, and I don’t blame him for getting frustrated and wanting to leave in the mid­dle of this process. My question is: What were you thinking?” Later in the meeting, Kulesza asked the School Committee to make a move to try to placate LeClerc.

“I personally have been told by the superintendent, I know he’s told other people in town, that the door is open. And I’d like to ask the committee to extend an olive branch to him. Families have disagreements. Businesses have disagreements. Sometimes you just have to be a bigger per­son and try to work things out. I think we’re at a critical time in our town. He’s got knowledge, he’s got 30 years of experience. He’s got all the things that we need to get us through this next year, and I’m asking this com­mittee to extend an olive branch to him and see if you can’t work things out,” said Kulesza, who is chairman of the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals.

But the chairman of the School Committee, Beth Gilbert, said she doesn’t think LeClerc is inclined to reconsider his deci­sion to leave. “For all that he tells other people and other constituents that the door is open, when I’ve asked him what we could do that would make him stay, he’s pretty much closed the door. He hasn’t given me any statements that make clear any willingness to change his plans. He’s got other irons in the fireand other plans, and I think that he is just ready to move on,” Gilbert said.

Another School Commit­tee member, Marie Zullo, sug­gested that LeClerc’s recent actions make him a less attrac­tive

candidate to lead Norfolk’s elementary schools. She pointed to a message LeClerc sent out to parents and other members of the community through Con­nectEd, a program the school district uses to send out mass email messages. “I recognize and respect the feelings that you guys have. But Mr. LeClerc also sent out a ConnectEd where he did not ac­knowledge or thank the teachers or the administration. Fine, he’s got his differences with us. But I’m sorry, I think that was un­acceptable. You want him to go into negotiation with a group of teachers that he just shunned? I don’t know how responsible that is. And I don’t want to speak for the teachers. I’m talking from my personal perspective. I was really disappointed when I saw that,” Zullo said. “He’s got a problem with us? That’s fine. We tried to discuss it with him. He refused to do that. Tried to discuss it with him on more than one occasion. And I would like for everybody to keep in mind: Donnie made it pretty clear to us and to several people in this community he had no in­tentions

of staying beyond his three-year contract from the beginning. As he put it to one person, ‘I’m here for my 80 and out’,” Zullo said.

Eighty is the maximum per­centage a municipal or state em­ployee can get for a pension. The percentage is based on years of service and age, and is multi­plied by the average of the top three annual salaries to deter­mine the annual pension pay­ments. LeClerc, asked about Zullo’s comments, said he wouldn’t re­spond

directly. But he did say that he sent teachers and other staff an email message about his retirement before he sent out a more general message to parents and others members of the community on ConnectEd. LeClerc provided the Boomer­ang the text of that message late this week: “I apologize for the lack of diplomacy/sensitivity in send­ing a message in this manner, but I wanted you to hear this from me and not by word of mouth. I have submitted a letter of retirement to the Chairperson of the School Committee, effec­tive

June 30, 2010. It has been a pleasure working with each and every one of you. I applaud what you do each and every day. You have a beautiful educational sys­tem and a wonderful and sup­portive town in which to work. I wish you all the best in the years to come. Students in the town of Norfolk are very fortunate.”

Kim Williams, a former member of the Norfolk School Committee, suggested the cur­rent committee may be mi­cromanaging the school dis­trict and LeClerc. She said that Kulesza had earlier correctly stated the School Committee’s proper purview as budgets, poli­cy, and governance. “But it’s not the day-to-day managing of the facilities, the classrooms. And it’s hard. It’s hard not to cross that line. And I certainly understand that that can happen at times. And I know that there are hard feelings, ob­viously. I think that both sides acknowledge that there are hurt and hard feelings on your part and on the part of Mr. LeClerc. But I think we all agree in this room that this is a critical time for Norfolk Public Schools,” Williams said. She called on the School Committee to contact the Mas­sachusetts Association of School Committees to try to mediate the conflictwith LeClerc. “They can come in and help you mediate this current dis­agreement with Don,” Williams said. “So I’m asking, please don’t close that door. I think you have to put that anger away, reexam­ine how you manage the school district, how you manage him, and maybe bring in an outside source like a mediator from the MASC. … I think that anything can be worked out, or at least give it a chance.” Williams also suggested it’s for the committee to re-evaluate itself. “… And then look at the way you’re spending your time as a committee. … You guys have had an inordinate amount of ex­ecutive

sessions in the last year and a half. So, to Mike’s point, that there may be people on the committee who are managing the district to their own person­al

agendas, you need to really be careful, because I think you’re on very delicate ground here. And I would just say please don’t waste anybody’s time any longer with these executive sessions, and I think that might be one reason why you have an extremely frus­trated

superintendent and an extremely frustrated teaching staff and administrative staff. I mean, at this point the morale problem is going to be such a problem that the kids are going to feel it in the classroom. So you’ve got to take a step back, reexamine why you’re on the committee. Why are you here? I think your hearts are all in the right place.

“I think you just have to get readjusted and refocused,” Wil­liams said.

Paula Olivieri, a kindergar­ten teacher and resident of Nor­folk, said the School Committee meeting of January 6 helps ex­plain why LeClerc announced his retirement. “I watched the last School Committee meeting from the comforts of my home, and I really felt uncomfortable with some of the disrespect that was shown to Mr. LeClerc,” Olivieri said. “And I think when you say you got his resignation and you were completely surprised, I re­ally

think if you went back and viewed that tape and saw some of the things that were said and what was going on, and then at the end when you had the focus group for the qualities and the things you wanted in the new superintendent, I mean, I went to school the next day and I said to a few of my friends, ‘Boy, if I was in that seat I wouldn’t come back.’ O.K.? You might want to review that meeting.”