Winchendon school committee in turmoil, superintendent's contract voided - what's happening?

The status of Superintendent Thaddeus King's employment with the Winchendon School District remains uncertain after several events transpired this week, beginning with a turbulent school committee meeting on Tuesday and ending with a pledge from the new School Committee chair to seek legal assistance and provide transparency to the community.

Two members of the school committee, former chair Ryan Forsythe and former vice chair Greg Vine, resigned during Tuesday's meeting and walked out before it was over. Also on Tuesday, Anthony Findley joined the committee for the first time, replacing Alicia Jordan, who had announced her resignation earlier in the month.

Prior to Forsythe and Vine's departure, Karen Kast-McBride was nominated to be chair, while David LaPointe was selected to serve as vice-chair of the board.

School committee reconsiders King's separation agreement

The board’s first motion, made by LaPointe, was to reconsider the $180,795 separation agreement that had been finalized between Forsythe and King. LaPointe, who is an attorney, argued that the agreement was not finalized because its funding had yet to be approved.

Findley added that there was a discrepancy between the original document and the one that had been approved by the board in executive session.

“They were two different documents,” Findley said. “The one that was voted upon was different than the one that was submitted to the public.”

Lapointe said that under contract law, the differences in the two documents rendered the agreement null and void.

"The signed Separation Agreement was different from the proposed Separation Agreement in that two provisions pertaining to 'Severance Benefits,' specifically, vacation time and health insurance, were removed and lumped into one sum without our knowledge," LaPointe explained.

It had been originally announced that King, who served as superintendent of the district for the past year and was previously interim superintendent for six months, would end his tenure in the position effective July 31. The decision to separate had been a mutual one between King and the district, according to the original announcement.

King paid value of separation agreement on Wednesday

However, in a July 28 letter to the Winchendon school community, Kast-McBride revealed that she had received an email two days earlier informing her that the payout to King had already been disbursed by the town. She said the disbursement had occurred subsequent to the school committee's meeting on July 25.

"All members were not provided a copy of the signed Separation Agreement by former chair, Ryan Forsythe, before July 25th, even though it had been executed on July 14th, despite various requests," Kast-McBride wrote. "Upon receipt of that signed agreement, it was noted the actual agreement was not materially the same with what was approved by the full board during Executive Session on July 13th, 2023. The Separation Agreement was supposed to be discussed in an open meeting to identify which budget line item would carry the payout to Mr. King, It was stated in the Executive Session that the Separation Agreement would not be executed until that open discussion had happened."

Kast-McBride noted that Forsythe and Vine had both resigned from the School Committee during the July 25 meeting before the matter of the Separation Agreement was discussed. She explained that she was notified the following day that the payout to King had been processed via the normal payroll run "pursuant to the directive of Mr. Forsythe. I was also informed that the monies were taken directly from the superintendent's salary line of our budget."

"All possible and appropriate action will be taken in the coming days," she wrote. "It is not feasible to retract the payment made, but as appropriate legal action is needed, we as the Winchendon School Committee are prepared to take that action."

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Transparency promised moving forward

Kast-McBride said the board would task a third-party investigator to look into King’s tenure as superintendent, including his hiring and firing practices over the past year.

“Because more and more is coming to light every day for us,” she explained. “Obviously, there have been multiple complaints against the district against the Special Ed department, which had been in compliance and now we’ve had something like 40 complaints from parents in a year.”

“And in the end, if no wrongdoing was done, then no wrongdoing was done,” added Findley about the investigation.

Kast-McBride said it was her hope that the committee could move the district forward in a transparent manner.

“Because (transparency) has been sadly lacking in this district, both in the administration and the school committee,” she said. “And I know that I and the two remaining members feel very strongly that our door will always be open to the people and the staff of this community.”

Findley said he was looking forward to being on a committee comprised of individuals working together to represent the best interests of the parents in the district.

“You will not find anybody that is more passionate than a parent trying to do better for their child,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Gardner News: Winchendon public schools: Thad King separation agreement voided