Worcester School Committee holds off on $350K grant amid concern about foundation

WORCESTER — Concerns about the legality and morality in accepting a $350,000 donation from the Gene Haas Foundation, involving the naming rights of a program at Worcester Technical High School, arose at Thursday’s School Committee meeting.

Instead of approving or denying the grant, the committee voted 5-2 to send it to its Governance Standing Committee for further discussion, with members Jermaine Johnson and Tracy O’Connell Novick voting against the move.

In addition to enabling the school to completely renovate its advanced manufacturing program for students, the donation also had a 15-year naming rights agreement for the school’s advanced manufacturing program.

It would be named after Gene Haas, founder and president of California-based Haas Automation Inc., who has been accused of continuing to supply technology to Russia as it wages war against Ukraine. Haas denied the allegations.

He also pleaded guilty in 2007 to defrauding the government of more than $30 million in taxes. The indictment accused Haas of running a fraudulent invoicing scheme to generate fake tax deductions. Haas was also accused of witness intimidation.

He was sentenced to two years in jail and agreed to pay a fine, back taxes and interest of more than $70 million.

For Johnson, as long as it includes any naming rights agreements, he will vote against approving the donation, he said.

“I know it will be very important for our students and for Worcester Tech to receive this funding,” Johnson said. “I just did not think that would be a good look for us.”

He said he would be unwilling to change his position unless the naming rights were removed from the donation agreement.

At the meeting, Worcester Tech Principal Drew Weymouth and Advanced Manufacturing Department Head Brian Cummings made a presentation that gave the committee background on Haas, his company and the Haas Foundation.

They also explained the relationship between the school and the foundation, partners for nearly two decades, and showed images of what the shop could potentially look like if the donation were approved.

Petty: 'A game changer'

Mayor Joseph M. Petty, after seeing the images and the presentation, said it would be 'a game changer.”

Petty also asked where the name would appear in the school, to which Cummings said above the entryway of the shop.

Following the presentation, O’Connell Novick, who attended the meeting remotely by Zoom, said she not only took issue with potentially naming the program after Haas, given his past charges as well as the new allegations, but also with how the donation was brought to the committee under the assumption it would be voted on that night.

Because it is a naming rights proposal, she said, additional steps need to be taken before it can be approved or denied, and a vote would result in a School Committee policy violation. O’Connell also read part of the policy, which said naming sections of schools in the district should align with district policies, and its “mission, vision and goals.”

She pointed to the charges brought against Haas, and said that while she understands people deserve a second chance after facing the consequences of their actions, she does not think Haas has proved he has learned from the experience, given the recent allegations brought against him in the PBS Newshour story.

“This facility…would have to be named for Mr. Haas, so let’s not be under any illusions that this is something that someone is doing out of the generosity of their heart,” O’Connell Novick said. “Because the thing that happens when you name a facility after someone is that it makes press, and when you make press, you actually change the Google Alert, and you change what happens when you search for someone’s name.”

She made a motion to file the item, but because the committee voted to send the item to the standing committee, O’Connell Novick’s motion was not voted on.

Process to follow on naming rights

Member Laura Clancey, who said she was uncomfortable with people being able to use donations to buy the rights to naming facilities in the district, and pointed to a previous discussion months earlier, in which she proposed renaming the Worcester Alternative School to the Dr. Michael O’Neil Program at the Alternative School at a meeting.

Clancey highlighted that, like Thursday, O’Connell Novick previously pointed out that there was a process the committee needed to follow for naming rights.

She, as well as other members of the committee, wanted administrators to see if there was a chance that the name could be removed if issues with Haas arose in the future.

Member Sue Mailman, who pointed out that the money was coming from the foundation, not Gene Haas directly, said she was in favor of accepting the donation.

“$350,000 doesn’t drop out of a tree every so often,” Mailman said. “We didn’t ask for a naming right, that was their requirement, so it’s really on us.”

She also said that if charges are brought against Haas for the recent allegation, the name would be removed from the building, “regardless of what we’re signing up for.”

Member Jermoh Kamara asked Weymouth and Cummings about the vetting process and how they were feeling about potentially accepting the donation given the circumstances surrounding Haas.

Money from foundation, not Haas, stressed

Weymouth said it was important to reiterate that the money was coming from the foundation, which is run by separate individuals, not Haas, and that Haas equipment is found throughout Worcester Tech.

He said Haas equipment is the industry “gold standard” in North America, and that the donation would not only allow them to upgrade the school’s lab and use funds for construction but would also bring advanced manufacturing, “from the factory image, to the laboratory image.”

When asked by Johnson about what made administration feel “comfortable” bringing the donation forward, Superintendent Rachel H. Monárrez said she was aligned with Weymouth.

“We want to keep growing Worcester Tech to be a true model technical high school throughout the nation,” she said. “$350,000 in order to do that in one classroom setting is quite an investment that we would not be able to do, as a district, for one classroom.”

She also said that she doesn’t want the school to be using outdated equipment when teaching students, only for them to graduate and it differs from the workplace.

“There’s been some bad decisions made by this individual, who has paid the consequences,” the superintendent said. “There might be some additional ones, as we’ve heard, but we don’t want to be the judge and jury of that.”

She said that the donation was not only important for Worcester Tech but the district overall. Monárrez also said that district administrators engage in further discussions with the foundation and the city solicitor about the legality surrounding the naming rights agreement.

Student reps uneasy over source

Kamara also asked the student representatives present for their thoughts on the topic.

Anhr Dawoud, a senior at Doherty Memorial High School, Thomas Sutton, a junior at Burncoat High School, Clarissa Alexis, a senior at North High School, and Maryjane Bitar, a junior at Worcester Tech all said that while the donation would benefit the school and students, they were uncomfortable with where the money was coming from.

Dawoud said that, even if the name could be removed in the event of additional charges, it would “still be horrible press” and that it would leave a “bad taste,” in students’ mouths.

Sutton said that, given the nature of the allegations, he doesn’t think the district could “morally” accept the allegations until Haas has been cleared of wrongdoing.

Alexis said she doesn’t think the donation should be a part of Worcester Tech’s history, while Bitar worries about the negative impact it could have on the program.

“I feel that…it is really hard to put someone with such horrible accusations on a school that talks about working and talks about being the best person you can,” Bitar said. “So if we could find somewhere in the middle where, if this person was convicted of these charges, then certain things could be reversed. If not, it is a benefit for advanced manufacturing, but I’m not sure how much it’d be a benefit for Worcester Tech as a whole."

On Friday, O'Connell Novick said that, while other previous donations have gone through the Skyline Technical Fund Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit to support the high school, it is actually illegal under Massachusetts General Law because all donations to any schools must come before the School Committee.

"For reasons that continue to escape me, Worcester Tech has some sort of weird exclusion for anything they get from the Skyline Technical Fund," she said. "I am planning on pursuing that because all donations have to come to the School Committee."

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester school board holds off on grant amid concern about Haas Foundation