Wyoming Area mum on personnel investigation, approves 2-year teacher contract

EXETER — Wyoming Area School District is investigating complaints about an employee, but solicitor Jarrett Ferentino stressed during a meeting Tuesday that the board could not comment.

The board also approved a two-year contract with the teachers’ union, giving no details beyond the length. It runs Sept. 1, 2020 to Aug. 31, 2022. With eight members present, six voted in favor of the contract while Carmen Bolin and John Marianaccci voted against it.

Social media has been abuzz with criticism of a teacher allegedly making homophobic comments about the Drama Club, but Ferentino made no statement regarding that allegation. He offered only broad explanations of the investigation into a matter the district “is taking very, very seriously,” stressing the board couldn’t comment.

Ferentino pointed out that the board members may end up determining the fate of any employee, and that as a result they must remain as independent as possible from an investigation into complaints. He spelled out the process: The board hires a labor attorney to investigate any allegations and file a report. If the report determines disciplinary action is appropriate, the employee has the choice of either going to third-party arbitration, or of having a hearing before the board. In the latter case, the board would determine disciplinary action, which is why members should not comment on the matter.

Ferentino noted “typically they opt for arbitration, but we have to assure the choice (of a board hearing) is an option.”

In response to questions, Ferentino said the employee can choose to have any hearing be private or public, that the timeline of an investigation can vary from a few days to “much, much longer,” and that board members would have the right to recuse themselves from a hearing if they felt they had a conflict of interest — one hypothetical suggested by an audience member was that a board member may have been present when the employee made certain comments.

The employee is not working with children and won’t be throughout the investigation, he added.

After a year of virtual-only meetings due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tuesday’s session was held in the auditorium with people allowed to attend as long as they wore masks and kept social distance from each other. It was also streamed and posted for later viewing on the district’s YouTube channel. There was clearly some pent up desire to be able to ask questions in-person rather than via email, as the meeting lasted nearly an hour, most of it taking in-person questions on non-agenda items after the agenda votes.

One person asked at length about consistency in requiring different levels of clearances for those who work with students, and Ferentino stressed the district is thorough in applying state requirements but said any specific concern should be brought to the district for review.

Several people criticized what they said was a lack of response by board members and the district to questions emailed during the pandemic, when in-person questions weren’t possible.

At least two people urged the board to repair the swimming pool in time for the next swim team season. The agenda had included, and the board approved, motions to develop and solicit bids to replace the pool filtration and humidification system.

And one person asked why the anti-nepotism policy had been rescinded during a previous virtual-only meeting. Board Member Toni Valenti, who had made the motion to rescind the policy without comment, said the policy committee “decided there are a lot of people related to the board or working here who are well qualified for the job, and if they are qualified why not get the job?”