Job candidate turns tables on Charter School trustees

Former Somerville school superintendent Dr. Albert Argenziano may have been the candidate, but it was his prospective employers, the Marblehead Charter School Board of Trustees, who found themselves on the hot seat Monday night.

Argenziano was making his third trip in a week to the Lime Street school to interview for the position of interim head of school and said that, each time he has visited, he has walked down the hall and noticed that the head of school’s office appears as if its occupant “has just run out to Dunkin’ Donuts for a cup of coffee.”

In reality, Head of School Thomas Commeret is currently suspended indefinitely with pay as he faces charges he assaulted a 14-year-old female student who allegedly caught him drinking in his office. Commeret was due back in Lynn District Court Thursday for a pre-trial conference. Commeret’s absence prompted the board to advertise a 12-month “interim head of school” position.

Trustee Pam Shorr explained that Argenziano had emerged from a pool of about 20 candidates who had submitted resumes for the position. An Interim Head of School Task Force composed of three parents, three board members and three faculty members interviewed five candidates for the job, and Argenziano was one of two to be unanimously recommended. The other candidate, Shorr explained, withdrew her name from consideration shortly before the final round of interviews.

After some initial questions about the candidate’s 42-year career and educational philosophy, trustee John McEnaney asked Argenziano how he would heal what has become a “fractured community.”

Argenziano implored the board to “come to grips” with Commeret’s status. He urged the board to “box and pack up” Commeret’s office and clean and paint it, suggesting the move would provide a much-needed “catharsis” for the school community. He said that, as a candidate, having Commeret still very much be a presence at the school was “confusing” to him.

“You need to move on,” Argenziano said. “The faster you move on, the better.”

When Argenziano returned to the idea of cleaning out the office later in the interview, trustee Jack Buba interjected.

“You do understand this is a one-year position, correct?” Buba asked.

Argenziano indicated that he understood, but he also articulated a vision for the long-term viability of the school throughout the interview. That vision included increasing the student population by perhaps as many as 100 students, perhaps adding classes in kindergarten through third grade. He noted that 100 additional students would each bring $10,000 to the school’s coffers under the state’s funding formula, a total of $1 million.

Argenziano added that he would seek to have the school draw from a wider geographic area than it does presently. He noted that parents will drive 40 minutes or more to provide their children a quality education, adding that there are many suffering public-school systems from which the Marblehead Charter School might draw, with Saugus being one prominent example.

But, he said, recruitment efforts would have to begin with regaining the public’s trust in the institution, a process he posited could take 18 to 24 months or more.

“Right now, you’re in Kenmore Square, close to Lansdowne Street, but you’re still not in the ballpark,” Argenziano said.

In his June 27 cover letter to the board, Argenziano wrote, “My career has included dealing with many difficult situations. I would welcome the opportunity to provide your school with stability and calmness.”

Those difficult situations included serving as an envoy for President Ronald Reagan’s State Department, setting up schools for American nationals and children of ambassadors in Mexico. Argenziano said he thoroughly enjoyed the near-decade he spent in Mexico, explaining that he returned to the States for a position as an assistant superintendent in Lawrence to tend to ailing parents. Argenziano then became superintendent of the Somerville schools in 1993 and remained in that position until his retirement in 2005.

Restlessness in his retirement led him to pursue a position working three days a week for the state’s Office of Educational Quality and Accountability, a job he still holds. Argenziano said that, at the time he arrived, his department’s services were viewed somewhat akin to coming downstairs for breakfast on a Monday morning and finding “your mother-in-law and an IRS auditor” sitting at the table. He took the job with the goal of having local school superintendents come to view his office’s services as more “technical assistance” than punitive. He also made it his personal mission to shorten – from three to four months to a matter of days – the time it takes for a superintendent to receive a draft of the district’s evaluation.

After being asked to discuss merit pay, “global studies” and his comfort level with working closely with students, among other topics, Argenziano was asked if he had any questions. He returned once more to a familiar theme.

“It all boils down to the same question: What is the status is of the director?” he said. “It has an effect on me. I have professional integrity, ethics and morals. I don’t want to take something away from someone.”

He added that no one had responded to his request for a school budget, and that there are other pieces of information about the school he has had trouble tracking down. But he was quick to add he had one overriding concern.

“It’s the same question I had last week, ‘Who’s in charge?’” Argenziano asked. “Do you have a director, or are you advertising for one?”

His question was met by silence from the board. After Argenziano was ushered out, acting board chairwoman Cathy Vaucher announced the board intended to go into executive session and would not return to open session.

The meeting culminated a busy month for the board, which began with the dismissal of three members of the school’s Finance Committee. Bill Anderson, John McIver and Todd Barbera were removed from the school’s FinCom for, according a statement read by Chairwoman Kay O’Dwyer, not “working in good faith to support the school.”

Not only had Anderson, McIver and Barbera declared their intention to withdraw their children from the school, but they had also failed to disavow comments Anderson had made at an earlier board meeting, charging Buba, the Finance Committee chairman, with misleading the board about the school’s finances. Anderson called the budget the FinCom had approved for the upcoming school year “meaningless” because it did not reflect the realistic possibility of decreased enrollment. He criticized Buba for implying that the FinCom had approved the new two-year contract that had been awarded to Commeret and also criticized how infrequently the FinCom had met and how behind the FinCom was in reviewing the school’s cash flow.

Rather than challenge those statements, O’Dwyer said that Anderson, McIver and Barbera, at a subsequent FinCom meeting June 29, made a motion to reaffirm Anderson’s comments. The motion also called for the resignation of the entire Board of Trustees and for Commeret’s pay to be halted and instead placed in escrow pending the resolution of criminal charges against him.

O’Dwyer also criticized McIver for purchasing an Internet domain, www.mccps.info, which sends users to the site www.mccpsinfo.com, a site which O’Dwyer said “at best can be described as less than supportive of the mission and the viability of the school.”

The trio’s ouster left the Finance Committee with four of its five members having financial ties to the school, either as employees or relatives of employees.

Then, on July 23, the board discussed but ultimately rejected changing the school’s charter to regionalize the school, which would have brought with it a name change to “North Shore Regional Charter School,” as well as an expansion of the school from 230 to 250 students. Buba, Acting Head of School Nina Cullen-Hamzeh and Bob Erbetta voted in favor, but the other four trustees in attendance — all relative newcomers to the board — rejected the idea, saying that there had been inadequate time to solicit input from the school community regarding such drastic changes.

The trustees also approved a $7,500 bonus for Cullen-Hamzeh for taking on Commeret’s responsibilities since the end of April. Teacher Pam Miller also resigned from the board, citing family reasons. She did, however, attend Monday night’s meeting, sitting in the audience as her prospective boss was interviewed.