New Pittsfield School Committee Squabbles Over ProtocolBy Joe Durwin, Special to iBerkshires
12:14PM / Tuesday, January 03, 2012 | |
 The Pittsfield School Committee was sworn in Monday night. |
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A less-than-jovial transition of leadership and questions over protocol characterized a "special meeting" swearing in for the Pittsfield Public School Committee on Monday night, in which Alfred Barbalunga was elected chairman despite some strenuous objection by former Chairwoman Kathleen Amuso.
Newly elected members of the committee were sworn in at the start of the meeting by City Clerk Linda Tyer, after which came the call for nominations for a chairman.
In an opening statement read before the committee, Amuso highlighted her accomplishments in that role before stating that she did not wish to be nominated as chairman at that time.
Barbalunga was nominated by James Conant, a motion seconded by Terry Kinnas, who also stated during discussion that both Amuso and Barbalunga had asked for his support back in July, which he believed may be a violation of the open meeting law. Conant and Kinnas were newly elected to the committee in November.
Amuso said she would not support Barbalunga's nomination because she did not believe he was the best choice for the position. She pointed to attendance as one factor in her decision, saying that of 43 meetings in the two years he had served, Barbalunga had missed 10. She continued that Barbalunga "has not been engaged" over the past two years and questioned his presence at the schools.
After his election as chairman, Barbalunga countered that he had actually attended 87 percent of meetings. He said attendance issues had been mentioned to him, and that he has altered his work schedule accordingly in the hopes of achieving 100 percent attendance this term. Barbalunga is chief probation officer for Southern Berkshire District Court. iBerkshires was unable to readily verify attendance of School Committee meetings due to the inaccessibility of the school system's website at press time.
"Obviously I would prefer a unanimous vote for chairperson, but that's OK," said Barbalunga. "Democracy is the most important value, it's critical that this process took place, and functioned correctly."
Committee veteran Daniel Elias, now in his eighth term, was unanimously elected vice chairman, with Katherine Yon elected secretary 6-1, with Amuso opposed.
More tensions arose over the procedure for dictating the seating arrangement for the newly sworn in committee.
"Unlike the City Council, there's no such mechanism for drawing seats as you may have seen this morning," said Barbalunga, referring to Monday morning's municipal inauguration. "This is yet another matter we'll address in the future utilizing charter commission review."
Barbalunga said the chairman would take the liberty of assigning membership and cabinet seats "based on charter mandates, present policies, and operational concerns."
Superintendent Howard "Jake" Eberwein and Amuso both questioned this step, pointing out that the committee's procedural documents indicate that aside from the seats of chairman, vice chairman, and secretary, which must be together, the rest of the seats are in fact to be drawn by lot, but that the committee has decided collectively not to observe this method in the past. Amuso was adamant that it was up to the committee, and not the chairman, to decide if seats would be taken based on something other than such a drawing.
The seating arrangement dictated by the chairman was then put forward as a motion by Elias and passed by the committee.
Former School Committee member and newly elected City Councilor Churchill Cotton was also in attendance as a member of the public.
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