Getting beyond the bickering: New chair wants school board to focus on education, not personalities

By Nick Grabbe
Staff Writer

Published on July 30, 2010

Rick Hood, elected to chair the Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee after the resignation of Farshid Hajir last week, admits that it's "too early" for him to head the board, four months after his election to it, but feels pressed into service.

"Circumstances warrant that I try to do it now," he said after his colleagues voted 5-4 to elevate him to the post.

Farshid, of Leverett, quit abruptly July 22 citing turmoil on the board. "I hope that my exit will help the community turn over a new leaf in its cooperation and set a tone of cordiality with the administration and bring a sense of teamwork that hasn't existed to the level the administration deserves," he said as he departed.

Hood said internal rancor has impeded committee members from focusing on educational issues for the last few months. It started in March with the traumatic resignation of Superintendent Alberto Rodriguez and the appointment of Maria Geryk as 16-month interim superintendent, and culminated last week with Hajir's resignation.

"I want to try to bring people together," said Hood, an Amherst resident. "It's all about focusing on the logic of what people are talking about and not worrying about their motives or who it is who is saying something."

Hood, 53, believes his experience in running a business will be helpful in his new role. He worked for almost 20 years in his family's boat-building business in Rhode Island, and supervised as many as 150 employees at a time. The business was sold in 2000 and he moved to Amherst in 2002 where he started a second career in web development. He has two children who graduated from Amherst Regional High School.

"We had an outside board of directors, and I know it's hard to hear advice from a board," he said. "The School Committee is like a board of directors for the superintendent. I understand how the superintendent might not always want to hear what the board is saying, and I can put myself in her shoes and communicate things from the board.

"My number-one goal is to make sure we all agree on what our goals are," he said.

After all the storminess on the Regional School Committee the last few months, it was not surprising that Hood's election as chairman was close and the process was questioned.

The 5-4 vote broke down with Hood and all the non-Amherst committee members voting for him and all the other Amherst members voting for Irv Rhodes, who is chairman of the Amherst School Committee. Geryk, who was acting as temporary chair, used a process that required each member to make his or her choice in turn, with no nominations or discussion. Several members said they expected to have a discussion.

"I am honored and privileged to have this opportunity," Hood said after his election.

Email messages among Regional School Committee members over the last few months illustrate the rancor and testiness that occasionally was evident at public meetings.

In a note Catherine Sanderson sent to Farshid Hajir on April 8, she referred to his "animosity" toward her. "You don't have to like me," she wrote. "I expect that you will show the maturity to move beyond your personal feelings about me in order to work effectively with me on behalf of all children."

Hajir wrote back saying, "It's quite possible that you have lost sight of your moral compass." He added, "I am weary of inappropriate pressure you will attempt to bear on me to get what you want." He also said that Sanderson's husband attacked him on a blog.

On May 12, Rhodes accused Hajir of "circumspect and dishonest parliamentary procedures" and urged that he resign. "I believe that your behavior and actions have severely damaged the ability of the Regional School Committee to effectively collaborate with each other and the school administration," he wrote. "I further believe that you have become a divisive force within the committee."

On June 1 Rhodes called the Regional School Committee "dysfunctional," quoting Webster's definition of the word. The symptoms are "rampant distrust and assigning of ulterior negative motives to one or more committee members by one or more committee members or administrators. This has to stop." And on June 15 he wrote to Pelham member Kathy Weilerstein objecting to her actions at a meeting. "Your behavior last night as exhibited by your calling out loudly while I was speaking was both rude and inappropriate. As a School Committee member, you of all people should have exhibited more professionalism instead of behavior that more properly belongs in a bar or sports stadium. I was deeply offended by this act." Weilerstein apologized.

Some of the contentiousness was evident in responses to Hajir's resignation last week.

Hajir said that Sanderson and fellow member Steve Rivkin are not happy with the pace of change. "... their level of control, and the way to bring it about is to foment discontent and disdain for the status quo." He said they have been "playing behind-the-scenes hardball politics."

Sanderson said that Hajir saw his role as chairman as supporting the administration rather than representing the interests of better education. "Farshid sees it as his responsibility to Maria to support her and protect her from demands, requests and changes in policy on the part of the School Committee," she said.

The resignation "gives the committee a better chance of moving forward in a more collaborative way," she added.

The committee has focused too much on personalities, said Rhodes. "Any time you look for who is right or wrong instead of what is right or wrong, you're on the wrong track," he said.

In fact School Committee members have attempted to address the tone of such emails. At a regional school committee retreat held the day Hajir resigned, the committee voted to ask Glenn Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, to conduct a workshop on norms of behavior at some point in the near future.