Search begins for answers at high school resignations

FALLS VILLAGE — The initial meeting of the Region One Board of Education committee charged with investigating the abrupt resignations of the two top administrators at Housatonic Valley Regional High School was held last Friday, Aug. 20, at 4:30 p.m.

It featured some sparring over the committee’s mission and ended with the members saying they will recruit more members for a second meeting Thursday, Sept. 2.

At Friday’s meeting, the three Region One board members were Phil Hart, vice chairman of the Region One board and the representative of Cornwall; Gale Toensing, who represents Falls Village; and Jill Gibbons, who represents Salisbury.

Hart had agreed at a special meeting of the regional board Aug. 16 to get the investigative committee started.

At Friday’s meeting, he began by reiterating the board’s charge to the committee:

“As I understand it, the committee is to find an independent investigator and conduct exit interviews� with departed Principal Gretchen Foster and Assistant Principal Mary Ann Buchanan. The reasons for their resignations have not been publicly announced. Both women have taken jobs in the Torrington school district.

“It is not my understanding that we are investigating people,� Hart continued.

Referring to the controversy surrounding the resignations and the role played by Region One Superintendent Patricia Chamberlain and Assistant Superintendent Diane Goncalves, Hart said, “We’ve heard a lot of anger, opinion and judgment.

“Our job is to be impartial and look at the issues that led to the resignations. It will certainly bleed over into the people involved. But the job is not to investigate people.

“The committee is not the investigator. I will continue to remind the committee of that.  We will collect information and take it back to the Board of Education.â€�

Gale Toensing, who has been outspoken with her concerns over the matter, said, “Any investigation is going to involve people. To say we won’t investigate people is inaccurate.�

She agreed with Hart, however, that the actual investigation should be done by an independent party.

After some back and forth among Hart, Toensing, and Salisbury representative Gibbons (and an audience of about 40 persons), the next meeting date was established for Thursday, Sept. 2, 6 p.m.

Hart said that anyone interested in being part of the committee should contact him, Toensing or Gibbons. Hart also indicated he would like to see Ellery “Woods� Sinclair of Falls Village (a former HVRHS English teacher) on the committee.

Toensing also said if this committee’s work “is perceived as being biased and unfairâ€�  there are citizens ready to form a committee of their own and go to court.

Priscilla Belcher asked from the audience, “Are you agreeing to abide by the results of the investigation?�

Hart replied, “That will be up to the board.�

Toensing fielded the next question, which was about how effective the investigation can be if people interviewed are “afraid of retaliation.�

She responded that it is the committee’s job to define the scope of the investigation.

And HVRHS English teacher Damon Osora amplified his comments from Aug. 16. He said the heated rhetoric of the  controversy “has people convinced there is a hostile environmentâ€� at the high school.

“There is no hostile environment,� he said flatly.

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