By JAMES MADDEN
Chariho School Committee member and Hopkinton resident Bill Felkner was under some heat at the last school committee meeting.
Felkner feels the school committee criticized him because of his open opposition to the passing of the $26 million bond to improve and renovate Chariho’s Switch Road campus, which is up for vote this November.
“Normally, you will see a group of dedicated individuals from Charlestown, Richmond and Hopkinton, all trying to do what’s best for the kids. But at the most recent meeting, you found certain members of the board doing the exact opposite,” wrote Felkner on his website.
One criticism against Felkner was based on his numerous requests of Chariho School Supt. Barry Ricci to provide information concerning the arrests totals at the Switch Road campus.
“In my opinion, you don’t send an e-mail asking Mr. Ricci to do this and do that,” said School Committee President Bill Day. “You can’t unilaterally get information. You can make a request.” Felkner said he began putting in requests to Ricci after a cookout this past Father’s Day when a parent asked him about two arrests that had just taken place at the Switch Road campus.
“I was embarrassed to say that I had no knowledge of the incident,” said Felkner. He then sent an e-mail to Ricci on July 20 asking why the school committee wasn’t notified about the two arrests and he requested that Ricci notify the school committee of all future arrests. He also asked for a list of the previous year’s arrest totals.
According to Felkner, Ricci responded by saying he only notifies the school committee when a “major” incident occurs and that only the school committee, as a whole, has the power to get the information.
“I responded that as a parent, I want to know,” said Felkner who added that he and Ricci continued to go back and forth for a while longer on the issue.
On Tuesday, Ricci said Felkner has every right to make requests.
However, Ricci said that whenever he provides information, it’s for the entire committee, which is what he did. For the Sept. 11 meeting, Ricci provided details on 38 arrests to the entire committee. “What I told Mr. Felkner is that the information is going to have to go to all committee members,” said Ricci. “That’s what I’ve always done, that’s what I’ll always do… That’s fair, isn’t it?” School Committee member Terry Serra had a different take on it. “I don’t understand why the request was made for the arrest records. In my opinion it’s to cast a negative shadow on Chariho,” she said. She also referred to a comment Felkner made saying he would never have his kids attend school at the Switch Road while the arrest totals are so high.
“I’m really sad that your wife doesn’t have enough confidence in you that you can rectify this situation before your kids are at the main campus,” Serra said to Felkner. “I take offense to the fact that you didn’t go to the extreme to find the arrest records of any other districts.”
Upcoming bond
The other issue school committee members took Felkner to task for was a comment he made on his website about Chariho Building Committee member Doreen Dolan.
“I believe it was entirely inappropriate for you to insinuate in a sarcastic manner that she would be somehow motivated to assist the district for financial purposes,” said School Committee member Andrew McQuaide.
On his website Felkner wrote that Dolan’s family business, which is construction related, could possibly profit if the bond passes.
Felkner told McQuaide that if he finds anything inaccurate or unfair about the information he’s presented on his website he will correct it, but otherwise he won’t stop providing what he considers pertinent information to the public.
School Committee member Holly Eaves told Felkner he should abide by the committee’s rules of conduct and that Dolan, “didn’t deserve the disrespect.”
Eaves also said, “Your writing style very simply has mistrust and spin. It’s like reading a novel.”
Executive session
The third issue members of the school committee took Felkner to task for was divulging information from an executive session meeting.
The issue began with discussion about whether or not fifth and sixth graders are better off at the elementary school level.
According to Felkner, Day and Polouski criticized him during an executive session meeting for sending a letter to the newspapers refuting a letter previously sent by Ricci. Ricci supports keeping the fifth and sixth graders at the middle school level and Felkner presented a study supporting the kindergarten through sixth grade model.
“I take offense when we sit in there and you try to have an executive session meeting because Barry Ricci feels I’ve infringed on his integrity,” said Felkner. Days after the meeting,
Ricci said, “Executive session minutes are either sealed or not sealed” and Felkner was in the wrong to discuss what happened during executive session.
As the conversation heated up, Day made sarcastic comments about Felkner.
Day said, “The gentleman [Felkner] is always right,” and, “You’re certainly a lot better school committee member than the rest of us sitting here.”
In one response Felkner said, “The only complaints I get are from members of this school committee and members of the building committee. I get a lot of support from parents.”
Day also criticized Felkner’s website by saying, “The times I’ve forced myself to look at it you probably had three people that communicate with you on a regular basis.” In response, Felkner said that at the most he gets one posting a day on his website, but that daily he get at least 100 hits.
Despite the rash of criticisms, Felkner said he would remain undeterred.
“You’re not going to restrict my first amendment rights to inform the people about what’s going on,” said Felkner during the meeting. “I won’t back off of my defeat of the bond because I think it’s a big mistake, and I won’t back off on bringing fifth and sixth graders back because I think that’s a big reason why we had a 108 arrests.”
Last week, Day said, “He’s dangerous,” referring to Felkner. He added, “I thought we were very professional” during the meeting.
Two school committee members stuck up for Felkner. One was Giancarlo Cicchetti who said, “I think when we discuss things in terms of a team concept I think we should speak more generally than personally.” The other was Bob Petit, who said he agreed with Felkner’s request of the arrest records.
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