Money for Nothing And Chicks For Free

(updated 6-6-13 2pm)

Fox 29’s investigative reporter Jeff Cole has a reputation as something of a pitbull when it comes to rooting out wasteful spending, fraud and abuse within government agencies, city bureaus, and local municipalities. So, last week when he called asking to get my perspective on aspects of his follow-up to the story he broke last fall about the extramarital affair and inappropriate promotion scandal at Methacton, I agreed to speak with him. The piece, which aired this week (here) revealed the terms contained in the separation agreements of, and cost to investigate, recently departed Methacton superintendent Timothy Quinn and soon-to-be departing Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment, Diane Barrie.

Cole showed me copies of the separation agreements for each, which he obtained via Right To Know requests, calling out several clauses of interest. In addition he showed me copies of the legal bills which gave the fees and costs incurred by the two law firms hired to conduct the investigation. I'll save you the trouble of requesting an RTK; you can view them here.

First, the clauses. The separation agreements were virtually identical;  both contained provisions in which the school board agreed ‘not to report’ the contents and findings of the investigative report to Pennsylvania state education and disciplinary officials. I’m not sure why, especially taking into consideration the significant legal expenses Methacton incurred to obtain the report, we would want to protect either of these two individuals’ careers. I get it that they have a right to make a living, preferably in their chosen fields; however, I suggested that perhaps it shouldn’t be in the public sector. These were both adults who made choices with known risks and consequences. Presumably they accepted those risks, one being that they may not be employable in their professions if anything went wrong.

Not only that, but the findings should be made public for other reasons. This investigation lasted 5 months. It doesn’t take 5 months to find and review merely sordid emails. The taxpayers deserve to know what else was going on…were expense accounts padded? Arguably school district property and resources were used.  It also goes to what kind of school board are we dealing with – what kind of oversight have they had? Why didn’t this come to their attention before a reporter uncovered it?  

Another concession Quinn and Barrie received was that Methacton agreed to issue them ‘neutral’ reference letters. Typically such a letter would include only the start and end dates of their employment, their titles, and their ending salaries. As above, I’m not sure why we taxpayers should care about protecting their careers when they themselves evidently didn’t. For example, If you were parents of children in the next school district that considers hiring Quinn, wouldn’t you want to know that in at least three other school districts, he has shown a propensity to spend school time and resources pursuing relationships with coworkers?

In a time when the tax dollars we use for education are stretched so thin, and the school district always wants to raise taxes, I think taxpayers want to feel a comfort level with how wisely those dollars are being spent and that school district employees will be fully focused on the education and welfare of our children. These days employers do their homework about potential employees on Facebook, Twitter, blogs etc. They expect to know what it is that they are getting into and what liabilities they may be taking on.

Second, the legal expense. In a time when the school district is again asking for a tax hike – the final percentage is still unknown at this time as a final budget will be adopted later this month - and Methacton is in the process of quietly negotiating a new teacher’s contract, Methacton spent a total of over $81,000 for the five-month investigation. $27,000 went to the firm of Dischell Bartle & Dooley, and $57,000 to the firm of Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellot. All this money was spent on a report which will never be released publicly. In fact, because Quinn and Barrie opted to forgo formal due process hearings and instead resigned, I understand that the school board itself would not even have seen the contents of the report that cost so much.  

As for the $81,000 report itself, Cole put in a Right to Know Request to obtain a copy, which was denied by Methacton, and denied on appeal to the Office of Open Records. Reports such as the one that obviously contained damaging information that Quinn and Barrie hoped would never see the light of day are considered an exemption under the Open Records law. That’s a loophole that I think should be rectified in future revisions to that Law. Anything that costs taxpayers that much money should be available to them, especially when you consider the things we’ve cut out of the school district budget in recent years that this money could have been better spent helping to fund – buses for extracurricular activities, the T-1 program….and again, I get it that they preferred not to go through the discomfort and spectacle of hearings about their behavior, but that is a risk they were evidently comfortable taking.

It’s maddening when you realize all of this could have been prevented, twice. The 2008 Methacton School Board was warned by residents even before Quinn was hired that he had known baggage…. a record of doing this in two other PA school districts, per numerous articles available to even a casual researcher on the Internet, yet he was hired anyway.

The second time they could have prevented a major expense regarding Quinn occurred in 2010 when he asked for and got his contract renewed early. I spoke out against it at the time. Had we let the original contract run with no early renewal, by the time the scandal came out last fall, Methacton would then have been well positioned to potentially not even do an investigation, but simply give him 180 days’ notice that it was not renewing his original contract and thus wouldn’t have had to pay out anything to say ‘sayonara’.

Added to the legal costs were the payouts to each to close out their contracts through the end of this year, as negotiated. $21,000 in paid time off ( PTO) benefits were paid out to Quinn and just under $500 in PTO benefits to Barrie (she apparently didn’t have much vacation time left on the books). All in all, the total cost to part ways exceeds $100,000. In the case of Quinn, that amount could potentially have been virtually zero.

School board directors often lament that many budget items such as pensions, fuel costs and unfunded federal and state mandates are out of their control. Let’s hope that going forward, our school board directors – most of whom were not in their positions when Quinn was hired – will exercise  due diligence when considering candidates for Quinn’s permanent replacement, because the costs in this instance most certainly were within their control to avoid from the beginning.   

 

The Young And The Restless

Updated 12/7/12 8:04 am

Fox 29 reporter Jeff Cole filed an update segment earlier this evening (here). The Methacton School Board is next scheduled to meet later today, at 7:30 pm.

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It's doubtful that even much-revered Methacton Community Theater could conjure up the kind of drama our school district has been generating in recent months and years, but you can bet that anything for which they produce and sell tickets is a work of fiction.

Unfortunately, truth is often stranger than fiction at our local school district, which serves both Lower Providence and Worcester Townships. Between the news in August that a 43 year old teacher (Sean McCullough) has been having an inappropriate relationship with a 17 year old student, to the prom drinking incident a couple years ago, to the controversy over the need for and costs of the turf fields and lights, to the former school board member going after a resident and/or his camera (depending whose version of that incident you believe) in a public meeting, you have to wonder what the next chapter at Methacton will bring.  

By now you've probably seen or heard about the Fox 29 investigative report (here) about controversial Methacton superintendent Timothy Quinn and their allegations that Quinn and a colleague, former English teacher Diane Barrie, have been conducting an extramarital relationship at work, on taxpayer-paid time, using taxpayer-paid equipment (cellphones, computers etc). The story also mentions pervasive rumours I've been hearing ever since Quinn landed here about past similar behavior during his tenure with at least one and potentially two other school districts, information at least one Worcester resident tried to no avail to bring to the school board's attention at the time. More information is available here.

It's unclear exactly how the story came to light. Did one of the betrayed spouses trip over the digital evidence and make sure it found the light of day, hoping for revenge or to gain leverage in an eventual divorce proceeding? (Since the Fox investigation began, I have confirmed that both couples have filed to dissolve their marriage; the Barries filed in late October of this year). Or did a disgruntled school district employee out the couple? The reporter had copies of emails evidencing intimate conversations between the two, and presumably only a small circle of people would have had access to any place those conversations could have been viewed.  Not that it matters in the grand scheme of things, but the source of the emails could put the allegations into perspective and lend to - or detract from - the credibility of the story. 


While cheating on one's spouse in the workplace is hardly a new phenomenon, neither is sending the occasional personal email from a work account, during the work day, and/or on employer-owned piece of equipment. You can discuss amongst yourselves whether or not evidence of an extramarital affair conducted by publicly paid employees on public time, using publicly paid for equipment, is worthy of scorn, especially when you consider that Quinn is alleged to have conducted himself similarly in past positions. I do know it's not behavior that a number of residents want to see from publicly paid employees during the days when their children and grandchildren are entrusted to their care, and it's certainly nothing that's considered setting a good example for our students to emulate in their adult lives. Arguably, those in public positions should conduct themselves according to a higher standard than most.

I do, however, believe there's a bigger issue here, one that Fox 29 reporter Jeff Cole seems to me to miss taking a deeper dive on, and that is, how and why exactly did Mrs. Barrie get the position she now holds?    

Now, I have met Mrs. Barrie. My son had her for English a few years back and she seems to be a nice lady. However, she has had a rapid and recent rise in title and salary.  She went from K-12 Reading/Title I and K-8 English/ILA Coordinator (after working at Arcola for 14 years as a 7th grade English teacher at Arcola) to being appointed to Acting Coordinator of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment on June 21, 2011 when the school board approved a change of status for her; the promotion was to be effective almost six months later, on December 12, 2011. With the promotion to acting coordinator, she was given an additional stipend of $2,500.

In April of this year, the school board approved a change of status from Acting Coordinator of Curriculum and Instruction to Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment, the position she now holds. This promotion was effective June 18, 2012 and carries a salary of $103,500.  

My understanding is that Mrs. Barrie's promotion was intended to be a replacement of sorts for the retirement of assistant superintendent Jane Martin, who retired effective February 17, 2012 (her retirement was accepted at the May 24, 2011 school board meeting).

In this and her 'acting' position, she reports directly to Quinn...and therein lies the rub (no pun intended). Did she receive her promotion because of her apparent personal relationship with Quinn? Were other candidates discriminated against because they did not enjoy a similar relationship? Could this revelation impact the disposition and potential damages paid out in other pending cases against the school district? Methacton has at least one current lawsuit against them alleging discrimination (Lena Sampson v. Methacton School District, filed in July 2011); Ms. Sampson is a former acting principal at Arcola who alleges discrimination and harrassment by Quinn due to a disability (more here); there have been others.

I don't know if Methacton has a policy against their (single) employees dating each other, but in the nonpublic employee world, dating your boss or subordinates is pretty much universally prohibited, if for no other reason than it tends to give rise to sexual harrassment claims. If it's not prohibited outright, it's generally not considered a smart career move for all kinds of reasons, not the least of which is what happens when you break up, although a surprising number of people meet their spouses in the workplace. For employees who are married to other people, well, I should think all of this would go without saying.

In the course of my political activities, I hear lots of complaints about Methacton School District in general and Quinn himself has not escaped criticism; I am aware that he's generally not well liked, and sources tell me there are even school board members that are not fond of him or stunts he's pulled recently.

A recent example given was that Quinn decided to appear before Lower Providence's Zoning Hearing Board alone, without counsel and apparently without authorization of the school board, back in June of this year, in case # Z12-02,  to seek variances for a 9' 9"x6' digital sign at Arcola, something that is not advisable given the hurdles one has to overcome to get a variance or other considerations approved and which are best navigated by an attorney. The ZHB denied the superintendent's request, and in September 2012 Quinn, allegedly without school board authorization, had school district counsel file an appeal against the Township in the Court of Common Pleas (docket #2012-24145, filed September 7, 2012). A search of school board minutes didn't turn up anything authorizing counsel to commence any court actions in this matter.

In addition to his apparent pursuit of 'afternoon delight', Quinn has evidently forgotten that he works at the pleasure of the school board, who work at the pleasure of the voters who elected them, and all are ultimately answerable to those voters. Quinn has no business playing footsie on the clock or going rogue on legal matters and should be held accountable, not given pay raises and contract extensions.

Yet inexplicably, in 2010 the school board not only opened up the superintendent's three-year employment contract a year early and handed him a raise, but they also gave him another 2% raise in July of this year. He currently earns approximately $175,000 a year plus benefits and bonus; Ms. Barrie, as I mentioned above, earns $103,500 plus benefits. Not that Mrs. Barrie's behavior is excusable, but she is the subordinate employee here.  

Am I the only one who recalls the fateful and tragic personal relationship in the 1979-1980 timeframe at Upper Merion High School involving principal Jay Smith and teachers William Bradfield and Susan Reinert? Reinert wound up dead, her children have never been found, and Smith and Bradfield did time in the slammer. Books were written and movies were made about the case. If ever there was a textbook cautionary tale against love and romance in an educational institution, that was it.

The next time Methacton wants to hit you up for more tax dollars, think about what these people earn and what they're doing all day, and also consider how much it costs every time the school district incurs legal fees to defend itself when scandals arise (two, count 'em TWO special counsel law firms were hired by Methacton in November to handle whatever legal issues arise from 'affair gate'). My understanding is that normally, the superintendent would investigate the claims and special counsel would represent the school district. In this instance, since the superintendent himself is the subject of the controversy, a second firm must be retained to do the investigation piece. Information from the Methacton School Board's official press release on the matter appears here. 

Are Methacton taxpayers getting their money's worth? It seems to me that the student dress code is the last thing the school board should be concerned with at the moment. 

Start showing up at school board meetings, communicating with your school board, and tell them you prefer drama and scandals be left to thespians, not school administrators and employees who apparently are "acting" the role of professionals instead of taking their responsibilties seriously.