Swampscott school board confident in superintendent

SWAMPSCOTT – Despite the teachers union’s vote of no confidence in Superintendent Matthew Malone, the School Committee has confidence in his ability to lead the district.Monday afternoon the Swampscott Education Association (SEA) voted 138-6 to announce that it has no confidence in Malone. The School Committee responded with a press release of its own Friday morning.”The Superintendent has full confidence and support of School Committee,” the press release reads. “Malone has the full support of the Swampscott School Committee and we believe his leadership and the cooperation of the SEA will be critical as we navigate through challenging economic times.”Four School Committee members voted in favor of the vote of confidence, but School Committee member Neil Bernstein said he chose to abstain from voting because there are areas he does not have “full confidence” in Malone.”There are some areas in which (I have) full confidence,” he said. “There are other areas I don’t have that level of confidence in. I have been concerned with his communication with the public and faculty. That is my most serious problem with vote of confidence. I have serious misgivings about the way he deals with people. He has a pattern of intimidating behavior. I’m not ready to fire the guy, but I do have some concerns.”School Committee Chairman David Whelan said he believes there was an expectation from Malone that the School Committee should step forward and say something, which led to taking a vote of confidence.”I believe we need to let Dr. Malone know what we feel about the job he is doing,” he said. “Quite frankly two months ago he received a good job evaluation. I think he has handled the process of layoffs last year and this year reasonably well.”The press release issued by the School Committee continues by saying, “As the elected board responsible for overseeing the Swampscott Public Schools, we appreciate the hard work and dedication of the teachers employed by the district. However, the School Committee does maintain a divergent view of the merit and spirit of the Swampscott Education Association’s public communication dated June 23, 2008.”Bernstein was very critical of the statement issued by the SEA.”I have extreme disappointment in the actions of the SEA,” he said. “The SEA did not even provide the School Committee with a copy of its press release. We had to obtain that from the media. The statement issued by the SEA was very poorly written.”Whelan said he shared Bernstein’s concern that the statement was never directly sent to Malone or the School Committee.”The appropriate thing to do would have been to give us a copy of the letter,” he said.Whelan added the School Committee has asked Malone to respond to points brought up in the SEA statement by July 21.”With the exception of personnel matters, we’d like him to respond to questions raised regarding the administration,” he said. “It is the official position of the School Committee, consistent with state law, that any and all dialogue related to contractual and personnel matters will not be discussed in public.”