SAUGUS — Superintendent of Schools Erin McMahon, who has alleged the School Committee violated her contract and initiated arbitration proceedings, is planning to return to work on June 5 after more than five months on paid administrative leave, according to a letter sent by an attorney representing McMahon obtained by The Daily Item.
McMahon, the first woman to serve as superintendent, has been on paid administrative leave since January amidst an investigation into as-yet-undisclosed allegations of misconduct. She seemingly plans to return to work despite a lack of resolution to that investigation and no communication from the School Committee, which is responsible for overseeing the work of the superintendent, that she could do so.
Attorney Michael Long, who is representing McMahon, wrote in the letter addressed to Attorney Howard Greenspan, who is representing the School Committee, that “Superintendent McMahon is no longer willing to continue to remain absent from her work on what you have called a voluntary leave.”
School Committee Chairman Vincent Serino declined to comment, as he has repeatedly since Jan. 19.
The letter, dated May 24, provides far more detail about the series of events that led to McMahon’s leave in January than had previously been made public.
Long, the longtime general counsel to the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, wrote that the School Committee told McMahon on Jan. 19 that it would vote to put her on leave if she did not voluntarily step back from her duties.
“Faced in January with vague and unspecified concerns, and no choice but to attempt to preserve her reputation, the superintendent was coerced to agree,” Long wrote.
On Jan. 19, the committee said it would initiate an investigation into four topics, according to Long. While the specifics of those topics are unclear, an initial public statement from McMahon that evening hinted at allegations of financial mismanagement. Long said the committee has yet to provide “specific complaints” to McMahon.
Long went on to allege that the committee did not undertake an investigation. Instead, he wrote, it turned to Town Manager Scott Crabtree, who is not a party to McMahon’s contract and “exercises no legal authority over the office of the superintendent, her working conditions, or her contract terms.”
While Long did not specify the law firm tasked with investigating McMahon, he wrote that the firm was “previously to work as an advocate on behalf of the town, so the committee’s characterization of their work as ‘independent’ is, to be polite, self-serving.”
He did, however, describe a meeting between McMahon and an “Attorney Sousa.”
An attorney named Sarah E. A. Sousa is employed by Arrowood Peters LLP, a firm employed by Crabtree on several occasions in the past. In 2014, Crabtree employed Arrowood while seeking a surrounding-community designation for the town with regards to the then-proposed Wynn Resorts Casino in Everett, now the site of Encore Casino and Resort. The firm also represented the town in a civil service case in 2022.
In that meeting, McMahon provided Sousa with “hundreds of pages of documents” at her request. In the seven weeks since that April 6 meeting, “we have no news about the conclusion to the investigation, so-called, or her recommendations, if any,” Long wrote.
“Had the investigation discovered misconduct we should have been told of it. We have not been told whether the investigator has reported findings or recommendations to the committee. We have not been told whether the investigator reported findings or recommendations to the town manager,” Long wrote. “We remain confident that there are no grounds for discipline.”
Long, in a statement Friday afternoon, said the committee’s apparent failure to provide McMahon with written complaints or concerns represents a violation of her contract.
Long wrote that McMahon “remains stalwart in her commitment to Saugus students, parents, and educators. She looks forward to returning from leave.”
When she returns on June 5, McMahon intends to meet with former Saugus High School Principal Michael Hashem, who has been serving as acting superintendent of schools in her stead since being appointed on Feb. 2. Long wrote that McMahon will “work cooperatively with Hashem to transition back her responsibilities.”
The committee’s announcement of McMahon’s leave came exactly a week after she first proposed a $32.8 million fiscal year 2024 budget for the district. In the ensuing weeks, with McMahon on leave, the committee voted down that budget and slashed it by $1.2 million, cutting it to only level-service costs, or what was necessary to “turn the lights on” at the beginning of the school year.
The series of revelations come days after a School Committee agenda surfaced on the town’s website with the lone item of entering executive session to “discuss potential litigation and arbitration strategy AAA #01-23-0000-77763,” which appears to be the arbitration case filed by McMahon.
