LYNNFIELD — Residents spoke out during a School Committee meeting Wednesday night, once again calling for Committee member and former Chair Kate DePrizio’s resignation.
Phil McQueen, former committee member, began public participation with what he referred to as “facts” and “data” dating back to March 2021.
“In order to more fully understand the dire situation we are in now… we need to take a trip back in time,” McQueen said.
He referenced the School Committee election in 2021, series of email threads, and statements made at various School Committee meetings that he felt assisted in making his argument for DePrizio to step down.
Chair Kristen Elworthy interrupted McQueen and reminded him to keep his comments relevant to the current School Committee’s purview.
He directed his comments to the School Committee meetings on Sept. 11 and Sept. 24, and asked the current committee members to state their positions on DePrizio’s actions at the Sept. 11 meeting, specifically as they pertained to Committee member Jamie Hayman.
“It’s time to step up and do the right thing and make the hard choice of stating your position on what Kate has done. And if you think she has done the wrong thing, you should ask her to resign,” McQueen said. “Kate, enough is enough. Can you please resign?”
According to DePrizio, public records between her, the superintendent, and School Committee Chair during the time period McQueen referenced are available and provide she followed protocol.
“All the documentation on these things exists. So it’s one thing to say that you don’t like the way I went about it, but to say that I broke protocols or lied, I adhered to all these protocols,” DePrizio said. “And as far as the issue of Mr. Hayman, the chair has said that we are moving on.”
Elworthy reminded residents she addressed the incidents at the Sept. 11 meeting once she became chair at the Sept. 24 meeting.
Heather Rose, who was the first member of the public to call for DePrizio’s resignation at the Sept. 24 meeting, once again called for her resignation.
“The former chair of the Lynnfield School Committee, an elected official, created an appearance of impropriety by willfully deceiving her constituents and local law enforcement with false claims and allegations, and more egregiously, negatively impacted the mental health of minors who are also students in the district,” Rose said.
She referenced the committee’s recently-adopted operating protocols, which its members voted to approve at the Sept. 11 meeting.
“The obvious issue here is that none of you are following the protocol because you are not holding Mrs. DePrizio accountable for her actions,” Rose said. “You are, in fact, setting a precedent… that the chair of the Lynnfield School Committee, or any member for that matter, can deceive constituents and law enforcement, make false allegations to inflict harm on others, and harm the mental health of students in the district without taking any responsibility for wrongdoings and without being held accountable for their actions by their fellow committee members.”
