Committee gets details of contract to investigate handling of Gorton teacher

Matt Bower
Posted 4/30/15

Although the School Committee met on Monday night to approve the superintendent’s recommended fiscal year 2016 budget, prior to the budget the committee discussed the contract for attorney Vincent …

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Committee gets details of contract to investigate handling of Gorton teacher

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Although the School Committee met on Monday night to approve the superintendent’s recommended fiscal year 2016 budget, prior to the budget the committee discussed the contract for attorney Vincent Ragosta, who was hired to investigate whether the administration properly reprimanded science teacher Mario Atoyan for allegedly drawing inappropriate images on students approximately 18 months ago.

School Committee member Bethany Furtado began the discussion, saying while the committee voted to hire Ragosta, it had not voted on contract terms and she was seeking cost information as well as where the funding was coming from.

School Committee Chairwoman Jennifer Ahearn said as part of the committee’s vote to hire Ragosta, it was also established that Ahearn would be the point person between Ragosta and the committee, granting her the authority to engage in discussions and a contract with Ragosta, which she said she has been doing for the past four weeks.

“You’re coming to me now after the fact. It was discussed that his rate would be $285 per hour. The scope is that he’s currently investigating what transpired with Atoyan in 2013,” Ahearn said. “I would think the money was coming from the current budget and the projected surplus.”

Furtado continued, “Did we enter into an actual contract, as far as him being on retainer? I’m asking the question for public knowledge in the spirit of being transparent.”

Ahearn said she has a letter of engagement, which she signed off on, negotiating what an appropriate investigation would entail and that she would send it to the rest of the School Committee members, who have not yet seen it, as well as Chief Budget Officer Anthony Ferrucci.

Rosemary Healey, director of human resources and legal counsel for the school department, said Ahearn signed the letter on behalf of the school committee, not herself.

“I can’t guarantee that the letter of engagement is not a public document without having seen it first,” she said. “The question is, does it fall within the request for public information act?”

Ferrucci said the money to hire Ragosta is coming from the legal services line item, which currently has $100,000 remaining.

“If that is spent, we would need to tap into the projected surplus,” he said.

Ahearn said Ragosta was hired for four weeks, and if he works 40 hours a week at $285 per hour, it would result in a total of $45,000.

“I don’t know what the scope of the work will look like,” she said. “We have not yet received a bill from the attorney.”

Ahearn said she previously communicated with Ferrucci regarding the payment for Ragosta.

Ferrucci interjected at this point.

“You said you would forward me the engagement contract so I could start the encumbrances, but I never received anything from you,” he said.

Ahearn said nothing was sent because, at the time of that discussion, Ragosta had not been hired and she didn’t have any numbers to send.

“He usually bills bi-weekly, but because the investigation would only be a month, he said he would bill us at the end of the month,” she said.

Ragosta is set to deliver his findings to the School Committee during an executive session meeting on May 11.

The second item on Monday’s agenda was discussion of Andrew Henneous and the terms of his representation and contract. Henneous was hired to assist with teacher contract negotiations.

“Have we engaged Henneous? Do we have a contract, payment terms, etc? When will he start? How long is he engaged by us? In what capacity?” Furtado asked.

Ahearn said the hourly rate for Henneous is $185 but the department has not engaged his services yet.

“I communicated with him today and he can speak to us about terms of engagement at the executive session meeting on May 12,” she said.

Healey pointed out that during that meeting, teacher layoffs will be discussed, which usually consumes a large portion of the meeting, and that there’s also an open session meeting following the executive session portion.

Ahearn said the committee could start the executive session early at 5:30 p.m. and start the open session at 7:30, if executive runs over, to allow extra time to talk with Henneous and handle teacher layoffs.

Committee member Terri Medeiros asked if money to pay Henneous would come out of the current budget.

“If his services continue into the next school year, what happens?”

Ferrucci said if he performs services in June but bills the department in July, the money would have to come out of this year’s budget, but if the services are performed in July or after, payment will come out of next year’s budget.

In other committee news, a public workshop will be held on Tuesday, May 5 in the Toll Gate High School cafeteria at 7:30 p.m. between the School Committee and Symms Maini & McKee Associates (SMMA), the consultant hired to study the district and recommend a long-term facilities plan.

Ahearn said Superintendent Richard D’Agostino will participate and she’s also inviting Mayor Scott Avedisian, or a representative in his place, as well as one other individual that she would not disclose. She said this will be the first of four total workshops to be held with SMMA, and while the public is invited to attend and will have an opportunity to comment at the end of the workshop, Ahearn asks that if those planning to comment, make sure to arrive for the beginning of the meeting so they don’t miss any information along the way.

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  • wwkvoter

    Only 45,000? Bargain, buy two! After all, it's only only about 20 Warwick homes entire annual tax bill.

    Saturday, May 2, 2015 Report this

  • wwkvoter

    Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian told the Warwick Beacon that he’d looked into moving the water tower, but it came with a price tag of $58,000, which he said the city couldn’t accept.

    Saturday, May 2, 2015 Report this