Committee members walk out during Springfield School Committee meeting

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - Frustrations continued on Thursday at the Springfield School Committee meeting. Although the current and controversial search for the next superintendent was not on the agenda, tensions rose between committee members.

The Springfield School Committee has been on edge as members claimed a lack of transparency by the School Committee Chair and Mayor Domenic Sarno.

During Thursday’s public meeting, tensions rose yet again. This comes nearly two weeks after Mayor Sarno held a press conference calling out his Vice Chair, Joesiah Gonzalez, and following the public comment section of Thursday night’s School Committee meeting, Gonzalez expressed his grievances with Mayor Sarno.

He said, “I was absolutely disheartened that this very room was used two weeks ago for a press conference to chastise the majority of this body, to name call, including myself, petulant, childish, to call me a cheater, to call me that I’m trying to taint the system. The rules that we vote on in our organizational meeting state that we should not name call, says that we should not refer to each other in this manner, and I’m absolutely appalled that that happened.”

To bring you up to speed, the heart of the ongoing debate between the committee members lies on two key issues. Gonzalez is calling for student participation on the screening committee to interview and vote on candidates which was a part of the process a little over a decade ago. Gonzalez is also criticizing the process for applicants before their resumes make it to the screening committee. Gonzalez previously told us that the third-party screening process which weeds out candidates that they view as ‘not qualified’ does not allow the 13-member screening committee to review the completed applications to preserve public transparency

Gonzalez explained, “It perplexes me that there’s nothing on here to have a robust debate surrounding the matter that is so important to the community, the superintendent search.”

And Gonzalez, as well as several committee members, took the floor Thursday to express frustrations with Mayor Sarno and the school superintendent for allegedly refusing to put the topic on the agenda.

Mayor Sarno could be seen struggling to keep control of the bench throughout the meeting, as he works to get to the agenda items of honoring teachers and voting on field trips, Gonzalez finally had enough.

Gonzalez said, “Congratulations, my wife is an educator. You guys do amazing work. This is not against you. You deserve this evening to be celebrated but I simply cannot proceed. I export others. I don’t know how they can sit here and proceed with an agenda that does not reflect the desires of the people.”

Gonzalez, along with three other members walk out of the meeting. Leaving the fate of the Central High School ROTC’s world title up in the air.

It was explained, “Tomorrow, they’ve been invited for the first time in the history of the school to go to the World Competition in New Jersey. We have spent an enormous amount of money to give them this opportunity. The vote was supposed to take place tonight to send our kids to this deserved once in a lifetime competition.”

After a brief recess they were able to get one of the members back for a vote, which allowed them to approve Central High School ROTC’s trip to New Jersey, as well as celebrate the teachers who were there to receive their awards.

The final public meeting on the superintendent search is expected to be held on April 30th at Frederick Harris School, starting at 5 p.m.