As the Derby school board considers whether to weaken its nepotism policy, a former elected official is going public with her local cronyism experience.
Kathi Ducharme said she was offered a job as a paraprofessional in the school district in 1996, only to have the offer rescinded so the job could be given to a school board member’s wife.
It happened five years before the school board adopted a nepotism policy barring their immediate family members from being hired within Derby Public Schools.
Now the school board is considering eliminating that section of the nepotism policy. Ducharme said the school board’s nepotism rules should not be changed.
Ducharme contacted the Valley Indy after learning the school board violated its nepotism policy last month by hiring the school board chairman’s son.
Ducharme said if an immediate relative of a school board is applying for a job, the school board member should simply resign. Doing so eliminates the perception of cronyism.
“If not, there will always be that question,” she said. “The school board has to oversee teachers’ contracts and salaries. You can’t just sit back and say you had nothing to do with that.”
What’s Nepotism?
Nepotism policies are a first line of defense against backdoor politics and the so-called “good ‘ol boys” network.
The policies exist to reassure the public that public employees aren’t hired based on their relatives.
The same rules don’t apply to the private sector.
Anti-nepotism policies exist to prevent a public official from using the position for personal benefit or for the financial gain of his or her family.
The Derby school board’s policy — first adopted in 2001 and endorsed again in 2013 — bars the immediate family of school board members from being hired in the district.
While the school board violated its policy last month by hiring school board chairman Ken Marcucio’s son as a high school teacher, no one claimed Marcucio’s son wasn’t the best guy for the job or that Marcucio exerted undue influence.
In fact, he told the Valley Indy he offered to resign, but did not elaborate.
However, immediately after the vote, two school board members said the nepotism policy is outdated.
They said that barring the school board’s immediate family members from applying could prevent the best job applicants from being hired.
Ducharme said the rule should stand. She pointed to her experience in Derby as a reason.
“I think that is wrong because Derby has a history of hiring relatives,” she said.
You Had The Job, But …
Ducharme was born and raised in Derby.
Between 1999 and 2007 she was elected to the the Derby tax board and the board of education. She also served on the public library’s board of directors.
In the mid-1990s she was an active parent at the Bradley School. She was a member of the Parent Teacher Organization and a constant presence at Derby Board of Education meetings.
In about 1995 or 1996 — prior to becoming an elected official — Ducharme said she applied for a paraprofessional position at the Irving School. She passed through several layers of interview and then she said she received a letter from the district.
“I received a letter from (former Superintendent) Marty Gotowala commending me and welcoming me to the Derby school community and that I would begin my job,” she said.
But …
“Everything was fine, but then he called me and asked me to come to his office. He said the job was promised to someone else and that these things happen. He was very comfortable and I was very angry.”
Ducharme said the job went to an immediate family of then school board member Mark Domurad.
Wrong Superintendent
However, school officials Monday pointed out Ducharme’s memory of the incident is cloudy.
Gotowala wasn’t the superintendent in 1996 — he was hired in July 2000, while Ducharme was on the tax board. See editor’s note at the end of this post.
Nathan Chesler was Derby school superintendent for nearly 11 years, ending in 2000.
Ducharme said Monday evening she remembers having conversations with Gotowala, but apologized since the timeline makes that assertion impossible.
“Being involved as a was with the PTO at the time, I was in their office all the time. It could have been one or the other,” she said.
She said she kept the letter from the school district until a house cleaning about a year ago.
Ducharme stood by her statement that she was the victim of nepotism in Derby.
Public records from 1996 show a school board member’s wife was hired in March 1996, and the issue has been referenced in recent conversations on the current nepotism policy.
Policy?
Technically, the school board didn’t violate any policies in 1996, because they had no nepotism policy in 1996.
“I walked away with a sting, but I firmly believed that things happen for a reason, so I just let it happen. I never followed up to see if there was a policy put in place,” Ducharme said.
Derby schools created a nepotism policy in 2001, then voted on it again in 2013. The policies are common in Connecticut school districts, though Derby’s is among the tougher policies.
That’s for a reason, Ducharme said.
“It’s a good policy. Then there is the question of ‘Well, what if that person is more qualified?’ she said. “Then the relative should simply resign from the position, which is the best for all involved.”
Another View
Last June, the school board voted to hire Superintendent Matthew Conway’s wife as the district’s early childhood education director for $75,000 per year.
Two school board members voted against the hire. According to meeting minutes, one of the school board members cited policy issues as a reason — even though technically the superintendent isn’t subject to the board’s nepotism rules.
Jeanine Netto, an active school parent, said the school board needs to be consistent when it comes to their own policies.
Picking and choosing which policies to follow doesn’t cut it.
Netto said there have been a few issues where the school leaders have cited policy procedures when it comes to the color of athletic uniforms.
She questioned why rules about the color of uniforms are ironclad — but not the rules to prevent nepotism.
Netto said the policy should not be changed, especially since Derby is a small city.
If a board member’s immediately family member applies for a job, anyone reviewing the resume is going to know the person is a relative. The resume will have extra weight, Netto said.
“Come on. It’s going to be in their minds,” she said.
Netto is also angry because the school board violated its own nepotism policy last month — and there is no recourse for the public.
“There’s nowhere to go. There’s no ethics committee. The mayor won’t return my phone calls. They just violated their policy and no one will do anything,” Netto said.
Erase It
Actually, the school board is doing something — they’re considering erasing the troublesome part of the policy.
At a school board policy subcommittee meeting Tuesday (July 7), school board members Laura Harris and Andrew Mancini recommended the school board delete the part of the policy that prevents them from hiring their immediate relatives.
A copy of the current policy is embedded below. The article continues after the document.
Derby Nepotism Policy by ValleyIndyDotOrg
“Sometimes at graduation exercises, speakers tell our graduating students ‘Come back to Derby, give something back to Derby,’” Mancini said.
“Down the road there’s going to be situations where people are on certain boards, specifically the Board of Education, and that person who has all the qualifications will be omitted because he has a relative that’s on the board,” Mancini said.
Conway, the superintendent, said situations like last month’s were inevitable because Derby is a small city.
“You have a small, tight-knit community,” he said. “One of the great things about Derby that I fell in love with is that people are raised here, raise their families here, their grandkids are here, it’s a very tight-knit family-oriented community. With a board this large you may encounter situations like this.”
There are nine members of the Derby Board of Education.
Don Demanuel, a parent of three, spoke at Tuesday’s meeting and said that policies are in place to hold officials accountable, just as policies hold students accountable.
After the meeting Demanuel said the nepotism policy should stay unchanged.
“I think that policy is actually a very good one to protect the community,” he said.
Derby’s anti-nepotism policy comes from the Connecticut Association for Boards of Education (CABE).
The association recommends all school districts include a policy on nepotism.
At least 11 other school districts follow the same policy, word for word.
But other school board nepotism policies across the state allow hiring of family members. They require board members to publicly disclose relations with potential hires, and disqualify themselves from any vote on the matter.
Some state only that Board of Education members should not be employed by the district or gain financially from district contracts.In Ansonia, the Board of Aldermen are considering new personnel policies for city employees, including an anti-nepotism policy that forbids spouses, children, step children, grandchildren, parents, step parents, grandparents, siblings, half-brothers, half-sisters, aunts, uncles, first cousins, and in-laws from working in the same city department, having the same supervisor, or working in the same chain of command.
Mancini said that anti-nepotism safeguards would still be in place, even if the Derby school board eliminates the provision barring the hiring of immediate family members.
Part of the policy says they can be employed if the board member in question discloses the relationship during a public meeting.
“If you’re a parent you’d want the best candidate for your child in the school, I don’t care what their name is,” Mancini said.
However, when the school board hired Marcucio’s son, they didn’t put his name on the agenda to let the public know he was being considered.
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The Derby school board’s policy subcommittee is scheduled to discuss the issue again at a meeting scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Aug. 18 in the district’s central office, 35 Fifth St. in Derby.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Valley Indy erred by not checking to see whether Gotowala was the superintendent in the initial time period mentioned. Additional information under the “Wrong Superintendent” subhead was added to this story two hours after it was first published.
2015 08 18 Special Meeting-Policy
According to the school board policy, the following steps must be taken to change school board policy:
Adoption and/or Amendment of Board of Education Policies
Procedure for the adoption of a new policy or the amendment of existing policy shall be:
1. Upon referral to the policy committee, the committee will develop a statement of policy or change of existing policy based on the following:
a. Suggestions and requests from Board members;
b. Recommendations from the Superintendent of Schools;
c. Statutory requirements;
d. Citizen input as deemed necessary.
2. The policy committee shall present a policy statement, or revised policy statement, with its recommendations to the Board at a regular Board meeting. No action shall be taken at this presentation meeting.
3. The Board shall act on proposed policies at regular meetings of the Board at which time amendments to the policy proposals may be made and the policies approved if the changes are not a departure from the essence of the policy proposal; if the proposed changes are major, a policy should be brought back for a second review at the next regular meeting with a further recommendation from the Board’s policy committee. Proposed policy changes approved by majority vote of the Board shall take immediate effect.
4. For proposed policy statements, new or revised, because of changes or additions to Connecticut General Statutes or State Board of Education Regulations, approval may be given at the initial presentation.
Formal adoption of policies and/or amendments of policies shall be recorded in the minutes of the Board meeting. Only those written statements so adopted and recorded shall be regarded as official policies.
Additional reporting by Ethan Fry and Jodie Mozdzer Gil.
