LETTER: Tiano Comes to Framingham 'Saddled With Baggage'

The following is a letter sent to the Framingham School Committee, and subsequently sent to Framingham Patch as a letter to the editor:

First, I do want to acknowledge my gratitude for your collective efforts and your willingness to put so much time and effort into the Framingham School System. Without your efforts and dedication one of the main cornerstones of our community – the schools – would be rudderless and certainly less robust.

However, I have now had the opportunity to watch the broadcast of the special School Committee Meeting from Monday and with the exception of Beverly Hugo and Eric Silverman, and I am deeply disappointed in the actions of the School Committee members.

Many of the members who voted to accept the candidate said you did so because you believed the “process had been followed”.

I ask, since when is a process being followed correctly the primary consideration for the optimal fit of a candidate?

Dr. Tiano obviously arrives at our door with some questionable issues, some of which I personally did not find an issue contrary to some of my fellow community members (clearly Dr. Tiano’s inability to discuss the issue of the teacher in his district who was under investigation was not within his control), I found his unwillingness or inability to answer some fairly direct questions posed to him during the Q&A session was deeply concerning.

As a mere member of the community and NOT someone who has the inside information and knowledge as to how candidates were vetted, I am surprised that his responses Monday night were satisfactory to YOU, Mr. Kelly, Mr. Taggert, Ms. Connolly, Ms. Brosnahan and Mr. Stockless.

Either Dr. Tiano believes in transparency and thus would have responded with more clarity and alacrity or his skills are lacking and thus it falls to you, the School Committee, to seek someone with the skill sets essential to the position.

For instance, when Kim Comatas asked specifically about communication, Dr. Tiano’s response was that he would work “with the protocols” even though a cursory discussion in an interview for this position should have revealed that those protocols are insufficient or in disrepair.

When Sarah McKeown, Co-President of the Framingham Teachers Association, raised the issue that she had reached out and had contact with the Chelmsford Teachers Association to do her own due diligence and learned that a paradigm of favoritism and divisiveness was fostered under the aegis of Dr. Tiano,

Dr. Tiano did not comment saying that “no question was asked”.

A candidate who has nothing to hide and had a genuine interest in presenting himself as the best candidate surely would have addressed Ms. McKeown’s comments.

To have dismissed the opportunity to explain or otherwise assuage the concerns of the co-leader of one of the most important, if not THE most important, body in the Framingham School System smacked of arrogance, dismissiveness and a complete lack of empathy for the concerns that were presented.

Furthermore, The HR director admitted in the meeting that none – not one – of the principals of the elementary schools, who will be under the supervision of Dr. Tiano, were able to meet him in formal meetings.

Does that not seem outrageous to you “yes” voters?

Would you have been accepting of not being able to at least meet the person to whom you will be reporting? Perhaps that wasn’t part of the “process”?

When asked by Deb Horowitz what, with his “looking at Framingham with fresh eyes”, he would address first he was unable to give succinct and specific examples, implying that he had either not yet identified or was unwilling to share what his thoughts were about where he felt Framingham could use improvement.

I know, were “I” to interview for a position and had not, by all evidence presented, done even cursory research into the needs of the position, I know that I would most likely be removed from the list of people who would be deemed qualified to move forward.

Linda Dunbrack was unable to elicit from Dr. Tiano a definitive number of successful hires he had secured in his own district. Given the history of unstable hires in our own district, to me this seems to be a fairly blatant red flag.

Dr. Tiano certainly has his fans and his strengths. He is clearly not an evil guy. But he comes saddled with baggage that “represents some of the largest concerns that currently exist in our district”.

Surely he can’t be the BEST person we can attract.

Apropos of nothing other than discussion of “the process” I also question why knowing whether or not Dr. Tiano was one of the three candidates moved forward from the search committee was “inappropriate” as per the HR person.

With the lengthy discussion from Dr. Tiano about his history of transparency, I fail to see why this was not able to be revealed.

And I think it would have been helpful for us, as voters, taxpayers, property owner and parents, how the HR director influences the process and vets candidates for any position.

Given her reluctance to be willing to share what should have been pretty straightforward information, it begs the question of her competency and communication skills in other areas.

I have done a considerable amount of research on school committees’ freedoms and restrictions, as alluded to by Dr. Silverman. And I do realize that there are labyrinthine rules to be followed. That said, none of those rules preclude the School Committee from withholding votes based on being unsure of whether or not a candidate is the best fit.

That brings me back to my second paragraph – just because a process has been followed appropriately does not mean that the conclusion must be acceptance of a candidate.

It is time that Framingham – all of Framingham – works to seek and secure what it deserves and not accept what it can get.

I am so very disappointed that this candidate was voted in and having watched the process that was transparent to us in the community I have to question the commitment of some of the School Committee members – again with the exception of Beverly Hugo and Eric Silverman - to bring us what we deserve.

Brenda Crawshaw

Framingham