Stoughton School Committee to Vote March 14 on Whether to Censure Member Erdem Ural

Originally put forth as an agenda item for Tuesday's Stoughton School Committee meeting, the Committee will now consider censuring one of its own members, Dr. Erdem Ural, at a special meeting scheduled for Thursday, March 14. 

Towards the end of Tuesday's meeting, School Committee chair Deborah Sovinee in explaining the reason she was delaying the discussion of a possible censure until the 14th, said that she wanted "to be completely transparent in this manner," and "extend the courtesy [Ural] has never extended us" so he could go over materials related to the possible censure. 

These materials were made available to the media. 

In detailing why the Committee is considering a censure - a public condemnation - Dr. Ural is accused of:

• Exceeding authority and insulting staff and opening the School Committee to legal liability.

• Creating dysfunction within the School Committee and wasting taxpayer dollars on endless legal complaints against the School Committee and Administration. 

• Submitting a rogue evaluation of the Superintendent [Dr. Marguerite Rizzi].

"Dr. Ural is a rogue member of the School Committee who continues to do great damage to his own board, the staff and the students of Stoughton, but much worse, he has damaged a School District that has much to be proud of, denigrating the efforts of everyone involved, most especially the students," this summary document states. 

"He has exceeded his School Committee authority and responsibilities," it continues. "He tramples on the work and ideas of his board and has damaged the reputations of other board members and staff through personal smears and allegations. He has placed his own interests above the good of the School District. He has violated codes of conduct as laid out by the Massachusetts Association of School Committees – which oversees School Committee training by State Law."

Dr. Ural was first elected to the School Committee in 2008, and served a single term, defeated in a bid for reelection in 2011. However, he ran again in 2012 and won back a seat on the Committee, defeating longtime member Allan Mills. Ural is near the end of the first year in this current three-year term.

"A vote of censure would demonstrate the fact that my fellow School Committee members do not like me," Dr. Ural wrote in an statement emailed to Stoughton Patch. "Chairwoman Sovinee wrote to me [Tuesday] morning explaining 'The agenda items put you on notice that youroutlier behavior will not be tolerated.' In my view, this is another bullying attempt to silence me from doing my job as an elected public official."  

The summary document providing a case for censure, outlines a long list of alleged wrong-doings. 

In the summary document, Sovinee writes, "the final straw for the Chair asking for this action, was an email that Dr. Ural sent to the entire administrative team of the District calling one of the principals a liar."

The email [which can be found here] went to the principals with no permission granted by the Superintendent, the Chair, or the Committee to contact them in this manner. He has no right to caution them, berate a colleague to them, or instruct them in this way.

The subject of this communication was a toy gun that was brought to the school in a backpack. It was determined to be a toy by the police and this information was relayed to the school principal. The principal acted in concert with the police, and relied upon information provided. Dr. Ural took it upon himself to publicly reprimand this principal and make untrue statements about the incident, which were inflammatory, to frighten parents. He then followed up by sending the email out to parents at the West School and reading his letter publicly on TV. He contacted neither the School Committee Chair nor Superintendent before taking this action.

Dr. Ural is accused of costing the town more than $16,000 in fees for "continuous legal complaints and threats," many of which are open meeting law complaints. He is also criticized for inappropriate behavior during contract negotiations with the teacher's union for giving away School Committee strategy - and was removed from the bargaining team as a result, the summary document states.  

His website, 02072.org, which contains many school related documents and email correspondence, was criticized for only containing "negative critical statements about the Stoughton School System" - "It has been described to the Chair by members of the community as 'horrendous.' It is certainly offensive and extremely damaging to the town as well as members of the School Committee and staff," the summary document states. 

He is also accused of "smearing the reputation of one of the finest education attorneys in the state." This stems from a letter Dr. Ural wrote to Regina Tate of Murphy Hesse Toomey & Lehane saying she "crossed the conflict of interest line" by advising Superintendent Rizzi to get the School Committee to amend an error in her contract [click here for the letter]. Tate responded saying she had never been accused of a conflict of interest in 34 years of work and defended her position to the School Committee. 

In the summary document, Sovinee notes she is "the fifth consecutive Chair to call [The Massachusetts Association of School Committees] on a regular basis for advice concerning Dr. Ural’s outlier behavior."

But Dr. Ural says that he takes "pride in thinking independently from other school committee members." 

"I wish my fellow school committee members took their responsibilities more seriously and have the school committee harness the administration better," he wrote in an email. "Instead, they appear more interested in silencing the lone dissenting voice within the committee."

Ural writes "I will not be silenced because:

1) The safety of our schoolchildren is paramount, and I do not want the incidences of guns in schools to be swept under a rug.

2) I take the improvement of achievement of every student in Stoughton very seriously. This can happen only after we examine all the achievements honestly and impartially. After all, celebrating isolated anecdotal successes may be good enough to buy a contract extension and a huge raise for the superintendent. But, I am wary of the false sense of security this creates among the key stakeholders.

3) I do not want a school administration that will set a poor role model to our children (and incur costs to our Town) by lying, withholding information, twisting facts or deliberately breaking the law.

4) I do not want the School Administration to play Russian Roulette with the local aid money.

5) I want a school administration that will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

"I do not care if the local media and the school committee are more interested in highlighting the good news and censoring the bad news," he wrote. "This attitude only puts a higher responsibility on my shoulders to demand accountability, fiscal responsibility, transparency, and common sense from the School District Administration."

Sovinee sees it differently, and writes in the summary document: 

"I have delayed for months laying out to the School Committee and the public the full picture of how increasingly difficult Dr. Erdem Ural’s behavior has become, how he has damaged the reputations of many fine people both on the School Committee, School Administration and staff, and how worst of all he has damaged the reputation of our town’s greatest asset, it’s school system. The most critical responsibility of a School Committee is to safeguard the public’s trust in public education. 

"Through myriad actions which I have laid out, Dr. Ural has undermined that trust, damaged the school district’s reputation, the trust in the school committee and administration, and the reputation of our town. I am now asking for a public condemnation of Dr. Ural’s actions through a censure by the School Committee."

The issue will be further discussed March 14. 

Several documents supporting a case for censure, as well as the full response from Dr. Ural, are posted in the media gallery of this article. Columnist Mark Snyder's take on the situation can be found here.