Next Step For Complaint Over Wayland Schools Meeting On Agenda

WAYLAND, MA — The Wayland School Committee will meet Wednesday for the first time since the members voted to place Superintendent Omar Easy on involuntary leave.

Along with public updates from newly appointed acting Superintendent Parry Graham — who recently accepted an offer to take over as superintendent in Lincoln — the committee will hold a closed-door executive session with a long list of topics.

The committee will consider whether to release executive session minutes from a series of meetings held in early 2022. Those closed-door meetings covered a range of issues, from negotiations with the Wayland Teachers Association union to discussions over the performance of district employees.

The committee will also discuss a complaint lodged in February by resident and former select board member George Harris. He has accused the committee of violating the state Open Meeting Law during a Feb. 8 executive session meeting. The meeting was advertised as a discussion of "strategy with respect to litigation" and arbitration involving the school committee. But Easy has said the committee used the executive session meeting to vote on placing him on leave.

The committee has not spoken publicly about either the Easy decision or the Harris complaint since Feb. 8, except to release a statement after Easy filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD).

"As this is a pending legal matter, we are unable to comment on the specific allegations. However, the school committee wishes to reiterate that the Wayland Public Schools seeks to foster a welcoming, inclusive, anti-racist environment; our actions have and will continue to demonstrate a commitment to those principles. We are asking the members of our school community for their patience during this time," the statement read in part.

The committee's executive session agenda also includes a bargaining session with the WTA, bargaining with non-union employees and a discussion on arbitration involving the committee.