Wayland Still Pays Omar Easy, Now A Penn State Athletics Director: Records

WAYLAND, MA — Former Wayland superintendent Omar Easy continues to receive his six-figure salary 15 months after the school committee placed him on administrative leave, even now that he has secured a new job at Penn State University, town records show.

According to payroll records, Easy has been receiving $8,261.54 in gross pay and benefits twice per month since the school committee placed him on leave in February 2023, totaling about $270,000. Records show the last payment was made April 18.

Wayland School Committee Chair Erin Gibbons confirmed this week that Easy is still on administrative leave, and referred a reporter to his contract. No new contracts or agreements with Easy have been ratified since February 2023, according to town records, and Easy's current contract expires June 30.

The school committee during an April 2023 meeting discussed concerns about continuing to pay Easy while paying a new superintendent to lead the district. Days after that meeting, the committee hired former Newton superintendent David Fleishman as Wayland's interim superintendent. The school committee in November negotiated a new contract with Fleishman worth $255,000 between July 1 and June 30, 2025, according to town records.

Easy in February began a new job as leader of the Penn State Brand Academy, a university entity "designed to support student-athletes and others to manage and leverage their personal brand, name, image and likeness and support their entrepreneurial interests more successfully." Easy attended Penn State before entering the 2002 NFL draft, eventually playing for the Kansas City Chiefs and Oakland Raiders. Easy did not immediately respond to a request for comment this week.

Even though Wayland's obligation to pay Easy through his contract will soon end, the town is still locked in potentially costly legal battles with him.

Days after he was placed on leave in 2023, Easy filed a complaint against the district and school committee members with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. He also filed a civil lawsuit against the town in March in Middlesex County Superior Court also alleging discrimination, and seeking up to $5 million in damages.

Former district employee Richard Whitehead also sued Easy and the school committee in 2023 over his firing. A judge dismissed that lawsuit in March. Whitehead signaled an intent to appeal the decision, but withdrew it on May 1, according to court records.

No school committee member has spoken publicly about the decision last year to place Easy on leave. However, a response filed to Easy's civil lawsuit by an attorney representing the town wrote that, "by October 2022 more than half the administration was threatening to quit due to an alleged hostile work environment created by [Easy]." The attorney also broadly denied claims of racial discrimination raised in Easy's lawsuit.

During a meeting in November 2022, then-school committee chair Chris Ryan said up to seven complaints were made about Easy's behavior during a meeting of top district administrators. The complaints said Easy was "berating," "shaming" and "bullying" people at the meeting. The complaints were made verbally and anonymously to Ryan. Easy said during the meeting he was never given specific details about the content of the complaints and who made them.

The Wayland School Committee hired Easy in January 2021, and formally approved his contract about a month later. He was previously an administrator in Everett Public Schools, which is also where he went to high school.