WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y. — The Williamsville Central School District Board of Education released an independent report on why schools did not open effectively in September amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report, which took six months to conduct, concluded that the pandemic, the district's culture, and lack of active leadership led to the problems.
“We are pleased to receive this report, share it with all our stakeholders, learn from it and put that difficult time behind everyone in the district,” said Board of Education President Teresa Anne Leatherbarrow in a released statement. “Our schools are operating effectively and we continue to work diligently to give as many students as possible access to their teachers and classrooms.”
Leatherbarrow was not available for any further actual interview according to the district spokesman.
More than 30 witnesses, statements, reports, emails and texts were collected and analyzed in the report which was prepared by the attorneys of the Harris Beach law firm that was hired by the district.
The board placed former Superintendent Scott G. Martzloff on leave on September 7 just before the planned reopening of schools. And in a mutual agreement on his contract salary with the district, he resigned November 24. Martzloff had questioned the use of the Harris Beach firm for potential family connections with the school board and his push years earlier to end their hired representation of the district. The district said there was no credible relevance to those claims.
According to a release from the district, Martzloff originally agreed to discuss the reopening situation for the report, but declined numerous efforts to include his views on what happened and why.
The report details that in spring 2020, Martzloff was "seemingly detached from the challenges of re-opening schools in September and that continued into mid-summer, when he told key district leaders to take vacations."
The report found that deadlines became tight and options came and went for various reasons, alternatives put forth lacked implementation time and that there was an inability to hire new teachers to make plans work.
They say Martzloff ignored warnings from central and building administrators that the plans were unrealistic.
“…There simply is not evidence that Dr. Martzloff adequately communicated the many challenges of this instructional model to the Board of Education – either on the days before it was introduced or after Principals and central office administrators told him on numerous occasions that the Plan simply was not feasible,” the report states.
“This was a crisis that demanded credible leadership, advance planning, and collaboration,” wrote outside attorney Brendan P. Kelleher, who has never met Dr. Martzloff. “But for whatever reason – whether the battle scars from past disputes, a desire not to allow the union the opportunity to influence terms of the workplace, a reluctance to share information, or some other reason – Dr. Martzloff chose to go-it-alone in many respects here.”
Martzloff returned our message to him by saying that he had not yet read the entire report but would do so and get back to us with his comments on it.
Back in October Martzloff told Channel 2 in an interview that "Really interesting thing is the current plan that's being implemented in Williamsville right now in this third or fourth week of October is the plan that we had in July."
We asked him about the district contention that he had not handled the matter properly including the hiring of additional teachers needed for both hybrid and remote instruction. That caused a delay in reopening with a sudden shortfall of teachers. Martzloff said "We were scrambling and we were working hard. I remember people in the district office telling me they had never seen it so busy with so many people coming in to sign up to work."
Actually later some teacher-candidates complained that the district led them to think they were being hired and then suddenly reversed course. Acting Superintendent Dr. John McKenna, who replaced Martzloff, had been in charge of human resources for the district. McKenna refused to answer questions from WGRZ on such hiring and recruiting practices and his role in the reopening plan. Channel 2 was offered an "off the record session" for an explanation on the situation which we declined.
Martzloff, who had clashed with the Williamsville Teachers Association and its president Michelle Licht, also claimed the union had undue influence on the school board and there was some motivation to have him removed as superintendent. As he told Channel 2 in October "In January we start negotiating a new contract with the teachers union. How do you do that when you have someone telling how things are going to be."
Licht never responded to our request for comment then and again now.
Similar concerns apparently prompted district parent and Martzloff's supporter Rev. Terry King to now run for a school board seat. King gave us his view of the report. "I think he was a scapegoat. I think others were cooperative on a mission that probably began about 24 months prior that they were determined to have Scott Martzloff terminated."
King added that Martzloff was dealing with past issues in the district and that COVID became "a perfect storm." He says Martzloff was "relying on a number of people who were under him to perform at a different level and it all unraveled."
King summed up his views by stating "It really speaks to the culture that the Williamsville Board of Education allowed to fester for a number of years."
Again the school board president has not been available for an interview.
Jonathan Rich, who helps lead the Williamsville Students First group, says they may also introduce school board candidates this year. He told 2 on Your Side that "Scott could have done a better job." But Rich added there are other issues that still exist and they must focus now to improve the makeup of the school board which has many members with ties to teachers unions. The group actually mounted a petition drive to encourage prospective candidates to come forward.
The School Board voted Tuesday to waive confidentiality rules to allow the 42-page report to be released publicly.
You can read the full report, supporting documents and affidavits here: http://go.boarddocs.com/ny/williams/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=BXWLUU5723B7