School Committee president: Why is principal paid while not working?

Haverhill

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March 8, 2010

Eagle-Tribune requests all Whittier High administrators' contracts

By Paul Tennnant

HAVERHILL — The city's School Committee president said his group wants answers about why the Whittier Regional High principal is getting paid while not working.

President Scott Wood Jr. said he will likely schedule a meeting with Haverhill's two representatives to the Whittier School Board to discuss the issue, which has some city officials outraged.

Wood said he expects to call those representatives — Richard Early Jr. and Christopher Kelly — to a Haverhill School Committee meeting. The committee appoints Haverhill's representatives to the Whittier board. The board has representatives from the 11 communities that send students to the regional vocational school.

Whittier is in Haverhill, but has students from cities and towns in Greater Haverhill and Newburyport. Early is a local contractor, and Kelley formerly taught at Whittier and worked there as an administrator.

Whittier Superintendent William DeRosa said last week that Principal Deborah DePaolo, who has been on paid leave since December, will be paid her annual $120,869 salary through the end of the school year even though she has resigned. In December, DeRosa sent the Whittier staff a memo that said DePaolo had left the school to pursue an advanced degree.

DeRosa said DePaolo continues to be paid because her contract calls for it. Last week, he refused to let The Eagle-Tribune review the contract, saying Whittier's lawyer advised him it is a personnel record and therefore not public.

The Eagle-Tribune has filed a formal request under the state Public Records Act for a copy of the contract. Attorney Jeffrey Pyle, who represents the newspaper, said a contract between a school district and an employee is not exempt from the public records law. The newspaper has also requested the contracts of all Whittier Regional High administrators.

Wood joined Mayor James Fiorentini and City Councilors William Ryan and Robert Scatamacchia in saying they are upset about the situation.

"I think it's a rip-off, not only to the taxpayers of Haverhill, which pays the largest share of the costs at Whittier, but the taxpayers of the other communities in the Whittier district," Wood said. "I think we need to get some answers from our representatives."

Wood also said he found it amazing that a contract with a principal would allow her to stop showing up for work, yet receive her salary for several months.

"They need to re-evaluate who's negotiating their contracts," he said.

DeRosa announced DePaolo's resignation at the Whittier Regional School Committee's Feb. 24 meeting. Her resignation will take effect at the end of the school year, he said.

The mayor said he has asked Haverhill's two representatives on the Whittier School Committee, Early and Kelley, to provide the city with answers about how a contract was approved that allows for an absent principal to continue collecting a paycheck.

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