SOUTH HADLEY — Some four months after he disappeared from the district and went on paid leave, South Hadley school officials are still mum about the circumstances surrounding the departure of Superintendent Jahmal Mosley.

But circumstances are pointing to possible litigation on the horizon for the district.

On May 24, a high-profile Boston employment lawyer sent a public records request to the district, seeking a large volume of documents pertaining to Mosley. The Gazette obtained the public records request through its own records request to the district.

David Brody, a partner at the firm Sherin and Lodgen and the president of the Massachusetts Employment Lawyers Association, requested officials’ communications about Mosley as well “as any and all documents concerning, regarding, reflecting, or evincing contract negotiations between the School Committee and any Superintendent of the South Hadley Public Schools from 1973 to the present.”

It’s unclear if Brody is representing Mosley. Brody did not respond to multiple voicemails and emails left for him this week.

“I don’t know if he’s representing Jahmal Mosley,” acting Superintendent Mark McLaughlin said Wednesday. “I can, I guess, make that assumption.”

McLaughlin said Mosley remains on paid leave, as he has been since March, when he was absent from the School Committee’s March 17 meeting. He has not appeared in a meeting since. In May, the School Committee appointed McLaughlin acting superintendent in Mosley’s absence.

In recent months, the School Committee has met twice in closed-door sessions to “discuss strategy with respect to litigation.” It is unclear, however, whether those discussions pertained to Mosley or his employment.

Allison Schlachter, who chairs the town’s School Committee, did not respond to a request for comment.

McLaughlin said that there is pending litigation, but that he doesn’t know anything about it.

“I believe that there is some kind of litigation pending, but I don’t know by whom or any context,” he said. “There’s a demarcation … between myself and the attorneys and so I don’t know what’s been represented to them.”

McLaughlin said that he doesn’t know about the circumstances of Mosley’s absence and that he understands that the public has questions. He said that his job as superintendent is to run the district and that Mosley’s employment is not up to him.

“The process is just going forward … That’s really what seems to be happening,” he said. “The business of the district is going and we’re moving and everything is working fine and that other issue is really for others to take on.”

Mosley previously served as the superintendent of schools in Nashua, New Hampshire, before beginning work in South Hadley on July 1, 2021. Mosley’s annual salary was $174,000 last fiscal year and he was due for a 1.3% increase at the start of fiscal year 2023, which began July 1, according to his contract.

Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.]]>