EASTHAMPTON — Vexed by the way the School Committee has handled this spring’s failed superintendent search, city residents this week officially began the formal process to recall Chairperson Cynthia Kwiecinski.

Residents Cathy Wauczinski and Jean Pao Wilson, who have spent most afternoons in front of the Municipal Building and the corner of Strong and Plain streets since early April collecting signatures for the for the recall petition, turned in an affidavit to City Clerk Barbara LaBombard on Monday signed by more than 400 registered voters, with at least 60 from each of city’s five precincts.

On Thursday, LaBombard confirmed that she had certified the required 400 signatures for the effort to move forward.

The move to recall Kwiecinski, whose term is set to expire at the end of the year, began in the weeks that followed the committee’s decision to rescind the superintendent job offer to Vito Perrone.

“Given the disruption of this superintendent search under her leadership, we don’t want her to continue being a leader of this committee or even a member,” Wauczinski said.

Initially, Wauczinski and Wilson said they were upset with the committee for pulling back its offer to Perrone for what he says was because he included “Ladies” as a salutation in an email. Kwiecinski, however, has told the Gazette that there were too many concerns before negotiating his contract, including Perrone’s salutation, his “unprofessional” behavior, and his request for 30 vacation days and 40 sick days each year.

Wilson originally began an effort to urge the committee to reinstate Perrone’s job offer, and was soon joined by Wauczinski. But as the controversy over the search continued after a second candidate withdrew, the two began to question the entire process and eventually decided to focus their effort on recalling Kwiecinski.

“Initially, people were pretty upset that Dr. Perrone’s offer was rescinded — it’s part of it, but not all of it,” Wauczinski said. “There are a number of issues … unresponsiveness to citizen concerns, refusal to open up meetings to allow people to attend in person … this is not a good way to move forward and engage with the community.”

She also said that now-former School Committee members Laurie Garcia, one of two members who resigned in the wake of the superintendent search controversy, “was silenced” by Kwiecinski when she tried to speak out. Kwiecinski told Garcia at several meetings that she was limited on what she could discuss about what happened in executive session, and could only speak about items that Perrone had stated publicly.

Kwiecinski did not respond for comment by email on Thursday and Friday.

Why a recall?

On the affidavit, they listed the reason for the recall includes: not listening to citizens and stakeholders; being unresponsive; unprofessional behavior; sending police to someone’s home to make a job offer at midnight; aggressive verbal behavior during meetings toward other School Committee members; and refusal to move to hybrid meetings.

Aside from the in-person interviews of the superintendent candidates, the School Committee meetings have remained virtual. At a few meetings, Kwiecinski has stated that she would receive some training from City Council President Homar Gomez on how to run hybrid meetings — offering both in-person and virtual options for residents — and hopes to offer those meetings in the fall.

Now that the signatures have been certified, LaBombard explained that, per the city charter, she mailed blank recall petitions to the first 10 signers of the recall affidavit. Those 10 residents will then need to collect a total of 2,517 signatures — which is 20% of the total number of registered voters as of the last city election. They have 21 days or until June 8 to file the petition, she said.

If enough signatures are collected and they are properly certified, the City Council president will then ask Kwiecinski if she wants to resign. If she does not respond within five days or does not resign, the president would then call for a special election that would be held “not more than 90 days” after the date of notice, according to the city charter.

Kwiecinski and the terms of the rest of the School Committee expire on Dec. 31.

Despite the coming November election, Wauczinski says she doesn’t feel comfortable with Kwiecinski going forward any longer at the helm of the School Committee.

“Cynthia sets the tone for the committee and the tone has been unprofessional. It has resulted in two members resigning,” Wauczinski said.

Emily Thurlow can be reached at ethurlow@gazettenet.com. ]]>