Concerns about background checks on Cambridge superintendent candidates were raised by School Committee members at a Monday roundtable.
Members questioned whether performing the checks was the responsibility of the district or the external firm hired to facilitate the superintendent search, The Equity Process. Other concerns centered on the thoroughness of the checks.
The concerns take on heightened importance after the reporting that one of the finalists, Lourenço Garcia, is said to have lost $750,000 on a cryptocurrency scam and then sued his bank in an attempt to recoup the funds – a story widely discussed by school district community members who followed the search that The Boston Globe reported Monday. Before that, the community had been abuzz about the disqualification of semifinalist candidate Adam Taylor, who in 2019 compared teachers to “pimps” and pedophile priests in a “foul analogy.”
Concerns about background checks come at an awkward time for the committee, which is scheduled to vote on its final selection for the position next week.
In addition to Garcia, assistant superintendent for Revere Public Schools, the superintendent finalists are David Murphy, the interim superintendent in Cambridge; and Magaly Sanchez, chief family advancement officer for Boston Public Schools.
At the roundtable, committee member Richard Harding asked for the details of what he called “extremely thorough background checks” of finalists to ensure that “no stone is left unturned” in the search.
In response, Cyndi Weekes Bradley, chief executive of The Equity Process, referred to state laws that restrict what background information can be shared during the candidate vetting process. Weekes Bradley said that candidates are protected from discrimination by Massachusetts law, the federal Civil Rights Act, Americans with Disabilities Act and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.
“While you may want to know every candidate’s personal life story, it probably is none of your business unless you are going to hire the candidate,” Weekes Bradley said.
Weekes Bradley also referred to Criminal Offender Record Information checks, which report an individual’s criminal record and are maintained by the state. Responsibility for obtaining Cori reports rests with the district and not her firm, she said. “The Equity Process does not do Coris. We only Cori who we hire,” Weekes Bradley said.
A Cori check is limited to criminal activity, whereas a background check is a more comprehensive overview of an individual’s history.
Applicant protections
Massachusetts’ “Ban the Box” law does limit when a Cori check can be performed, saying in part that an employer may inquire about a candidate’s criminal record only in the later stages of the hiring process.
Weekes Bradley cautioned the committee that violating the laws could expose the committee and her firm to legal action. “If you do go into those areas, you can find yourself caught up in a lawsuit, and The Equity Process does not want a lawsuit,” she said.
When candidate Garcia was asked about his crypto lawsuit by a reporter, “he wrote to the Globe’s top editor claiming that documents related to the cases were sealed and threatening legal action if the Globe published a story about them,” the Globe reported.
A time left undefined
Criminal background searches were run on all of the candidates, mayor E. Denise Simmons said at the roundtable. “The Cori reports, as far as I can see, have come back clean. There may be some skeletons that people don’t want us to see in the closet, but those didn’t come up in the Coris,” she said.
Committee member Elizabeth Hudson asked for specifics on the background research.
“Did I understand correctly that if there were anything identified by The Equity Process, we should expect it to have been brought forward at or before this meeting?” Hudson asked Weekes Bradley.
The Equity Process would tell the board of candidate red flags only “at the stage that it should be brought forward,” Weekes Bradley responded, without defining that stage.
Everyone can google
Performing background checks also can and should be done by the School Committee, Weekes Bradley said. “From my understanding, everyone in the School Committee also has access to the Internet, so they can look at people’s names,” Weekes Bradley said.
The Equity Process sent an email to the committee that contained background information on the finalists, Weekes Bradley said. Hudson said she was unable to find that email.
The issue was dropped with only a few minutes left in the meeting – leaving it uncertain whether comprehensive background checks of the finalists were performed by the district or The Equity Process.
Visits to home districts
The roundtable also recapped committee visits to finalist’s home districts from that day. Feedback from the committee was largely positive.
Simmons, vice chair Caroline Hunter and member Rachel Weinstein reported on their visit to Revere Public Schools, highlighting Garcia’s extensive communication with community members.
Member Harding and member David Weinstein emphasized Sanchez’s engagement with families in Boston Public Schools.
Member Elizabeth Hudson and member Jose Luis Rojas Villarreal talked about David Murphy’s significant progress as interim superintendent of Cambridge Public Schools.
A stronger
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So we had a finalist (who was brought in for interviews despite the committee saying they were not a finalist) referring to educators and students as “pimps and prostitutes”, a now are left with a finalist who engaged in a crypto scam, a finalist who has a very strange agreement and payout from Boston Public Schools to the tune of over 100k after one month of work, and a finalist with absolutely no experience.
This is the best this “national search” produced?
This is embarrassing.
This search has certainly been a flawed process and one wonders who is leaking the problematic details about Garcia– but at the end of the day, Murphy is still a solid contender for the job, he’s done fine work running the district on an interim basis, and even the union likes him well enough.
If the school committee reboots and restarts this entire process, that’s just more time lost *and* you have to wonder whether Murphy will bail out of the district entirely.
The committee can restructure its search process later. For now, make the decision everyone already wants to make but is too timid to say out loud.
What an unbelievable mess. First, using a firm that had little experience. Why? Because the city didn’t want to spend money to hire a firm that had a lot of experience. This after paying an outrageous sum to Greer, who never should have been hired.
What is going on? Three generations of Cambridge students who have been given a poor education. Does no committee member have that on his/her conscience?
And… not one school committee member asking the only question that really matters: what do we have to do to make sure our students can read, write and do math at grade level.
Stop with the “equity” and other extraneous things. Just get teachers to teach students how to read, write and do math. If you don’t do that you have failed the students. Please don’t fail another generation of Cambridge students. They deserve to receive a good education.