CHARLEMONT — Hawlemont Regional School District, like Mohawk Trail did more than a week ago, has agreed to part ways with Superintendent Michael Buoniconti. The two districts shared the superintendent.
Monday night, the Hawlemont Regional School District School Committee met, just as Mohawk Trail’s did, to discuss issues that arose shortly after the first of the year. Members of the committee allowed several people from the public — there were about 10 — to speak their minds, and then closed the meeting, going into executive session to discuss personnel issues.
On Jan. 13, Buoniconti sent an email to all staff members in the two districts admitting he was having an affair with a subordinate, and that he and his wife are going through a divorce. Shortly after, parents and residents asked the School Committee to take action and demanded his resignation.
Several days later, after the Mohawk Trail Regional School District School Committee met in executive session to discuss personnel matters, School Committee Chair Martha Thurber sent an email to staff saying the district and Buoniconti had parted ways, effective immediately.
In an email sent Tuesday at 4:20 a.m. to all Hawlemont staff, Hawlemont School Committee Chair Marguerite Rancourt wrote, “Last night the Hawlemont School Committee and Superintendent Michael Buoniconti agreed to a mutual parting of the ways. The parties will work together to work out the details of the agreement.”
Rancourt did not answer a request for comment by the Greenfield Recorder by press time.
Buoniconti was present Monday night, as he was at the Mohawk Trail meeting. He has not returned emails from the Recorder asking for comment, but on Tuesday morning, another request for comment sent to his school email was returned with a message that said “address not found.”
One parent who was at the meeting Monday night, Amy Coates, told the Hawlemont School Committee, before it went into executive session, that she didn’t care to comment on his personal life but instead has been concerned about the enormous debt that was created by Buoniconti’s administration, which included $400,000 to Hawlemont alone, last year.
Coates’ suggestion to the School Committee was to get a new superintendent and cut administrative hours.
Another parent, Janine Crowningshield, said she asked the committee, as did Coates, to remove Buoniconti. She said he has created bad publicity for the districts because of his actions and has been looking for another job for years.
“If he is not happy, he should go,” she said.
Crowningshield said she has been concerned about the same things Coates has been, and his affair with a subordinate, which he confessed to in an email to both districts’ staffs in mid-January, was the “icing on the cake” for her.
Mohawk Trail Regional School District Director of Pupil Services Leann Loomis is heading up the team as interim superintendent in that district. It has not yet been announced who will head up Hawlemont’s district until both districts decide on next steps.
Buoniconti was paid based on a two-district shared expense arrangement, so it is not clear how compensation will be worked out in the details of his departure. The former superintendent was making $159,761 (all-inclusive, “no further allowances for travel or other items”). His contract was set to expire June 30.
Hawlemont School Committee Vice Chair Hussain Hamdan said Buoniconti has done a tremendous amount for the schools, both administratively and in terms of advocacy, by helping to create and lead the Rural Schools Coalition. It is not clear if Buoniconti will continue to do so.
Though Buoniconti tried to assure everyone in his email that the affair would not affect his job performance, many were upset, and 500 people signed a petition that was delivered to the Mohawk Trail School Committee asking for his immediate resignation.
The online petition at Change.org said signers were disgusted with his lack of integrity and recent “moral indiscretion.” The petition was started by Katie Drew, but it appears the name is fictitious and used by several people who started it.
It is not yet known what the conditions of Buoniconti’s leaving either district will be. He started as superintendent of the school district in 2005, and has been a major proponent for changing the state’s rural school aid formula, so that those districts receive more financial help.
In 2016, Buoniconti was among three finalists for the superintendent position in North Attleboro Public Schools, but North Attleboro Assistant Superintendent Scott Holcomb was the candidate selected. It was the fifth time Buoniconti had been a superintendent finalist for another school district since he became Mohawk Trail’s superintendent.
Reach Anita Fritz at 413-772-0261, ext. 269 or afritz@recorder.com.