Pittsfield Schools Won't Release PHS Report
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — With the threat of legal action from staff members, the School Committee has voted not to release the redacted PHS investigative reports and instead re-release the executive summary.
On Wednesday, elected school officials rescinded a January vote to release the reports with required redactions by Feb. 18, a deadline that was never met, and voted to re-release the executive summary.
When it came time to vote on releasing the redacted May 2025 Pittsfield High School investigative report, only Ciara Batory and Carolyn Barry were in favor.
"This is a year of PR that we've been getting on the Pittsfield High report. This has been going on for over a year, nonstop, every other month, something about the PHS report. It has not gone away for a reason, and the reason it did not go away is because people want to know what happened," Batory said.
"These are people's children. I was reluctant to send my kids to school after reading this. Had I not trusted the schools that my kids go to and have relationships with the front office, I would have pulled all three of my children out of these schools after reading the comments that I read online, and again, as a parent, the only reason I wanted to read this is again because I didn't want to find out information from Facebook."
Three administrators and two teachers, past and present, were investigated by Bulkley Richardson and Gelinas LLP for a range of allegations that surfaced or re-surfaced at the end of 2024 after Pittsfield High's former dean of students was arrested and charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office for allegedly conspiring to traffic large quantities of cocaine in Western Massachusetts.
Some committee members said the January vote to "release the report in a redacted form by Feb. 18 and have it reviewed by the School Committee before its release to ensure there is enough to present" was confusing.
Batory and Barry thought the motion would release the report, which found allegations of misconduct "unsubstantiated." Batory said unsubstantiated does not mean wrongdoing, and it doesn't mean right doing.
"I wanted the report to be released. I stand by that," Barry said.
Other members believed they had voted to review the document.
"I thought that we were going to read it before we released it, and that's what I was voting on," said Sarah Muil, who put the item on the agenda.
"So, this is why I would like to request that we rescind that vote, so that we can take a new vote."
Included in the re-release of the summary will be a presentation given by the Human Resources Department at the last School Committee meeting about how investigations are conducted. Batory wanted specific information on how the PHS allegations were handled, which the department was not able to provide.
Muil said the report showed that Pittsfield Public Schools did their due diligence, and that if the summary is released with the HR presentation, parents can focus on that.
Batory countered that due diligence was not met in every case.
The teachers' unions and a person named in the report have threatened legal action if it is released. Mayor Peter Marchetti reported that Pittsfield received letters of intent to sue from the United Educators of Pittsfield, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, and one of the party's attorneys.
Muil motioned to release the redacted reports and voted against. She emphasized that these are five separate reports on different people.
Daniel Elias said he has no problem with fellow School Committee members advocating for the release of the report, even if he disagrees.
"That's OK. That's how democracy works. As hard as it is for people to advocate for releasing the report, I find it equally as hard to advocate not releasing it," he said.
"… The last committee struggled with this; ultimately, they came up with a compromise, and that was the summaries, which is never done. When we asked the state, ultimately, in the very end, they said ‘No,' so we felt good on that compromise. Insurance covers us against lawsuits, unless there's neglect on our part, I fear, with a legal opinion that puts our insurance in jeopardy."
He said that three investigations found no wrongdoing, "and in one case, one individual has been investigated now for 30 years." Elias is worried about minors being identified in the report, people not wanting to participate in future investigations, and that this would open the door to making future investigations public.
Batory said rescinding the January vote was a cop out and "everyone knew what they voted for." She hasn't seen the full redacted version of the report, and the administration confirmed that there is a "sticky note" version of the documents.
"I think that we at least owe our taxpayers, the people that paid for this report, the option to read the report that they paid for," she said.
Tags: investigation, PHS,
