Ever since Rochester Police Chief Paul Magee read the news coverage of the June 9 meeting of the Rochester School Committee, he has struggled with a “personal issue” stemming from comments made specifically by School Committee member Sharon Hartley about the chief’s proposal before the Rochester Board of Selectmen to hire a part-time resource officer for Rochester Memorial School.
During the School Committee’s August 29 meeting, Magee addressed comments Hartley made criticizing the process the chief followed in speaking to selectmen about the hiring of a resource officer before first bringing it to the School Committee.
Magee addressed the School Committee on Monday night, saying, “It was several months ago and it was stewing quite a bit. It upset me quite a bit,” he said.
“I was extremely disappointed … to get a phone call about the headline … with my dissatisfaction of the school committee,” said Magee.
Confronting what Hartley back in June referred to as a “process problem,” Magee said that during at least one of his monthly meetings with RMS Principal Derek Medeiros, he had in fact discussed the concept of sharing a school resource officer between Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School and RMS, and Medeiros confirmed Magee’s statement, adding that the topic was also briefly discussed at a prior School Committee meeting, as well as a past budget sub-committee meeting.
Magee said, as for the process, he went down the proper chain of command for his position, first speaking with the schools about the concept and then bringing it to the Board of Selectmen and the Finance Committee, which was also present for the chief’s discussion with selectmen. He said, just like a teacher would first go to the principal, then to the superintendent, and then to the School Committee, he went through his position’s appropriate process.
“I did what I thought was appropriate,” said Magee, adding that he was disappointed with the backlash.
He argued that, after the hours he spent developing the concept, gathering interest between the two schools, and starting financial talks about how to fund it, going to the selectmen first to see if they would even support the concept was vital, since in the end the issue could have become moot.
“It would have been foolish,” Magee said. “I don’t have that kind of time.”
Hartley started out by expressing her respect for the chief and followed it up with the shared sentiment that the matter had also weighed heavily on her mind over the summer.
“There’s no question that you have great dedication to the town and to the schools,” said Hartley, praising Magee some more.
Hartley said that after reading about the Board of Selectmen meeting back in May when Magee first spoke of the resource officer position with the board, she thought it sounded to her like the decision had been made and it was a done deal, which is why she expressed regret during the June 9 meeting over Magee’s conversation with selectmen.
“I think we got caught in the times of the press taking hold of things … and is doing things in a way that doesn’t give us a chance…” said Hartley. She commented that perhaps “some of what was stated in the article perhaps wasn’t even said.”
After the meeting, when asked to clarify that statement and specify which quotes, if any, were misquoted, Hartley said, “I am going to defer to the chairperson.”
When asked if there was anything that was misstated in the article titled “Hartley Laments Lack of Communication With Chief” in the June 16 edition of The Wanderer, Hartley again declined to comment, deferring to Chairman Tina Rood.
“I think we’ve cleared everything up with the chief and will now be moving forward from here,” said Rood.
The Wanderer reviewed the ORCTV recording of the June 9 meeting and confirmed that Hartley’s statements featured in the article were accurate, including, “It was actually kind of alarming to think that the chief of police would go to the [selectmen] before he would … to the school committee [to discuss and initiative like this].”
In the aftermath of the miscommunication, Magee said there would be no movement forward with the resource officer at this point due to an unforeseen military deployment of one of the officers, which would leave the town short one officer.
In other matters, the committee decided to do away with its tradition of holding meetings on the first Thursday of each month and will instead meet approximately every six weeks or so, including meeting at 4:30 pm on dates when Joint School Committee meetings are held. The committee voted on the following dates, times and locations:
October 6 at 6:30 pm at the Rochester Town Hall; November 17 at 4:30 pm at the ORRJHS media room; January 5 at 6:30 pm at Town Hall; February 2 at 6:30 pm at Town Hall; March 23 at 4:30 pm at the ORRJHS media room; April 27 at 6:30 pm at Town Hall; and June 6 at 6:30 pm at Rochester Memorial School.
By Jean Perry