Another View of Deasy’s Legacy

July 26, 2004

Dear Editor:
One can only hope that John Deasy’s regime at SMMUSD has been devoid of the pervasive and self-serving vindictiveness that marked his time in Coventry. (“Deasy’s New England Legacy,” April 9 and April 10)

From the outset, Deasy appeared to be more interested in his own public persona than in leading the schools through a time of tremendous change in education, and woe unto her or him who dared to question the timing, efficacy, or purpose of his particular spin on reform.

He employed his considerable charismatic and political skill to get the former school committee chair, a retired meat cutter whose grasp of the issues at stake was far from exemplary, in his pocket. He employed sycophantic boot-lickers to spy on private and union conversations in order to exact revenge for anyone whom he felt did not acquiesce to his vision.

During the 1999-2000 school year, no fewer than fourteen teachers were threatened with termination. Of those with whom I was personally familiar (including myself), Deasy instructed one of his minions, Judy Baxter, to ferret out and report back anything at all that was said that he could use to bolster his case for removal.

These were not issues of substance directly impacting students or teachers who could not “keep up” as he stated -- in fact those teachers had, until Ms. Baxter’s arrival, received positive evaluations -- but rather commentary they had made as to certain aspects of reform and its implementation. In the absence of tenure, eventually some teachers forcibly resigned before they could be terminated.

I survived that witch-hunt, only to be told by Ms. Baxter that the only reason Deasy “came after” me was to “scare my a*#.” I found it disturbing that this man who allegedly had only the best interests of Coventry and its students at heart wasted his time trying to fire me and others because he didn’t like our opinions of him. These were not opinions stated in newspapers or any other media, only among ourselves and unfortunately in the presence of his cronies.

Though the catalog of Deasy’s personal attacks and vendettas is seemingly endless, perhaps he is only guilty of being thin-skinned and acting that way. One cannot be sure.

At a meeting with him and a union representative when I was in the last stages of fighting for my livelihood, I pointedly asked what it was I could do to ally any concerns he had about my performance. He danced around the answer (there were, in reality, no performance issues and he and I both knew that) and finally said, “I expect absolute, 100 percent loyalty to the administration at all times.” Not to the school district. Not to the town or the school. But to him. Suffer the students.

I hope that with the benefit of time and distance, Deasy has mellowed and that others have not fallen victim to his seeming megalomania. I fully expect that he will unleash a personal attack upon me in an effort to diffuse any criticism directed his way, but the truth is unchanging.

If this has happened to others in your communities, speak up. If it hasn’t, then apparently his legacy here was an anomaly. But it is his legacy nonetheless.