From WWW.FOXNEWS.COM
A school district in Massachusetts will host its first public meeting Monday since a superintendent candidate reportedly lost his job offer for addressing female colleagues as “ladies.”
Dr. Vito Perrone previously told the Daily Hampshire Gazette that he was offered the position as the head of Easthampton Schools on March 23 but later notified that the job offer had been withdrawn over his choice of salutation in an email to negotiate his salary with School Committee Chair Cynthia Kwiecinski and executive assistant Suzanne Colby, both female.
Kwiec inski reportedly interpreted his “ladies” greeting as a “microaggression,” according to the newspaper. Kwiecinski later told the Gazette that most of her fellow committee members believed it was “extremely unprofessional” and “inappropriate” of Perrone to address the chairperson “with a familiarity that he had not earned.”
“It is true that I was insulted by the familiarity with which the candidate addressed me and the committee’s executive assistant in correspondence that was part of a salary negotiation,” Kwiecinski reportedly said in an email to the Gazette. “While I speak informally most of the time, if I am addressing a public official — especially in written communication, and even more so if engaged in salary negotiations — I would always use formal titles. The salutation ‘Ladies’ raised concerns among most that the candidate might make administrators and teachers feel uncomfortable if used in the future instead of calling them by their names or titles.”
Easthampton Public Schools will host a school committee hearing via Zoom at 6 p.m. Monday, an online agenda says.
It will begin with up to 90 minutes for “public speak,” allotting up to three minutes per speaker. The agenda says the meeting will then transition into “Superintendent candidate discussion and/or potential vote on whether or not to continue negotiations with the candidate.”… (Read more)
