School Committee Votes to Rescind School Principal Appointment-August 10, 1967

Chairman Francis X. Sheehan Jr. Challenges Procedural Grounds and Lack of Staff Advertisement, Prompting Board to Reopen Principal Vacancy

The School Committee voted five to one last night to rescind its appointment of Alan R. Wonson as principal of the Winslow Elementary School, acting on a motion brought by Chairman Francis X. Sheehan Jr. The committee acceded to the chairman’s request on procedural grounds, acknowledging that the administrative opening at the Winslow school had not been properly advertised to staff members before it was filled. Wonson had been promoted from vice principal of the Cleveland Elementary School to the Winslow position during an August 1 meeting after the committee created the vacancy by transferring former Winslow Principal Richard Talanian to the Callahan school. Chairman Sheehan, who had been absent from the August 1 session, sharply criticized the board’s initial maneuver, terming the action “both morally and legally wrong.”

While Sheehan did not contest Wonson’s qualifications—noting that Superintendent Philip O. Coakley had informed him ahead of time that Wonson would be recommended—he objected to the lack of advance notice regarding other appointments and the failure to advertise the post. In defense of their prior vote, committee members pointed to a new policy adopted in June permitting appointments without advertisements during summer emergencies. However, Sheehan rebutted in a prepared statement: “With the opening of school six weeks away, what was the emergency? Does this committee owe to all our veteran teachers the opportunity to at least apply for this position?… If administrators, teachers and taxpayers of this community think that ‘something is rotten in Denmark,’ they have every right to that feeling.”

Although committee members maintained there was no intent to “railroad an appointment through,” several conceded they had only learned of the summer emergency policy during the August 1 meeting and questioned whether teachers were aware of the rule change. John J. Cavanaugh, who served as acting chairman during the contested session, abstained from the vote to rescind, while Mrs. Mary H. Hemman cast the lone dissenting vote against it. Concluding the meeting, the committee voted to formally advertise the Winslow principal vacancy to all qualified staff members before making a final selection, and Chairman Sheehan announced plans to introduce a policy amendment clearly defining the term “emergency” to prevent future procedural disputes.

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger