Report on investigation into conduct of Saugus Schools Superintendent McMahon details reasons for her firing

By Mark E. Vogler

SAUGUS – A school administrator that ex-Superintendent Erin McMahon hired to be her deputy superintendent made the initial allegations that led to her firing last week. In early January, Deputy Superintendent Margaret Ferrick contacted the School Committee Attorney, Howard Greenspan, and “specifically raised concerns that Superintendent McMahon had (1) directed District employees to pay the invoice of a consultant even though there were concerning expenses included like alcohol, (2) directed the consultant to revise the invoice so it would not show such expenses, (3) a conflict of interest with Relay (Graduate School of Education), and (4) spent an excessive amount of time out of district,” according to the report that the School Committee used as grounds to fire McMahon.

McMahon, who had been hired on a five-year million-dollar contract to help lead Saugus Public Schools from the bottom 10 percent of the state’s public school system to a much improved one, was fired last week. She had been on paid administrative leave since January, soon after Ferrick raised questions about the superintendent’s conduct.

At last week’s (Nov. 2) School Committee meeting, Committee Chair Vincent Serino read from the executive summary of a detailed report which outlined the School Committee’s case against McMahon. “There’s a lot of things in there that are compelling, in the overall body of the report,” Serino said in an interview this week.

“I don’t think it’s just one thing. At the end of the day, we’re responsible to the taxpayers, residents and students. This wasn’t something that came from the School Committee. We didn’t ask for this. It was brought to us from a whistleblower,” he said.

These are highlights from the report which were the basis for the School Committee voting to fire McMahon:

–The superintendent had a longstanding relationship with Relay, performed paid consulting services for Relay, which she did not disclose to the School Committee nor did she submit any conflict-of-interest disclosure about said consulting until April 6, about 15 minutes before she was scheduled to be interviewed in connection with this investigation and more than a year after her initial consulting services were provided to Relay.

–McMahon also received gratis professional development training from Relay, which she did not disclose to the School Committee nor reference in her conflict-of-interest disclosure. Superintendent McMahon retained Relay to provide professional development services for the District at a cost of $84,000, of which $56,000 was contracted for and paid out after she performed her initial consulting services for Relay, representing tuition costs for four individuals to attend professional development training in New York City and Denver, Colorado, and does not include any expenses paid directly to those individuals in connection with their attendance at that program.

–The superintendent either intentionally or negligently permitted a professional development provider (Excellence Reflex Consulting LLC) to charge the District in excess of amounts actually earned for the services provided to the District.

–Superintendent McMahon either intentionally or negligently permitted a professional development provider (Excellence Reflex Consulting LLC) to charge the District for the purchase of alcohol on one occasion from Title I grant funds, and did so in spite of her receipt of an admonition from at least one member of the District’s leadership team that such charges could not be made to the District, through permitting the use of multiple revised invoices from said professional development provider.

–Between July 1, 2022, and January 19, 2023 (the date on which she began administrative leave), Superintendent McMahon was out of district 40.5 days, nearly double the amount of time the previous superintendent spent out of district.

McMahon asked the committee to read packets of information she prepared for them rebutting the allegations before voting to fire her. But members declined to consider the information she provided them.

She called the investigation of her alleged misconduct unfair, claiming it violated her contract and due process rights. “I’ve made significant gains for the school community in the two years I’ve served, and I’m Saugus’s first female superintendent, and yet I have suffered three full years of gross incompetence, deep corruption and blatant discrimination,” McMahon told the School Committee at last week’s hearing.