District failed to conduct mandated criminal background checks, working to remedy situation

On September 27, 2023, ARPS district Director of Communications and Operations Debbie Westmoreland sent a press release saying that “an ongoing internal audit” by Human Resources revealed that the district had not completed criminal background checks and fingerprints for all employees for roughly two years, as required by Massachusetts law. 

This occurred during the time Assistant Superintendent of Diversity, Equity, and Human Resources Doreen Cunningham and former Superintendent Michael Morris were in their roles; both have left the district over the last three months.

“We are currently in the process of bringing the district into compliance and expect this process to be complete by January 1, 2024,” the press release reads.

The release was signed by Doug Slaughter, Interim Superintendent, and Kathryn Mazur, Human Resources Administrator, along with Margaret Stancer, Chair of the Pelham School Committee, Sarahbess Kenney, Chair of the Regional School Committee, Irv Rhodes, Chair of the Union 26 School Committee.

Mazur is a long-time Amherst employee who started working for the Amherst schools in 1989 and in 2004, was appointed the Director of Human Resources.

Mazur retired from the district in 2017 but continued to work as a paid consultant under the Morris and Cunningham administration, until 2023.

After Morris took a medical leave in May and Cunningham was placed on administrative leave in May of 2023, Mazur was appointed as Human Resources Administrator by Slaughter.

“Learning that background checks are missing can create an unsettling experience for our families, students, and staff; some people can lose a sense of security and trust since they assume the district is compliant with these required background checks,” said Mazur. 

Mazur said that “human resources is the gatekeeper department for ensuring that safety screenings of employees are completed prior to beginning work in the district.” 

These screenings include CORI (Criminal Records for the State of Massachusetts which are required to be repeated every three years), SORI (Sexual Offender) records, and fingerprint checks (which are submitted to an agency of the FBI and cover offenses that occur throughout the United States). 

“Over this past summer, we discovered some gaps in the periodic reviews of CORIs for veteran staff and some initial fingerprint checks,” acknowledged Mazur. “The district has been charged with ensuring the safety of students and staff to the best of their ability, and we take that charge seriously.” 

Learning that background checks are missing can create an unsettling experience for our families, students, and staff.

KAHTRYN MAZUR

Chris Herland, the President of APEA, the Amherst teachers’ union, said “It’s an egregious oversight by HR to [fail to do] what’s required by law.” Mazur said she didn’t believe anyone working in the school community presented a danger to students or staff. 

When asked to comment on allegations that employees who had been incarcerated were hired at ARPS without the MA-mandated CORI or fingerprint records, Mazur said that “we have not been able to discover an ‘official’ program which hired individuals who were previously incarcerated.”

However, she did not deny that formerly incarcerated people had been hired “unofficially” without background checks. 

Mazur said that so-called “Second Chances”  programs, which employ formerly incarcerated people, when “properly conceived, documented, approved, and monitored” could benefit the Amherst community.

When asked about how incomplete background checks occurred, Mazur said she doesn’t hold anyone in particular responsible.

“We believe the issue of incomplete background checks occurred about 19 months ago, after the gap that occurred while school was mostly remote during COVID,” she said.  

Mazur said CORI checks were requested of all staff in January of 2022 because the regular practice of three-year renewals had been interrupted. “In the course of collecting these renewal CORIs for over 600 people, some people failed to comply with the request,” she said, and she noted there “was an unfortunate lack of follow-up.”

The Human Resources team is still assessing the extent of the issue but has a plan to have completed an audit with corrective action by January 1, 2024.