(Note: an earlier version of this story has been clarified to reflect the fact that while they both worked in the Boston school district Michael Goar never directly supervised Stephen Zrike, the current receiver for the Holyoke, MA school district.)
With hours to go before a vote on the next Minneapolis school superintendent, some school board members are questioning the last-minute revelation of a connection between interim superintendent Michael Goar and the Massachusetts district of his rival, Sergio Paez.
Goar and Paez were finalists for the permanent Minneapolis superintendent job before Paez was named the preferred candidate in December. Two days after Paez was named in Minneapolis, an advocacy group in Massachusetts released a report alleging that staff at a school in Paez's former district of Holyoke, Mass., physically abused special education students during his tenure. Board members put contract talks with Paez on hold, and sources say that the majority of the board appears to be shifting its support to Goar.
In recent days, board members learned that Goar worked in the Boston school district at the same time as Stephen Zrike, who took control of the Holyoke school district from Paez last year. Zrike was a school principal in Boston while Goar was a top district administrator.
Goar said that he never supervised Zrike in Boston, but some board members and community leaders say the fact that he and Zrike worked in Boston at the same time should have been disclosed during the interview process and the board's site visit to Holyoke.
Tracine Asberry, one of two board members who visited Holyoke in December, said knowing Goar and Zrike worked together in the past "would be an important piece of information to include, just for full disclosure."
"If it matters or not, that should be a separate conversation, but we need to have all the information, especially considering what transpired after our decision was made," Asberry said.
Rebecca Gagnon, another Minneapolis school board member, said the information should have been disclosed for the sake of transparency.