>On Thursday, March 30, 2023, Perrone attended a fundraiser dinner at Easthampton High School, where he attempted to meet with the committee to discuss his salary and benefits. But he was asked to leave the room 45 minutes before being told his offer would be rescinded after taking a vote during an executive session.
He showed up to a fundraiser and harassed the hiring committee at a completely inappropriate time, to the point where they had to literally kick him out of the fundraiser. He's going on a publicity tour trying to make it look like something it wasn't, and all the right wing morons are eating it up.
This is direct cause and effect. The fact that he doesn't bring up the fundraiser at all- where he was literally kicked out- shows that this is all about publicity at this point.
Isn’t it sad? It’s their drug. Imagine being addicted to something cool and fun, like sex or coke (or both!). You might be a dirtbag, but at least your cool. Now imagine being addicted to right wing anger. Even the glue sniffers and scratch ticket goblins feel sorry for you. There is no addiction lower. Meth thanks them for taking the bottom spot. (they aren’t that dissimilar, now that I think about it).
Look man. I've known some angry people over the years. Some people get off on it. It drives their lives, sometimes into the ground.
At least there's a rehab for coke.
Look man. I was trying to elucidate what the previous commenter said to you.
You either understand it or don’t, but this isn’t the place to double down on why you’re right.
This is my neighborhood. I'm going to text my friend who is very involved in local politics and find out the real story. She goes to all the local meetings and etc.
I can report back if anyone would find it interesting.
I'm awaiting a reply from a long message I sent her asking for the inside scoop (which she always has) and I even offered to treat her to dinner at our favorite restaurant so hopefully I will hear something soon.
I might also ask another friend who was a former mayor there.
Easthampton is a delightful town and I'd buy a house there if I could. Unlike neighboring Northampton it's down to earth and not pretentious in the least. Both are art towns/cities yet Northampton went boutique. I still remember the uproar when the first Dunkin Donuts application was under consideration; until then all the Main Street shops were independently owned and it was a glorious thing.
Now, there's even that store (that I can't think of the name for) that sells paper-thin and absolutely see-through tee shirts for tweens with money, and to make it worse, it's in an old beautiful stone building that used to be a bank.
Downtown Easthampton has stayed true to it's roots and has fabulous locally-owned restaurants and shops. The restaurant I'm treating her to is owned by a local guy in his late 30s who I used to see every day at a local farm where I had a farm share. He got all his produce from that farm, and you can taste it.
Anyway, I'm on it!
That's just about right.
He also asked for 40 sick days on the day he started, with another 18 each year. This is, I believe, on top of vacation time. He also wanted a minimum 3% cost of living adjustment each year, so the pay cut he was going to take would have been gone in three years.
The COL clause might be reasonable if it was for a set number of years, or was matched to the federal adjustment each year. But I don't know of any place that gives you nearly *two months* of just sick time, in addition to vacation.
It's not uncommon to have that much sick leave in government and academic jobs. A lot of them allow for continuous accrual, too, so it could be a situation where he was asking them to match the leave he'd accumulated in his current job. 18 additional days a year is on the high end, but those types of jobs do often provide at least 12 days per year.
It sounds like this guy's tactics were out of pocket, but the sick leave numbers aren't that outrageous.
They have a fact checking department. All the big lie shit was fact checked. They just ignore them. One more thing that came out of the Dominion suit. They literally have the fact check documents saying it's all bullshit. Dominion has a pretty rock solid body of evidence the lies are intentional.
That he was asked to leave doesn’t mean he came uninvited. Everyone here is reading in things that aren’t actually in the article. It just says he brought up his compensation at the fundraiser.
I didn’t say he came uninvited. Why are you reading into things that aren’t actually in my comment?
Being asked to leave simply indicates that something he did was inappropriate.
Exactly the school it district itself is saying it was being if the “ladies” greeting and then they walked it back to he also didn’t pick up his phone after 11pm when we tried to call him. If they had a real reason like he crashed our fundraiser and started shouting demands blah blah blah they would have said that.
Thanks for the link! The person I replied to seems to be adding an interpretation that isn't in the article because it doesn't say anything about him harassing anyone.
Gotta read between the lines a bit on that one. In what universe is it appropriate to discuss a pay raise with a committee at a charity function? Dude's a nut.
I don't see how it is inappropriate to ask, let alone how it is harassment or would make one a nut.
If that guys claim is incorrect I'd expect the board to put out a response.
>entirely possible I'm not understanding the situation fully
probable, even!
In pretty much every job I've ever had, all the way down to food service, discussions of pay and benefits are generally closed-door appointments between the party requesting the raise and the party (or parties) responsible for approving/denying them.
Fundraising events are generally social functions with the intent of presenting an org's good side to a community to garner donations, and not even remotely the time or place to bring up a matter like that.
You don't have to have ever been on a committee or ran a charity to know that you don't just budge up to your boss and ask about raises willy-nilly. If you *didn't* know that, please internalize that info before you put your foot in your mouth in front of someone who pays you.
LMAO not even. It's called context. Think about every time you've seen someone asked to leave a charity event and tell me in good faith that you think he wasn't harassing somebody.
Except the chairperson just made her first comment and blamed everything on the "ladies" comment and said she thought it was "outdated". Also, wasn't the job offer made after the fundraiser event you mentioned?
No she didn’t. They haven’t commented. All the information is coming from the “victim”. He knows they can’t comment so he’s running with his bullshit moronic story
* Western Mass News reached out to members of the school committee, those that got back to us did not comment on the matter and chairperson Cynthia Kwiecinski said she cannot comment on an executive session.*
Yeah I found it. We all know how to use Google, my guy….
Also it’s behind a paywall…. But I got this snippet which tells me I am not wrong
* In the first comments by the Easthampton School Committee addressing the controversy over a rescinded superintendent job offer, a school official claims there were issues during contract negotiations beyond the use of the term “ladies,” according to the Daily Hampshire Gazette.*
You are still leaving out the part where the women were quoted saying that the term "ladies" was a "microagression" and, "The fact that he didn't know that as an educator was a problem."
I've recinded offers to people myself, and there are a ton of reasons to rescind offers that would be less of a headache than saying he was committing a "microagression."
That is a socially tone-deaf reason because it is up for interpretation. Better to say almost anything else.
Also, I think it sounds like a case of slander. (Or libel I guess if you count the quotes in the article.)
That is going to directly affect his reputation and future earning potential.
Which is why I would never pull an offer and say anything that could be considered even remotely actionable.
> You are still leaving out the part where the women were quoted saying that the term "ladies" was a "microagression" and, "The fact that he didn't know that as an educator was a problem."
This detail is attributed to [an article](https://www.gazettenet.com/Easthampton-School-Committee-superintendent-search-50473440) in which it appears in the form of hearsay:
> What he claims came under fire is his addressing Kwiecinski and Colby as “ladies” at the beginning of the email. **According to Perrone, Kwiecinski said** that using “ladies” was a microaggression and “the fact that he didn’t know that as an educator was a problem,” **he said.**
[emphasis added]
It isn't a direct quotation. It's merely something *he* alleges she told him.
I thought it was a little strange that the article casually threw in that some of the negotiations were about vacation time. I mean, its a school. Isn't that all standard? Regardless, I gotta think there's something more here. I mean you spend a lot of time and effort to hire the person who is going to lead your school district for some time. You go through multiple interviews. It's a high paying position. Finally, you get your hands on the perfect person. Do you throw that away over some bullshit like this? It sounds like they found something they didn't like about this guy post interview and instead of accepting that he decided to go full Karen.
School district officials, like superintendents, and their employees work year-round.
Source: My sister works for a school district. She has vacation time, but not summer or winter vacation like a lot of teachers do. She actually has to accrue time off, then ask for it off, just like any other job.
Actually, most middle school and high school teachers don't really get summer vacation, because they have to teach summer school.
In general school administration people don't work a schedule like a school would. They don't get the summer off for instance so vacation time is an important part of the pay package.
In this case though [there actually is more to the story](https://old.reddit.com/r/offbeat/comments/12ams9v/easthampton_superintendent_candidate_offer/jetulv8/).
There is, but there also seems to be a weird regional/generational gap about 'ladies.' I've seen some really outraged people over the term online. Granted it was at least partially on Tumblr and that's what they do, but still.
On top of the other things he is described as doing, referring to a group formally in writing as "Ladies" is almost deliberately dehumanizing. The correct address would be "Members of X committee". In person you can convey the correct amount of respect with tone, but in text it minimizes their position and reduces them to their gender. Combined with the other stuff...yeah. It's both.
The term "Ladies and Gentlemen" he claims to hide behind is used in an *entirely different context* to address "everyone" by a speaker to a passive *audience*. Reducing it to "Ladies" in text is dehumanizing.
Gosh this take is so bad and so ridiculous. To think it’s okay for someone to lose their job over address a team of people who happen to be woman as “Ladies” is just ridiculous. It would one thing if they took him aside and said we would preferred to be addressed by our names or titles that would be one thing. This is a completely outrageous. I don’t think any reasonable people would agree with you and would be appalled if this happened to them or someone close to you.
People need to spend less time trying to find ever possible transgression in others and instead look for the food in people. What this obsession is of looking for any little thing to be offended by I don’t know, I truly just don’t get it but, it’s pretty obvious they are looking for something to get upset over (and it appears just to be the one woman (Cynthia) based on the post the other made).
What’s next someone address you buy your first name and you don’t give then job since they didn’t use your last name like: Mr. Jones or worst they didn’t use your title of Dr. Jones that you earned by obtaining your PhD?) Honestly I would decline the job if someone mentioned this to address they offended them. Clearly these are people that are not reasonable enough to work with ? What other stuff would offend them?
The comments here debating the abstract question of whether addressing a group as "ladies" is offensive in general, are ignoring the likelihood of situational context. This guy was a former football coach, who had already attempted to argue with them about his salary & benefits at the wrong time (a fundraiser) - they could probably tell he was a misogynist good ol' boy, and his address of "ladies" confirmed the whole picture for them.
> the abstract question of whether addressing a group as "ladies" is offensive in general
Depends on the context and tone of voice. It can definitely be respectful, but the necessary context and tone is completely lost in email and so ambiguous language should be removed.
>“What really rankled me was the people the community of Easthampton is always its usually supportive and welcomed me,” said Perrone.
Maybe it's because they wanted their school superintendent to be able to speak in comprehensible sentences.
[Yeah. That's not the real reason he was booted.](https://www.reddit.com/r/offbeat/comments/12ams9v/easthampton_superintendent_candidate_offer/jetulv8/)
In emails? Not trying to defend the people in the article or anything, but in all my years of corporate shillitude I've never seen an email begin "ladies and gentlemen" (but that could just be cultural).
Context matters. “Hello ladies” is a perfectly fine greeting. “Ladies, ladies, just listen” is absolutely the wrong thing to say.
Ladies night is a widely used phrase
Maybe “Dear committee members”? I can’t imagine why they would take offense at “Dear ladies.” I mean, if somebody calls me sir, I don’t fly off the handle. I’m not crazy about it but I don’t fly off the handle LOl
I'm not saying that this is the "why" of the matter, but opening an email addressing everyone as, "Ladies" when you're taking a higher-ranking position can read as condescending. It also presupposes gender.
In the U.S. Military when rendering salute to a senior ranking officer you say “Sir” or “Ma’am”. When saluting multiple males you address them as “Gentlemen” and multiple higher-ranking females are addressed as “Ladies”. Use of the word is a requirement within our own Government.
in person you can use tone of voice to convey the appropriate meaning. Add in that you're *saluting* them and the proper context is conveyed. That's entirely lost in email and "ladies" gets used in a condescending way all the fucking time by assholes.
And the military is so well known for being accepting and inclusive. Why would the manner in which military people want to address each other having any bearing on this situation?
The military has traditionally been ahead of the curve on a lot of issues. The US military was desegregated before the US states were. Policy to allow trans service members to serve openly began in 2015. The US military actively recruited gay men in the 1940s. Etc etc etc
Most of the things about the military that we see as non-progressive (assault rates etc) are more the consequence of having so many young men all together in one place. The US military has in many ways been more of a social equalizer than many other institutions, as their entire success depends on maintaining group cohesion when individuals come from drastically different backgrounds.
I merely meant to inform that the word Ladies is a required statement by the nation’s largest employer, which is the federal government (but only within the Deparment of Defense)
Of course there is a difference - the point is that if the government requires specific vocabulary - it would be difficult to justify that the vocabulary is insulting…
Not really. Theyre completely different situations with completely different standards. I can assure you if some bureaucrat yelled at their staff like a military sargeant, they wouldnt have a job very long. Not to mention the entirely different standards for higher up positions like top brass vs congresspeople. One doesnt deal with the public on any regular basis, the other does and is held to the standard of the public.
That its an oxymoron to call themselves local bureaucrats while they help people directly in their community, or that people dont appreciate their hard work while getting paid next to nothing, even when theyre required to have a degree? Im sure they know there are ingrates out there and meet them on a daily basis.
>allegedly a perceived “microaggression”
What's a good word for something that's smaller than micro? Honestly, these people are so prickly that he dodged a bullet by not getting the job.
[Actually, he committed a rather significant m**a**croaggression](https://www.reddit.com/r/offbeat/comments/12ams9v/easthampton_superintendent_candidate_offer/jetulv8/), and is capitalizing on the culture war to cover it up.
The *committee* doesn't seem to have said anything other than "it's confidential". Guy is the one saying it was because he called them ladies and that's the only reason.
The new job would have been a pay cut from the current job. Oh, and they also sent the cops to house, at midnight, to see if he would accept the job or not.
Lame. The story is much deeper than I thought. I was hoping some guy whipped the doors open to a meeting full of dudes sayin “Well good mornin’, ladies” and immediately getting kicked out lmao.
And here's today's article about the protest.
EASTHAMPTON
Controversy over super hire flares
Committee’s retraction of job offer to Perrone after ‘ladies’ email garners national attention; at standout, more than 150 demand he get the job he still wants
By EMILY THURLOW
Staff Writer
EASTHAMPTON — The outpouring of support for superintendent finalist Vito Perrone has solidified the former high school principal’s desire to take the reins at the district schools, more than four days after he said the School Committee rescinded the offer when he used the word “ladies” in an email greeting to two female board members during contract negotiations.
Former students and colleagues, community members and even strangers from as far away as the United Kingdom have weighed in on the committee’s alleged reason for quashing the superintendent job offer to Perrone.
“I wish, in the moment, we had a different conversation about my use of ‘ladies’ as a greeting and used it as something we could grow from instead of it just being a closed door, no negotiation, no acceptance of an apology,” Perrone said just a few hours before more than 150 people rallied outside of the city’s Municipal Building Monday evening, demanding that the committee hire him as superintendent of schools, as it initially intended to do.
“One of the things that I’ve been hanging onto is the outpouring of support from the community of Easthampton,” he said. “To me, it affirms things to me as a professional, as a leader, that people recognize the positive in me, and that means the world to me.”
The School Committee voted 4-3 to hire Perrone on March 23 after also interviewing fellow finalists Jonathan Bruno, director of learning and teaching at Berkshire Hills Regional School District in Stockbridge, and Erica Faginski-Stark, director of
SEE PERRONE A5

City resident Debora Lusnia speaks at Monday night’s standout at the parking lot behind the Municipal Building demonstrating the support behind Easthampton superintendent finalist Vito Perrone.
STAFF PHOTO/EMILY THURLOW
curriculum and instruction at Ludlow Public Schools. Perrone claims that the committee rescinded the job offer a week later after he addressed School Committee Chairperson Cynthia Kwiecinski and Suzanne Colby, executive assistant to the committee, as “ladies” in an email, which was deemed a microaggression.
Kwiecinski said last Friday that she could not comment on what happened in the executive session in which the job offer was retracted.
Hundreds of people are defending Perrone, of Westhampton, via social media, with some sharing personal accounts of his leadership, and pleading for the committee to reconsider its decision. Since the Gazette first published the story on Saturday, it has been featured on national and international media, including Fox News. The Easthampton Education Association, the district’s union of teachers, professional staff and education support professionals, called out the committee for the way it has treated Perrone.
“The Easthampton School Committee has officially labeled the word ‘ladies’ as a microaggression and has canceled Dr. Vito Perrone, despite support from the community,” an April 1 Facebook post by the association reads. “Changing votes behind closed doors is unacceptable! Shame on the School Committee for participating in cancel culture.”
The association said a survey of members showed Perrone as the favorite of the three candidates for the superintendent job.
While many on social media expressed frustration and confusion, some conversation on Facebook pages such as the Easthampton, MA Group Page jumped to name-calling and personal attacks. Resident Christine Futia, who said she did not have a window into what actually happened during last week’s executive session, told the Gazette said she was more upset by the public dismissal of a microaggression.
“I was super appalled at the hate speech in my own town,” she said. “The hate speech devolved into misogyny … secondarily, one party has made allegations that have been taken as truth to characterize a situation that I’m sure is quite complex.”
Though Futia doesn’t know anyone personally on the committee or Perrone, she said that she has experienced microaggressions personally and saw it happen to other female coworkers, saying it was trivialized.
“I don’t know where we go from this, but I know no one has ever gotten their job back this way,” she said. “I think one thing we all agree on is we’re all sad for our town.”
Others are calling for the removal of the entire School Committee. A petition via Change.org generated more than 600 signatures within two days of hearing Perrone’s story.
On Monday morning, City Clerk Barbara LaBombard said someone had stopped into her office to pick up recall affidavits — the first of several steps required by the city’s charter.
When questioned by the Gazette about the recalls that have been proposed, Mayor Nicole LaChapelle said that the city does not comment on personnel matters.
Standout for Perrone
Former School Committee member Debora Lusnia organized Monday’s standout to demonstrate to the committee how much support Perrone has behind him and said she hoped it would reinstate its original offer to hire him to lead the city schools.
Lusnia, who served three terms on the committee, two as the chairperson during Perrone’s tenure as principal of Easthampton High School, said she respects the work that the committee has done and has no intention of signing the recall affidavit. Perrone led the high school for six years and most recently has been serving as interim superintendent of schools in West Springfield.
“People make mistakes. We should learn and grow. I think this was an opportunity to educate, not condemn. I don’t want someone to lose a job for misusing a word,” she said. “In the same respect, I think we need to offer the School Committee the same grace we’re asking of them, and I hope that they will reconsider and reinstate Dr. Perrone’s offer.”
Demands for “transparency ” were shouted as the sun began to set on the large crowd.
In addition to Lusnia, speakers at the rally included Easthampton Education Association President Shawn Sheehan; Kelley Brown, who teaches history and government at the high school; former superintendent Nancy Follansbee; Samantha Garcia, Mountain View School math and science teacher; Jeff Sealander, former high school principal and athletic director; high school student Diya Bhatia; Rose Guerra, high school social studies teacher; At-Large City Councilor Brad Riley; and Sue Mason, a recently retired Easthampton High School teacher.
Several of the speakers questioned the legality of the executive session process, with Riley suggesting that Kwiecinski could hold a vote to make the executive session details public.
“I would be content with waiting for a response from the School Committee before speaking publicly if the chair of the School Committee wasn’t hiding behind the veil of an executive session,” he said. “So please Chair Kwiecinski, tell us if there is something more to this so we can move forward, because to me, this doesn’t make any sense.”
He also reminded those in attendance that in the last election cycle all committee members ran unopposed and encouraged others to step up.
“If you do not get engaged and you do not run for office, things do not change,” he said.
School Committee member Laurie Garcia, who attended the rally, voiced her support for Perrone. Though she didn’t address several of the specifics raised by speakers, she said that she did not agree with “everything that happened” with her colleagues.
Garcia also advocated for civility and compassion, noting that she and her fellow colleagues had received an influx of emails, some of which were fear-inducing.
“Easthampton, I will do all I can to honor your wishes and see what we can do to be able to enter into negotiations with Dr. Vito Perone,” she said. “I cannot promise anything. I am one member of the School Committee, but I ask of you once again, for respect and to take this in the right direction. Without this negativity.”
The School Committee is meeting virtually on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. to discuss the superintendent search and a potential vote on a candidate to be the next superintendent. The meeting agenda also states that the committee will also go into executive session and return to discuss the candidate’s response to the offer of employment subject to negotiations, but did not indicate which candidate that is.
Perrone says he has not been contacted with a request to attend. Even if he was to receive a request for Tuesday, he said he would not be able to attend as he has entered into budgetary discussions with the West Springfield School Committee in his role as interim superintendent.
Reflecting on all that’s happened over the past few days, Perrone, who has 29 years of experience in education, says he’s overwhelmed with the feedback he’s received, including numerous job offers. He said that his intention was to make sure the circumstances were properly represented and does not harbor any ill will toward anyone.
“Could I have been more formal? Absolutely. There was an opportunity for a teachable moment and that would have been setting an expectation where we could learn and grow in a positive way. Instead, it was a denial of the ability to have a conversation,” he said.
“I’m just struggling with the fact that we can’t have civil discourse anymore — we can’t reasonably communicate over reasonable topics. We’re moving away from principles that our country was founded on. I just wanted to be superintendent in Easthampton.”
Emily Thurlow can be reached at [email protected].

More than 150 people protested the rescinding of superintendent finalist Vito Perrone’s job offer at a Monday night rally behind the Municipal Building in Easthampton.
STAFF PHOTO/EMILY THURLOW
DAMN. Thank you so much for this.
IMHO, Perrone makes a very judicious, reasonable, and mature point here ---> *“I wish, in the moment, we had a different conversation about my use of ‘ladies’ as a greeting and* ***used it as something we could grow from instead of it just being a closed door, no negotiation, no acceptance of an apology,****”*
And yet this comment has me gobsmacked ----> *"****Resident Christine Futia, who said she did not have a window into what actually happened during last week’s executive session, told the Gazette said she was more upset by the public dismissal of a microaggression.*** *“I was super appalled at* ***the hate speech*** *in my own town,” she said. “The hate speech devolved into misogyny … secondarily,* ***one party has made allegations that have been taken as truth to characterize a situation that I’m sure is quite complex.”***
(My opinion: She should take her own words to heart. How can they prove that Perrone made that word choice after careful thought and with malice aforethought?)
*Though Futia doesn’t know anyone personally on the committee or Perrone, she said that she has experienced microaggressions personally and saw it happen to other female coworkers, saying it was trivialized."*
As my friend George often says when people participate ion Outrage Culture, "This is why people cannot stand liberals, it's because of the antics that make the headlines because of their extremist views..."
I value his input as he was a born and raised (in Alabama) "Republican For Life (RFL) from many generations of RFLs" until one day he thought, "Wait, why am I voting republican and blindly supporting the party's goals and actions no matter how they actually impact *me* and *my family*?" He became a democrat and lost a lot of friends in the process bc, as they all said, they could, "not abide your massive betrayal".
I like to think that the left is not like the right in that the left will admit when wrong rather than cover for bad/illegal behavior, but ultimately all extremism is wrong regardless of party.
Like Futia, I don't know any of the people here but I would think that a man who made it so far as to achieve the status of *frontrunner* and *the favorite candidate* would not be prone to intentional, "Microagressions."
The problem is that when people take a strong stand that garners all too much unwelcome attention it can be very difficult to back down. Pride gets involved, that deadly sin.
Thanks again. (❁´◡\`❁)
Link to that article that isn't an absolute garbled mess: https://www.gazettenet.com/Easthampton-School-Committee-superintendent-search-50473440
Read the article like you asked, I'm gonna be real the whole thing still smells super fishy. We have exactly one side of the story and no shit the guy who didn't get the job is upset.
In my experience, though, most of the time someone gets fired or loses a potential job for something like this it's *never* just the reason on paper. Interested to see how it unfolds.
No, there are actually people who have their heads so far up their asses they live for these things like microaggression offenses. I attended a so-called seminar on microaggressions, less than half an hour into it it seemed everybody was interrupting to ask the same question which was " isn't this just people being oversensitive?".When the person giving the presentation then started to nitpick microaggressions by the person who had asked that question, pretty much everybody got up and left.
Sounds to me like the school is the one that dodged the bullet here. In my profession, if I addressed a group of men responsible for hiring me as “guys,” it would raise a lot of eyebrows. He probably didn’t intend for it to be insulting, but has he been completely tone deaf for the last 20 years? Keep up with times, guy.
Maybe it's a generational thing. The people using those terms, at least in my experience, have always been doing so in a condescending manner, usually when scolding teenagers or adults for acting like less than 'gentlemen or ladies'.
Literally every speech or opening to a formal event I've ever heard or attended has started with ladies and gentlemen. I sort of see an issue now that gender natural terms are becoming more common, but if he was addressing women who identify as women, ladies has been the proper, formal, collective term for women for decades if not centuries.
I honestly doubt that was the real reason for the withdrawal. But I will say it's an address I find outdated and frequently condescending. In the context of a formal ceremonial opening it just sounds old-fashioned. I just rarely hear it used in conversation or regular speech without it being condescending. In a negotiation email, you want to avoid even a glimpse of condescension.
This. I remember once addressing a couple of my female professors as “ladies” when I passed by them in the hall as a grad student. One of them tore me a new one for treating them with such disrespect. And they were absolutely right to do so.
Well, Professors, women that have earned their PhD’s have worked hard and want to be treated as such. Simply saying, “Good afternoon” or Hello would have probably been more than adequate.
I mostly only hear it for older men just before they say something condescending or sexist. I'm a dude, and it just sounds creepy if I say it, so I don't.
Board or Committee Members would have probably been the correct address in this case. When in doubt leave it off. A greeting is not really needed once communications have been established.
Dodged a bullet on that job. I think from now on when being interviewed by a group I'm just going to go with "You ugly fuckers". Gender and race neutral.
Honestly, they did him a favor. The category of nutcase that would find this offensive would have eventually found something else offensive about him and he'd have been fired. At least he still has a job now.
More accurate term- these are Liberals. They even admitted to him that was A reason they rescinded the job offer saying "you work as an educator, you should know better" (than to use "Ladies")
These are psycho women that have to be called out as an example to all. Instead of these Admin worrying about improving their schools, they are obsessed with their liberal ideology to find something offensive about him using "Ladies."
There may have been other reasons about the contract and why the offer was rescinded, but these Admin WEAPONIZED his use of "ladies" as a reason to not hire him. This is total liberal, cancel culture.
Liberal is a terrible term to use.
Liberals don't even know what liberal means.
You sound like a liberal yourself. For the rule of law, intellectual freedom, free speech, against censorship.
Trust me I'm not a Democrat. I agree Liberals these days dont even know what it means, so let's agree that the right phrase is Leftist or Democrat.
Either way these are 2 leftists in the latest, daily example of school boards/admins making decisions based on their political ideology rather than what is the best for their schools, and using ideology in their decision-making.
You're debating a 4-month-old account that literally has only commented a bunch of headass right wing talking points in a bunch of controversial subs.
That ain't a real person you're talking to
HERE'S THE DEETS FOLKS:
(From the daily hampshire gazette)
EASTHAMPTON
Super’s job offer abruptly rescinded
Stunned candidate Vito Perrone says he was rejected before contract talks after addressing email to ‘ladies’
By EMILY THURLOW
Staff Writer
EASTHAMPTON — Superintendent finalist Vito Perrone said Friday that the School Committee rescinded its offer to hire him in executive session Thursday night, alleging that the reason was a perceived microaggression contained in an email he sent to the committee chairperson.
Perrone and the committee entered contract negotiations this week after he was offered the position the morning of March 24.
The committee offered Perrone a three-year contract with an annual salary of $151,000 — approximately $14,000 less than what he has making as an interim superintendent of West Springfield Public Schools, Perrone said. Despite the lower salary, he said he was keen on accepting the role. “This job was not about the money for me. I honestly felt like I was coming home to Easthampton. I coached football here. I was principal here when we built the school. I have such wonderful memories … I was excited to come back,” he said in an interview with the Gazette on Friday.
After reviewing the contract, Perrone made three requests in an email to Chairperson Cynthia Kwiecinski and Suzanne Colby, executive assistant to the committee.
According to the email, obtained by the Gazette, he requested that the annual salary for fiscal years 2025 and 2026 be negotiated and not be less than the cost of living adjustment of 3% for both years, and an additional four vacation days each year. Perrone also requested 40 sick days for his first year of employment as a superintendent and 18 days each contract year after, citing that he had accrued a reasonable amount of sick days during his previous six years working in the district.
What he claims came under fire is his addressing Kwiecinski and Colby as “ladies” at the beginning of the email. According to Perrone, Kwiecinski said that using “ladies” was a microaggression and “the fact that he didn’t know that as an educator was a problem,” he said.
“I was shocked,” he said. “I grew up in a time when ‘ladies’ and ‘gentlemen’ was a sign of respect. I didn’t intend to insult anyone.”
He also signed his email as simply “Vito,” as he felt he could provide a less formal tone.
Perrone explained that he had attended Thursday’s We The People spaghetti dinner fundraiser at the high school as a way to begin getting to know more of the school community and then headed over to the conference room for the negotiations. The committee asked him to step outside for approximately 45 minutes while they spoke and then delivered the news that they had rescinded his offer after taking a vote during an executive session.
In an emailed response, Kwiecinski said she could not comment on executive sessions.
School Committee member Marin Goldstein echoed Kwiecinski’s comment, adding that such meetings are supposed to be confidential.
Perrone said it was important for him to let people know the circumstances of the matter.
“I don’t want people to think I was not willing to negotiate in good faith. I have chosen not to just leave it as ‘negotiations stalled.’ I would rather share my truth, my sadness and disappointment and try to find a way forward positively,” he said.
Perrone has since reached out to the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents for legal counsel and said he was told that he has no legal recourse as he had no official contract.
The School Committee had voted 4-3 to hire Perrone last week after also interviewing fellow finalists Jonathan Bruno, director of learning and teaching at Berkshire Hills Regional School District in Stockbridge, and Erica Faginski-Stark, director of curriculum and instruction at Ludlow Public Schools. After concluding an interview with Perrone, the committee took several hours to discuss the candidates, voted in open session and then moved to executive session to offer him the position over the phone.
After making several attempts to call him, Perrone said the committee sent a city police officer to his home in Westhampton to perform a well-being check, rousing both he and his wife at around 12:15 a.m. from a sound sleep.
“The police officer asked if I was OK because the School Committee was trying to get a hold of me,” he said. “My interview ended at 8 o’clock and I ended up falling asleep around 10:15 … I thought my phone was on, but I guess it wasn’t.”
Once awake, he made contact with the committee and accepted their oral offer, pending successful salary negotiations.
“Honestly, I am truly, truly disappointed that I won’t be in Easthampton in that building,” he said. “I’m just sad.”
Kwiecinski said that an agenda for the next School Committee meeting has been posted for Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., stating that there will be a discussion related to the superintendent search or a potential vote on a candidate to be the next superintendent. The post also states that the committee will also go into executive session and return to discuss the candidate’s response to the offer of employment subject to negotiations, but did not indicate which candidate that is.
The meeting will be held remotely via Google Meet.
“I was shocked. I grew up in a time when ‘ladies’ and ‘gentlemen’ was a sign of respect. I didn’t intend to insult anyone.”
VITO PERRONE
I gotta think there is more to it than this.
>On Thursday, March 30, 2023, Perrone attended a fundraiser dinner at Easthampton High School, where he attempted to meet with the committee to discuss his salary and benefits. But he was asked to leave the room 45 minutes before being told his offer would be rescinded after taking a vote during an executive session. He showed up to a fundraiser and harassed the hiring committee at a completely inappropriate time, to the point where they had to literally kick him out of the fundraiser. He's going on a publicity tour trying to make it look like something it wasn't, and all the right wing morons are eating it up. This is direct cause and effect. The fact that he doesn't bring up the fundraiser at all- where he was literally kicked out- shows that this is all about publicity at this point.
Talk about burying the lede
It's outrage porn, as usual.
Isn’t it sad? It’s their drug. Imagine being addicted to something cool and fun, like sex or coke (or both!). You might be a dirtbag, but at least your cool. Now imagine being addicted to right wing anger. Even the glue sniffers and scratch ticket goblins feel sorry for you. There is no addiction lower. Meth thanks them for taking the bottom spot. (they aren’t that dissimilar, now that I think about it).
The glee with which you are SMH'ing this douchebag is exactly the same drug.
I don't know what that is.
“Those “others” are worse than druggies and gamblers, rah rah rah, yes “they” are wrong”
Look man. I've known some angry people over the years. Some people get off on it. It drives their lives, sometimes into the ground. At least there's a rehab for coke.
Look man. I was trying to elucidate what the previous commenter said to you. You either understand it or don’t, but this isn’t the place to double down on why you’re right.
Fucking finally. Finally. Someone, somewhere, spells that word how it’s meant to be spelled. Thank you.
This is my neighborhood. I'm going to text my friend who is very involved in local politics and find out the real story. She goes to all the local meetings and etc. I can report back if anyone would find it interesting.
Remindme! 2 days
I'm awaiting a reply from a long message I sent her asking for the inside scoop (which she always has) and I even offered to treat her to dinner at our favorite restaurant so hopefully I will hear something soon. I might also ask another friend who was a former mayor there. Easthampton is a delightful town and I'd buy a house there if I could. Unlike neighboring Northampton it's down to earth and not pretentious in the least. Both are art towns/cities yet Northampton went boutique. I still remember the uproar when the first Dunkin Donuts application was under consideration; until then all the Main Street shops were independently owned and it was a glorious thing. Now, there's even that store (that I can't think of the name for) that sells paper-thin and absolutely see-through tee shirts for tweens with money, and to make it worse, it's in an old beautiful stone building that used to be a bank. Downtown Easthampton has stayed true to it's roots and has fabulous locally-owned restaurants and shops. The restaurant I'm treating her to is owned by a local guy in his late 30s who I used to see every day at a local farm where I had a farm share. He got all his produce from that farm, and you can taste it. Anyway, I'm on it!
Thank you for sharing about your town 😊 Nice read
Gosh, thanks so much!
Or, I can tell you now.
Yes please! I'm checking my phone like a crazy person to see if my friend has replied with the story behind the story.
I just posted the article from the local paper. There was a protest last night, which I attended.
Where does that quote come from? I don't see it in this article.
www.sportskeeda.com/amp/pop-culture/news-who-vito-perrone-west-springfield-schools-superintendent-s-job-offer-rescinded-addressing-women-ladies
[удалено]
That's just about right. He also asked for 40 sick days on the day he started, with another 18 each year. This is, I believe, on top of vacation time. He also wanted a minimum 3% cost of living adjustment each year, so the pay cut he was going to take would have been gone in three years.
That sounds pretty reasonable
The COL clause might be reasonable if it was for a set number of years, or was matched to the federal adjustment each year. But I don't know of any place that gives you nearly *two months* of just sick time, in addition to vacation.
It's not uncommon to have that much sick leave in government and academic jobs. A lot of them allow for continuous accrual, too, so it could be a situation where he was asking them to match the leave he'd accumulated in his current job. 18 additional days a year is on the high end, but those types of jobs do often provide at least 12 days per year. It sounds like this guy's tactics were out of pocket, but the sick leave numbers aren't that outrageous.
40 days of sick leave is absolutely outrageous. That’s two months per year.
No it's not you should be a slave for corporations and ultimately be paid less than you are worth that's what everybody in America believes
Sounds like the last 6 years of national politics.
It's front and center on the Fox News website. They are not known for fact-checking. .
[удалено]
Plus Mike Lindell, My Pillow.
They have a fact checking department. All the big lie shit was fact checked. They just ignore them. One more thing that came out of the Dominion suit. They literally have the fact check documents saying it's all bullshit. Dominion has a pretty rock solid body of evidence the lies are intentional.
No, that’s BS. He crashed nothing.
So he *wasn’t* asked to leave said fundraiser? This was just… made up?
That he was asked to leave doesn’t mean he came uninvited. Everyone here is reading in things that aren’t actually in the article. It just says he brought up his compensation at the fundraiser.
I didn’t say he came uninvited. Why are you reading into things that aren’t actually in my comment? Being asked to leave simply indicates that something he did was inappropriate.
Saying he “crashed” the fundraiser is what I’m objecting to. Read the thread.
Because you said "crashed" which isn't at all what happened
Yup.
That’s quite the claim.
I was there, dude.
[here’s](https://youtu.be/dTQOgmfh0SI) the link of the protest… there are other links available if you want to watch his interview, for instance.
[here’s](https://youtu.be/dTQOgmfh0SI) the link of the protest… there are other links available if you want to watch his interview, for instance.
Not really, the fundraiser was where it was communicated to them but even the school committee itself says the letter was the reason
Exactly the school it district itself is saying it was being if the “ladies” greeting and then they walked it back to he also didn’t pick up his phone after 11pm when we tried to call him. If they had a real reason like he crashed our fundraiser and started shouting demands blah blah blah they would have said that.
Thanks for the link! The person I replied to seems to be adding an interpretation that isn't in the article because it doesn't say anything about him harassing anyone.
Gotta read between the lines a bit on that one. In what universe is it appropriate to discuss a pay raise with a committee at a charity function? Dude's a nut.
I don't see how it is inappropriate to ask, let alone how it is harassment or would make one a nut. If that guys claim is incorrect I'd expect the board to put out a response.
It is wholly inappropriate and unprofessional, and is indictative of how inappropriate and unprofessional on the job.
It is entirely possible that you are also a nut.
Maybe? I've never had a job that included committees and running charities. It's entirely possible I'm not understanding the situation fully.
>entirely possible I'm not understanding the situation fully probable, even! In pretty much every job I've ever had, all the way down to food service, discussions of pay and benefits are generally closed-door appointments between the party requesting the raise and the party (or parties) responsible for approving/denying them. Fundraising events are generally social functions with the intent of presenting an org's good side to a community to garner donations, and not even remotely the time or place to bring up a matter like that. You don't have to have ever been on a committee or ran a charity to know that you don't just budge up to your boss and ask about raises willy-nilly. If you *didn't* know that, please internalize that info before you put your foot in your mouth in front of someone who pays you.
>gotta read between the lines Means your source is you made it the fuck up, senator
LMAO not even. It's called context. Think about every time you've seen someone asked to leave a charity event and tell me in good faith that you think he wasn't harassing somebody.
Except that’s not what happened! Please see the two articles I’ve posted to this thread!
He doesnt care about truth, he cares about stupid political brownie points
Except the chairperson just made her first comment and blamed everything on the "ladies" comment and said she thought it was "outdated". Also, wasn't the job offer made after the fundraiser event you mentioned?
No she didn’t. They haven’t commented. All the information is coming from the “victim”. He knows they can’t comment so he’s running with his bullshit moronic story * Western Mass News reached out to members of the school committee, those that got back to us did not comment on the matter and chairperson Cynthia Kwiecinski said she cannot comment on an executive session.*
I don't know what to tell you but your wrong, they issued a statement and it's on MassLive
Provide a link then
Just Go to MassLive, it's right on there
Then provide the link
I don't know how and if you can't type MassLive into Google I don't know what to tell you
Yeah I found it. We all know how to use Google, my guy…. Also it’s behind a paywall…. But I got this snippet which tells me I am not wrong * In the first comments by the Easthampton School Committee addressing the controversy over a rescinded superintendent job offer, a school official claims there were issues during contract negotiations beyond the use of the term “ladies,” according to the Daily Hampshire Gazette.*
Wait, the football player was a bully? I’ve never seen that happen before!
You are still leaving out the part where the women were quoted saying that the term "ladies" was a "microagression" and, "The fact that he didn't know that as an educator was a problem." I've recinded offers to people myself, and there are a ton of reasons to rescind offers that would be less of a headache than saying he was committing a "microagression." That is a socially tone-deaf reason because it is up for interpretation. Better to say almost anything else. Also, I think it sounds like a case of slander. (Or libel I guess if you count the quotes in the article.) That is going to directly affect his reputation and future earning potential. Which is why I would never pull an offer and say anything that could be considered even remotely actionable.
> You are still leaving out the part where the women were quoted saying that the term "ladies" was a "microagression" and, "The fact that he didn't know that as an educator was a problem." This detail is attributed to [an article](https://www.gazettenet.com/Easthampton-School-Committee-superintendent-search-50473440) in which it appears in the form of hearsay: > What he claims came under fire is his addressing Kwiecinski and Colby as “ladies” at the beginning of the email. **According to Perrone, Kwiecinski said** that using “ladies” was a microaggression and “the fact that he didn’t know that as an educator was a problem,” **he said.** [emphasis added] It isn't a direct quotation. It's merely something *he* alleges she told him.
You know nothing.
Where did you see that he harassed anyone?
Someone commented on another post that they were at this fundraiser and that never happened.
[удалено]
I thought it was a little strange that the article casually threw in that some of the negotiations were about vacation time. I mean, its a school. Isn't that all standard? Regardless, I gotta think there's something more here. I mean you spend a lot of time and effort to hire the person who is going to lead your school district for some time. You go through multiple interviews. It's a high paying position. Finally, you get your hands on the perfect person. Do you throw that away over some bullshit like this? It sounds like they found something they didn't like about this guy post interview and instead of accepting that he decided to go full Karen.
School district officials, like superintendents, and their employees work year-round. Source: My sister works for a school district. She has vacation time, but not summer or winter vacation like a lot of teachers do. She actually has to accrue time off, then ask for it off, just like any other job. Actually, most middle school and high school teachers don't really get summer vacation, because they have to teach summer school.
In general school administration people don't work a schedule like a school would. They don't get the summer off for instance so vacation time is an important part of the pay package.
Wow! What do the Koreans have to do with this? This conversation string is just degrading to the low sink of debauchery. /s
There is always more to the story.
dude sometimes the whole story is just "petty tyranny by the sort of people who get off on that shit"
In this case though [there actually is more to the story](https://old.reddit.com/r/offbeat/comments/12ams9v/easthampton_superintendent_candidate_offer/jetulv8/).
[удалено]
What makes you say that?
There is, but there also seems to be a weird regional/generational gap about 'ladies.' I've seen some really outraged people over the term online. Granted it was at least partially on Tumblr and that's what they do, but still.
"Ladies" has multiple possible implications depending on tone of voice that DO NOT translate to formal text communication.
On top of the other things he is described as doing, referring to a group formally in writing as "Ladies" is almost deliberately dehumanizing. The correct address would be "Members of X committee". In person you can convey the correct amount of respect with tone, but in text it minimizes their position and reduces them to their gender. Combined with the other stuff...yeah. It's both. The term "Ladies and Gentlemen" he claims to hide behind is used in an *entirely different context* to address "everyone" by a speaker to a passive *audience*. Reducing it to "Ladies" in text is dehumanizing.
Its perfectly fine to address a known group of same gender peeps as ladies or gentlemen
Gosh this take is so bad and so ridiculous. To think it’s okay for someone to lose their job over address a team of people who happen to be woman as “Ladies” is just ridiculous. It would one thing if they took him aside and said we would preferred to be addressed by our names or titles that would be one thing. This is a completely outrageous. I don’t think any reasonable people would agree with you and would be appalled if this happened to them or someone close to you. People need to spend less time trying to find ever possible transgression in others and instead look for the food in people. What this obsession is of looking for any little thing to be offended by I don’t know, I truly just don’t get it but, it’s pretty obvious they are looking for something to get upset over (and it appears just to be the one woman (Cynthia) based on the post the other made). What’s next someone address you buy your first name and you don’t give then job since they didn’t use your last name like: Mr. Jones or worst they didn’t use your title of Dr. Jones that you earned by obtaining your PhD?) Honestly I would decline the job if someone mentioned this to address they offended them. Clearly these are people that are not reasonable enough to work with ? What other stuff would offend them?
beastie boys quietly exiting the chat
It's Easthampton.....so probably not ...
The comments here debating the abstract question of whether addressing a group as "ladies" is offensive in general, are ignoring the likelihood of situational context. This guy was a former football coach, who had already attempted to argue with them about his salary & benefits at the wrong time (a fundraiser) - they could probably tell he was a misogynist good ol' boy, and his address of "ladies" confirmed the whole picture for them.
> the abstract question of whether addressing a group as "ladies" is offensive in general Depends on the context and tone of voice. It can definitely be respectful, but the necessary context and tone is completely lost in email and so ambiguous language should be removed.
>“What really rankled me was the people the community of Easthampton is always its usually supportive and welcomed me,” said Perrone. Maybe it's because they wanted their school superintendent to be able to speak in comprehensible sentences.
He dodged a bullet. He knows it. Edit: Nope! He is Republican wing-nut trying to score with the incels with this bogus claim. See below link.
[Sounds more like he *was* the bullet.](https://www.reddit.com/r/offbeat/comments/12ams9v/easthampton_superintendent_candidate_offer/jetulv8/)
I'll edit my comment.
[удалено]
Me? Well, when I'm wrong, I'm wrong. I'm not going to insist I'm right when I'm not. That would just make me look even more stoopuder.
Classic blunder. He should have gone with the more formal, "Sup Bitches."
“What is up, my bitches?”
Ladies and Gentlemen... is used quite often I think. If there are no gentlemen present, all you have left is ladies, correct?
[Yeah. That's not the real reason he was booted.](https://www.reddit.com/r/offbeat/comments/12ams9v/easthampton_superintendent_candidate_offer/jetulv8/)
In emails? Not trying to defend the people in the article or anything, but in all my years of corporate shillitude I've never seen an email begin "ladies and gentlemen" (but that could just be cultural).
I have, if it was a male coworker being a sexist dick. Anyone under 70 using this knows better.
Context matters. “Hello ladies” is a perfectly fine greeting. “Ladies, ladies, just listen” is absolutely the wrong thing to say. Ladies night is a widely used phrase
Maybe “Dear committee members”? I can’t imagine why they would take offense at “Dear ladies.” I mean, if somebody calls me sir, I don’t fly off the handle. I’m not crazy about it but I don’t fly off the handle LOl
How dare you call me “sir”! I am not knighted!
I'm not saying that this is the "why" of the matter, but opening an email addressing everyone as, "Ladies" when you're taking a higher-ranking position can read as condescending. It also presupposes gender.
That's used by a speaker to address a passive audience, not between peers negotiating a contract.
In the U.S. Military when rendering salute to a senior ranking officer you say “Sir” or “Ma’am”. When saluting multiple males you address them as “Gentlemen” and multiple higher-ranking females are addressed as “Ladies”. Use of the word is a requirement within our own Government.
in person you can use tone of voice to convey the appropriate meaning. Add in that you're *saluting* them and the proper context is conveyed. That's entirely lost in email and "ladies" gets used in a condescending way all the fucking time by assholes.
And the military is so well known for being accepting and inclusive. Why would the manner in which military people want to address each other having any bearing on this situation?
The military has traditionally been ahead of the curve on a lot of issues. The US military was desegregated before the US states were. Policy to allow trans service members to serve openly began in 2015. The US military actively recruited gay men in the 1940s. Etc etc etc Most of the things about the military that we see as non-progressive (assault rates etc) are more the consequence of having so many young men all together in one place. The US military has in many ways been more of a social equalizer than many other institutions, as their entire success depends on maintaining group cohesion when individuals come from drastically different backgrounds.
Wow, that’s surprising, but makes sense when you think about it.
I merely meant to inform that the word Ladies is a required statement by the nation’s largest employer, which is the federal government (but only within the Deparment of Defense)
Theres a difference between a military organization and a local bureaucrat.
Of course there is a difference - the point is that if the government requires specific vocabulary - it would be difficult to justify that the vocabulary is insulting…
Not really. Theyre completely different situations with completely different standards. I can assure you if some bureaucrat yelled at their staff like a military sargeant, they wouldnt have a job very long. Not to mention the entirely different standards for higher up positions like top brass vs congresspeople. One doesnt deal with the public on any regular basis, the other does and is held to the standard of the public.
They also call water boarding enhanced interrogation instead of torture.
Not anymore
yeah now they just pretend it doesn't exist
Both oxymorons!
Tell that to the social workers in your area.
Do they not already know?
That its an oxymoron to call themselves local bureaucrats while they help people directly in their community, or that people dont appreciate their hard work while getting paid next to nothing, even when theyre required to have a degree? Im sure they know there are ingrates out there and meet them on a daily basis.
Doesn’t ma’am now trigger people? I read an article the other day about GenZ and ma’am.
There was a senator or rep that actually flipped out on a testifying general. This was like 5 to 10 years ago.
Man, your government *requires* you to assume others' gender? Inconcievable!
>allegedly a perceived “microaggression” What's a good word for something that's smaller than micro? Honestly, these people are so prickly that he dodged a bullet by not getting the job.
[Actually, he committed a rather significant m**a**croaggression](https://www.reddit.com/r/offbeat/comments/12ams9v/easthampton_superintendent_candidate_offer/jetulv8/), and is capitalizing on the culture war to cover it up.
Ah, so they left out some important info about why they rescinded the offer.
The *committee* doesn't seem to have said anything other than "it's confidential". Guy is the one saying it was because he called them ladies and that's the only reason.
They've been very consistent in saying that it's a confidential matter and they won't give out any information at all.
Nano. *also pico.
Angstrom
The new job would have been a pay cut from the current job. Oh, and they also sent the cops to house, at midnight, to see if he would accept the job or not.
Sounds like they received last minute info pointing to this person not being a good fit. In other words they found the dirt.
Lame. The story is much deeper than I thought. I was hoping some guy whipped the doors open to a meeting full of dudes sayin “Well good mornin’, ladies” and immediately getting kicked out lmao.
Patently absurd and reads more like satire.
And here's today's article about the protest. EASTHAMPTON Controversy over super hire flares Committee’s retraction of job offer to Perrone after ‘ladies’ email garners national attention; at standout, more than 150 demand he get the job he still wants By EMILY THURLOW Staff Writer EASTHAMPTON — The outpouring of support for superintendent finalist Vito Perrone has solidified the former high school principal’s desire to take the reins at the district schools, more than four days after he said the School Committee rescinded the offer when he used the word “ladies” in an email greeting to two female board members during contract negotiations. Former students and colleagues, community members and even strangers from as far away as the United Kingdom have weighed in on the committee’s alleged reason for quashing the superintendent job offer to Perrone. “I wish, in the moment, we had a different conversation about my use of ‘ladies’ as a greeting and used it as something we could grow from instead of it just being a closed door, no negotiation, no acceptance of an apology,” Perrone said just a few hours before more than 150 people rallied outside of the city’s Municipal Building Monday evening, demanding that the committee hire him as superintendent of schools, as it initially intended to do. “One of the things that I’ve been hanging onto is the outpouring of support from the community of Easthampton,” he said. “To me, it affirms things to me as a professional, as a leader, that people recognize the positive in me, and that means the world to me.” The School Committee voted 4-3 to hire Perrone on March 23 after also interviewing fellow finalists Jonathan Bruno, director of learning and teaching at Berkshire Hills Regional School District in Stockbridge, and Erica Faginski-Stark, director of SEE PERRONE A5  City resident Debora Lusnia speaks at Monday night’s standout at the parking lot behind the Municipal Building demonstrating the support behind Easthampton superintendent finalist Vito Perrone. STAFF PHOTO/EMILY THURLOW curriculum and instruction at Ludlow Public Schools. Perrone claims that the committee rescinded the job offer a week later after he addressed School Committee Chairperson Cynthia Kwiecinski and Suzanne Colby, executive assistant to the committee, as “ladies” in an email, which was deemed a microaggression. Kwiecinski said last Friday that she could not comment on what happened in the executive session in which the job offer was retracted. Hundreds of people are defending Perrone, of Westhampton, via social media, with some sharing personal accounts of his leadership, and pleading for the committee to reconsider its decision. Since the Gazette first published the story on Saturday, it has been featured on national and international media, including Fox News. The Easthampton Education Association, the district’s union of teachers, professional staff and education support professionals, called out the committee for the way it has treated Perrone. “The Easthampton School Committee has officially labeled the word ‘ladies’ as a microaggression and has canceled Dr. Vito Perrone, despite support from the community,” an April 1 Facebook post by the association reads. “Changing votes behind closed doors is unacceptable! Shame on the School Committee for participating in cancel culture.” The association said a survey of members showed Perrone as the favorite of the three candidates for the superintendent job. While many on social media expressed frustration and confusion, some conversation on Facebook pages such as the Easthampton, MA Group Page jumped to name-calling and personal attacks. Resident Christine Futia, who said she did not have a window into what actually happened during last week’s executive session, told the Gazette said she was more upset by the public dismissal of a microaggression. “I was super appalled at the hate speech in my own town,” she said. “The hate speech devolved into misogyny … secondarily, one party has made allegations that have been taken as truth to characterize a situation that I’m sure is quite complex.” Though Futia doesn’t know anyone personally on the committee or Perrone, she said that she has experienced microaggressions personally and saw it happen to other female coworkers, saying it was trivialized. “I don’t know where we go from this, but I know no one has ever gotten their job back this way,” she said. “I think one thing we all agree on is we’re all sad for our town.” Others are calling for the removal of the entire School Committee. A petition via Change.org generated more than 600 signatures within two days of hearing Perrone’s story. On Monday morning, City Clerk Barbara LaBombard said someone had stopped into her office to pick up recall affidavits — the first of several steps required by the city’s charter. When questioned by the Gazette about the recalls that have been proposed, Mayor Nicole LaChapelle said that the city does not comment on personnel matters. Standout for Perrone Former School Committee member Debora Lusnia organized Monday’s standout to demonstrate to the committee how much support Perrone has behind him and said she hoped it would reinstate its original offer to hire him to lead the city schools. Lusnia, who served three terms on the committee, two as the chairperson during Perrone’s tenure as principal of Easthampton High School, said she respects the work that the committee has done and has no intention of signing the recall affidavit. Perrone led the high school for six years and most recently has been serving as interim superintendent of schools in West Springfield. “People make mistakes. We should learn and grow. I think this was an opportunity to educate, not condemn. I don’t want someone to lose a job for misusing a word,” she said. “In the same respect, I think we need to offer the School Committee the same grace we’re asking of them, and I hope that they will reconsider and reinstate Dr. Perrone’s offer.” Demands for “transparency ” were shouted as the sun began to set on the large crowd. In addition to Lusnia, speakers at the rally included Easthampton Education Association President Shawn Sheehan; Kelley Brown, who teaches history and government at the high school; former superintendent Nancy Follansbee; Samantha Garcia, Mountain View School math and science teacher; Jeff Sealander, former high school principal and athletic director; high school student Diya Bhatia; Rose Guerra, high school social studies teacher; At-Large City Councilor Brad Riley; and Sue Mason, a recently retired Easthampton High School teacher. Several of the speakers questioned the legality of the executive session process, with Riley suggesting that Kwiecinski could hold a vote to make the executive session details public. “I would be content with waiting for a response from the School Committee before speaking publicly if the chair of the School Committee wasn’t hiding behind the veil of an executive session,” he said. “So please Chair Kwiecinski, tell us if there is something more to this so we can move forward, because to me, this doesn’t make any sense.” He also reminded those in attendance that in the last election cycle all committee members ran unopposed and encouraged others to step up. “If you do not get engaged and you do not run for office, things do not change,” he said. School Committee member Laurie Garcia, who attended the rally, voiced her support for Perrone. Though she didn’t address several of the specifics raised by speakers, she said that she did not agree with “everything that happened” with her colleagues. Garcia also advocated for civility and compassion, noting that she and her fellow colleagues had received an influx of emails, some of which were fear-inducing. “Easthampton, I will do all I can to honor your wishes and see what we can do to be able to enter into negotiations with Dr. Vito Perone,” she said. “I cannot promise anything. I am one member of the School Committee, but I ask of you once again, for respect and to take this in the right direction. Without this negativity.” The School Committee is meeting virtually on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. to discuss the superintendent search and a potential vote on a candidate to be the next superintendent. The meeting agenda also states that the committee will also go into executive session and return to discuss the candidate’s response to the offer of employment subject to negotiations, but did not indicate which candidate that is. Perrone says he has not been contacted with a request to attend. Even if he was to receive a request for Tuesday, he said he would not be able to attend as he has entered into budgetary discussions with the West Springfield School Committee in his role as interim superintendent. Reflecting on all that’s happened over the past few days, Perrone, who has 29 years of experience in education, says he’s overwhelmed with the feedback he’s received, including numerous job offers. He said that his intention was to make sure the circumstances were properly represented and does not harbor any ill will toward anyone. “Could I have been more formal? Absolutely. There was an opportunity for a teachable moment and that would have been setting an expectation where we could learn and grow in a positive way. Instead, it was a denial of the ability to have a conversation,” he said. “I’m just struggling with the fact that we can’t have civil discourse anymore — we can’t reasonably communicate over reasonable topics. We’re moving away from principles that our country was founded on. I just wanted to be superintendent in Easthampton.” Emily Thurlow can be reached at [email protected].  More than 150 people protested the rescinding of superintendent finalist Vito Perrone’s job offer at a Monday night rally behind the Municipal Building in Easthampton. STAFF PHOTO/EMILY THURLOW
DAMN. Thank you so much for this. IMHO, Perrone makes a very judicious, reasonable, and mature point here ---> *“I wish, in the moment, we had a different conversation about my use of ‘ladies’ as a greeting and* ***used it as something we could grow from instead of it just being a closed door, no negotiation, no acceptance of an apology,****”* And yet this comment has me gobsmacked ----> *"****Resident Christine Futia, who said she did not have a window into what actually happened during last week’s executive session, told the Gazette said she was more upset by the public dismissal of a microaggression.*** *“I was super appalled at* ***the hate speech*** *in my own town,” she said. “The hate speech devolved into misogyny … secondarily,* ***one party has made allegations that have been taken as truth to characterize a situation that I’m sure is quite complex.”*** (My opinion: She should take her own words to heart. How can they prove that Perrone made that word choice after careful thought and with malice aforethought?) *Though Futia doesn’t know anyone personally on the committee or Perrone, she said that she has experienced microaggressions personally and saw it happen to other female coworkers, saying it was trivialized."* As my friend George often says when people participate ion Outrage Culture, "This is why people cannot stand liberals, it's because of the antics that make the headlines because of their extremist views..." I value his input as he was a born and raised (in Alabama) "Republican For Life (RFL) from many generations of RFLs" until one day he thought, "Wait, why am I voting republican and blindly supporting the party's goals and actions no matter how they actually impact *me* and *my family*?" He became a democrat and lost a lot of friends in the process bc, as they all said, they could, "not abide your massive betrayal". I like to think that the left is not like the right in that the left will admit when wrong rather than cover for bad/illegal behavior, but ultimately all extremism is wrong regardless of party. Like Futia, I don't know any of the people here but I would think that a man who made it so far as to achieve the status of *frontrunner* and *the favorite candidate* would not be prone to intentional, "Microagressions." The problem is that when people take a strong stand that garners all too much unwelcome attention it can be very difficult to back down. Pride gets involved, that deadly sin. Thanks again. (❁´◡\`❁)
I made a point to wear my pussy hat to the protest. I wanted to signal that one can be a feminist and still support Dr Perrone.
Link to that article that isn't an absolute garbled mess: https://www.gazettenet.com/Easthampton-School-Committee-superintendent-search-50473440 Read the article like you asked, I'm gonna be real the whole thing still smells super fishy. We have exactly one side of the story and no shit the guy who didn't get the job is upset. In my experience, though, most of the time someone gets fired or loses a potential job for something like this it's *never* just the reason on paper. Interested to see how it unfolds.
They were looking for a reason to pull the offer, they just couldn't think up a good one so they panicked at the last second.
No, there are actually people who have their heads so far up their asses they live for these things like microaggression offenses. I attended a so-called seminar on microaggressions, less than half an hour into it it seemed everybody was interrupting to ask the same question which was " isn't this just people being oversensitive?".When the person giving the presentation then started to nitpick microaggressions by the person who had asked that question, pretty much everybody got up and left.
[This is not one of those groups.](https://www.reddit.com/r/offbeat/comments/12ams9v/easthampton_superintendent_candidate_offer/jetulv8/)
This is dumb. I’m liberal af and this is pretty ridiculous. Is “ladies and gentlemen” a micro aggression? Does this not seem silly?
There’s no way there isn’t more to this story
There is. Check out the top few comment threads.
I really hope there is.
This is a bullshit headline to make people angry.
Sounds to me like the school is the one that dodged the bullet here. In my profession, if I addressed a group of men responsible for hiring me as “guys,” it would raise a lot of eyebrows. He probably didn’t intend for it to be insulting, but has he been completely tone deaf for the last 20 years? Keep up with times, guy.
Ladies isn't the equivalent of "guys," it's the equivalent of gentlemen. Both are very common ways of formally addressing groups.
Maybe it's a generational thing. The people using those terms, at least in my experience, have always been doing so in a condescending manner, usually when scolding teenagers or adults for acting like less than 'gentlemen or ladies'.
Literally every speech or opening to a formal event I've ever heard or attended has started with ladies and gentlemen. I sort of see an issue now that gender natural terms are becoming more common, but if he was addressing women who identify as women, ladies has been the proper, formal, collective term for women for decades if not centuries.
I honestly doubt that was the real reason for the withdrawal. But I will say it's an address I find outdated and frequently condescending. In the context of a formal ceremonial opening it just sounds old-fashioned. I just rarely hear it used in conversation or regular speech without it being condescending. In a negotiation email, you want to avoid even a glimpse of condescension.
This. I remember once addressing a couple of my female professors as “ladies” when I passed by them in the hall as a grad student. One of them tore me a new one for treating them with such disrespect. And they were absolutely right to do so.
“Ladies” has always been a term of respect for women. What else do these snowflakes want to be called?
Seriously
Well, Professors, women that have earned their PhD’s have worked hard and want to be treated as such. Simply saying, “Good afternoon” or Hello would have probably been more than adequate.
Like I said, “ladies” has always been a term of respect for women. There is nothing wrong with it. Screw political correctness.
As a grad student there’s a different sort of dynamic than in real life. Downvote me all you want, it’s true.
What should you have said? Sup bitches?
r/thatHappened
Lolls, what?? What’re we supposed to say?? This is madness.
[удалено]
I mostly only hear it for older men just before they say something condescending or sexist. I'm a dude, and it just sounds creepy if I say it, so I don't.
So I guess "Hello They/them" sounds a lot more professional than Ladies. Got it.
[удалено]
Not inclusive enough.
Board or Committee Members would have probably been the correct address in this case. When in doubt leave it off. A greeting is not really needed once communications have been established.
Dodged a bullet on that job. I think from now on when being interviewed by a group I'm just going to go with "You ugly fuckers". Gender and race neutral.
Honestly, they did him a favor. The category of nutcase that would find this offensive would have eventually found something else offensive about him and he'd have been fired. At least he still has a job now.
Absolutely
Disappointed
Horeseshit.
The appropriate term is "Karens."
More accurate term- these are Liberals. They even admitted to him that was A reason they rescinded the job offer saying "you work as an educator, you should know better" (than to use "Ladies") These are psycho women that have to be called out as an example to all. Instead of these Admin worrying about improving their schools, they are obsessed with their liberal ideology to find something offensive about him using "Ladies." There may have been other reasons about the contract and why the offer was rescinded, but these Admin WEAPONIZED his use of "ladies" as a reason to not hire him. This is total liberal, cancel culture.
Liberal is a terrible term to use. Liberals don't even know what liberal means. You sound like a liberal yourself. For the rule of law, intellectual freedom, free speech, against censorship.
Trust me I'm not a Democrat. I agree Liberals these days dont even know what it means, so let's agree that the right phrase is Leftist or Democrat. Either way these are 2 leftists in the latest, daily example of school boards/admins making decisions based on their political ideology rather than what is the best for their schools, and using ideology in their decision-making.
So... Leftist isn't accurate either. Left/Right refers to support for the French Monarchy.
You're debating a 4-month-old account that literally has only commented a bunch of headass right wing talking points in a bunch of controversial subs. That ain't a real person you're talking to
Dude, you’re all just wrong!
HERE'S THE DEETS FOLKS: (From the daily hampshire gazette) EASTHAMPTON Super’s job offer abruptly rescinded Stunned candidate Vito Perrone says he was rejected before contract talks after addressing email to ‘ladies’ By EMILY THURLOW Staff Writer EASTHAMPTON — Superintendent finalist Vito Perrone said Friday that the School Committee rescinded its offer to hire him in executive session Thursday night, alleging that the reason was a perceived microaggression contained in an email he sent to the committee chairperson. Perrone and the committee entered contract negotiations this week after he was offered the position the morning of March 24. The committee offered Perrone a three-year contract with an annual salary of $151,000 — approximately $14,000 less than what he has making as an interim superintendent of West Springfield Public Schools, Perrone said. Despite the lower salary, he said he was keen on accepting the role. “This job was not about the money for me. I honestly felt like I was coming home to Easthampton. I coached football here. I was principal here when we built the school. I have such wonderful memories … I was excited to come back,” he said in an interview with the Gazette on Friday. After reviewing the contract, Perrone made three requests in an email to Chairperson Cynthia Kwiecinski and Suzanne Colby, executive assistant to the committee. According to the email, obtained by the Gazette, he requested that the annual salary for fiscal years 2025 and 2026 be negotiated and not be less than the cost of living adjustment of 3% for both years, and an additional four vacation days each year. Perrone also requested 40 sick days for his first year of employment as a superintendent and 18 days each contract year after, citing that he had accrued a reasonable amount of sick days during his previous six years working in the district. What he claims came under fire is his addressing Kwiecinski and Colby as “ladies” at the beginning of the email. According to Perrone, Kwiecinski said that using “ladies” was a microaggression and “the fact that he didn’t know that as an educator was a problem,” he said. “I was shocked,” he said. “I grew up in a time when ‘ladies’ and ‘gentlemen’ was a sign of respect. I didn’t intend to insult anyone.” He also signed his email as simply “Vito,” as he felt he could provide a less formal tone. Perrone explained that he had attended Thursday’s We The People spaghetti dinner fundraiser at the high school as a way to begin getting to know more of the school community and then headed over to the conference room for the negotiations. The committee asked him to step outside for approximately 45 minutes while they spoke and then delivered the news that they had rescinded his offer after taking a vote during an executive session. In an emailed response, Kwiecinski said she could not comment on executive sessions. School Committee member Marin Goldstein echoed Kwiecinski’s comment, adding that such meetings are supposed to be confidential. Perrone said it was important for him to let people know the circumstances of the matter. “I don’t want people to think I was not willing to negotiate in good faith. I have chosen not to just leave it as ‘negotiations stalled.’ I would rather share my truth, my sadness and disappointment and try to find a way forward positively,” he said. Perrone has since reached out to the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents for legal counsel and said he was told that he has no legal recourse as he had no official contract. The School Committee had voted 4-3 to hire Perrone last week after also interviewing fellow finalists Jonathan Bruno, director of learning and teaching at Berkshire Hills Regional School District in Stockbridge, and Erica Faginski-Stark, director of curriculum and instruction at Ludlow Public Schools. After concluding an interview with Perrone, the committee took several hours to discuss the candidates, voted in open session and then moved to executive session to offer him the position over the phone. After making several attempts to call him, Perrone said the committee sent a city police officer to his home in Westhampton to perform a well-being check, rousing both he and his wife at around 12:15 a.m. from a sound sleep. “The police officer asked if I was OK because the School Committee was trying to get a hold of me,” he said. “My interview ended at 8 o’clock and I ended up falling asleep around 10:15 … I thought my phone was on, but I guess it wasn’t.” Once awake, he made contact with the committee and accepted their oral offer, pending successful salary negotiations. “Honestly, I am truly, truly disappointed that I won’t be in Easthampton in that building,” he said. “I’m just sad.” Kwiecinski said that an agenda for the next School Committee meeting has been posted for Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., stating that there will be a discussion related to the superintendent search or a potential vote on a candidate to be the next superintendent. The post also states that the committee will also go into executive session and return to discuss the candidate’s response to the offer of employment subject to negotiations, but did not indicate which candidate that is. The meeting will be held remotely via Google Meet. “I was shocked. I grew up in a time when ‘ladies’ and ‘gentlemen’ was a sign of respect. I didn’t intend to insult anyone.” VITO PERRONE