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OPEN MEETING LAW COMPLAINT FORMOffice of the Attorney General

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Individual MediaOrganization

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Richard Cohen

P.O. Box 351

Lanesborough MA 01237

4132813318

xtrarich@gmail.com

May 13, 2016

Dan Caplinger, Regina Dilego, Carrie Greene, Doug Dias

Chairs Committee, Williamstown-Lanesborough Tri-District

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What action do you want the public body to take in response to your complaint?

Description of alleged violation:

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the reasons supporting your belief.

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your contact information.

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calling (617) 963-2540 or by email to openmeeting@state.ma.us.

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I hope and expect this complaint can be resolved locally to give the public confidence that district

governance will be conducted in a democratic manner that doesnt exclude the eyes of the public and

the voices of dissent. If we need the three chairs to take collective action, lets agree to a processconsistent with Open Mtg Law that ensures the district administration does not have an alternative to

fully engaging school committees and the public on educational policy and budget priorities.

Williamstown Elementary(WES), Lanesborough Elementary (LES) and Mt Greylock Reg. H.S. (MG)--share a superintendent as the

Tri-District. The three districts are each governed by their own elected school committee (SC). The SCs established 2 committees to

facilitate their cooperative arrangement: (1) Superintendency Union 71 (SU71) consists of 3 members from each of the elementary SCs,

and (2) the Administrative Review Subcommittee (ARS), composed of the WES SC chair, Dan Caplinger, and the LES chair, Regina

Dilego, and two members of the MG SC, including its chair, Carrie Greene. All 4 members of ARS must be present for a quorum, and 3

are a voting majority. In violation of OML, a Chairs Committee (CC) -- Mr. Caplinger, Ms. Dilego, and Ms. Greene -- have been regularly deliberating

and taking collective action in private, without posting agendas or recording minutes. At least some of the time, Superintendent Dr. Dias

also participates.

For example, on 3/4/16, at 9:13am. Dr. Dias emailed the CC asking for approval to pursue the possibility of his serving as the

part-time superintendent for three other towns. The CC voted by reply all emails during the next 90 minutes. Dilego at 9:36: "I'm glad

this is moving forward." Caplinger at 9:37: Im fine.... Ms. Greene at 10:49: Agreed with all of the above. They collectively edited

the letter and Dr. Dias submitted it on 3/7 on Tri-District letterhead. The MG SC as a whole had no knowledge of this matter until an

executive session on 3/15 (called for a completely unrelated matter) was misused to discuss it. The MG SC was told that the matter was

being revealed because news of the letter would be appearing that day in the Berkshire Eagle.

Although MG SC members expressed outrage during the executive session that the Chairs and Superintendent acted without their

knowledge, the CC continued to take collective actions in secret. For example, Ms. Greene wrote to the other CC members and Dr. Dias

at 9:06am on 5/13, about the process of evaluating the superintendent: Lets discuss at todays meeting. Later that day, as part of the

same email thread, statements were issued by Ms. Green at 4:02pm and by Ms. Dilego at 10:51pm, acting on the agreed outcome of the

CC meeting. Note that ARS has jurisdiction over the process of evaluating superintendent, but the fourth member of ARS was not made

aware that the CC was meeting. The CC also took concerted action by secretly engaging the districts legal counsel against MG members that expressed dissenting

opinions such as complaints about the decision-making process on whether the Superintendent expand his responsibilities by taking

on administration of additional school districts. (Greene email to CC at 4:20pm 5/13) MG SC policy BDG prohibits access to the

districts legal counsel by individual SC members (including the chair) unless the purpose receives prior approval from the whole

committee.

May 24, 2016