Woke Massachusetts school district which axed superintendent’s job offer for using the word ‘ladies’

A school board in Easthampton, Massachusetts faces further setbacks as it searches for a new superintendent.

Vito Perrone was their first choice for the role, but eventually lost his job after using the term “ladies” in an email while negotiating his pay.

Now the committee’s second pick, Erica Faginski-Stark, has withdrawn her application after students reported previous Facebook posts of hers containing conservative and transphobic rhetoric.

Students emailed Easthampton Mayor Nicole LaChapelle expressing their “extreme concerns” about the committee’s second choice for the role.

“Believing this to be her Facebook account, she has posted conservative transphobic rhetoric a number of times,” students wrote to Mayor Nicole LaChapelle.

“With the recent anti-trans pickets, many young people at school are worried and angry,” they added in the email as seen by the Boston herald.

In a January 2021 post, she wrote, “For EVERY female athlete out there, it’s time to speak out. As a former Div. 1 scholarship athlete and academic & athletic ALL American, our young women have just been robbed of their equal rights and equal opportunity.

Subsequent posts from March 2021 included a link to a petition for “Defend Title IX” stating that “only girls should be playing girls’ sports!”

Faginski-Stark, the director of Curriculum and Instruction at Ludlow Public Schools, noted that women need to speak up and advocate for equality in women’s sports.

‘In January we heard a lot about breaking the glass ceiling for women. So I am surprised by the silence there has been regarding Title IX and the lack of advocacy by women for equality for women and women’s sports,” Faginski-Stark wrote.

“Ladies, the glass ceiling is more real now than it has been in generations,” she added. “Our choice to use our voice or remain silent will determine not only the future of women’s athletics, but equality for women everywhere. It’s time to speak.’

The Facebook page is no longer available for public viewing and appears to have been taken down, but DailyMail.com tracked down the offensive posts.

News that Perrone lost his job offer after using the term “ladies” in an email went viral earlier this month, with many residents criticizing the school board’s decision and urging the board to remove him to give it one more chance.

But now this latest chapter in the search for a new superintendent has brought even more chaos to the district.

The school committee will discuss next steps in their search for a new superintendent at their next meeting on Tuesday.

Last month, Perrone was offered the position by the Easthampton School District but after an email exchange in which he tried to negotiate slightly higher pay and more sick days, he says the offer was withdrawn after addressing two female committee members as “ladies” in an email.

Perrone had been offered a three-year contract with an annual salary of $151,000, about $14,000 less than his current job as interim superintendent at another school district.

In those emails, Perrone requested a 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment for fiscal years 2025 and 2026, as well as additional sick and vacation days.

Perrone told the Daily Hampshire Gazette that he took a pay cut anyway. He had been the principal of Easthampton High School eight years earlier.

“This job wasn’t about the money for me. I really 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.

In an email seen by the Gazette, he addresses chair Cynthia Kwiecinski and Suzanne Colby, the committee’s executive assistant, as “ladies.”

According to Perrone, Kwiecinski said using “ladies” was a microaggression and “the fact that as an educator he didn’t know that was a problem.”

“I was shocked,” he said. “I grew up in a time when ‘ladies’ and ‘gentlemen’ was a sign of respect. I didn’t mean to offend anyone.’

“I don’t want people to think I wasn’t willing to negotiate in good faith. I chose not to leave it alone as ‘negotiation deadlocked’. I prefer to share my truth, my sadness and disappointment and try to find a positive way forward,” he told the Gazette.

Born and raised in Manchester, Connecticut, Perrone has worked with inmates in Nevada and served as principal of multiple high schools, according to the terrier times.

He also played Division I football at UMass Amherst for four years and even led tryouts with several professional teams.

He didn’t make it to the NFL, but he was able to play professionally in Italy. He played four seasons in the Italian Federation of American Football.

After returning to the US, he began teaching English and coaching football in Carson City, Nevada, before moving to the prison system, the Times reported.

“Honestly, I’m really, really disappointed I won’t be in Easthampton in that building,” he told the Gazette. “I’m just sad.”