Schools

Fired Superintendent Paul Kadri: 'I Want My Life Back'

Fired Groton superintendent Paul Kadri said the meeting where he was suspended in May of 2012 was an illegal one and all BOE actions that followed should be voided: "I should be the superintendent."


The Groton Board of Education has posted a special meeting tonight at 7 to “discuss pending litigation regarding Paul Kadri’s FOI claim.”  

The now-former superintendent has filed a violation of Freedom of Information Act complaint in which he alleges the May 7, 2012 meeting where he was suspended was an "illegal meeting." 

Kadri told Patch in a phone interview Monday morning that the scheduled meeting, with a perfunctory agenda item to discuss his performance, was inappropriately amended in violation of FOI, he alleges. He said at the meeting he was invited in, told to leave and then told to come back in again.

"I was thinking to myself, this is taking longer than it should, what’s going on,” when the BOE attorney and chair told him he was being suspended amidst allegations by staff and told him an investigation would be conducted.  

“I said, ‘What? You’re doing this based on a second hand allegation? I want to talk to the board and tell them this process is wrong. You can’t do this this way,’” Kadri recalled.  “I told them you can’t talk about someone’s performance without them knowing or being there. It was illegal.”  

The BOE placed Kadri on paid administrative leave based on his "interactions with and treatment of district employees." He was  investigated after his former executive assistant charged he abused and threatened her, and made inappropriate comments about her to the point that she became ill and could no longer work, according to an investigation where 14 current and former employees were interviewed.  A report on the investigation revealed a central office where staff were often found emotionally distraught. Kadri was fired by the BOE this March after an arbitrator found Kadri had engaged in conduct warranting termination of his employment.

What does Kadri hope to see accomplished with this FOI violation complaint?

“They held an illegal meeting so everything that came out of it is null and void. So then that means I am the superintendent. It’s that simple,” he said. “If this all gets overturned, which is what should happen, I am the superintendent. Could they buy me out of my contract? There’s no question I am going after damages. But what I really want is the truth to come out. No one believes me.”  

Kadri said he was dismissed, bullied and humiliated by the BOE.  

“I have always maintained my innocence. No one believes me because no one has listened to me,” he claims.

Kadri told Patch he has “all the evidence to prove the truth but no one seems to want to see it.”  

“The number one driver here for me is what’s right: the truth. And, I want my reputation back; this has destroyed it. I want my life back.”  

The meeting will be held in room 19 of the school administration building.      


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