Public commenter says attorney general review of superintendent is open; committee earlier said no investigation

A public commenter told the Falmouth School Committee during public comment that the Massachusetts attorney general has an open criminal review related to the superintendent and that she has filed multiple complaints and obtained documents she said show altered grant records.

The comment, by Raquel Russell, came after a committee speaker earlier in the meeting said the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) and the attorney general's office had confirmed "there's no investigation whatsoever regarding Falmouth Public Schools." The two statements, both made on the public record at the same meeting, were not reconciled before the committee moved on to other business.

Russell said she had filed two complaints and that the attorney general’s review is “still very much open,” adding she had received a verbal confirmation as recently as the day before the meeting. She said she had been requesting records from the district for months and showed committee members printed budget workbooks she said were submitted by the district for an EEC grant. Russell said the files included what the EEC recognizes as the correct workbook and other files the district had repeatedly provided to her that contain many zeros and a $61,000 line item the EEC could not locate.

“If someone has altered and falsified a public record, which is a felony in the state of Massachusetts,” Russell said, “this is serious.” She told the committee she would leave the files for the record and offered a USB drive to staff.

Earlier in the meeting a school committee member noted the committee had one open meeting law complaint filed that remained active and said the district undergoes regular audits under state law. Under the committee’s rules and Massachusetts open meeting law, the committee generally does not take action on matters raised during the public comment period; members may refer items to staff for follow-up but the committee did not announce any immediate investigation or formal response during the meeting.

The transcript of the meeting contains the committee member’s statement that EEC and the attorney general had confirmed there was no investigation and Russell’s subsequent public comment asserting a criminal review is open; the committee did not publicly reconcile those statements at the meeting.

No school committee motion or vote was recorded at the meeting specifically responding to Russell’s allegations. The committee did not provide independent confirmation of Russell’s statements on the record during the meeting.

Provenance: The committee statement about EEC and the attorney general appears in the meeting transcript during opening remarks; Russell’s public comment appears later in the public comment segment and includes the documents she left with the committee.