Editor’s note: The following opinion column was submitted for publication by Board of Education member Robert Harrington.

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On Tuesday, six members of the Board of Education signed an end-of-year email to the community — a message highlighting accomplishments from the school year.

I chose not to add my signature to this letter and instead stand apart from the Board of Education once again.

I was given the opportunity to sign, but I politely declined. It was an amicable decision. The other members collaborated on the letter, reached agreement among themselves, and then I was approached.

I agree with much of the content of the letter.

However, we disagreed around some of the commentary about athletics and sports at Staples. I found it odd that it was only within the athletics segment of the letter that the board chose to explicitly call out administrators in a positive way. They didn’t do this in any other segment of the letter. Sadly, I think this letter was designed (in part) to enable the board to double down on the board’s backing of the administration over the recent situation with the Staples soccer coaches.

The board is acting like a tone deaf, out of touch, and elitist bunch.

They are digging in, going defensive, and frankly I think they are getting bad advice.

• Does the board know what a good athletics coach is?
• Do they understand the deep bond between a team and its coaching staff?
• Do they truly believe that Coach Russell Oost-Lievense is not a good coach?
• Do they have confidence that they have seen all the evidence?
• Do they think the investigation of the coaches was thorough?
• Why did some board members ask zero questions during the first hearing?
• Why were there barely any questions of our administration from the board?

Heading into this Thursday’s upcoming board meeting, the Superintendent and the Chair of the Board of Education, Lee Goldstein, are refusing to allow my two requests to be added as agenda items to the regular agenda – with proper notice for the public. Other board members seem to be falling in line with the chair as most of them always do.

Is that the representation that you want?

The two requested agenda items are:

1) A discussion item to re-open the hearing on Oost-Lievense’s non-renewal:

I reiterate that the board was not permitted to hear from all the potential witnesses. Eight were opposed by the school administration. We were also not allowed to see all the emails that are potentially relevant to the case.

I also am concerned about some of the legal advice that the board is receiving from the attorney representing us.

2) I will also ask the board to waive attorney privilege on a letter sent to the board by the school administration’s lawyer, Thomas Mooney on May 18. I would like to make this letter public as it is simply aimed at me, not the board.

Furthermore, the next non-renewal hearing for Chris O’Dell, the Staples boys soccer freshman coach, was postponed earlier this week and will now likely not be scheduled until mid-July at the earliest. This confirms my fears of an attempt to kick this into the depths of summer.

Overall, I think it is well known that I have been critical of this board and the school administration’s handling of the recent head soccer coach non-renewal hearing.

I think the athletic director needs to stand down. My confidence in Superintendent Tom Scarice continues to fade. I am now beginning to seriously question if this superintendent is the best thing for Westport. It seems he has had zero interest in sitting down in private and trying to resolve this situation. The athletics director and superintendent wanted to fire the head coach and they are sticking to their plan.

It is simply a terrible plan. It is wrong.

Coach Russell Oost-Lievense is one of our own. He did little, if anything wrong. A Staples graduate. A Staples tri-captain in 2007. He is only the 4th permanent head coach in Staples soccer’s 64-year history. He trains local players in various club roles and is the program director for Bridgeport’s Brighter Lives for Kinds Foundation as an after-school mentor. He has also served as special education paraprofessional in our own school district, and for the past 6 years has worked as a full-time special education teacher in our neighboring district, Darien High School.

Our athletics director, superintendent and school board have trashed his reputation. I am glad Darien Public Schools is strongly standing by him.

I haven’t spoken to our superintendent in weeks. He seems uninterested in resolution. When Coach Russell Oost-Lievense’s attorney reached out to the administration numerous times prior to the first hearing, it was clear our superintendent had zero interest in sitting down or trying to resolve any of this.

Given all of the above, it didn’t seem right to sign Tuesday’s BOE letter praising our administrators in the context of Staples Athletics.

I still hope the Board of Education, administration and superintendent will look for an off-ramp here. Westport needs one. They need one.