April 20, 2009

DeVaux's resignation "for personal reasons," no police involved

Press release from the Board of Education:

In an April 13, 2009 report on the resignation of Steven DeVaux as Assistant Superintendent for Business in the Bristol Public Schools, the Bristol Press suggested that he had been escorted out of the Board of Education building by the police. In fact, Mr. DeVaux resigned voluntarily for personal reasons; there was no police escort, nor any suggestion of wrongdoing or impropriety that would have called for such action. Neither were there any concerns expressed by the Superintendent relating to his management style or his professional qualifications. 

Streifer told me today that a police officer was in the building at the time that DeVaux was packing up and that perhaps some employees mistakenly thought he was escorted out. That matches what I learned today from a couple of the people who had told me that police were present. As it turns out, they never saw DeVaux escorted out. They assumed it. I didn't check on that detail, which was a mistake on my part. I'm sorry, Steve.
Streifer also told me, after I asked, that DeVaux will be paid through June 30, though he is no longer working for the school system.
"We try to help people out a little bit," the superintendent said. "That's the decision we made."
He said he couldn't say more without invading DeVaux's privacy.

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a big, defamatory oops.

Steve Collins said...

Actually, because it's not uncommon to have security escort departing personnel from a job, it's not defamatory. But it still makes me cringe. I like Steve and feel bad that anything was wrong

enough said...

great example for our taxpayers, a guy gets fired and the city, board of education, continues to pay him - so much for the taxpayers.

Anonymous said...

If he voluntarily quit for personal reasons, why is he getting paid until the end of the school year??

Anonymous said...

If he "resigned" in early April, he is being paid nearly three months salary. That's nearly one-quarter of a $140,000 salary, or over $30,000! Was his "personal reasons" that his job was getting in the way of blogging during working hours? Bristol must have money to burn if they can pay this much to someone for doing nothing.