Andover Residents Demand Superintendent's Firing Over Leaked Coach Memo

ANDOVER — April 26, 2018 — Andover residents demanded the resignation of Superintendent Shelley Berman at the April 26 School Committee meeting over the release of a confidential personnel document about coach EJ Perry to the Eagle-Tribune. Speaker after speaker at the packed public comment session described the memo's release as "character assassination," with Sam Washburn of 39 Oriole Drive calling it "one of the most disgusting acts that I have observed in this town," and Richard Streeter of 6 William Street formally calling for Berman's termination and threatening a public petition. Berman, responding at the meeting, said he received a reporter's call at 9:37 p.m. but did not see it until midnight and had sent the wrong attachment by mistake, saying "I deeply regret the issuing of that letter." A separate resident raised unresolved questions about the district's legal expense transparency and the status of a cognitive-intervention pilot program operating under a memorandum of understanding with what she called the Carroll administration. No formal votes were taken.