Greater Harrisburg's Community Magazine

State Lawmakers Back Harrisburg Mayor in Dispute over School Recovery Officer

Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse.

Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse.

If you’re going to meet about something as contentious as public education, you might want to bring a tape recorder.

That may be the best lesson so far in the saga surrounding Mayor Eric Papenfuse’s call for the removal of Gene Veno, the school district’s state-appointed chief recovery officer.

Two weeks ago, Papenfuse kicked up a small storm by going public with the fact that he had asked the state Secretary of Education to replace Veno, saying Veno did not believe in his own recovery plan for the district.

Papenfuse said his remarks were prompted by a meeting to discuss the state of the district and to get an update on the progress of Veno’s plan. State Rep. Patty Kim, who hosted the meeting in her Capitol office on the morning of Feb. 28, has corroborated the mayor’s account of the meeting. So has state Sen. Rob Teplitz, who also attended.

Almost as soon as the meeting began, Kim said, it turned “personal.”

According to Papenfuse, Veno acted defensive, driving the discussion off course with erratic remarks. At one point, Veno even lobbed a political threat at Teplitz, suggesting that people had encouraged Veno to run for Teplitz’s Senate seat.

Veno acknowledged making this remark, but said that immediately afterwards he added he “wasn’t interested” in running for office.

But what really disturbed him, Papenfuse said, was that Veno, when asked whether his plan would meet its academic benchmarks, “unequivocally” said it would not.

“He absolutely, completely doesn’t think his plan is going to work,” Papenfuse said. “That was where the conversation got frustrating. He blamed everybody else, and then he said that there was nothing he could do about it.”

As Kim describes it, Papenfuse “was trying to pin down Mr. Veno on what his next step of action was going to be with the school district.” Veno, she said, didn’t have one.

Veno, however, continues to deny he ever suggested his plan would fail. He said he “absolutely” believed it would succeed, but that it was “going to take some time.” He also explained that the circumstances leading up to the meeting had made him suspicious of its purpose.

In the weeks before the scheduled meeting, Veno said, he received a call from Sherri Magnuson, the president of the teacher’s union. Magnuson told him about a recent meeting with Papenfuse and his education advisor, Karl Singleton, during which the mayor had asked for the union’s support in calling for Veno’s resignation.

“So I went into that meeting [with the mayor] knowing he had asked for my removal,” Veno said.

Papenfuse said he did not recall expressly asking union leadership to support Veno’s removal, but that he did remember “discussing a lack of confidence in Veno.”

“I encouraged them to think more broadly about their role,” Papenfuse said. “We talked confidentially about the recovery plan, and we asked them to come back and let us know what they were willing to do. I didn’t anticipate they’d go back to Veno.”

Magnuson, the union president, said she clearly remembered the mayor asking if the teachers would join him in calling for Veno to resign. She said she did not reply, because that sort of decision would need to be taken to her membership, and that she later informed Veno because she thought he had a “right to know.”

According to Papenfuse, after the meeting, Veno also spread a rumor among some school officials that Papenfuse, Teplitz and Kim had instructed him to fire the district superintendent, Dr. Sybil Knight-Burney. Jennifer Smallwood, the school board president, said last week that Veno had “directly” told her as much. Papenfuse denied making any such suggestion to Veno, as did Teplitz and Kim.

After the Feb. 28 meeting, Papenfuse and Teplitz met with Acting Secretary of Education Carolyn Dumaresq and urged her to replace Veno. According to Papenfuse, Dumaresq, who was appointed by Gov. Corbett last August, promised a reply within two weeks. Four weeks later, having gotten no response, the Papenfuse administration issued its press release about the request for Veno’s removal.

Tim Eller, the state Department of Education’s press director, said Dumaresq denied providing a timeline for her response to the mayor. Eller declined to discuss the status of the mayor’s request, saying the secretary would not publicly comment on a “personnel matter,” except to say that “Gene Veno is the CRO for Harrisburg and remains the CRO for Harrisburg.”

Teplitz and Kim, both Democrats, and both elected in 2012, represent districts that include the city of Harrisburg. Veno, who lives in Teplitz’s district, said that he brought up the prospect of running for Teplitz’s seat only because people in the community had been asking him about it. “I felt he should know, the community supported what we were doing in the school district.”

Asked which members of the community had made the suggestion, Veno replied it was “people you would see on the street, having a cup of coffee.”

“They see you hard at work, and they ask if you’re running for office,” he said.

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