Catholic board trustee set to return to table after six-month ban

After a six-month absence, Catholic school board trustee Peter Fracassi is set to return to the table next week.

However, Fracassi, who represents Collingwood, Wasaga Beach, Clearview and Springwater, says his feelings regarding his position have likely changed forever.

Fracassi was the subject of a code of conduct investigation by the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board at the end of 2020. According to meeting minutes from Dec. 16, 2020, Fracassi was found to have breached two sections of the Catholic trustee code of conduct, and was sanctioned with a six-month ban from board and committee meetings.

On May 26, he will return to the table.

“I’m going back to be an advocate for parents. I’m going back to do my job. I’m going to watch my P’s and Q’s and watch what emails I send and who I talk to. There are trust issues,” said Fracassi. “I’ll try to do the best I can.”

According to the meeting minutes from the Dec. 16, 2020 school board meeting, the first breach was for civil behaviour.

The investigation concluded Fracassi did not treat certain board staff with dignity and respect, engaged in disparaging communications with certain board staff by sending them emails that were written in a belittling and reprimanding tone and threatening to damage the professional reputation of a staff person and their relationship with other trustees of the board and using offensive language.

The second breach, according to the minutes, was for not maintaining confidential information shared at committee meetings held in camera (private) concerning an employee recruitment process.

The investigation was completed by a third-party investigator and was discussed mostly behind closed doors, as it involved personal information of staff members as well as matters pertaining to closed-door (in-camera) meetings.

While the report is considered private, the outcome is public.

All trustees voted to confirm the findings of the third-party investigator’s report at their December meeting. All trustees also voted in favour of sanctions to bar Fracassi from attending all board and committee meetings for six months.

“I’m not the kind of person they’ve portrayed me to be,” said Fracassi. “I’ve been through hell and back. I had a lot of anxiety at the time and I couldn’t believe what was going on.”

Fracassi retained Harold Elston as his lawyer at the end of 2020 to respond to the allegations. Correspondence Elston sent to the board of trustees in December prior to the meeting was shared with CollingwoodToday by Fracassi.

“The recommended sanction is out of all proportion to the allegations and is so harsh as to constitute the removal of a democratically elected trustee from the office he was sent to by his constituents,” wrote Elston.

Fracassi says the civil exchange complaint comes from an exchange between him and two senior staff members at the board, and was in regards to complaints from a parent of a student who attends a school within his catchment area.

“The allegations arise from routine conversations and correspondence the trustee had with the employees and, while Trustee Fracassi was, at times, clearly displeased with the work of staff, his comments were never more than constructive criticism,” wrote Elston.

Fracassi concedes he did get into a verbal altercation with staff.

“It was back and forth. It wasn’t one-sided,” said Fracassi. “I ask questions and I advocate for parents. And that’s my crime.”

While the minutes from the December meeting indicate Fracassi was provided with “ample” opportunity to participate in the investigation but chose not to, Fracassi disputes those claims.

In Elston’s letter to trustees, he alleges the investigator limited her attempts to four failed emails sent to the same address. Fracassi says all four emails went into his spam folder and he didn’t see them until it was too late.

“It is respectfully submitted that the investigator initially failed to make proper efforts to reach Fracassi and, having received no response from him, wrongfully proceeded without fulfilling her duty to employ more diligent efforts to reach him,” wrote Elston.

“I never got an opportunity to speak to the (investigator), which I really wanted to do,” Fracassi told CollingwoodToday.

The entire situation has made Fracassi reconsider if he would ever run again for a trustee position in the future.

“I’m not running again. The way they operate... they don’t operate with ethics,” he said. “They talk about being a Catholic board, but where is the forgiveness? They could have just sat me down (to talk). This hurt. I was hurt.”

When asked whether the third-party investigator’s report would ever be released to the public, school board officials indicated it would not be.

“For privacy reasons, we cannot discuss the specific details of the breach,” said board chair and Barrie trustee Joe Zerdin.

“Trustee Fracassi is returning to his role next week and our focus is to move forward in a professional manner with empathy and compassion,” he said. “Our collective focus is to continue with the important work of the board during this challenging time for education in our province.”