PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Public Schools' board called a closed-door emergency meeting on Friday to discuss concerns over the newly appointed superintendent.
Following the meeting, which began at 3:30 p.m. and lasted more than two hours, Pittsburgh Public Schools Solicitor Ira Weiss released the following statement:
"The Board had a preliminary meeting to discuss next steps related to issues that have arisen this week with respect to Dr. Anthony Hamlet. There will be another meeting on Monday. We don't expect to have further comment until after that meeting."
The emergency meeting was called after Dr. Anthony Hamlet was accused of plagiarizing items on his resume, days after a Palm Beach Post article highlighted factual discrepancies on the same document.
“In the beginning, I said, ‘Let’s hear him out and hear what he has to say.’ In light of the new plagiarism allegation, that’s a deal-breaker for me,” school board member Lynda Wrenn said.
According to TribLIVE, Hamlet used sentences on his resume and during a news conference three weeks ago that weren't his own, without citing the original sources.
On the day he was announced as a candidate for the superintendent position, Hamlet described himself as a transformational leader “charged with identifying the needed change and creating a vision to guide the change through inspiration.”
As it turns out, that description is how Wikipedia defines transformational leadership.
Earlier this week, Hamlet defended himself against a Palm Beach Post article that identified discrepancies between information on his resume and data provided by the Florida Department of Education.
“I admit there's an error on my resume,” Hamlet said.
But he admitted to only a minor error dating back to when he served as principal at John F. Kennedy Middle School in Florida, saying that he took the school from a D rating to a C rather than from an F to a C, as stated in his resume.
The concerns raised about Hamlet come even before his first official day on the job, which is July 1.
An online petition calling on the school board to reconsider the hiring of Hamlet had 500 signatures as of Friday.
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