This is FU

Purnima Demorais, former Principal of Harmony Grove school, packed up a couple months into the current school year, starting a new role in Tewksbury as an interim elementary school principal. It was reported days ago, that Demorais is one of four finalists for two positions at two Newburyport elementary schools.

It seems that Tewksbury just isn’t a good fit for Demorais, as her first day in that role was on November 1, 2021, and just over three months in to that role, she is already on the short list for a new job.

When Demorais left Framingham, we filed a records request with Tewksbury for her application packet, her resume and cover letter, and any correspondence with anyone in the school department, during the hiring process, when Demorais was a participant in the conversation.

We filed our first request in November, and after outright denials and appeals to the Secretary of State’s office, we received this heavily redacted response in early January. All pertinent data was redacted, including the dates of emails. Click to enlarge pages.

Disappointed with the redactions, we filed another appeal to the state, and on January 28th, we received the documents that we requested – still with redactions, but we are okay with them. Click to enlarge pages.

We were disappointed with Amy Bright’s letter of recommendation being fully redacted, our request for the same letter from the Framingham Public School department was also met with the denial below, and is the subject of a current appeal to the Secretary of State’s office.

The resume we received from Tewksbury reveals a history of job changes, her first teaching role, her only long term role. Since 2007, she has worked in the role of principal, interim, assistant, and full. Including Tewksbury, since 2007, she has worked in 6 school systems. That averages to fewer to three years per position. Her shortest stint in any role in her career if she picked for and takes the role in Newburyport, will be just a handful of months in Tewksbury.

When Demorais took the role in Tewksbury, she was interviewed in the Tewksbury Carnation on November 16, 2021, “North St. Elementary School Welcomes New Principal”, and when she was asked why she was interested in the North Street School, she replied, “My family is moving to the area, and I wanted to be somewhere that I could give 200%, which is easier without a commute.”

If she was interested in Tewksbury because her family was moving to the area, she might be moving again as Newburyport is about a 30 mile drive from Tewksbury. However, she might want to move soon as Purmina lives in Milford, and has since April 2020. Milford to Tewksbury is a 45 mile drive. Milford to Newburyport is 75 miles.

Her claim to the interviewer that her family is moving to the area, could have been a lie. While we can’t verify if she is renting an apartment near or in Tewksbury, we can tell you that her home in Milford is still owned by her and her spouse, and is not on the market, and has not been on the market since they purchased it years ago. The assessors record from Milford dated 12/23/2021 confirms ownership in Milford.

While it is great that Demorais is gone, the employees of Harmony Grove are relieved, and parents are seeing positive outcomes in the short time that she has been gone, the underlying issue remains, how was she hired. Was she just a crappy leader in Framingham, or does she have a history of poor performance elsewhere? Was she pushed out at other school systems, or just here in Framingham? We are still looking into it.

We wish Demorais luck wherever she lands, however we just believe she should not be a leader responsible for overseeing the educational, safety, and social needs of our children.