LAKEVILLE — The process for completing Freetown-Lakeville School District Superintendent Alan Strauss’ two-year evaluation has encountered yet another obstacle.

Due to two potential breaches of confidentiality, allegedly caused by both Strauss and Freetown-Lakeville School Committee member Crystal Ng, the Freetown Lakeville School Committee voted to postpone their review of the superintendent’s evaluation until Sept. 25.

The decision was made at the School Committee’s Wednesday, Aug. 21 meeting. 

According to Ng, information contained in the materials that Strauss sent to school committee members to review as part of his evaluation contained confidential information about a student and two staff members. 

Ng explained that she forwarded that information to another non-committee member upon request, not knowing it contained confidential information. 

She said that according to the Department of Education officials she spoke with, “all parts of the superintendent’s evaluation [are] public documents.”

“[Strauss] forwarded that document with confidential information,” said Ng. 

School Committee Vice Chair Will Sienkiewicz said while the superintendent’s two-year evaluation “is a public document, the evidence he entrusted the school committee with is not.”

That evidence was a packet of documents Strauss provided to school committee members at the committee’s July 31 meeting as proof of the work that has been done in the district under his supervision. 

School Committee member Stephen Sylvia pushed to have an open investigation about the two confidentiality breaches.

The first would investigate whether the superintendent committed a violation by sending documents that contained confidential information about a student and staff members to the school committee as part of his evaluation. 

The second would investigate whether Ng committed a violation by forwarding that information in an email to a member of the public. 

The committee came to the consensus that a good first step would be to seek guidance from the school district’s legal department as to whether or not an investigation would be necessary. 

Members decided to have the legal department present at the committee’s next meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 25, when Strauss’ evaluation is set to be completed. 

The evaluation process has already dragged on “way too long,” Strauss said, who added that this postponement is impacting his ability to move forward with his job. 

“I can’t know where we need to go if I don’t know where we need to grow,” Strauss said.