The Reggie Lewis Track & Athletic Center RCC says staff cuts made for efficiency
Four staff members at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center were abruptly removed from their roles in what Roxbury Community College officials said was part of an organizational restructuring.
The four staff, all formerly part of the center’s top leadership team, were put on paid administrative leave June 11 ahead of officially being removed from their roles later this year.
“I was just very blindsided. I didn’t know how or why this decision was reached,” said Kamilah Rowe, the now-former assistant manager at the Reggie Lewis Center and one of the four staff.
In a statement on behalf of Roxbury Community College, a representative called the move a “retrenchment,” part of an organizational restructuring to eliminate overlapping responsibilities in the four roles — those of manager, assistant manager and daytime and evening fieldhouse supervisors — and “ensure operational efficiency.” As part of that process, the college said it is in the midst of hiring a new director of operations for the Reggie Lewis Center.
The college said the shift stems from the Pathway Forward Report, released by the school in 2023 and outlining needs and plans for growth at the Reggie Lewis Center in light of
long-needed repairs identified by facility assessments, and the COVID-19
pandemic, which saw the facility shutter and then reopen as a
vaccination site.
The
Pathway Forward Report that was released online calls for the hiring of a
facilities scheduler but makes no specific mention of otherwise
redesigning the organizational structure or creating the new director of
operations role.
According
to a copy of an official letter communicating the retrenchment,
obtained by the Banner, the four staff members were officially put on
paid administrative leave June 11 pending the amount of time officially
required by the state’s handbook for non-union community college staff
before they can be fully removed from their positions. For staff like
Frank Jackson, who had been working in his role as evening fieldhouse
supervisor for more than 15 years, that means 120 days of paid leave;
according to the handbook, it’s 90 days for employees whose times in
their roles were shorter, like Rowe and Sherman Hart, the now-former
manager of the center.
The
college declined to comment on how the responsibilities of the four
roles would be restructured into a director of operations position, or
why the process seemed to have happened so quickly.
Community
members said they think the departure of the four staff members may
have an impact on people who make use of the Reggie Lewis center.
Rowe
called herself and the other three removed staff the “four pillars” of
the Reggie Lewis Center. They, together, had decades of experience at
the athletic center.
Jackson
had worked there, in various capacities, since it opened its doors in
1995 and had been in his full-time role as evening fieldhouse supervisor
since 1999.
Hart had been in his role as manager of the center for 11 years.
Though
a recent employee at the center, Rowe, too, had been a fixture at the
Reggie Lewis for years — first as an athlete, since she was 12 years
old, then as a coach and finally, since 2022, in her support role.
“To
become the assistant manager just felt right,” she said. “It came full
circle for me and was my way of giving back the community, to really
make the Reggie Lewis Center a place that’s for the community and
beyond.”
Hart said he feels the action will impact the facility, which gets recognition across the country.
When
travelling, he has mentioned he works at the Reggie Lewis Center, which
he said gets both recognition and appreciation from others in the
field.
He said he’s
had phone calls from other centers across the country looking for
information about how the Reggie Lewis Center operates.
Even
in the short term, the departure of the four staff has shifted
programming at the Reggie Lewis Center. Rowe said her removal cut short a
series of classes for the center’s “Sensational Seniors,” a
cardiovascular exercise program for older adults.
But
Keith McDermott, who previously served as executive director of the
Reggie Lewis Center for 18 years, until 2016, said that the organization
shouldn’t just be dependent on specific individuals.
“Any organization should be dependent on systems and functions, that people can be plugged in and operate efficiently,” he said.
The
staff members said they were given little notice of the action. An
email notification, sent around 5 p.m. on June 10, instructing each to
attend a meeting with the college’s human resources representatives the
following day served as their only heads up.
At that meeting, they were told they were being put on paid leave, effective immediately.
Rowe,
who took a sick day June 10 and 11, replied to the email saying that
she was going to be unavailable. The meeting was never rescheduled, and
she received all of the information through another email sent to her by
the college’s human resources department and an official letter
delivered to her.
“To
just know that you’re at work one day and then you’re away from work and
to then later get a notification that your position is being retrenched
and to return all my company items — I just didn’t know what to do or
think in that moment,” she said.
Jackson
said he didn’t see the email and only found out when he was called into
a room with the representatives as he was wrapping up a workout session
at the Reggie Lewis Center.
He
said that, following the meeting, he was escorted by security officers
as he packed up his things and left the building. By the end of the
afternoon, he said his code to get in no longer worked.
Retrenchment
of the staff also comes as the Reggie Lewis Center adjusts to a new
executive director, Michael Turner, who was hired in September.
According
to the Pathway Forward Report, the new executive director was intended
to be a consensus builder with a focus on community engagement and the
center’s budget.
McDermott,
who’s role coaching at Notre Dame Academy in Hingham has continued to
bring him to the Reggie Lewis Center since retiring as executive
director, said that what he’s seen from Turner in that capacity — and
how the new executive director has handled public meetings — has
inspired confidence for him and other coaches inside and outside the
community.
He pointed
to instances of overdue maintenance and repairs that he said were
quickly tackled following Turner’s arrival, as well as the “rigorous
hiring process” that led to Turner’s selection.
“I know what it takes [to serve as executive director] and I think that he has it,” McDermott said.
McDermott,
a member of the board of directors in the Massachusetts State Track
Association, also said that others in the track community in the state
have expressed excitement to see Turner in the role.
Despite
the official statement that the retrenchment is part of an
organizational restructuring, Hart alleged that the move might have
stemmed from disagreements between Turner and the leadership and an
attempt from the latter to garner a stronger sense of control at the
center.
The college declined to comment on the allegations against Turner’s leadership in his role as executive director.
But,
for McDermott, if the retrenchment of the four staff members was to
tailor the center’s leadership team to Turner’s preferences — in its
statement, the college did not say that was part of the impetus of the
decision — that is within his rights as the center’s new executive
director.
“Every leader needs to be able to bring in the team they can trust professionally and personally,” he said.