EASTHAMPTON — The School Committee is asking the City Council to censure at-large Councilor Owen Zaret, whose behavior in recent months, they allege, has “escalated to incidents of clearly unprofessional and unacceptable conduct.”

Zaret counters that his repeated requests to discuss with the committee their handling of antisemitism in Easthampton Public Schools have gone unanswered, and that the censure request deflects from the issue at hand.

Six of the seven School Committee members agreed late last week to send a letter to the council requesting the action against Zaret. The letter states that the at-large councilor is dissatisfied with the committee’s responses pertaining to the antisemitism, describing “escalating complaints” from Zaret about the issue.

Mayor Nicole LaChapelle did not sign the letter as a member of the committee, which was sent on Sunday. School Committee Chair Laura Scott told the Gazette that LaChapelle has opted to release her own statement on the matter in the coming days.

The censure is not a request for Zaret to resign, nor would it impact his ability to participate in council proceedings. Instead, it is a formal way of disapproving of a member’s conduct. Scott will read the request for censure into the record at the council’s meeting on Wednesday.

Zaret, who is Jewish and the parent of an Easthampton School District student, wrote in an email to the Gazette that he has been trying to “initiate a dialogue” with the schools about rising antisemitism in the school system and in the country, noting that he felt that his input was being ignored and that the school district was failing to take action.

“There have been missed opportunities to have conversations,” wrote Zaret. “If there are concerns about my behavior … why can’t we sit down together?”

The censure request includes a full communication timeline and thread of emails that is referenced in the letter.

Several emails include suggestions from Zaret on how to build a curriculum around the prevention of antisemitism.

Scott said that Easthampton already uses a “peer-reviewed, research-based” curriculum for such matters.

The communication timeline shows the School Committee’s responses seeking to schedule meetings with Zaret or thanking him for his correspondence. The correspondence list dates back to October 2023, and includes 24 emails, only four of which went unanswered by the committee or other school officials.

However, in a statement shared with the Gazette and on Facebook, Zaret stated that “while a few conversations have taken place, by and large my submission of resources and numerous requests to meet have gone unanswered.”

“I don’t believe that acknowledgment of an email is a conversation,” Zaret told the Gazette.

Scott told the Gazette that she and other committee members and school officials had been responding to and meeting with Zaret. She also stated that the school district already has policies surrounding bias, discrimination, trauma-informed responses, hate speech, procedures for complaints and more, and that when these were shared with Zaret at initial meetings he appeared “satisfied” and “impressed.”

When an instance of hate-based graffiti occurred in December at Easthampton High School, Zaret and other school community members received an email, obtained by the Gazette, alerting them to the incident and notifying them on how they could reach school administrators for further information or assistance.

In the censure letter, it is stated that Zaret “immediately” requested and was granted a meeting to receive further information, but that following the meeting, he emailed the superintendent and School Committee requesting specifics of the incident “in violation of the process that had been clearly communicated to the school community” and despite being “already aware of the specifics.”

When questioned about this request, the letter says that Zaret responded in an email saying “it is essentially a test of good faith behavior between municipal partners.”

School Committee member Sam Hunter said that what has been of concern to the committee has been the “pattern of behavior” displayed by Zaret, which has been escalating.

“The amount of access he’s asking for is really inappropriate,” Hunter said.

Now, with the introduction of the censure, Zaret said, “we’ve completely pivoted away from what the actual issue is.”

This is the second time that Zaret has been criticized by other elected officials for matters of conduct. In late 2022, three fellow city councilors — Dan Rist, Lindsey Rothschild and Peg Conniff — alleged harassment and bullying against Zaret, and asserted that Zaret was not respectful of communication boundaries.

The request for censure will likely be referred to committee following its introduction at Wednesday night’s meeting. From there, it will be brought back to the full council at a future date for a vote.

Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com.