Gene Haas was convicted of tax fraud in 2007. The Gene Haas Foundation is offering the donation to the high school’s Advanced Manufacturing Program in exchange for signage and fifteen year naming rights, according to school committee documents.
WORCESTER – The Worcester School Committee at its meeting Thursday debated the ethics of accepting a $350,000 donation that would require the school district to place the name of a convicted criminal outside of a Worcester Technical High School shop.
The Gene Haas Foundation is offering the donation to the high school’s Advanced Manufacturing Program in exchange for signage and 15 year naming rights, according to school committee documents. The foundation is looking to name the space the Gene Haas Center for Advanced Manufacturing.
Worcester Tech Principal Drew Weymouth explained that the Gene Haas Foundation, an offshoot of the largest tool manufacturer in the Western world – Haas Automation, has an existing relationship with the high school, having donated $141,000 over the last seven years.
Additionally, in 2002, the foundation established the Haas Technical Education Community, which was established in Worcester in partnership with Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester Tech and Quinsigamond Community College, according to Weymouth, with WPI Professor Chris Brown acting as the president.
Head of the Advanced Manufacturing Department Brian Cummings said he himself acted as the president in 2022 and has served as a representative on the communities council for 10 years. The community is meant to bring teachers from across the nation together to develop best practices and share the best ideas among schools, according to Cummings.
The school started purchasing Haas technology in 2002, and Cummings said the advancement that the shop has achieved over the years would not have been possible without the partnership with the Gene Haas Foundation.
The $350,000 would allow the district to renovate the advanced manufacturing shop, which will include “nice bright walls, nice lighting…painted epoxy floors, and an atmosphere that when the kids come in they’re going to be wowed by,” according to Cummings.
Worcester Tech would be the fifth high school in the nation to receive the naming rights offer, according to Cummings, in addition to several universities and colleges.
When the committee was given a chance to respond to the item, Haas’s criminal background was immediately raised by Committee member Tracy O’Connell Novick.
Novick detailed that Haas paid $8.9 million in 2000 to settle a patent lawsuit brought against him by a rival firm, which she said led to a chain of events where Haas set out to recoup funds from that lawsuit by committing tax fraud.
Haas was sentenced to two years to prison in 2007, eventually serving 16 months, after pleading guilty to defrauding the government of more than $34 million in taxes, according to The Associated Press. He was required to pay a $5 million fine and more than $70 million in back taxes and interest.
Novick also raised recent accusations from PBS News that Haas Automation has been selling technology to the Russian arms industry despite U.S. sanctions that were placed against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. Haas Automation has denied the allegations and Haas himself isn’t facing any charges related to the allegations.
Novick said as a school committee member, an educator, a parent and a member of the community she thinks really hard about the names that the district puts on its buildings and the example they provide students.
“We have somebody who committed what we would call plagiarism in schools, who rather than taking their punishment, acted to defraud the federal government for millions and millions of dollars and who appears to be now actually violating more federal laws as we actually speak and what people want to do, what the proposal is tonight is to put this man’s name on our building for 15 years,” Novick said.
Novick also raised a procedural question, since the item was in a section of the agenda meant to approve donations, when items involving naming rights are supposed to receive a public hearing.
Both the committee members and student representatives present at the meeting grappled with the ethics of honoring Haas versus what the money would mean for the program.
“$350,000 doesn’t drop out of a tree every so often,” committee member Sue Coghlin Mailman said. She also mentioned that if anything comes of the recent allegations against Haas the committee should look into if they would be able to remove his name.
“I’m just having a hard time with myself ethically whether or not this is the right call for our school and I know the benefits of this,” Committee member Jermaine Johnson said. “I’m trying to weigh honestly within myself whether this is the right thing to do.”
Councilors questioned if the proposal was thoroughly vetted by the school and if it’s within the schools practice to name shops after companies that provide donations. Weymouth said that it was and that shops at Worcester Tech have been named after Coghlin Electrical Contractors, Alden Trust and Redken, among other companies.
Worcester Tech student Maryjane Bitar spoke about how the advanced manufacturing shop has never been the one with the most support and expressed how ideal it would be if the school could get the donation without the name attached.
“It’s horrible to put the (name) of someone with such horrible accusations on a school that talks about working and talks about being the best person you can,” Bitar said.
She did suggest finding a middle ground where the school could take the name off if Haas was convicted of something. Another student went on to suggest that having the name taken down would be a scandal in and of itself.
The councilors also asked Superintendent Rachel Monárrez what she thought of the proposal and she acknowledged that Haas made some bad decisions but said the district doesn’t want to act as judge and jury on the current allegations.
“We want to model this idea that when you make poor decisions, because we all make them and we pay our consequences then we want to continue to have opportunities in life,” Monárrez said. “So it’s not an easy decision, but the role of myself as the superintendent is to think about what we want for our children on a broader scope and I believe this is in the best interest of the children at Worcester Tech and for Worcester Public Schools.”
The $350,000 is an investment into one classroom that Monárrez said the district wouldn’t be able to make on its own.
“We very much also want to honor what the school is looking for in terms of growth and opportunity in alignment with the careers that are out there for our future,” Monárrez said. “We don’t want to be using equipment for our youth, telling them that we’re preparing them for the future when we know that it’s not the future ready work or equipment that they need.”
The committee ultimately sent the item to the governance subcommittee for further discussion with a 5 to 2 vote. Johnson and O’Connell Novick were the two dissenting votes.
Kiernan Dunlop is an award-winning journalist who has spent the past five years reporting in Worcester, New Bedford and Antigua and Barbuda. She’s been published in Bloomberg, USA Today, Canary Media, MassLive, and the New Bedford Standard Times, among other outlets. She can be contacted at kdunlop@theworcesterguardian.org
