Press Release: 2024-10-02
Former Boston Public School Principal Natasha Halfkenny and Assistant Principal Coreen Miranda Each Pay $4,000 Penalty for Violating Conflict of Interest Law
Halfkenny, Miranda used tickets donated to school to take their sons to ‘Hamilton’
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
10/01/2024
MEDIA CONTACT
Gerry Tuoti, Public Information Officer
Phone
Call Gerry Tuoti, Public Information Officer at (617) 371-9533
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Email Gerry Tuoti, Public Information Officer at Gerry.Tuoti@mass.gov
BOSTON, MA — Former Boston Tobin School Principal Natasha Halfkenny and Assistant Principal Coreen Miranda have each paid a $4,000 civil penalty for violating the conflict of interest law. Halfkenny and Miranda signed separate Disposition Agreements in which each admitted that they allocated tickets for the musical Hamilton, which were donated to the Tobin School for use by its students and their chaperones, to themselves and their sons, who were not Tobin School students. Halfkenny and Miranda each waived their right to a hearing.
In 2023, the Boston Education Development Fund emailed Miranda notifying her that 12 tickets to a performance of Hamilton at the Citizens Bank Opera House had been donated by a non-profit organization for use by Tobin School students who would otherwise be unable to attend such a show. The nonprofit also donated two additional tickets for chaperones. Each ticket would have cost approximately $149 to purchase.
Miranda informed Halfkenny, her direct supervisor and personal friend, that she planned to allocate one of the chaperone tickets to herself and two of the Tobin School student tickets to her minor sons, who were not students at the Tobin School or in Boston Public Schools, and asked Halfkenny if she would like to chaperone. Halfkenny did not prohibit Miranda from bringing her sons to the show and agreed to chaperone. No other employees of Tobin School were offered the opportunity to chaperone. Rather than making the opportunity to attend Hamilton known or available to all Tobin students, Halfkenny and Miranda themselves chose a group of nine eighth-grade students to attend the show. At some point, Halfkenny and Miranda allocated an extra ticket to Halfkenny’s minor son, who was not a Tobin or Boston Public Schools student.
By providing their sons with Hamilton tickets intended for Tobin School students, Halfkenny and Miranda violated the conflict of interest law’s prohibition against public employees using their official positions to obtain for themselves or others valuable privileges that are not properly available to them.
“By choosing to allocate three of the donated Hamilton tickets to their own sons who were not Tobin School or BPS students, Halfkenny and Miranda denied three Tobin School students of the opportunity to attend the show and violated the conflict of interest law,” said State Ethics Commission Executive Director David A. Wilson. “This case is a reminder that public employees must not use their official positions to get themselves or others special, valuable privileges to which they are not entitled, and that there are legal consequences for doing so.”
The Commission encourages public employees to contact the Commission’s Legal Division at 617-371-9500 for free advice if they have any questions regarding how the conflict of interest law may apply to them.