BOSTON — A pair of Boston Public Schools administrators were forced to pay a civil penalty after the state says they took their sons to see the hit musical “Hamilton” using tickets that were donated for use by students at the school where they worked.
Natasha Halfkenny, the former principal of the Maurice J. Tobin School, and the school’s assistant principal, Coreen Miranda, each paid a $4,000 fine for violating the state’s conflict of interest law, Massachusetts Ethics Commission Executive Director David Wilson said Tuesday.
Wilson said in a statement that the educators’ actions denied students of the opportunity to attend the show and violated the state’s conflict of interest law.
“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,” Wilson said.
“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,” Wilson said.
A nonprofit gifted tickets to the school last year for a dozen students and two chaperones to see Lin-Manuel Miranda’s award-winning show at the Citizens Bank Opera House.
Each ticket would have cost about $149 to purchase, Wilson said.
Upon learning of the donation, Wilson said Miranda and Halfkenny, who were friends outside of work, selected themselves to chaperone the trip, WIlson said. Miranda then allocated tickets to her two sons and Halfkenny’s son, none of whom attended Boston Public Schools.
Instead of making the opportunity to attend the musical known to all students at the school, Wilson said the duo hand-picked a group of nine eighth-grade students to come along with them and their sons.
According to the disposition agreement regarding Miranda on the matter, on Feb. 28, 2023, Miranda posted on social media: “[W]e get to take 12 of our students to see Hamilton, an opportunity that many will never have the chance to see.”
“Miranda used her Assistant Principal position to secure this unwarranted privilege for each of her sons and to Halfkenny’s son by allocating the three Hamilton tickets to them,” the disposition agreement states.
According to the disposition agreement regarding Halfkenny on the matter, Halfkenny “knowingly, or with reason to know, used her official position as Principal of the Tobin School to secure for her son and for each of Miranda’s sons an unwarranted privilege of substantial value that was not properly available to similarly situated individuals.”
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