GREENFIELD — After a city councilor’s query into the School Department’s special education transportation budget led to a conflict over transparency, School Committee Chair Glenn Johnson-Mussad and Superintendent Karin Patenaude hope to mend relations between the two bodies.

“I have responded a little bit defensively and protectively in response to some of the requests for information that were made to the superintendent,” Johnson-Mussad said during a City Council meeting last week. “It wasn’t intentionally meant to insult anybody, but I do feel extremely protective of our superintendent and what she’s trying to do.”

This year, the School Department’s more than $878,000 special education transportation staff budget brought in $340,000 in revenue earned from providing out-of-district transportation services, according to Precinct 3 City Councilor Michael Mastrototaro, and city councilors want to know how that money is being reinvested.

On Aug. 24, Mastrototaro, who also serves on the city’s Ways and Means Committee, sent an email to Patenaude and Johnson-Mussad, asking how the Greenfield School Department allocates the transportation revenue that is collected from out-of-district services. Mastrototaro also asked how many drivers the transportation department has on staff, and the hours they generally work each day.

Responding to the email, Johnson-Mussad wrote to City Council President John Bottomley on Aug. 26, requesting that city councilors stop asking questions unless they are related to matters to be voted on by both the School Department and council.

After apologizing for the tone conveyed in his response to Mastrototaro’s email, Johnson-Mussad said the information requested in the email would have taken “half a day’s work” to produce.

“If that information is not actually relevant to a decision that we’ve decided to make as a body, in other words, if we haven’t voted together, we’re taking on this strategic issue, and we need this report from the superintendent that will take time for her to compile. I’ve asked them, please, not to make those requests,” Johnson-Mussad said. “I just don’t understand how it relates to a decision that you’re making and how you all determine which of you and when are allowed to request information from the superintendent or ... for other departments in the city.”

In response, Bottomley told Johnson-Mussad that questioning different city departments is one of a councilor’s primary roles. He added that if a request for information is unmanageable or time-consuming, City Council and the School Department could work together to find a solution, but he maintained that the council has the right to request information and the School Department has the obligation to respond.

Johnson-Mussad added that he found the City Council’s tone toward the School Committee to be disrespectful, to which At-Large Councilor Michael Terounzo echoed Bottomley’s remarks, noting that he considered the dismissal of a city councilor’s request for budget information to be disrespectful, too. Terounzo added that, under the state’s Public Records Law, any member of the public has a right to the department’s public information.

“If we’re talking about respect, respect comes in the email form, too. Respect comes in the action that is taken,” Terounzo said. “If blowing us off and telling us it’s none of our business is the reaction, that’s super disrespectful to us as mutually elected officials. One of our main focuses is to scrutinize departments, to ask questions, is to represent our constituents that ask us these questions.”

Agreeing that the dialogue between both government bodies should serve as a “reset” in the relationship between them, Johnson-Mussad and Bottomley thanked one another for their time, vowing to improve civil communication between the City Council and the School Committee.

“It helps us help you,” At-Large Councilor John Garrett said to Johnson-Mussad, launching into a metaphor. “There could be a monster under the bed. If you never shine a flashlight underneath it, that monster under the bed could be there or could not be there, if we can’t see inside it. That is fiscal irresponsibility.”

Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at acammalleri@recorder.com or 413-930-4429.