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SCHOOLS
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083002 West Patent vacancy prompts criticism |
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By FRANK NARDOZZI
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Faced with a sudden vacancy in the principal's position at West Patent Elementary School, the Bedford Central school board has been forced to take some unusual actions to fill the position. The former principal, Kathleen Tuttle, resigned from the position effective July 31, for what School Board President Dot Fallon describes as "her own personal reasons." The school board acted in July to appoint Robyn Lane as "teacher in charge" at West Patent beginning July 1 and "continuing so long as her services are satisfactory, but no later than June 30, 2003," at an annual salary of $97,500. The salary includes an estimated $30,000 stipend to compensate her for the extra duties she will have as the de facto administrator of the school building. At the school board's meeting on Wednesday, the board acted to appoint Superintendent Bruce Dennis as the interim principal of West Patent Elementary School until a successor for Ms. Tuttle is identified and appointed. It was explained that Ms. Lane will act as the school's administrator under Dr. Dennis' direct supervision, but the superintendent is empowered to execute all of the legal documents that are required of a school building principal. All of these actions prompted school district critic Joe Giardina of Mount Kisco to file a complaint with Richard Mills, the New York State commissioner of education.
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Mr. Giardina charged that Ms. Lane was not certified to act as a building principal, "so they created this nebulous `teacher in charge' position to get around the regulations.
"We are spending top dollar here," Mr. Giardina said in an interview this week. "The kids deserve better than this."
Mr. Giardina blamed Ms. Tuttle's sudden resignation and the resignation of other principals and top school district administrators recently on the superintendent's "dictatorial and authoritarian management style."
"That's utter rubbish," responded School Board President Dot Fallon. "Mr. Giardina expressed a concern that we don't have a qualified leader in charge of that school (West Patent Elementary). We believe that Mrs. Lane would be a fine candidate for the principal's position on a permanent basis. But she is not certified. She is being appointed to the position, while she pursues her certification in administration, which she should finish next spring," Mrs. Fallon said.
In a similar situation a couple of years ago, the school board appointed a "teacher-in-charge" at Pound Ridge Elementary School, she said.
"It is an interim measure while we conduct an appropriate search," the school board president said. "We just completed two searches for new principals at the Pound Ridge and Mount Kisco elementary schools, but we decided not to pursue any of those candidates for the West Patent position at this point," she said. "Over the course of this year, we are certainly going to move forward and do a formal search."
Mrs. Fallon said that replacing a principal in August is more difficult than advertising for and replacing a principal 'in the spring. "Very typically, people begin their searches and school districts start looking for administrators in the late winter or early spring. We were not in the position to do that for this particular school.
"To try to rush through some process this summer, we didn't have any confidence that was going to be successful. So this approach was taken in the alternative," she said.
Asked if she thought that there was anything unusual about the number of principals and administrators who have left the school system in the last year, Mrs. Fallon said, "The board has experienced these turnovers with a more complete understanding than the general public has about what occurred in each circumstance."
Richard Kraemer, a former principal at Fox Lane High School, and Susan Hellman, a former principal at West Patent, "retired of their own volition," Mrs. Fallon said. "They were at the typical age when you move on to do other things."
Carol Franks-Randall, the former assistant superintendent for special education and student services, moved on to become the superintendent of the Elmsford School District, "a position for which she was very well qualified," Mrs. Fallon said.
Dr. David Abbey, the former assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, who also recently announced his resignation, returned to the New Canaan (Conn.) School District, from whence he had come, in order to maximize his retirement benefits, Dr. Dennis said.
"These aren't failures of the system by any means," Mrs. Fallon said. "Some people fail to realize that we do not settle for anything less than the best on our administrative team."
Asked if there was-any truth to the allegation that so many
administrators had left because they objected to the way Dr. Dennis ran the
school district, Mrs. Fallon said
, "That's
clearly not the case. That is so far from what is happening. And yet I
appreciate that the general public does not have a full understanding of what
has gone on in each one of these circumstances."
Doubletalk and patronizing-JPG
Mrs. Fallon said that the school board had asked the superintendent to put a special focus on the new principals who are coming in this year - Eric Byrne in Pound Ridge and Susan Messina in Mount Kisco - to insure that they have the appropriate kind of support and guidance to help them be successful.
"The board of education, in its wisdom, collectively, has been very comfortable in its experience with Dr. Dennis' supervision and support for new administrators and his evaluation of new administrative staff," she said.
"We certainly understand that people are not always going to be the perfect match for our needs every time, although we would certainly like to have greater success with our hiring and staffing, especially the building principal positions, because we recognize that it is crucial for each school to have strong leadership," she said.