Guilderland Grumble: Let's Get Ready to Rumble!
In Guilderland, New York, a community is up in arms about the transfer of two social studies teachers from Guilderland High School to Farnsworth Middle School. I've done what research I can and find myself uncertain how to feel. There are many aspects of this issue to consider and many aspects that seemingly have not been revealed and will apparently be revealed tomorrow. Let's break this down...The Act: Transferring teachers against their will. I believe most districts have the authority to transfer teachers as they see fit. It's a power that I think most districts use sparingly. After all, keeping teachers happy so that they are teaching at peak performance to improve test scores and such is one thing most districts try to keep in mind. From what I've read, it seems, though, that the superintendent has a history of moving teachers.
It's also a power that I have no problem with if it's to fulfill a critical need. But two middle school teachers are being moved to the high school. So now I have to wonder about the reason for the move. Because taking two teachers used to teaching high school courses, and two teachers used to teaching middle school and swapping them, at the surface, doesn't make much sense. It's almost like a reality tv program. Trading Blackboards.
The Reason: At the center of this seems to be a "Culture Climate Survey" where, from what I can figure, teachers were asked to fill out how they felt things were going in their departments, how everybody got along, etc. Let me pause for a moment and say that if you have to get teachers to fill out a survey to find out if everyone's getting along, there's a problem. But let's move on...
The only thing revealed about the survey is that it says, "members of the high school social studies department fostered a "locker room" atmosphere in which sexual jokes and derogatory comments about staff members were allowed. [Matt] Nelligan also was accused of deriding a gay staff member, but was exonerated."
I'd like to see this survey. I've taken surveys for my district and they are always, "Rate 1-5 how happy you are about XYZ." I have never been asked to take a professional survey where I could criticize departments or individuals. If the school board is concerned about the climate of the school, they might want to consider how allowing open criticism of coworkers affects the climate, but let's move on.
The superintendent has said that even though Nelligan was determined to be innocent doesn't mean he didn't do it. Well, that's true *cough*OJSimpson*cough*, but you can't treat him professionally on what you think he's guilty of doing. He was found innocent, you can't use that accusation as a reason to do something.
I also find it interesting that this "locker room" atmosphere is getting a woman who was pregnant at the time of the survey transferred with Nelligan. Nelligan says Ann-Marie McManus is caught up in it to make it seem like he's not being singled out. Sounds kind of paranoid and egocentric, but since I haven't heard any specific accusations about McManus, I have to concede that he may be right. I'm not sure, though, why the fact that McManus was out of maternity leave when the survey was given keeps getting mentioned.
Nelligan, of course, has his own theories. He says it's political. He and the social studies department at Guilderland High School are open critics of the district leadership and teachers union and this is a divide and conquer tactic. I have no evidence to the contrary because the school board and the superintendent have done little to explain what's going on and why, which gets us to the next topic...
The Handling: Secrecy seems to be the slogan here. Locked door executive sessions and such. Bad idea. I can't think of a reason that school boards should be allowed to sit away from public eyes to make decisions. But then they shouldn't have said they were moving anybody before they were willing to discuss the reasons. They should have said, "Here's what the survey told us. Here's what we plan to do about it." It's like a movie where you see the ending and the rest of the movie you see how they got there. Very exciting. Very mysterious. That's not how to run a school district.
But then, the teachers should have been spoken to privately before this happened. If they were causing problems, they should have been spoken too and told they need to stop the sexual jokes and criticism of staff. They should have had a chance to face the accusations and respond to them.
Last Monday, the 7th, the school board met privately and decided to take another week to determine if they have the authority to overturn the superintendent's decision. I agree with Nelligan that this is a delay tactic because you can't tell me they don't know if they can veto the superintendent. Now if they are taking that week to decide if they want to overturn it, that's fine. But tomorrow when they reveal what they are going to do and why, which they should have shared to begin with, the public will not be allowed to comment. Telling the people who voted you into office that they can't talk is...a bad idea.
Random Thoughts: I find it interesting that we haven't heard from other teachers. Other members of the social studies department. Maybe that's because Nelligan and McManus are problems. Or maybe they are unwilling to confront the school board and or union.
Part of July 14ths itenerary is sharing of the redacted survey results. Interesting thing about the word redact. It can mean just putting something in writing. But it can also mean adapting, editing, or obscuring. Based on the secretive school board, I wonder which is the correct meaning here.
Bottom line is that we have heard everything from one side and little from the other, so I can't say which side I agree with. I'm leaning toward Nelligan and McManus, but I might take that back tomorrow.
Here are links to the articles I used in my research. The first link is the YouTube video made by a Guilderland student that was emailed to me by an unknown person.
YouTube
Fox News
Spotlight News
Times Union
posted by Bodog @ 10:42 AM
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