By David S. Lewis

NEW SCOTLAND Five parents spoke to voice their support for sixth-grade science teacher John Curran.

“If I told my son [Mr. Curran would not be returning] I think his GPA would suffer,” one mother told the school board last Monday.  All five parents urged the board to keep Curran on staff.  

Neither Superintendent Linda Langevin nor the school board would comment on Curran’s employment status, as it is a “personnel matter.”

In addition to teaching sixth-grade science, Curran is also the advisor to the Builder’s Club, which works with the Kiwanis on community-outreach programs.  Curran has been teaching at Voorheesville Middle School for two years, and school administrators say he will finish out this year. 

New York State law sets a probationary period of several years for teachers, at which point the district may grant the teacher tenure, may release the teacher, or may extend the probationary period.  After a teacher is given tenure, it is very difficult for the district to terminate his employment.

According to Kathy Fiero, president of the Voorheesville Teachers’ Association, the law favors the district, and organizations like the teachers’ unions can do little more than ensure the legal number of formal classroom observations have been made by the school’s administrators.  In the Voorheesville district, that number is three.

Fiero also said that not granting a teacher can have serious ramifications for that person when they apply to work at other school districts, as tenure is considered representative of a teacher’s ability in the classroom.   On John Curran, she said that she was “very disappointed he would not be returning,” but declined to comment further. 

Fiero expects parents concerned with Curran’s fate to show up at the school board meeting scheduled for Monday, April 7; that meeting will be held in the cafeteria of the high school.

Linda Langevin, superintendent for the Voorheesville School District, says she is not concerned by a bill pending in the state legislature that would make student test scores part of the criteria for granting tenure because the district currently meets and exceeds the new criteria.  The district’s established standards for tenure were adopted two years ago.

“We began using a process using a consultant,” she said.  “The process is called ‘Cycles for Success’ and was created by an attorney named Wayne Van der Byl,” said Langevin during a phone interview.  The program determines “standards of teacher quality” and dictates what a teacher should know and do in order to best serve the students.  She said the criteria were based on philosophical and conceptual standards determined by the State Education Commissioner’s regulations.

Curran could not be reached for comment.