By David S. Lewis

NEW SCOTLAND – Sixth-grade science teacher John Curran resigned.  Parents have attended the last several school board meetings to express their disappointment that his contract was not going to be renewed, and many also came to shake their fingers at the school board’s lack of transparency.

One concerned parent asked, “What are we, as taxpayers, entitled to know about this?” 

“You are entitled to know about the process, but you do not have the right to know about personnel issues,” replied David Gibson, the president of the school board.

The school board has had several closed-door executive sessions to discuss the “employment history of a particular individual,” but members have steadfastly refused to name the individual or to indicate whether all of the meetings have been about the same individual. Gibson has said that it would be illegal for the board members to discuss anything said at an executive session, but according to Robert Freeman, the executive director of the New York State Committee on Open Government, this is not true; board members are, however, permitted to decline comment on the proceedings of closed-door sessions.

Curran, employed by the Voorheesville Middle School for two years, has not yet received tenure; his employment is subject to termination at the district’s discretion. He earns around $50,000 annually.  Students at the middle school signed a petition asking that Curran be allowed to stay. The petition was submitted to the board; Langevin said that some students had signed it more than once.  Curran received multiple e-mails and phone calls from The Enterprise; he did not respond.

Superintendent Linda Langevin said that Curran was not fired, but resigned.  She also said, according to district policy, a teacher cannot be fired “on the spot”; a teacher guilty of misconduct can be placed on paid leave, but otherwise a teacher’s contract can be discontinued for the next year. 

Voorheesville’s professional resources program, as presented to the district by education attorney Wayne A. Van Der Byl, focuses on giving school administrators the resources to deal with the “problem teacher.”  According to Van Der Byl’s program, “observing contractual formalities is not sufficient to produce an effective assessment of a teacher’s performance.  And, “if a teacher has a significant problem, the minimum number of formal observations should not be regarded as sufficient.”

The Enterprise requested the documentation of the number of formal observations Curran received from administrators.  The school district refused to release this information, so the newspaper filed a Freedom of Information Law request on April 9, asking for the number and dates of formal observations received by Curran, as well as a copy of his letter of resignation, any information regarding a settlement between Curran and the district, and the notice Curran was given that his contract would not be renewed.  The letter, received by the district on April 9, had not been replied to as of April 22.

 According to Freeman, an agency has five business days to respond and may agree or refuse to grant access to the records requested. 

“That constitutes a failure to comply with the law,” he said of Voorheesville’s response. “The law requires an acknowledgement of the receipt of the request, including an approximate date, generally not exceeding 20 additional business days, indicating when the agency will grant the request in whole or in part.  A response indicating that a response will be given at an indeterminate time is inconsistent with the law,” Freeman said of the district’s e-mail acknowledging receipt of the FOIL request.  He said that the 20 day period of time was for records that were difficult to gather or voluminous in nature.

“What you are describing, these evaluation forms, they are not only not voluminous, they are probably all in the same place, in the same folder.  This is a violation of the law,” said Freeman.

The school’s attorney, Robert Schofeld, told The Enterprise on Tuesday that there was no violation; he said the applicable records would be made available as soon as possible but he refused to specify a date nor which records would be made available.

Parents raise concerns over evaluation processes

 “We are the customers,” one parent told the school board at its April 7 meeting, “and, as someone who has worked in customer service, I can tell you that you need to listen to the customers.”

Another asked whether parental feedback had any impact on the board’s decisions; Gibson replied that it does.

The Enterprise asked whether that impact was quantifiable or subject to review.

“No, it’s not quantifiable, but it is information that the board uses to help determine what they do,” said Gibson in a phone interview the next day.

Although the school board is not willing to release to The Enterprise letters from parents regarding Curran, officials say they are getting quite a few of them.  As far as official documentation of feedback from parents at a board meeting, the minutes from last month’s March 24 session say, “A group of parents spoke out on behalf of a middle school teacher and asked the Board to continue his employment with the district.”

Gibson spoke to parents’ concerns about the evaluation process at the meeting

 “We want good teachers in our district, and we want sound evaluations, and we have arrived, I think.  I, as a board member, think we have a good system in place,” said Gibson.  He said that the procedure for determining tenure is in place for good reason and that parents, although well intentioned, were not always privy to all the factors that determined such a decision.

“We are trying it out on tenured teachers who volunteer so we aren’t just trying it out on the newbies,” he said of the evaluation procedure.  “But we as a board, and the administration, have an obligation to go through the process, making the best decisions we can, even when the decision isn’t popular.”

Gibson went on to say that the procedures were a work in process, and that the board hadn’t achieved everything it would like.

Voorheesville parent Michael Clark replied, “I was glad to hear you say, sir, that the evaluation process hasn’t gotten to the end.  There is no place in the district where we have achieved everything we would like.”