Board President Ron Tola said Wednesday that he did not participate in any of the discussions about the business administrator position, and that he abstained from voting on Tramontana's appointment because he has a daughter who works in the district.
Tola said fellow board member Eric Hamilton was also barred from participating in those discussions because he has family in the district as well.
[...]But Michele Rhee says, hey, trust us: there are federal laws that will protect you from this sort of stuff!Another element working against students, Fisher said, is what he called the patronage system, in which relatives, friends or those with political connections are selected or promoted to certain positions.To illustrate his point, Fisher noted that school superintendent Neil Bencivengo's daughter, Cheryl Piotrowski, was promoted to the vice principal's position at Grice Middle School in August 2009, and Peter Frascella, the purchasing administrator for the district, is the son of Barbara Frascella, who is director of student services and programs for the district.(Tramontana himself is the nephew of former Hamilton Republican Mayor Jack Rafferty.)
After all, it's all about the kids...
3 comments:
I have been in both systems, and when you don't have tenure (like I did at a small Christian private school) you are subject to the whims and fancies of any administrator. I finally resigned after 4 years. I really wanted to be there, because my church started the school, but found that if you disagreed with the Principal, you were disagreeing with God himself (or herself). A union would have forced her to treat everyone the same, and abide by a certain set of rules.
Without tenure, teachers can't be honest plain and simple. Parents never want to hear that little Johnny isn't doing well and if you have nothing to protect you they would replace you in a heartbeat.
Not for being a bad teacher, but for telling the truth.
Without tenure, those at the top of the pay scale can be eliminated for whatever arbitrary reason administration can think of regardless of weather or not they are "ineffective". (I'm only year 6 so that doesn't include me, yet.) Also, women who take maternity leave can also be eliminated, I've seen it happen over and over again to the young women without tenure. Unfortunately our jobs are highly politicized, so we need some form of protection, and current mandates won't do the job. Like statistics, paperwork can be made to say anything.
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