The Honorable Mayor Scott Lang
New Bedford City Hall
133 William Street
New Bedford, MA 02740
Dear Mayor Lang:
As you know, as President of the NBEA, I represent 1200 hard-working, dedicated educators in the New Bedford school system. My purpose in writing this letter is to request a special meeting with the School Committee. I do not make this request lightly but with grave concern for the well-being of some of our teachers.
We have been observing a pattern of continuous disrespect and hostility shown by some of the principals toward teachers in their buildings. We can document that the Superintendent is aware of these actions and condones this hostile and dispiriting atmosphere in the New Bedford schools.
As a result of this constant hostile criticism, some teachers are seeking medical assistance due to symptoms of extreme stress. We believe that you, as the academic leaders of this community, strive to enhance the educational environment of the schools so that all staff will look forward to educating the students in New Bedford.
Therefore, we beseech you to meet with us as soon as possible to discuss the teachers’ working conditions which are our students’ learning conditions.
Thank you in advance for your consideration of this important request.
Yours truly,
Lou St. John
CC: New Bedford School Committee
Portia S. Bonner, Ph.D.
22 comments:
Thank you Lou! We need to get rid of all the bullies! Portia and her associates are not good examples for our students.
Your kidding, right?
Who thinks this is joke?
I am glad Lou is telling the mayor what is really going on right now.
If you are not working under a principal like this you are fortunate. If we don't improve the situation for our staff, how can we hope to have students that thrive and excel in our city?
I work at Roosevelt. It isn't nearly as bad as many depict. I can't believe that these people are the ones responsible to educate the children when all they do is complain. Maybe if we focused on how we can become better individuals and how we can help our students rather than focusing on the principal and creating these issues and backstabbing each other then school would be a great place. It isn't Darcy who needs to go, it's all the people who go to work everyday and do nothing but complain.
I am hoping that something is done about the current situation at Roosevelt Middle School. Thank you Lou for taking the matter to the school committee. Hopefully this will resolve the issue altogether.
Right on! Lets get back to education!
Lou is not just talking about Roosevelt in his letter. If you're happy there, GREAT for you!
It is the climate across the city that has forced him to deal with this. Learning occurs best in a fear free environment. Our administrators have been directed to instill fear in us all day-each day.
That will not make us better teachers. That will not make our students proficient.
Admin. has been instructed to instill fear? As I said before your kidding, right?
Obviously, I mean the fear of being labeled a deficient educator. Why is
this hard to understand? I don't think you are a classroom teacher.
(FYI it's...you're NOT your kidding)
This has got to stop. Is anyone paying attention to the news? There is a strong movement to abolish unions in this country and it is because of their focus on protecting the incompetent and not working with cities and towns within the current economical budget constraints. This nonsense on this blog is going to promote the kind of action that was taken by Central Falls and California.
Please let’s get back to being educators!
Read some of the articles posted on http://unionfreeamerica.blogspot.com/
It’s very scary.
The only educators that I am aware of being "protected" by the union recently are teachers that were wrongfully terminated and if their competence was in question then the arbitrator certainly would not have ruled in their favor. Furthermore, how exactly does the union "protect" incompetent teachers that have no disciplinary action taken against them? Yes of course, there are incompetent people working in the school district, but let's not just target teachers thank you very much, because i think we all know better.
The problem lies in the consequences. There are none. I've seen teachers, administrators and students all get away with murder because no one does anything about it!! Students that commit crimes inside the high school are not arrested as long as the police do not have to intervene. They are not held fully accountable for what they have done. If the same crime was committed outside they would be arrested and processed according to state law. Teachers that are lazy and do not enforce school rules are not spoken to or reprimanded if the problem continues. Why are these incompetent teachers given satisfactory evaluations? Why are their lesson plans signed off on if they do not meet standards? If protocol was followed and termination of the teacher was pursued then it could be done. The termination of these alleged incompetent teachers is not even sought after. It doesn't even come before the union so stop blaming them for all the problems. If their wasn't so much incomptetence and unethical behavior existent in the administration of education then no union would be necessary. But alas, men are not angels therefore we need those protections. What assurances do we have that the people in power will not exploit, abuse, and deceive like so many often do? Look at what happens even when there is a union and contract!! Give me a break! People need to stop pretending that the bureaucrats and administrators are all infallible and have the best interest of the children at the forefront of their agendas. Too many are concerned with what it will do for their resume or public image; Or what crony they can place in a key position to consolidate more power. It has nothing to do with the children. They do nothing but dictate from the top down; so if failure is the result why don't they fire from the top down. I mean if the students' achievement is a reflection of the teacher's performance then isn't the teachers' performance a reflection of the administration's leadership or lack thereof? And furthermore the school/district's turnover rate? This argument isn't even a challenge. I'll close with my thanks and appreciation to the lesser number of administrators in our district that are not only beautiful people but dedicated and gifted in their ability as educational leaders. I thank you a thousand times because it is only due to your devotion to the children of this district that has prevented it from falling already.
As a teacher at Roosevelt, I am a bit confused as to complaining that is going on in these blogs. If you have a student in your class that was upset with you, wouldn't you want him/her to talk to you before they went to an administrator to complain about you? I think all of you are skipping an important step here. I have one question to all of you and I hope you will each answer it. Have you sat down with the Darcy to share your concerns?
This is all so absurd. I give Darcy a 100% vote of confidence. I think all your complainers are forgetting how things were with Abdallah. Would you rather a principal that sits in his office all day, interacts with nobody, and doesn't care about the kids? I know that Darcy has changed that 100% and the students actually know what their principal looks like. I LOVE WORKING FOR HER, she is a wonderful wonderful principal.
Let me answer the last post.
Would you rather a principal that sits in his office all day, interacts with nobody, and doesn't care about the kids?
A: As long as he/she can run the building effectively (which Ms. Fernandes can't), I could care less.
Any more questions?
Darcy is a bully, and a retaliatory one at that. She does not like anyone telling her that what she is doing is inappropriate, never mind outright wrong. She has a need to control every aspect of whatever is happening in the building, rather than letting people be the professionals that they are and do the jobs they were trained to do. She loves to cut people off when they try to tell her that what she is proposing might not work for some reason, and most of what she does each day is simply pulling stuff out of you-know-where without giving circumstances much thought (which creates a ton of confusion). Sit down and tell her that?!! Are you kidding?! Been there, done that, NOT buying the t-shirt.
The only way to tell if we have a "wonderful" principal or a bully is to take a vote of no confidence. If it doesn't pass we will know. Ifd it does pass then we will know who the brown noses are.
Time for the vote.
The NBEA has won 4 grievances against the Roosevelt administrator. Why did the building rep have to place a copy of Dr. Souza's memo in our boxes. I thought that it was the principal's responsibility to inform the staff. Did anyone notice the dates on the memos? They were written on January 25 and February 10.
WHY DOES MS. FERNANDES IGNORE A DIRECTIVE FROM THE DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENT?
That sounds like INSUBORDINATION to me. I guess with pals like Portia, you can thumb your noses at the teachers, Dr. Souza and the school committee.
Again, time for the vote.
I support Darcy. And NO I don't teach SEI I was around before she came to the building. She is a breath of fresh air compared to the ways of Abdallah. I can't wait for this vote of no confidence because the 5 of you that continue to complain will realize YOU ARE THE ONLY ONES UNHAPPY. If Darcy were to leave youd just complain about the next person in charge. Its hard to please miserable people. Go find a new job NOBODY AT ROOSEVELT WANTS THE NEGATIVE. The rest of us support Darcy.
I'm really starting to think that having this blog is doing more harm than good. It's great that Lou is posting information for us, but why do we need a public forum?? We all have e-mail, we have phones and we work in the same building....isn't face to face contact enough? This blog is a breeding ground for the negative and the weak. It's causing us to point fingers and talk about each other instead of having each others' backs. We are only as strong as our weakest link and this blog is for the weak. Anyone can say anything whether it's true or not. This is dividing us. If you have something to say to someone, say it to their face. I vote to take down the blog!!
The Insider has learned of two new developments.
1. The self serving restructuring group at the high school is still at it. Now they propose that the person in charge of their little 125 student effort will be a principal who doesn't necessarily answer to the Headmaster/Headmistress at NBHS.I wonder whose name is on this proposed principal position. Could it be the person who has made the recommended change from an administrative position in Unit B since Unit B would not support the idea?
2. The powers that be seem to have a new plan of action. That being to turn union members against each other by lying to them about the actions of the union leaders. This is going on mostly at the elementary school level. Why do Unit A people agree to do things such as evaluate or observe teachers and report back to the principal when that is not a Unit A function? Why do certain Unit A elementary people side with the principal in making union members feel intimidated and/or harrassed if they stand up for their rights? It seems the NBEA has not only to worry about the powers that be but about certain factions of its own members.
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