Members of
the New Bedford Educators Association have voted overwhelmingly in favor of a
motion expressing “no confidence” in the leadership of School Superintendent
Pia Durkin. Durkin’s tenure as superintendent since last July has been marred
by controversy, most recently when she sought to discipline teacher Joanne
Maura after a video of a student throwing a chair at Maura went viral.
“New
Bedford educators believe that Dr. Durkin has created a climate of fear and a lack
of trust that aren’t good for teachers or students,” said Lou St. John,
president of the New Bedford Educators Association. “We are urging her to
resign so that a new superintendent can be appointed who is willing and able to
work collaboratively with staff and members of the community to make our
schools great places to teach and learn.”
The no
confidence vote was proposed by Maura at a general membership meeting held Friday
afternoon, May 2, at the Keith Middle School. All but one of the members
present voted in favor of the motion. Since many members were not able to make
it to the meeting, a motion was adopted to extend the voting by secret ballot
at the NBEA office through Wednesday afternoon.
St. John
said that the extended voting mirrored the vote at the Friday meeting, with all
but 5 of those casting ballots supporting the “no confidence” motion.
St. John
had convened the general membership meeting to seek feedback from members about
whether concerns they had raised in a District Climate Task Force had been
addressed. At that point, Maura went to the microphone and said:
“I would like to make a motion that the membership take a
vote of no confidence in Superintendent Durkin for the following reasons:
·
She has created a
climate of fear within our schools.
·
Her polices,
methods and tactics are harming our students.
·
Her policies created
the conditions that have resulted in the increase of violence in our schools.
·
Her actions and
inactions are harming the reputation of our schools and they are scaring
parents and students away from our district.
·
Her actions do
not support our educators and students.
·
She micromanages
every aspect of our jobs.
·
She violates our
contract and allows other administrators to do the same with impunity.
·
She has inserted
herself into every level of the grievance process and denies our grievances.
·
She has fired,
suspended and disciplined educators without just cause.
·
She has allowed
the educator evaluation tool to be used as a weapon against our educators.
·
Her actions have
created emotional distress among our members, which has resulted in many of our
members seeking medical and psychological assistance.
·
Because of her actions, many of our members have
resigned or retired or are in the process of doing so.”
The
members present discussed the motion and described their own experiences.
St. John said that members are concerned
about staff and student safety as a result of policies to reduce student
suspensions without implementing supports for dealing with behavior issues. A
prime example was that Durkin threatened Maura with disciplinary action after
the video showing a student throwing a chair at her went public.
“Most
of our students are wonderful,” St. John said. “But we do have some who act out
and can pose a danger to both teachers and other students. We do not feel that
the administration has taken this concern seriously and guaranteed us all a
safe, supportive and productive work environment.”
St. John said many educators believe
that the evaluation system is being misused. He said he is hearing from more
and more teachers who formerly had excellent evaluations but who are now
receiving negative evaluations for no legitimate reason.
He added that Durkin’s student test-score
goals are “laudable” but not achievable. He called the goals “a recipe for
failure that does nothing to actually help students reach their potential in
our schools.
“Teachers
in New Bedford do not feel supported by the superintendent,” St. John
concluded. “She has created a climate of fear that is not healthy for staff.
And if it’s not good for staff, it’s not good for the students.”
9 comments:
Thank God and God bless!
She did the same in Attleboro, Mass. She bullied principal, teachers and even students.
Stay strong NBEA
It's amazing to me how she expects the teachers to do it all with no help, yet she is so top heavy in administration -what a hypocrite! That extra money my friends will not go to the children-she has to pay her cronies their ridiculous pay checks!
You will be losing a lot of good teachers if this tyrant doesn't resign or changes her stripes. Larry Finnerty, Livramento and Mitchell need to be tossed out of office for failure to do their job in an effective manner. Finnerty has a lot of skeletons in his closet. When the big union strike happened, he had more respect. He was newly hired back then (by his cousin's relative who was the mayor at the time). The union was striking against him and Larry did not cross the picket line. A lot has changed. Larry is getting something out of this deal. Make no mistake.
The final sentence seals it. Students are the reason for this vote. We don't expect our job to be easy. We deserve safety and respect. I am not afraid of change. I am not afraid of a "change agent". Our staff and students demand better change and better vision.
Our voices have been ignored and the mayor says he does not care.! We need to hold strong, stand tall, we can not be silenced ! The children of New Bedford deserve teachers who care and we are those teachers!
Wouldn't expect anything other from the mayor. His attitude is not surprising. The man is corrupt as corrupt can be.
Wait a minute while I quote a teacher back in the days of the strike…."well most of us had just bought our boats, and we couldn't afford to strike"… there ya go!
Post a Comment