Within the Communications Committee, as we prepared the first survey, one of the things I argued strongly for was the release of comments received on the survey. I felt that the shared experience of speaking our minds and hearing what other parents said was an important exercise and had value in and of itself. The counter argument focused on protecting confidentiality regarding personnel issues. Certainly in any organization, personnel issues are normally confidential. In a “regular” business, employee performance reviews are not shared with all the other employees plus a company’s customers and vendors. We talked about how teachers or other staff might feel in reading anonymous comments about themselves, with no opportunity to answer or refute or explain or even question veracity.
We also talked about the Board’s relationship with, and obligations to, staff. The State of New Jersey’s Code of Ethics for School Board Members (18A:12-24.1) has three sections that apply:
g.) I will hold confidential all matters pertaining to the schools which, if disclosed, would needlessly injure individuals or the schools.Board members’ interpretation of these ethics provisions, among other things, can color how they approach public conversations about staff.
i.) I will support and protect school personnel in proper performance of their duties.
j.) I will refer all complaints to the chief administrative officer and will act on the complaints at public meetings only after failure of an administrative solution.
When the comments came in, we endeavored to avoid any issues by removing (from the report) comments in which a staff member’s identity could be discerned. This sounded simple and turned out to be so much more complicated and time consuming. We had committees of staff and parents, we worked in groups, it took forever. But we came up with what we thought were “releasable” comments for each school. We knew this was a dramatic change in District culture, but we thought it was important and we thought we had been sensitive and had succeeded in a solution.
After the reports were released, some administrators immediately began to hear from staff members who were uncomfortable or concerned or upset. This was not something considered “normal” in the District’s culture. We were shown examples of where, in spite of our efforts, we had missed deleting identifiable comments. With such a large number of comments, and a committee of several people assessing, not always consistently, we needed to pause. The comments were quickly removed from the reports, so that the committee and the Board could discuss how to proceed. (Note: each report did retain a summary of comments on key themes.)
I was surprised that we didn’t hear a peep from parents about removing the individual comments from the online reports. It was mentioned in the newspaper, at BOE meetings and at HSA meetings. No one complained. No one seemed to mind. I had expected to hear from someone or to read criticisms on a blog, mine or others, but nope.
As I mentioned before, all the comments were distributed to BOE members, principals and other administrators. Principals reviewed them with staff at faculty meetings.
When it came time to plan the 2nd survey, the committee recommended that the Board not publish the comments in public reports. I had to grudgingly agree that no one had seemed to mind last time, and it would allow us to get the reports out weeks earlier than last year. We hadn’t really had time to address the staff response and how we could keep the process positive for the entire community…my intention at the time was to keep working on this concept and hopefully find a way to evolve to more disclosure with future surveys. The bottom line (for me) was: the most important result was that all the comments be seen by administrators and the BOE.
So that’s the story from my perspective. I don’t know what to say to anonymous claims of “repeat abusers.” Any alleged abuse or misconduct must be reported and the administration is required to address it. There is a clear process that elevates unresolved issues to the BOE (but only after the chain of command has been exhausted). In my experience, BOE members take such reports extremely seriously.
In an earlier comment, I said I would research the legal basis for BOE members not discussing staff members' performance in public. The Code of Ethics sections cited above are part of it, but I'm still researching what Board policies, as well as employment law and state education law, apply.
I'm not sure when the emails for the new survey will go out -- presumably soon -- but I hope all parents will participate and will be free and open with their responses and their comments.
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4 comments:
Laurie, in spite of your well thought out comment, the fact remains that our district has a problem that still needs to be addressed. The fact that the majority of board members did not want to interpret the rules in a way that would allow information already made public to be distributed to the public is just another symptom of the same problem.
The fact that you did not receive complaints about not publishing the comments is not surprising. Parents who have endured the ordeal of a child who has been victimized by a teacher have also been victimized themselves by an administration who is hell bent on frustrating them and wearing them down until they feel their only choice is to give up and move on. If you have not experienced this yourself Laurie, count yourself among the lucky.
Most parents don't know that there is any recourse after the school administration and superintendent. Many feel that after a long and fruitless ordeal with the teacher followed by the administrators, they need to make the situation end for their child any way they can, leaving the door wide open for the offending teacher to continue victimizing other students. What actually would the BOE do to follow up on such a matter? Has the BOE's involvement in such a matter ever lead to any serious penalty for the teacher involved, perhaps loss of their job? If something truly could be done, is there any statute of limitations on complaints? Could the BOE also look into why administrators and the superintendent have not properly addressed and resolved these issues and do they have the power to do anything about that?
I'll bet, if the BOE could demonstrate to the public that they could be effective here and let all parents know that they are looking to resolve these issues for parents and students that have had no results with the administrators, many would come forward and teachers who have demonstrated patterns of inappropriate behavior and/or abuse would be clearly identified.
It is sad that the notion of protecting a teacher seems to outweigh the need to protect the children of our community. In truth, the only teachers that have real reason to fear this process are the ones who have actually perpetrated the misconduct. The bottom line here Laurie, is that a serious lapse in service to the school community still exists in Ridgewood. And the question remains, how do we deal with that?
I look forward to your response. Given your experience on the board, it will hopefully shed some light on a problem whose solution is long overdue.
Actually, from the overall content of your post, it seems that you’re not really talking about the issue of publishing or not publishing verbatim comments on the parent/guardian survey. You seem to be referring to some specific incidents with which I am not familiar and about which I would not be able to speak anyway, due to aforementioned student and staff rights to privacy.
When I was a Board member, I took any complaint which made its way to the Board very seriously, and I know the entire Board continues to do so. The District’s policy, available on the homepage of the website, spells out very clearly the steps parents should follow to complain about any staff, and where to go if at any step of the process the parents are not satisfied.
For sure, an anonymous survey would not be the best way to communicate a complaint that concerns the safety of a child. (And having read all the comments in last year's survey, I don't recall any comments like that.)
For a complaint against a staff person, the Board is required to follow its own policy, and I can only urge any parent with a concern to speak up and use the recourse available. The filing of tenure charges last year is one example that the Board will do what needs to be done. (And let me just caution now that I cannot speak to the details of that legal matter, so please don’t ask for details.)
Let me be clear. At no point have I or any other Board member or administrator ever said that “protecting a teacher…outweighs the need to protect the children of our community.” Pardon me, but that is a needlessly inflammatory statement. There is no argument that a staff person who demonstrates any inappropriate behavior should have that behavior addressed by the administration and, if necessary, the Board. I believed that as a Board member and I believe it as a “civilian.” But for everyone’s sake these issues must be handled according to law and according to Board policy.
Truly, if you have a problem with any staff, I hope you will contact your principal or Dr. Fishbein.
Laurie, judging by the first paragraph of your response and the last one, it seems you've missed the point of my comment entirely. You have not attempted to address any of my questions either. And for what it's worth, I do know of some specific situations, mine and others', dealing with the administration regarding teachers that had been reported multiple times for the same infractions by various people. The same teachers who continue to this day bullying children both verbally and physically or are simply not performing their jobs in an appropriate manner. But my questions were of a general nature, meant to be a guide for all parents caught in this situation, not merely mine or someone I know. Yet you seem to have ignored every one of them.
As far as the “protecting a teacher…outweighs the need to protect the children of our community” comment you took offense to, it was in reaction to your comments;
"as we prepared the first survey, one of the things I argued strongly for was the release of comments received on the survey"
"We talked about how teachers or other staff might feel in reading anonymous comments about themselves"
and,
"Board members’ interpretation of these ethics provisions, among other things, can color how they approach public conversations about staff."
My comment was not meant to be inflammatory. You seemed to express that you had wanted the parent comments to be made public. I was agreeing with that and responding to specific comments you made about the board. Since when is that inflammatory? Actually, my comment got right to the heart of the problem that abusive and negligent teachers in our district are not dealt with in any meaningful way and therefore allowed to repeat their offenses year after year, a subject you apparently do not wish to discuss.
The fact that you could end your response the way you did only serves to confirm your unwillingness to acknowledge the problem I've highlighted here as you seem to have purposely ignored what I originally stated. I have tried to reach out to you in a genuine and respectful way Laurie, and you in return have confirmed why the community chose the new candidate, and even Sheila, over you.
Let me just say that the entire "blogspot" platform had some sort of breakdown last week, and several posts and comments that had already been published were deleted from this blog (and all the other thousands of blogspot blogs, apparently). I had been working on a response to a comment in this thread, about the BOE dealing with teachers who mistreated students. I came back just now to post my response -- and the original comment/questions are gone!
So...I'm not sure if this will be a good idea or not, but I'm going to post my comment anyway. Fortunately, the commenter accused me of not answering her questions, so I had included the questions in my response. I'm truly not trying to beat a dead horse, but I did take that "non-answering of questions" to heart and so I want to answer now:
Look, I agree with you: No child should be bullied or otherwise victimized by a teacher or anyone else. I felt I was answering your questions, but will try to re-address them more directly:
“What actually would the BOE do to follow up on such a matter?”
I presume you mean on a matter about which a parent complains to the administration and does not receive a satisfactory resolution. Policy #R9150 (Public Complaints & Grievances) outlines the steps. It begins: "All complaints and grievances addressed to the Board of Education, Board members
individually, school officials, or district staff members shall be referred to the Superintendent for consideration in accordance with the following procedures:” and then it proceeds to list four levels for parents to follow for complaints about a teaching staff member or administrator. The fourth level discusses how the Board could conduct a hearing, and the format and follow-up that would entail.
Hopefully this gives you the information you need about what the BOE would or could do. As you can see, there is a process that must legally be followed and the process keeps the BOE out of the management of the situation until the end of the process.
"Has the BOE's involvement in such a matter ever lead to any serious penalty for the teacher involved, perhaps loss of their job? "
There have been repercussions ranging from withholding of raises to the filing of tenure charges. This is after the administrative process that would include evaluations, goal-setting with the staff member, follow-up, etc.
"If something truly could be done, is there any statute of limitations on complaints? "
I do not know.
"Could the BOE also look into why administrators and the superintendent have not properly addressed and resolved these issues and do they have the power to do anything about that? "
For specific instances, the BOE can only get involved if the issue comes before them by way of a parent requesting a hearing. In terms of the Board’s practice in general, the only staff person the BOE is empowered to evaluate is the superintendent, and they do so every year. How the superintendent manages the staff is one of the elements of the evaluation (and comments from parents alleging ongoing problems would certainly inform that evaluation). That being said, I would recommend you contact a current Board member to express your concerns. I really do think one of them would be happy to get together and listen.
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