My motto has always been two wrongs don’t make a right and FACTS ARE A STUBBORN THING.
Recently, I’ve noticed there are some people, including some at this newspaper, who will chastise some Board of Education members without having any facts at hand. They fail to take the time and effort necessary to learn the truth instead of following hearsay. I find it strange that people who currently criticize us for asking questions were the same people last year who praised others for standing their ground and disrupting all meetings with their nonsense.
My opinions in this letter are personal and not as a Board member.
At the last meeting of the Board of Education there were two injustices committed by our Board. The first was the elimination of the HR Manager. The Acting Superintendent gave the erroneous excuse that that the State asked for a certain certification for this position, due to our district’s lack of compliance in teacher evaluations.
This is just not true. If some would have taken the time to investigate they would have found out the reality of why Ms. Marshall was let go. This reason is not acceptable or right. I and other Board members argued that since we are paying for the Doctorate degree of Ms. Marshall, which she will complete by this December, and this actually exceeds any state requirement, she should be able to remain in her position.
Ms. Marshall was responsible for our district being in 100% compliance with teacher evaluations during the 12-13 school year. This is the only time in the history of the district this has occurred. She lead the district to a 100% score on the personnel section of QSAC, which was the only 100% we earned. Why then are we rushing to remove this exemplary employee? This year, the district is once again seriously out of compliance with teacher evaluations, due to a lack of accountability within the current administration.
This Board, instead of holding those who have not completed their evaluations accountable, is moving to remove the one person who has spoken out regarding evaluations. How long will it take for somebody new to move the district back in the right direction? Will compliance ever be possible with a Board that fails to hold senior administration accountable?
The second injustice was the failure to appoint Ms. Karen Moffatt as the principal of the Richardson School. This exemplary employee has been doing the job of principal for this school for the past 22 months. Under her leadership the school has improved by every indicator. She has the support of her staff, teachers and parents. The Board received dozens of letters of support from staff and a petition signed by hundreds of parents to keep Ms. Moffat as the principal.
After the Superintendent claimed that she wanted to work with the community, staff, teachers and parents in seeking who they felt was the right person to fill key positions, she completely ignored the success and support expressed for Ms. Moffatt. In fact, these were precisely the reasons given for the appointment of Mr. Anderson to the position of principal of Wilentz. Now, why aren’t these people questioning why past success and community feedback (much greater at Richardson than it was as Wilentz) were not taken into consideration for the same position at Richardson?
I would like to address the incident of a Board of Education member intimidating a parent and PTO president at the Richardson School. During a public PTO event, these members of the Richardson community were soliciting signatures on a petition in support of Ms. Moffatt. Board of Education members have stated over and over that they want feedback from the community. Yet when involved parents exercise their First Amendment rights and provide the Board with feedback they don’t want, suddenly there is a problem.
This Board member had no right to try to administer something that was occurring in the school. His role in this case, if he truly believed something was not right, was to communicate his concern to the Superintendent. He had no right to confront people the way that he did. This was a terrible example of this Board member, once again, interfering in the operations of the school district and attempting to intimidate members of our community.
There are a few in our community who continue to be obsessed with Dr. Caffrey, even though she has been gone for over seven months. Some may be obsessed due to personal issues with her that I am willing to understand. Yet, others have this obsession with Caffrey out of hatred for a woman that they never personally met. They seem to hate for the sake of hating…I want to remind all of them that the two members of the Board who they link to Dr. Caffrey were not part of hiring Dr. Caffrey. They should be asking themselves, why are they putting so much faith in the decisions of those who hired Dr. Caffrey when they feel that she was a huge mistake?
Finally, I have a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt: “I have spent many years of my life in opposition, and I rather like the role.” I am and will always stand for what is right. Unlike others I do not have a personal vendetta against anybody nor do I do things for personal gain. I take my position as an elected official very seriously. I was elected to bring change to the education of our children. Going back to the same that did not work before is not change, yet that is what some are doing today. Yes, I will be that opposition to stop anything that is not bringing change for a better education for our kids.
Maria Garcia
There are a number of facts that Vivian Rodriguez and most of the current school board refuse to acknowledge. Interim-superintendent Vivian Rodriguez said her plan to abolish Ms. Marshall’s job was to comply with state mandates and to improve the evaluation process. First, how do you improve on 100% compliance? Second, there is no New Jersey State or Department of Education regulation or requirement that calls for an HR Manager/Director/Supervisor to evaluate employees. In reality it would be an create a conflict for someone to evaluate and recommend improvement and or corrective actions. Ms Marshall’s job was abolished because she would not cooperate or participate in the unethical activities of Vivian Rodriguez and some current members of the school board. As a matter of fact it was and is Vivian Rodriguez’s responsibility as assistant superintendent to ensure that district evaluations are completed. She failed to accomplish the task and that is one of the reasons she was suspended by the board. Instead of ensuring that the district moved forward in a positive way, a unethical backroom deal was made that resulted in Vivian Rodriguez being installed as interim superintendent. If she failed as assistant superintendent what makes her a qualified candidate to lead the district now? At the April 10,2014 board meeting, Mr Ortiz, a boardmember, stated that three administrators including the interim superintendent herself had not completed evaluations. Now I am sure there has been a rush to get all evaluations done in the short time left in the school year. Evaluations are supposed to be done three times during the school year. To cram them in the last two months in unfair to employees. The result of this is good efforts don’t get acknowledged and poor efforts get ignored. There is one Director in the district that has not done his evaluations and has even said that he refuses to discuss that matter anymore. Another Principal at what might be considered the “flagship” of the district has not completed evaluations as mandated. And Vivian Rodriguez herself has not completed her own evaluations of principals as mandated. The board has failed to address these facts. The board has voted to and allowed Karen Moffatt, a qualified and proven employee, to be passed over for advancement. The board hired the previous superintendent, and got rid of her when she wouldn’t comply with unethical demands and interference by the board. The board then most recently voted to abolish Bernice Marshall’s job under the guise of false statements by the current interim superintendent. This district seems to ignore or punish those that are truly highly effective. And those that are ineffective are rewarded if they are friends of the board or interim superintendent. According to the NJDOE, Perth Amboy’s graduation rate for 2013 was 58.97%, graduating only 414 out of 702 students. That is PATHETIC! Only three other districts in the state have lower graduation rates. Those are very disturbing facts. The board of education and the interim superintendent should be trying to retain every dedicated and talented employee they have. In October 2013 the Perth Amboy removed Dr Caffrey from her duties. She is still to this day collecting her $172,500 a year salary. Meanwhile Vivian Rodriguez is getting paid $164,646 a year PLUS a stipend to perform poorly and make bad personnel and administrative decisions. After over seven months no posting or advertisement for the open superintendent’s job has been place yet. However, it only took ten days to post and place an advertisement for a replacement for Bernice Marshall’s job. Perth Amboy receives hundreds of millions of dollars from the state and federal governments. With a graduation rate of less than 59%, taxpayers are being cheated. Those are are just a few of the facts.