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Saturday
March 13, 2010 Since 1922 |
BH board affirms not rehiring teacher
By Jessica Robertson
Baytown Sun Published April 24, 2007 Barbers Hill trustees voted on Monday to hold firm to their decision last month not to renew the contract of a special education teacher at the intermediate campus.
Using shaving cream, angel food cake and paper confetti as visual aids, Donna Hall asked the school board in a grievance hearing to reinstate her contract and transfer her to another campus.
The cake and its inedible ingredients represented what she said were false accusations used by campus and district administrators in the decision to terminate her at the end of the school year.
“They’re taking small things and exaggerating them, and taking others and fabricating them,” Hall said after the hearing.
Superintendent Greg Poole, along with executive director of personnel and student services Cynthia Lusignolo, laid out the district’s case against Hall, who he said created trust issues by butting heads with her supervisors on numerous occasions in her three-year career with the district.
“She just simply does not seem to work well with supervisors,” Poole said. “She has created a complete environment of mistrust.”
Referencing several incidents listed in a binder containing 168 pages of documentation, Lusignolo offered specific evidence that she said proved Hall shouldn’t be rehired, including e-mails and conversations with administrators laced with “an insubordinate attitude.”
Poole followed up with summaries of two situations that he said were the “icing” on his decision to back intermediate principal Barbara Ponder’s recommendation to terminate Hall’s probationary contract.
The first happened in September, he said, when one of Hall’s former students brought a handgun to a football game and was subsequently brought before a county judge.
Without informing the district, Poole said, Hall spoke on behalf of the student and asked that he not be placed in a Texas Youth Commission Facility.
Further, he said, he believed that Hall withheld information on the location of another former student wanted for sexual assault.
“Even as much as she portrays herself to be child-centered, some of these decision could be extremely detrimental to students,” Poole said.
Hall responded to the criticism — which she referred to as a “witch hunt” — by accusing the board and administrators of punishing her for using teaching methods that were “out of the box” and notifying parents of special-needs children of their rights in the state.
“This whole thing reeks of retaliation, clear and simple,” said Louis Geigerman, a special-needs advocate that spoke on Hall’s behalf.
After correcting another teacher who allegedly referred to medications for her students as “crutches,” Hall said she became unpopular with Ponder and administrators. Shortly thereafter, she said she was accused of doing a student’s math homework — a claim she wholeheartedly denied.
“I was in shock,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it, and I was speechless.”
With no discussion, the board unanimously voted to follow through with the decision it made last month.
The hearing had a disappointing outcome, Hall said, albeit not an unexpected one.
“The tail wags the dog around here,” she said. “The board had to prove they chose a good superintendent (in Poole, who was hired last year).”
Both advocates who attended the hearing in support of Hall — Geigerman and Marble Falls-based attorney David Beinke — agreed, adding that the decision reflects poorly on the district’s stance on special-education students.
“School districts do not like parents or teachers who speak up on behalf of kids with disabilities,” Geigerman said.
In a short tour of the district’s facilities Monday afternoon, Beinke said he found several spots that may not be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, including the visitors’ section of the football stadium and the park at the kindergarten school.
“If this is the attitude of the district, it all fits — they want to shut up teachers and don’t want to help kids with accessibility issues,” Geigerman said.
Parents, including the father of the student accused of bringing a gun to a football game last year, also showed up to support Hall.
“The incident wasn’t anything like they were trying to portray it,” said Sidney White, the boy’s father. “They gave a skewed account of things. My son made more progress academically, socially and emotionally in her class than all the years he’s been in school.”
Because Hall’s contract was on a probationary basis, the district was under no legal obligation to give an explanation for her termination, Lusignolo said. Grievance hearings on personnel matters are normally held in closed sessions, Poole said, but Hall requested that her hearing be public.
“There’s nothing comfortable about this,” he said. “I regret that this could not have been handled in a more discreet way.”
Baytown Sun Published April 24, 2007 Barbers Hill trustees voted on Monday to hold firm to their decision last month not to renew the contract of a special education teacher at the intermediate campus.
Using shaving cream, angel food cake and paper confetti as visual aids, Donna Hall asked the school board in a grievance hearing to reinstate her contract and transfer her to another campus.
The cake and its inedible ingredients represented what she said were false accusations used by campus and district administrators in the decision to terminate her at the end of the school year.
“They’re taking small things and exaggerating them, and taking others and fabricating them,” Hall said after the hearing.
Superintendent Greg Poole, along with executive director of personnel and student services Cynthia Lusignolo, laid out the district’s case against Hall, who he said created trust issues by butting heads with her supervisors on numerous occasions in her three-year career with the district.
“She just simply does not seem to work well with supervisors,” Poole said. “She has created a complete environment of mistrust.”
Referencing several incidents listed in a binder containing 168 pages of documentation, Lusignolo offered specific evidence that she said proved Hall shouldn’t be rehired, including e-mails and conversations with administrators laced with “an insubordinate attitude.”
Poole followed up with summaries of two situations that he said were the “icing” on his decision to back intermediate principal Barbara Ponder’s recommendation to terminate Hall’s probationary contract.
The first happened in September, he said, when one of Hall’s former students brought a handgun to a football game and was subsequently brought before a county judge.
Without informing the district, Poole said, Hall spoke on behalf of the student and asked that he not be placed in a Texas Youth Commission Facility.
Further, he said, he believed that Hall withheld information on the location of another former student wanted for sexual assault.
“Even as much as she portrays herself to be child-centered, some of these decision could be extremely detrimental to students,” Poole said.
Hall responded to the criticism — which she referred to as a “witch hunt” — by accusing the board and administrators of punishing her for using teaching methods that were “out of the box” and notifying parents of special-needs children of their rights in the state.
“This whole thing reeks of retaliation, clear and simple,” said Louis Geigerman, a special-needs advocate that spoke on Hall’s behalf.
After correcting another teacher who allegedly referred to medications for her students as “crutches,” Hall said she became unpopular with Ponder and administrators. Shortly thereafter, she said she was accused of doing a student’s math homework — a claim she wholeheartedly denied.
“I was in shock,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it, and I was speechless.”
With no discussion, the board unanimously voted to follow through with the decision it made last month.
The hearing had a disappointing outcome, Hall said, albeit not an unexpected one.
“The tail wags the dog around here,” she said. “The board had to prove they chose a good superintendent (in Poole, who was hired last year).”
Both advocates who attended the hearing in support of Hall — Geigerman and Marble Falls-based attorney David Beinke — agreed, adding that the decision reflects poorly on the district’s stance on special-education students.
“School districts do not like parents or teachers who speak up on behalf of kids with disabilities,” Geigerman said.
In a short tour of the district’s facilities Monday afternoon, Beinke said he found several spots that may not be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, including the visitors’ section of the football stadium and the park at the kindergarten school.
“If this is the attitude of the district, it all fits — they want to shut up teachers and don’t want to help kids with accessibility issues,” Geigerman said.
Parents, including the father of the student accused of bringing a gun to a football game last year, also showed up to support Hall.
“The incident wasn’t anything like they were trying to portray it,” said Sidney White, the boy’s father. “They gave a skewed account of things. My son made more progress academically, socially and emotionally in her class than all the years he’s been in school.”
Because Hall’s contract was on a probationary basis, the district was under no legal obligation to give an explanation for her termination, Lusignolo said. Grievance hearings on personnel matters are normally held in closed sessions, Poole said, but Hall requested that her hearing be public.
“There’s nothing comfortable about this,” he said. “I regret that this could not have been handled in a more discreet way.”