BOE checklist causes concern at meeting
Parents say documents should be available
prior to vote
By josh davidson
Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — Whether or not a report of district administrators’ expectations should be made public prior to a Board of Education meeting was a concern for some district parents at a recent board meeting.

Parents and school officials debated about whether Superintendent of Schools David Witmer’s report, Administrator’s Check-List for School Success, should have been made available to the public before the board voted on its acceptance at the Aug. 26 board meeting.

The board voted 8-0 to accept the report, with board member Thomas Conroy not present to vote.

"We feel this is a very positive step forward because it is pointing out the different expectations that we have for all the administrators," Witmer said.

All building principals are required to develop a faculty handbook for themselves and their staff. This is like that handbook for administrators, Witmer explained.

"It’s kind of like the administrators’ handbook for operating in the district," he said.

The 65-page book deals with the district’s expectations for its administrators in dealing with staff, students, parents and the board. It includes references to grievances, anti-bullying measures and suggestions for recognizing good deeds performed in the district.

Frank Vernoia, a parent in the district, wondered why the report was not distributed to parents prior to the meeting so that they could comment before the vote.

In the past, the board has used discretion in displaying materials; this one may have been unavailable due to its length, Board Attorney Malachi Kenney said.

Kenney said he does not know of a requirement in the open public meetings act or the open public records act that requires a document to be made available to the public prior to a board vote. The board is entitled to make its own policy on when documents should be made available, he said.

The district’s policy is to have a person fill out an application and pay a fee before being given documents, said William Doering, the district’s business administrator and board secretary.

This document would cost $32 to obtain, Witmer said.

The document may be used against teachers in the future, so the Middletown Township Education Association (MTEA) has the right to see it before it is voted on, parent Anthony Strangia said.

The report involves only administrators, not teachers, board member Marjorie Cavalier said. Witmer is taking the extra step on having the board vote on the document and he was not required to, she said.

"He met yesterday (Aug. 25) with the people who report to him and said, ‘This is how you are going to be evaluated,’ " she said.

Most of the district’s 17 principals were present, Witmer said.

The people evaluated by the report should be given the chance for input into its creation, Cavalier said. The administrators all agreed with the report, she added.

Patricia Walsh, a River Plaza School parent and former board president, said Witmer should be applauded for bringing the report forward, because it shows the district is moving ahead.

Witmer said that when interviewed for his position as superintendent, he told the board the district needed to set goals. The report was created because the district has not established those goals, he said.

"For this year, I didn’t want to go another year without goals, because I think this district needs to move things in a positive direction, and this is one of them," the superintendent said.

"It’s my opinion that if you are going to have expectations on people, you need to tell them what their expectations are before the school year starts," he added. "This is what I am trying to do."

Parent Jodi Rose said the district should not spend so much time on little things and should concentrate on moving forward.

According to MTEA representative Linda McLaughlin, all the arguing shows that the district does not want to move forward.

"I think this is a great document, and I think every teacher and administrator should have a checklist to be evaluated on," she said. "I think we all agree that we should be working together and that this is a positive step."

Vernoia said parents were not given the opportunity to decide if the document is good or bad. He said it is the refusal to turn the document over, not the quality of the document itself, that is the issue.

"It may be a good document, it may not," he said.

Vernoia said he and a group of parents—including Bill Heaney, president of the United Parents of Middletown, which is a group of district parents promoting awareness of board activities—went to the administration building on Aug. 22 and requested the document, but Witmer could not find documents to give them.

Witmer said the document was not ready to be given out at that point.

Both sides were heard respectively on the matter at the meeting because people sat and listened to each other, board President Robert Bucco Jr. said.

"To me, tonight proved that the sys­tem works," he said. "Maybe, out of ev­ery controversy that comes before the board, good is going to come out of it."

Witmer said that every district ad­ministrator, the schools’ libraries and he himself will have a copy of the report. In addition, he said, it will be posted on the district’s Web site, www.middletownk12.org.

"We feel very optimistic that we are going to be greatly increasing the obser­vation and supervision of all the admin­istrators," he said. "Along with that, the main thing is we are going to be here giving support to them, rather than hav­ing them on their own. So, we feel it will make a very positive difference as we move forward."