Teacher moved for Political Reasons Leaves School in Crisis

Members of the Board of Education and Superintendent of Schools,

I am writing to you regarding the removal of Denise Burkhard from Mandalay School. I will not mince words in this email as I do not have the wish nor capability to do so at this point.

To have Mrs. Burkhard removed, without notice, or explanation to the families of Mandalay, is an insult beyond measure, totally unacceptable, and an egregious error on the administration's part.

If you have decided to support that decision, then you are making an error as well.
Mrs. Burkhard is the backbone of Mandalay. She is not only a phenomenal educator, but a huge support system to the students and families of our school. She is depended upon by a tremendous amount of students daily. Removing her, midyear, is a horrendous error in judgment. There is no complaint, no offense, and no reason sufficient to explain why she cannot fulfill her obligations at Mandalay for the remainder of the year. The amount of disruption emotionally and educationally this will cause our students is astronomical and the lack of consideration of this by administration is completely unacceptable.

The excuse of this being a personnel issue is a disgrace and equally unacceptable. There is no one that believes this to be true and the Board is obligated to share the facts of her removal with the Mandalay community. The true facts, not the cover up facts.

Mrs. Burkhard has put her heart and soul into our school for decades and to remove her, disrupting so many students educations, without justification, is deplorable.
Mandalay is a tight knit community. We stand together and stand up for those we care for. Mrs. Burkhard is someone we care for deeply as she has cared for so many of our children and made huge impacts on so many of our families. We will fight for her return to her rightful place at Mandalay.

The Board should seriously consider their stand on this subject and the complete ineptitude in which the administration handled this situation. The Board should also bear in mind they are all elected officials, as I, and all the other families expecting Mrs. Burkhard’s return to Mandalay, bear in mind.

This is not something that will quickly die out as I am sure you are all hoping it will. We will not just go away and this will not just blow over.

Just to begin with, you can expect picketing on Monday in front of the administration building demanding Mrs. Burkhard’s return to Mandalay. News 12 and Newsday will be made aware of this unjust removal of a long time and devoted teacher from her home school, for an unwarranted cause, in the middle of the year, before a holiday weekend, without warning, with lies as a cover up as to why she was removed, leaving families reeling without plans for how to accommodate our children’s needs moving forward.

If you choose to ignore all of this, there remains to be a BOE meeting on December 12th which I assure you will be overflowing with families who will be demanding answers.
Our children and our teachers are our concerns, not our administrators. Somewhere along the line, Wantagh district has forgotten that. Perhaps this will be the turning point that will remind so many of what really matters. It seems to have sparked a fire that has just begun to blaze.
My son depends on Mrs. Burkhard daily to get to school. She is an integral part of his crisis plan. She is his lead contact. I contact her daily. She is how he gets himself to school everyday. She is his first period teacher everyday, scheduled in that fashion, to avoid his well documented anxiety and school refusal. She is who he strives for and works for. There is no back up plan. There is no secondary plan. She is his safe person. There is no “other staff” to help him. There is no “replacement.” He has made a trusted bond with her over the last four years. Do tell me, how does he get to school now? Who is his safe person now? What is the plan now? THERE IS NONE, because she is irreplaceable and you cannot form that bond overnight and you cannot form that bond unless you are her.

How many other students depend on her like my son does? How many others has the administration completely disregarded with their rash decision? How many families will be in crisis this Thanksgiving weekend as our administrators sit down to enjoy their meals? How many others are devastated and at a complete loss of how to move forward without her presence? MANY!! I can assure you of that. Mrs. Burkhard is part of my son’s well documented crisis team. I have been considering if it is even legal to remove her in light of this and something I will be looking into over this holiday weekend. If I find out it is not, along with the picketing and the news, I will be calling a CSE and bringing my lawyer with me as well. It is only because of Mrs. Burkhard's successful implementation of, and integral part in, that crisis plan that my son currently goes to school regularly and consistently. I cannot even begin to dream of the upcoming week without her and the reaction of my son and the behaviors to follow. It is a true testament to the administrations total lack of understanding of our children's needs and of the paramount importance of love, kindness, compassion, and consistency in their lives. All of which was just removed in a blink of an eye.

We are adults. Whatever may have happened that caused her to be removed, grow up and get over it. Tell a parent to deal with it. Tell a colleague to work it out. This is life. People disagree. You don’t remove a teacher after 20 plus years from her home school mid year, disrupting so many other students and families lives to make the quick fix, or the easy solution. It is, quite frankly, idiocy, at best. And as the board, you have a choice not to automatically jump to support administration. I guarantee you that if you do so this time, it will backfire.

I am a physician in this community. I grew up in Wantagh. I, myself, went through the Wantagh School District, and graduated from Wantagh High School. But, as a parent, I have been repeatedly disappointed by the district’s choices in regard to my son’s education. I have fought at every turn for him. I have fought for everything he has needed and continue to do so. Most often, I have fought and had everything fall on deaf ears. Mrs. Burkhard has been his one true saving grace for myself and my son. She has been the one person to change his life for the better and help him. She has impacted him positively both emotionally and educationally. For that, I owe her more than I can repay. For that, I owe her every ounce of energy I have to bring her back to Mandalay. For that, I will be a thorn in every one of your sides, for as long as I need to be until she is returned to her rightful place. My son requires her presence, and therefore, so do I.

Thus, you all ought to be ready for a battle.

Regards,

Jenifer Kramer

Speaking for my son Jack Bonasera