Letter to the Editor: Do Rye's Education Leaders Listen to Parents, Teachers?

To the Editor:

Over the past few weeks, I have taken the time to read the suit filed by Carin Mehler, the youtube video of the last Board of Education (City of Rye) meeting and listen to George Latimer's contribution to a NYS Education symposium. What I come away with is this: NY State's education system is a pitiful mess from the top down and that Rye's leadership and Commissioner King have one thing in common: they don't listen and won't do so unless a major storm is created by both parents and teachers. 

It is a year since an insecure parent brought both of her equally insecure children into Osborn School's principal to report testing inconsistencies in both Mrs. Mehler's and Mrs. Toppol's classrooms. Within a short time afterwards, this parent's friend at Milton discovered the same inconsistencies, where upon two other teachers were put on administrative leave. Out of these four teachers, one resigned, not out of guilt but out of disgust; one made a "deal" with the board with her lawyer being the Mayor's wife (and the Board's president's husband had been recently appointed to the Council by the Mayor). The other two teachers are sequestered, separately, in "rubber rooms" pending their fate.  You can't make this stuff up!

The District is still "investigating" this situation. Up until last week, the superintendent was calling parents to ask if their children would testify.  This not only smacks of desperation, it proves that after one full year there are no substantial charges to be made. What parent would allow their child, one year later, to be able to distinguish what happened last year in one person's class from what happened this year?  In most cases, the class configuration has changed as well. This is not a course in creative writing. This scenario has teachers' careers and reputations at stake.

There are those in the community, as teachers at the meeting pointed out, who have become judge, jury and executioners of these teachers. Not by fact, mind you, but by gossip and innuendo. Over my thirty years of both teaching and living in Rye, I have met just these kinds of parents. Many think they are well meaning by "spreading the word." They are not. They are just re-charging the batteries of a motor that should have died a long time ago. Whatever gripes they have had with other teachers, both past and present, are being aimed like an arrow into the heart of each one of these teachers.

And if this isn't bad enough, this Superintendent has messed with Mrs. Mehler's rights as a parent by blocking her presence at parent-teacher meetings and events in which her children participate. She was told that before she could enter the building, in the role of a parent, she needs his permission, which he has repeatedly denied. This is evidenced in the law suit.  A total abuse of his power as a superintendent, if not hard hearted as well. He has not only hurt this teacher; he has hurt her children. 

From anyone who has worked in public education for any significant length of time, this scenario was predictable. In a cocktail shaker pour a raised bar in one full swoosh, add a test that only tests endurance and not ability, provide little to no professional training, sequester models of the test and tell the districts that they can allow for 20% of a teacher's evaluation test scores. Add an interim superintendent, who has been known to turn the screws, like a twist of lemon.  Pour over insecure children, parents, a new principal and superintendent and by golly you have a toxic cocktail that can put the tax payer under the table with one hell of a hang over come budget time. Serve to a board, with one exception, that have become sheeple to a superintendent.  A predictable mess that can only be cleaned by replacing both the board and the superintendent. I must also question the effectiveness of Mrs. Garcia. They have painted themselves into a sorry corner.  And an expensive one, to boot. Time to turn the sails and sail in a new direction.

The children and teachers of this district deserve better leadership than what they have right now.  A district with such a sterling reputation bought themselves some real booby prizes.

Shelley Karlen
Greenwich, CT

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