The Tabernacle Board of Education voted unanimously to transfer 11 district teachers to different grades at a Monday, June 18 meeting, disheartening some in the school community.
Parents, both former and current staffers and members of the Tabernacle Education Association (TEA) were present to protest the transfers and to plead for the school board to table the decision.
Beth Manning, representing the TEA, said the transfers didn’t offer any benefits to the students.
“Is this what’s in the best interest of our students?” she asked.
Parent Donna Burmylo-Magrann said the numbers at hand do not justify the transfers.
One of the teachers whose transfer was approved — Marianne Cancellieri — has taught first-grade for 30 years, she said.
“Why are we trying to fix something that’s not broken?” Burmylo-Magrann asked.
Retired teacher and area resident Vicki Shoemaker called the transfer “punitive, discriminative and self-serving.”
It was repeatedly mentioned in comments from the public that all of the teachers being transferred were older than 50, which led to questions from the crowd on the specific reasons for the moves.
One of the teachers, Patty Knott, has taught third-grade at Tabernacle Elementary School for decades. She is being transferred to fifth-grade at Olson Middle School. Knott has planned retirement for after the 2012–13 school year and her request to stay in her grade level of expertise was denied.
She expressed “disappointment in the board,” over its decision.
Tabernacle Superintendent of Schools George Rafferty said he would not discuss individual personnel decisions in public — he refused to offer any reasons why the transfers were happening — but did say he disagreed with allegations of age discrimination.
“That’s your perception. I disagree with you,” he said.
Collective decisions are made to meet obligations for the coming school year, he said, and he stands by those decisions.
Rafferty said he does not need TEA’s “stamp of approval” to make changes.
A parent who identified herself as Krista said she was disheartened and disgusted by the body language of the board.
“We’re not heard. You’re not listening to us. You’ve already made up your minds,” she said. “The morale is in the toilet.”
After an executive session, and before the board voted, board member John Bulina asked about the educational impact of the transfers.
Rafferty said the district is making curriculum changes and the approvals will strengthen and help to meet the needs of grades K-8 in the coming school year.
Other business
Moving forward with the solar project led by board member Michael Lee, a resolution was approved to bring auditors from the Greenback-To-Go Green Program through the Burlington County Bridge Commission into the buildings.
During his superintendent’s report, Rafferty explained three district initiatives.
Effective in September 2013, there will be a new teacher-evaluation system known as the Danielson Model. The program will be tested in the 2012–13 school year.
The program is being purchased through a three-district consortium with Southampton and Mansfield townships.
Technology is changing in the district, Rafferty reported.
Next month, there will be an on-site audit to see how to proceed with district goals of fiscal responsibility and usable-technology resources.
“We’re at a crossroads in technology in Tabernacle,” he said.
The literacy initiative for the next school year is known as the “investment model,” which focuses on intensive professional development of staff.
Training began this spring, he said, and the model would bring out the best in the district’s talented students.
There is more than 50 years of research to show that it is a good, consistent model over grade levels, he said.
List of staff transfers:
The Tabernacle Board of Education approved the following teacher transfers:
-Marianne Cancellieri from first-grade to third-grade
-Linda Carr from fourth-grade to fifth-grade at the middle school
-Lisa Gargiulo from sixth-grade to seventh-grade in-class resource
-Maria Grayauskie from industrial technology to seventh-grade science
-Louise Harris from third-grade to fourth-grade
-Patricia Knott from third-grade to fifth-grade at the middle school
-Sean McAneny from seventh-grade to eighth-grade in-class resource
-Denise Madden from kindergarten to in-class resource to Elementary MD Program
-Alyssa Prima from first-grade inclusion to preschool disabled program
-Rose Wagner from preschool disabled program to kindergarten in-class resource
-Megan Walser from elementary MD program to first-grade in-class resource
