FAYETTE — The Fayette School Committee voted 5-0 at its March 20 meeting to terminate part-time Fayette Central School teaching principal Nancy Godfrey’s contract effective June 30.
Several residents present said they were upset with how the matter was handled. Selectman Jon Beekman pointed out that on the agenda, it said that the school committee would be discussing reconfiguring the school’s principal’s position, but nothing about personnel action.
“You might have had a whole different audience here if people had read about what was proposed to be taking place,” he said. “I’m not arguing the legality of the wording (of the motion). My argument is it wasn’t on the agenda.”
“We were going to do this at the last board meeting,” said Superintendent Gary Rosenthal.
He said that they were told they couldn’t go into executive session to discuss it.
“That was the discussion of a position,” Beekman disagreed, clarifying that the complaint had been about discussing a position and not a specific individual in executive session.
“We’re eliminating the position,” said Rosenthal. “The byproduct of eliminating the position is the person whose contract is being terminated. By law, you have to do the two of those together.”
Godfrey, who was present, said she was never told before the meeting that the board would be taking action on her position at that meeting.
“It’s, if not legally, morally an obligation of the board to have that discussion with the person prior to making anything public,” said Beekman.
Prior to the motion being made, the school committee had embarked on a discussion about creating a full-time principal’s position if Fayette voters approve the withdrawal of the school from AOS 97 on April 15. The board noted that a recent community survey found overwhelming support for having a full-time principal in the school.
“Whether we stay with the AOS, or go with a part-time superintendent, I feel it’s important to have consistent leadership in the building,” said school committee chair Richard Darling.
School committee member Diane Polky said she believed having a fulltime principal would give the best guidance for the school’s children to make the most out of their educational experiences there. She made the motion to eliminate the half-time teaching principal position pursuant to Maine law for 2014-15, and terminate Godfrey’s contract due to changes in local conditions.
However, pointed out resident Joel Swimm, the school committee was making the decision before residents had even voted on whether or not to withdraw from the AOS. Additionally, he noted that Fayette voters wouldn’t be voting on the school budget until the June town meeting, meaning money wouldn’t be available to hire someone for the proposed fulltime position until after June 30.
“I think this discussion should be ended,” Polky responded. “This motion is not about hiring somebody. It’s about terminating what we have.”
“School districts do this all around the state,” said Rosenthal. “They eliminate positions, they add positions. In terms of legal considerations, we have to give notification to the individual holding the position right now.”
He defended the motion, saying he had consulted with the school’s attorney and the attorney had crafted the wording.
“My point is I’m disappointed in that as a way of doing business,” said Beekman.
The board discussed 2014-15 classroom configurations. Due to 15 students in grade 4 and 10 students who will be fifth graders next year currently, the board agreed that it would be best to have a teacher for each grade instead of combining the classes. Grades 2 and 3, and kindergarten and first grade will have one teacher each for the two sets of classes.
In response to questions about why kindergarten and first grade wouldn’t have separate teachers, Rosenthal noted that the current teaching arrangement was working well and wanted to stick with it.
“We’re doing a lot of the right things,” he said. “We’ve grown 20 kids in three years. It’s bringing people into the community.”
In other news, the board voted to renew the tuition contract with Winthrop and approve the 2014-15 school calendar. The calendar provides for 175 student days, five snow days, four professional development days, and seven early release days.
The first student day is Aug. 27 and the last day is June 17, if all five snow days are used. Rosenthal noted that thus far this year, the school had used seven snow days.
The next school committee meeting takes place April 17 at 6 p.m.
The board held a moment of silence for Betty Gillespie, a former Fayette Central School teacher who passed way recently. She taught third grade, a combined second/third grade class, and grade two for a total of 19 years of teaching at the school. The Town of Fayette and the Fayette School and Home Association has a scholarship in her name.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
