New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
School leadership moves have some city parents crying foul
NEW HAVEN — Superintendent of Schools Iline Tracey likened the school district’s constant stream of new hires and staffing shifts this spring to putting together a puzzle.
But what Tracey calls moves aimed at making the school district stronger, some parents and faculty call harsh and unfair.
“We understand that change has to happen,” said Alberto Tabra, a parent decrying the transfer of an assistant principal from the John C. Daniels School of International Communication whom he called an integral part of the community. “This is
not a change for the better.”
The decision to move Daniels’ Assistant Principal Yesenia Perez to Fair Haven School was one of 10 assistant principal shifts announced to the Board of Education this week. All the changes will come in fall.
The school board also acted on the appointment of John Tarka as the new principal of Wilbur Cross High School and Stephanie Skiba, currently a Lincoln-Bassett School assistant principal, as principal of Barnard Environment Studies Interdistrict Magnet School.
In all there were a dozen moves on the agenda.
“We have to make decisions about where people fit in,” Tracey said.
This year saw an unprecedented number of administrators leave or retire, according to Tracey, something expected to continue into next year.
That people love their administrators and don’t want to see them leave is a good thing, Tracey said.
“We don’t take it lightly,” she added.
The goal, however, is to allow assistant principals to gain experience working in different environments so they will become candidates for promotion, Tracey told the board.
Among the changes, Perez is being swapped with Fair Haven Assistant Principal Robert Manghnani. East Rock Community Magnet
School Assistant Principal Leslie White DePriest is moving to Edgewood Creative Thinking Through STEAM Magnet School while Edgewood’s Assistant Principal Andrea Rizzo will head to to Nathan Hale School. Nathan Hale Assistant Principal Scott Voisine is going to East Rock Magnet. Brennan Rogers
School of Communication and Media Assistant Principal Karissa Stolzman is going to Benjamin Jepson Magnet School.
Anita Singh Lamar, an East Rock parent, said the transfers seem very disempowering to parents, some who sit on a School Planning and Management Team — an advisory panel at each school. The teams were not consulted about the transfers.
“It feels very sudden,” Lamar said. Tracey told the board that the transfers are actually coming earlier than in the past, being announced now rather than in the middle of the summer. That will give the schools and affected personnel a chance to plan, Tracey said.
School personnel, the superintendent added, are not hired to work at specific schools but to serve the district as a whole.
Anna Picket, an East Rock parent disappointed to see DePriest leave her school, called DePriest the glue that helps holds the school together.
“To take Ms. DePriest from us feels particularly harsh,” Picket said.
Pickett asked the board to reconsider.
Viviana Ortiz, a staff member at Daniels, said losing Perez will be detrimental to the school community.
“It makes no sense to me when things are going well. It seems like we are being punished,” Ortiz said, urging the board not to approve the transfer.
While the school board acts on district hires and promotions, its bylaws do not allow it to overrule transfers.
“I encourage you to do better,” said Kristen Rodriguez, a parent and educator who said the Brennan Rogers community was blindsided by learning Stolzman would be leaving for Jepson.
“I know the sentiment of downtown. ‘It’s our right and we don’t have to share our decisions with you,’” Rodriguez said. “If you want to continue to lose (staff ) please continue on this current trajectory.”
But losing staff, Tracey said, is what she is attempting to avoid by giving administrators a broader experience.
“We want to build from within, to grow our own,” Tracey said, adding that she was subject to multiple transfers during her career in the district. “And here I am today.”
Tracey said as the administrator who hired many of the staff members being discussed, she was glad their school communities love them.
“That’s a good thing,” Tracey said. “I have to look at the much broader picture.”
Board member Ed Joyner said the transfers don’t mean the emotions and feelings of school communities are being ignored.
“It means we are in a large school system that needs to make hundreds of decisions, sometimes based on information known only to (the superintendent),” Joyner said. He did not elaborate.
Mayor Justin Elicker, a member of the school board, acknowledged it is hard for families to lose someone they feel is good for their school in exchange for an unknown.
“We should not override the decision, anyhow,” he said. “I am sure it is very complicated.”
Board Vice Chair Matt Wilcox called change a painful process.
“I am sorry for the affected community,” he said. “They are losing much-loved people.”
Tracey told the board that Tarka, to be the new principal of Wilbur Cross, is someone the district lost only to reclaim. He worked as assistant principal at James Hillhouse High School before becoming administrator in the district’s Adult Education Center, then going on to become principal at ACES Whitney Academy in January 2021. As Cross principal, he will earn an annual salary of $167,095.
Dressed in Cross’ red colors as he addressed the board during its Zoom meeting, he said was happy to be back. Although he said he was unsure of the challenges the high school faces, he is ready to face them with the school community.
“It has been a surreal couple of days,” Tarka said. “I promise to be the leader Wilbur Cross High School deserves.”
Skiba was assistant principal at Lincoln-Bassett before being tapped as Barnard Magnet’s new principal. Tracey said she saw Skiba in action during summer school, managing staffing and budget, and was impressed.
Skiba called it a bittersweet few days. She said she was at Lincoln eight years but started teaching middle school at Barnard.
“I am excited to go back . ... Get the ball rolling and start the new (school) year with greatness.”