Region One board: Set a good example

The beginning of a school year usually brings a renewal of hope to students and their families for a time of fresh educational challenges and successes. Each year in a student’s life holds opportunity for learning new things, not just in the classroom but also in the general environment of the school he or she attends. As this 2010-11 school year begins, the students at Housatonic Valley Regional High School in Falls Village will be having a valuable life lesson in politics in addition to all their other academic instruction.

The political lesson will come from watching the repercussions of the rather abrupt departure of the two key school leaders, Principal Gretchen Foster and Assistant Principal Mary Anne Buchanan, who quit on Aug. 4 and 10, respectively. The school has been left rudderless in a storm. And there has been a storm of both external and internal outrage and finger pointing created by the resignations, all the stronger because the actions seemed to take Region One Board of Education members and the office of the superintendent completely by surprise.

Questions necessarily arise as to whether the board and administration are out of touch with what’s happening at ground level at the high school, if they could be taken so off guard by the fact that their key managers were obviously very disgruntled. On the other hand, some, including retired HVRHS principal Jack Mahoney, wonder whether having the superintendent’s office in the same building as the high school creates potential conflict between the principal and the superintendent, giving the latter too much opportunity to micromanage the former. Either way, there is something in this formula that has failed spectacularly, and it is important that steps are now taken to understand what is not working if it is to be fixed.

Public comment at the special meetings held by the Region One board leading into a now extremely difficult start of the school year at HVRHS has come from different populations served by and supportive of the school: elected officials, former administrators, current and former teachers, parents, students, graduates of the school and interested residents. That comment has been strong, many calling for an investigation into the events leading up to the departure of the principal and assistant principal in the same month as school is set to begin.

In response, the board is forming an investigative committee that will include a person independent of the school as well as board members. It will be incumbent on this committee to study the situation objectively and carefully and then to make clear recommendations for the school to move forward in a positive way. Not a simple task, but a very necessary one that will surely be examined closely by those who have been so vocal in their outrage at the board’s special meetings this August.

All those involved with this process will need to remember that they are being closely watched by the students at the high school, who are those ultimately being served by their actions. The lessons these students take away from seeing the adults in their lives deal with this crisis will greatly affect their world view as they mature. Let’s hope they are given some excellent examples of civic and moral courage and that their school comes out the better for it in the end.

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