A Final Story

This story epitomizes our principal and her interactions with students.

A senior boy ordered a pizza for lunch from outside the building and was cutting class awaiting its delivery. He was caught by the principal and she escorted him to the office. This might have been the end of it, he was a good kid, rarely in trouble, maybe he would have received a detention or in-school suspension. Once in the office, the principal berated him for several minutes. She left, then returned a few minutes later and started in on him again. Finally she got what she wanted and he snapped, saying to her something like "get out of my face, bitch". Oops, magic words, three day suspension. What started out as a somewhat typical senior incident was escalated by the principal into a major deal. The sad part is I don't think she even liked kids.

GET OVER IT ALREADY !!!

Hey get over it already, no one died, you still have your health. blah, blah, blah. All true and I get it. I am mostly over it. But...(you knew there was a but) if I worked in the corporate world I might almost expect such behavior. But in education we are expected to model honesty, integrity and ethical behavior...heck, state law requires us to be "moral". And I had a boss who was none of those things. I guess I expected our leadership to, silly me, do the right thing. WR talks the talk and claims that FWCS has an employee code of ethics, but when it comes time to apply the Code of ethics WR does nothing. Instead an unethical, dishonest, lying and possibly unstable person was left in a leadership position...with the inevitable result that she eventually imploded. But at what cost?

Super Duper Meeting

At the close of the school year we had end of year administration meetings. On day one the head honcho, the big cheese, the super duper sought me out and ushered me into an empty classroom. As the door closed, I turned to face the superintendent and the yelling began..."This has got to stop...you should see my emails...many of them use the word bitch." I bit my tongue but wanted to say "have you met [the principal]?" Then she said quite angrily..." I am not losing my facility vote because of your situation." Ah, there it was. In a few days the school board was to vote to start the process for a building initiative, the Write Yellow, Write Now campaign. The superintendent did not want to meet with me because of my lawsuit, not because she had heard all the stories coming out of our school, not because she wanted information...the super met with me because she heard that a group of supporters were coming to the school board meeting and they might disrupt the meeting and jeopardize the facility vote.

BTW, how did that Write Yellow, Write Now thing turn out for you anyway????

And I get it...it was easier to fire an athletic director than admit your recently hired principal was an unethical, pathological liar. Still, would it hurt for the school district leadership to have done the right thing? So much for the FWCS code of ethics...only words on paper when leadership does not follow it.

Coke or Pepsi

Every school has a soft drink contract because schools are full of captive consumers. Ours ran out and it fell to our new principal to negotiate a new one. Uh oh. Another high school and recently signed with Coke and received three new scoreboards. I mentioned to our principal that we needed new basketball scoreboards...she mumbled something about not wanting to have her hands tied in negotiations. I had heard otherwise...oh wait, that's something else. A new contract was eventually finalized with Coke and we switched over after spring break. A couple of weeks after spring break a Coke truck arrived with a new machine and some new refrigerator units for our concession stands. Since my office was by the door, I told them they could put them in my office and then I would find out where they would go. I radioed the office. Shortly afterward the principal arrived and started yelling at the delivery guys to load everything back on the truck. She then yelled at me for calling Coke and ordering the equipment. I tried telling her that she had ordered the stuff but she would hear none of that. Back on the truck it went.

A couple of weeks later in a meeting with HR, the HR person would bring this up. I sat and watched as the HR person and my principal argued about this incident. The principal still insisted she was right to order everything back on the truck. The two of them went at it for about 10 minutes. It was kind of like watching a tennis match. It was funny but it was sad - sad to think it was what each person at the school went through one time or another. I wanted to say to the HR person, welcome to my world.

Note: When the principal was finally fired, oops resigned, district officials would search her office and find unsigned copies of the Coke contract. It turns out she never signed and returned it...null and void! When contacted, Coke asked that the money they had given the school in good faith be returned since their was no contract. Last I heard they were still negotiating...

The Rest of the Story

March 30 - I was informed by my principal's boss that I would be terminated effective June 30
April - I was told to request a teaching position for the following year
May - another HR meeting; I watched as the HR person and my principal argued around and around about a recent incident (see Coke or Pepsi)
end of May - I filed a lawsuit
June - I accepted a teaching position for the next year

The HR Meeting

At the meeting with HR in February, my principal told many lies. It is rare to be in the presence of a pathological liar - she lied as easily as most people breathe. She told some little lies and some big ones.

Little lie - she said I had a loud fight with our treasurer. When I returned to the building I mentioned this incident to our treasurer and we had a good laugh about it.

Bigger lie - My principal claimed that in November, an assistant coach who was not yet cleared to work was working with a team and the principal and I saw this coach in the gym. The implication was that I knowingly allowed a coach to work without clearance - a big no-no. Never happened - I was pretty incredulous.

The whopper - My principal produced three memos that I had never seen before. One was dated August 1 - the first day we met on the job. I believe she created these memos specifically for this meeting for the purpose of proving my insubordination. I pointed out to the HR person that wasn't it curious the memos were not on letterhead and not signed. I asked for copies, which I never received. I was told I would be hearing from HR after considering these serious allegations. That would take seven weeks.

It was after this meeting that I hired an attorney.

Scary January

OK, so my principal didn't like me. Unfortunately, I did not see this train coming until it was upon me. She made her intentions clear in January. I came in one Monday morning - January 23 - to find my desk a mess, papers strewn about and drawers open. Someone had been in my office and since only a select few had a key, I was sure of the rat. I immediately called the deputy superintendent and said my principal was trying to fire me. He said he would look into it and get back to me.



A couple of days later he called - yes, there was a file on me in HR - going back to September and he expressed surprise that HR had not spoken to me yet. He said it was time they did and said he would set it up. I will never forget his words, " it's that stuff all you AD's get in trouble about, nothing to worry about". Untruer words were never spoken.


The next week, someone entered my office again and took a school laptop, We used it to take stats for football and score gymnastics meets. Workers scored the last two meets by hand. The next fall, the laptop would "appear" again. A couple of weeks later I would catch my principal in my office - confirming my suspicions.

My principal and I had a meeting set up with HR personnel in early February. See the HR meeting...

The School Secretary

The newspapers have told the story... "The Fort Wayne Community Schools board Monday approved the resignation of Elmhurst High School’s principal and her secretary, who left amid allegations that the secretary had sexual relationships with former or current students." [Journal Gazette, November 27, 2007]

At the close of the school year in 2007, the principal forced her secretary to transfer. This is when the principal unwittingly dealt herself a death blow. High school principal's secretaries are like the school's office manager. Every one I have worked with has been organized, efficient and tremendous multi-taskers, and the one she removed was one of the best. Now the principal had to hire a replacement - and, guess what, very few people wanted the job...surprise! So over several staff members objections, a young inexperienced person was hired for a very demanding job. The outcome was almost inevitable, although losing the principal as well was just a welcome bonus.

The Human Co$t

As mentioned before, at least 30 staff left under this principal's watch. Many were transfers but some cost the school district additional money. First, of course, was the assistant principal who left after one week. This assistant principal was allowed to take medical leave...this is the game they play when they want you gone but can't fire you. A replacement had to be hired - a retired administrator - so two people were paid for one job.
At the start of the principal's year two she called in the head of the guidance department and gave him his previous year's evaluation. This well-respected, long time educator was given a poor evaluation. He responded by giving his two weeks' retirement notice. Oh to have been a fly on that wall...hilarious. So a retired counselor was hired to run the guidance department for the year. The next day, another embattled counselor - who had been put on probation with his evaluation - took medical leave with sky-high blood pressure. Another replacement hired, another two people paid to do one job.

In a delicious bit of irony, when the principal was eventually fired, oops resigned, she took a medical leave for several weeks - and, of course, a replacement was hired while she was being paid. The school board should calculate the total cost this principal had to taxpayers. In fact, the school is so f**ked up that they now have two retired educators as temporary principals.

While I am on a roll, let's look at some of the school district's recent hires. The principal, hired from outside the system, resigned in a sex scandal. This school year, a high school assistant principal hired from outside the system, fired after an inappropriate relationship with a student. Another assistant principal, hired from outside the district, was terminated this spring because he was using sick days to work somewhere else! And let's not forget the principal's secretary, the cause of the sex scandal that brought down the principal. This is quite a legacy for current school district leadership.

Spygate

One of the first things our new principal did upon her arrival was to fix our security camera system. There were now 40 cameras in the building (OK, 41 if you counted the one under my desk...). This was a good thing because there are many legitimate uses for the cameras. Sometime in the fall, one of counselors was called into the principal's office and asked, "why was a teacher pushing you in the hallway a couple of days ago?" First, the counselor was stunned - what was this about? As the counselor rewound her past, she did remember that she and a teacher had exchanged friendly put-downs one morning and in a playful gesture, the teacher had lightly pushed her. But more to the point, who in the heck had reported such an incident as inappropriate?

Well, it turns out that our principal was watching security videos like you and I would watch TV! And she was at school at all hours. She was often there when I left in the evening after ball games and many staff members would report seeing her car there at all hours on Saturdays and Sundays. Word was also out that she roamed the building and got into classrooms and offices - she had keys to everyplace. This was beyond weird! These confrontations would replay themselves many times throughout the year - "It was reported that you were....blah,blah,blah".

Interesting side note: when she was fired, oops resigned, she was seen on the security cameras carrying a trash bag full of stuff out of the building on her last Sunday night there. She later claimed it was personal stuff, although I never saw a picture, a plant or anything remotely personal in her office.

November

By this time, many of us were having private conversations, "how did this person get hired" and "where did she come from" were the most common topics. Our principal had been a middle school computer teacher the year before. Yes, read that again...how does that happen? In business that would be like, maybe, going from store mananger one year to CEO the next. Altogether, now, ... she knew someone! And, sure enough, she was hired by her sister's best friend. In her previous school district, she had been a high school assistant principal but had lost that job and been returned to the classroom for reasons unknown to us (although this would be revealed later).

Also, anytime I met someone else working in our school district, I was asked "what to you think of your new principal?", followed by a look that said, is she really as crazy as I have heard? One colleague said it best...she looked rode hard and put away wet. Enough said.

The Cheer Coach

In October we fired our cheer coach. The principal and I agreed on this one. When I asked the principal if I should contact HR to post the cheer coach position, my principal said she would take over as cheer coach. Whaaaaat?? What principal has time to do that? Of course, it turned out she did not. I was constantly finding someone to cover practice, ride the bus to games or watch the squad while the principal attended to other more important duties than cheering (what could there be?). Once I rode the cheer bus to a game - when she informed me an hour before the bus was to leave that she somehow could not be on it.
This was the first real sign that this principal was, as my mother would say, "a different breed of cat". It's funny now, but at the time I knew we were in trouble.

The Football Coach

In September, a football player had a run-in with an assistant coach and was dismissed from the team. This player boasted loudly in school that he would get the head coach fired. I held a conference with the player, his parents and the assistant coach. The parents were satisfied that their son was wrong (what a refreshing attitude!) and I thought that was the end of it. The next week, the principal stopped me on a Thursday afternoon, showed me a document and told me the head coach was suspended because this player had alleged (to the principal) that the coach had physically abused another player. The principal's "investigation" was a complete surprise to me - why should I be involved, I was just the athletic director! I walked out to football practice and informed the assistants that they were in charge for Friday night's game.

The next day, just before lunch, I saw the head coach in the hallway. He had been reinstated - quickest suspension in history! Evidently no other player would corroborate the story. However, the damage was done. Under this new leadership, you were guilty until proven innocent.

Week #1

The first week all admin staff were back we had student registration day. In the afternoon, I passed our assistant principal walking down the hallway with a glazed look in her eyes. She mumbled something about not getting the memo about expected dress for the day. She was wearing jeans and a school t-shirt. I was wearing shorts and a school polo - I kept a low profile for the rest of the day. Our assistant principal never worked another day. We were told she was taking a medical leave. Someone made her an offer she couldn't refuse. Victim number one.

I had gotten a new computer that summer and asked our custodians to set up my old one in the coaches office - I had asked the assistant principal if that was OK (since we did not have a principal at the time). Much later I would find out that the asst. principal had been accused of over-stepping her authority by giving permission for the use of these old computers. The computer soon disappeared from the coaches office, never to be seen again. When I asked why the coaches could not use it, I was told that all the old computers were being collected and their use was being evaluated by the new principal. No one ever saw the old computers again.

Why Retire?

A few years ago, retirement was far from my mind. I enjoyed my job at a good school and had the respect of peers and supervisors. Then in July 2005 a new principal was hired. This principal was unethical, dishonest and created a school climate of mistrust, paranoia and vindictiveness. For two years, I and many other adminstrators and teachers told Fort Wayne Community School district leaders that this principal was incompetent. These voices went unheeded and, instead, this principal's bullying behavior and dishonesty was tolerated. At least thirty employees left the school during that time. While most were glad to get the heck out of Dodge, leaving for most was bittersweet since leaving was not on one's own terms. Finally, almost predictably, an incident so embarrassing to the FWCS district occurred and this principal was forced to resign in the fall of 2007. A FWCS district official said the incident was "further proof that [the principal] was incapable of performing her duties as a principal". Hellooooo ... no surprise to most of us who had worked there, we had been saying that for two years.

I have lost respect for our Fort Wayne district leadership. They either wanted this principal to behave the way she did or they did not care. I am not sure which is more disturbing. Time to retire.

I will chronical a few examples of bizarre behavior.