Brooks Middle School Principal Flora Green could be reassigned to another position within the district next school year if a resolution coming before the District 97 Board of Education Wednesday night is approved.
The move?#34;dubbed a “Resolution for Proposed Reclassification of Principal” on the March 9 agenda?#34;was recommended by Supt. John C. Fagan, said board President Ade Onayemi Monday morning. Fagan will retire in June.
Notification of reassignment must come before April 1, Onayemi said.
The item is on the consent agenda, meaning Onayemi and Fagan, when preparing the agenda, did not expect discussion of the issue before a vote. Onayemi pointed out that any item can be removed from the consent agenda for discussion before voting. However, the board, as a rule, does not discuss personnel issues in open session.
Onayemi said he did not know to what position Green would be reclassified, and that it was too soon to talk about finding a replacement.
Green came under fire from Brooks parents in April 2003 after the sudden dismissal of a teacher and director of the school’s BRAVO! arts program. In the fall, the district hired a consultant, RaeLynne Toperoff of Teachers’ Task Force, to improve communications and review parents’ concerns at both Brooks and Holmes Elementary School. Toperoff’s report identified leadership as a major area of concern at both schools.
Speaking not as a consultant but as an Oak Parker, Toperoff addressed the board two weeks ago to say that staff morale at Brooks had not improved.
Onayemi said that Toperoff’s comments had no impact on the decision to reassign Green.
Meanwhile, the ongoing “critical issues process” at Brooks, led by the School Leadership Team, also appeared to have reached some “dilemmas” identified in the SLT’s midyear report in January:
“For example, the dilemma discussed by most participants was, ‘If the charter updates indicate that approximately 70 percent of action steps are implemented or [are] in the process of being implemented and the Brooks’ survey indicates that all stakeholders are medium satisfied, then why is there a basic feeling that meaningful progress is not being achieved in the objectives?” the report reads in part.
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