When we in NYC were up against Mayor Michael Bloomberg, our union President Michael Mulgrew was agreeing to allow pro-deform, anti-teacher State Ed Commissioner John King to create New York City's Teacher Evaluation System. In those days Mulgrew was also threatening to punch anyone who took away his Common Core. Rella at that time was fighting against Common Core and high stakes testing.
Here is part of a letter to state elected officials Dr. Rella wrote about low test results on state exams in 2013:
The majority of young children will receive the clear message that since these tests are predictors of college success – they are not college material in the 3rd, 4th, 5th grade???!!! That message is unconscionable. It is hurtful to our children.
I first heard about Dr. Rella when I met Port Jefferson Station Teachers Association President Beth Dimino (now retired and acting) and her Delegates Brian St. Pierre and Rob Pearl (now a principal) in 2014. They didn't have a negative word to say about their Superintendent. How different it is from New York City where Mayoral Control has led to dictatorial Chancellors doing little, if anything, to actually improve our schools.
Here is what activist Marla Kilfoyle said about Rella on twitter with a reply from Class Size Matters Executive Director Leonie Haimson:
https://tbrnewsmedia.com/rella-to-retire-as-superintendent-at-comsewogue-effective-at-end-of-2018-19/
This is from the With a Brooklyn Accent blog:
I just found out that one of the most courageous and inspiring educators I have ever met, Dr Joe Rella, passed away. At a time when every powerful politician in New York State was pushing Common Core aligned state tests to rate teachers schools and entire school districts as well as students, and when they were forcing special needs and ELL students to take tests that were developmentally inappropriate, Dr Rella mobilized his entire Long Island district to refuse to take the tests. In doing so, he inspired thousands of parents and teachers, first throughout Long Island and then throughout the state, to follow his example! In so doing he helped build the most important Opt Out Movement in the nation, one that brought people from all points of the political spectrum together in a way that the state, and perhaps the nation, had never seen before. As this movement grew, I had a chance to speak from the same podium as Dr Rella on several occasions. He was as kind and compassionate and caring as he was courageous. He genuinely loved his students and that love motivated him to stand up to powerful forces which were humiliating them and jeopardizing their futures. He also had a spiritual force that made everyone around him a better person. I will miss his smile, his sense of humor, his boundless courage and his ability to bring Conservatives and Liberals, Republicans and Democrats together to protect everyone’s children. I will miss him terribly Never more than now do we need inspirational, unifying figures like Dr Joe Rella.
I can only echo what those who knew him said. He is most definitely missed.
7 comments:
So their superintendent was more pro teacher than our union president? Great world we live in.
Our Union President sides with the administrators that are destroying our schools.
Dr. Rella was also a great principal. He was all about supporting students and creating a culture that students could thrive in. In that process I remember he removed a few teachers that were not supportive of this student first culture.
If he did that today, based on your blogs, James, you would have automatically labeled him a bad principal. In James eyes any teacher removal is always because admin is "evil."
But Dr. Rella had guts to do whatever he felt would support students. Loving, gentle but tough when he had to be.
He will be missed!
I never said all teachers were perfect but they ALL do deserve fair representation. If there is just cause and the administrator does their job where the teacher receives full due process in fair and unbiased procedures, then the administrator can be right. However, when a principal attacks teachers who have been great teachers, sometimes for years and years, then usually those teachers then move onto different schools (if they keep their jobs) where they again thrive, the problem rests with the administrator and not with the teacher. Too much of that in NYC. When it is personal and not professional, there is a problem.
James, you mention fair representation. Is it fair when a teacher complains to you about admin, before you blog about them, do you know all the facts? You hear one side of the story and you run with it. Maybe admin is at fault, or maybe the teacher bears some or even all fault and they are now screaming victim when admin makes a move against them.
I can name 2 or 3 fellow teachers in my school that shouldn't be teaching.
Also, how do you know a teacher is great. Have you observed them yourself? I always thought certain teachers in my school were "great" because they were well liked and worked in the school a long time. But then I worked them a few of them in the ICT setting and I was surprised to see otherwise. If admin had removed them prior to my working with them I would've been in an uproar, now I know better.
Three sides to every story.
You keep attacking teachers 6:18 but no reaction about teachers maligned by certain administrators who thrive in different settings. Much of what goes on in our schools is personality differences. People from the Office of labor Relations will admit that privately.
I'm for firing half the teachers and doubling class size. I hope Bloomberg does this when he becomes president. There is not reason you can't teach with 60 in a class. Whiners.
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