NORTHFIELD — Pioneer Valley Regional School’s faculty and support staff overwhelmingly voted “no confidence” in Principal Jean Bacon and Assistant Principal Jennifer Albert Perry following their first year at Pioneer.
“By advisement from our regional (Massachusetts Teachers Association) representative (Brad Brousseau), given the climate and record of leadership this year at PVRS, PVREA held an anonymous paper ballot vote to gather data from the faculty and support staff regarding their confidence in the current administration,” Ariel LaReau, president-elect of the Pioneer Valley Regional Education Association (PVREA), said in a statement to the School Committee at its most recent meeting. That statement from the union outlined the “no confidence” vote in the two administrators taken June 15.
According to LaReau, the MTA requires 80 percent of the entire faculty to vote negative before a general “no confidence” vote can be determined. In reference to Bacon, 95.5 percent of faculty voted “no confidence” along with 95.83 percent of support staff. In reference to Albert Perry, 84.4 percent voted “no confidence” along with 87.5 percent of support staff.
LaReau said four faculty members didn’t vote, and those votes were counted as votes of confidence.
LaReau said Brousseau suggested taking vote due to several complaints. These included “general mismanagement and lack of communication this year,” layoffs that are said to have affected some veteran teachers and “a lack of real response and authentic action taken” after the faculty presented a survey outlining concerns about the school atmosphere. Also, LaReau, said, most educator evaluations conducted by Bacon and Albert Perry came back “extremely negative and resulting in a rating for many teachers as ‘Needs Improvement.’” Some such teachers, she explained, have been teaching anywhere from five to 20 years without receiving bad evaluations.
“Though we may be required to work under changed conditions, we cannot currently express our confidence that the best interest of students or the integrity of our school is being served,” LaReau said during the meeting.
According to Superintendent Ruth Miller and Recorder archives, a search committee composed of teachers, School Committee members, students, community members and Assistant Superintendent Gail Healy reviewed 19 applications for principal and narrowed the pool down to three, including Bacon. Taking the committee’s recommendation of Bacon into account, Miller selected her. Bacon in turn had the final say in selecting Albert Perry.
Similar concerns were expressed to the School Committee, with Karen O’Neil, a retired Pioneer science teacher and Leyden resident, saying actions taken by administrators “have lacked protocol, transparency and inclusion of professional partners.”
Pioneer parents Deborah Potee and Ruth Potee spoke in support of Bacon.
“I understand change is hard,” Deborah Potee said in reference to the layoffs. “But I feel very committed to the students. I feel very strongly the principal wants what’s best for Pioneer.”
In her conversations with Bacon, Deborah Potee said she found her to be open, authentic and upfront about the budget’s limitations, while supportive of moving Pioneer forward academically. She asked that community members focus on moving the school forward.
“It’s not going to be helpful to hang someone out to dry,” she said.
Ruth Potee said she was “both stunned and devastated by the 90 percent vote of ‘no confidence’ in the administration.”
“That feels awful,” she said .
She agreed Bacon is committed to expanding the curriculum and improving student education, and noted how Pioneer hasn’t had gradual layoffs as enrollment has declined like the elementary schools, making this year’s layoffs more severe.
Hearing from both sides, the School Committee did not take any action or indicate what future steps it might take.
In response to the “no confidence” vote, Bacon was understanding of faculty’s frustrations.
“I feel that it represents a divide at the moment between most faculty and the administration,” she said. “I think it’s coming from the difficult year we’ve had, the fact that we’ve been facing these difficult layoffs and I can totally empathize with faculty feeling frustrated.”
Hoping to move forward, Bacon said she reached out to next year’s faculty to put together what she calls a Transition Team to figure out what faculty need to feel more supported by administrators. Ten faculty members have joined the team, she said.
One focus, Bacon said, will be revising the faculty guidebook. She said the guidebook was last written in 2004.
“I’m really very hopeful that we can put this difficult year behind us and move forward in a positive direction,” she said.
Reach Shelby Ashline at: sashline@recorder.com
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