Buried within the Middletown School District's 20012-2013 budget is a restructuring of the Middletown High School administration. Mr. Gonzalez, executive principal, and all house principal positions have been eliminated. It is common knowledge that the high school has been plagued by student discipline and behavior problems. Televised student award ceremonies, athletic events, student recognition ceremonies, and student performances have helped hide these student behavior and control problems from the public. Student behavior problems at the high school are not new, and have been exacerbated by the elimination of the SRO positions and the down sizing of our security personnel. Last year, some board of education members warned that the loss of SROs and reduced security would have an adverse effect on the ability of personnel to control the behavior of students within the building. These concerns were ignored.
At the same time, the personnel morale at the high school is low, and employee dissatisfaction with the central administration growing. Many of the high school administrators have responded to these problems by looking for new positions outside the district. As reported in the Record, Dr. Eastwood was aware that some school administrators were looking for new positions. One question comes up: Was Dr. Eastwood's new administration reorganization plan for the high school coincidental with its administrators looking for new positions, or a preemptive action to rid the school of administrators who were attempting to leave the problem ridden school ? A administration reorganization would be the only way to get rid of these tenured employees.
We do know that Dr Eastwood's new plan for the high school administration came as surprise, and the board had not been consulted during its development. We also know that the administration's portion of next years budget increased. Therefore, where are the net cost savings, and what was Dr. Eastwood's true motivation for making these changes?
Last year, Inside Middletown Schools reported that a maintenance worker was dismissed from at Chorley after he complained about a mold problem in the building. His dismissal was despite the fact the several teachers in the building wrote letters testifying to the quality of his work ( please read earlier blog). Recently, a substitute teacher was fired personally by Dr. Eastwood after he used a district computer during school time to make an on line correction of a misstatement in the Record concerning the district. Did these people deserve to lose their positions ? Neither the dismissal of these employees, nor the loss of these high school administrators by a new administrative reorganization plan appears to us to be warranted or justified.
