9486 in the collection  

District, parent at odds over kindergarten walkout

When parents discover--and use--their power, anything is possible. We can hope they'll exclude their children from DIBELS.

by Sherrie Peif


Tony Zamarripa said all he was trying to do was show support for a beloved teacher. Greeley-Evans School District 6 officials, however, say he acted inappropriately in the way he made his point.

Now, a walkout that involved more than a dozen of his daughter's kindergarten classmates at Jackson Elementary School to protest the decision not to renew a teacher's 2010-11 contract has both sides calling for a time out.

"These were parents that wanted to support their child's teacher," said Zamarripa, who organized Thursday's walkout. "This is a good teacher."

The district's spokesman, Roger Fiedler, confirmed that the teacher in question's contract will not be renewed. Non-renewals happen yearly for a variety of reasons, but with the district facing a $10 million budget crunch next year, Fiedler was not sure if this was performance based or if the position would be eliminated once the budget is finalized in June.

Zamarripa, who learned of the teacher's situation after spring break earlier this month, said he tried to air his grievances through a letter to the district, but he never received a response. He drafted a letter to the parents in his daughter's classroom and asked them to hold their child out of class Thursday to protest the action against the teacher, who Zamarripa said has already been replaced with a first-year teacher.

Seventeen of the 25 students did not come to class that morning, but two came back in the afternoon.

Zamarripa distributed a letter to parents on Wednesday. Fiedler said officials are concerned he may have violated district policy when he did that. Zamarripa said he can understand why the school is upset with him over the letter, but it was how he said they treated him Friday that has him most upset.

Zamarripa said Jackson principal Ingrid Dillehay and an assistant followed him around the building, making him feel like a criminal.

"I'll admit I could have done it differently," Zamarripa said. "But all I was doing was trying to prove a point that they can't find very good teachers easily, and she is a good teacher."

Fiedler said he wasn't aware of what happened at the building Friday, but if Dillehay was concerned about more letters being distributed against district policy, she may have followed him to make sure it didn't happen again. A phone call to Dillehay's office seeking comment was transferred to Fiedler.

"When issues arise among adults, the issues need to be solved like adults," he said.

Zamarripa said the principal's actions went too far.

"I can understand if I had stolen something or hurt someone, but they were following me for speaking my rights," Zamarripa said. "I feel like I was violated."

Fiedler said the district has scheduled a meeting between Zamarripa, the director of human resources and the director of elementary education for Monday afternoon to discuss the problems, but he wanted to stress that above everything else, the district's first responsibility is to its students.

"We are very concerned that a parent was encouraging other parents to keep their students out of school," Fiedler said. "We work hard to keep kids in schools. We feel it was inappropriate to keep his student out or encourage others to keep students out of school. There are more appropriate ways to handle the situation."

“Hopefully when we get the chance to sit down and speak with Mr. Zamarripa and hear his concerns and we tell him what our concerns are, we can work toward some resolution.”

— Sherrie Peif
Greeley Tribune
2010-05-01
http://www.greeleytribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100501/NEWS/100509990/1051&ParentProfile=1001

---

INDEX OF OUTRAGES

Pages: 380   
[1] 2 3 4 5 6  Next >>    Last >>