Rockville Centre Letters to the Editor

Johnson overstepped his bounds

To the Editor:

When my kids started kindergarten this year at Watson, my wife and I were given what was described as an anti-bullying pledge to sign on their behalf. However, after attending Assemblyman Brian Curran’s recent Common Core forum, we’re now of the belief that it is the district’s administrators who need to sign an anti-bullying pledge to protect parents.

We understand that Common Core is a very divisive issue. We are against it. However, the conduct of many in the opt-out movement swings dizzily between absolute hysterics and outright bullying.

It’s bad enough when parents do it, but it is unprofessional and contemptuous of the taxpaying public when school administrators, such as Superintendent Dr. William Johnson, do it.

In front of a crowd of parents and applauding teachers, he stated that “no parent in their right mind would allow their child to take these tests.” Our superintendent is paid to serve all the parents of this district by preparing our kids for the curriculum approved by the state’s elected representatives. His job is not to chastise, denounce and insult us for not accepting his point of view on the matter. Whether Common Core is appropriate for our kids is a matter between the citizens of this state and their legislators, not us and him.

The superintendent is a citizen and is free to rail against Common Core — as a citizen. However, it certainly appears that Dr. Johnson has leveraged his position as superintendent to undermine the tests at every turn rather than to faithfully fulfill his duty to prepare our kids for them, as superintendents in surrounding districts are doing.

It seems self-evident that his activism on this matter has fatally compromised his ability to perform his obligation as superintendent. Should he wish to continue his pursuit of undermining the program he is tasked with implementing at the expense of our kids’ performance (while taking it upon himself to risk losing federal school funding for the district), the only proper thing for him to do is resign.

Kenneth and Erin Stevenson

Rockville Centre