By Matthew McGevna
Parents say their children¹s education has drastically improved, at least in part, because of the work of Diane Scricca, David Zimbler, Vincent Romano, Steven Gilhuley, and Steve Benfante. The parents say they are reacting to strong evidence that Board of Education members intend to deny tenure to these administrators who work in various capacities in the district.
At the Board of Ed meeting held on February 13, the same night the budget was introduced, parent after parent took to the microphone during public participation and read letters into the record emphasizing their support for the Malverne five.
³There are no words to describe how proud I feel with the way these six have turned around the school,² said Suzanne St. John, referencing the fact that there were originally six administrators up for tenure. The sixth, District Director of Special Education John Moody, has left the Malverne School District and taken a position elsewhere. Parents attribute Moody¹s leaving to the fact that he strongly believed he was going to be denied tenure. One parent quoted him in her letter to the board as having said: ³I wasn¹t going to wait for the other shoe to drop.²
Many of the letters read before the board were in support particularly of Deputy Superintendent Diane Scricca. ³Mrs. Scricca believes in educating the entire child,² said Gina Genti in her letter. Genti has a child enrolled at Downing Elementary School and is a member of the Mothers of Malverne. ³She is producing for my child. Test scores are higher. Our schools are now being studied on how to succeed,² said Genti.
³I¹ve been waiting a long time for this type of administration,² added Jeanine Desposito.
According to the organizers of the letter blitz, when a teacher or administrator is going to be granted tenure, there is generally an informal, spoken nod of approval that happens well before the official tenure grant and that when the administrators began to notice they weren¹t given that unofficial nod, they began to suspect their tenure was in peril. ³It¹s sort of like when you¹re at a company and you¹re in line for a promotion. I¹ve spoken to a lot of educators in different districts and they all said that they [tenure candidates] know months in advance if they¹re getting tenure.²
However Superintendent Mary Ellen Freeley said no such informal approval takes place. She added that although she was glad to see the collective outpouring for the administrators, the reaction from parents may have been a little premature.
³I haven¹t made any recommendations to the board yet,² she said, ³I don¹t want anybody thinking that the board has said no to anybody yet, because they haven¹t.²
Each candidate for tenure will be recommended on an individual basis on different dates throughout the year, according to Freeley, who said that she has an excellent relationship with the board. Opinions vary on why the Board of Education would deny tenure, but Genti says the rumors were reliable enough to spark her and others to draft the letters.
In an email to fellow MOM members, Genti explained the importance of speaking out. ³If they are not granted tenure, they are gone‹plain and simple,² she wrote. ³We need to use our voices as members of the 12 [District 12] community to make the board aware of the desire to keep them.²
Members of the board are not permitted to comment about personnel issues. Scricca, Romano, Zimbler and Gilhuley all declined to comment; phone calls to Benfante were not returned.
Freeley said she understands the concerns of parents in Malverne, who have seen the school suffer from high turnover rates, and numerous superintendents, and now have finally started to see what they consider stability in the district.
³We know very well about the history of the school district, and people used to say to us, you¹re not sending your kids to that school,² said Richard Obiol, who has a child starting kindergarten next fall. ³But we noticed the school was coming back very strong, especially the progress that has been made over the years, and it¹s because of these administrators.²
Comments about this story? Mal-wheditor@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 205
