Loss of LHS Exec Principal and Johns @ Stirpe Town Hall Meeting
March 12, 2010
The Post-Standard reported yesterday that LHS Executive Principal Grenardo Avellino will be resigning from his post at the end of the school year. The article states that the reason for his resignation was due to the fact that the District is doing away with the executive principal role with the new academy system that is being proposed for the 2010-2011 academic year.
The interesting point is that Avellino was right there in the thick of things on March 1st when the District Administrative Team pitched the Academies Plan to those assembled at the BoE Meeting. He seemed to understand the plan and there were even comments made to the effect that he would be overseeing all of the academies. One would think that there would still be a need to have someone overseeing all of the academies in some sort of administrative capacity.
Based on what we have heard from parents and students alike and even a few faculty members who were willing to share some information with us, there may be more to this story than what is being shared publicly. Across the board LHS teachers are concerned about the lack of transparency in this plan and the fact that this entire program was designed, developed and structured without their input. One would think that the involvement of ALL stakeholders who be the most appropriate direction in the planning of this new concept yet it was not what the District Administrative Team had in mind.
We have been told that Avellino stepped up, like any good building principal would, and shared the teachers’ views with the District Administrative Team and took an advocate-like role for his teachers and Dr. Johns did not appreciate that stance. Seeing Avellino as a threat to his overall plan, Johns told him either get on board or start sending out resumes; Avellino, seeing the writing on the wall, decided to let Johns go down with his already sinking ship.
Our best to Mr. Avellino, certainly one of the “good guys” in education today. Wherever he may go after Liverpool, they will be very fortunate to have him!
Members of our group, LIVES (Liverpool Invests in Viable Educational Solutions), have been researching Dr. Johns’ interesting career history and will be reporting more on that in the days to come.
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Last night Assemblyman Al Stirpe held a town hall meeting at the LHX cafeteria at the request of members of our organization. Close to twenty residents were in attendance to hear him share some of the intricacies of the issues with the State Budget and to listen to residents’ concerns. After presenting a slide show presentation on the State Budget, Mr. Stirpe opened up the floor to questions from the audience.
Many has questions about the State Budget and the state of the LCSD was also discussed in detail with Mr. Stirpe. We share our concerns about the District’s budget process and the lack of transparency that has many residents unsettled. The lack of sharing the proposed budget with the public and the short timeline that State Education Law requires for the to be shared, discussed and eventually voted on my the residents was discussed in detail. We are confident that our concerns did not fall an deaf ears. More on that once we have details on exactly what Mr. Stirpe will be trying to do for us.
Mr. Stirpe found himself in somewhat of an awkward situation as Dr. Johns, Board Member Michael Murphy, Bonnie Ladd – Director of Technology and another District Administrator whose identity we are not sure of at this time were all seated together in the audience. Johns’ attendance was something that we were all very excited about. His mere attendance lets us know that he is concerned about the rapidly increasing disapproval of his proposed budget and the research and investigation that LIVES has been doing over the past six weeks. Stay tuned for more in the coming days …
