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Today's Poll!Blair Oaks principal testifies at all-day hearing
School board listens, makes no decision
Blair Oaks Elementary School Principal Lorie Winslow, left, and her attorney Andrew Drazen listen as the school board's attorney questions one of several teachers during Saturday's open hearing in Wardsville regarding the board's decision not to renew Ms. Winslow's contract. Photo by Kris Wilson.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
WARDSVILLE, Mo. - After more than 12 hours of testimony Saturday, there still is no resolution in the matter of Blair Oaks School District not offering a renewed contract to elementary school principal Lorie Winslow for the 2012-13 school year.
Much of the morning testimony, which started around 9 a.m., was filled with attorneys asking teachers to confirm if they had received evaluations, whether they had signed the evaluations and to explain the purpose and function of the evaluations.
Winslow’s counsel, Andrew Drazen of Doster Ullom LLC, was allowed to call witnesses first. The school district’s attorney, Margaret Hesse, was allowed to cross-examine those witnesses.
After a morning of testimony and lunch adjournment, Winslow took the stand herself.
When Winslow took the stand, she immediately began telling about her 11-year history with the district. “I love my job,” Winslow said. “I love what I do. I love coming to work every day. I truly believe I am doing a good job.”
Winslow was questioned by her attorney and by the district’s attorney for about 90 minutes each.
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Comments
GLuetkemeyer 1 year, 1 month ago
Dangerous Precedent ... The Blair Oaks school board will be setting a dangerous precedent if they decide to value PAPERWORK (which does not directly impact the students) more than overall JOB PERFORMANCE (in issues such as student safety, student performance, staff stability, etc.). Does that mean that if any other paperwork or documentation is out of order that school personnel are in jeopardy of losing their job??? Not exactly a stable working environment. If you go into a teacher's room and ask for lesson plans for the entire year, and the teacher can't produce them, would that mean that the district will assume that they were NOT teaching all that time? IF they don't have a current copy of the curriculum on file in their room, would that be interpreted as them NOT FOLLOWING district policy, and later be grounds for termination?
The Blair Oaks district has in the past struggled with special education paperwork. Many parents are aware that the district has been out of compliance, but have chosen to work WITH the district instead of taking measures against them. Entire student IEPs have been missing in the past, annual IEP dates missed ... There is no precedent that action was taken AGAINST anyone for those types of infractions which DIRECTLY affected students. While special education paperwork has seemed to improve, the district has been given a chance to correct the situation.
Have any of those past failures been reported to the school board?
The school board is deciding on what seems like an issue that affects one staff member, but its implications reach much further ...
It will be a dangerous precedent to set, and they have not been given an overall look at how the district fairs with PAPERWORK in other areas ...
Ginger Luetkemeyer
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