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Opinion: School, principal should work out their differences, says PHCS teacher

Posted 12/14/18

I promised myself that I would never mix social media and politics but, after seeing “a guy with concerns”, and his social media posts, and his position as a school board member, I reconsidered. …

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Opinion: School, principal should work out their differences, says PHCS teacher

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I promised myself that I would never mix social media and politics but, after seeing “a guy with concerns”, and his social media posts, and his position as a school board member, I reconsidered.

As many of you know I have been drawn into a battle to dismiss Virgina Doll from her position as high school principal at Parishville-Hopkinton Central.

I welcomed this fight with open arms, not because I am friends with Doll, but because she is one of the best principals I have seen in 29 years.

I am a pretty good judge of character and I she is a good person. She deserves more respect than this. I firmly believe she is an asset to the school district. I don’t think she is perfect by any means. Being a principal for the first time, she is bound to make mistakes.

But I do believe she has the potential to be one of the best administrators to ever work here. A diamond in the rough if you will.

For the last year and a half we have been teaching students about the power of positivity and every morning for much longer than that we start our day with “Always remember the golden rule, treat others the way you want to be treated.” What are you all, a bunch of hypocrites? This is not the way Miss Doll is being treated.

We, as a faculty, have been encouraged to create a mentorship program to help our new teachers. It only makes sense with the looming teacher shortage to try and keep the teachers you hire and help them become highly effective.

It should be no different for the administrative team. The administrator shortage is just as bad or worse. Why would you expect someone to be successful without any help and then act surprised when they make mistakes or fail? How could Miss Doll think her conduct was anything but proper, when no one approached her to tell her otherwise?

We have been plagued by constant administrative turnover for years. It is not good for the district. Mentoring between our administrators needs to happen.

By mentoring I mean, someone with more authority or experience offers assistance and constructive criticism to their subordinates.

There is a laundry list of reasons for her dismissal, none of which impact students. I find many of them hard to believe.

Things like ”asking the superintendent to reach out to a teacher to correct a requisition” and “You routinely came in late!” Are you serious?

What bothers me most about all of this; is the fact that it involves educated, intelligent people and this whole matter could have been resolved with 15 minutes of direct dialogue!

Let’s imagine for a moment everything Miss Doll was accused of was true.

Why did no one say anything to her? You liked her well enough to hire her, and keep her for 3-½ years and never once complained about her performance. As a matter of fact, as stated at the last board meeting, by a former board member, you approved a pay raise for her a little over two months ago at the recommendation of the superintendent for her exemplary performance.

I believe all of this turmoil could have been avoided had Miss Doll been mentored/counseled privately by Dr. Collins and we would not be in the mess we are in now. I also believe it’s not too late to right this injustice.

We have an opportunity to really do something special here, let's show the whole community what civil discourse is. Why not table this December 20th vote to dismiss and send Miss Doll and Dr. Collins into his office to have the closed door discussion that should have taken place long ago and see if we can work through this.

What can that hurt? Can you imagine seeing that in the Paper “School district and principal work out differences.”

That my friends could be a real Christmas miracle.

Scott Lalonde

Parishville-Hopkinton Central School teacher