There were a lot of questions answered and some that were left unanswered at a community forum held Thursday, Nov. 12 at the Concord Town Hall.
To begin the meeting, Springville-GI Superintendent Vicki Wright introduced former Athletic Director Bill Dickinson to read a prepared statement that is below in full:
“I would like to preface the few statements that I have to make by saying that my family and I are absolutely overwhelmed by the kindness, generosity and backing of the entire Springville community. We cannot thank you enough; if I had enough time and energy to give everybody here a big hug I would certainly do so. So please consider that done. On that note I have a few things I would like to convey to you. I take ownership for knowingly violating a policy over a period of time in front of students and since I have to hold my students to district standards under district policy I do not expect the district to do any less. Although there may be questions regarding my certification, I am the one responsible for knowing those requirements and I am uncertified for the position that I hold. Because the superintendent and the Board had nothing to do with these issues, it is not appropriate to blame them for our circumstances. In fact, the superintendent has worked on my behalf in an effort to resolve my problems as favorably as possible. I want to apologize to the superintendent and to the board for any hardships that may have occurred as a result of my actions. I will be asking the superintendent and board to accept my resignation. I believe this matter is over and I ask that you do the same. On that note, before you go to bed tonight when you hit that knee, say one more for me and I’m going to do likewise for you. Thank you.”
After the audience applauded the departing administrator, Wright said, “Bill Dickinson is a very great person. I really admire him for being able to come up and make those statements today. I wish him and his family well and I know that things will go well for him and his family. Sometimes there are no-win situations.”
Wright said that she felt it would be helpful for the community to understand district certification. She made it clear that both the hiring and certification processes are different for teachers and administrators. “You have to be certified first for the job for which you apply,” she said. “The administrator is responsible for knowing what he or she is or is not able to do.”
Pulling examples from her own file, Wright displayed copies of both an SAS (School Administrator and Supervisor Certificate) and an SDA (School District Administrator).
According to Wright, an SAS confines the holder to a specific building and does not qualify him for a K-12 district-level position. In order to hold a district-level position, a person must have an SDA.
“Laws have been tightened,” said Wright, “We are prohibited by law to pay anybody in an administrative capacity who is not certified. We have to be very careful.”
Wright clarified that a coordinator of physical education is required to hold an SDA certification, provisionary or permanent. According to the Department of Education, Dickinson has an SAS and a physical education certificate, qualifying him for the position of athletic director but not coordinator or director of physical education. “I believe that Mr. Dickinson didn’t fully understand what his certification included,” said Wright. “He did no wrong.”
In response to a question asking why Dickinson could not be allowed to remain as athletic director while he obtained the proper certification, Wright answered, “We cannot pay a person for a job they cannot do. If there is a breach it is unethical for me not to make it known. My license and the Board’s credibility are always on the line.”
Wright explained that she had not known that Dickinson didn’t have the right qualifications until she was made aware that he had used smokeless tobacco on school property and had to pull his file. “After I saw that Bill wasn’t qualified for the job he was holding, I called our lawyer,” she said.
In a letter that Dickinson sent to Board President Michael Connors and to the Board at large on November 10 he said, of being hired at S-GI, “At my second interview with the superintendent I pointed out that I did not have health certification and was advised that certification in physical education was sufficient for the position. I was advised that the SAS certification was sufficient. I never represented in any fashion that I had an SDA; at no time was I ever advised that I needed to complete work and certification for either SDA or health.” He added that although he provided the Board with his SAS certification and permanent physical education certification, when his personnel file was retrieved earlier this year those documents as well as an evaluation done by his former superintendent were missing from his file.
In regard to his tobacco use, Dickinson added, “When the issue was raised, I forthrightly acknowledged my failure and promised that it would not reoccur. I have since quit completely.”
An audience member asked why the S-GI Board had failed to make sure Dickinson had the proper identification before he was hired. “The Board expects that when they get information, that information is tried, true and correct,” said Wright. “I was not here. The bottom line by law is that we who hold our certification know the job we are able to do. If the District makes an error the final authority and responsibility lies on the shoulder of the person, not the District.”
She went on to say that there are many people in the community who watch the fiscal decisions of the school board. “There is no way that we could do without a director of health and PE,” she said, and added that if S-GI were to keep Dickinson on the payroll as athletic director another employee would need to be hired to fulfill the second half of the job.
“You’re scaring me to think that there might be teachers here who aren’t certified,” an audience member said. “Can we see credentials of teachers?” A Springville woman pointed out that it is very easy to check on a New York state administrator’s credentials. “I just googled his name,” she said. “It’s right there on-line.” (visit http://eservices.nysed.gov/teach/certhelp/CpPersonSearchExternal.jsp and enter first and last name).
A resident’s comment that the school district has employed four different athletic directors over the past 10 years was met with applause. “I’m sensitive to your argument. We understand if there’s a pay issue,” the audience member said. “But I don’t believe for a moment that there isn’t some answer to this other than ‘goodbye, thank you.’” Another resident commented, “If you wanted to keep him you could keep him. You could have done something.”
Wright said that it was Dickinson’s own decision to resign from his position and that decision came from a meeting he had with his attorney that she was not privy to.
A resident protested that the school could appeal to the Board of Education for a waiver, but Wright said that they were not going to take that route. “Because of No Child Left Behind, our attorney has advised us that waivers are very difficult to obtain,” she said.
“You said that you tried everything and you didn’t,” responded the questioner.
“I’m trying to be as transparent as possible,” Wright answered. “We don’t like to do business in public. This Board has said nothing that would cause any employee humiliation. The only reason we are even talking about this was because it became public. By someone other than me.”
After an audience member commented that she is concerned the school is sending a message to future teachers that there is no working with the Springville District, the superintendent said, “I disagree with that.”
Wright recognized an S-GI student who had attended the forum. “I don’t understand why Mr. Dickinson is getting in trouble for using smokeless tobacco when I’ve personally seen other teachers using it on school property,” he said. Wright answered that she was not aware of the issue and an audience member urged the student to turn the teacher in question in to the Board. “Our schools are tobacco-less across the board,” said Wright. “It is against the law to use tobacco of any kind on school property and teachers sign an agreement saying that they are aware of that policy.”
A teacher from another school district directed a statement to the audience: “Certification is a legal issue. I’m a little disturbed that a community is asking someone to do something that is against the law. In my classroom if I do it for one student, I have to do it for everyone else.”
Another member of the audience said, “This can be easily taken care of,” but Wright disagreed. “There is no easy solution. We can’t just snap our fingers and make the problems go away.”
She added that the District is currently reviewing every personnel file, including her own.
A question arose as to whether it would be legal for Dickinson to swap positions with a properly certified school staff member for the duration of his certification period, and then returning to his former position. Dickinson’s letter stated, “All I need are 24 graduate level credits. I could earn the remaining graduate credits by December 2010 if not sooner. If I had known that the S-GI district wanted me to have additional certification, I most definitely would have been working on it all this time - and it would have been completed by now.” The questioner added that she knew of a school employee who was willing to make the switch.
But Wright argued that the position swap could be a bargaining issue rather than a legal issue. When she was urged to bring the matter before the school board she responded that she would think about it. At audience members’ protests, she added, “I have to be able to present positives and negatives to the Board. I can’t just go and say ‘Here’s a suggestion from person A.’ That would be irresponsible.
“Mr. Emerling, you own a Chevy car dealership,” said Wright to Carl Emerling, owner of Emerling Ford, Mercury and Emerling Chevrolet, who was in attendance, “I have a Chevy. When I moved to this district I called you and asked why I should use your dealership and you said, ‘Because we only use certified people to work on your car.’ That’s a good thing. You all may not like our decisions. It is what it is. But it’s also important that the people who work with our children have the proper certification.
“You may never like where we are,” she added. “I don’t like where we are. I apologize to this district. Do you think that I wanted this to happen? Not on your life.”
The audience applauded a question about the matter of John Baronich, middle school principle, but Wright said that she was not allowed to comment. “What we discuss in executive session is a privileged conversation. We are allowed to discuss personnel, but we just don’t like to do it.”
A Springville man thanked the superintendent for holding the forum and added,
“What we care about is our kids and their education. The Dickinsons have been here for two years. We’ve come to care about them too. There are a lot of us here. We are looking for a positive resolution, a compromise.”
Sandy Emerling asked Wright if she had spoken directly with Dickinson. Wright responded that after attorneys are brought into a lawsuit the interested parties no longer talk face-to-face and that she met with Dickinson for the first time on Tuesday evening, Nov. 10.
In response to a question about issues in Ravena, Wright’s former school district, the superintendent said, “There are always two sides to every story. You know that and I know that. That was a very different situation.”
Superintendent Advisory Committee Member Marsha Reding urged the community to come to more Board meetings and comment on the positive issues as well as the negative.
“We are going to have to agree to disagree,” Wright said in closing. “I appreciate you coming out, but I think it’s futile to go around and around with our questions.” She thanked the Board members in attendance and added that community members who had further questions were welcome to come directly to her. Wright can be reached at 592-3230.