Bedroom community, Anna, Texas has reason to be superstitious; Black Friday, a legend come true rocked the town’s school district on March 9. Dressed fir a funeral, Superintendent Joe Wardell and assistant superintendent Elaine Rulla marched down the halls like sheriff and deputy. Three teachers learned their contracts were not being renewed and Principal Dr. Jenks was demoted to office drone.
Why, in a town of 7,000 would school officials publicly humiliate employees? Intimidation? To perpetuate a rumor? To turn neighbors against each other? Only, no one seems to be on the superintendents’s side. Why embarrass? Revenge.
"Dr. Jenks said she believes the school district retaliated against her because she recommended contract termination for one teacher.
Carol Falls, a first-year teacher, got the news about her dismissal while going to pick up papers in the office about 10:15 a.m. on Black Friday. She thinks she knows why.
Two weeks earlier, Ms. Falls said, she had seen Assistant Superintendent Dirk Callison enter the small TAKS room at Central Campus, home to pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and fifth-grade students.
Fifth-graders had taken the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills two days earlier. Their booklets and answer sheets were locked in the room awaiting shipment to the grading company.
The Texas Education Agency has security rules in place because of fears about cheating. TAKS scores determine a district's academic rating, and school officials are under pressure to raise scores year by year.
The sign on the TAKS room door read, 'TAKS Coordinator Only.' And Mr. Callison was not the coordinator.
Dr. Jenks has not identified that teacher publicly, but others said it was Mr. Callison's wife, Jan, an art teacher at Central Campus.
Mr. Callison said his wife's job performance had nothing to do with Dr. Jenks' removal as principal.
'It is a personnel matter, but there is absolutely nothing there,' Mr. Callison said. "
Karen Ayers, The Dallas Morning News
In small towns nothing is left to the imagination, but everyone deserves their dignity. The superintendents show no remorse, perhaps even enjoyed parading through the school with pink slips. Dr. Wardell makes no apologies and poor excuses.
“I've been in education 26 years, and I have not found a good way to tell people that we're not renewing
their contracts."
Karen Ayers, The Dallas Morning News
Um, you could try telling staff in private; what a concept! 26 years in education and you haven’t learned common courtesy? Give me the job! 26 years seems like just enough time for a notorious legend to reoccur. Where’s the justification for these firings? A math and science teacher was dismissed, aren’t they the instructors America needs most? These individuals should receive apologies, reinstatements (although I hope they are too proud to accept) and the superintendents should be scrutinized. Maybe the city could find a reason to fire them.
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