Editorial: When the going gets tough ...

Thursday, 28 January 2010 00:00

Times may be getting tough in the Katonah-Lewisboro School District, but the school board apparently is not.

Unfortunately, board members looked lost last week when they quickly approved Superintendent of Schools Dr. Robert Roelle’s recommendation to appoint Carol Ann Lee as the district’s head of human resources, a top-level district job that reports directly to Dr. Roelle. The only dissenting vote was by Dr. Peter Treyz.

The problem isn’t necessarily with Ms. Lee, but with the board blindly backing yet another superintendent recommendation — one that deserved questioning. It is the latest example of why there is a growing lack of confidence among the public in the board’s ability to provide the leadership to steer the district through what will likely be the most difficult time it has faced in decades, as heavy economic forces begin to compromise the high level of education here.

The concerns over Ms. Lee’s appointment stem from her lack of any human resources experience yet she now heads a department that deals with very sensitive personnel matters that can lead to lawsuits if mishandled; and that only one person was interviewed for the job because Dr. Roelle wanted someone with district experience, even though Ms. Lee — brought here from Dr. Roelle’s old district in Ossining — has less than two years of it. Add in that Dr. Roelle’s own track record in filling this position is poor — his previous choice announced her resignation because she couldn’t handle the workload after only a year-and-a-half on the job — and the board should have done its due diligence and postponed making any appointment until more candidates, including those outside the district, were interviewed. But the board does not like questioning Dr. Roelle — it has never denied any of his personnel choices.

This same-old behavior will not bode well for the district and needs to change. This is because while district residents have long had among the highest property taxes in the country, they were willing to pay them because of the excellent education here and the flush economic times that kept salaries high enough to afford them. But now both of those factors are at risk, which puts the old district business model in dire straits.

The district is facing state aid and massive teacher cuts that will result in larger class sizes in the younger grades and less variety of classes at John Jay. School officials are considering charging youth organizations to use their facilities, which will result in higher fees for parents. Remember that the district just discovered that it had failed to require the correct number of courses to graduate over the past 20 years, yet believes it is competent enough to consider overhauling the educational system with some radical changes, including significantly altering the high school schedule, eliminating Regents exams, widely expanding the sustainability curriculum, and turning the middle school into a junior high school.

With concern rising among its traditional supporters, the school board needs to direct Dr. Roelle to put down Tony Wagner’s book for a moment and look elsewhere for answers. Yes, unpopular cuts will be needed but the district should not turn to a new educational paradigm. Instead, it is time to get back to the basics of education so that they may continue to be provided at a high level. The district will need the direction of a decisive board to get that done.

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