(Monroe – August 15, 2008) Recent actions by the Monroe City School Board and Superintendent James Dupree have created a crisis of confidence in the system among teachers and school employees, the president of the city’s largest employee organization said today.
“Educators hope to find support from the school board and the superintendent,” Monroe Federation of Teachers and School Employees Sandie Lollie said, “but instead they are told to leave and forced to pray. What kind of start is that for a new school year?”
Lollie was responding to events at the system’s back-to-school event on Thursday, at which the embattled Dupree and School Board Member Brenda Shelling crushed the enthusiasm teachers usually feel when school begins.
Both Lollie and Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan have written strongly-worded letters to the board, demanding apologies for Thursday’s performance and a guarantee that educators will be shown proper respect in the future.
MFT/SE leaders are meeting over the weekend to discuss the events and to recommend a course of action if the board’s response is unsatisfactory.
The superintendent, whose on again, off again contract with the board has the system in a state of turmoil, began Thursday’s convocation with a warning. Dupree told teachers that if they don’t like the situation in Monroe, they can quit their jobs.
For her part, Shelling criticized teachers for their lukewarm response to Dupree, telling them that they looked “pathetic.” She said she would not like to be a student in their classes, and ordered them to join in a “healing prayer” led by a Protestant minister. Many teachers walked out of the convocation.
Shelling’s order to pray was inappropriate and possibly illegal, Lollie said.
“Many people believe in the healing power of prayer,” Lollie said, “but I hope that no one sees any virtue in a prayer that is required by a government official. People of all faiths should find that offensive.”
Lollie said the turmoil is a result of the political infighting that has rent the school board since last March, when a five-to-two majority of members voted against renewing Dupree’s contract. A second vote narrowed the margin in favor of dismissing Dupree to four-to-three. The community was stunned last Tuesday, when the board reversed itself, and voted four-to-three to renew the superintendent’s contract.
“In the meantime, the board spent $28,000 on a consultant to help find a new superintendent,” Lollie said, “knowing full well that they intended to rehire Dupree. That is a shameful waste of taxpayer money.”
Teachers and school employees no longer have any confidence in the school system’s leadership, Lollie said.
“Teachers are ready to go into the classrooms and give the children our best effort,” Lollie said, “but we are not robots. The things we have been subjected to are bound to have an effect.”