ORANGE — Despite investigations, staff absences and classroom evacuations this year, the teachers want it known that Fisher Hill is a “great little school” that was mischaracterized as a “toxic working environment” in a statement from School Committee Chairwoman Stephanie Conrod.
At this week’s Orange Elementary School Committee meeting, teachers union president and sixth grade teacher Cara Chilton read a response to Conrod’s statement, which was read at a School Committee meeting on Dec. 17 and subsequently published as an opinion piece in the Recorder.
Titled “The Truth About Fisher Hill School,” the union response states, “Ms. Conrod wrote of an atmosphere of fear and intimidation. We have no idea where she hears such things.”
The School Committee does not endorse Conrod’s statement, according to Vice Chairwoman Amy White.
The passage that has teachers upset reads: “For as long as I have known, Fisher Hill has been a toxic working environment. This didn’t happen in a vacuum either. This goes back at least 10 years or more – two superintendents and three principals ago, and it has only gotten worse … I have heard stories of the adults not working as a team, stuck in ‘past practices’ even if it goes against current data and policy, fracturing into social cliques, a fear of bringing issues and concerns to the union and administration, and worried they’ll receive a poor evaluation, risk retaliation, or lose their job.”
Fisher Hill Elementary School has struggled this year with disruptive and sometimes violent student behavior from kindergartners and first graders, leading teachers to evacuate their classrooms to other areas of the school in an attempt to keep students away from potentially dangerous peers. Meanwhile, there have been state and district investigations into allegations of child abuse and endangerment by several staff members, including Principal Maureen Donelan, who was placed on paid administrative leave on Oct. 3.
No details of the allegations have been released publicly, but Donelan was cleared of any wrongdoing by the Department of Children & Families, and has received consistent support from the staff, the majority of whom signed a letter supporting the principal. A separate letter from Fisher Hill staff called for Donelan to be reinstated as a solution to the problems with student behavior. The response to Conrod’s statements further supported Donelan.
“As tough as it may have been, Fisher Hill was never ‘toxic,’ as Stephanie described. It is certainly not toxic now. Under Principal Maureen Donelan, we have made great progress moving toward alignment of curriculum,” the statement reads. “For the first time ever we have grade level meetings, professional learning communities and all staff work in collaboration across grades.”
The union statement did acknowledge Conrod was correct in stating Fisher Hill had a reputation for many years as having a “tough culture” with senior staff stubbornly clinging to the “old ways” of teaching. However, Conrod’s opinion piece was “hurtful to the teachers and staff,” the statement reads.
The union statement also said that Donelan “can be tough” on the teachers, but that is her job as principal, and that Donelan is “fair, impartial, always available, always supportive and she always puts the kids first in everything she does.”
Conrod did not mention Donelan by name in her piece, but pointed to “children and their parents and professional culture” as the two underlying issues at Fisher Hill.
“Functioning in such a professional culture, where the perception of silence for self-preservation is better than advocating for help, is unhealthy and we are educating children in an environment like this. Something has got to change in that building,” Conrod wrote.
Orange Selectboard member Tom Smith also took issue with Conrod’s piece, and said he was “very embarrassed by reading some of the words in there,” specifically the word “toxic.” Smith also said Conrod should not have alluded to past employees.
“I did not use any names, and it was a general statement,” Conrod said when Smith asked her about the piece at a joint meeting between the Selectboard and School Committee.
Reach David McLellan at dmclellan@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 268.