Faculty members from Derby High School lambasted Superintendent Stephen Tracy Tuesday for changing a failing student’s grade.
Tracy changed a high school student’s failing grade in a statistics course to an “incomplete.”
“We are disturbed by the directive issued to our administrators and teaching staff by the superintendent,” said Derby Athletic Director and teacher Joseph Orazietti, reading a letter on behalf of the teacher’s union.
“The issue is not whether the action of our superintendent is illegal, but one of educational ethics, trust and delineation of roles and responsibilities.”
The Derby Administrators Association — the union representing school principals — lodged a formal grievance against Tracy.
Grievance Aired
A hearing on that grievance was held in Tuesday night during a school board executive session — a type of meeting legally closed to the public.
After meeting in private for just under two hours with Tracy, attorney Nicholas Grello, high school principal Fran Thompson and Derby administrators union president Fran Gallo, the school board decided Tracy’s action wasn’t in the wrong.
The school board unanimously approved a statement saying Tracy didn’t violate the district’s collective bargaining agreement with its union.
However, members of the school board said they would review Tracy’s policy regarding grading.
What Happened?
Tracy told the Valley Indy that a student at the high school had requested to withdraw from a class in January.
“For whatever reason that didn’t happen. He ended up failing the course,” Tracy said. “The family appealed to me and I looked at all the facts, talked to the folks in the school, talked to the family and decided an entry of incomplete would be appropriate,” the superintendent said.
“I think it’s important to say that this was not a student’s grade being raised, or any kind of favoritism. It was a judgment on my part that a request to withdraw, with no credit, should be honored — and that’s what happened.”
Teachers Worried
In the letter read by Orazietti Tuesday, the teachers union points out that Tracy went against the wishes of the student’s teacher and high school principal Fran Thompson in changing the student’s grade.
Tracy also sent word to the high school’s guidance department so that the change was reflected in the student’s college transcript, according to the letter read by Orazietti.
“From our perspective, our educational staff was put in a position to choose between our jobs — an act of insubordination — or make the grade change. What would you do?” Orazietti said.
High school guidance counselor Jennifer Dunnuck said she was “startled and markedly uncomfortable” after being asked to change the grade.
“I made the change because I was directed by a supervisor, but since have felt uneasy and very uncomfortable with it,” Dunnuck said.
Union Reaction
The Derby Administrators Association, which is the union representing city school principals, has the option to appeal the school board’s decision to an arbitrator.
Whether that happens remains to be seen, said Fran Gallo, union president.
“We’d have to meet with the executive board of the union and go from there,” he said.
When asked whether the grade-change issue will cause further tension between the superintendent and Derby teachers, Gallo said:
“It’s just something you move on from. You had a difference of opinion. It happens. You move on.”
