The Hastings School Board intends to make a decision regarding tenure for Deborah Augarten, the district coordinator for special education, prior to a Board meeting on July 7th. This represents a significant change in procedure, as a feedback period regarding her tenure status was scheduled to end on August 10th, with a final decision to be rendered on October 15th.
This change has been made so that the outgoing superintendent can influence the final judgment for our district. We the undersigned request that the original review dates be reinstated and that the Board engage in due diligence with full community input and feedback regarding Ms. Augarten's tenure.
Our concern is that this represents an attempt by the Board to rush through a controversial tenure appointment without an appropriate process of soliciting feedback from parents, teachers and relevant professionals. To this end, multiple stakeholders have come forward during the past few weeks and raised serious questions about Ms. Augarten's professional conduct, expertise, ability to work with parents and staff and adequately represent and negotiate the needs of individual students within the district's current capacity. Their letters will be submitted in the coming days to the Board.
We are concerned that the effect of moving up the tenure decision date without public notification is to deny opportunities for Hastings residents to comment, especially during the summer season. Many parents, teachers and education professionals fear prejudicing students receiving services if complaints were raised during the school year. Now, many are prepared to come forward. They deserve a hearing.
The Board has indicated that it would have to hear evidence of an egregious offense as a sufficient reason to deny tenure. Why is that a tenure worthy criteria ? According to Board policy, tenure should only be granted for "excellent performance", not for the absence of an egregious offense.
While Hastings has one of Westchester county's highest rates of school taxes and expenditures per pupil, our sense is that our school system has been losing it's former luster. We strongly urge the Board to gather the facts, solicit feedback and allow more people to speak to this important decision. The director of special education is entrusted with coordinating services for our most vulnerable students. We owe our children nothing less than our best efforts.
