Croton-Harmon Board of Education appoints Stephen Walker to a new five year term as school superintendent.
The BoE rejects the pleas of some parents to delay the appointment pending an evaluation of Walker's performance, and grants him an initial 14.6% salary increase.
Despite the pleas of about a half dozen Croton-Harmon parents to delay the action, the Board of Education last night (June 12) unanimously approved a five year extension of Stephen Walker’s contract as school superintendent. The new agreement raises Walker’s salary by 14.6% to $282,000, with provisions for annual increases in that compensation “as a result of a qualitative evaluation of his performance.”
The board acted despite the pleas of a number of parents to hold off on approving the extension pending a current evaluation of Walker’s performance, which they claimed the trustees had not done in any meaningful way. Some parents cited the district’s relatively mediocre standing in New York State achievement tests and other indications that Walker’s tenure may be marked by a decline in academic standards.
“It’s unclear to me that Superintendent Walker is hitting any benchmarks,” commented parent Erica Laudon during a public comment segment of the meeting. Susan Skrelja, another parent, while declaring herself “indifferent” to whether Walker’s contract was extended, nevertheless told the board that it has “an obligation to clearly delineate the criteria used to evaluate the superintendent” and that the board had not made “any requests for community input into this matter.”
A few other parents showed up to support Walker. For example, Allie Fraase charged that “a vocal minority of community members are painting a negative picture of our schools.” Fraase pointed to a number of positive developments under Walker’s tenure, and listed several prestigious colleges which Croton-Harmon High School graduates would be attending this fall.
When it came time for board members to comment on Walker’s contract extension, the superlatives about his performance as superintendent flowed freely. Trustee Anamika Bhatnagar spoke the longest, praising Walker for being “extremely receptive” to parents and to the board, adding that this represented “a huge change from the first two superintendents I interacted with when I first came to this district eleven years ago.”
The board proceeded to unanimously approve the new agreement.
The meeting was also notable because it marked the last session that board member Josh Diamond will attend as a trustee. Diamond decided not to run for another term, but his heir apparent, Will Begeny, was not elected in his place. His seat will be taken by newcomer Allison Samuels, who received the most votes of the four candidates in the recent school board elections. Her three year term will begin on July 1.
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On February 13th the Board of Education presented their demographic study, projecting a net increase in students, mostly due to the new housing projects in the Village. https://go.boarddocs.com/ny/chufsd/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=DBMS6B7120C7
But by April, only 2 months later, and the Board of Education was now predicting a significant decline in enrollment, instead of an increase. https://go.boarddocs.com/ny/chufsd/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=DD7RNK6EAFDA.
The Property Tax Report Card shows a 3.39% decrease in enrollment from 1,592 to 1,538. That is despite all the additional housing that has been built, Pugh's Projects, and the extra Accessory Dwelling Units. Despite all this growth, parents of a net 54 children are withdrawing them. There is more housing and children than ever, but school enrollment is decreasing.
The wealthiest and pushiest parents are going private, going to neighboring districts, registering at homes outside the district, or just moving out. My kids tell me about their friends going to Chappaqua, Briarcliff, Catholic schools, and regular private schools, but staying in the District.
At last night's BOE meeting, one parent spoke about how he believed in public education, but was withdrawing, heartbroken, to go to St Augustine's in Ossining: https://staugustineschool.org/.
For years the same old people were saying there was nothing wrong, now those same people are saying it doesn't matter there is something wrong.
One of the speakers was a Special Education teacher who has devoted her career to helping special needs kids. It is insulting our intelligence and her integrity to suggest her support for academics for all, was somehow at the cost of special education. All kids deserve an education.
So many of the people who spoke against Walker were parents who were expert educators or teachers. On one side there were teachers from Chappaqua, other local Districts, and the City, arguing against rewarding Walker's failure. These are our expert parents, taxpayers, and voters. On the other side, the usual deluded political activists, with no teaching experience, who argued in favor of rewarding Walker.
Walker has created this problem for himself by interfering with partiality in the election, as reported in this newspaper. Appearing in support of one candidate at a private event, during the election, means Walker has publicly taken sides politically. Now one side of the community is hell-bent on replacing Walker.
It doesn't help Walker that he treats local journalists so badly and doesn't respond to their enquiries. He ignores the most local of newspapers.
Every annual Board of Education election from now on is in effect a plebiscite on eliminating Walker. Every candidate will be a proxy for either giving Walker a pay rise or firing him.
Isn’t it amazing how the board dragged out the teacher aide’s contracts for a tiny microscopic raise but didn’t bat an eye lash at a new contract for the superintendent with a very generous raise and yet he has no Phd. Do these people really think they are doing us any favors!