The Ypsilanti Courier
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Board members heard complaints about principal
Teachers voiced concerns during informal meeting
By Kathleen R. Conat, Special Writer
PUBLISHED: April 26, 2007
For months, the union presidents of both the teachers' and support staff unions said they fielded complaints from their members about occurrences at Ypsilanti High School and their treatment at the hands of its principal, Layne Hunt.
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Similarly, Ypsilanti Board of Education members received complaints from parents regarding reports of violence and other issues in the school.
During that period of time, both the union representatives and the board members expressed their concerns to James Hawkins, superintendent of the district. According to sources who wished to remain anonymous, Hawkins began the new year by following up with each complainant.
"Usually, what I heard back from him was a much gentler version of what I had originally been told," said one source.
According to Kelly Powers, president of the Ypsilanti Education Association, teachers' complaints would be addressed at Professional Rights and Responsibilities meetings. Those meetings are regularly held with district administrators to discuss issues and, hopefully, settle them before they become official grievances.
"The teachers wanted this to work out," Powers said. "They wanted to believe in Dr. Hunt at first."
Sources close to the events, however, said that Hunt was not ready or willing to work with them. So, the complaints began and continued.
"There are no real steps we have to take in order to address these issues," Powers said. "The unions can do whatever we want, as far as meeting with administration and the school board." She said there were many complaints over the months, but that teachers agreed to meet privately with administrators rather than take the issues public.
"Then there was the presentation put on at the board meeting in February," Powers said. "That was supposed to show what was happening at the high school. Instead, it turned into a 'Dr. Hunt is wonderful' thing. After that, the other side wanted to be heard."
Still, the teachers were reluctant to air the high school's dirty linen in public. According to Powers, they felt speaking out at a public meeting would send a bad message to the community. Instead, Hawkins was informed teachers would be meeting with Board of Education trustees.
"He didn't like it," Powers said, "but we had every right to do it. There is no policy, nor is it negotiated in the contract that teachers can't speak to the board.
"The trustees who came were going to share what they heard with the entire board," Powers said. "These were sensitive issues, because teachers were telling what they, themselves, had experienced. This was not hearsay."
Powers said the high school faculty was divided by that time. "We had four or five teachers who backed Dr. Hunt," she said, "and about 20 who were vocal about not backing him. There were a lot of teachers who did not speak up, though. They were the unknowns, who said nothing. A lot of those were untenured teachers..."
The meeting was arranged for 4 p.m. March 8 in the Michigan Educational Association offices on Carpenter Road. Trustees Cameron Getto and Andrew Fanta had confirmed they would be there. Getto and Fanta said that they questioned whether Trustee Tom Reiber would attend.
"I probably said something like 'I'll check my calendar' or 'I'll get back to you,'" Reiber said when interviewed. "I always intended to go, though."
With Reiber's intentions unclear, Getto invited the school board's vice president, Amy Doyle, to attend.
"I had known the meeting was going to happen," said Doyle, who has since resigned from the board, "but I was invited at the last minute. It was all very informal. I didn't think I would be there, even when the date was set."
All attendees who were interviewed for this story agreed the meeting started off with remarks by Getto and Fanta regarding why they were there and that this was a fact-finding meeting only.
"I took page upon page of notes," Fanta said later. "Basically, we said nothing further and just listened."
According to others in attendance, Reiber arrived about 40 minutes late to the meeting.
"I was late," Reiber said. "And I didn't expect such a big group. I don't recall exactly what (Fanta) had said to me, but I was under the impression it would be the three or four teachers. It threw me."
Reiber said he had to find a spare chair and, when he finally pulled it up and sat down, Doyle looked startled.
"She said, 'it's four,' and I thought she meant it was four o'clock and I thought, 'no, it's later than that,'" Reiber said. "But she meant there were four of us in the room. She got up and left right away."
Having four school board members in the room constituted a quorum, which would have been in violation of the Open Meetings Act had Doyle stayed.
Reiber said he listened to the teachers, although he felt he had heard the complaints before, but was uncomfortable being in the meeting.
"I felt set up. I didn't know there would be so many teachers. I felt other board members should have had the same opportunity," he said. "I think there should have been a second meeting or some other way of contacting the rest of the board."
Reiber said he stayed until Fanta told him it was his turn to rotate out, then returned home. Although he did not recall the length of time he was at the meeting, others in attendance said he remained for about one hour.
Teachers' complaints voiced at the meeting included inconsistencies in how the students were treated and disciplined and presented letters from students attesting to these inconsistencies. Teachers also were concerned about manipulation of students, as well as a growing racial division between students as well as the teachers themselves.
"We have never had a racial divide among the teaching staff at Ypsilanti High School," declared a former teacher who wished to remain anonymous. "We always got along because our focus was what was best for the students. Disagreements? Yes. Divisions? No."
Other concerns expressed by teachers at the meeting included fears that Hunt would use the master schedule for retaliation against teachers he didn't like; the composition of the school's hiring committees, which did not include the heads of departments; and treatment of teachers, both individually and collectively, by Hunt.
"We had been telling teachers they had to put their names to things, but they had a fear of retaliation," said Getto, who has since resigned from the board. "By this time, though, they had reached a place where they felt it couldn't get any worse. Still, they tried to protect the district by having a private meeting instead of speaking at a board meeting."
That attempt was a failure by the following Monday's board meeting, when Hunt supporters accused the participants of meeting in secret, without Hawkins' knowledge and in violation of the Open Meetings Act.
"That is not true," Reiber said. "In order to violate the act, we'd have had to meet for the purpose of making a decision. No decision was made and the minute Amy realized there were four of us in the room she left. There was never any attempt to violate the act."
A complaint was filed with the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Department and an investigation into allegations of possible violations is being conducted, according to Commander Dave Egeler. He could not give a time by which the investigation might be wrapped up.
Kathleen Conat is a longtime Ypsilanti resident and freelance writer for The Courier. She can be reached through editor@ypsilanticourier.com.
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