From the Newburyport News
SEABROOK— Behind closed doors on Monday night, School Board members changed the leadership at the elementary and middle school, reverting to one principal for both schools, with a vice principal at the middle school.
Jeni Mosca, longtime principal of Seabrook Elementary School, will also be principal of Seabrook Middle School for the 2008 to 2009 school year. Les Shepard, recently appointed assistant principal of the middle school, was elevated to the role of vice principal. Prior to his assuming the assistant principal’s role after Jim Elder resigned on June 30, Shepard was a seventh-grade language arts teacher at the middle school.
Added to the leadership mix next year will be a six-teacher administrative council, the selection of which is yet to be determined. The council will include one teacher from each of the five grades at the school and one teacher from the unified arts department.
Assistant School Superintendent Maureen Ward said this new model is called a professional learning community, which places teachers in formal advisory roles. She said such models have been successful in other communities. The hope is to improve at the middle school, which has struggled to prepare its students educationally for decades, according to learning assessment scores.
The decision to change the previous format of a principal for each school with an assistant principal for the middle school came after the board learned Monday night of the retirement of middle school Principal Stan Shupe. With school set to start on Aug. 26, immediate action was necessary, according to the board.
The board and Ward adjourned into secret session Monday night after voting to accept Shupe’s retirement letter so they could discuss options. When asked by this reporter to delineate all their options in public, the board and Ward refused to do so, citing the need to discuss “personnel” issues in regard to these options. Some personnel issues must be discussed in closed session.
Yesterday, Ward issued a news release announcing the change in format and the new roles for Mosca and Shepard. Ward said the board reconvened in public session to take the actually votes to make the appointments.
Ward said she did not intend to violate New Hampshire’s Right to Know Law, which requires government bodies to conduct all business — except a very narrow number of issues — in public. Ward said since Mosca’s and Shepard’s evaluations would be discussed in conjunction to their possible new roles, she felt the entire discussion should be closed to the public.
Ward conceded the new leadership model chosen, as well as other options, could have been discussed generally in open session without infringing upon sensitive personnel issues.
Ward learned of Shupe’s intended retirement on July 29, almost a week before the board’s scheduled meeting Monday night. No mention of Shupe’s unexpected retirement was posted on Monday’s agenda, however. Ward said she did not feel the need to revise the posted agenda to include Shupe’s retirement, feeling it could be handled in the “personnel” section of the agenda.
Ward said the board made the best decision they could within the time frame.
“I didn’t handle this in this way because of a lack of trust of the public,” Ward said. “I believe (the public will) be 100 percent behind Jeni and Les.”
Mosca said the new format is a “work in progress,” but there is a system in place to proceed. She said parents with children in elementary school should not worry.
“We want to reassure parents that there will be no changes in the elementary school,” Mosca said. “The day to day operation of the middle school will be handled by Les Shepard and the administrative council, whose role is to change the climate (at the middle school) from within. My role is to change the climate from the outside with public relations and with parents.”
Mosca said although responsibilities are divided, as the middle school principal, the buck stops at her desk.
“I’m hoping parents will take what they know about me and know I can make a difference,” Mosca said. “That’s the absolute best hope I have for this community.”