Van Tassel gone as superintendent — sort of

Although the Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education has terminated its superintendent’s contract with Michael Van Tassel immediately, Van Tassel will still be serving as consultant as needed up to ten hours a week until January 31, 2017.
As consultant, he will generally be off district property, but could be brought inside if the interim superintendent determines it is needed.
He will be paid $290,528 separation, which the board said is a $166,956 savings to the district from what it could have paid.
The board also put Human Resources Director Shonta Langford-Green in place as interim superintendent with a pay upgrade of $100 per day over her current contract. This appointment can be terminated at any time with or without cause.
Members of the audience did not like the administrator who “carried water” for Van Tassel to be put in this position and said they though she might continue the pushing out of teachers that had been done under Van Tassel.
Barbara Rogalle Miller suggested they call the Wayne RESA for assistance, since it has a list of individuals with credentials who are ready to take short terms as interim superintendents.
Miller said Green was part of an administration that the community has shown a lack of confidence in. The ISD will properly vet the person who knows the assignment will be temporary.
She asked what credentials Green has and board president Brent Mikulski said they are not going to respond to questions and the audience yelled out.
Trustee Sherry Frazier said, “We’re at a crossroads. She’s not interested in the job and will pitch in to help. She does know the district and knows what’s going on. If it’s overwhelming, she can back out with two week’s notice and if we find she’s not up to it, we can stop it.”
Members of the huge audience at Monday’s two-and-a-half-hour school board meeting agreed that getting rid of Van Tassel was just the first step and other things must be done to win back the confidence of the community.
The board held a 44-minute closed-door session 10-minutes after the opening of the meeting. Trustee Sherry Frazier asked to have the closed-door meeting held after the regular business, so members of the audience would not have to wait for them.
But board president Mikulski rejected that and put the private meeting before business items – causing the long wait before the action began.
Several real estate businesspeople were in this audience, along with teachers and parents and concerned members of the community. Also present were reporters and camera crews from channels 2 and 4 and a reporter from The Detroit News.
After the board went back into open session at 7:54 p.m., board vice president Martha Toth made the motion to approve the Superintendent Separation Agreement and the motion was seconded by Trustee Alison Bennett. It later was approved unanimously.
In a long statement, Toth explained why she made the motion even though she rates Van Tassel as highly effective and someone who had done more for this district than anyone else.
“A group of people has said in person and in writing they will not stop until Van Tassel is gone, and I believe them,” Toth said, pointing out the cost to the community of the turmoil.
She said the community’s reputation is in tatters and the news media doesn’t care about the community. It will take a decade to recover, meanwhile the district will be losing students, which will mean cuts and layoffs. She said the students and teachers are in turmoil.
Toth called the situation “this utter debacle” and invited people to run for this board and put the needs of the children first … “better than this board has been able to do.”
Members of the audience clapped and whooped at her invitation to run for the board.
Instead of blaming the community, Trustee Frazier said, “The tragedy of what we’ve gone through as a district lies at this board table.” The audience applauded.
“A superintendent was exclusive, not inclusive,” Frazier said. “He did not get input from the staff or this board. Mr. Van Tassel is a victim of his making … poor decisions.”
She said the school board has a responsibility to the taxpayers to get the information on the schools themselves and not rely on what is fed to them from an administrative point of view.
Frazier said that many positive things Secretary Kevin English and Toth said about the district weathering problems is true and it’s because, “We have a community that supports our school.”
Then the public started giving comments, beginning with Gunesha Frederick, a 14-year teacher in the district whose resignation became final last week.
She told of how her classroom was moved eight times in three years and her classroom was moved twice in one week’s time. She said Van Tassel’s secretary Pam Johnson called her once to say she had three weeks before her room was dissolved.
After all of these moves she said she found she was not wanted in the district, and she consulted an attorney. When he asked what she wanted, she said she wanted change and he said he didn’t want change because the Van Buren Schools had put his kids through college.
That’s when her anxiety disorder kicked in with a loss of hearing. She thanked the attorney for his time and took days to recover.
“Everybody wants change now,” Frederick said. “This community wants change … I have a voice.”
She said for a year and a half she has been free of anxiety and depression, but now the nightmares have come back.
“Do not dummy down requirements for your superintendent and administrators,” Frederick urged the board.
Tammy Mida Kennedy then spoke about her new master’s degree arriving last week and it was not for teaching, but another specialty in academics.
“All I ever wanted to do was to be a teacher … Return to my school and teach,” Kennedy said, adding on Dec. 14, 2012 she left her teaching position in the Van Buren district because of the toxic atmosphere.
She said she taught seventh-grade English under a constant, pressurized supervision from Van Tassel. At one point she found Van Tassel and a consultant looking around in her room. She was being told she was being watched. She said her students asked, “Who is that man in the back of the classroom and why is he staring at you?”
Kennedy said her administrator, who also left the district, told her she had a target on her back.
“I wrote my resignation letter, which was somehow misplaced,” Kennedy said, adding a thank you to Frazier, “for bringing back respect to the classroom.”
Michael Gentz asked if Van Tassel, in his new position as consultant, would have access to the district’s electronic communication and got no answer. He said this district is not the place for a new teacher yet.
He said he disagreed with Toth’s complaint about signs, picketing, and shirts teaching the wrong message to students.
“My kids see that and learn that anything they want they can fight for,” Gentz said. “They are learning that these people are standing up for what they think is right.”
Mary Hoff said that on the night Van Tassel was hired to be superintendent of schools, she spoke to the board. She said she was retired so she didn’t have to worry about retribution.
Hoff said teachers had asked her to speak for them since the teachers felt not respected and intimidated. She said she called other teachers and they also had concerns about Van Tassel as superintendent.
She said one teacher did say Van Tassel might be good because he has organization skills.
“I have continued to hear from many teachers and they feel intimidated and disrespected by gestapo techniques,” Hoff said.
She said she remembers telling the board that if they hire Van Tassel they will destroy the teachers’ morale and will destroy the district.
She said the only person on the school board who questioned the move was Trustee Frazier who said, “I think we should have interviewed more people for this job.”
Hoff said, at the time, Toth said she was sure that the teachers who left had not been doing an effective job. Toth tried to deny that, but Hoff insisted that is what Toth said at the December 2011 meeting.
After business matters were concluded, about a dozen more people spoke, including John Winters who asked the board to fire Pam Johnson, Van Tassel’s secretary, for asking her Facebook friends to boycott Egan’s Pub because he spoke his mind at a meeting.
Mikulski repeated to everyone that the board would not answer questions and the audience was not happy, insisting that the board should talk to the people.
Scott Russell criticized the board’s blind obedience to the administration and said, “You have an obligation to the community … Do what you’re supposed to do. Consider this your notice.”
Another man said he was insulted by Toth saying there was a divided community. “It insults me… What you did tonight was because of a united community coming together. You took the first step.”
Frazier asked that the next work study meeting be a special meeting so action could be taken to cease the M-Step investigation and return the five teachers to their classrooms. She said the district has already paid $50,000 in attorney fees for this investigation that will only go up in cost. She said the instability in the classrooms in incredible with substitutes trying to fill in.
“To start the healing process in this community and move forward as a district, put the teachers back in the classrooms where they belong,” Frazier said.
In other business at the Feb. 22 meeting, the board:
• Accepted the resignations of teachers Heather Blankenship of Owen after 11 years for other employment; Jason Cooper from Savage/Rawsonville, after 3.5 years for other employment; Tiffany Martell of Owen after three years, leaving the profession; and Melanie O’Neil of BHS / McBride after five months, resigning to stay home with her children;
• Approved hiring of Maggi Bomalaski for BHS New Tech Math; Marcie Taylor for Owen Teacher Resource Room; Shirley Brezell as fifth grade teacher at Owen; and Marie Gaitien as music teacher at Savage;
• Approved resignations of BHS custodian James Nelson after 26 years, retired; transportation employees Sherry Hobson, 9 years, retired, Darlene Ehnis, 1 year, 4 months, resignation for personal reasons, Michelle Comparoni, 5 months, obtained other employment; and James Marcum, IT, after 19 years, obtained other employment;
• Hired Herbert Delgado and Caleb Kennedy for IT districtwide;
• Approved Owen’s fifth grade field trip to Mackinac Island on May 11-12;
• Approved the Owner Representation Services contract with Plante Moran CRESA in an amount not to exceed $50,000; and
• Approved the second reading and final approval of board policy updates.