Hommocks guidance in disarray?
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- November
- 19
It’s an institutional Freudian slip: The voicemail message for the guidance Department at Hommocks Middle School asks the caller to leave messages for Peter Moore, who left at the end of last year; Cal Chiang, who retired last year; and of course Elizabeth Denhoff and Haruko Hirose, who both have been administratively reassigned.
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on Monday, November 19th, 2007 at 10:34 am by Lanning Taliaferro.
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Seriously. How hard is it to change a phone message? Anybody home…..
I think it is outrageous.
First the music teacher and his issues with young girls. Now, two Guidance Counselors are M.I. A., and the two first-year, untenured Counselors are carrying the load of four as many of our children prepare for high school.
What is the working atmosphere at Hommocks? How does that atmosphere impact our children? What do the the legal bills for this latest problem amount to, at this point?
Am I the only one who believes the principal (Seth Weitzman) needs to be called in on the carpet by the School Board and the Superintendent. And if he is not do we need a new Superintendent? And School Board?
How should someone’s job performance be reviewed if they are 50 days behind in meeting a deadline? There have been 50 days since the first day of school when the phone system should have been changed. Imagine being a new parent in the building in need of immediate help from the guidance department. Unacceptable.
I couldn’t agree with “John Q taxpayer” more! It is quit clear that Seth Weitzman is not doing the job. How is this guy so “teflon”? I hear that some of the faculty at Hommocks is on the verge of revolt. They say the stress level is high and they feel they could be the next ones to “disappear”. I can’t see how this is good for our children. Where are these two counselors? What did they do so wrong? I have not heard one person say anything negative about either counselor. We as taxpayers should get answers.
You want answers? I’ve got answers. All we have here is a screamingly obvious abuse of power by Drs. Fried and Weitzman, experts in the paranoid style of personnel management, isolated from those who might question their judgment, suspicious of outsiders, convinced that they are right and that the actions they take today, however unpopular, will be vindicated by history. It’s like … Bush & Cheney on the Sheldrake. Caught redhanded taking retaliatory action against employees exercising their grievance rights. Denials, stonewalling, temper tantrums and character assassination to follow. Fun for all.
It is definitely not a retaliation against the counselors for filing a grievance because the head of the union was quoted as saying it was not at larchmontgazette.com. The union president would be the first person to speak up in that case. It looked like Denhoff claimed that to the reporter – i.e. she is the victim – and the reporter pursued it and it was completely wrong. This blog says the counselors have the right to open the hearings to the public. So if the counselors want everyone to see this “retaliation” why don’t they open them to the public?
I hate to join in a pile-on, but, Lord, Weitzman deserves it. My kids have been at all levels of the Mamaroneck School System and no school is run in as chaotic a fashion as Hommocks. There is just no planning, no oversight, no coherent anything. He seems mentally AWOL a lot. There were red flags all over the place with Mr. Rodriguez. Parents complained about the way he treated the girls in his classes. All we got were vacant smiles and total inaction until the worst happened. There have been other incidents as well that got swept under the rug by his consigliere, Mr. Keane. And look at how the Sharpe trip is handed every doggone year. No organization. Kids come back with all their luggage piled on one bus with no ID, and it becomes a rummage sale trying to match kids with luggage. If this happened once it might be forgiven. But, jeez louise, year after year after year of insanity. If Mr. Genius Principal was paying the slightest attention or if he had the slightest organizational ability, this would have been solved. He sometimes holds parent meetings in the building. Parents arrive. Is there a sign anywhere to say where the meeting is being held? Is there a map or directions to get there? Nope. Nobody thought of it. Do custodians know where it is? Nope, nobody told them. Then you finally stumble on the meeting and any substantive questions are met with the vacant nod, the vacant smile. Nothing ever changes. When they have shows or concerts at the auditorium nobody thinks to unlock the self-locking doors. Parents are left standing there banging on the doors hoping someone will hear them and let them in. This happens EVERY TIME. No awareness of anything. They will announce an after-school meeting in the morning, but not say where the meeting is being held. You go to the office asking where it is. NOBODY KNOWS. People trying to organize events in the auditorium all know – no one is in charge. Year after year. No one can give you answers as to how to set things up. Now you can’t even call the school and get accurate information FROM THE ANSWERING MACHINE. Sad.
I must say that I am not at all surprised to see this happening at Hommocks yet again. This is a common theme at this school. There are bad things that happen at this school. This principal plays favorites, and at his whim, chooses who will be consistently on the”outs” among the faculty. It should be noted that one of his “favorites” was, for some time, none other than Omar Rodriguez himself. Nobody can explain or figure out why this principal does what he does, or makes the decisions that he makes when it comes to personnel/staffing. It is actually quite arbitrary and juvenile. Worst of all, this has nothing to do with the children.
It is more than unfortunate that Dr. Weitzman blatantly refuses to listen to, or fairly respond, to his own faculty’s pleas for fairness and change when it comes to how they are treated. It certainly cannot be a very happy/comfortable place to be employed. Isn’t that what schools are supposed to foster? The principal does not practice what he preaches. The faculty are either fearful of his “mysterious” reasons for making good, caring people disappear- or have become so numb from being beaten down- that they figure there is nothing that they can do.
These teachers ( some) have become so paralyzed by the on-goings that it is the children who suffer. The children suffer because the teachers are constantly looking over their shoulders to make sure they will not be randomly targeted. They suffer because the teachers who the district should be happy to have and keep ( obviously NOT sex offenders) are arm- twisted so badly, that they eventually leave. It is the children who suffer when morale at the school is so damn low. No amount of theme days or ice-cream socials are going to fix that.
Why is this administration so teflon, as someone asked above? When certain things, such as this guidance counselor incident come to light, people comment- but nothing ever changes. If people knew what went on, and what was said by and about grown adults behind closed doors, they would be outraged. And they should be. I would guess that these counselors are absolutely being made the targets of one of Dr. Weitzman’s new little vendettas- being made examples to “frighten” the rest of the faculty into silence.
Why is that in other districts administrators are held directly responsible for things that go so grossly awry?
Why don’t you all try to learn before you blast someone.
Did it ever occur to any of you that perhaps Dr. Weitzman is not permitted to talk about certain things and maybe your frustration is better directed at the school board, i.e. the head of it, who should be the source of any info that affect the district.
If you are going to blast Seth in a public forum – at least have the courage to drop the “John Q and soccer mom” BS and speak on your own behalf.
Bruce Frankel
Larchmont, Ny