
{"id":27118,"date":"2012-07-26T10:07:42","date_gmt":"2012-07-26T14:07:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=27118"},"modified":"2012-07-26T10:07:42","modified_gmt":"2012-07-26T14:07:42","slug":"boe-upholds-thompsons-transfer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2012\/07\/26\/boe-upholds-thompsons-transfer\/","title":{"rendered":"BOE upholds Thompson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s transfer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Wartski waits for decision<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>By Rose Laudicina<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education on Tuesday decided to uphold the involuntary transfer of Chapel Hill High School honors English teacher Anne Thompson, but they are still deliberating the transfer of Chapel Hill High A.P. biology teacher Bert Wartski. <\/p>\n<p>Numerous supporters of the two Chapel Hill High School (CHHS) teachers attended the board\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s meeting last Thursday to share stories about the positive impacts the teachers have had and to criticize the district\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reasons for the transfers. <\/p>\n<p>While district administrators say otherwise, many school community members believe the transfers are being enacted as punishment for speaking out in opposition to the administration and certain policies. <\/p>\n<p>Wartski and Thompson supporters told the board that the CHHS teachers are \u00e2\u20ac\u0153must-haves\u00e2\u20ac\u009d who have helped shape career paths.<\/p>\n<p>Adrienne Duffield, a resident anesthesiologist at UNC Hospitals, said that besides her parents, Wartski is the single most influential person in helping her get to where she is today in her career. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I implore the board, please, if the goal is not to create a negative environment for teachers, then please do not transfer these teachers,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Duffield said.<\/p>\n<p>Wartski and Thompson were notified in early June by Superintendent Tom Forcella that they would be transferred from CHHS to East Chapel Hill High School. <\/p>\n<p>Soon after becoming aware of the transfers, the CHHS community responded in overwhelming opposition, writing letters and attending the school board meeting to show their support for keeping the teachers at CHHS.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Forty-five is the number of combined years these two teachers have invested in Chapel Hill High specifically,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Lynn Wartski, who is married to Bert Wartski. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They are being described as must-haves.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Dianne Jackson, president of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Federation of Teachers, said that while she hoped the district would encourage teachers to speak out, as they have \u00e2\u20ac\u0153their hands on the pulse of the school,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she gave examples of multiple teachers at different district schools being accused of insubordination for speaking out and doing what they thought was right.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We hope we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t start down a slippery slope where employees are silenced,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jackson said.<\/p>\n<p>Although the board is unable to comment, Forcella sent a letter to the CHHS faculty and staff discussing his reasoning for implementing the transfers.<\/p>\n<p>In the letter Forcella wrote, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The decisions to transfer some individuals were based on my opinion after a year of observing, listening, and talking with staff members from CHHS, district staff, former staff members, parents, and SIT members.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Forcella said the transfers were not about punishing teachers for speaking out or to intimidate others from doing so.<\/p>\n<p>Both teachers appealed the transfers in closed session at last Thursday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s meeting. The school board had not made a decision about Wartski by the time <em>The Citizen<\/em> went to press Wednesday. If his appeal to the school board is denied, Wartski said he would appeal to the Orange County Superior Court. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Involuntary transfer of Chapel Hill High School honors English teacher Anne Thompson upheld.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27118"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27120,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27118\/revisions\/27120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}