Thursday, September 16, 2010

Dean St. School principal resigns - why?

Last Saturday I received an email asking why the "dean" at Dean St. School was leaving. First I had to figure out - does an elementary school have a "dean"? So I didn't hurry. Then the NHW carried an article that Pedro Lara-Oliva, principal of Dean St. School for the past ten years, had resigned.

The article said he had indicated he would be resigning at the end of the school year (June 2011), so why is he leaving now?

One comment (out of four) on yesterday's NWH article read, "There are rumors that appear to be true that the district is refusing to confirm OR deny."

So, what are the rumors?

Lara-Oliva's replacement, Vicki Larson, is out on maternity leave. How many teachers are out on maternity leave in District 200? Should the District hire more male teachers, so that the work environment is not disrupted by women who leave their positions for family development?

This ought to make me really popular, eh? But how many people are affected by the absence of a principal or teacher? If a secretary is pregnant and takes time off, the world doesn't slow down much. It's different, when the maternity game is played by senior staff and teachers. Should they "plan" their pregnancies, so that babies are born in July and they can return to work in August or September?

I remember my Russian teacher at the State University of Iowa. She was in the classroom until about two days before her baby was born, and she was back in a week.

1 comment:

jen said...

Are you kidding me?! Wouldn't life be wonderful if we could just all plan our pregnancies. Perhaps we should all start planing our sick leave and funeral leaves!