Report shows flaws at Housatonic high school

It is singularly disappointing that the sense one gets most clearly from the Pingpank report is that a culture existed at Housatonic Valley Regional High School during the 2009-10 school year, leading up to the resignations of the school’s two top administrators (the principal and the assistant principal), which was very divisive and often unprofessional. The report, released on Dec. 17, 2010, resulting from an internal investigation conducted by consultant attorney Jeffrey C. Pingpank, is meant to shed light on the situation leading up to the abrupt departure of the two school officials in August of last year.

The beginning of the 2010-11 school year was certainly one of the more difficult in recent memory, to the detriment of the students who were hoping to enter an institution where their education was foremost in the minds of all the adults at their school. The controversy has to have taken its toll on the students as well as the faculty and administrators who were trying to keep the school year a productive one. If the climate at the high school was as bad last year as the report reflects, and most of the players remain in place with the same attitudes, what is the likelihood of meaningful change this year?

There were charges by some who were interviewed by Pingpank that he was not objective and that he didn’t take enough time in asking questions and listening to the individual answers. Others thought the investigation was taking too long. Either way, the recommendations that come at the end of the report should be given due attention and at the least promote open discussion on how to form a more cohesive community among those in the faculty and administration at the high school.

The six suggestions for improvement target: a few unnamed faculty who wield too much power; some possible conflicts of interest due to the close ties in a small community; the Central Office people who purportedly meddle too much in the school’s daily operations; and the assistant superintendent who is accused of being too “blunt� and even at times “intimidating� to coworkers.

Pingpank’s plea is that people stop taking “sides� and rather act in the best interest of the school district, with “proper motives and proper methods.� Act with more collegiality. Will they? Surely the tax-paying public will be watching. In rural Region One, the teaching and administrative jobs in the school district are among the best and the most secure, with good salaries and excellent benefits. A large part of their mission is to provide a positive atmosphere in which students can learn. Pingpank’s description of the atmosphere at Housatonic reveals one that needs much cooperative work by all involved, from faculty to administration to board members, before it could remotely be perceived as positive and truly conducive to good education.

While some steps have been taken this year, with the interim assistant principal and interim principal in place, more ongoing attention to these problems will have to be paid for the school community to move forward constructively.