The following letters are verbatim with the exception of withholding names and initials in order to respect their right of privacy. On Nov. 20, Julia called Gayle in to her office and began reading her the following letter. There was no discussion except for her reading Gayle the letter, Gayle requesting representation and Julia denying that representation.
To: Gayle James
From: Julia Barrientos
RE: Performance issues related to treatment of children with IEPs
It has come to my attention that you may have a pattern of behavior in your classroom that has made an untenable situation for special needs students. You have been instructed in trainings and faculty meetings, many times, that we are a public school that serves all children and that special needs children have a right to a Free and Appropriate Public Education in the Least Restrictive Environment. I have documentation of your participation in these meetings. Your teaching license and years of education in public schools have also given you this knowledge. Below are several examples of how I have learned about these problems related to special education children under your care:
1. On
Following the meeting, the parent also indicated that her child was asked by Mrs. James every day, for the next week, when he would be enrolling in another school - causing the child to feel unwanted. The fact is DIA has on-site special education services including speech therapy and many other services, and you are aware of this. I have incident reports from several staff members and myself to whom this mother reported her interactions with you and her concern about the situation. Based on your actions the parent removed her special needs student from the school although she left her other children enrolled. Unfortunately, I was unaware of the situation until after the child had been withdrawn. The mother stated to me that she is aware that she may have the right to sue the school based on this push-out of her special needs child.
• Solution required: You will write an apology to this parent and her child and invite them to return to the school clarifying that we do in fact have speech therapy and special education services provided on site at DIA by
2. After she had several verbal conversations with you and me, I have received a formal written complaint from the parent of [name withheld]. Despite the IEP meeting with the parent, the special education teacher and myself regarding this special needs student on
• Solution required: You will create a plan for this child that includes Least Restrictive Behavioral Interventions as directed previously. I will review the plan to ensure compliance. This plan must be received by me by Monday morning
3. You held a meeting with parents of another Special Education child On
representation of the Special Education teacher nor administration in which you convinced the parents to remove their child from the school based on what you would do if you were them — explaining that a child with his special needs could not succeed in a school like ours with two languages. Although the special education teacher and I have tried to contact this family to discuss appropriate educational modifications for this child’s success and report on the progress he is achieving in his special education classes, unfortunately, we have not been able to contact them. Apparently, your message was received loud and strong. This child and his brother have been removed from the school. You did not respond to my request to meet about this child except to say that you were not available on
• Solution required: You will call the parents of this child and ask that they consider bringing the child back to the school and look at appropriate modifications for that child in conjunction with an administrator and the special education teacher. ‘
4. Yesterday,
• Without mentioning this document, you will reach out to that parent and address any concerns she has for her child.
The above cases demonstrate a pattern of behavior that is discriminatory against special education children and is a serious concern for
Your signed at-will employment agreement states that:
"You agree to act always with the best interests of the school in protecting the students, striving for excellence with the curriculum, and by acting in concert with the mission and valued system of DIA. You agree to perform to the best of your abilities, to deal with all sensitive matters with the confidentially and professionalism demanded by parents and our educational communities. You are expected to respect the policies and procedures of DIA and work to uphold all state & federal laws relative to the education of young minds." ‘
Your actions are in violation of this agreement. You will follow the requested solutions in each area above. In addition, we will meet periodically to review progress in the area of inclusion and fair treatment of special education children and their families. Your compliance will be evaluated by administration. You will be required to meet with administrators as requested and not make excuses to not be available for meetings. You must also comply with all other aspects of yourat-will employment agreement and employee handbook to maintain your employment at DIA.
From: Julia Barrientos ,
To: l.aborlady84047@wmconnectcorn ; Gayle James
Sent:
Subject: Re: Gayle James
I do not agree with your demand for a meeting. Gayle is an at-will employee so is not entitled to any
representation. Neither you or Gayle are entitled under GRAMA to have copies of letters of complaint
against Gayle.
I reject your deadlines to issue a termination letter. I will make the decisions regarding the status of DIA employees.
Julia Barrientos
Director
801 .347.1750
www.diacharteizorg
On Mon,
Julia:
I‘ve just read the written warning issued to Gayle James on
I STRONGLY advise a meeting of all the parties concerned in this matter. The hostile tone of your letter will also warrant participation from Utah Teachers United, DIA board members and a representative from the State of
Anita Ferroni
Dear Anita;
I received this letter from Julia on Thursday. I can’t believe the accusations in it. She has never met with me concerning these issues and she is mandating that I do things that make no sense because I'm not guilty of the things she accuses me of in the first place. What should I do'? To agree to her demands implies I agree with her accusations. To do nothing is to be insubordinate and I know she‘ll fire me. I think she is really just trying to find and excuse to fire me anyway and if it doesn't happen now, it will happen after I have worked hard to try to mend fences and my efforts will have been wasted anyway. Regardless, below is my explanation of the situations. You tell me after you read this what you think I should do.
1. The first conversation I had with [name withheld]’s mother was at back to school night. My partner teacher and I talked to her about our concerns with his behavior. The mother volunteered that she had hesitated putting him in the school because if his special needs. She said that he had been getting 4 hours per day in
Julia must have known that he was going to be a problem for me as she apologized for putting him in my class before I even knew him. I found out that [name withheld] was going to another school when he announced the fact to the other third graders. He seemed to be excited to be moving and I told him that I would miss him. So, how can any of my statements be construed as doing anything contrary to his interests, his parents' or those of the rest of the children in my class? What am I supposed to apologize for?
2. The situation with [name withheld] has me baffled. Problems began the first week in September when Julia notified me by email that the Mom said he had been told he would be held back another year in third grade. I responded, "If you're referring to [name withheld], I‘m not aware that he has ever been told anything about being held back. I have no idea what he is talking about." And I still don't. Julia also said that Mom had told her she was working with a new doctor and a new medication to adjust his behavior and to be patient. A month later, in frustration for lack of support to address [name withheld] 's needs, I write a letter to Julia, the resource teacher and Barbara Lovejoy explaining that [name withheld] 's behavior is so affecting the learning environment in the classroom that several other kids‘ parents are complaining. I explained that IEP appointments kept getting cancelled and I requested that we develop a plan for his behavior before other children were hurt and/or there were more complaints. Finally, one week later, we have an IEP with the mother. I was caught off guard by her attitude coming into the meeting as she was very hostile toward me. It was as if someone had been fabricating stories about me mistreating her son. In the meeting I talked to the mom about my efforts to help him stay on task without too many distractions.
I also explained that he seemed not to mind these efforts. In fact, he seemed to do better without the external stimulus of the close proximity of other children. I have always encouraged him to join the other kids and participate in the learning stations during literacy time. By the end of the meeting, we had worked out a rough plan and the mother was satisfied that we could work together to help [name withheld] get the help he needed while insuring the other students in the classroom did as well. In fact, Mom thanked me for what I was doing for her son.
Since that time, with the proper direction, he is turning his work in, getting along with the other students and, at least from where he started, has become almost a model student. There are no more "crying fits" or "surfing" on his chair. Now, the opportunity to be with the other kids is used as a reward when he behaves like he can positively interact with them and he responds accordingly. Thus he is empowered to have close and positive contact with the other children by his own choices. Mother has been sending hostile notes in the folder about card pulls, but since he has been pulling relatively few with me, I assumed her complaints were primarily the concern of my partner teacher and have tried to stay out from between them. Since the only interaction I have had with the mother was at the IEP meeting and her response there ended totally favorable, I have no idea what Julia is talking about. So again, my question is, how do I put together a plan for addressing [name withheld]'s behavior when we already have one in place that is working and he is integrating more and more with his classmates?
The only thing I know to do is to copy the mother this section of this letter.
3. First, Julia has her dates wrong - not September 30, it was October 30. I am being accused of some pretty serious stuff here and I can at least show that if she can't get her dates straight, what else is amiss? Anyway, I called the father In because I was extremely concerned about this child. He was totally shutting down, not even attempting written work. Since this was the mid-point in the term, I was concerned about final report card grades. My partner teacher and I discussed our academic concerns for the child and we both stated to the parents that he was acting very frustrated and withdrawn. I also pointed out that he was starting to get aggressive in his play, another sign of his frustration. I told them how much I enjoyed their son, what a good kid he was. The parents asked me how he was doing in reading. When I told them the level he tested at they were visibly concerned. The father told me that he had put his son in the summer reading program having been told he would be reading at grade level by the end of the session. Instead, he was only reading at a first grade level. The father then said, "Then I should pull him out?" I told him I couldn't advise him where to put his son. He asked me what I would do if he were my son. I could not in good conscience tell him anything but the truth, which was that if he were my son, right now I would have him in a classroom where he was getting English every single day, rather than add the extra load of trying to learn a foreign language as
well. Please note here that this child was in English literacy exclusively last year at DIA and I was never informed of this. Had this been a possibility this year, then I was not in any way advising the father to pull his son out of this school. However, making an exception to the dual immersion model obviously didn't work the in the prior year and would certainly make him a "lonely island", something definitely crippling to his already fragile self-esteem. In regard to the requested meeting at
4. This is another one that stumps me. This mother has never to my knowledge even tried to contact
me about any special concerns. I have a very difficult time dealing with feelings and only feelings when I have no clue where they are coming from. This is one item I can do something within the bounds of my conscience.
I simply ask the mother at conferences how she thinks he is progressing this year and if there is anything she would like to see me doing that I am not currently doing. It‘s something I try to do anyway with all of the parents. I can just make a special point of this and report back to Julia her responses. All that being said, all Julia would have had to do is stop by my classroom or drop me an email and ask me to do this like I am explaining to you. I don't see why she has to write this up in a formal complaint unless it‘s just another item to add to the "I‘m going to fire Gayle for all of these reasons" list.
As far as I can see, all of the discussions and actions I have listed in my defense were done with witnesses present and can be verified. Which makes me wonder one final thing, just in terms of fairness. Has [name withheld] gotten written up like this? I bet not, yet she was present at most of these parent meetings and we were in complete accord on the course of action in every case. If nothing is happening to her it is just more proof that there is another agenda in writing me up so I can be fired. Any mistakes I have made while working at DIA have certainly been innocent ones and my classroom policies are designed with fairness as the utmost priority and I guess that is what hurts the most about these accusations. If I had acted any other way than I did in these situations, I feel I would have been acting out of less noble motives than the interests of all my students. If I did that, I would make myself a less valuable employee to DIA or anyone else I would work for. Since I can't see how to comply with the demands Julia is making of me and maintain my values and integrity I see no way that I would hold on to my job. However I would like you to insure that not only Julia sees this letter but that as many members of the board as possible and the state office of education do as well. I would also like you to get a guarantee that this letter goes into my file so that any possible future supervisor gets the whole picture. Since I am obviously going to be terminated for non-compliance, I would like a letter of termination in writing by
Sincerely,
Gayle James
801-466-9336
Gayle James
Ms. James:
First, I will remind you that you are an at-will employee. As your supervisor, I am confident that you had knowledge of the serious problems in your professional performance and had the ability to correct the problems if you so chose. On Monday, when I tried to meet with you to follow-up about the corrective action you had not
complied with any of the deadlines I had set for you in the corrective action’s required solutions, and you refused to even discuss it with me. Rather, you chose to send a letter via another person informing me that you had no intention of complying and requested termination. Requesting termination in such a manner is the equivalent of resigning. In the best interest of the children and families served by the school, and due to your refusal to respond to corrective action, you are officially terminated from your employment at
Julia Barrientos
Director
Enclosed: final paycheck
retirement withdrawal information
Okay, so if you have read this far, you saw Gayle's letter. Did it say she was requesting termination? You decide. Didn't Gayle explain that in order to comply with Julia's requirements was to acknowledge the truth of them, and wasn't it Julia's letter that stated that if she didn't comply within 30 days she would be terminated? How does one then jump to the conclusion that Gayle was requesting termination? It seems to me that she was saying, "I can't comply with a false accusation, but since you have stated that my non-compliance will result in termination, could you please at least get it over with?" I don't consider that requesting termination, do you? Now, if you can see the discrepancy in these perspectives, why isn't it possible that there are a lot of discrepancies in Julia's perspectives about Gayle's actions? How do you think a supervisor ought to behave in a situation like this? And finally, and this is no small point, why would you force a teacher to move all her belongings out of the school before report cards and parent/teacher conferences? Gayle didn't request that her last day be Tuesday, she simply asked that she be notified by Tuesday. Only someone very stupid or very self-focused would do that kind of thing to a class of third graders. To me, it's pretty obvious which of these two people has the kids' best interest at heart, but then, I'm sort of biased. The reason for publishing this where anyone can read it is so you, the reader can come to your own conclusion. The only question that remains is - what, then, should you do with this information and your conclusion?
