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R.I. School for the Deaf principal put on paid leave | Rhode Island news | projo.com | The Providence Journal
The state-operated Rhode Island School for the Deaf, labeled as one of the lowest-performing schools in Rhode Island, has embarked on its improvement plan by abruptly removing its current director just a couple of weeks before the end of the school year.
School Director Lori Dunsmore, who was hired in 2007, was placed on paid administrative leave from her $116,000-a-year job on June 2.
When she arrived, Dunsmore inherited a troubled school plagued by upheaval both among administrators and its Board of Trustees.
She was hired to be a “change agent,” charged with raising academic performance and updating curricula, even as the school struggled to meet the complex needs of its 70 students, many of whom come from low-income families and have multiple disabilities in addition to being deaf or hard-of-hearing.
In 2009, the state Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education intervened, taking over the school for a year and working both with Dunsmore and the trustees.
From the start, Dunsmore has had a rocky relationship with the school’s teachers union and, more recently, with the trustees. Earlier this year, she announced she would not seek an extension of her contract, which expires June 30.
In an interview, Dunsmore said she intended to work until the end of the month, even after the board voted in April to limit her oversight to day-to-day operations of the 134-year-old school.
Because she was leaving, said Trustee Chairman Travis Zellner, the board reduced her role. The trustees also restricted her to “a secondary role” in the selection of one of four federally mandated approaches to school improvement for states seeking federal “school improvement grants.”
The trustees expressly forbade Dunsmore from “any action that would in any way bind the board or that would require decision making on any matter of significance,” read the April 12 letter. It specifically restricted her from “any mediation … with the union as part of the collective bargaining process, or … any personnel decisions.”
Zellner wrote that the board’s decision “is in no way intended to reflect upon your service to the school or your performance as its director. The board’s purpose instead is to ensure that its work remains consistent as the school embarks upon substantial reform.”
Dunsmore said she continued to work under these new guidelines until she received word from Zellner that at a May 31 meeting, the trustees voted to place her on paid leave as of June 2.
“I am not bitter; I believe everything happens for a reason,” said Dunsmore in an interview. “But the deaf community is very small — everybody talks. And I don’t want the negativity about my departure to impact what I could do in the future for other deaf children.”
Dunsmore, who is deaf, said she and her husband were planning to move to Florida with their two young children and that she is considering applying to Ph.D. programs in deaf education.
Zellner said he couldn’t comment on specific personnel decisions. But he reiterated that the board’s decision to place Dunsmore on leave was not a reflection of her performance.
The state-operated Rhode Island School for the Deaf, labeled as one of the lowest-performing schools in Rhode Island, has embarked on its improvement plan by abruptly removing its current director just a couple of weeks before the end of the school year.
School Director Lori Dunsmore, who was hired in 2007, was placed on paid administrative leave from her $116,000-a-year job on June 2.
When she arrived, Dunsmore inherited a troubled school plagued by upheaval both among administrators and its Board of Trustees.
She was hired to be a “change agent,” charged with raising academic performance and updating curricula, even as the school struggled to meet the complex needs of its 70 students, many of whom come from low-income families and have multiple disabilities in addition to being deaf or hard-of-hearing.
In 2009, the state Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education intervened, taking over the school for a year and working both with Dunsmore and the trustees.
From the start, Dunsmore has had a rocky relationship with the school’s teachers union and, more recently, with the trustees. Earlier this year, she announced she would not seek an extension of her contract, which expires June 30.
In an interview, Dunsmore said she intended to work until the end of the month, even after the board voted in April to limit her oversight to day-to-day operations of the 134-year-old school.
Because she was leaving, said Trustee Chairman Travis Zellner, the board reduced her role. The trustees also restricted her to “a secondary role” in the selection of one of four federally mandated approaches to school improvement for states seeking federal “school improvement grants.”
The trustees expressly forbade Dunsmore from “any action that would in any way bind the board or that would require decision making on any matter of significance,” read the April 12 letter. It specifically restricted her from “any mediation … with the union as part of the collective bargaining process, or … any personnel decisions.”
Zellner wrote that the board’s decision “is in no way intended to reflect upon your service to the school or your performance as its director. The board’s purpose instead is to ensure that its work remains consistent as the school embarks upon substantial reform.”
Dunsmore said she continued to work under these new guidelines until she received word from Zellner that at a May 31 meeting, the trustees voted to place her on paid leave as of June 2.
“I am not bitter; I believe everything happens for a reason,” said Dunsmore in an interview. “But the deaf community is very small — everybody talks. And I don’t want the negativity about my departure to impact what I could do in the future for other deaf children.”
Dunsmore, who is deaf, said she and her husband were planning to move to Florida with their two young children and that she is considering applying to Ph.D. programs in deaf education.
Zellner said he couldn’t comment on specific personnel decisions. But he reiterated that the board’s decision to place Dunsmore on leave was not a reflection of her performance.