Letter to the Editor: A Retired Educator Discusses Her Concerns with Rye Schools

To the Editor:

It seems that I have ruffled the feathers of the Schools Superintendent of Rye and a few parents over one sentence in a previous editorial. Apparently, the word “insecure” and it’s connotation rather than it’s denotation has been taken as an attack of the children, as a whole, and the parenting skills as well. It also seems that by the virtue of ones current zip code, the right to observe the unfolding of a poorly managed “investigation” is precluded.

To set the record straight, until Wednesday of last week we were owners of property in Rye, moved here in January and we sent both of our children through the Rye school system. I am a retired educator of thirty years, who understands how reports of both children and parents can create a firestorm, and that is without having an oversized ego nor having any distaste for any particular parent or child. I have no particular stake in this other than to have a conscience and a voice when watching a misuse of power, subjecting children to the kinds of questioning that would not pass muster in the legal community and hold up careers while hunting for chargeable offenses. And that, Dr. Alvarez doesn’t stop at ones border. Last time I checked, there is still freedom of the press.

To read the counter charges to Carin Mehler’s suit is to insult the intelligence of the voters in your district. And, as an educator, along with you, I find it preposterous that you can believe it. What you are saying is that a teacher was having students change answers during the state exam without causing total chaos in the room, that the principal and the testing coordinator had no clue that this happened and only one child came home to report this apparent travesty. And, to boot, this happened in four separate classrooms over two years with a wall of silence. Are you serious about this? Any one who has worked in a school building readily knows that even a small episode is known throughout a building in short order. Had this happened, the building would’ve been abuzz by lunch time and children, brave or otherwise, would have brought the story home. And that would have happened in Rye or any other community. Kids are kids no matter their zip code.

What you are describing are practice test sessions that I, myself and my colleagues have used for years. It’s not unlike the practice sessions of a Regents exam or the SAT, for that matter. The difference with this test unlike previous ones is that it was sequestered until the morning of the test and it’s distribution. No teacher had prior knowledge of it and certainly had no time to create an answer key. Across the state, the exams were collected upon completion and they were scored without teacher participation. It should also be noted that the scores, state wide were abysmal and that included the City of Rye. No teacher, tenured or otherwise, had much to fear on this maiden voyage, and were told just that. This was to be a baseline. Statewide, both parents and children, with most teachers thrown into the mix, were so appalled by what this test did to children that there was an outcry of protest with opt outs by the thousands. This is not about teachers, Dr Alvarez, who unhinged children. It was a test that was poorly designed and field tested. And a factor that no one in your administration ever took into consideration nor certainly gave much credence to before hauling four teachers out their classroom and contacting the Westchester DA and Albany. Grandstanding at its best.

Your counter charges, if not affecting a woman’s career, would be laughable. However, I and others, no matter where we live, aren’t laughing watching adults that have been charged with the well being of a highly regarded school district lose all sense of rational thought and problem solving. Start with the first dot and continue to connect them. When you are done you will realize that there’s some giant misconceptions that have cost your tax payers, I being one until recently, way more money than it should. Change course, Dr. Alvarez, before you drive this ship onto the rocks.

Shelley Karlen 

Greenwich, CT