hard deadlines

Tonight's session was one of the saddest the Portsmouth School Committee has seen in recent years: following a an open hearing, the termination of high school math teacher Kimberly Anne Cunnigham was upheld in a unanimous decision. It was sad for the students and parents — and there were more than 60 who packed the Council chambers — it was sad for her colleagues, many of whom were there to show support, and most of all, it was sad for Ms. Cunningham who approached tears at several points during her testimony, and choked up as she said, "I just love it here, and I want to stay."

It is unusual for a termination hearing to be conducted in open session, but according to School Committee chair Dick Carpender, Ms. Cunningham made the request, and by the time people began arriving for the scheduled 7pm start of the committee, the process was already underway. Representing the School District was their regular attorney Richard Updegrove, and filling in as legal counsel for the Committee was attorney Neil Galvin. Ms. Cunningham represented herself.

The hearing proceeded with the two attorneys advising their clients to stick to a circumscribed range of testimony which bore on the central question in the case: Given that Ms. Cunningham was scheduled to be granted tenure at the end of the school year, had she completed the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) certification process. The Department had found she had not and moved to terminate; this hearing was her appeal.

"My path to certification is not typical," Cunningham said, describing her work as a doctoral student in Mathematics who discovered she wanted to be a teacher, and embarked on a difficult and sometimes murky alternative certification route. As far back as 2005, even before she was hired, evidence was presented to show that there were four specific classes she needed to meet the state requirements. She initiated appeals of these requirements, but by the beginning of the 2008-09 school year, there was a memo introduced into evidence that said all four had to be checked off and the certification issued in time for Cunningham to be awarded tenure on the last day of school.

What made the proceedings tragic was the sense of lost opportunity. The nature of the hearing made it impossible to say many things that were true. Here was a teacher that was clearly respected by her kids — they came up to reporters and talked about stuff they never could have done without her. And she was reaching out to tackle teaching challenges — she was one of last year's Portsmouth Public Education Fund grant recipients for her work on "Activities to Promote Mathematics."

But the real tragedy, perhaps, is that the hearing had to be strictly blind to performance but concerned rather with legally required pieces of paper. Cunningham testified that she worked extraordinarily hard to take her final 4 courses, which she did at 4 different schools, beginning in January, all on top of a full teaching load. And the last piece, the final grade that needed to go to RIDE to get them to review and issuing a certificate, would be submitted on June 29. Just a few days after the end of school.

A critical problem for her case was the uncontested fact that she had known about these courses for four years. As attorney Updegrove asked, "These needs for certification date back [...] to November 2005, before you even applied." "You didn't start taking classes until January of 2009?" The answer was yes. "Do you have your certification today?" Answer, no. In his summation, Updegrove put it this way: "For four years, she knew. It would have been simpler in that 4-year period to take the 4 classes. As a matter of law, the retention of non-certified teachers can result in the loss of state funding. It's about the sanctity of tenure."

In her close, Cunningham reiterated how hard she had worked to achieve the needed results. "I have completed the requirements," she said, noting that what was outstanding was a formal transcript. "I met today with RI Director of Certification." Cunningham explained that the teacher could not put the grade in until the 29th but that she fully expected to get the certification at that point. "I don't have anything else. I hope I can stay."

After a half-hour executive session, the committee came back and rendered their unanimous decision to deny Cunningham's appeal. There was shock and voiced disappointment. Chair Dick Carpender wished her well on behalf of the Committee, commended her on her efforts to complete her studies, and asked her to consider reapplying. Ms. Cunningham packed her things and left quickly.

I feel deeply sad for Ms. Cunninham and her family, and the students she taught. And I feel the loss as a district of an obviously committed, contributing member. But I want to strike a balancing note for certification. Teaching is a profession; teachers expect to be treated as professionals, and part of the professionalization has been the identification of specific bodies of knowledge that each teacher must master. Teaching is a legitimate subject in its own right, with a literature and both theory and practice that should inform each teacher's decisions. It is a professional discipline, and the state serves a public interest by certifying mastery of that discipline.

It was just an awful, sad situation, and nobody won. I'll try to have more on the other stuff that happened tonight sometime tomorrow.