Reassigning teacher hurts school community

[Freehold Resident]

All three were my teachers...

Reassigning teacher hurts school community

The Freehold Borough Board of Education has had to make internal changes and, in doing so, has done a disservice to the students and taxpayers of this community. As retired Freehold Borough teachers and taxpayers, we think a number of these changes are disturbing, but only one will be addressed.

How can the quality of teaching and the integrity of education be maintained if a loved, respected, talented and extremely capable teacher is removed from her specialty and passion?

The art teacher at the Free-hold Intermediate School and the Park Avenue Elementary School, Leslie Daley, has always gone above and beyond her classroom responsibilities.

She has mentored innumerable students and channeled their energy in a positive way. Many of these students were at a very critical stage in their adolescent development. Her interest impacted their lives; many chose a particular form of art as a career path.

Her love of teaching art introduced those students and others to a new world of cultural, academic and creative experiences. Her lessons bridged the other subjects, thus enriching and extending the students' realm.

For school productions, which have been part of the core curriculum, Leslie Daley designed all the scenery.

With her direction and guidance, the work done by the students looked almost professional.

Her ideas for decorations for the eighth-grade dance transported the students to another place for an evening. Everyone who entered the building commented on the spectacular transformation of the gym.

All the decorating was done under her supervision. On her own, she collected soaps and lotions to make toiletry baskets for the rest rooms on that special night so students could feel like they were in a five-star hotel for the evening.

There are many more achievements - her special art classes were challenged and made projects worthy of an art gallery. The windows of the shops in town were painted by her students for Halloween. What originality!

Isn't this what teaching is all about - building self-esteem along with knowledge, inspiring creativity, and providing opportunities for the students to be a contributing member of not only the school community, but the community at large?

Yet, with all she has accomplished and despite her enthusiasm and passion for art, this special person will no longer be the art teacher. What a terrible loss! How did the Freehold Borough school board allow this to happen?


Diane Quade

Barbara Freeman

Freehold Borough

[andrewd]

To start, I have to say that what I am about to say is in no way the opinion of the Freehold Boro Board of Education. I do not speak for the board or any of it's members, this is all just my own personal opinion.

You know what...I read this letter in the Transcript last night...and I have seen and heard other such complaints about the BOE moving Mrs Daley...now it's time for me to put in my 2 cents on the matter...

I love art and music in schools. I started playing the saxophone in the 4th grade over at FLC and continued all the way through High School and college...in fact, if I didn't give my sax to my sister when she tried to get into music, I would still pick it up from time to time (I'm going to have to give her a call about getting that back). I loved art classes all throughout school as well, and while I was never very good at art, those classes were always amongst my favorites if for no other reason than they made me forget that I was still in "school". Today, I am a very big fan of just about all sorts of artistic expression. I love going to museums and seeing works by the masters, but I also love walking through the school halls to see what tomorrows masters are putting together.

As many of you know, I voted against the school budget a couple of months back because I did not approve of the limitations the state has put on us concerning caps on our budget. That, combined with the lack of funding, continuous mandates, and a general (in my opinion) lack of any sense of real concern from the state officials over the education of the children in our town made me vote against the budget, not because I thought our Superintendent and Business Administrator did a poor job developing it, but because I would not put my name behind a budget that I knew would not provide the students of Freehold Boro with less than the T&E education they are entitled to.

Having voted against the budget, I sat there April 30th when it was time for us to vote on the changes that had been proposed, and it dawned on me...how can I support these changes that are coming about due to the budget that I voted against just a few weeks prior? And for that reason, I abstained from those votes.

Now...all that being said...let me say this...

Teachers are a special breed of people. They have decided to dedicate their lives to bettering the lives of the children of others, whether it's through math, science, art, music, phys ed, language, reading, writing...whatever the topic may be. They do this because they love those "A HA!!" moments that Mrs Daley spoke about that night; they love seeing a child "get it" when teaching a lesson; they basically love helping children excel in life.

I know Mrs Daley had found her "home" so to speak as an Art teacher, and she has done countless wonderful things in her time here in the Boro as an Art teacher. But the district is in dire straits at this point in time, and changes had to be made that many people didn't want to make...and I am not just talking about the teachers who were re-assigned.

Many people have said that teachers need to realize that in the so called "real world" you just take a re-assignment and deal with it. Well, let me say that teaching is something different. When you have a teacher that excels in a certain subject, you try like hell to keep that teacher in that subject. But again, this district is in dire straits, and some very tough decisions had to be made.

Looking at a lot of the things that were mentioned in the letter to the Transcript - work on school productions, leading the kids to paint the downtown windows during the holidays, decorating for the 8th grade dance, etc - these are all things that Mrs Daley did above and beyond her normal teaching day because she cared so much for art and her students...and I can think of no reason why she could not continue to do these things as a 1st grade teacher. In fact I would hope that, though I can understand her being upset, she will continue to be involved in these projects, sharing her expertise and her special abilities with the students she has come to love so much, and who have come to love her in return.

Mrs Daley is a very special teacher, there is no question about that. In fact, Freehold Boro has a whole staff of special teachers, who have been asked to continually do more with less for years now, and they are still able to provide wonderful opportunities for the children of our town.

Mrs Daley, and a number of other teachers, have been asked to now make another sacrifice, albeit one that probably hurts a lot more than many of the others they have already made. There are some that have even had to lose their jobs because of the ridiculously poor fiscal condition the state has forced us into. I would hope that one more time, these wonderful teachers will be willing to take this latest blow and rise, one again, to the occasion and continue to show their love for their very special, very selfless, and of course (in my mind) very underpaid profession. I hope...no, I feel confident that these teachers will not let this latest set back get in the way of them shaping the minds and lives of the children they obviously care so much about.

For my part, all I can do now is promise that I will continue to fight and be a thorn in the sides of every lawmaker and pencil pusher in Trenton in order to get our schools the money they need and deserve. If and when money becomes available, enough money that will allow the district to get our schools back on the right track, I will do all I can to be sure that first and foremost we provide our students with everything they are supposed to be getting in order to receive their thorough and efficient education, and then make sure we have the best teachers in their best subjects, so that we can maximize the quality of the education we're giving the children of our town.

Teachers are a special breed of people. They dedicate their lives to bettering the lives of the children of others. Our district has already lost so much due to financial restraints, I pray we don't lose those amazing teachers that affect the lives of each and every student that passes through our halls.

[LS]

Everything being said is absolutely correct. We should have cut the science and math teachers, they are usually less popular and the subjects not as fun.