Some decry moving Litchfield principal over mocking letter

Posted on 14. Feb, 2010 by dbarnhart in family focus

Litchfield Elementary parents showed their support for the principal who wrote a letter mocking students while others defended the superintendent’s decision to reshuffle several leadership positions in the wake of the controversy.

Ron Sterr is on administrative leave until Feb. 24 and has been removed as Litchfield Elementary School principal. On Tuesday, the Litchfield Elementary School District board voted 3-1 to transfer Sterr to L. Thomas Heck Middle School as assistant principal. Member Alison Wood dissented and Sara Griffin abstained, but neither would elaborate on her position.

Read ‘joke’ letter sent to some parents
Read actual letter to parents
Litchfield principal reassigned after ‘joke’ letter

Community members were surprised at the speed of the vote. Sterr’s transfer was under the board’s consent agenda and passed without discussion.

“I feel like it wasn’t a fair process at all,” Litchfield parent Pam Coumans said after the vote. “That’s not what it’s all about. Justice did not get served at all today. It does not seem right.”

Superintendent Julianne Lein stood by the staffing changes.

“My reassignment recommendations were based on normalizing a tumultuous situation by assigning personnel to the roles that are in the best interest of each school community,” she said. “Personnel disciplinary actions are not made utilizing public opinion. I believe with guidance, mentoring and hard work that Mr. Sterr can continue to make valuable contributions to the educational community.”

Public takes side

David Benchoff, grandfather of a Litchfield student, believed that Lein told staff to keep quiet.

“The staff at Litchfield Elementary is afraid to talk about this. Why? Very clearly it was pointed out that a top administrator in one way or another . . . said that it’s best not that they do this,” he told the board. “They’re afraid for their jobs. They’re afraid to speak up. That’s shameful. Shameful!”

Jennifer Johnson echoed Benchoff.

“I thought anger over the letter was completely outrageous,” she said. “But I think having a decision made so hastily undermined the confidence of the people in Dr. Lein.”

Other parents backed Lein.

Rocky Cocchiola said Sterr’s mistake reflected bad leadership.

“He did not get out in front of his mistake. He did not exhibit any kind of leadership. There are a lot of people that make our district great . . . and mostly importantly is our great superintendent,” he said. “Mr. Sterr was a leader of our children and a leader of our school, and he let me down personally, I must be honest with you. But if he were honest, we wouldn’t be in this situation. I appreciate your loyalty to Mr. Sterr, but until you get the facts, it’s blind loyalty.”

Mix-up of letters

Sterr’s letter was never supposed to become a public document. E-mails obtained by The Republic and interviews with Lein and Litchfield parents show how the field-trip letter mix-up occurred.

Litchfield Elementary second-grade teacher Kim Manzo asked Sterr to proofread a field-trip letter she had sent him by e-mail on Jan. 26.

When Sterr e-mailed the edited letter back to Manzo on Jan. 26, he made some changes and told her she had a letter in her mailbox.

Manzo grabbed that letter and proceeded to make copies for students. While chatting with a parent, she became distracted. Without realizing it, the wrong letter was sent home to parents.

When Sterr found out the wrong version of the field-trip letter had been distributed, he called Manzo’s second-grade parents and told them the teacher’s friend had penned it and instructed teachers “to lie to parents about the origins of the letter,” Lein said.

Parent Jennifer Navarro was mostly upset about Sterr’s cover-up attempts.

“There were lies told to us on several occasion. We put our trust in him, we put our trust of our children in him,” she said. “The class was questioning why he would tell that story if it’s not true. That was hard for my daughter. He lied to them and made their teacher cry.”

Sterr later admitted that he authored the letter and apologized to parents.

Sarcastic comments

In his letter to Manzo, Sterr commented on the “idiocy” of children unable to finish simple math homework and made fun of students with food allergies and a child with a “nervous tic.”

“If your child is one of the mediocre few who excels on the homework, please congratulate them with a warm handshake,” he wrote.

Sterr said the e-mail was intended for only one teacher’s viewing and described it as “an attempt with her to make light of the situation.”

Lein recommended a seven-day unpaid suspension and appointed Litchfield Elementary’s transitional principal, Mary Ann Hartwick, as acting principal.

Sterr was supposed to become the top administrator at Mabel Padgett Elementary School when the K-5 campus opens in July in Goodyear. After the letter incident, he lost the assignment to Gina De Coste, district special education director.

Megan Duplain, assistant special education director, was promoted to director. And Melissa McCombs, teacher on special assignment for the district, becomes interim assistant director.

The assistant principal position at L. Thomas Heck was created for Sterr. The Litchfield Park middle school, which houses 680 students in sixth through eighth grades, opened in August.