THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 13, 1995 TAG: 9508130637
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: OCRACOKE ISLAND LENGTH: Long : 201 lines
More than one-third of the teachers at North Carolina's smallest general education public school will not be returning to their classrooms this fall.
Since May, six instructors and two aides have resigned at Ocracoke School - an unprecedented turnover at the 95-pupil facility where 14 full-time teachers and four aides teach kindergarten through high school classes.
Three of the teachers had worked at Ocracoke School for more than 12 years each. One had received top honors from the state.
At least 11 students - all honor roll regulars - also transferred out of Ocracoke School last week or moved off this tiny Outer Banks island over the summer because of educational changes, communication problems and clashes with the school administration.
``It's been nonstop tension at that school since they brought in a new principal,'' said Ocracoke resident Sarah Tolson, whose two sons are leaving the island school this year to attend Cape Hatteras School in Buxton.
``Since the appointment of that new principal, the staff has been in turmoil,'' Tolson said last week. ``When the school board wouldn't listen to the parents' growing list of complaints, when the principal wouldn't let the teachers talk to us, when we put up with this for three years hoping it would get better or they'd bring someone in to help the situation - and they didn't - there was not much left to do but leave.''
On Monday, the Hyde County School Board voted unanimously to release five Ocracoke School students for the 1995-96 school year. All five are transferring to Cape Hatteras School, a K-12 facility on the island north of Ocracoke. Ocracoke parents will have to pay Dare County $1,350 per year per pupil.
At least six other students have moved off the island to attend other schools.
``To my knowledge, this is the first time we have received any requests from Ocracoke students to go to another school,'' Hyde County Schools Superintendent Ronald Montgomery said from his Swan Quarter office. ``Our school board will not be responsible for tuition or transportation for those students. But we will deal with transfer requests as they are made.''
Ocracoke School Principal Larry Thompson, who joined the staff in March 1992, said everyone has a right to decide where they want to go to school.
``Each family has to make a decision based on what they see as the needs of their children,'' said Thompson, a former military man who found his first principal's job at Ocracoke. ``I'm sure Hatteras school has some programs that we just can't offer because we're too small. I did meet with some parents over the year, a lot of whom wanted increased educational opportunities for their children. Others were concerned about internal things at the school.
``Some of the teachers left because of career decisions. Most said they were leaving because of educational opportunities. Some departures, possibly, were related to tensions at the school.
``It's an island that is resistant to change. The differences are more philosophical than confrontational on a daily basis. In close-knit, small communities, things spread so fast - they get built up more than they would be in other areas.''
A 45-minute ferry ride south of Hatteras Village and two hours east of Hyde County mainland, Ocracoke Island is only accessible by boat. About 700 people reside on the island year-round. And in a village with no shopping centers, no full-sized grocery store and not even a movie theater, the school traditionally has been the focal point of many community activities.
According to dozens of island residents, tensions at Ocracoke School began shortly after Thompson arrived. They started over a clash in management styles, teaching philosophies and educational ideals. They grew to include personality conflicts, concerns about inadequate facilities or equipment and a lack of communication.
Many of the long-term teachers used creative classroom techniques and innovative methods that adapted children's learning experiences to the island's unique attributes. Field trips, community interaction and parental involvement were encouraged at the school that doesn't have a cafeteria - so most kids go home for lunch. Thompson, however, wanted to run the school much more rigidly.
Parents, staff and students were divided over many of the issues. Conflicts and accusations have erupted at the island's post office, on the waterfront and even during church functions. Dozens of people refuse even to discuss the school, for fear that what they may say will cause retribution.
Others, tired of the tensions, are leaving Ocracoke.
``My husband and I are moving off the island because we don't feel that sense of community that we used to have here,'' said Betty-Sue Garrish, who had lived on Ocracoke for 21 years until she, her husband and three school-age children moved to Georgia this month. ``Ocracoke is a very broken community right now. It's scary. We're not communicating. No one is listening to anybody.''
Garrish's mother-in-law, Margaret Garrish, is Ocracoke's representative on the Hyde County School Board - and has been a staunch supporter of Thompson.
After repeated complaints and requests for discussions about Ocracoke School policies and practices, an outside state curriculum assessment team recommended last summer that the school board hire an outside mediator to help ease tensions at the island school.
More than a year later, no mediator has arrived. Thompson and Montgomery said the staff will receive training on team-building skills this fall. A facilitator from the Northeastern Regional Center in Williamston will consult with school faculty and administrators throughout the year.
But Hyde County's representative of the North Carolina Association of Educators said an on-site mediator could have curtailed problems before they got so bad that people felt they had to leave.
``The entire situation could've been resolved without this mass exodus of teachers,'' NCAE representative Wofford Thomas said Friday from his Washington, N.C., office. ``If they had brought in a mediator earlier, as the superintendent suggested last spring, we might not have lost them. They're all excellent, experienced, creative teachers who are leaving - among the best at that school. It's a great loss to the county and to the children.''
In April, conflicts grew as the Hyde County school board began considering Thompson for tenure. Dozens of parents and teachers opposed giving the new principal an almost guaranteed career position. At least 10 Ocracoke residents traveled two hours by ferry to attend the school board meeting.
But after school officials told the Ocracoke residents they could only speak for three minutes each - and most of those who spoke opposed Thompson's tenure - the board voted to grant tenure anyway.
``From the school board's review of Mr. Thompson's performance, all indications showed he was doing satisfactory work,'' Montgomery said. ``There was no reason not to give him tenure.
``More people came to speak against Thompson than for him. And the school board listened.
``But we also had received a lot of correspondence from both sides - written and telephone messages. Thompson was praised for his dealings with discipline problems, his organization and his working with individual students. He was criticized for not paying enough compliments, for not communicating openly or listening and for not knowing his students.
``On the first day of school this year, teachers will begin working on building team skills, consensus and interpersonal relationships.''
Thompson also said a new push toward site-based management, a state-wide program designed to give teachers more autonomy over their school's activities, should help situations at Ocracoke improve.
But many parents and teachers were skeptical of such rhetoric. They said the principal only appoints his own supporters to school teams. And a change in the school's committee selection process this summer has upset additional people, who say that a small oligarchy is controlling Ocracoke's education.
Since the school first formed a local improvement team, faculty members and parents have selected its five members. In June, however, the Hyde County school board took over that responsibility. School board members appointed all three members of the school's already existing advisory council to the improvement team.
``I don't think the administration or the school board or the superintendent is listening enough to the teachers and the parents,'' said Hettie Johnson, president of Ocracoke School's Parent-Teacher Association. Johnson's ninth-grade daughter is transferring to Cape Hatteras this fall. Johnson's two sons will remain at Ocracoke.
``Our school has had a complete turn-around in teachers this year. I just feel more comfortable with my daughter at Hatteras. She can get some of the other subjects there that just aren't available on the island,'' Johnson said.
Sally Newell's seventh-grade son also will transfer from Ocracoke to Cape Hatteras in a couple of weeks. He will have to leave home by 6:30 a.m. to catch a 7 a.m. ferry, ride the boat across Hatteras Inlet, then board a school bus. He will arrive at school by 8 a.m. and return home shortly after 6 p.m.
``It's just sad, what has happened at Ocracoke School. It's so negative that I don't want Brian to be any part of it,'' Newell said. ``Ocracoke School is not the best I can offer my son right now. He said everything homey and community-oriented about his school was gone by the end of last year. He was very unhappy there.''
Cee Touhey, whose sixth-grade daughter would have had six classmates at Ocracoke, expressed similar reasons for withdrawing her child from the island institution.
``I made the choice because of what I think will be best for my daughter,'' Touhey said. ``Hatteras has a whole lot more to offer.''
Cheryl and David Senseny, who have lived on Ocracoke since 1973, are moving to the Carolina mountains next week with their three school-age children. David Senseny has taught science at Ocracoke School for 22 years. He is taking a two-year leave of absence to work at a small, private school.
``I've spent weeks trying to figure out how we got to this point that we felt we had to leave,'' Cheryl Senseny said as she was packing for the move. ``Teachers kept hoping that the school board would intervene. Instead, all they've done is stick their heads in the sand.''
Ruth Toth, who has taught social studies at Ocracoke School since 1981 and assisted Thompson with some administrative duties, said she hated to resign her post this summer - but felt she had to.
``I did everything I could back in the spring, and it did no good. It's too late now. I've lost a job I loved for 14 years,'' Toth said last week. ``I wouldn't have resigned a job I loved if I felt there was any hope it would get better.''
Thompson and Montgomery both said they still hope - and believe - that after three years of conflicts things will improve this fall. With one-third of the staff new to the school and more than 10 percent of the students gone, things certainly will be different.
``Some things you just have to accept,'' Thompson said of the teachers' and students' departures. ``We just don't have much control over that. I hope there will be a very positive change at this school that will lead to a great deal of innovation. I've learned an awful lot since I've been here.''
Montgomery, named superintendent last year, agreed. He said development programs and new teamwork at Ocracoke School should help solve some of the on-going problems.
``The reason those parents and teachers feel they're not being heard is because they're not getting their way,'' the superintendent said of teachers and students who chose not to return to Ocracoke School this fall. ``We didn't get rid of the principal. Now, the principal is there to stay. He's there - on the island - until the school board or I decide he'd serve us better somewhere else.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
DREW C. WILSON/Staff
Ocracoke School Principal Larry Thompson, who joined the staff in
March 1992, acknowledges that some departures are related to
tensions in the school system, but he blames the differences on the
resistance to change among the close-knit islanders.
by CNB