This editorial ran in the Oneida Dispatch on May 4, 2015. I wrote it to protest the Oneida School Board’s unreasonable treatment of my son.
Superintendent ‘Lied’, Board Swears To It
The Oneida school District refuses to educate my son in math and its costing you money.
My son Bob is very good at math. Last year, in sixth grade, he taught himself Algebra and asked to challenge the course because he was bored in math. The District’s first response: “I don’t care what he knows–he’s taking math 7 next year!” After resistance from Mr. Spadafora, the Superintendent, the Board let Bob challenge the course. Bob got a 90 on the exam and passed the oral exam, but it wasn’t good enough for them. They put him in Algebra Anyway. Bob quickly decided the class was a waste of his time, instead teaching himself three more years of math through last January, including Pre-Calculus at HCCC.
In the meantime, we filed two appeals with the Commissioner of Education, which you are paying to defend. We’ve asked to allow Bob the chance to show he knows that more advanced material by taking the exams and to remove Bob from Algebra. Mr. Spadafora and the Board said a bunch of false, contradictory – and frankly crazy — things justifying their actions. Things like Bob had acted immaturely at Board meetings and refused to answer their questions. I produced actual meeting recordings showing those sworn statements false, they haven’t retracted the false statements. Instead, Mr. Spadafora said I called him a ‘liar’ (Notably, he didn’t deny the allegations).
Recently, in classic 1984 fashion, Mr. Spadafora recently notified us that Bob had in fact been successful in his course challenge last June, and that “we have never said otherwise” (Both Mr. Spadafora and the Board have sworn otherwise many times — under oath). They have also agreed that Robert’s zero in the Algebra I course will not appear on his transcript – only the 94 he got when he retook the test – but he still has to sit in the class where he’s already scored in the top 5% (while ignoring the teacher and studying Calculus).
There’s no legal or educational reason for the District’s positions, and they have effectively admitted this through their lawyers.
There’s a long list of crazy, Kafkaesque aspects to Bob’s situation, which I don’t have space to list. There are a couple of things you should know however. First, in my experience with this case, your school District prioritizes conformity over education or excellence and disregards the law when it suits them, which should scare the heck out of you (Think standardized testing). Second, you are paying the legal fees to enforce conformity and illegal behavior. At April Board meeting, the Board allocated additional funds to its annual legal budget, I assume in part due to these cases. I’ve asked how much, but they’ve not told me – also in violation of the Law.
I can’t trust the Administration or Board to follow the law or educate Bob properly. You should question whether you can trust them to spend your money wisely to educate your children properly as well.