Vocal math teacher loses contract

The New Mexican

A math teacher who criticized Santa Fe High School's course offerings at a school-board meeting last week says she was told Tuesday that her contract will not be renewed.

Megan Siesennop said she received a poor evaluation from Susan Lumley, the school's principal and Siesennop's supervisor. Siesennop said she believes she is being retaliated against for being outspoken on several issues, including how math is taught at the school and the administration's plan for restructuring the freshman class into "smaller learning communities."

"I think if I had kept my mouth shut, I would have an exemplary evaluation," said Siesennop, who is in her third year teaching at the high school.

Lumley said she "cannot discuss personnel issues with the newspaper," but added that there is "no retribution to any faculty members."

Siesennop said Lumley went over her evaluation with her Tuesday. She said Lumley rated her as incompetent in five of nine areas and told her that her professional-development plan was inadequate and that she was failing to make math relevant to her students.

Siesennop said at the end of the evaluation meeting, Lumley said, "You are not invited to come back next year."

A colleague, Koo Im Tong, who co-chairs the math department with Siesennop, said she was surprised by the news. "We believe Megan is one of the most outstanding teachers in our department, if not in the entire school," Tong said. "She's the kind of teacher we should be trying to keep."

Siesennop said when Lumley last evaluated her, in November, she was rated exemplary in eight of nine areas. But she said she and Lumley have "butted heads" since then, beginning in late November, when Siesennop attended a training session on smaller learning communities and asked "tons of questions" about the plan, which will restructure the school next fall by splitting freshmen into groups that will take their core classes together.

Siesennop filed a grievance against Lumley last month. She said a group of teachers who formed a faculty senate has been critical of Lumley and filed a grievance against her. She said that under the district's bargaining agreement, documents related to grievances are confidential.

Siesennop was most recently outspoken at last Tuesday's school-board meeting, when she criticized the high school's math offerings, saying the school was setting up students to fail by not offering courses below Algebra I.

Tong on Tuesday echoed Siesennop's criticisms, saying that about half the school's freshmen are below grade level in math, and an estimated 14 percent test at second-grade level in math.

"When students are coming in testing at a second-grade level, placing them in an algebra class is not appropriate," Tong said. "We feel we need to offer courses that meet students at their skill level."

Lumley disagreed that lower-level math courses should be offered. "It's called tracking, and it was done away with sometime in the '70s," Lumley said.

Against her better judgment, she said, she went along with math teachers who wanted to offer pre-algebra this spring. Lumley said the experiment has not been successful, and about 70 percent of the students who took the class are failing.

Lumley said instead of offering remedial classes, math teachers need to teach at different levels within a class. "All the research shows that if you put all students of one ability together in a classroom, your success rate is very slim."

She said early indications show freshmen in the smaller learning community being piloted this year at the school are doing better in math than their peers who are in regular classes.

"It's very difficult to teach a class of students who have all failed," Lumley said.

At last Tuesday's board meeting, school Superintendent Gloria Rendón said pre-algebra won't be offered at Santa Fe High next fall because the course doesn't count as one of the math courses required by the state for graduation. Pre-algebra is offered as an elective at Capital High School, she said.

Tong said textbooks were not ordered for the pre-algebra class taught at Santa Fe High this spring.

"We don't want to teach pre-algebra in the spring, either. We agree with Lumley on that," she said. "We want to teach a year-long class in the fall."

Siesennop said she is trying to figure out whether she has any options to retain her job.

Tong said she and fellow teachers "feel very vulnerable exercising our freedom of speech and bringing up issues of concern because of the way we've been treated this year."

Disputes between teachers and Lumley, who is ending her first year as principal of the school, resulted in teachers contacting the American Civil Liberties Union, which wrote a letter to the school board expressing concern about free-speech rights on the high school's campus. Peter Simonson, director of the ACLU's New Mexico office, said the organization has not heard back from the school board and has not investigated whether free speech rights are being violated at the school.

"Whether we do (investigate) will depend on whether teachers contact us again," he said.