by Jaclyn Thompson, news editor
There’s a new superintendent for the NYCDOE, and she visited on November 24th to take a look at our school.
Superintendent Juan Mendez got promoted and Leticia Pineiro took his place. Pineiro was a promoted principal who was’t looking for the job, but it fell into her hands.
“I was actually not looking for the job, someone passed my resume on and I was a principal at the time,” superintendent Leticia Pineiro said.
Pineiro plans to visits schools to get information on how the schools function. She has experience in schools from lower positions, but got promoted in a short period of time.
“I was an AP [assistant principal] for one year, and a principal at one school for also one year, when I was pulled for the job,” Pineiro said.
Last Tuesday, visiting the school, she observed classrooms and interacted with students to get a feel of how things are.
“I thought it was cool how she was actually talking to us, she was actually less scary than I thought a superintendent would be,” junior Marko Vrljic said.
On behalf of the newspaper staff, we wish her the best of luck.
Kimberly Loren Eaton • Dec 9, 2016 at 8:09 am
Ms. Pineiro visited Townsend Harris High School this week during a peaceful protest by the students about the potential appointment of the interim principal to permanent principal. The protest was recorded on video on Facebook Live. The way Ms. Pineiro spoke with the students was inappropriate. Her body language (she stood over students who were sitting instead of coming down to their level, and singled them out one at a time), and tone (highly condescending and dismissive) were intimidating. She interrupted the students constantly, not listening, and debating points before they could finish. She had the principal in question at her side, so the students could not express their concerns without fear of repercussions. Ms. Pineiro made it clear she had little knowledge and understanding of the school culture by the way she dismissed the teacher/ student relationships of mutual and transparent support and communication, and the highly involved alumni association (the alumni are why the school was re-founded, have played a part in funding and activity and curriculum building and are present at many school activities, as well as in constant communication with teachers, students, and faculty. Also, previous to this interim principal, alumni association board members have been in regular contact with the principal and previous principals regularly attended alumni association board meetings).
A more appropriate means of communication would have been for Ms. Pineiro to invite 4-5 student representatives to a roundtable discussion with the superintendent, where they could speak freely without the principal present (as this is intimidating because they cannot be sure that there will not be repercussions), with their parents invited to be present. They should be invited to speak in a more appropriate setting such as this, and have time to gather their thoughts, and be allowed to express their concerns, uninterrupted and without being dismissed, debated, and condescended to.