Foi Batchelder Investigation Part 2

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James Pappas, principal, was interviewed on 6-22-09 and willingly and knowingly waived his right to union representation and stated: We had Title 1 money that was allocated for PTO activities. Marta Bentham was telling Norma Castro, FRA, that we had to utilize these funds. We opted to get a laminating machine but was told by Marta that we could not use the PTO allocated funds to buy the machine. My secretary, Barbara DeJesus, and Norma Castro, FRA, came to me and suggested we use Mr. Perez as a vendor to provide catering. I said that I was not 100 % sure that it would be the right thing to do. I was thinking it was a possible conflict of interest. Barbara came to me with a voucher already filled out to be signed. Barbara and Norma said we had used Mr. Perez to buy food for other after school and school events. I signed the voucher. I do not know anything about New Vendor Forms or other paperwork needed to become a registered vendor with the city. I never filled out and forms for Mr. Perez or asked my secretary or FRA-to fill out any forms. During our second round of parent conferences Tom Faniel called me and said that Mr.Perez had gone down to see Dr. Thompson and lodged a complaint. Mr. Perez was saying that parents were upset with me because I was ridged and inaccessible to parents and that I was not receptive of any of Mr. Perez's ideas. I met with Mr. Perez. The conversation became very hostile because he was accusing me of being uncaring and that I was not here for the parents or the students. He said that I was only interested in paying my mortgage. He was accusing me of not including him in the activities of the school. He wanted to do a dress down day as a way to raise funds for the school. He wanted a staff/student basketball game. He had sold t-shirts at the basketball game in the past. I gave him my rationale of why I did not support those activities at that time. He said that I was being rigid and not listening to him. He said that I did not care about the community and that I preventing him from being a part of the school. I did say to him that we had already allocated money to his business as part of being involved with the school. I asked him to bring parents that were complaining to me or have them come to me. I have never turned a parent that came to me away. When he was leaving my office he grabbed the bottom of my tie and threw it over my shoulder and said you have to get rid of this. You have to come to school dressed like us not all dressed up. Mr. Perez did bring bread to school once and then said that I owed him $10.00 for the bread. Another time we had asked Mr. Perez to make us sandwiches for a tap that was going to happen the following Tuesday. We checked with him on Monday and he said he was not given enough time to make the sandwiches. I never had any intention of attempting to bribe Mr. Perez by giving him $500.00 for services his catering company would provide.

Page 1 of 2 From: Adamowski, Steven Sent: Wednesday, June 03, 2009 8:36 PM To: '[email protected]' Cc: Thompson, James Subject: Re: Epi Perez PTO President for Batchelder School Hello Mr. Perez, I want to thank you for taking time from your busy schedule to communicate with me and for your continuing support of Batchelder school and the students it serves. Your service on the PTO is commendable and I take the concern's you've expressed seriously.. By now you have been visited by Marta Bentham who is investigating the situation you brought to my attention this morning. She will be returning for another Cuban sandwich and to retrieve the $500 check. We appreciate the fact that you did not cash it as this type of business arrangement between a school and a PTO President would give the appearance of a conflict of interest. Beyond that, Dr. Thompson will be working with you and Mr. Pappas to determine if an inclusive environment can be created in which all parents and teachers can work together for the benefit of Batchelder's students. We appreciate all efforts that both you and Jim Pappas can make toward meeting this expectation. We are grateful for the opportunity to serve your family and hope that your expectations for your school can be met in the future. We will also be looking closely at the achivement of Batchelder students when their State assessment results are received in July, as this is the final arbiter of school success. I look forward to meeting you. Regards, Steven Adamowski

Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Device

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From: Yessica Perez To: Adamowski, Steven Cc: Thompson, James; Bentham, Marta ; Perez, Eddie A.; Milly Arciniegas <[email protected]> Sent: Wed Jun 03 08:02:11 2009 Subject: Epi Perez PTO President for Batchelder School

Hello Mr. Adamoski: My name is Epifanio Perez and I am the PTO President for Batchelder Elementary. I have been a proud and involved parent of Batchelder since my two oldest daughters attended there and now are in high school. I still have my two younger children attending there as well. It has been a continuous span of 10 years and my creditability can be confirm by any teacher that has been there the same amount of time. For the last ten years I have never experience what I am we are experiencing now. I feel that school is not ours meaning teachers, administration, and parent. In several occasions Mr. Pappas has referred to the school as his. This school without the teachers, administration and parental involvement won't be successful. The only thing Mr. Pappas is accomplishing is to manipulate and control everything.

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PTO meetings are something so important to parents and a good way to express any concerns they might have about the school, but now there being run by Mr. Pappas not the PTO President. The last meeting he referred to, he set it up in a very intimidating way. It looked more like a board meeting than a welcoming forum of discussion between parents and teachers. I invited Milly Arciniegas so she can witness for herself the inappropriate way that PTO meetings were being conducted. In addition the meeting place for this particular (Thursday May 28, 2009) meeting was too obscure that it took another of our invited guest, Dr. Thompson, and myself some time to find, adding more difficulty and obstacle for parents to find the meeting place. I invited Milly to come with me to talk to parents who were already in school for parents conference to join us in this meetings. We were not starting any revolt as implied by Mr. Pappas. I was asking parents for their opinion as to the set up of the meeting whether they felt comfortable with it. Mr. Pappas never ask for opinions or communicates well with me, he just runs with his impulse. He might say he listens to ideas, but the truth is he either ignores any suggestions or ideas or just re-label them as his. One day Mr. Pappas had Mrs. Norma Castro call my shop to see if we would accept a check of $500.00 for catering events at school. I never responded to the offer because I wasn't in aggreeance with the whole thing, it made uncomfortable. Nevertheless Mrs. Castro gave me the paper work to fill out and I stuck in a drawer because I never had any intentions to fill .anything out. Mrs. Castro told me I needed to do an invoice, again I never responded to them. A few weeks later a check arrived at my shop I was in dismay because I never filled out any of the paperwork nor did I submit an invoice to the school. Attached is the copy. One day Mr. Pappas called on me for help to ease tension between between parents and himself, I told him that the best thing he can do is to win over parents by communicating with them and reaching out to them, his answer to me was and I quote "Didn't I give you $500.00 for your shop why can you help me." My respond to him was that I did not need $500.00 from the school and reinforced that he need it to find a way to reach out to the parents. If you want, you can sit us in a meeting and I want to see if he will have the audacity to denied ever saying that to me. I do not need to be paid off to shut my mouth when I see something that is not working out, anyone who knows me will know that. Just ask Martha Bentham or Milly Arciniegas they can attest to that. I felt disgusted with the whole situation and I can't believe that the person that tried to bribe me (the PTO President) is the person who is in charge of my children's well being and oversee their education. There is more going on in the school, but if the teachers who have complained to me cannot speak up for themselves I cannot help them. What they do tell me is, that if they do complain and nothing is gets done they fear retaliation from his part afterwards. I don't know about you but I would not like to be working in an enviroment like that. BY THE WAY, I NEVER CASHED THE CHECK. IT IS IN A SAFE PLACE AS A REMINDER THAT RESPECT IS SOMETHING EARNED NOT PURCHASHED... Sincerely, Epi Perez, PTO President 860-573-8387 cell 860-953-1042 work

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From: Yessica Perez [[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, June 09, 2009 7:43 PM To: Thompson, James Cc: Adamowski, Steven; Perez, Eddie A.; Bentham, Marta ; Milly Arciniegas Subject: Batchelder School Good Morning Dr. Thompson: I has informed that you are no longer on the investigation for the check sent to my shop. I am wondering who is now currently seeing this through, so I can contact them. This lack of ethical behavior should not be ignored, or set aside or lost between the cracks. My growing concern is that now we are commencing summer vacation feel nothing will get done. I was approached today by several teachers and staff (whom of course shall remain anonymous) while I was attending my son's kindergarten celebration. Their growing concerns for their current work environment troubles me, especially when they feel they can't voice their opinion due to their own job security. They also pat my back and tell me thank you for fighting for them and the children. After my son's celebration another group of staff and teachers in school felt how things have changed. The staff were reminiscing on how it felt like family in school, now it is all the opposite. How can you reply to that? What can you say to make them feel a little better? Sometimes we can feel sad for someone undergoing stress or troubled times, but is not enough? Is that compassion? Or is compassion more than just feeling for that person but also moving into action? I WILL CONTINUE PURSUING THIS. Not only for the lack of ethical behavior shown to me, but for all those wondering teachers that we have in Batchelder that use to smile and laugh more often, and the joy influenced a lot on the way they TAUGHT OUR CHILDREN!. Sincerely, Epifanio Perez, PTO President

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Page 1 of 1 From: Slaughter - Hinton., Delores A. Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2009 11:54 AM To: Adamowski, Steven Cc: Gervais, Katherine M.; Bentham, Marta ; Thompson, James; Slaughter - Hinton., Delores A.; Zurita, FlorM.; Romero, Zaida Subject: Email from Epi Perez/PTO-Batchelder Importance: High Sir, Per Marta Bentham, she and Dr. Thompson are thoroughly addressing the concerns of Epi Perez/PTOBatchelder, per her email sent to you. You do not need to respond nor take any action. They are handling. Delores

Delores Slaughter-Kin ton Office Manager On behalf of Steven Adamowski, Ph.D. Superintendent of Schools [email protected]

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June 16,2009

To Whom It May Concern:

Enclosed is the check that was given for my shop by Batchelder's ACTING Principal, Mr. James Pappas. I use the term "given" since the proper paperwork a vendor is suppose to fill out was never fill out, at least by me or my wife for mat matter. Let this letter show as record that I never cashed the check or had any intentions of cashing it since this pose a conflict of interest seeing as I am the PTO President for Batchelder School. Also to attest that I did return the check as promised and that this check should not be claimed as payment or as an end of the year deductions by the City of Hartford or Hartford Board of Education as a vendor relationship because such relationship does not exist between Hartford Board Education or City of Hartford and The Coolest Cow. Ck# 003195515 The undersigned lay witness to the above statement.

Epifan/o Perez