The wave of resignations among Springs School staff started in 2020 with a handful of relatively new teachers, several office clerks, a librarian, a head custodian, a bus driver or two. Heads started to turn more recently when tenured teachers and senior administrators began resigning, leading up to an all-out freak-out among parents and other Springs teachers earlier this week when word got out that resignations of the school’s popular principal and assistant principal, Christine Cleary and Josh Odom, were set to be approved by the school board on Tuesday night.
At Tuesday’s board meeting, tears were shed amid a tense atmosphere as teacher after teacher, parent after parent, stepped up to the lectern to decry a school culture in which, they say, morale is low, communication is lacking, and even students are starting to wonder what’s going on.
Simply put, people want answers that in some cases cannot be stated publicly because of rules governing employee privacy.
“The fact that you are accepting our principal’s and vice principal’s resignation tonight is devastating to me,” said Cristen Keyes, a third-grade teacher and parent of two Springs students who was the first of many to speak. “In the 20 years I’ve worked here, I’ve never felt so low. . . . At this point I have to question, how can you overlook this? Many of us are hoping you feel the urgency to turn this around.”
According to an email sent to Springs School families on Monday night, Ms. Cleary is resigning after 17 years in Springs to move upstate and attend to family matters, while Mr. Odom, who came on board in 2021, has accepted a new job as the principal and superintendent of the Montauk School District. His appointment is to become official next week. The last day with Springs for both Ms. Cleary and Mr. Odom will be June 30.
“We wish the two of them well and we are working on a plan to find successors,” said Barbara Dayton, the school board president, at the start of Tuesday’s meeting, which was attended by at least 40 people.
The board was to meet last night in executive session to discuss next steps. Debra Winter, the superintendent, who in January announced her intention to retire at the end of the 2023-24 school year, said she is in the process of formulating interview questions and aims, by the start of April, to find a new principal to start in July.
“I know what’s going on, but I can’t talk about it. It has been like that here since before I got here,” Ms. Winter, who is in her sixth year with the district, said in a follow-up conversation yesterday morning.
Monique Sullivan, a second-grade teacher, said that “it is a completely different place than when I started here eight years ago. The culture has changed. It doesn’t feel good, and believe me, the kids feel that. That trickles down, and that is not okay with me at all. We’ve tried to open up lines of communication . . . and that was not welcomed at all. I hope you start welcoming open lines of communication because we have so much to offer.”
Several teachers said the email announcement that went out Monday night from Ms. Winter was how they learned that two of their top administrators were leaving.
“The whole community found out at once and we weren’t given the consideration to have a meeting with us or find out during school hours,” said Meghan Payne, a special education teacher.
According to Kristy Lamonda, a special education teacher who is co-president of the Springs Teachers Association, more than 80 employees have resigned over the last five years.
Among them was Keri DeLalio, who oversaw special education and human resources, in 2021; Meghan Kelly, a newly tenured music teacher who had helped oversee the annual Springs opera, in 2022; Katie Farmer, a tenured teacher who had been with Springs since 1995, and Amanda Waleko, also tenured, who took a job in another local district in 2022. A handful of teachers and administrators — including Robert Doyle, the business official — left after less than a year with Springs, which was publicly attributed to their long commutes from UpIsland.
School officials have disputed Ms. Lamonda’s number, saying yesterday that there have been 49 resignations over the last five years. They are not counting retirements, of which there have been 19, plus 15 employee transfers to different roles within the district; for the latter, an employee technically needs to resign before another appointment can be made.
“I have also as a parent, as many of us have, noticed a lot of turnover in the last few years of some of our most special teachers and now administration, which is really disheartening,” Casey Dalene, a parent of two elementary-age children, said during Tuesday’s meeting. “Really look into this from every angle — the angle of those who have left and their reasoning — and the angle of what’s going on within the school and how we can remedy any of these issues moving forward.”
Meredith Smith, a parent for whom Tuesday’s board meeting was the first she ever attended, said the resignations made her feel “really uncomfortable” about living in Springs. “There is some elephant in the room. . . . I don’t know what it is,” she said. “There is something that needs to be discovered.”
In response to several parents’ requests for improved communication with the district, school officials invited them to volunteer with committees or attend board meetings, which occur approximately every other week.
Ray Wojtusiak, a Springs social studies teacher with one child in the school and another who graduated from it, pointed out that teaching is “a profession that is losing people across the country, but we also know we’re in a unique situation on the East End where affordability of living is extremely difficult.”
“It hurts me to see people leave and stay in the same town,” Mr. Wojtusiak said. “We’re all one town, but I think when we move forward, what I’m asking is can we make every effort possible . . . to incentivize people to stay here.”
Mr. Wojtusiak “said it best” when he referred to the larger, national trend of teacher resignations, Ms. Winter said yesterday. “A 27-year-old teacher on the East End is lucky if they’re making $75,000 with a master’s degree,” she said. “Can I give a bonus for those teachers who come to work every day? I have something like $300 in their contract for perfect attendance. We’re not a corporation — we’re a school district.”
“I want the parents and staff to know I recognize their concerns and have the best interest of our students and staff going through this process finding a new principal and new assistant,” she said.
Originally from South Carolina, Mr. Odom has lived on the East End with his family for the past 14 years. He was the English department coordinator at East Hampton High School before becoming the Springs School’s assistant principal in July 2021. In a letter to the Montauk School community on Monday, Mr. Odom said that he is “eager to dig in and get to work.” He said that he had heard “students sing the praises of Montauk School and how important it is to them” while at the high school. “Everyone should take great pride in knowing this school’s profound impact on so many,” he wrote, adding, “the character and deep sense of community that Montauk embodies make it abundantly clear that I am in the place I was meant to be.”
Ms. Cleary was appointed acting principal at Springs in August 2020 and permanent principal in February 2021.