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Show Princinal Harold llavAier answers school board charaes Rumors are still circulating in this area and throughout the state to the effect that the reason for my dismissal as principal of Payson High School was a moral one. I do not know to what these rumors refer but I am not ashamed of 'my public school record here or elsewhere. Since the superintendent superin-tendent or the members of the board of education have never publicly denied this I feel that I must defend my own reputation reputa-tion by publishing these charges char-ges against me as presented by the superintendent and the board of education in the hearing hear-ing of June 20, 1966. Naturally I present my answers to these charges. of telephone calls to the district dis-trict office and the Spanish Fork High School, where the meeting had been held, to ask the superintendent for instruction. instruc-tion. I was not successful in making contact with him. During Dur-ing these phone call attempts I was told by two different teachers, ' who had attended the above mentioned meeting, that schools were being dismissed dismis-sed in Nebo District. As I look back at this situation now, these teachers may not have realized that the principals princi-pals present at this meeting were instructed by the superintendent super-intendent to hold school irre-gardless irre-gardless of the vote by the teachers not to go back to the of the Nebo District the students's grades could have been reduced six steps. The committee showed leniency and reduced them by only two steps. This case was brought up in a school board meeting and the board requested of the superintendent that an investigation inves-tigation be made by the supervisor. su-pervisor. The supervisor came and made the investigation, after which I received a letter from the superintendent with the following instructions to me, and I quote a part from this letter: Quote "I, therefore direct that you remove the grades of (student) for the first term of this school year disregard- asked the board to pay the bill. (1962-63). Answer: This accusation is entirely false! I did hire an architect but only after receiving a letter from superintendent authorizing authoriz-ing me to do so. I quote parts from this letter dated Dec. 18, 1962. Quote "I presented to the Board of Education last evening eve-ning your request concerning authorization to make a survey of the facilities on the Park View Elementary School grounds relative to a grandstand grand-stand or community development develop-ment project. "The Board commends vnu in the year 1965-1966 and prior. Answer: Perhaps I don't understand what the word functioning means but there was held a Young Farmers Class in the area of Farm Mechanics this past school year at Payson High School. Similar classes have been held four or five of the last six years. In this same period of time sewing classes for adults were held two different dif-ferent years. Each fall a survey is made to determine those adults who are interested in attending the adult classes. We have encouraged encour-aged all to attend. We have not failed to teach a class tie I monies if they were eligible eli-gible and if they had a worthy idea for experimentation they wanted to follow through on. From the information furnished furnish-ed me by outside agencies and through the school district central cen-tral office it was clear that Payson High School was not eligible for Title I federal monies. mon-ies. To be eligible for Title I monies five and one half pel-cent pel-cent (5 and Vs) of the students stu-dents of a school had to be in a certain classification. At Payson High School approi-mately approi-mately two per cent (2) of the students fitted this category cate-gory of classification. Therefore, There-fore, Payson High School was not eligible for the Title I mon- 1PH 1 . 1,11, t 1 V) IV,, 1 WCK glVlU specific instructions to release the certified librarian from her office and bookkeeping tasks so she could function professionally. profes-sionally. Ho failed to do so for at least one year. (1964-1965) Answer: I agree that this is the proper prop-er thing to do, but when you release someone from a necessary neces-sary task you must find someone some-one else to do this job. At this time we had one office clerk who was hired for seven hours a day, five days per week. This clerk was already putting in an average of eight hours a day in order to keep up the office of-fice work required of her. I asked for additional help for the office but none was given at this time. The only other way to have released the librarian li-brarian was to have required the certified counselors to assume as-sume some of the office work and have senior girls assigned to assume the rest of these tasks. This kind of an arrangement arrange-ment is not educationally sound either. Before the middle of the school year the regular clerk had decided it best for her to quit and take other employment employ-ment because she knew this o'clock I did dismiss the students stu-dents from school because I thought this was the procedure being followed all over the district. This was based on all of the information I could obtain ob-tain at the time. There were no teachers at Payson High School at the time. About ten thirty a.m. the superintendent called and said he had heard that I had dismissed the students. stu-dents. I told him I had and why. He ask if I could get a portable public address system and get the students back in school. I said I would try. (Even (Ev-en at this time he did not give me any instructions as to what to do with the students for two days, just get them back into school). I was able, through a friend to get a public address car to go through the towns of this attendance area, asking students to return to school. Many were called by telephone. By noon a good share of the students were back in school. Having no teachers to help me I organized the students in large groups under the direction direc-tion of student leaders and we had group activities the balance bal-ance of the day. The following morning just and so instruct the teachers to mark him on the basis of the work he actually performed while in attendance at the school. "I shall also appreciate it if little publicity is given to this request. We have already had enough adverse comment, not only from the parents but the public in general relative to this attendance policy. I do not desire to stir this any further than has been done. "Know that I appreciate your interest in running a good school, and I shall appreciate appre-ciate compliance with this directive di-rective at this time." unquote. One pertinent question need be asked: was this boy handled with the attendance policy of the Nebo School District? I can answer: yes, and fairly. That should have been the end of it, but no the board had to send someone to make an investigation. in-vestigation. Why should members mem-bers of the staff spend days investigating in-vestigating problems when there is a direct policy covering cover-ing it, and the policy is being abided by? What type of a superintendent, or school board will approve a policy and then on specific instances refuse to highly for your efforts in this direction and authorizes you to proceed with a survey if funds are available from within your group that is, community, church, school, clubs and other intrested organizations. As you perhaps know, the firm of "name" Architects of Provo has done much of the work for the Board in projects of this kind, and the Board suggested that you consider them in this Program." Unquote A copy of the Capital Outlay Out-lay Budget for Payson High School for the 1963-1964 year shows that Park View School fencing and bleachers were requested re-quested of the school board and that this request was not the bill of an architect. This evidence is also available. This budget request was refused by the board of education. See letter at bottom of page. 7. He hired a clerk beyond the contract period without first clearing it. Answer: This charge actually has nothing to do with my dismissal dismis-sal as a principal since it did-not did-not occur until after I was notified no-tified on May 27, 1966, of my dismissal. At the hearing the the same area have desired a class. There were four adults from this area who completed their high school requirements and graduated from the Nebo High School during the past school year 1965-1966. Nebo High School is a district wide school organized specifically to help adults who have not previously received a high school diploma. 10. The attendance report lacked some columns filled. This was called to his attention atten-tion and the idea conveyed, "If you want these columns filled in, you will have to do it." Answer: The above mentioned columns col-umns were average daily membership, mem-bership, average daily attendance attend-ance and the percent of attendance. at-tendance. These were by grades and total for the school. These figures are all obtained by long division. One day I suggested to Mr. Wendel in the district office that I should use their calculators to get these figures rather than doing the dividing by hand. He said to me at that time that these figures were not too important im-portant and suggested I leave them blank. This is what I la- 14. He failed to submit BYU Cooperating Teachers Report for 1966-1967 to the District Office, due May 20, 1966. Answer: This is entirely false. I did submit this report. It did go through the district office. of-fice. It was received on or before be-fore May 20, 1966. It was picked pick-ed up by the Director of Student Stu-dent Teaching from the BYU when he picked up the others from the schools of Nebo School District at the district office. This report is in the proper office and file at the BYU and this information can be verified. 15. He delayed the preparation prepara-tion of the district budget by not submitting his school budget bud-get on time the 1966-1967 budget. Answer:. The Payson High School budget requests for 1966-67 were late this past year. This school was not the only one to submit a late budget. 16. He was instructed to use the night depository at the bank. He didn't and was robbed rob-bed twice prior to 1963. Answer: This accusation is false. extra bookkeeping was to be changed over to her department depart-ment and because of the low rate of pay. After her resignation resigna-tion it was necessary to train a new clerk in the many tasks in the office. It also made it almost impossible to require this new clerk to assume the additional responsibility of the finances. Thus this required transfer of responsibilities was not accomplished during the 1964-1965 school year. A half-time half-time additional clerk was authorized au-thorized at the beginning of i the 1965-1966 school year. This half-time clerk did assume the book keeping responsibilities previously held by the librarian. librar-ian. (Item number 7 is related to this subject) 2. He was instructed to enlarge en-large the lunch room. The item was in the budget. Later he refused to allow the mainten- ance men to do so. (1963) Answer: I can find no proof that I was instructed to do this. If I the item was in the budget, I ' would like to know who put it :j in there? I did not request it J nor did I have any knowledge i of its being there. This is just I another example of decisions 1 being made by the central of- mentary principal called me and said the superintendent had asked him to call me (and I think other principals in Pay-son) Pay-son) and ask me to get substitute sub-stitute teachers to carry out our regular classes. I immediately immed-iately called a PTA officer and ask her to help in this matter. Soon the superintendent called and asked if I had enough substitutes sub-stitutes for the day. I told him I did not and that I had planned to carry out group activities with the student leaders help again. The superintendent super-intendent was very displeased with me and felt that I had gone contrary to his wishes, yet he had not mentioned getting get-ting substitutes the day before be-fore to me. He did send some members of his staff to help substitute during this second day. 4. On numerous occasions there was lack of communication communica-tion with parents having children child-ren with problems. The supervisor super-visor had to investigate six cases and has had no such problem with other areas. Answer: As a principal I have spent many hours consulting with parents about problems of their children. In all but one of the abide by their own policies. How can they expect the principals prin-cipals and the teachers of the district to abide by district policy, if the superintendent and the board feel that they are exempt from the rules? Futhermore, I'm still wondering wonder-ing why the superintendent and the school board members didn't want their policies and actions publicized. Isn't it rather absurd to infer in-fer that the other schools do not have problems with students stu-dents and parents? If the supervisor su-pervisor did not investigate cases from other schools was it because they were handled by a more efficient method direct communication between the superintendent and the principal ? The attorney did say at the hearing it would be of interest to the school board to learn how many parents Mr. Hawker Haw-ker did get along 'with. 2. His philosophy of expelling expell-ing the students and cutting or reducing their grades. Answer: Here the proper word would be suspend and not expell. Expelling Ex-pelling is permanent action which can be taken by the board of education in excluding superuiLenueni, saia ne Knew nothing about this subject, so I don't know who brought this in as one of the reasons for my dismissal. A one half day clerk was added ad-ded to the Payson High School staff for the year 1965-1966. This clerk was hired for 184 days and was given the assignment assign-ment to do the purchasing, pay all the bills, and keep a financial finan-cial record of the income and expenditures of the school. She also made monthly financial reports to the district office summarizing these financial transactions. Sometime in June or July each year these financial finan-cial records are taken to the school district office for audit. Since her contract time ended in May the financial records were not completed and could not be completed at this time. Outstanding bills had to be gathered and paid. The final report for the year could not be made until at least the middle mid-dle of June, since high school business goes on the year around some purchases are made during the summer months. This same clerk was hired to finish this work which obviously had to be done. She was paid from high school funds and not district funds Lei uiu. auuui Liie omy use iui these figures is a comparison of one grade with another or one school with another. These figures can not be used in state reports from the district because these figures have to be determined on a district wide basis. The summation or average of these figures district dis-trict wide would not even be correct for a state report. One report was sent back to me to be completed by Mr. Whitehead. White-head. I then called Mr. Whitehead White-head who evidently was working work-ing with these reports. He then said to me in effect, "Okay, send it back to me." This I did. I did not say to him or Mr. Wendel, "If you want these columns filled in, you will have to do it." 11. Ho failed to schedule the type room so the second year shorthand transcription session could have access to it in 1964-1965. 1964-1965. Answer: This may be true. I have never made a perfect schedule yet. In fact I have never seen a perfect schedule made by any high school principal. I have made many high school schedules, sched-ules, however, I have never felt that anyone was as good as I would have liked it. I have i was iiol uisu ucteu tu use the bank night depository until un-til after the first school robbery. rob-bery. In 1962 the safe at the Payson High School was broken brok-en into and monies taken. After Af-ter this occurred, I was instructed in-structed to use the night depository. de-pository. Records of the local bank and my office will verify that the night depository was in use in less than twenty-four hours after this breakin and robbery. It has been used continually con-tinually since that time. A few months later in 1962 the school and safe were broken into again and some change needed for the net day's business was taken. Still the bank records show that there was deposited in the night depository school monies the same night as the second robbery occured. 17. To this date he has failed fail-ed to submit an evaluation of teachers for 1965-1966. Answer: This is a false accusation as to the subject at hand. This has nothing to do with my dismissal as principal of Payson High School because it was not due when I was told of my dismissal on May 27, 1966. At the hearing it was admitted by the board that this report was not due until some on the grounds which were stated at my hearing without having been given prior notice to make definite changes. W. Harold Hawker 370 South 400 West Payson Utah (Paid Advertisement) 1 lice wiuiout any consultation j with the principal and faculty j who must live with these de- J cisions. j Crews came to cut a door- way through the lunch room into the agriculture room so that the agriculture room could be used as part of the lunch room. I did not refuse to allow the summer mainten-, mainten-, ance crews to do this work. Naturally I was surprised because be-cause I had no previous know-; know-; ledge of this matter. I reques- j ted that the crews wait and j this they did. Because of the :! arrangement of the argiculture :i room this change would have hindered materially the func-j func-j tioning of the agriculture pro- j gram. Also this change in J the doorway would have elimi nated space in the lunch room and would not have helped the j lunch room situation because the agriculture room was at this time being used as an ov- erflow for the school lunch J program. In other words this 'j change would have created J more problems than it would ?j have eliminated. A bit of humor there is a standing feeling among the j teachers of Nebo School Dis- J trict that the superintendent s is more concerned with the school lunch program than ' with the academic program of our schools. S. He was instructed to hold school during the teacher walkout. walk-out. He dismissed the students and failed to cooperate in re-j re-j cruiting substitute teachers to I maintain school. (May 1964) i Answer: j This whole affair stems from ; poor communications and lack of specific instructions after the "walkout" began. I did not attend the early morning meeting called by the teachers association the morning morn-ing of the first day of the walkout. When the teachers did not arrive for school on J that day I did make a number 'i i ! opci-un; t;ci.acs Uluuglll. up au the hearing I had direct communication com-munication with the parents themselves. In this case the parent chose to go directly to the superintendent, instead of coming to me to work out a solution. In most of these cases cas-es I had conferences with the parents several times, some extending over a period of many weeks. The investigation of these cases could have been done by the superintendent communicating directly with me over the telephone to leam the details of each case. If the supervisor had to spend his time investigating these cases it was because the superintendent superinten-dent or school board members wanted the cases handled in this manner. The inference here seems to be that the superintendent sup-erintendent cannot obtain the truth from me and must therefore there-fore send someone to investigate investi-gate every problem that arises. The supervisor talked these cases over with me after his investigation of them. He did not once criticize the action I had taken, and in some cases personally expressed himself as being pleased with my handling hand-ling of the problem. The most controversal case brought out at the hearing concerned a student problem over attendance. In 1963-1964 the high schools were instructed instruc-ted to use an attendance policy which was drawn up (at the request of the superintendent) by the high school principals and the supervisor and then approved by the superintendent and the school board. A copy of the policy was printed in the Payson Chronicle, Sept. 26, 1963. The Payson High School attendance committee, consisting con-sisting of myself and three competent teachers, followed this policy in deciding all problems prob-lems of attendance. In this specific case a student had been absent a number of days. By the attendance policy oLuuuiLa uma sciiuui. suspension suspen-sion is the excluding of students stu-dents from school for short peroids of time. This is an action authorized to principals. My philosophy includes the using of this technique in some cases in the handling of student problems. It certainly is not the only technique used by me. I don't suppose there is a secondary principal in Utah who hasn't or doesn't suspend sus-pend a student from school on occasions. An example of this is when a student's actions are such that it is imperative that the student not be allowed to attend school until his parents can meet with the principal or principal and teacher and correct cor-rect the situation. My philosophy of grading is not as stated above. I believe a student is graded and earns credit for certain work accomplished accom-plished or a level of attainment attain-ment reached. I believe that attendance cannot be ignored in grading. There is no way of competently making up what a student has missed when he is absent. This varies with the type of class under consideration. considera-tion. I believe we cannot test everything given or required in any class. What can be tested tes-ted is merely a sampling, therefore, the passing of a test does not necessarilly mean that a student has accomplished, accomplish-ed, achieved, or learned all that is required of him. As I have met with secondary sec-ondary principals on the district, dis-trict, region and state level, I have come to realize that this philosophy is accepted quite generally by members of this group. As a principal I do not cut or reduce grades of students. It is the teachers who evaluate the student's progress and achievement and grades him accordingly. 6. He hired an architect without consulting the board or the superintendent. Later he for this extra time. It is interesting to note here that previously this job had been handled by our librarian for many years. She worked beyond her contracted year on her own time during the summer sum-mer months and was not paid for this extra work. I suppose she was thanked only by me for doing this work for the school district. 8. Attendance policy was sent to parents. Working students stu-dents as custodians during school hours. Answer: After the 1963-1964 school policy for the high schools of this district. Each teacher was to have his own policy. This type of policy did not prove to be very helpful to a high school principal who was charged with maintaining high student attendance at-tendance to prevent the loss of financial remuneration to the school district. Teachers were quite unhappy with the situation situa-tion and felt that the school board should lend their support of a better policy. In the fall of 1965 the teachers tea-chers at Payson High School worked out a plan whereby each teacher's policy was to be the same. This policy was drawn up and copies sent home to the parents. It was in effect ef-fect a very short time until the superintendent and school board objected to it. It was then discontinued. This policy d i d include the working of students at school in certain cases. A few students did some work around the school. I might point out that the working of students during school hours outside of the classroom has been done in the other high schools of the school district. This was especially es-pecially true at Spanish Fork High School when the new high school was first occupied. 9. Adult program was not functioning in the high school urieu (.u mane Liie uesu possible pos-sible working schedule of classes clas-ses considering the number of teachers, the number of class rooms available and the kinds of classes for which the students stu-dents wanted to register. 12. Each secondary principal was asked to implement a corrective cor-rective reading program. Every Ev-ery secondary school except Payson will have such a program pro-gram in 1966-1967. Answer: If Payson High School does not have a corrective reading program the coming year it will not be because of lack of effort or of failure of Mr. Hawker. I am strongly for this program. The scheduling of such a program can still be done at this late date if the district will but furnish the teacher qualified or approved by them to conduct such a program. pro-gram. It is interesting to note that about three and one half years ago I. purchased with high school funds a speed reader and a good number of reading film strips of the elementary, junior high, and high school levels. These have been in use at Payson High School the past three years by certain teachers in the school who tried to improve the eye movements, move-ments, the eye span and the rate of reading for these students. stu-dents. Students were grouped so that this type of program could successfully be conducted. conduc-ted. These teachers were not experts at teaching reading but I did give them some help in this matter. I have held an elementary ele-mentary teaching certificate and have had the responsibility of maintaining a good reading program in another school district. dis-trict. 13. He never filed a report for Title I eligibility for 1965-1966. 1965-1966. Answer: The schools of Nebo District were encouraged to file for Ti- iime m June m fact a definite def-inite date had not been set. This report was submitted to the central office by me a few days after this hearing. At the end of the discussion of each accusation the lawyer representing the Utah Education Educa-tion Association asked two pertinent questions about the subect at hand. First, what was the date that this incident or specific item took place? Second, was Mr. Hawker ever notified orally or in writing that he was not doing satisfactory satisfac-tory work or that this would place his status as principal in jeopardy? On number one, the lawyer brought out many times the fact that as accusations for dismissal they were out dated. dat-ed. They should have been brought to the attention of Mr. Hawker at the time they occured and he in turn be given giv-en a chance to correct his procedures to comply with the requests of the superintendent. On number two, the answer was always no. I was never notified no-tified at any time by the school board, the superintendent, superintend-ent, or the supervisor that my status as a principal of Pay-son Pay-son High School was in jeopardy. jeopar-dy. In fact my actions were often of-ten praised both by the school board and the superintendent. An example of this, in writing, is shown by the quoted letter in the answer to charge number num-ber six. I do not object to being a classroom teacher. This is a noble no-ble calling. The most important activities of a school district go on in the classroom and under un-der the direction of the classroom class-room teacher. I do object to the manner man-ner in which I was dismissed which was contrary to the mutually mu-tually adopted policies, rules and regulations for dismissal of this school district and the local lo-cal teachers association. I do object to this dismissal |