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State strips principal of Regents exam responsibility
Jan 17, 2008 12:20 PM
The State Education Department has instructed city education officials that the principal of Susan Wagner HS in Staten Island will not be allowed to have any involvement in the administration of Regents exams which will be given starting Jan. 22.
The department also prevented Giordano’s wife, former Susan Wagner Assistant Principal Mary Incantalupo, as well as another AP, Andrea Solgan, from being involved “in any aspect” of the proctoring, scoring or data involving the Regents exams. Incantalupo is no longer at the school.
When the state instructed the Department of Education to strip Giordano of any role in the administration or even handling of the exams, it has, in effect, removed the principal from one of the most important roles in his school.
Last month, the Office of Special Investigations recommended that Linda Waite, the superintendent of high schools in Staten Island, take disciplinary action against Giordano because the cheating scandal, first reported by teachers, took place on his watch. OSI also recommended that Incantalupo be fired.
The scoring of the exams will take place at New Dorp HS in Staten Island and will include Wagner teachers and teachers from other schools.
The testing and scoring plan was presented by Waite to the SED after Waite received a letter from the state threatening the DOE with the “indefinite suspension” of the school’s authorization to administer the exams unless a plan was forthcoming by Dec. 20.
In response, teachers at the school are wondering why the entire Regents process is being disrupted since Chancellor Joel Klein doesn’t trust Giordano to do his job, yet nothing has happened to Giordano or Incantalupo.
One teacher suggested that SED personnel be assigned to the school during Regents week and that Giordano be sent to another school, instead of teachers being sent to New Dorp.
The lack of trust in Giordano was evident in Waite’s plan. She plans to hire a private courier company to transport the “boxed-and-sealed” exams to New Dorp where they will be opened in the presence of DOE supervisors. After they are graded, they will then be sent back to Susan Wagner and kept in a vault.
“Maybe DOE should hire a guard to keep Giordano away from the exams,” said another teacher. “That would be a lot simpler than this plan.”
