Dozens Protest Cherry Hill’s Contemplation Of Transferring 9 Teachers
CHERRY HILL, NJ – Dozens of students, alumni, parents and teachers in the Cherry Hill School District implored their school board on Tuesday not to transfer nine teachers to another school within the district.
Patch’s request to obtain the names and teaching locations of the potentially impacted teachers was not returned prior to this story’s posting. Based on comments by meeting attendees, teachers of math, history and biology courses appear to be among those who may be transferred to other schools within the school district.
Students said the potential transfers, in tandem with an academic process significantly impacted and changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, would be damaging to their well-being.
“It is a tragedy to transfer a teacher away from a place where she has been critical for the past 22 years just because of reallocation of resources,” Kieran Corson, a senior at Cherry Hill West, told the board. “There is a feeling of fear amongst the teachers at West and even the students can feel it, because everyone is afraid that their favorite teacher could be next.”
Parent after parent told the board how the potentially impacted teachers have positively impacted their children’s lives.
“Those of you who have boys know that they are not very forthcoming each day about what happened at school,” Shelly Adler, a parent of four students in the district. “I found that not to be the case when they were in [one of the potentially impacted teacher's] class. They often spoke at dinner with the various projects they were involved in, including debates, presentations, games, and other interactive learning experiences.”
One of the potentially impacted teachers also addressed the board.
“If you say this transfer is for me to bring those strengths to another school, that's one thing,” Kim Achilly, a biology teacher at Cherry Hill East, said to the board. “However, I've been told I will not be part of those programs at West. I'm being moved into courses for which I have no interest, no expertise and no passion. In addition … the honors anatomy cadaver lab program at East is now in jeopardy. As I see it, everyone loses. For what end? And for what purpose?”
Cherry Hill School District Superintendent Joseph Meloche, an alumnus of the school district and former principal at three of its schools, said he could not discuss specific faculty members who might be transferred or specific reasons for a potential transfer.
Instead, he offered general comments to try to explain why the proposed transfers may occur.
“Teacher transfer and reassignment is something that occurs every academic year,” Meloche told attendees. “It's a natural portion or a natural part of what occurs within a school district, not just in Cherry Hill, but in larger school districts than ours and in smaller school districts than ours.”
Transfers are often done to offset enrollment changes or to distribute the teachers who are making an impact at one school throughout the district so that others may benefit from their expertise, he explained.
“It could be that we are running four kindergarten sections at an elementary school. And next year, we only have the enrollment for three kindergarten sections at that school,” Meloche said.
“We [also] take a look at each one of the teachers and work in his or her talents and how they make the most impact and make a continued impact,” he continued. “That's not to take away from the incredible successes that they've had, what they've demonstrated, but in an effort to improve situations for all students, and at all schools, all six of the secondary schools and secondary programs are impacted by the moves in and out.”
The school board will vote on the transfers at a future meeting, a school board member said.
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This article originally appeared on the Cherry Hill Patch
