Oysterponds missed deadline because sup ‘pushed the wrong button’
Oysterponds school board president Dorothy-Dean Thomas confirmed Saturday that a technical glitch caused the district to miss a state-imposed deadline to have its teacher evaluation plan approved.
Superintendent Dick Malone reportedly told Newsday on Friday that he “obviously pushed the wrong button and the charts didn’t go through” as he submitted the district’s annual professional performance reviews plan, known as APPR, shortly before midnight on Thursday.
He did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment for this story.
Ms. Thomas said Mr. Malone did submit the plan before the deadline, but a chart that accompanied the report failed to go through electronically.
When asked if she was confident the state will ultimately approve the district’s APPR plan, Ms. Thomas said “completely.”
“I have 100 percent confidence in [Mr. Malone] and believe it will all be rectified,” she said. “He’s been working on this with the state all week and through the weekend.”
The Oysterponds school district in Orient, one of the smallest schools in the state, is the only district on Long Island that failed to have its teacher evaluation plan approved by Thursday’s deadline and is expected to lose some state aid as a result of not having an approved-plan in place.
As of September, the district has about 85 students enrolled in its pre-kindergarten through sixth grade program and sends its 88 secondary students to Greenport.
Check out our previous coverage here. Read more about this story on Jan. 24 in The Suffolk Times or on our E-Paper.
