In the recent published article, “District employee amassed long disciplinary record,” the school District’s superintendent’s husband, Shawn Stern, received more than $90,000 in cash payout, plus benefits, after only working weeks into his yearly teaching contract and after having racked up numerous disciplinary actions over years, we are left asking: Would another employee, not related to the superintendent, who repeated similar behavior issues and accumulated years of disciplinary actions receive the same treatment and payout?a Or would that “regular” employee have been escorted out the door long ago?

I know there are excellent teachers at this district, but the questions still remain. Why would the district keep a volatile abusive teacher? Why was he given continuing contracts to keep teaching in this district? The only answer is the common denominator: his wife is the superintendent and the word nepotism comes to mind.

Mrs. Crook was one of those excellent teachers, having been evaluated as “distinguished” — the highest level of evaluation possible in teaching — not only at Ocean Park Elementary but also from her prior district where she taught second grade. During her entire teaching career, she maintained a clean record without ever having incurred a single disciplinary record.

Nevertheless, Mrs. Crook was non-renewed in April 2022 by this district. She was the vice president of the teachers’ union that year and they were headed into tough contract negotiations. How Mrs. Crook was treated by this district affected other district teachers and coworkers. Teachers became silent and a chilling effect took hold. Intimidation, fear and bullying are a common way of doing business from this district.

As Mrs. Crook’s husband, I personally witnessed this toxic working environment and the daily pressures applied by this administration. Teaching is a very demanding profession! Teachers need to be supported by their administration to do the job they were hired to do, not be in fear of being retaliated against for having ideas about how to create a better place to come to every day to teach our children.

Thankfully, the contract language provided my wife with a path to file a grievance because the district did not have “just cause” to non-renew even a provisional employee. Ultimately, the district agreed to terms and paid its half of her healthcare costs for a year. Unlike Mr. Stern who worked just weeks at the beginning of the school year, Mrs. Crook worked her entire contract year, teaching third grade from 2021-2022, and continued her duties as vice president of the union for the entire bargain negotiations, into the summer of 2022.

In another recently published article, “School chief denies role in spouse’s payout,” superintendent Huntley states, “If I were truly doing what I’m accused of, he’d still work here…” Well, his employment has been up to her for years until all avenues for her husband to remain in his position had been completely exhausted by his ongoing behaviors. Then, when faced with the issue, she “approved the payout” to her spouse, and, as Mr. Paxinos’ Oct. 27, 2023, text states, “It’s a pretty sweet deal for him and for us, optics.” Seemingly, Mrs. Huntley ultimately got her way in the over $90,000 payout plus an additional $20,000 in benefits to her husband. If she truly cared about our students, she would have put our tax dollars to work on their behalf instead of in her own bank account.

DON CROOK

Ocean Park