In response to Pastor Joseph Peluyera’s petition Dr. Fitzpatrick said the individual named is one of several Valley Tech teachers who were notified of non-renewals in the past week.
Fitzpatrick said the petition filed by Peluyera is misrepresenting facts about both the reasons for the non-renewal and how the situation was handled by the school. “With regard to the petition, Blackstone Valley Tech will not be bullied into any action which is not in the long term best interest of our students and the learning environment,” said Fitzpatrick.
Pastor Joseph Peluyera is circulating a petition through MoveOn.org alleging his sister was let go because the school “did not know how to handle breast cancer grievances.”
Official statement by Blackstone Valley Tech Superintendent-Director Dr. Michael F. Fitzpatrick in response to Joseph Peluyera petition to keep BVT teacher on staff:
Our school system, and most public school systems across the Commonwealth, must make difficult restructuring of personnel decisions, both for budgetary and programming purposes. Consistent with our collective bargaining agreement with the Teachers’ Association, any faculty member whose employment will not be renewed for the next school year must be notified by June 15th.
The individual named in the petition was one of several Valley Tech teachers who were notified of non-renewals in the past week. Unfortunately, the petition misrepresents the facts and appears to be attempting to incite others to come to erroneous conclusions about the reasons for the non-renewal and how the situation was handled by school officials.
The individual continues to work for the District through the remainder of the school year. She was given an alternative non-classroom assignment when it became apparent to supervisors that the learning environment for students was being disrupted. Health was not a factor in any of the renewal decisions.
As future workers, our students will experience multiple workforce transitions and personnel changes throughout their careers. While not every student or teacher will agree with every staffing decision made by a school’s leadership team, such transitions are a fact of life in business and industry. Adjusting to workforce change situations and learning to adapt to such change gracefully is just one of many workplace skills that we strive to instill in our students.
With regard to the petition, Blackstone Valley Tech will not be bullied into any action which is not in the long term best interest of our students and the learning environment.
UPTON DAILY 
What should be noted with regards to the “”alternative non-classroom assignment” was how it was done. Children were in the room when the teacher was told to get her personal belongs and that she needed to go home; mind you with security standing there. If there was such a concern for the children, perhaps a different approach should have been used – was this a walk of shame. Subsequently the staff engage the children in a meeting to explain what occurred – not an issue. Faculty stated multiple times over the next few days that she would be back the next day. Even saying when she wasn’t in school the next day that she would be there for the last day of school.
While this is a fact of life and everyone will have a situation come up like this these are children that we call young adults. When people are let go, laid off, contracts not renew ….it’s a horrible feeling as we all know. Not only for those impacted, but those around them. Children were upset and still are. So again I say….. I don’t question the need for this, but rather the actions that took place. Something to think about at your next layoff ….and yes this is from I students perspective.