By Dan Hust
ELDRED — October 15, 2010 — According to Eldred Central School Interim Superintendent Robert Dufour, Mackenzie Elementary School Principal Kathryn Ryan has been told to work from home.
“She has been administratively reassigned to home duties,” Dufour confirmed this week, adding she continues to be paid.
Ryan is under internal investigation by the district for reasons Dufour would not discuss, though PTSO President Tami Pitre indicated it’s about parental complaints regarding Ryan’s behavior at the Glen Spey campus.
Pitre herself lodged a complaint against Ryan after allegedly witnessing the principal roughly grab her son at school.
“I’m aware of 15 other serious complaints that have been sent in writing,” she remarked on Wednesday, adding that other parents have said their issues with Ryan – not limited to student contact – date back almost to her first days with the district a decade ago.
When contacted at home Wednesday, Ryan said she had no comment to make.
The district released a statement this week: “Members of the community have expressed concerns regarding the elementary principal. The district is beginning an inquiry regarding those concerns. Ms. Ryan has been administratively reassigned pending the outcome of the inquiry.”
Dufour said the investigation’s results will be forwarded to the board, which will then make a determination about Ryan’s future with the district. He did not know when that will occur.
Pitre said people should be patient.
“I want to give the school board and superintendent the chance to do right by the kids,” she explained, noting that she has high regard for but also high expectations of Dufour.
Ryan said her attorney would be at last night’s school board meeting in Eldred. That meeting, however, happened well after the Democrat’s press deadline.