Teachers in
the state's technical high school system overwhelmingly expressed their
disapproval of Superintendent Abigail L. Hughes Wednesday in a vote that union
leaders hope will lead to her firing.
Members of the State Vocational
Federation of Teachers voted by a 5-to-1 ratio to say they have no confidence in
Hughes, who was appointed a year ago to turn around the troubled
system.
The vote carries no official weight, but union leaders believe it
will ratchet up pressure to oust Hughes and her top deputies even though state
education officials and business leaders have lined up in her
corner.
Hughes, a veteran curriculum and testing expert, has shaken up
the system with a series of reforms to raise standards in its 17 high schools,
but the union has opposed many of the changes and objected to her approach,
saying she has left teachers out of the process.
"Teachers in the
classroom, teachers in the shops ... have found their jobs much, much more
difficult - teaching students, grading students, remediating students,
disciplining students," Aaron Silvia, the union's president, said in announcing
the no confidence vote.
The union has opposed reforms - such as tighter
admissions standards and the elimination of the word "vocational" from the
system's name - contending that Hughes is undermining the system's chief mission
of training students for a range of trades from carpentry to culinary
arts.
More than 1,000 of the union's 1,200 members voted, with a final
count of 853 to 160 in favor of a no confidence declaration against Hughes and
assistant superintendents Ceferino Lugo, Judith Thompson and Anne
Druzolowski.
The 11,000-student system is under pressure to raise
academic standards, including requirements imposed by the federal No Child Left
Behind Act and recommendations made by a state task force.
Several of the
system's high schools have had high suspension rates, large numbers of students
quitting some trade programs and dismal scores on state achievement tests and
industry-related trade tests. Under Hughes, the system has made numerous
changes, such as revamping curriculum and scheduling extra academic labs to keep
students fresh in English and mathematics.
Last fall, the state also
adopted a new admissions policy designed to exclude students with serious
disciplinary problems or substantial deficiencies in reading or math skills.
Some teachers, however, say they fear the policy will be too
restrictive.
"The admissions policy is set to deprive students of a
technical education if they want one, and that's what bothers me the most," said
Rosemarie Wilson, a veteran science teacher at Grasso Technical High School in
Groton, explaining why she voted against Hughes' administration.
Hughes
said the union's opposition has made her work more difficult, but that this
week's vote would not alter her plans.
"I have absolutely no intention of
stepping down," she said. "We're just beginning."
In a prepared
statement, Hughes said, "The actions of the union leadership have taken time,
attention and energy away from the work we need to do," but she pledged to
continue working with teachers and praised them for "the hard work [they] have
invested in school improvements over these past months. We have seen much
progress."
Wednesday's vote sets up a clash between the union and the
State Board of Education, which passed a unanimous resolution last week
supporting Hughes.
"We wanted to send a clear message that the changes
taking place have got to take place, and we have confidence in the
superintendent," board Chairman Allan B. Taylor said Wednesday.
"We want
to work with [the teachers] because they are necessary participants" in the
reforms, but he said the union's vote would not change the board's stand. "I do
not expect it to have any effect," he said.
Hughes also has drawn support
from some business leaders.
"I'm disappointed the union felt it necessary
to take a vote of no confidence," said Lauren Weisberg Kaufman of the
Connecticut Business and Industry Association. She said the reforms "are
critical if these schools are going to be able to produce the kind of workforce
that is going to be needed by business. ... We hope in the future that teachers
and administration will be able to work together."
