Former Guilderland High School social studies teacher Ann Marie McManus said she is still trying to find a way to teach at the high school next fall but will give her all to the students at Farnsworth Middle School.
She said she is apprehensive about the transition, which came about as the result of a culture climate inquiry conducted earlier in the year at the high school, but will do her best to change the lives of her students.
I love what I do, she said. `I am not going to not do what I am passionate about. I was not part of the discussion and the transfer. I do want to be in the high school, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not going to do my job.`
Part of the reason for her apprehension, McManus said, are the different teaching methods at the middle school and the potential prejudice of her new colleagues over the high-profile transfer of McManus and her former social studies colleague Matt Nelligan.
McManus said many of her new colleagues do not know her or what she stands for and have only heard `snippets` about her through anecdotal stories.
`I’m apprehensive about how I’m going to be received,` she said. `My name has been out there.`
Superintendent John W. McGuire said he is confident that the middle school will be receptive to the personnel changes in the upcoming school year.
He said some of the staff members have already made an effort to be supportive of the teachers being transferred.
`I’m very optimistic,` he said. `These are professionals.`
Nelligan said he preferred not to comment at this time about his transfer.
The principal of Farnsworth Middle School Mark K. Summermatter also declined to comment.
McManus said she will be teaching eighth-grade U.S. history at the middle school, the same subject she taught in the high school, and she is comfortable with the content.
However, she said she is concerned with the new `team` teaching style and the younger students she will have.
The team teaching style involves a social studies, math, science and English teacher assigned to a group of about 100 students, and they will all teach only those students.
McManus said the team method might be more restrictive.
`The day, the blocks and the periods are all an adjustment,` she said.
McManus is currently teaching summer school in addition to preparing for her new curriculum and trying to find a way back to teaching at the high school.
She said another social studies teacher at the high school, unrelated to her transfer, resigned, and she is applying for that position.
`I have been trying to pursue an [alternate] avenue back to the high school,` she said.
She said some officials have been less than supportive of her efforts to return to the high school.
`I was told by one administrator that should I move on; basically, pack my stuff up,` she said.
McManus and Nelligan were transferred as a result of a `culture climate inquiry` conducted by the district that reported a ` boy’s club` or `locker room,` mentality among the department, and noted the use of homophobic and chauvinistic language.
Guilderland Principal Michael Paolino was recently placed on administrative leave amid local media reports of racial and anti-gay comments.
The administration has not confirmed why Paolino was placed on leave.“