GOWANDA – Two members who attended Gowanda’s Board of Education were passionate when they spoke at a recent meeting. They were given the stage and both presented their opinions of a fellow resident who didn’t make the cut for the second time.

Emotions, passages and concerns were all expressed. And the question is, who does Gowanda hire?

Last summer to July 30, when Superintendent James Klubek and much of the administration and Board of Education was a part of Gowanda Central School District, there were 10 hires for full-time teaching positions.

According to seethroughny.net, one hire was a resident of the area, one was a Gowanda faculty member who was moved to another building, which is moreso considered a transfer, three were teachers in the area who worked at surrounding schools prior to being hired and four were teachers from charter schools.

Of those four, three were all from South Buffalo Charter School, while the last was from West Buffalo Charter School. Three out of a total of 10 hires is a large percentage coming from just one school.

Who’s hiring who?

When it comes to the hiring process at Gowanda, it’s focused around the administration and some who are within the field that they are hiring in, for instance the other teachers in the grade level or others in the specific department. They review the resumes and attend the interviews. And at the end of the entire process, the board of education is informed of who was recommended and they may go into executive session then vote.

The administration usually consists of Klubek and the building administrators: High School Principal Dr. Robert Anderson, former Middle School Principal David Smith, who is now high school assistant principal, and Elementary School Principal Carrie Dzierba.

All three teachers come from different paths, but one link that sticks out is the previous head of South Buffalo Charter School, Dzierba.

All three of the employees now hired at Gowanda worked at the charter school when Dzierba did. Through the interviewing process of these candidates, Klubek noted that Dzierba did state that she did work with these individuals while she was there and Dzierba said there was no personal tie between her and those who applied. But was there still a conflict of interest, especially when all three from the charter school now work under her at the elementary school?

It’s worth noting the charter school runs from kindergarten to grade eight.

“No, that had no bearing on (hiring them). Well first of all, I don’t really know some of the people that were hired from charter schools. It’d be like that I know everyone who comes from small, rural districts in our area,” Dzierba told the OBSERVER via phone. “I am not going to know every candidate that comes from those because we are in close proximity. Just because I worked in a charter school doesn’t mean that I’m going to know all the candidates that come from charter schools.

“… But what I can tell you is that there’s a process for applying for a district, there’s a process for screening candidates, there’s a process for interviewing a candidate. And I am only one member of a team. My voice is no larger or smaller than that.”

Familiarity helps

Not knowing every applicant could very easily be true. According to the charter school’s website, the school has 89 faculty members. But the difficulty of accepting that fact becomes slimmer as the number of former charter school teachers going to Gowanda becomes higher.

When a position is open and the resumes start coming in, Klubek does see benefits in prior knowledge of applicants.

“That’s what I do with all my administrators,” Klubek said of hiring from previous work places. “If there are people that are really good out there, hey let’s get them in here. Why wouldn’t we?”

On paper, that sounds like a solid ideology. If you see a person who is productive, working efficiently and is great with the students, why wouldn’t you hire them to your own school? However, how do other aspiring teachers compete when they had no one from the hiring personnel witness them in a classroom, in a teaching environment? All they saw was their resume and how they did in an interview.

Yet, the same goes the other way. Knowing that the worker has a knack for connecting with the students over a span of however many years would give more security in making that hiring decision.

High numbers

Why charter school teachers?

The answer is simple: There is an abundance of them. Not by the number of teachers, but those who are looking to find better security in their career.

“You’re looking at the same dilemma that we faced with private schools and Catholic schools a little while ago, where they had declining enrollment,” Dzierba said. “And so you had really good teachers and staff who used those as catalysts to get their foot in the door, to get some experience under their belt and now are looking for some stability and longevity.

“So I think that because there’s more of them – and we have quite a few in our area, I believe that we have almost 20 charter schools within the Western New York Region right now – it’s not unusual for people to go get some experience and then want to find some stability within a district where they know that there’s going to be jobs down the road.”

Stability is an accurate descriptor for the situation. St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic School in Gowanda, closed its doors after the 2014 school year, which was a part of 10 schools that closed. Immaculata Academy, an all-girls school in Hamburg, shut down this past school year as well. There’s a growing stigma, that may be accelerating now in a downward trend.

A public school would reap the benefits of not worrying as much to grab enrollment. Klubek added that many who work at charter schools look to continue on at a public school.

“You don’t see many teachers go from a public school to a private school,” he said.

A question the OBSERVER could not answer is if, in any way, a Gowanda local was denied an opportunity because of a previous tie with a hire. There is no public record of who applied and when and if there was a relationship between the applicant and those who recommended them. But it is evident that the community cares for hiring locals. Enough so that they would attend a board meeting with the sole intention to give their concerns.

“We hire the best teachers, that’s our number-one priority,” Klubek said. “If for some reason there are two candidates that are equally good, we will always pick the local candidate. But the number-one priority is hiring the best teacher who is going to be the best fit for our district.”

Though, it could be argued that the best candidate may not be the one who thrived during the interview process or isn’t perceived as the best fit, all-in-all, the students will decide who the best teachers are and so future teacher evaluations will tell more of the story.

Twitter: @Kuczkowski95

Email: akuczkowski@observertoday.com