June 12, 2018 Letter To The Florida Education Commissioner

 

June 12, 2018

Dear Florida Education Commissioner,

Hello. My name is Bill Detzner. This is the third Certified letter I am sending you. In June 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 I have sent certified letters to Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS)  superintendent Alberto Carvalho, and United Teachers of Dade (UTD) president Karla Hernandez-Mats. I have also sent  MDCPS school board members Mr. Larry Feldman and Mr. Steve Gallon certified letters. In all of these certified letters I have  asked that the principal of Neva King Cooper (NKC) School Dr. Roos and assistant principal Alicia Fernandez  be removed as the NKC administrators. I am also asking that the illegally removed previous NKC administrators, Dr. Alberto Fernandez and Mr. Henny Cristobol be reinstated as the NKC administrators. Not one of the above named people (including yourself) have had the professionalism and courtesy to even respond to my numerous certified letters.  IF THE FLORIDA COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION EITHER WILL NOT OR CANNOT REMOVE TWO SCHOOL SITE ADMINISTRATORS WHO APPEAR TO HAVE BEEN UNDERPERFORMING, AND COMMITTING ACTIONS THAT APPEAR TO BE ILLEGAL FOR SIX YEARS, THE PUBLIC MAY PERCEIVE THAT THIS OFFICE HOLDER NEEDS TO BE REPLACED WITH SOMEONE WHO WILL CARRY OUT THE DUTIES OF THAT OFFICE.  In the 2011- 2012 school year, NKC attempted to explore its supposedly legally protected option of exploring conversion from a public school to a private school. In case DOAH 13-1492, it was determined that MDCPS illegally smashed that conversion attempt, and illegally replaced the two NKC administrators. FOR THE LAST SIX YEARS, the staff of NKC have experienced what appears to be a deliberately cultivated toxic and hostile work environment and unlawful retaliation at the hands of the present NKC administrators. Here are a few of the events that occurred during the 2017-2018 school year. ( A  more in-depth discussion of the  SIX YEAR campaign of what appears to be retaliation by the present NKC administrators can be found in my blog mdcpsallegations.com) 1) Shortly after the brutal murder of her daughter, NKC African-American staff member Mrs. Green was allegedly threatened with an involuntary transfer to another school. This happened when principal Dr. Roos allegedly ordered African-American school custodian Mr. Aaron Jackson to tell Mrs. Green that if Mrs. Green was unhappy at NKC, Dr. Roos would have Mrs. Green involuntarily transferred to another school. When this action resulted in a back lash for Dr. Roos, Dr. Roos then allegedly summoned Mr. Jackson to a closed door meeting in Dr. Roos office. Dr. Roos then allegedly threatened to terminate Mr. Jackson’s employment unless Mr. Jackson issued a statement saying Dr. Roos had never ordered Mr. Jackson to threaten Mrs. Green, and that Mr. Jackson had threatened one of his closest friends at his own initiative! Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez give the appearance of being very vicious and vindictive people. If these two people repeat what they appear to have done in the past, it is possible that during the 2018-2019 school year, Dr. Roos will receive one of her famous “anonymous” phone calls accusing Mrs. Green and or Mr. Jackson of sexually and/or physically abusing one or more NKC students.  If UTD president Mrs. Hernandez Mats does what she has done in the past (I have sent her FIVE unanswered certified letters) she will turn a blind eye, and do as little as possible to defend UTD member Mrs. Green from retaliation and baseless charges.  2) Last spring a 30 year MDCPS employee who has spent almost his/her entire career at NKC and is also a past recipient of the Teacher of the Year Award, and an outstanding teacher, had an hours long, uncontrollable crying jag while on duty at NKC. It is highly unusual for a person with these credentials to suffer this kind of an experience. I (Bill Detzner) can tell you that during the three years I was at NKC while Dr. Roos was the principal, and Mrs. Fernandez was the assistant principal, EVERY SINGLE DAY I worried that Dr. Roos or Mrs. Fernandez would level potentially career ending charges against me, based on little or no evidence. This outstanding teacher has endured that kind of pressure for SIX YEARS!!! (When will what appears to be illegal retaliation and punishment against NKC staff who exercised their supposedly legally protected right to explore conversion to a charter school end??? I have asked Superintendent Alberto Carvalho this same question in the FIVE UNANSWERED CERTIFIED LETTERS I HAVE SENT HIM .) 3) On June 8, 2018, an outstanding NKC teacher who spent his entire 17 year career at NKC “retired.” If you want to hear a LONG, LONG, LONG list of what appears to be retaliation and reprisal against this person FOR SIX YEARS by BOTH Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez, I will be happy to put you in contact with this person.  4) At the end of the 2017-2018 school year FIVE NKC educators applied for transfers to other schools. Five might not seem like a large number, but when you consider that NKC is one of the smallest schools in “The People’s Republic of MDCPS,” that is a very large percentage.  5) For the sixth straight year, NKC administrators suffered some of the lowest approval ratings in MDCPS on both the staff and parent satisfaction surveys. 6) At the end of the 2017-2018 school year, Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez oversaw the moving to different classrooms of EVERY TEACHER IN THE SCHOOL TO A NEW AND DIFFERENT CLASSROOM. THIS IS THE THIRD TIME THIS HAS HAPPENED IN THE SIX YEARS THAT DR ROOS HAS BEEN THE NKC ADMINISTRATOR!!! It is difficult to see how this can be viewed as anything other than deliberately cultivating a toxic and hostile work environment at NKC. 6) For the third consecutive year, severely mentally retarded students of NKC (IQ’s of 25 and below) have been recklessly and needlessly been subjected to an easily preventable artificially high risk of dying a violent death due to choking to death. My blog mdcpsallegations.com discusses this in great detail.  These are only the violations that occurred during the 2017-2018 school year. A more complete listing of the egregious violations of both Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez FOR THE LAST SIX YEARS can be found in my blog at mdcpsallegations.com

A naïve person might assume that a principal who allegedly committed these egregious violations of the MDCPS contract and both Florida and Federal laws for six years would be terminated. Regrettably, MDCPS gives the appearance of being more of a criminal enterprise that a public school district, and astonishingly, Dr. Roos was nominated as a candidate for the prestigious Principal of the Year Award!!! If Dr. Roos is one of the BEST principals of MDCPS, can you imagine what the underperforming principals must be like?

Unless I miss my guess, the Florida Commissioner of Education will do exactly what he/she has done with the last 2 certified letters I sent, which is absolutely nothing. This letter (which I have posted to my blog) will then become the basis for my January 2019 letter to the Florida legislators who fund public schools. As I did in 2018, I will urge Florida legislators to cut funding to MDCPS as much as possible. I am a very patient and persistent man. My goal is to reach a tipping point, where the financial pain of retaining Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez as the NKC administrators becomes unacceptably high for Superintendent Carvalho. Have a nice day, and I hope to hear some good news from you in the very near future.

Sincerely,

Bill Detzner

Bill Detzner/ 7722 S.W. 99 Street/ Miami, FL. 33156