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School board should have overruled this timeThat Nikki Goulet created somewhat of a stir in her three years as choral director at Princeton High School is not a point to be argued. Goulet came with high recommendations from her previous job and most would agree she delivered. The number of students participating in choral music had grown by more than 50 percent, if figures presented at the school board meeting by supporters are correct, and during the 2000-2001 school year the production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" drew rave reviews. Goulet, as director, came in for a lot of accolades, along with others who participated such as Lee Peterson, instrumental director at Princeton High School. A former student of note as a singer at PHS, now a teacher, said in a letter to the editor that she had never seen anything to equal it in her 23 years here. That was high praise, indeed, in a district that has usually had better-than-average choral and instrumental programs. And last week a student of hers testified at the school board meeting that 97 percent of the choral students had signed a petition calling for Goulet to remain. Perhaps not even Kirby Puckett could have gotten an approval rating that high. So why, then, did high school principal Wayne Harper recommend to the school board at its April 10 meeting that Goulet's contract not be renewed? You'll get different answers to that question. Harper will tell you the Data Privacy Act keeps him from telling us the reason or reasons that he decided not to recommend, in effect, that Goulet get tenure. Supporters of Goulet, who attended en masse the April 10 and 24 school board meetings, say there is no way that Harper's decision came because he felt she wasn't meeting specifications for teaching in this district although, in effect, that's what he did. In an interview Monday, Goulet said she wished Harper had come to her to tell her what expectations she wasn't meeting. I don't pretend to know the scoop on either side of the fence. Last year, when the musical was so successful, there was a flap about the amount of time rehearsals took away from students, some of whom were involved in other extracurricular activities. Goulet was told, I'm told, that she could never do a production again that would require that much time. And, as almost always happens when someone has success, a bit of jealousy may have surfaced, even among fellow staff. It was disturbing to try to reach Goulet after the April 10 meeting and then find out now, three weeks after the fact, that she didn't return a phone call because the teacher union of which she is a member advised her not to do so. It might have helped her case or it might have hurt, but a union shouldn't tell her what to do. Never have I seen such passionate orations at a school board meeting asking the board to reverse a recommendation by an administrator as students and parents did for Goulet. And never had I seen the board decide to take two more weeks to think it over as it did at the April 10 meeting. Those were definite firsts in covering school boards here for 27 years. When it came time for the April 24 meeting, Goulet had decided to resign the day before, making requests to the board that night almost too late. "I couldn't run the risk of leaving with a nonrenewal on my record," she told me Monday as her reason. That resignation didn't deter her supporters because they asked the board not to accept the resignation and, instead, to offer her a contract for 2001-2002. But the board, offering various reasons - some of them good - decided on a 4-2 vote to accept the resignation. What we have today, then, is the school district looking for a new high school choral director, despite having one who seemingly had gone above and beyond her duties in building a program. There is probably fault on both sides of an apparent internal squabble between an administrator, or administrators, and Goulet. That it went unresolved is the real crime. School boards have tough decisions to make, something very few people realize when they see only one side of a question. But this time board members should've made a decision that would have been best for the district by keeping Goulet. That's not an easy thing for me to say but I believe it. Goulet? She'll continue with her job as music director for prestigious Westminster Presbyterian Church in downtown Minneapolis. And she's going ahead with plans to direct the musical "Grease" in Princeton this summer, a production that will likely be a smashing success. "I'm sad things came to an end this way - and frustrated," she said. "I obviously wish things could have turned out differently." Meanwhile, the high school is looking for a new choral director when it already had a good one. That's a shame. Princeton Union-Eagle |
