Tuesday, April 5, 2016

What A Difference A Day Makes

Principal Bobbie Finocchio resignation is effective June 30th

From: Larry Kelley
To: Gerykm
Sent: Sat, Apr 2, 2016 4:40 pm
Subject: Bobbie Finocchio resignation

Hey Maria,

According to her hometown paper Ms. Finocchio signed a "three year contract" with you two years ago. So does that mean you will be paying her one full year to buy out her contract?

Or on the flip side, if the Public Schools help fund her doctorate at Boston College the past two years and paid relocation fees to bring her to Amherst in the first place is she refunding anything to Amherst to be released from that three year contract?

Larry

Click to enlarge/read


22 comments:

Walter Graff said...

She left just before she got fired. If only folks knew what went on in the school and the administration.

Anonymous said...

Please enlighten us, Walter. Because, we're there - at the school, as parents, working with our students and their caring and invested teachers and staff - and we don't see this "if you only knew" stuff about which you are vaguely implying. Let us know.

Anonymous said...

You mean she could have waited 2 days and saved $5000.00, but
left on the 30th of June. Something not right with this picture?

Anonymous said...

I hate when people make sweeping assumptions. But I'll play the game... Let's assume that she wasn't going to be fired. Let's assume that she is leaving for personal reasons that have nothing to do with her job, the administration or whatever. Has she accepted another job? Maybe there is nothing nefarious going on here at all. If she wanted to take the money for her doctorate, she would leave July 1 instead.

Anonymous said...

... The $5000 reimbursement is good news. (Maybe it can go to pay the library assistants?)

But note, no reimbursements for the 20% of her time that she used every week to travel to classes.

Anonymous said...

Reading these comments will make you crazy. Especially, on this issue at least, Walter's comments. If I knew Walter better than I do (and I do know him), I would encourage him to at least consider the possibility that he's making a fool out of himself. Because this is foolish.

And then I think: I'm the one actually reading these comments, so who's the real fool? Larry's blog does serve a sort of useful community purpose, even if/when I disagree with his take on things, but the comments are 90% worthless and often misleading.

The sad part is that this is someone's name and reputation you're dragging down (even if there is SOME honor in doing so with your name attached to it, rather than anonymously). What happens when Finocchio's future employers conduct an online search to see what they find, and they read... this junk? Once you read it, you can't unread it, and for all they know Walter's the sage of Amherst, despite not even sending his kids here anymore. What I can say is that the duplicitous character described in these comments bears zero resemblance to the wonderful principal our family has encountered. This will be a loss - and I have hope and confidence that her replacement will be equally great.

Anonymous said...

I doubt she'd be fired -- instead, she'd be shifted to the central office for the rest of her contract.

Nina Koch said...

I think it's good that you asked those questions, Larry, and I am glad to hear the response.

Larry Kelley said...

It's what I do.

(For better or worse.)

Anonymous said...

She should more than make up for it suing Ed and Walter for slander.

Anonymous said...

I think this subject of the Fort River principal and, in fact, this entire blog is nothing but a place for loudmouths who enjoy hearing the sound of their own voices and crave the spotlight, even if it's only on something as pathetic as social media. No one cares what you think. I know that won't slow anyone down or make this blog disappear, but at least we all know what it is: a place for blowhards to feel important because, quite honestly, they are not important. Not in their town, not in their jobs and probably not even in their own families. They desperately want to be important and listened to and they equate a loud mouth with some sort of insight. There is no insight on this blog. There are only big mouths and truthfully, the only people who are really listening are the other big mouths. The rest of us who discover the blog, read it for a day or so then never come back. Like me. Enjoy all the "blistering" comments that will follow this. I will never see them. And 99% of the rest of Amherst and 100% of the rest of the world will never see them either.

Larry Kelley said...

Actually this post is doing quite well. It's already well above my daily average of 2,700 hits with slightly more than 50% of them from Amherst, which is way over 380 (1% of Amherst).

Dr. Ed said...

Oh, Nina, it was *I* who first asked the questions about her educational & relocation reimbursements -- the latter which hasn't yet been addressed.

A to her suing me for "slander", (a) "slander is verbal, if anything it would be "libel." (b) Truth is an absolute defense, tat goes back to the Zenger trial. (c) Shr is a "public figure."


If she were to sue me, I'd name the town in my response -- I'd sue the town and her.

Dr. Ed said...

And this computer is shorting out...

Walter Graff said...

There are some (more like all) really wonderful parents at Fort River but also a few folks who are very naive to the reality of what goes/went on there.

Let's see, a person has a contract and one day they clear out their desk and leave. Short and sweet letter saying farewell. Poof! Gone. Things will be revealed in time.

She was a wonderful person. I so enjoyed conversations with her when my kids went there. I often attended her coffee sesions when she could attend herself. Her smile was infectious.

Anonymous said...

"$5,000.00 will be the net amount"
^^^
WTF???

"Net" implies "gross"....

Anonymous said...

This blog is doing exactly what Larry intended it to do. To inform and get
reactions on matters that affect the people of Amherst. And you Anon 8:55pm
are included in this group. To say you will not return is a lie, Everyone
has an opinion, as do you. We live in USA where these opinions are allowed.
Live with it.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Ed --

If you want to be a know-it-all, it helps to actually know something. So when you try to correct someone else, as in telling them "slander is verbal", you might first want to check the definition of verbal. It doesn't mean "spoken". Slander and libel are both verbal; slander alone is oral.

I look forward to watching you tie yourself in knots trying to disprove -- yet again -- that you're not a complete horse's ass.

Anonymous said...

so, was as an earlier commenter suggested, Finocchio paid her $95K salary to only work at FR 4 days per week, while going to Boston & working on her degree on the 5th day.

That's a pretty nice deal. Shouldn't her salary have reflected her working less than full-time at FR?

Asst Superintendent Mike Morris is working on his EdD too, right? Is the district reimbursing him as well & giving him paid time off?

Anonymous said...

Ed, I just checked the dictionary and your picture was next to the definition of know-it-all.

Dr. Ed said...

"...you might first want to check the definition of verbal. It doesn't mean "spoken".

I will merely leave this for the reader to determine how truly asinine it is.

BTW, Merriam-Webster defines "verbal" as "spoken rather than written."

Ummmmm.....

PS: "Asinine", like "niggardly", is a perfectly legitimate word that doesn't mean what many people think it does....

Anonymous said...

Yeah, but know-it-all means know-it-all.