NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Talk of the Sound has determined that administrative certificates for Joanne Genovese, incoming Principal at the Barnard Elementary School, are in good order and that she is eligible to work as an administrator in New York.
Genovese was forced to resign her previous position due to an expired Administrative Certificate in the State of Connecticut last September.
Reza Kolahifar, former Assistant to the Superintendent for Human Resources, told Talk of the Sound in June that he would not comment on the matter.
“Personnel matters are confidential and are not discussed outside executive session with the BOE or with members of the public,” said Kolahifar.
Talk of the Sound was previously able to confirm that Genovese had obtained a New York State Administrative Certificate on a reciprocal basis from Connecticut but the Connecticut State Department of Education web site did not list an Administrative Certificate for Genovese.
The Connecticut DOE today did confirm Genovese’s records were in order.
“Our current records indicate that Ms. Genovese’s certificate is in good standing” said Kelly Donnelly, Director of Communications and Community Partnerships CT State Department of Education. ”
In June, Talk of the Sound reported:
Talk of the Sound has confirmed that Joanne Genovese, incoming Principal at the Barnard Elementary School, was forced to resign a similar position at the Hurlbutt Elementary School in Weston, CT earlier this school year when the Connecticut State Department of Education determined that her Administrator Certification had expired.
Notified on August 23, 2012 by the Connecticut DOE that her license had expired — making it unlawful for her to work as a public school principal in the state — Genovese failed to report the matter to district officials for several weeks. She then resigned abruptly, leaving the district to scramble to replace her after the school year had begun, causing a significant disruption in the district.
Weston Schools Superintendent Dr. Colleen Palmer later called the circumstances surrounding Genovese’s separation from the district a “difficult period” for the children, parents and staff at the elementary school and the community as a whole.
In an email response to a Freedom of Information request last month, Donnelly explained:
Ms. Genovese did have a brief lapse in certification for her intermediate administrator endorsement (092) from August 13, 2012, through December 18, 2012. In order to be eligible to receive a professional educator certificate (092), applicants are required to complete 30 months of full-time service under the provisional educator certificate and 30 graduate semester hours of credit beyond the master’s degree. The lapse in certification as an intermediate administrator (092) was due to not meeting the 30 semester hours of graduate credit beyond the master’s degree by the expiration date of her provisional educator certificate (092).
At the time of application, Ms. Genovese had successfully completed 24 graduate semester hours of credit beyond the master’s degree. She completed the additional six semester hours of graduate credit beyond the master’s degree that are required for the professional educator certificate for intermediate administration (092) on December 19, 2012. Therefore, she became eligible for a professional educator certificate in intermediate administration (092) on December 19, 2012.
Since Ms. Genovese held a current professional educator certificate with teaching endorsements (013 – Elementary Education and 006 – Grades 4 – 8), the intermediate administrator endorsement (092) was added to this professional educator certificate, albeit with a different effective date. The effective dates of her current professional educator certificate are June 30, 2009, through June 29, 2014, and the intermediate administrator (092) endorsement was added with an effective date of December 19, 2012.
In June, Talk of the Sound similar confirmation from the New York State Department of Education which confirmed that the SED certification database has been updated to reflect that Joanna Genovese has a administrative certification from NYSED.
Joanna Genovese has a “School Building Leader Conditional Initial” certification (effective begin date 9/1/13; effective end date 8/31/2015). See below for the info from our Educator Lookup page.
Under NYSED policy, “The Office of Teaching Initiatives has a longstanding policy that once a certificate is issued, the teacher may begin employment in a public school under that certificate title. Under Department regulations, teaching certificates must be assigned either a September 1 or February 1 effective date. Once an individual qualifies for the certificate, the certificate is issued with an effective date of either the February 1 or September 1 date that will next occur chronologically. Someone who satisfied the requirements for a teaching certificate on October 1, 2006 would be granted a certificate with an effective date of February 1, 2007. Once an individual has met all the requirements and the certificate is issued, he/she is qualified to work in a New York State public school. In the example above, a teacher who completed all requirements and was issued a certificate on the TEACH computer system (available on our Web site) as of October 1 is qualified to teach in a New York State public school on October 1, 2006 even though the effective date on the face of the certificate would be February 1, 2007.”
Gary Stern of the Journal News made the same inquiry after reading the same news reports from Connecticut. Someone, presumably Public Relations consultant Paul Costiglio or Schools Superintendent Richard Organisciak, issued a statement to Stern and the Journal News published that statement.
Reza Kolahifar was asked whether the statement about Genovese issued to the Journal News constituted a violation of confidentiality.
“It can be assumed that all personnel are certified,” said Kolahifar. “I don’t believe I have ever given anyone an indication that I would overlook that very important fact. I speak only for myself. As for the violation of confidentiality, I don’t discuss personnel matters with anyone. What others do is their business.”
Prior to Kolahifar’s hiring by the District two years ago, there was no reason to assume that all personnel in New Rochelle were certified. Cases like Nadine Pacheco, Patricia and Gregoria Felicione are documented and certainly not in dispute. There are numerous instances of security guards working without licenses. Several Teaching Assistants have been working without licenses over the past several years.