Principal with a lot of support fighting to keep job

To his many supporters, Bill Bennett is a warm, all-in principal who dresses up on Halloween, knows the name of every student, goes to all the band concerts, and listens patiently to teachers over coffee and doughnuts.

Indeed, "the Pinch-Me Elementary School" was a nickname that some parents and staff adopted for the highly rated Indian Lane Elementary School in the Rose Tree Media School District during Bennett's tenure, which began in 1999.

"You couldn't believe that this is so great," said Liz Corra, who sent her two kids through the K-5 school.

That's why it felt not like a pinch, but a slap in the face, when people learned this winter that Superintendent James Wigo was moving to fire the 53-year-old educator, who has been suspended without pay, citing a string of anger issues or inappropriate remarks going back to 2001. Said Corra: "I thought, this is impossible: What the heck is going on here?"

In recent months, the fate of the Indian Lane principal - aired in public meetings before the school board during the spring - has both divided and mesmerized this affluent Delaware County district.

Board members are expected to vote on whether to fire Bennett as early as Thursday night.

They will have to reconcile two radically different accounts of a principal whose supporters have pinned purple ribbons of support to their mailboxes, even as the administration alleges that he snapped at staff, forced a child to sit in soiled pants, made inappropriate remarks to colleagues about a pregnant staff member, and said a former pupil visiting the school was "dressed like a hooker."

At the hearings, Bennett admitted losing his temper at times, denied the allegation about the child with the soiled pants, and made a highly emotional plea to keep his job.

"It's not just a job," Bennett told them. "It's a calling. It's a career. I've dedicated my life to it since 1985 as an educator. And I've said many times to parents that this is the best job in the world, principal at Indian Lane Elementary."

Bennett was placed on leave in April 2014 after the school nurse and an instructional assistant complained about the principal's outbursts, and Wigo cited what he called "an environment of fear in the building." He also said the principal had not completed teacher evaluations or a budget.

Parents were initially told that Bennett took a medical leave.

The allegations stunned supporters, who say that Indian Lane's high ranking - it was ninth out of 1,415 elementary schools on the state's most recent achievement tests - is just one testament to what Bennett has achieved.

"I was immediately impressed with the climate the first day I started working there," librarian Tracy Lapouble Hatton told the school board hearings. "In 2005, everyone described it as, 'You're going to love this place, it's the best place to work.' And I completely agreed."

Wigo, a veteran school administrator, initially gave Bennett high marks shortly after arriving in 2011 from the Upper Darby School District. In a 2012 year-end review, he hailed Bennett for having a "great year" at Indian Lane, adding that the principal had "a knack for building community spirit and pride, and the students surely respect and admire [him] as their leader."

But his fortunes quickly changed, including disagreements with the school nurse, Amy Lenton.

Lenton testified at the hearings that she was "fearful for my job" under Bennett, who caused such "severe anxiety" that sometimes she vomited before returning to work on Monday morning. Bennett, she said, could be moody and "persnickety."

She complained that Bennett had yelled at a special-education student and waved a finger in his face, reprimanded her for not sending home a student who became ill during achievement testing, and told her to let the child sit in his soiled pants until his mother could come change them, allegations that Bennett denied.

It was only after Wigo and the district moved to terminate Bennett this year that many parents and teachers learned that the principal had past complaints against him. The district suspended him for two days in 2001 after he told a teacher, "I will beat you up." Bennett apologized and the district hired a job coach to work with him.

Bennett's attorney, Rocco Imperatrice, said the incidents do not rise to a level that merit firing. That opinion is shared by dozens of parents and community supporters who have packed the hearings and stood in unison, when asked by Bennett's attorney, for a show of support.

"Have there been times when he's raised his voice? Have there been times when he's been red in the face? Sure," said parent Jim Coyne. "On balance, does this rise to the level of terminating someone? I'd say no."

Coyne placed much of the blame on Wigo, whom he called a data-driven "command and control freak." The district's human resources officer, Ann Callahan, testified that Bennett had complained about two teachers who were hired by Wigo to work at Indian Lane without his approval.

Wigo declined to be interviewed, as did Bennett.

It will require votes by two-thirds of the school board to fire Bennett, who could appeal to the state Department of Education and Commonwealth Court.

Parents and current and former staff say there has been discord at Indian Lane in the just-ended school year under the new principal, Christine Seeley, who, according to testimony, just got her principal's certificate in July and went to high school with Wigo's son.

Valuck, the former teacher, said she returned to Indian Lane in December for a retirement brunch and was taken aback by the change in mood. "The atmosphere was totally different," she said. "People were not happy."

610-313-8232@kathyboccella