Culver City High School drama teacher Sheila Silver was reinstated by a 3-2 vote by the school board last week, following protests by students and a meeting between concerned parents and the principal, Dr. Pam Magee.
Earlier this month, the board voted 3-2 against retaining Silver.
“Someone changed their vote,” a school official said.
According to sources, Silver, the creative director of theatre at the school’s Academy of Visual and Performing Arts (AVPA), responded to a list of 16 reasons she was given, which explained why the school decided to exercise its option not to re-hire her. Among those reasons was an accusation that she was not taking advantage of so-called mentoring opportunities that were available. A charge that she was said to have refuted by presenting a list of emails asking for mentoring opportunities, which went unanswered.
“This is a credit to our school board that they listened to students; they listened to parents; they listened to the union; and they listened to Sheila,” David Mielke, president of the Culver City Federation of Teachers and a psychology teacher at CCHS, told the News.
“One of the things I’m taking away from this is another reminder about how flawed our evaluation system is. We need a system where teachers who are struggling can be identified and mentored and where excellent teachers are not (almost) released,” Mielke said.
Last month, Silver’s production of the Laramie Project earned the top regional honor at the California Educational Theatre Association Festival, marking the second straight year that her students have taken first place.
Next month, Silver will direct the AVPA theatre students in Urinetown, a project about which she says she is especially excited because of a partnership between Center Theatre Group teaching artist, Sarah Kranin, who taught a set design class in the fall and mentored theatre students.
“For as important a work as The Laramie Project was for us last fall, Urinetown could not be more irreverent! We are having so much fun finding every nuance and joke to entertain our audiences,” she said.