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Schools

Beloved Golf Middle Secretary Forced out after Conflict with Principal

More than 60 current and former students and parents show up to protest.

A beloved secretary at was forced to resign Thursday night over the tearful protests of dozens of current and former students and their parents, who described her as "an anchor" and "a mom."

After a five-hour executive session of the   board of education, the length of which caused the standing-room-only audience to gradually dwindle, Alayna Angus returned to the meeting room and announced that she was forced to resign or be fired.

A fresh round of tears and hugs broke out for the office secretary who had, in a tumultuous six years at Golf Middle, worked for five principals and five superintendents, including interims. The board did not comment about their deliberations, but voted unanimously to accept her resignation.

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In an interview afterwards, Angus said after working successfully for a string of revolving-door bosses she had a "personality conflict" with the current principal, Erin Stein. After the principal repeatedly spoke to her harshly in front of students and parents, Angus said, she went into Stein's office, closed the door, and asked to be treated more respectfully.

"We had words, basically," Angus said, and the next day she was asked not to return to work.

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After the meeting, Stein declined to comment on Angus's version of events or to offer her own. This is her first appointment as a principal; she was an assistant principal for four years at Jack London Middle School, a 700-student public school in Wheeling.

An attorney for the district walked the audience members through the procedure for termination of an employee. He said they don't know both sides of the story or everything about Angus' work performance, without offering any details about either.

In the public comment section of the regular board meeting, two remaining audience members told the board they were disappointed in their decision, including Bob Ostrow.

"She is the face of this school," Ostrow said, in part. "I am shocked and disappointed."

An Emotional Meeting

At the 5:30 p.m. start of a special meeting more than a dozen students and parents begged the board not to fire Angus. Several of them broke down in tears as they described how important she is to them -- or, in the case of several high school students who learned about the meeting on Facebook, how important she was to them when they went to Golf.

Students talked about how she always had a smile for them and listened to their problems.

"I've called her Mom," said Flonja Hoxha, a seventh grader, who said when word was texted around school that Angus was fired, "everybody was crying and upset."

Parents said she was the go-to person for answers as principals and superintendents have repeatedly come and gone.

"There have been a lot of unknowns," said Mary Xidis, who has a fifth-grade daughter, such as a recent proposal to sell the middle school to a car dealer and merge it with Hynes Elementary.

"One of the stabilizing things for these kids was knowing when they come through that front door she would be there with a smile on her face," Xidis said. "She knew all their names."

"To get rid of the last anchor in the school is a really bad idea," said another parent, Andy Bui.

Angus said she was thankful for all the people who came and spoke out on her behalf. The board's decision, she said, came down to lining up behind their most recent hire rather than admit the principal might bear some fault in the conflict.

"They say they want what is best for the school and what's best for the kids, but that's not true," Angus said, crying. "Because if they did, I would still have a job."

Other Business

In other business, the board thanked outgoing member Lance Foreman and welcomed his replacement, Richard Toth*. Samina Hussein was elected vice president, a position Foreman vacated.

Correction: We corrected the name of Foreman's replacement.

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