Interview cost candidate attendance at graduation

June 16, 2006

By PAT LITOWITZ
plitowitz@ncnewsonline.com

Jacqueline M. Respress wanted to set professional ambitions aside for a moment to play the role of proud mother.

She charged that the New Castle school district's superintendent refused to allow that to happen. Respress, New Castle's junior high principal, was one of four finalists for the job of administrative assistant to the superintendent.

Late last month, the school board hired former city resident Terence P. Meehan to fill the newly created post. Respress said she had sought to reschedule her second interview with the district's school board in order to attend her son's graduation ceremony at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

"I called (Superintendent George) Gabriel prior to the graduation," she said Wednesday. "I said 'Is there any way that we could reschedule my interview?'

"Because I know that if it had been someone else, it would have been rescheduled."

Respress said she received a call back from Gabriel's secretary, who told her she had to keep the appointment.

"I worked hard (with) my husband to raise this child to see him cross that stage," she said. "It broke my heart. I cried the whole way home.

"My husband kept saying, 'Do you want to go home? Do you want to go back?' I said 'If I go back, then (the school board has) a reason to say I didn't care enough."

Gabriel said he would have rescheduled the second round of interviews -- if Respress had given him enough notice.

"I wasn't aware of (the graduation) until the day of the interview," he said. "I wasn't given enough time to have that rescheduled. I really feel bad about it.

"Had I had ample notice, I would have rescheduled all four interviews for another night."

Respress' son, Jonathan, advised her to return to New Castle.

"My Jonathan said to me, 'Mom, you go. I know you want to be here, but you go back. And you do what you have to do."

Jonathan Respress earned a bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering. He will be continuing his studies at the Baylor College of Medicine.