UC Declaration of No Confidence in Superintendent Karen Berasi petition by Parents and citizens of the Town of Suffield, CT

I am a parent from Ridgefield, CT. Your petition is absolutely on target. Karen Berasi--Intimidating, condescending, evil smile--"a wanna be Cruella de ville". Absolutely no interest in the child's needs and could care less about parents' concerns. Bullied staff with eye contact and harsh comments.I could spend the next 2 hours writing to you about the 3-hour PPT I endured with her disturbing behavior. What goes around comes around. I support Suffield and wish you the luck to find someone who cares about your children's needs!!!

She clearly doesn't care about the children in her schools

Ms. Berasi was a terror in the town of Ridgefield before coming to Suffield. She was generally feared by staff and was vengeful toward staff, parents and even students. She is unprofessional, ill-mannered and unfit to lead our youth and those charged with educating them. Wether her behavior is criminal Is not up to me, but her impact on people over the last decade has been extraordinary damaging.

Vindictive and rude.

The Board of Education needs to be held culpable also. They have allowed her actions to continue unchecked, have left her in office while under investigation, permitted the intimidation of faculty etc.....The quality of education has declined during their tenure as evidenced by the overall school ratings. The town of Suffield has a high enough tax base that the quality of education and competent leadership therein, should be the least of parents concerns.

The HS has been in desperate need of direction and better leadership for years. Both students and teachers are impacted by this lack of leadership. I believe in letting our children mature and grow but a sink or swim attitude is not in anyone’s best interest. I was told “they do things different” up there... “different” is not always good or right. Maybe they should look at what makes the lower levels work and build on it rather than re-invent the wheel. Poor leadership=Poor work environment=Poor learning environment.

I am a Suffield High School student

Two years ago a student threatened to kill my daughter at McAllister School. I went to the principal and of the school and demanded something be done , I next went to the Superintendents office and demanded to see her and she blew me off. The seriousness of the situation and she could not see. The school worked with me but I was never really happy after this whole situation. Especially the handling by the superintendents office. I wish I handled it different. The superintendent needs to GO !!!

She worked in Ridgefield for 8 years and bullied staff and students. She is a horrible human being. She ignored the needs of special education students and covered up for her staff at CCSN who were blatantly incompetent. Students regressed significantly under her tenure there. Glad she is finally getting what she deserves.

I am so grateful to David Messanger for creating this much needed petition. I pray that our board of education has what it takes to rid our small community of what appears to be a person that does not only not understand the needs of children but also has blatant disregard for their parents and the stakeholders. While I currently have no children in this district, my grandchildren are being brought up here and my daughter and son-in-law are having some huge struggles with the district. Their complaints to the superintendent went on deaf ears without even a returned email or returned phone call. It is apparent that she does not know who writes her check. It is quite sad that we need to look for another superintendent, however, we will come out stronger because of the struggles. Please keep in mind that our board of education is made up of volunteers and they are doing whatever they can to help us through this situation and that may take some time. I am praying for our community, this will hopefully be behind all of us soon.

7 years ago Featured

The departure of multiple, talented administrators coupled with dedicated teachers in a mere two years signifies a district culture of intimidation, disrespect, and fear.

Proud of you for speaking up Gabby! Love you..

I find Karen Berasi’s level of favoritism and unprofessionalism entirely unacceptable. I watched her do as little as possible to help one family and one group of friends process a student’s death in a completely passive manner while attending to and going above and beyond the call of duty for another student’s death. Both suicides were equally devastating to ALL the students and those families whose lives were forever changed by that devastating event. The ONLY difference that should have been visible was the fact they happened a year apart. I thought it was gross and professionally inadequate the way she handled one death compared to the other and when the students and friends of those two students tried to point out her missteps they were shushed, ignored and essentially told their concerns didn’t matter by way of her actions. Karen Berasi’s blatant disregard for the purpose of her position needs to be addressed. Her personal agenda in the dismissal of the high school Vice Principal Gina Olearczyk was reckless, selfish and inconsiderate for ALL the students Gina Olearczyk helped get to the finish line so they could accept their diploma. Mrs. Olearczyk personally helped my child, Max, maneuver through the most difficult time of his life when he lost his best friend Julia. In a single instant, hearing one sentence turned Max’s life upside down and if it wasn’t for Mrs. Olearczyk I honestly cannot say my child would still be with us today. Mrs. O. gave a piece of herself to Max by being there for him and letting him know she cared about him and helping him through the grieving process while at school. Mrs. Olearczyk’s admiration and dedication to her students is what helped Max get through those dark days. The time and dedication Mrs. O. spent with Max no doubt gave him the strength to push through, regain his focus so he was able to walk across that stage. And it was Karen Berasi who personally shunned my child and did not even have the decency or professionali

Smh

The superintendent has tied the hands of the teachers and administrators to safely educate our children. The concept of a stacked classroom full of children with behavioral issues placed with "peer models" is ludicrous. The peers have been put in positions where they are unable to learn due to multiple disruptions from other students. Teachers have become behavior managers unable to do much more than control the class. Not only does it impact the educational experience of the children in the class, it produces lasting psychological scars on children who fear to be in the classroom environment due to safety concerns. This MUST STOP. We removed our child from the school system to protect the child from the psychological trauma suffered by constant bullying in stacked classrooms.

She needs to go

This superintendent has caused a tremendous amount of damage to our town. Please remove her as soon as possible.

Glad to see change is going to happen

As a parent who has needed assistance with those in charge at more than one school in town, I have no confidence in the principals or the superintendent. The ONLY principal who ever took a matter seriously was Mr. Moccio. Our children need to know they matter.

Suffield Board of Education.... We urge you to ACT NOW!!! This Superintendent is a bad reflection on our community!!