Thando Hyman-Aman, principal for Toronto's Africentric public school, in 2009.Charla Jones/The Globe and Mail
After a string of important successes, booming enrolment and impressive standardized test scores, Toronto's Africentric school has suffered a setback. Its well-respected principal is under investigation while parents argue over what the school should look like, and what it means to be Africentric.
The principal, Thando Hyman-Aman, went on a personal leave while the Toronto District School Board investigated undisclosed allegations against her. People close to the school said she has come under fire from parents who disagree with how she is running the school, on issues including curriculum and student discipline.
Speaking in general on complaints against principals, TDSB lawyer Grant Bowers said: "In every situation where it is alleged that an employee of the school board has harmed a child, they're immediately sent home, the allegation is reported to the appropriate authority... and once the outside agency has completed any investigation, if no charges are laid or there's no finding by those agencies, we have to conduct a thorough internal investigation."
In the case of the Africentric school allegations, he said it was now being treated as an internal investigation.
There is no police involvement in the matter and none of the allegations have been substantiated.
Mr. Bowers said the investigation has been turned over to the board's staff, a former police officer and a former teachers' college employee who are employed full-time to handle such probes.
Ms. Hyman-Aman did not respond to e-mail requests for comment.
"Right now I really think that the school seems to be in state of chaos," said Nicole Osbourne James, a mother of three students who attend the school. "Everybody is talking, everybody is speculating, the children are upset, nobody knows what's going on and the TDSB is not communicating with the parents."
Ms. Osbourne James said that the school has been struggling with growing pains - it's only a little more than a year old and there are currently 161 students enrolled with 55 more on a waiting list.
She said most parents have been co-operating with the growth process, while a smaller group have been less patient.
"They're not committed to the growth process, they expect immediate results," she said.
Disagreements have arisen over issues as diverse as curriculum content to dress code to after-school programs and Ms. Hyman-Aman has invited several authors and academics to speak to parents on Africentric culture and identity.
"Some parents will always question a principal, this happens in all schools," James Pasternak, the TDSB trustee who championed the controversial school, wrote in an e-mail. "Principal Thando Hyman is a transformative educator and that is why we selected her to lead this school. The parents continue to support her. They also respect the investigative process and understand whether the complaint is unfounded or founded, this process must take its course."
In a separate matter, Ira Applebaum, the principal of Sheppard Public School, which hosts the Africentric Alternative School in one of its wings, is also on a leave pending an unrelated TDSB investigation.
Ms. Hyman-Aman's interim replacement is a white male, George Brown Jr., a former principal at Crestview Public School.
The controversial idea of an Africentric school at the TDSB was born of an effort to stem the 40-per-cent dropout rate among Toronto's black students. Some felt the idea amounted to segregation, and an early struggle to meet enrolment targets suggested Canada's first public Africentric school might not take off. A last-minute enrolment surge erased those doubts, the school soon had a waiting list, and recent scores on province-wide literacy and numeracy tests were strong - well above the provincial average.