- April 25, 2024
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Instead of changing the district’s theater-review guidelines, the school board clarified existing guidelines.
The School Board worked to clarify the language in the district’s policies concerning theatrical materials In a workshop Monday, March 14.
Should concern be raised over the appropriateness of any media/instructional materials, the principal can be called on by a teacher or parent to discuss the play’s production at the school level. Should further steps be required, complainants may appeal to a five-person district committee.
But for some, it’s clear who should determine what is appropriate for the school stage.
“I think it needs to be left in the hands of the director,” Ed Koczergo, former theater director at Flagler Palm Coast High School said. “Have some faith.”
Koczergo said the controversy over his production of “To Kill a Mockingbird” was taken out of proportion, and that the standards are inconsistently applied.
“Did you know the Lord’s name is taken in vain in the ‘Wizard of Oz’?” he said. “Nobody said boo about that. So I don’t think anybody ever read that.”
The board will continue to clarify policy language in future workshops.
Koczergo resigns
Koczergo, who directed FPC’s controversial production of “To Kill a Mockingbird” in February, resigned last week. His 144 students will likely be taught by a substitute.
“You can’t imagine how much ‘Mockingbird’ took out of me, with the controversy,” Koczergo said. “It took such a toll.”
He said he had been debating resigning at the end of the year, anyway, but he decided to do it earlier when he received a letter from the school district telling him that he was not guaranteed his position back in 2012 because of budget constraints.
“That was the last straw. That’s ridiculous,” he said.
He said it was a hard decision because of the students he’ll leave behind.
“My heart aches thinking about the students and what they have to go through for the next couple of months trying to finish the semester,” Koczergo said.
Some people in the community might see his resignation as a selfish act, he said.
“There’s nothing I can do about that,” he said. “They have no idea how difficult this has been for the last five months … They have no idea what kind of a toll that’s taken. Frankly, I feel like I’m doing more damage being in the classroom right now. I’m fried, I’m burned out.”
Koczergo, who has been a teacher for 38 years but has only been at Flagler Palm Coast High School for one year, said he might apply to teach at colleges in the region at some point in the future.
