Subject:  Stop Caterina (Stanczuk) Lafergola's appointment to Principal of Baldwin High School We, the undersigned, object to the imminent appointment of Caterina Lafergola to the position of Baldwin High School Principal.  We urge our elected Board of Education trustees and the district's Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources to reconsider and duly reverse this high-impact personnel decision.  The general community's introduction to the presumptive principal of its high school was by way of an unflattering, perhaps biased article featured in the NY Post on May 30, 2016.  Despite its possibly skewed stance, there were enough verifiable statistics and credible-source statements to compel any invested stakeholder to want to ascertain more about Ms. Lafergola and Baldwin's process and decision to hire her. The only school for which Caterina Lafergola has ever served as principal was, and continues to be, a "failing" school.  Located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Automotive High School comprises fewer than 400 students of whom over 90% are male, over 90% are racially and/or ethnically minority-identified, and offers only professional and vocational "pathways to graduation" or programs of diploma-conferring study--none academic.  There is hence very little by way of demographic, institutional, philosophical, or performative comparison between Automotive High School and Baldwin High School.  In addition to the contrasting character and composition of the incoming principal's previous workplace is the discovery that out of the six categories of school assessment on which School Quality Snapshots are based, it was in the area of "Effective School Leadership" that Automotive High School scored lowest; i.e., Poor.  To restate:  the school from which BHS's new principal is coming rated Poor in the category of Effective School Leadership.  That is a fact.  It is neither spin nor slander.  Generated by the Department of Education, this snapshot is an objective evaluation of Lafergola's building of four years based on standardized surveys, statistics, and census data, not a putatively biased journalist writing for an allegedly salacious newspaper: http://schools.nyc.gov/OA/SchoolReports/2014-15/School_Quality_Snapshot_2015_HS_K610.pdf Our shared contention is that Baldwin deserves a building leader who is more than a manager or disciplinarian, something Automotive High School perhaps truly needed/s in order to secure a safe environment for its constituents.  The data shows, however, and again, that Baldwin High School is a distinctly dissimilar learning community, and is thereby entitled to leadership in possession of rigorous academic demand, high expectations of performance, promotion, graduation, and pursuit of post-secondary study as well as behavior.  The data demonstrates that it alternatively justifies a principal with a track record of building-level collegiality and community-level respect and rapport.  It provides that Baldwin warrants an individual whose leadership experience includes a student body that is diverse not only in gender, race, ethnicity, lingualism, and socio-economic background, but scholastic aptitude and professional aspirations as well. To this latter point, our greatest concern about this hiring decision is that Baldwin High School will lose rather than gain on its long-standing track record of academic excellence and achievement.  We have Hastings Academy for alternative student matriculation.  We have BOCES for vocational training and professional studies.  But we only have one Baldwin High School that is universal, public, and conventionally academic and college preparatory.  On their last stop to college or career, we simply, and quite reasonably, want our children to be prepared for whichever they choose. Let's support our teachers, challenge our students, and retain Baldwin's high academic standards and output with excellent building leadership.  Our children and community deserve it!