Letter to the New York Director

[EastStroudsburg13]

I am going to sleep. In the morning sometime around 7 I will add any remaining signatures and then email the letter. Thank you everyone for your help, even if it does not make a difference this year, it can make a difference for the future. The other general petition is still running for those who want to sign it, and I believe it is approaching 1,000 signatures now!

[olympiaddict]

Thank you so much for helping us. I really hope that we can make a difference, especially for the many years to come.

[haverstall]

Usually, I don't like stirring up controversy but, after reading this article, Mr. Miller's lackluster response to why he called the wrong coach really just doesn't pass. I don't want to flame the guy, but his response is simply unprofessional.

Miller, in an email Tuesday night, said Ward Melville's invitation to compete was withdrawn because registration materials did not arrive until the week after the deadline.
"We are always disappointed when a fine school does not submit its materials in a timely manner," Miller wrote. "We need the registration materials at least two weeks prior to the competition so that we can complete the many tasks necessary to conduct a state tournament."
Miller also noted that Ward Melville had three teams competing at the regional level, and under state policy any member of the three teams may be chosen to compete at the state level. He said he picked Rocklein's name out of the three original registration forms, as opposed to Malusa's, because he has met her over the years at various tournaments and recognized her name.
"I had no way of knowing she was actually retired and was not an active coach who could get a message to the people responsible for doing the registration," he said in another email.

According to what I've read on the the forums so far, this teacher has been retired for quite a while. This is simply unacceptable for an organization like New York Science Olympiad to use flawed assumptions like these to validate a situation like this.

The article is here, if you want to read it.

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/ward ... -1.7360911

[gneissisnice]

Usually, I don't like stirring up controversy but, after reading this article, Mr. Miller's lackluster response to why he called the wrong coach really just doesn't pass. I don't want to flame the guy, but his response is simply unprofessional.

Miller, in an email Tuesday night, said Ward Melville's invitation to compete was withdrawn because registration materials did not arrive until the week after the deadline.
"We are always disappointed when a fine school does not submit its materials in a timely manner," Miller wrote. "We need the registration materials at least two weeks prior to the competition so that we can complete the many tasks necessary to conduct a state tournament."
Miller also noted that Ward Melville had three teams competing at the regional level, and under state policy any member of the three teams may be chosen to compete at the state level. He said he picked Rocklein's name out of the three original registration forms, as opposed to Malusa's, because he has met her over the years at various tournaments and recognized her name.
"I had no way of knowing she was actually retired and was not an active coach who could get a message to the people responsible for doing the registration," he said in another email.

According to what I've read on the the forums so far, this teacher has been retired for quite a while. This is simply unacceptable for an organization like New York Science Olympiad to use flawed assumptions like these to validate a situation like this.

The article is here, if you want to read it.

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/ward ... -1.7360911

He should have known that she was retired. He knows both coaches, and Rocklein retired in 2008 (I believe, she retired in my junior year). That's 6 years that Malusa's been the head coach, and Miller knew enough to call Malusa on March 1 to tell him that the team was barred from going.

[caseyotis]

Regardless, Mr. Miller should be able to hold accountability for what was his own error. His making excuses is unnacceptable for someone at his level.

[zyzzyva980]

I think there's one important question in all of this that we're neglecting to answer.

Why is EastStoudsburg13 getting up at 7 AM in college? Why does he consider this normal? The people want answers, East.

[EastStroudsburg13]

Well, I had a 9 AM class anyway. The petition has been sent, so we'll see how it goes. Thank you to everyone who signed, you've all made a difference!

And if you didn't get to sign, but you still want to support the cause, the general petition is still running: http://jakewelde.com/petition. It has over 1,300 signatures now, and it's still increasing.

[haverstall]

Z with the hard hitting questions

How many people from the forums ended up signing the letter?

[EastStroudsburg13]

We ended up having 68 signatures on this letter. With the states and schools listed, it was a rather impressive list, with people from Florida, California, and everywhere in between, as well as many people who have represented their states at nationals. It shows just what a diverse group of people we have, and hopefully one that, if it does not sway the opinion of Miller this year, at least shows that many qualified people around the country do not support the rule that bars a team from state competition due to late paperwork.

[MMeteorite1]

Sorry, I'm not the most eliquent writer. I do support their efforts and have signed the petition. Has anyone contacted the press? Got a twitter feed going? How else can you put pressure on the NY Director?

If you read the letter you would have seen this part:

We understand that there is a risk for setting a precedent if this decision is reversed. However, we offer this: would the situation be any different if any other team had this problem? Say a team qualified for states for the first time; would it be fair to deny them the chance to show their skills at the state stage because their paperwork was a few days late? There are rules for a reason, yes, but sometimes exceptions must be made to maintain the integrity of the competition.

So it's not like Ward is special. A lot of it is circumstantial, but in this case it's close enough to the deadline that it's worth going back on. It was through no oversight of the team, and holding an inflexible policy is illogical. And this is not an athletic event where the main purpose is competition. If you look at the Science Olympiad mission statement it only briefly mentions the competitive aspect. And I'm not sure why you mention the hockey game, because to me that only supports the need to allow Ward to compete; rules need to be bent for the integrity of the game (the reason they did not go to a shootout is because they felt it would compromise the integrity of the game, since the teams worked so hard for 7 overtimes only for it to end in a shootout). So I'm not exactly sure what your overall point is.