Initial Article About Greenwich Cupcake Drama

Serious allegations? Are you joking? Or... just not giving us the whole story?

Principal's suspension puzzles town parents
By Hoa Nguyen Staff Writer Stamford Advocate 05/29/2008

GREENWICH - Glenville School Principal Marc D'Amico was suspended pending an investigation into "serious allegations," school officials said yesterday.

D'Amico, who took over at Glenville School three years ago, was suspended yesterday with pay, officials said in a letter sent home to parents.
D'Amico could not be reached for comment. Officials declined to elaborate on the allegations except to say it involved the human resources department.

"It's a confidential personal matter," district spokeswoman Kim Eves said.

Some parents and a town official said they believed it involved access to the school and stemmed from a complaint by a parent who had wanted to visit his child on the student's birthday.

But with district officials providing little information on what was being investigated, several parents said they were left with more questions than answers yesterday.

"Not knowing exactly what happened is kind of scary," said Asami Nakamura, parent of a third-grader at the school.

Many parents learned of D'Amico's suspension through an e-mail that parent-teacher association leaders sent late Tuesday night, which said more information about the suspension may be forthcoming after a meeting between the PTA leaders and Superintendent of Schools Betty Sternberg yesterday morning. But by the end of school, there still was no update, the parents said.

Donald Strange, the former principal of Western Middle School, said administrators have asked him to come out of retirement and serve as Glenville's principal for at most the rest of the year, Strange said yesterday.

"My role is to support the staff, kids and staff the best I can to have a smooth school year end and prepare for the move to the modular," he said. "The rest of the situation is really not my bailiwick. It's totally out of the realm of my work."