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A Haverhill High School history teacher says he won a rare opportunity to learn up close of the atrocities committed by the Nazis against Jewish people at Auschwitz during the Holocaust.
Ted Kempinski’s request last week before the Haverhill School Committee was postponed when several members questioned paying the history teacher’s travel expenses. While the matter comes up again Thursday, Kempinski is making the case the trip is not only worthwhile and supports a 2021 Massachusetts law requiring genocide education, but is keeping with hard-won professional development rights in the teachers’ contract.
“I felt it very important to stand up on principle for all of those individuals who died—and why the conference is even existing in the first place—at Auschwitz, and that I’ve been selected to go to. It’s important for teachers to stand up for professional development, opportunities that we fought for so hard and so long to get,” he told WHAV.
Haverhill school Superintendent Margaret Marotta told School Committee members Kempinski, who wasn’t named at the time, had applied many times for the competitive international educational conference, but this year secured a grant for tuition and room and board. She recommended the school department pay for airfare from federal money set aside for such purposes.
“He’s very excited to attend and will be happy to come back and offer professional development to other teachers. It would give him first-hand experience—just a unique opportunity and learning experience for him to be able to pass on to our students,” she told members.
The School Committee is expected to vote Thursday on the request regarding the program, “New Technologies in Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust,” June 27-29, at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland.
“Learning, seeing and being immersed in culture versus readings things from a book tends to make a big difference for people and their understanding. This is a very long-term teacher who has dedicated a lot to Haverhill Public Schools,” Marotta said.
School Committee member Paul A. Magliocchetti asked whether Kempinski would accept travel reimbursement in lieu of compensation for training other teachers, but generally supported the payment.
“An incredibly important subject matter. I, myself, went to Dachau when I visited Germany out of college. It leaves an impression on you. We can never forget what happened over there,” he said.
In response to a question by School Committee member Richard J. Rosa about comparative costs, Marotta noted costs are in line with other professional development efforts. She added the school system will typically “pay large sums of money” to outside consultants for similar training.
Member Toni Sapienza-Donais backed picking up travel expenses since Kempinski is taking a week of his own time to attend.
As WHAV reported last week, School Committee Vice Chair Scott W. Wood Jr. said he worried about creating a precedent by paying for international travel. Since then, however, Rosa said, two staff members went to China under the previous school administration.
Kempinski raised a reference to Pastor Martin Niemöller’s famous poem “First They Came” about silence in the face of atrocities.
“That’s why it is so important for me to stand up for myself and other teachers. Otherwise, there will be no one to stand up for us later when there’s nothing left,” he said.