We received a tip this morning that a teacher from West Boca High was suspended for selling community service hours to students. That led us to reach out to our readers as well as to the school district and we learned more.
Before we get into the details we remind our readers that West Boca High was already an excellent school and that every school has problems. We’ve reported previously that the school is moving forward with a new principal and a new performing arts academy. From what we can see Principal Sommer is working overtime to fix inherited problems while also giving the school better overall direction.
But with that said, a teacher was removed from West Boca High this past summer. A reader forwarded us this message from Principal Sommer, sent around 12:30 pm today (after we had contacted him and the district):
Last summer, the School District’s Office of Professional Standards began an investigation into a teacher from West Boca Raton High. That investigation is still ongoing, so I am unable to share any details, but I assure you that we are taking the matter seriously. The teacher was reassigned to another location where there is no contact with students, and has not been on West Boca’s campus this school year.
The district has confirmed what our sources told us, that the teacher involved is John Critelli. He taught science, including anatomy in the medical academy. We do not have firm confirmation about the accusations against him.
Multiple sources told us it was about the teacher selling community service hours to students. These hours are important for students for a variety of reasons. From the district’s guide:
Students of the Palm Beach County School District are required to obtain a minimum of 20 community service hours to graduate from high school. Community service is also a requirement for many scholarships (i.e. Bright Futures) and college entrance programs.
In addition to the hours, another source tells us that the teacher is also being investigated for selling grades. While we consider this particular source to be well informed, we have only heard that detail from the one source.
It is unclear why the district is taking so long to investigate what seem like straightforward allegations. Either an innocent man is having his reputation damaged unnecessarily, or taxpayer money is being wasted.
From LinkedIn, Critelli is a 2009 graduate of SUNY Potsdam in northern New York State and he either has or is working on a PhD at FAU. He started teaching at West Boca High in 2009, and worked actively with students in a variety of clubs. He has generally positive ratings as a teacher on the Rate My Teachers website.
This positive student review is oddly timed in August of this year after he had already been removed, and the last bit is just weird:
Critelli is one of the best teachers I have ever had. He helps you out so much, no matter who you are. He’s harder on you if he sees you have potential but don’t take advantage of that. He helped me through my first year of high school and even when I went to homeschooling, he kept in touch and made sure I was doing okay. If you have him, I will consider you lucky, just don’t get on his bad side!
Most of his positive reviews are from a few years ago. On the other hand he received a few negative reviews in the last couple years.
May 2015: I am not gonna lie. He sucks. I can’t stand how rude and disrespectful he is. He finds favorites & ignores everyone else. He won’t acknowledge you no matter how smart you are. He thinks he’s always right but he isn’t. He might be a little funny sometimes but most of the time, the “funny” things he says are incredibly rude. He thinks he’s doing us a favor by making us learn on our own but no, as a freshman teacher, he has to guide us through how high school will work, not throw all the work at us.
March 2015: As a person, he is great. He’s fun and friendly. But he has a way of making sure he’s always right. He is kinda a hypocrite and wants students to feel open in his class but then yells at them for asking a question. Doesn’t review with us at all and then throws a huge test on us and blames it on us when we don’t do well.
May 2014: His favoritism with some of his students is deplorable and annoying. He is bipolar and enjoys tricking his students. His favorite thing to say to students is “cry me a river”(in a condescending/sarcastic way).
West Boca High has taken a few hits in the last year, with the biggest being the former principal’s plagiarism scandal that led to his removal.
We are optimistic that Principal Sommer will steer the school through these issues and make WBHS an even better school than it already is.
