76 new york | july 8–21, 2019
cold, and lack in outward warmth,” she later
wrote in an email to parents. “She said that
I have made parents feel I don’t like their
children and my learning environment and
curriculum isn’t based on what is known
about 3-year-olds. I was speechless.”
Suddenly the Reverend Robinson, who
had barely settled into his new job, was
inundated with emails from parents he
didn’t know about a teacher he’d met maybe
once. He reached out to Phyfe, who told him
that Morgano had informed the board of the
decision back in March. The director had
given a number of reasons: She found
Jones’s demeanor cold. She was set in her
ways. She refused to use computers, and she
could be inflexible: For instance, she’d
denied Maggie Gyllenhaal’s husband, Peter
Sarsgaard, a separate parent-teacher confer-
ence after he’d missed the first one because
he was away on a shoot. Since then, Phyfe
had met with Jones and found her version
of events was a little bit different. (Among
other things, she said refusing a high-profile
parent wasn’t a decision she would ever have
made “without the director.”)
Of larger concern to both Phyfe and the
rector was that Morgano had neglected to
follow protocol when it came to Jones’s dis-
missal. As it turned out, the head of the
school was supposed to consult with the
head of the advisory board and the rector
before making hiring and firing decisions.
But Morgano had simply informed them it
was happening. While it may have been an
honest mistake, it was important going for-
ward to have procedures in place, which
was why Phyfe and a fellow board member
planned to suggest the implementation of a
formal review system at the meeting they
had set with Morgano in July. After all, if
you terminate somebody, they want to
know why.
the meeting went smoothly enough.
Morgano was receptive to the idea of a
teacher-review process. In fact, Morgano
said, she had conducted a formal review of
Jones, which she would show them in the
fall. From there, they moved on to the oth-
er agenda items, which included a discus-
sion of healthier snack choices—the chil-
dren were eating far too much Pirate’s
Booty—and “sensitivity around the direc-
tor’s use of social media,” as the agenda
delicately put it. Morgano’s relationships
on Instagram and otherwise with certain
members of the Grace Church community
might have led to a “perception of prefer-
ential treatment of certain families,” and
some of the other parents had tied this to
what they perceived as her lackluster re-
sponse to their requests for help with ex-
missions. One of the ways Morgano might
make all families feel a little more optimis-
tic about the coming school year, they said,
would be if she sent out a “Welcome” letter
highlighting the active role she intended to
play in every family’s exmissions experi-
ence. “We need a win,” they said. They were
smiling and nodding, and Morgano smiled
and nodded back, but later, when she
thought about it, she felt resentful at being
bossed around like the hired help.
She fired off an email: “Thank you for
sharing what you have learned from other
parents regarding the stressful process of
applying to kindergartens,” she wrote. “Any
perception that we have not been responsive
is simply untrue.” Therefore: “We have
decided not to send additional communica-
tion regarding exmissions to our Pre-K
families. To do so would somehow legitimize
those who make unfounded, anonymous
complaints in the hallways or playground!”S
chool started on September 11,
2018, and has gone very well,” read
the minutes from the first board
meeting of the school year. “All pre-
school heads meeting with the Department
of Health to discuss requirements like teeth
brushing ... Exmissions under way ... Diver-
sity Committee focused on community out-
reach ... Hatsy Dresher and Vicky Schippers
spearheading outreach to Church members
... Amy conducting formal reviews for
teachers by January.”
In fact, things were not going very well.
The previous week, Phyfe and another
board member had checked in with Mor-
gano about the goals they’d set over the
summer. When the conversation came
around to the formal review of Jones she’d
promised to show them, Morgano dithered,
launching into litany of complaints about
the former teacher, how she was resistant to
change and didn’t really understand 3-year-
olds and would complain about kids who
didn’t do exactly what she wanted. Phyfe
and the other board member were still
wondering where the review was. Morgano
looked exasperated. She couldn’t show it to
them, she said, because one of the children
who was mentioned in it was Phyfe’s. There
was a brief, shocked silence during which
Phyfe turned a variety of colors. Then Phyfe
stood up. “Have we covered the agendaitems?” she said smoothly. “Then I think we
should stop.”
Morgano later apologized. But after
that, Morgano noticed Phyfe stopped say-
ing hello to her in the mornings. A few
days later, Morgano posted a Tupac Shakur
quote in an Instagram caption: “You can
spend minutes, hours, days, weeks, or even
months over-analyzing a situation; trying
to put the pieces together, justifying what
could’ve, would’ve happened. Or you can
just leave the pieces on the floor and move
the fuck on.”
One bright spot in December was the
Book and Toy Fair. In the past, the fair had
been small and churchy and full of old ladies
selling handmade ornaments. This year,
Chelsea Redick was co-chairing and had
organized a pajama party and a band for the
kids downstairs, while upstairs parents
shopped, sipped wine, and participated in a
raffle for high-end toys that she claimed
raised three times as much for the school
than in previous years. In other words, they
crushed it.
Later that night, Morgano Insta-
grammed a picture of Redick in the school
office astride one of the tall stuffed giraffes
from the raffle. “What happens at GCS stays
at GCS,” read the caption. Scrolling through
their feeds, some of the Grace Church par-
ents who followed Morgano were horrified:
“It was like Notes on a Scandal.”
Over the holidays, Morgano had heard
some disturbing news. Phyfe had been
conducting exit interviews with teachers
who’d left the school during Morgano’s
tenure, and the stories they’d been telling
weren’t pretty: Morgano had created an
environment of fear at Grace, they said.
She’d driven rifts among members of the
teaching staff and had made comments
that suggested some of the older teachers
who had left the school had been pur-
posely pushed out in order for Morgano
to make room for younger ones. “Young
teachers tend to fawn over their director,”
one of these teachers said. “I think she
liked that fawning over her a lot.”
Phyfe hadn’t mentioned this when she
and two other board members came in to
discuss the results of the teacher survey,
although they had pointed out that opin-
ions of Morgano among the staff were
mixed. One teacher had said she felt like
she was “walking on eggshells” around
Morgano. As the board presented pie
charts suggesting areas of improvement,
Morgano felt a bit like bringing up
another observation from the survey—
“VERY White WASP-y tone deaf and
often cringeworthy pretentious parent-
advisory group”—but she felt like she
was walking on eggshells herself.
“Happy New Year!,” Morgano com-Grace Church
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