FortBendNow.com

A local school principal – who tendered her resignation rather than accept a demotion for allowing one of her teachers to take time off to attend a reality TV show – now has asked for her job back.

Tammie Carpenter, principal of Fort Bend Independent School District’s Colony Bend Elementary School, turned in her resignation letter earlier this month, but now wants to rescind it, FBISD spokeswoman Mary Ann Simpson said Wednesday.

“The district accepted her resignation upon receipt,” Simpson said. “Now she has sent the district” information that she does not want to resign. Carpenter did not return a call for comment.

Simpson said FBISD Superintendent Dr. Timothy Jenney has not acted on Carpenter’s request to rescind her resignation. But a group of parents wants him to.

“Dr. Jenney is meeting with some of the Colony Bend Elementary parents tonight at their request,” Simpson said. “There will be no decisions or action taken” at the meeting. She added that the parents want Carpenter to remain as principal of the school.

The district decided to discipline Carpenter in part because she allowed 4th-grade teacher Amber Alchalabi to take a leave of absence for 22 school days.

Alchalabi had been appearing on ABC television show “The Bachelor,” the premise of which begins with a man pursuing romance with a group of 25 women. Each week, he chooses one woman to be eliminated from the show. Alchalabi was one of four women remaining on the show until earlier this week, when she was eliminated from the competition.

While she said the district can’t comment on details of the situation, “there were other issues related to performance in addition to allowing the teacher to go on leave to appear on this program,” Simpson said last week. “All of this was taken into consideration.”

Simpson said the district had decided to reassign Carpenter to another school, in the role of assistant principal rather than principal. But because her pay would remain the same, the district didn’t consider the move a demotion.