Springbrook HS Staff Letter
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Anonymous
Boom. The data speaks for itself. Principal Valentine is underreporting. |
Anonymous
get off the forum during your workday…
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Anonymous
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. To MCPS Admin, Board of Education members, SBHS Admin & Management team, MCEA
RE: Leadership Issues at Springbrook High School We are a small collaborative group of teachers at Springbrook who have written and revised this letter together throughout the past 5 months. We believe we represent the large majority of staff. We deliver this information like this because we fear and have all seen retaliation from Stephanie Valentine over the years she has been the Principal at SBHS. We hope this important, serious and time-sensitive message finds you well. This letter is to bring to your attention the very harmful workplace culture at Springbrook High School that has been fostered under the leadership of Principal Stephanie Valentine. Over time, a pattern of bullying, intimidation, and unprofessional behavior has developed, creating a toxic work environment that significantly affects the morale and well-being of the staff. We are reaching out in hopes that you can provide support in addressing these issues. Some of the key concerns we want to include: Tear 1. Aggressive Communication and Bullying: Principal Valentine frequently uses a negative and aggressive tone when addressing staff. This aggressive communication was common over the walkie-talkies that could be heard by many staff, students, and families in the building. When comments were made to her about this, she took walkie talkies away from many on the leadership team. Her tone exacerbates stress and anxiety among staff. 2. Retaliation Against Staff: There have been numerous instances where teachers who have spoken out against decisions made by Principal Valentine are subjected to excessive scrutiny. Observations in classrooms and meetings are used as tools of retaliation, creating an atmosphere of fear where staff are reluctant to voice concerns or offer constructive feedback. She uses the evaluation process to prevent and control staff ability to transfer out of the worksite to a more positive work environment. For example, she will not return requests for references to other jobs or not "allow" or support some staff she feels are "essential" to her team to interview for new positions at different sites. Several times over her time here she has directed her Administration team to formally and informally observe people who have spoken out against her- often these people are NOT in an evaluation year. She has also changed teachers assignments at the end of the school year for those who have spoken out against her. 3. Abuse of Power: Principal Valentine often makes school-wide decisions unilaterally, without consulting the Instructional Leadership Team (ILT) or considering the input of those who are directly affected. During the 2024-25 school year Principal Valentine has ignored ILT agenda item requests and made unilateral decisions in changing the master schedule to have restrictive "interdisciplinary pairs" of English and social studies classes that have significantly impacted the way teachers teach and students' ability to access elective and CTE pathway courses, among other serious issues. 4. Inappropriate and Derogatory Nicknames: Principal Valentine's use of inappropriate nicknames for both staff and students is also troubling. For example, Principal Valentine has referred to staff members as "babyface" and to students as "cookie monster" or "trouble" and has even referred to herself as "Mommy and Daddy" in front of staff. These nicknames are patronizing, unprofessional and demeaning, and they contribute to an atmosphere of disrespect. Additionally, she refuses to call staff and students by their preferred names and/or pronouns and has purposefully outed students to their families, further undermining their dignity. 5. Micromanagement and Excessive Documentation: There is an overwhelming amount of repetitive, additional documentation being requested of staff. Teachers this year have been asked to |
Anonymous
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document an exorbitant amount of data regarding student grades, interventions, and strategies in multiple locations (spreadsheets, communication logs, and in PLC notes). This not only creates an unsustainable workload but also takes valuable time away from meaningful planning, teaching and engagement with the students.
6. PLCs & SLOs: This year she has become fixated on ALL staff including "structured student discourse" in our planning and instruction to the point that it was a MANDATED topic objective on ALL STAFF SLOs. Select Teachers are subjected to micromanagement via "target" PLCS which are observed by the entire administration team regularly (sometimes up to 10 people) with follow up observations the following day to document what is "actually" taught. Also, she has mandated that 50% of ALL instruction in ALL CLASSES be dedicated to "structured student discourse". It is impossible to do this daily in some classes such as PE or Math. It is also impossible to cover State and County mandated objectives and standards in addition to this 50% "structured student discourse" mandate. We suspect she is collecting our data for a personal dissertation or research project of some kind. We would appreciate it if you could look into this. 7. Lack of Clear Communication: While working under Principal Valentine's leadership there is a lack of clear and consistent communication. Decisions are often made without prior notice or explanation, leaving staff confused and unsure of expectations. Meeting dates are often added to calendars or changed with little to no notice. 8. Undocumented suspensions according to MCPS policy: Inconsistent transparency for student discipline & related staff communication. Ms. Valentine has been known to suspend students verbally, use the suspension as a threat to the student- and then excuse or not document the suspension at all. 9. The 2023-2024 School-Based Staff Climate Survey for Springbrook High School, as compared to all MCPS High Schools, has 22 of 33 areas of possible improvement and no areas of school strength. a. Two relevant questions were question 14, "Overall, how positive is the working environment at your school?" and question 16, "How positive is the tone that school leaders set for the culture of the school?" The results from these questions dropped more than 20% from the year prior. These results demonstrate the effect Principal Valentine has created on the school's climate and culture. We believe these issues, if left unaddressed, will continue to have a very negative impact on the working conditions at Springbrook High School. Staff members (and some students) are feeling unsafe, demoralized, undervalued, and trapped in an environment where our attempts at professionalism and collaborative discourse are met with punishment rather than support or collaboration. People are literally terrified to sign a letter like this and that is why it is being sent anonymously. We suggest you try to speak with the following former SBHS staff: John Weinshel, Adrian Charley and Dennis Scott in addition to current students and staff (in a safe place). We respectfully request that you assist or that the Office of School Support and Improvement intervene address these concerns. Thank you for your attention to these critical issues. March 11, 2025 |
Anonymous
| PP, thanks for posting a third time. Have you sent to the news? How was the school day? |
Anonymous
| What was the point of posting the letter we've already posted? I'm more interested in any responses to the letter. Has the BOE or MCPS leadership engaged? |
Anonymous
| If not principals themselves, their family members, spouses and if no one else, CO. The same office who don't have time to answer parents' questions but have time to *try* to protect the "image" of BCC. |
Anonymous
BCC and now Springbrook |
Anonymous
| I would hope Valentine would have better things to do than read a shitposting forum 😂. |
Anonymous
Just hush, PP. Teachers can take a break at work. If a teacher wants to check DCUM on their ridiculously short lunch break, they can do that. Don’t worry. They’ll go back to martyring themselves for you, giving far more than they’ll ever receive in return. |
Anonymous
| It’s been nearly two weeks since the send date of the letter. Can anyone report if they’ve seen Central Office Support or any changes in the school? |
Anonymous
Can confirm this is still the case at White Oak and the parallels between these two administrators is truly uncanny. It’s a horrible work environment with terrible morale and high turnover every year. |
Anonymous
That’s terrible! I’ve heard horror stories since I started MCPS about White Oak (and other admins). Why do they keep the horrible ones in their positions?! Don’t admins have PAR? |
Anonymous
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It's really a common known reality that teachers are taken advantage of and put in a situation that requires far more hours than a teacher is getting paid for. This dynamic is what makes teachers open to retaliation by design. So by design teachers are unsupported and made as victims to keep their mouths shut as to the declining education system, incentives for corruption, and attacks on the professionals that work under admins who push "good data" as opposed to true data.
It's like being a professional marathon runner who must make an 8 hr marathon 26 miles everyday and then writing negative reports on them because they were not able to do 40 miles 35% more in the 8 hours. This is why we must post on anonymous forums. It's the retaliation that we face as educators. |
Anonymous
+1 I have been warned by 3 different teachers to stay away from WOMS despite it being very close to home. All complained about the principal. I don’t teach HS, but if I did, I’d leave the district before going to SHS. Life is too short. I really hope these teachers can win their school back. Toxic admin need to be ousted from our district. |