Oakridge Teacher Breakdowns

[Anonymous]

At Oakridge this year, there have been a few incidents of teachers verbally threatening kids, and one disturbing teacher-initiated physical interaction that was witnessed by parents and students. Emails were sent to parents of the relevant grade/classroom after all incidents. Is this happening at other APS elementary schools? Would like to think most teachers work very hard to avoid such incidents. Is this an indication that teachers lack support from their administration to deal with classroom behavior issues? Is the teacher:student ratio the issue? What are the stressors?

[Anonymous]

Where have you been? Oakridge is a hot mess and has been for years. Check out the previous threads on the principal. It’s a toxic work environment for most teachers.

[Anonymous]

Why won’t the county take action to fix the hot mess?

[Anonymous]

We had an incident at our school last year. The teacher ended up taking some medical leave and when she came back things were much better (and she is amazing this year). Her situation was outside stressors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why won’t the county take action to fix the hot mess?

There is often a cohort of students that consistently demonstrate behavioral issues and cause classroom disruptions. The schools (including Oakridge) will often not discipline or remove these students, instead choosing a "restorative justice" type of approach, which does nothing. The teachers and other students continue to have to deal with the disruptive kids. APS dealt with lawsuits in the past where it was shown that some demographic groups were disciplined more often than others. As a result, APS decided to stop disciplining. Voila -- the problem of inequitable discipline has disappeared.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why won’t the county take action to fix the hot mess?

What can they do? Nothing. Not since the whole "every student is entitled to an equal education" BS came about.

[Anonymous]

Oakridge is a mess. Seriously, it's a sh!t show. While the principal spends her time implementing draconian penitentiary-style disciplinary measures during lunchtime, she refuses to answer to the school's abysmal test scores, low teacher retention rates, failure to meet basic CKLA and SOL standards, the loss of the once-innovative expeditionary MOSAIC program (which is now just a de facto placeholder for her "Kindness program" b.s.), amongst many other issues. All while talking to parents in a fake, chipmunk voice no kindergartener deserves to be talked down to with. Whenever anyone expresses any concern about the direction the school is headed, she squeaks, "Don't worry! The kids are LEARNING! And they're KIND!" Gunston teachers would disagree, as they have expressed over and over that it's clear to them who the Oakridge kids are, because they are the least prepared of any area schools for middle school. I feel like I've failed my kid send them there. It's devastating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oakridge is a mess. Seriously, it's a sh!t show. While the principal spends her time implementing draconian penitentiary-style disciplinary measures during lunchtime, she refuses to answer to the school's abysmal test scores, low teacher retention rates, failure to meet basic CKLA and SOL standards, the loss of the once-innovative expeditionary MOSAIC program (which is now just a de facto placeholder for her "Kindness program" b.s.), amongst many other issues. All while talking to parents in a fake, chipmunk voice no kindergartener deserves to be talked down to with. Instead of addressing behavioral issues in a professional, intelligent way, she either implements a dictatorial rule that disenfranchises all students, or she doesn't deal with the behavior at all (or in some instances, insists that the victim of the bullying/assault apologize to their attacker, because ya know, that's her take on social justice.) Whenever anyone expresses any concern about the direction the school is headed, she squeaks, "Don't worry! The kids are LEARNING! And they're KIND!" Gunston teachers would disagree, as they have expressed over and over that it's clear to them who the Oakridge kids are, because they are the least prepared of any area schools for middle school. I feel like I've failed my kid send them there. It's devastating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oakridge is a mess. Seriously, it's a sh!t show. While the principal spends her time implementing draconian penitentiary-style disciplinary measures during lunchtime, she refuses to answer to the school's abysmal test scores, low teacher retention rates, failure to meet basic CKLA and SOL standards, the loss of the once-innovative expeditionary MOSAIC program (which is now just a de facto placeholder for her "Kindness program" b.s.), amongst many other issues. All while talking to parents in a fake, chipmunk voice no kindergartener deserves to be talked down to with. Whenever anyone expresses any concern about the direction the school is headed, she squeaks, "Don't worry! The kids are LEARNING! And they're KIND!" Gunston teachers would disagree, as they have expressed over and over that it's clear to them who the Oakridge kids are, because they are the least prepared of any area schools for middle school. I feel like I've failed my kid send them there. It's devastating.

The principal is absolutely the problem. She has no clue how to manage behaviors. She is either "la la la restorative justice" or screaming at kids, and that's what teachers have to do too. My kids were there before the pandemic and all the teachers were very sweet back then, but the principal has done a terrible job adjusting to post-pandemic behavioral issues. And now she has to be extremely stern because APS has gotten so many complaints about her.

Also, the audacity of her to spearhead a "kindness program!" Good grief. She is among the least kind people I know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why won’t the county take action to fix the hot mess?

What can they do? Nothing. Not since the whole "every student is entitled to an equal education" BS came about.

They have replaced principals. They could do it with her. I admit I don't know all the details, but Gunston, for instance, has a much better principal this year than it did in other years. I think that a lot of people are just fooled by her saccharine white savior act, so the county is reluctant to do anything. But if people keep complaining maybe things will change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why won’t the county take action to fix the hot mess?

What can they do? Nothing. Not since the whole "every student is entitled to an equal education" BS came about.

They have replaced principals. They could do it with her. I admit I don't know all the details, but Gunston, for instance, has a much better principal this year than it did in other years. I think that a lot of people are just fooled by her saccharine white savior act, so the county is reluctant to do anything. But if people keep complaining maybe things will change.

Yeah. They replace principals and send them to Syphax where they get paid to mess more stuff up. But at least she wouldn't be Oakridge's problem anymore

[Anonymous]

OP I think there is still time to apply for one of the option schools. If you can’t get it would seriously suggest moving. Maybe rent your place and find a rental. Oakridge is a terrible terrible school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why won’t the county take action to fix the hot mess?

There is often a cohort of students that consistently demonstrate behavioral issues and cause classroom disruptions. The schools (including Oakridge) will often not discipline or remove these students, instead choosing a "restorative justice" type of approach, which does nothing. The teachers and other students continue to have to deal with the disruptive kids. APS dealt with lawsuits in the past where it was shown that some demographic groups were disciplined more often than others. As a result, APS decided to stop disciplining. Voila -- the problem of inequitable discipline has disappeared.

This is absolutely true. But the situation is greatly exacerbated by the leadership problems at the school. All schools have to deal with a lack of serious consequences in APS (often in the name of “equity”), but not all of them turn into hot messes like this.

I’m curious about the lunchtime consequences, though. Whuuuut??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why won’t the county take action to fix the hot mess?

What can they do? Nothing. Not since the whole "every student is entitled to an equal education" BS came about.

They have replaced principals. They could do it with her. I admit I don't know all the details, but Gunston, for instance, has a much better principal this year than it did in other years. I think that a lot of people are just fooled by her saccharine white savior act, so the county is reluctant to do anything. But if people keep complaining maybe things will change.

She was a fave of Coach Murphy, and that seemed to be what was protecting her job in the PKM years. Don’t know how aware Duran is of the situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oakridge is a mess. Seriously, it's a sh!t show. While the principal spends her time implementing draconian penitentiary-style disciplinary measures during lunchtime, she refuses to answer to the school's abysmal test scores, low teacher retention rates, failure to meet basic CKLA and SOL standards, the loss of the once-innovative expeditionary MOSAIC program (which is now just a de facto placeholder for her "Kindness program" b.s.), amongst many other issues. All while talking to parents in a fake, chipmunk voice no kindergartener deserves to be talked down to with. Whenever anyone expresses any concern about the direction the school is headed, she squeaks, "Don't worry! The kids are LEARNING! And they're KIND!" Gunston teachers would disagree, as they have expressed over and over that it's clear to them who the Oakridge kids are, because they are the least prepared of any area schools for middle school. I feel like I've failed my kid send them there. It's devastating.

The principal is absolutely the problem. She has no clue how to manage behaviors. She is either "la la la restorative justice" or screaming at kids, and that's what teachers have to do too. My kids were there before the pandemic and all the teachers were very sweet back then, but the principal has done a terrible job adjusting to post-pandemic behavioral issues. And now she has to be extremely stern because APS has gotten so many complaints about her.

Also, the audacity of her to spearhead a "kindness program!" Good grief. She is among the least kind people I know.

Don’t forget screaming at adults too. Very serious anger management issues.