ED at TR

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm also interested in hearing about this.

We are doing the lottery this year for MS and considering putting down TR. But I'm really concerned about what I'm hearing in terms of the lack of leadership (and abyssmal leadership under former ED) from friends who recently left TR.

TR middle school is in major, major chaos.

Can you be more specific?

It's been a hard year at the middle school, based on the information they are sharing with elementary families. They had a not insignificant number of teacher vacancies -- that's not an issue unique to TR, but obviously that was causing issues both for students and teachers. It sounds like teachers are very unhappy, as the interim ED announced to the entire network that they are contracting with a neutral third party to initiate a query into staff complaints and perceptions into "recent workplace concerns expressed by Middle School staff." Shortly before break they announced that they were pulling one of the elementary school Spanish teachers from 4th Street to take a lead role on an initiative called the "One Crew, One Continuous Journey" designed to "rebuild the culture" in the Middle School. He's working with several other staff, and one of the things they did was decide to stagger the start of middle school after winter break (only 8th grade for the first two days, then adding 7th on the 3rd and 6th on the 4th) in order to "allow for an intensive reset of all daily routines and ways of engaging with other students and adults in the building."

We have been at TR since our kids were small, but our oldest child left for 5th this year because we didn't feel confident about the TR Middle School path -- suffice to say, reading the information being released to us has made us very relieved we made that call.

So to clarify: did the 8th graders return from winter break early, or did the 7th and 6th graders lose out on learning days?! How infuriating for MS students to miss out on school days for this nonsensical reason, not to mention a significant burden for parents.

I also understand that a number of ES teachers quit midyear.

We left TR this year after several years of an educational experience that fell short on so many levels--from the previous ED's refusal to re-open for in-person learning (wasn't that to placate the teachers? Funny how that didn't work out) to overall mistrust of leadership. We joined with other parents to try and raise concerns about behavior (specifically bullying) and the ED's performance, but were shocked at the number of parents who expressed support but failed to do so in any meaningful way. I sure hope parents are pushing back now.

They were losing instruction time daily due to general chaos. This was a way to reset. I don't think they did it lightly, rather, it shows both desperation but also a commitment to do better, if you ask me.

NP here—our kids are at TRY ES; it’s a complete abdication of their roles of educators, and places an undue burden on parents.
We won’t be staying for MS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm also interested in hearing about this.

We are doing the lottery this year for MS and considering putting down TR. But I'm really concerned about what I'm hearing in terms of the lack of leadership (and abyssmal leadership under former ED) from friends who recently left TR.

TR middle school is in major, major chaos.

Can you be more specific?

It's been a hard year at the middle school, based on the information they are sharing with elementary families. They had a not insignificant number of teacher vacancies -- that's not an issue unique to TR, but obviously that was causing issues both for students and teachers. It sounds like teachers are very unhappy, as the interim ED announced to the entire network that they are contracting with a neutral third party to initiate a query into staff complaints and perceptions into "recent workplace concerns expressed by Middle School staff." Shortly before break they announced that they were pulling one of the elementary school Spanish teachers from 4th Street to take a lead role on an initiative called the "One Crew, One Continuous Journey" designed to "rebuild the culture" in the Middle School. He's working with several other staff, and one of the things they did was decide to stagger the start of middle school after winter break (only 8th grade for the first two days, then adding 7th on the 3rd and 6th on the 4th) in order to "allow for an intensive reset of all daily routines and ways of engaging with other students and adults in the building."

We have been at TR since our kids were small, but our oldest child left for 5th this year because we didn't feel confident about the TR Middle School path -- suffice to say, reading the information being released to us has made us very relieved we made that call.

So to clarify: did the 8th graders return from winter break early, or did the 7th and 6th graders lose out on learning days?! How infuriating for MS students to miss out on school days for this nonsensical reason, not to mention a significant burden for parents.

I also understand that a number of ES teachers quit midyear.

We left TR this year after several years of an educational experience that fell short on so many levels--from the previous ED's refusal to re-open for in-person learning (wasn't that to placate the teachers? Funny how that didn't work out) to overall mistrust of leadership. We joined with other parents to try and raise concerns about behavior (specifically bullying) and the ED's performance, but were shocked at the number of parents who expressed support but failed to do so in any meaningful way. I sure hope parents are pushing back now.

They were losing instruction time daily due to general chaos. This was a way to reset. I don't think they did it lightly, rather, it shows both desperation but also a commitment to do better, if you ask me.

“Reset”?! Give me a break. How was this intended to significantly improve the situation?

Never change, TR.

[Anonymous]

As others have said, I wish the Board of Directors had fired the former ED. At least it would have illustrated some sort of leadership, stewardship and understanding of her failures and downward trajectory of the school. Sadly, they retained her. She left of her own volition.

If the members of the BoD had any integrity or sense of shame they'd resign. They are an embarrassment and clearly not fit to lead a darn thing.

Signed,
Former TR parent who escaped because it was not hard to see this all coming

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aurora Steinle is the interim ED. She has a history of affiliation with the school, although I can’t remember how - maybe the Board?

We (a longtime TR family) were honestly thrilled when we heard the previous ED was leaving. Things are fine under the interim ED - at least at a minimum we don’t feel like we are being misled by this one.

She was the chief of staff. She's an ed policy person, not a teacher/educator. (not that it's necessarily a bad thing, just an FYI)

To add some context, she's a bureaucrat. She's not a leader of anything.

I think TR will not exist in 8 years.

[Anonymous]

LT just got a kid leaving 2R mid-year. It’s actually (at least) the third one since school started. Maybe this is why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As others have said, I wish the Board of Directors had fired the former ED. At least it would have illustrated some sort of leadership, stewardship and understanding of her failures and downward trajectory of the school. Sadly, they retained her. She left of her own volition.

If the members of the BoD had any integrity or sense of shame they'd resign. They are an embarrassment and clearly not fit to lead a darn thing.

Signed,
Former TR parent who escaped because it was not hard to see this all coming

+100 same here.

[Anonymous]

Any current families on here planning to leave? Trying to figure out how bad it is going to get - and whether to leave. Or if things are just as bad elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any current families on here planning to leave? Trying to figure out how bad it is going to get - and whether to leave. Or if things are just as bad elsewhere.

Every family who can escape will.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any current families on here planning to leave? Trying to figure out how bad it is going to get - and whether to leave. Or if things are just as bad elsewhere.

Every family who can escape will.

Both campuses?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any current families on here planning to leave? Trying to figure out how bad it is going to get - and whether to leave. Or if things are just as bad elsewhere.

Every family who can escape will.

This definitely seemed true at TRY after 4th grade this year; I think nearly half the grade left for other charters, privates, moves...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aurora Steinle is the interim ED. She has a history of affiliation with the school, although I can’t remember how - maybe the Board?

We (a longtime TR family) were honestly thrilled when we heard the previous ED was leaving. Things are fine under the interim ED - at least at a minimum we don’t feel like we are being misled by this one.

She was the chief of staff. She's an ed policy person, not a teacher/educator. (not that it's necessarily a bad thing, just an FYI)

She's an upgrade from the ED that just left. She's smart and trying to steady the ship.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any current families on here planning to leave? Trying to figure out how bad it is going to get - and whether to leave. Or if things are just as bad elsewhere.

Every family who can escape will.

It depends on what your other option is - chaos is EVERYWHERE in the teaching profession right now and you have to have a better option where the management is good enough to stem the outflow of teachers (and get a spot there).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aurora Steinle is the interim ED. She has a history of affiliation with the school, although I can’t remember how - maybe the Board?

We (a longtime TR family) were honestly thrilled when we heard the previous ED was leaving. Things are fine under the interim ED - at least at a minimum we don’t feel like we are being misled by this one.

She was the chief of staff. She's an ed policy person, not a teacher/educator. (not that it's necessarily a bad thing, just an FYI)

To add some context, she's a bureaucrat. She's not a leader of anything.

I think TR will not exist in 8 years.

Many of the HoS, principals, and EDs are stuffed shirts with two years of teaching and a masters in "educational leadership." TR isn't unique in that respect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aurora Steinle is the interim ED. She has a history of affiliation with the school, although I can’t remember how - maybe the Board?

We (a longtime TR family) were honestly thrilled when we heard the previous ED was leaving. Things are fine under the interim ED - at least at a minimum we don’t feel like we are being misled by this one.

She was the chief of staff. She's an ed policy person, not a teacher/educator. (not that it's necessarily a bad thing, just an FYI)

To add some context, she's a bureaucrat. She's not a leader of anything.

I think TR will not exist in 8 years.

Many of the HoS, principals, and EDs are stuffed shirts with two years of teaching and a masters in "educational leadership." TR isn't unique in that respect.

Which likely explains the complete lack of acknowledgment re: behavioral problems. It's easier and more fun to focus on philosophies (community! social justice!).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aurora Steinle is the interim ED. She has a history of affiliation with the school, although I can’t remember how - maybe the Board?

We (a longtime TR family) were honestly thrilled when we heard the previous ED was leaving. Things are fine under the interim ED - at least at a minimum we don’t feel like we are being misled by this one.

She was the chief of staff. She's an ed policy person, not a teacher/educator. (not that it's necessarily a bad thing, just an FYI)

To add some context, she's a bureaucrat. She's not a leader of anything.

I think TR will not exist in 8 years.

Many of the HoS, principals, and EDs are stuffed shirts with two years of teaching and a masters in "educational leadership." TR isn't unique in that respect.

TR was unique. The ED was a young AA woman who was "supervised" by a largely white Board. She wielded phrases like "equity" as a weapon to control them. To have asserted themselves would have exposed them to accusations of racism, and this Board suffers from the worst kind of liberal guilt; they'd rather have the ship go down than be accused of racism. In a field filed with stuffed shirts, she was unique. Years from now they will use her school facing comms as examples of how to say nothing in 5000 words.

Pedagogy matters in ECE. When you get to 3rd grade and up it is time to learn and manage classrooms. Hip phrases and philosophies don't really matter at that point.