Annandale Band Director Claims Racism

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately, we can only hear this guy’s version as the school is not able to share about personnel matters. Teachers are really difficult to hire right now, and there’s a lot that mediocre teachers can get away with simply because there are so few qualified candidates to replace them. In other words, he really had to be awful for administrators to go through this process. My educated guess is that the decision to non-renew was not done lightly and without specific evidence.

There's more to it than that.

My oldest is now 18 and going to college. I've seen really crappy teachers stay their entire career, and excellent teachers get pushed out. My son's English teacher lasted a year, even though she was the best writing teacher he ever had. My son's AP calculus teacher and my daughter's science teacher have been teaching at their respective schools for years, and basically do the lesson by rote, with minimal effort and no motivation or inspiration, and fly under the radar because they've been there a long time and have a system for admin work.

This teacher might be a great teacher, you never know.

Those other teachers had tenure. Bit, as for the teacher who left after one year: was she fired? maybe she was not certified or there were other issues. Do you know if she went to another school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately, we can only hear this guy’s version as the school is not able to share about personnel matters. Teachers are really difficult to hire right now, and there’s a lot that mediocre teachers can get away with simply because there are so few qualified candidates to replace them. In other words, he really had to be awful for administrators to go through this process. My educated guess is that the decision to non-renew was not done lightly and without specific evidence.

There's more to it than that.

My oldest is now 18 and going to college. I've seen really crappy teachers stay their entire career, and excellent teachers get pushed out. My son's English teacher lasted a year, even though she was the best writing teacher he ever had. My son's AP calculus teacher and my daughter's science teacher have been teaching at their respective schools for years, and basically do the lesson by rote, with minimal effort and no motivation or inspiration, and fly under the radar because they've been there a long time and have a system for admin work.

This teacher might be a great teacher, you never know.

And there's a greater probability that he wasn't. Sure, it's possible he was great. But we don't know. As for your kid's English teacher, you have no idea why she's not teaching there anymore. Maybe she moved to be closer to home or realized she could make more money doing something else. Maybe she said or did something inappropriate with a student. You don't know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Madison band director is known to be very rough on kids during practices but he got congratulated for the band’s success, not canned. But there may have been other things going on at Annandale.

As someone who had a kid in Madison marching band, that occured to me when reading this story, too. The things the Annandale director did are EXACTLY what the Madison director does, but people at Madison are okay with the competitive, band-is-everything attitude because they want the trophies (and the overall environment is pretty high-stress/high achieving so band doesn't stand out in that regard.) If I believed that complaining about how the band director treated students would have changed things, I would have done it, although I think this situation sounds pretty fishy and definitely deserves looking into, if for no other reason than it seems procedures weren't followed correctly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Madison band director is known to be very rough on kids during practices but he got congratulated for the band’s success, not canned. But there may have been other things going on at Annandale.

As someone who had a kid in Madison marching band, that occured to me when reading this story, too. The things the Annandale director did are EXACTLY what the Madison director does, but people at Madison are okay with the competitive, band-is-everything attitude because they want the trophies (and the overall environment is pretty high-stress/high achieving so band doesn't stand out in that regard.) If I believed that complaining about how the band director treated students would have changed things, I would have done it, although I think this situation sounds pretty fishy and definitely deserves looking into, if for no other reason than it seems procedures weren't followed correctly.

WTH are you even basing this on? One teacher's version of events? Do you know anything about FCPS evaluation policies? If this guy was in his first three years, the bar to remove a teacher through the evaluation process is relatively easy within some very tight deadlines & procedures. Shawn DeRose wouldn't have been able to move forward with a dismissal without following everything to the letter.

[Anonymous]

That’s a shit ton of words about a personnel matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The article said that the year before he received an effective rating. 31 out of 40. I know nothing about how FCPS rates teachers, but 31 out of 40 does not seem very high to me.
Could some teachers weigh in on this?

There is likely a lot on both sides of this issue that we do not know.

The fact that a glorified Drivers Ed teacher was allowed to perform an evaluation on a band director shows how out of touch the teacher evaluation system is.

[Anonymous]

WTH are you even basing this on? One teacher's version of events? Do you know anything about FCPS evaluation policies? If this guy was in his first three years, the bar to remove a teacher through the evaluation process is relatively easy within some very tight deadlines & procedures. Shawn DeRose wouldn't have been able to move forward with a dismissal without following everything to the letter.

I know none of the parties involved, but I agree with this statement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our band director used to yell. She was a jerk. But, she also got results.

Band directors are known to yell and to throw things (batons, chairs). I noted that this band director came from Texas where the caliber of bands is, for whatever reason, higher than here in Virginia. So he was aiming higher than the kids were used to, got good results, but ruffled some feathers. And got fired for it. So the band will go back to being not very good. And parents will be happy.

SMH

[Anonymous]

I think in general people like softer teachers these days. I just see it as a style that parents weren't going well for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Annandale HS band director has claimed he was unjustly terminated from his position due to racism.

https://wtop.com/fairfax-county/2023/06/fairfax-co-band-director-says-there-was-a-coordinated-effort-to-get-him-fired-parents-are-outraged/

Ironically, if a student made such claims there would be a whole reporting process under the new equity policy, but one suspects any such claims by an employee will be met with FCPS’s typical litigation defense.

The guy posted a lot of very narcissistic stuff on Instagram, and he has made a bunch of heavy-handed comments about how white parents at Annandale (how many are even left there) are out to get him, but I do feel sorry for teachers who get solid ratings one year only to see their ratings tank the next year when there’s a change in supervisors (Annandale had appointed a new head of student activities). I thought Shawn DeRose was one of those principals who walked on water - which is why Ricardy Anderson and Fabio Zuluaga made sure he was appointed principal of AHS - but he doesn’t seem to have mediated this situated well at all. And now the usual folks such as Sujatha Hampton of the NAACP are demanding an investigation by FCPS.

You've got to have a big ego to be a band director or other professional musician.

[Anonymous]

The guy posted a lot of very narcissistic stuff on Instagram, and he has made a bunch of heavy-handed comments about how white parents at Annandale (how many are even left there) are out to get him, but I do feel sorry for teachers who get solid ratings one year only to see their ratings tank the next year when there’s a change in supervisors (Annandale had appointed a new head of student activities). I thought Shawn DeRose was one of those principals who walked on water - which is why Ricardy Anderson and Fabio Zuluaga made sure he was appointed principal of AHS - but he doesn’t seem to have mediated this situated well at all. And now the usual folks such as Sujatha Hampton of the NAACP are demanding an investigation by FCPS.

Was he making comments like these before he was fired?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately, we can only hear this guy’s version as the school is not able to share about personnel matters. Teachers are really difficult to hire right now, and there’s a lot that mediocre teachers can get away with simply because there are so few qualified candidates to replace them. In other words, he really had to be awful for administrators to go through this process. My educated guess is that the decision to non-renew was not done lightly and without specific evidence.

High School band positions are coveted in FCPS. There are many elementary and middle school teachers who have aspirations to teach at the HS level. I disagree in this case that there are few qualified candidates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The article said that the year before he received an effective rating. 31 out of 40. I know nothing about how FCPS rates teachers, but 31 out of 40 does not seem very high to me.
Could some teachers weigh in on this?

There is likely a lot on both sides of this issue that we do not know.

The higher numbers are ranked as “highly effective.” FCPS doesn’t give highly effective to a lot of new teachers (to the county or profession). They want to show growth.

[Anonymous]

There has to be more to this story. It's not ok to scream and yell, but being strict with a large group of kids is not a bad thing and probably needed. We've had lots of activities, including music and you need strict and structured, especially for music but one issue we see in MS/HS band is the lack of teaching and kids need to know the instrument or be in private music lessons to be successful as in ES they teach individual instruments but not in MS/HS so many kids struggle.

[Anonymous]

He very much makes race a factor in everything he does and says on his facebook page and that would make me uncomfortable as a parent as I'd worry about racial bias against my child. I also don't like how many pictures he posts of students, but maybe he has their permission. I would be pissed to find him posting pictures of my child without permission. There has to be more to the story.