Springbrook HS Staff Letter
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Anonymous
No one will be demoted. Taylor is not a change agent. Look at the cast of characters who were all rehired despite failures, negative feedback, etc.: https://mocoshow.com/2025/03/18/six-administrative-appointments-approved-by-board-of-education/ Expect more of the same from MCPS. |
Anonymous
She is not the only MCPS HS principal who does this. It appears to be the playbook for all of them. |
Anonymous
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18 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: 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 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. 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 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
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And to think that MCCPTA Awarded Principal Valentine Principal of the Year last year and the former PTSA President Heinz Weverink cringingly referred to her publicly as "The Chosen One"....
Too many PTSAs in MCPS have a toxic, co-dependent relationship with their principals where they allow themselves to be manipulated and lied to by the principal as opposed to be a group focused on advocating for parents, students and staff. Disgusting. |
Anonymous
| I stand in solidarity with the brave Springbrook staff who documented and called Principal Valentine's toxic behavior out. Sadly, Principal Valentine is one of MANY badly behaving principals in MCPS who promoted and celebrated despite the documented harm, incompetence and misdeeds they inflict on parents, students and staff. |
Anonymous
She only taught for two years and is a principal? Huge red flag to begin with…. I thought principals positions were difficult to obtain. Good work, MCPS. |
Anonymous
| MCPS is a joke. This principal should never have become a leader. She is failing the school, the students, the parents, and the teachers. GET RID OF HER! |
Anonymous
| I speak out all the time about the toxic admin leadership at my previous school. I had a gym teacher admin trying to tell me how to teach content and his minions rt and consultant teacher seemed to be all there to document how bad the teacher was - everyone bury their heads when violence, weapons, racist graffiti, n words being dropped hundreds of times every day, as well as grade fudging to give unlimited second chances and no rigor or structure or actual support. It's all to have evidence to fire teachers from the moment they start. It's a clear systemic conflict of interest with admin just following the pathetic status quo of apathy. |
Anonymous
| She only cares about herself. Last year, students created an IG page where they were posting their concerns about Valentine and the school’s inability to keep students safe (due to the bomb threat, several non-school related people entering the school building and wandering around, the gun brought to school). Valentine made it her mission to call down every student who was following that IG page and terrified those kids into telling her who it was. She forced the student to delete the page and never once showed any interest in making this school safer for students. |
Anonymous
Gotta protect the MCPS "brand." |
Anonymous
No. MCPS boarddocs shows she taught for 7 years, then was a counselor for 6 years, then a resource teacher for 2 years before becoming an AP. |
Anonymous
| Right. She only taught for two years. In the 90s. |
Anonymous
| Look carefully at the board docs. They do not say she taught for seven years. At all. |
Anonymous
This is what it says: 2006–2008 Resource Teacher, Springbrook High School 2000–2006 Counselor, Springbrook High School 1998–2000 Art Teacher, Springbrook High School 1995–1998 Art Teacher, Duval High School, Prince George’s County Public Schools, Lanham, MD 1993–1995 Interdisciplinary Teacher, Seat Pleasant Elementary School, Prince George’s County Public Schools, Seat Pleasant, MD |
Anonymous
With all respect, just to clarify: 1. An interdisciplinary elementary school teacher is a play on words - this is her first ‘practice’ gig in education. Before that all of her education and experience is in fashion retail. 2. A counselor is not a teacher. They are very important! But not teachers. 3. As an RT, she would’ve only taught two classes. Let’s just say all these things are debatable - what’s NOT debatable is that she hasn’t been in the classroom for 25 years. Notice how quickly she goes from position to position. It’s indicative of someone simply climbing the ladder, not someone with a passion for kids. |