A quarter of the teachers at Lakewood Elementary are leaving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid goes to Lakewood and this thread is creeping me out. This morning I got an email from someone with a gmail address and access to all parent contacts (because I never signed up for the PTA.) Generally whenever I see a disclosure explaining “we’re not anti-LGBQT+ but…” it means the opposite. Considering the anti-black sentiment over the principal, I feel really concerned about what the hell is going on at that school. Here’s the text of the email:


Hello Lakewood Kindergarten Parents,

I am sure you have heard that lots of teachers and staff are leaving Lakewood.
Could you please take a few minutes out of your busy day today and let them know how much you appreciate them? Please send them a simple email stating your appreciation.

You may find your child's teacher and staff email address in the Lakewood Staff directory.
https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/lakewoodes/staff/directory/

It is important to send them a message today because they might not be here next year.

We are so sorry to hear that so many of our wonderful teachers and staff are leaving.
Sincerely,
Lakewood Momma Bear
Helping us all watchout for our young.

Momma bears are affectionate, protective, devoted, strict, sensitive and attentive with their young. Not unlike people, bears can be empathetic, fearful, joyful, playful, social and even altruistic. They're all individuals and have unique personalities.
Please NOTE: Momma Bear is NOT Anti-LGTBQ. Momma Bear simply wants all parents to know that they have the power to decide what material is appropriate to be exposed to their children (i.e. bear cubs).

This goes back to the lack of transparency from the school again. Alot of parents did not know that LGBTQ books are being introduced. The principal did not make it clear in any of her newsletters. In fact the only mention of it was a hidden link to slides presented at some obscure meeting. Whether you agree with it or not, this is a sensitive topic for some parents and they deserve to be notified in a more clear fashion. The newsletters from this administration has a lot of filler material that doesn't highlight major topics. At another elementary school, the principal took a different approach and went all in announcing the LGBTQ books in their news letters. Momma Bear's email had nothing defamatory, it literally just listed the books being introduced with YouTube links to the stories being read.

Ignore the racist trolls here and focus on the communication issues that's causing this strife.

The district released the information about the LGBTQ+ books to everyone. It wasn't "hidden". Mama bear and her cubs sound like loads of fun.

Right. I got that email as well a few months back, and there was misinformation that students could opt-out of reading the book and do an alternative lesson instead. I am similarly suspicious of Mama Bear and her use of Lakewood parent mailing list... but telling parents to write a nice note to their teachers is pretty innocuous. (I did.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The key here is the lack of transparency and communications. I came into this situation giving her the benefit of the doubt. I left that townhall with a sense that she has zero regard to parent's concerns for the future of their school. The community has definitely been fractured by her and now is filled with distrust, fear, and resentment. Sure, she may be green and need some mentorship. However, that comes at the cost of our kid's education while at Lakewood. So far she has shown zero interest in attempting to understand/addressing the parent's concerns. Should our kids pay the price for her ignorance while she learns how to be a better principal? Also being green, she should be listening more than talking/acting in this new community where she has no ties.

As others have stated in this thread, there's a right way and a wrong way to promote anti-racism, equality and inclusivity. All of which I have zero problems with. Right now, she seems to have all of her focus and attention on 13% of her students while not including the other 87% of her students. Her Band Her Sounds is how the community feels right now. At the end of the day, yes, optics matter and how the community feels matters. Broad strokes on policies without parental engagement is not how you foster a unified school community.

How do you think rookie principals become experienced ones? More to the point, what makes LES so special that the precious snowflakes who attend the school should only get experienced administrators?

Someone's kids are going to get the new principal. Why not yours?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The key here is the lack of transparency and communications. I came into this situation giving her the benefit of the doubt. I left that townhall with a sense that she has zero regard to parent's concerns for the future of their school. The community has definitely been fractured by her and now is filled with distrust, fear, and resentment. Sure, she may be green and need some mentorship. However, that comes at the cost of our kid's education while at Lakewood. So far she has shown zero interest in attempting to understand/addressing the parent's concerns. Should our kids pay the price for her ignorance while she learns how to be a better principal? Also being green, she should be listening more than talking/acting in this new community where she has no ties.

As others have stated in this thread, there's a right way and a wrong way to promote anti-racism, equality and inclusivity. All of which I have zero problems with. Right now, she seems to have all of her focus and attention on 13% of her students while not including the other 87% of her students. Her Band Her Sounds is how the community feels right now. At the end of the day, yes, optics matter and how the community feels matters. Broad strokes on policies without parental engagement is not how you foster a unified school community.

How do you think rookie principals become experienced ones? More to the point, what makes LES so special that the precious snowflakes who attend the school should only get experienced administrators?

Someone's kids are going to get the new principal. Why not yours?

Rookie + lack transparency/communication + tone deaf to teachers and parents + making big policy changes without asking for input + … the list goes on. LES is not special but just extremely unlucky. Yeah you can say someone’s kids are going to be unlucky. Why not Lakewood? But why can’t Lakewood ask for better principal? Why such person becomes principal? Is she really fit for the principle job as one year of service destroyed a stable school and a quarter of teachers are fleeing?

[Anonymous]

The problem is an inexperienced principal coming in with sweeping changes that drove out the teachers that made this school great. A lot more consultations with the teachers and staff who've been here for 20 years and the parents before enacting sweeping reforms would be a start. She goes about this with an arrogant attitude that she knows better and your issues are none of her concern. That's the biggest problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, I really don't think parents are going to get what they want here because nothing I've seen described in this thread goes outside the purview of a principal within their own school.

Moving teachers between grade levels, choosing to departmentalize (or not) certain grades, stating that she wants to take an anti-racist approach, being a Black woman in a plurality Asian American school.

None of those are things that MCPS is going to fire someone for, even if they did a bad job communicating, because the last thing MCPS wants is parents rising up and demanding a principal be replaced every time an administrator makes a decision that parents disagree with.

Maybe these are not reasons to fire a principal. But these are enough reasons for MCPS administration to take actions and ask her to change her working style with teachers, students and parents. Keep antagonizing the community by ignoring their complaints will not end up well.

Yes!! We would love to have a collaborative community with open communication between admin, teachers, parents and students. I know Dr. Kelly is big on cultural competency; why not consult with the PTA about how to best communicate with the unique populations at this school? The Black National Anthem thing is an example. Lift Every Voice and Sing is not a "national anthem," but I can see how not giving more context about it could be confusing for the (many, MANY) immigrant parents where at Lakewood who are not familiar with the history of American racial inequities.

I genuinely think most parents at Lakewood are very much on board with her anti-racist agenda and curriculum, but because of language and cultural barriers, don't always understand what she is trying achieve. Lakewood has a high Asian population, right? Well, education about the civil rights movement and Black history could benefit from something like talking about the Yellow Peril Supports Black Panthers movement, as an example of allyship between Asian and Black people in the US. It could absolutely become something collaborative and more engaging for the unique population here. Otherwise it becomes kind of, "okay, Black history, cool... but what does that have to do with me? My parents came here like 10 years ago."

Seriously it really doesn’t have much to do with race. It has to do with how she handled the relationship with teachers, students and parents, and also MCPS administration’s unwillingness to listen to parents. I don’t know why some posters kept muddying the water by talking about Blacks and Asians. It’s not about that at all.

Actually since Dr. Kelly makes it about race, it does have to do with race. If she came in emphasizing the school and students well being, it would only be about her poor communication, collaboration and management styles.

Looking into it, Clarksburg High, which also has a popular and well liked principal that is Black, does have a mission statement that includes anti racism and equity in it's message:

To provide a quality evolving education that ensures success for every student through teaching and learning.

Clarksburg High School’s Race and Equity Pledge

We will act with a mindset of high expectations for all students and call attention to and eliminate patterns of inequity and racial bias in student outcomes.

Staff will take personal and institutional responsibility for the success of their students, and critically reassess their own practices. Our promise also requires that staff are race-conscious community members who support anti-racist policies and ideas through their actions and/or words and are aware of the social and historical context of exclusionary practices in our school.

We will nurture a community that values our inherent diversity while holding each individual responsible to a collective good.

This is our promise to our staff, students, parents, and community.

So seeing that, maybe Dr. Kelly's mission isn't that out of the norm. But the makeup of Clarksburg High and Lakewood are different. So some context and making sure in being careful on how it might be taken would've helped. No one knew where she was coming from.

It doesn't help that in the meeting a Black family stood up and tried to tell everyone to calm down and that the things were happening was normal. Families already knew the teacher's point of view and wanted that time for a moment of transparency from Dr. Kelly's point of view. So already didn't trust Michelle Shultz and Dr. Kelly because teachers were telling them things otherwise. And the family standing up for Dr. Kelly looked like it was done for Black solidarity sowing further racial disharmony in the community.

An example of good transparency, is that Dr. Kelly did mention how with one of the leaving staff members it was inappropriate to go to student homes during the weekend. Thinking about it, besides the excellent child and classroom management, probably due to years of experience, one of the reasons why one of the leaving teachers was so valued was because they always went above and beyond, in a somewhat Freedom Writerish kind of way, saying "My kids need me...". It has crossed my mind before that they often broke a lot of union contract rules in doing what they did. So I'm always kind of careful in mentioning why we appreciate them so much because don't want anything to come back to them. So maybe Dr. Kelly decided that she couldn't have someone in her staff going rogue like that. Although I will say that if I recall correctly one of the reasons why the principal at Clarksburg High was lauded back when he was at Shady Grove Middle School was that he made to sure to pay in person home visits to students. So one person gets applauded for it and the other seeing it as a negative thing? But that's besides the point.

I don't know what people thought of Lakewood's environment previously. But I see Dr. Kelly as fracturing the community and causing disharmony. For example:

-With the Lift Every Voice and Sing issue at the graduation ceremony, that was an opportunity for Dr. Kelly to share and teach many a wonderful and uplifting song that may mean a lot to her. But instead it was seen as her attacking and fighting back and that moment was looked at with suspicion

-during the graduation ceremony, people would kind of look sideways at Black families and wonder if they saw their issues with Dr. Kelly as them being racist. Then should they overcompensate by making sure to cheer for all the Black students? Did they support Dr. Kelly? And do they only support her because she's Black?

-having questions if she's attacking the community or being hostile. Going back to the song from the graduation ceremony. Or during the townhall meeting, I wasn't online and couldn't see but there some comments like "Wow look how angry she looks" But maybe she was just honestly just being silent waiting for responses. But the relationship is so broken that's how things are misconstrued.

-and then in general, are Dr. Kelly's plans and actions for the sake of the students and their education or is it for the sake of diversity and equity?

Looking at things a little bit more, I'm willing to say that a lot of issues are due to Dr. Kelly's inexperience and being tone deaf. But I'm also suspicious of her motives and see her actions as causing issues in the community rather than uniting it.

Ehh... I don't know if I agree with this perspective. Dr. Kelly is not a mind reader, perhaps she lacks cultural competency (in not realizing that the unique demographics of Lakewood might mean that we don't all have the same background understanding of racial dynamics in the US, so that, yes, we will need some context) but you are almost expecting her to be able to anticipate how people will react to every little nuance? It would be more generous of us to give her some grace. When the complaints are about "we felt..." or "we feel..." or "we didn't know..." well, it's not a strong point to argue from. How is "she looks angry" a legitimate criticism? Is she not also allowed to have feelings? To be fair, when you have angry parents shouting at you and telling you that you have "devastated the community," that is some pretty harsh feedback. I would be upset too!

It would be just as easy for Dr. Kelly to turn this around and say, "well, look at how ignorant this community is. They thought I was trying to attack them just by playing a song! This obviously means that they NEED this anti-racist agenda more than anything, I should absolutely stay this course." As an outsider, reading your post, making points like this make it seem like you are choosing to interpret her every action in only the most negative way. What's that famous saying? "Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by incompetence"?

Relationships go two ways. We can argue the relationship between admin and parents is broken now, but I wonder if we have tried attracting flies with honey instead of vinegar. The fact of the matter is, 10 of our best teachers at Lakewood are leaving, and no amount of haranguing Dr. Kelly is going to make them come back. Like, they've signed contracts at other schools, gotten new jobs, switched careers, whatever. Our goal is to prevent other good teachers from leaving. Our goal is to have input in the new teachers who are replacing the ones who are leaving, because, well, we care about the quality of our children's education!! The more adversarial we make this relationship, the more the administration can and will use it as a reason to shut parents out.

Another issue about making it a race issue is the optics. For example, you brought up the other Black family who defended Dr. Kelly. Why are you invalidating how they feel about Lakewood? Perhaps they really do feel positively about it, and it's not just a matter of Black solidarity. I actually do know this family, and they are active members and supporters of the school. Did you read the results of the anti-racist survey? I did. I do see that Black families surveyed at Lakewood feel that they are not as supported as other ethnic groups. So to them, perhaps their perspective is, "hey, Lakewood wasn't that great for us, perhaps these new policies set in place by this Principal, who arguably understands the Black experience in US better than the previous Principal, will be the change that we needed." That viewpoint is very valid as well.

Looking at the last names of the people who attended this meeting... it's mostly Asian and white. Nobody is going to read past the headline and first paragraph in the Washington Post, which will basically come down to: affluent white and Asian parents are bullying the new Black principal because she pushes an anti-racist agenda. Obviously it's an oversimplification of the situation, but nobody is going to turn to page 3 and read about the teacher turnover rate, departmentalization, discipline issues, etc etc. And I hate to say it, but in a blue county like MoCo, white people are hyperconscious about coming across as racist. (Go to a comedy show and see who laughs during racial jokes... white people always look around first before they start laughing.) If we let this become about race, we will absolutely lose support that we cannot afford to lose.

Dr. Kelly is data-driven, and that works to her benefit because she can point to studies and hard numbers and say, "look at this, this is actual results, this is not about feelings." So we need to take the same approach. We are worried about the educational quality of the school. We're against teacher reassignments, because it poses an undue burden on the teachers, who are already stressed and already overworked, and we want to support the teachers. But like Michelle Schultze said, it is within Dr. Kelly's purview to assign teachers to new grades, and Central office will not support the parents in this case -- not just because they probably really don't GAF, but because they also want to cover their butts, and don't want any openings for it to be said, "look at the systemic racism in the system, this Black principal is struggling with these entitled, affluent parents, but she's not even getting backup from her superiors! How terrible, all she's trying to do is to educate."

What we can do, as parents, is to critically examine what happens when these changes are implemented at Lakewood. If they are truly bad changes, like resulting test scores dropping, or increased discipline problems, we can point these out and use that data to argue our point. Being brutally honest, this will be hard for me as well -- as a Lakewood parent, I've been pretty complacent. I felt confident in the teachers and the educational quality at Lakewood, which meant that I didn't need to be terribly involved, just some classroom volunteering every now and then. I don't feel that confidence now. But the fact of the matter is, students with active, involved parents are the most successful ones, and in an situation where I cannot rely on others to ensure my childrens' educational success, then I have to be the one to step up and ensure it, and that may mean I have to be more active in the PTA, or establish new lines of communication with the teachers so I can learn how better to support them, or maybe just become that annoying activist parent, because it's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease.

Perfectly said.
- Parent of Lakewood

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The key here is the lack of transparency and communications. I came into this situation giving her the benefit of the doubt. I left that townhall with a sense that she has zero regard to parent's concerns for the future of their school. The community has definitely been fractured by her and now is filled with distrust, fear, and resentment. Sure, she may be green and need some mentorship. However, that comes at the cost of our kid's education while at Lakewood. So far she has shown zero interest in attempting to understand/addressing the parent's concerns. Should our kids pay the price for her ignorance while she learns how to be a better principal? Also being green, she should be listening more than talking/acting in this new community where she has no ties.

As others have stated in this thread, there's a right way and a wrong way to promote anti-racism, equality and inclusivity. All of which I have zero problems with. Right now, she seems to have all of her focus and attention on 13% of her students while not including the other 87% of her students. Her Band Her Sounds is how the community feels right now. At the end of the day, yes, optics matter and how the community feels matters. Broad strokes on policies without parental engagement is not how you foster a unified school community.

I hate that I am becoming a Dr. Kelly apologist, but let's look at how the data breaks down by race. These stats are from 2019. https://www.greatschools.org/maryland/rockville/915-Lakewood-Elementary-School/#Race_ethnicity*Academic_Progress_Rating

For math, 91% of Asian students meet or exceed state proficiency requirements for math. Those figures are 79% for white students and 64% for Black students.

For English, those stats are 89% for Asian students, 64% for white students, and 55% for Black students.

Lakewood is regarded as a good school at least in part based on its strong test scores. Do you think Dr. Kelly is going to look at these stats and say, "eh. Our overall average is really high, and all cohorts exceed the state average. Let's just coast then."? Or do you think she is looking for places where we can improve? (Because, remember, how she is evaluated as a Principal is directly related to whether or not she is making effective changes.) But how will she get improvement, without focusing on certain groups and making changes to how they are taught?

The MSDE report on the state teacher workforce linked a few pages back also talks about the importance of diversity in teaching on page 41:

Significance of Matching Effects in Education
• “For both Black and Hispanic students, we find consistent evidence that increased diversity amongst teachers and broader sets of school professionals benefits test-score performance, and—in several instances—also leads to improved school behaviors.”

• “Increased shares of same-race/ethnicity professionals result in increased test scores, and decreased suspensions and absences for Black and Hispanic students. We also find that exposure to nonWhite school staff leads to improved outcomes for these students, whether or not they are from the same racial/ethnic group.

It basically boils down to, there isn't much room for improvement for the Asian kids, so they're just not going to be prioritized. Not that the correct approach would be to neglect them and assume that being a model minority means they will automatically be high achievers. But! I did say earlier, that students with active and involved parents are usually the ones that are most academically successful. If I don't feel that I can trust the school administration to ensure my child's academic success, again, it is on me to step up. Have you read every email from Lakewood? (I'll be honest, I haven't. Probably over half of them just get deleted, unread.) Do you volunteer in your kids classroom? Have you developed a relationship with your child's teacher? If you haven't, I encourage you to reach out and see how you can support these teachers. It might could be the difference between them continuing to stay, or choosing to join the exodus of teachers from Lakewood.

Don't forget, you have the option of voting with your feet. Move to another school or district, go private, or homeschool. (Me, I refinanced at 2.65% during COVID, so I'm not moving.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also remember with me calling out that family, I was calling them out on saying that the changes are normal and to be expected. The same reasons why people don't believe Dr. Kelly or Michelle Shultz in saying that the type of turnover in staff was normal. We know those changes aren't normal and is why people want answers.

Not that family's feelings on their experience in Lakewood.

That is not what she said. She said that her family had a good year due to the teachers, students and community, along with Principal Kelly’s leadership. She asked for a “positive and collaborative” way forward.

I also know this very active and kind family and do not believe the comment was in solidarity with the principal, but in solidarity with the community at large.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The key here is the lack of transparency and communications. I came into this situation giving her the benefit of the doubt. I left that townhall with a sense that she has zero regard to parent's concerns for the future of their school. The community has definitely been fractured by her and now is filled with distrust, fear, and resentment. Sure, she may be green and need some mentorship. However, that comes at the cost of our kid's education while at Lakewood. So far she has shown zero interest in attempting to understand/addressing the parent's concerns. Should our kids pay the price for her ignorance while she learns how to be a better principal? Also being green, she should be listening more than talking/acting in this new community where she has no ties.

As others have stated in this thread, there's a right way and a wrong way to promote anti-racism, equality and inclusivity. All of which I have zero problems with. Right now, she seems to have all of her focus and attention on 13% of her students while not including the other 87% of her students. Her Band Her Sounds is how the community feels right now. At the end of the day, yes, optics matter and how the community feels matters. Broad strokes on policies without parental engagement is not how you foster a unified school community.

I hate that I am becoming a Dr. Kelly apologist, but let's look at how the data breaks down by race. These stats are from 2019. https://www.greatschools.org/maryland/rockville/915-Lakewood-Elementary-School/#Race_ethnicity*Academic_Progress_Rating

For math, 91% of Asian students meet or exceed state proficiency requirements for math. Those figures are 79% for white students and 64% for Black students.

For English, those stats are 89% for Asian students, 64% for white students, and 55% for Black students.

Lakewood is regarded as a good school at least in part based on its strong test scores. Do you think Dr. Kelly is going to look at these stats and say, "eh. Our overall average is really high, and all cohorts exceed the state average. Let's just coast then."? Or do you think she is looking for places where we can improve? (Because, remember, how she is evaluated as a Principal is directly related to whether or not she is making effective changes.) But how will she get improvement, without focusing on certain groups and making changes to how they are taught?

The MSDE report on the state teacher workforce linked a few pages back also talks about the importance of diversity in teaching on page 41:

Significance of Matching Effects in Education
• “For both Black and Hispanic students, we find consistent evidence that increased diversity amongst teachers and broader sets of school professionals benefits test-score performance, and—in several instances—also leads to improved school behaviors.”

• “Increased shares of same-race/ethnicity professionals result in increased test scores, and decreased suspensions and absences for Black and Hispanic students. We also find that exposure to nonWhite school staff leads to improved outcomes for these students, whether or not they are from the same racial/ethnic group.

It basically boils down to, there isn't much room for improvement for the Asian kids, so they're just not going to be prioritized. Not that the correct approach would be to neglect them and assume that being a model minority means they will automatically be high achievers. But! I did say earlier, that students with active and involved parents are usually the ones that are most academically successful. If I don't feel that I can trust the school administration to ensure my child's academic success, again, it is on me to step up. Have you read every email from Lakewood? (I'll be honest, I haven't. Probably over half of them just get deleted, unread.) Do you volunteer in your kids classroom? Have you developed a relationship with your child's teacher? If you haven't, I encourage you to reach out and see how you can support these teachers. It might could be the difference between them continuing to stay, or choosing to join the exodus of teachers from Lakewood.

Don't forget, you have the option of voting with your feet. Move to another school or district, go private, or homeschool. (Me, I refinanced at 2.65% during COVID, so I'm not moving.)

Congratulations on the refinance at 2.65%. This made me chuckle. We’re staying too and getting more involved to help things move in a more positive direction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Congratulations on the refinance at 2.65%. This made me chuckle. We’re staying too and getting more involved to help things move in a more positive direction.

I too have been too complacent and will get more involved to ensure there is accountability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, I really don't think parents are going to get what they want here because nothing I've seen described in this thread goes outside the purview of a principal within their own school.

Moving teachers between grade levels, choosing to departmentalize (or not) certain grades, stating that she wants to take an anti-racist approach, being a Black woman in a plurality Asian American school.

None of those are things that MCPS is going to fire someone for, even if they did a bad job communicating, because the last thing MCPS wants is parents rising up and demanding a principal be replaced every time an administrator makes a decision that parents disagree with.

Maybe these are not reasons to fire a principal. But these are enough reasons for MCPS administration to take actions and ask her to change her working style with teachers, students and parents. Keep antagonizing the community by ignoring their complaints will not end up well.

Yes!! We would love to have a collaborative community with open communication between admin, teachers, parents and students. I know Dr. Kelly is big on cultural competency; why not consult with the PTA about how to best communicate with the unique populations at this school? The Black National Anthem thing is an example. Lift Every Voice and Sing is not a "national anthem," but I can see how not giving more context about it could be confusing for the (many, MANY) immigrant parents where at Lakewood who are not familiar with the history of American racial inequities.

I genuinely think most parents at Lakewood are very much on board with her anti-racist agenda and curriculum, but because of language and cultural barriers, don't always understand what she is trying achieve. Lakewood has a high Asian population, right? Well, education about the civil rights movement and Black history could benefit from something like talking about the Yellow Peril Supports Black Panthers movement, as an example of allyship between Asian and Black people in the US. It could absolutely become something collaborative and more engaging for the unique population here. Otherwise it becomes kind of, "okay, Black history, cool... but what does that have to do with me? My parents came here like 10 years ago."

Seriously it really doesn’t have much to do with race. It has to do with how she handled the relationship with teachers, students and parents, and also MCPS administration’s unwillingness to listen to parents. I don’t know why some posters kept muddying the water by talking about Blacks and Asians. It’s not about that at all.

Actually since Dr. Kelly makes it about race, it does have to do with race. If she came in emphasizing the school and students well being, it would only be about her poor communication, collaboration and management styles.

Looking into it, Clarksburg High, which also has a popular and well liked principal that is Black, does have a mission statement that includes anti racism and equity in it's message:

To provide a quality evolving education that ensures success for every student through teaching and learning.

Clarksburg High School’s Race and Equity Pledge

We will act with a mindset of high expectations for all students and call attention to and eliminate patterns of inequity and racial bias in student outcomes.

Staff will take personal and institutional responsibility for the success of their students, and critically reassess their own practices. Our promise also requires that staff are race-conscious community members who support anti-racist policies and ideas through their actions and/or words and are aware of the social and historical context of exclusionary practices in our school.

We will nurture a community that values our inherent diversity while holding each individual responsible to a collective good.

This is our promise to our staff, students, parents, and community.

So seeing that, maybe Dr. Kelly's mission isn't that out of the norm. But the makeup of Clarksburg High and Lakewood are different. So some context and making sure in being careful on how it might be taken would've helped. No one knew where she was coming from.

It doesn't help that in the meeting a Black family stood up and tried to tell everyone to calm down and that the things were happening was normal. Families already knew the teacher's point of view and wanted that time for a moment of transparency from Dr. Kelly's point of view. So already didn't trust Michelle Shultz and Dr. Kelly because teachers were telling them things otherwise. And the family standing up for Dr. Kelly looked like it was done for Black solidarity sowing further racial disharmony in the community.

An example of good transparency, is that Dr. Kelly did mention how with one of the leaving staff members it was inappropriate to go to student homes during the weekend. Thinking about it, besides the excellent child and classroom management, probably due to years of experience, one of the reasons why one of the leaving teachers was so valued was because they always went above and beyond, in a somewhat Freedom Writerish kind of way, saying "My kids need me...". It has crossed my mind before that they often broke a lot of union contract rules in doing what they did. So I'm always kind of careful in mentioning why we appreciate them so much because don't want anything to come back to them. So maybe Dr. Kelly decided that she couldn't have someone in her staff going rogue like that. Although I will say that if I recall correctly one of the reasons why the principal at Clarksburg High was lauded back when he was at Shady Grove Middle School was that he made to sure to pay in person home visits to students. So one person gets applauded for it and the other seeing it as a negative thing? But that's besides the point.

I don't know what people thought of Lakewood's environment previously. But I see Dr. Kelly as fracturing the community and causing disharmony. For example:

-With the Lift Every Voice and Sing issue at the graduation ceremony, that was an opportunity for Dr. Kelly to share and teach many a wonderful and uplifting song that may mean a lot to her. But instead it was seen as her attacking and fighting back and that moment was looked at with suspicion

-during the graduation ceremony, people would kind of look sideways at Black families and wonder if they saw their issues with Dr. Kelly as them being racist. Then should they overcompensate by making sure to cheer for all the Black students? Did they support Dr. Kelly? And do they only support her because she's Black?

-having questions if she's attacking the community or being hostile. Going back to the song from the graduation ceremony. Or during the townhall meeting, I wasn't online and couldn't see but there some comments like "Wow look how angry she looks" But maybe she was just honestly just being silent waiting for responses. But the relationship is so broken that's how things are misconstrued.

-and then in general, are Dr. Kelly's plans and actions for the sake of the students and their education or is it for the sake of diversity and equity?

Looking at things a little bit more, I'm willing to say that a lot of issues are due to Dr. Kelly's inexperience and being tone deaf. But I'm also suspicious of her motives and see her actions as causing issues in the community rather than uniting it.

I couldn’t imagine being a Black family in this environment under these circumstances. First, they cannot voice a point of view without it being “in solidarity” with the principal.

THEN they have to be side eyed at a graduation ceremony for what, being a Black parent? Interesting.

I’ll give the benefit of the doubt here that this is a tiny extreme portion of the community taking advantage of an anonymous forum and not a true representation of the treatment and view of Black families at Lakewood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, I really don't think parents are going to get what they want here because nothing I've seen described in this thread goes outside the purview of a principal within their own school.

Moving teachers between grade levels, choosing to departmentalize (or not) certain grades, stating that she wants to take an anti-racist approach, being a Black woman in a plurality Asian American school.

None of those are things that MCPS is going to fire someone for, even if they did a bad job communicating, because the last thing MCPS wants is parents rising up and demanding a principal be replaced every time an administrator makes a decision that parents disagree with.

Maybe these are not reasons to fire a principal. But these are enough reasons for MCPS administration to take actions and ask her to change her working style with teachers, students and parents. Keep antagonizing the community by ignoring their complaints will not end up well.

Yes!! We would love to have a collaborative community with open communication between admin, teachers, parents and students. I know Dr. Kelly is big on cultural competency; why not consult with the PTA about how to best communicate with the unique populations at this school? The Black National Anthem thing is an example. Lift Every Voice and Sing is not a "national anthem," but I can see how not giving more context about it could be confusing for the (many, MANY) immigrant parents where at Lakewood who are not familiar with the history of American racial inequities.

I genuinely think most parents at Lakewood are very much on board with her anti-racist agenda and curriculum, but because of language and cultural barriers, don't always understand what she is trying achieve. Lakewood has a high Asian population, right? Well, education about the civil rights movement and Black history could benefit from something like talking about the Yellow Peril Supports Black Panthers movement, as an example of allyship between Asian and Black people in the US. It could absolutely become something collaborative and more engaging for the unique population here. Otherwise it becomes kind of, "okay, Black history, cool... but what does that have to do with me? My parents came here like 10 years ago."

Seriously it really doesn’t have much to do with race. It has to do with how she handled the relationship with teachers, students and parents, and also MCPS administration’s unwillingness to listen to parents. I don’t know why some posters kept muddying the water by talking about Blacks and Asians. It’s not about that at all.

Actually since Dr. Kelly makes it about race, it does have to do with race. If she came in emphasizing the school and students well being, it would only be about her poor communication, collaboration and management styles.

Looking into it, Clarksburg High, which also has a popular and well liked principal that is Black, does have a mission statement that includes anti racism and equity in it's message:

To provide a quality evolving education that ensures success for every student through teaching and learning.

Clarksburg High School’s Race and Equity Pledge

We will act with a mindset of high expectations for all students and call attention to and eliminate patterns of inequity and racial bias in student outcomes.

Staff will take personal and institutional responsibility for the success of their students, and critically reassess their own practices. Our promise also requires that staff are race-conscious community members who support anti-racist policies and ideas through their actions and/or words and are aware of the social and historical context of exclusionary practices in our school.

We will nurture a community that values our inherent diversity while holding each individual responsible to a collective good.

This is our promise to our staff, students, parents, and community.

So seeing that, maybe Dr. Kelly's mission isn't that out of the norm. But the makeup of Clarksburg High and Lakewood are different. So some context and making sure in being careful on how it might be taken would've helped. No one knew where she was coming from.

It doesn't help that in the meeting a Black family stood up and tried to tell everyone to calm down and that the things were happening was normal. Families already knew the teacher's point of view and wanted that time for a moment of transparency from Dr. Kelly's point of view. So already didn't trust Michelle Shultz and Dr. Kelly because teachers were telling them things otherwise. And the family standing up for Dr. Kelly looked like it was done for Black solidarity sowing further racial disharmony in the community.

An example of good transparency, is that Dr. Kelly did mention how with one of the leaving staff members it was inappropriate to go to student homes during the weekend. Thinking about it, besides the excellent child and classroom management, probably due to years of experience, one of the reasons why one of the leaving teachers was so valued was because they always went above and beyond, in a somewhat Freedom Writerish kind of way, saying "My kids need me...". It has crossed my mind before that they often broke a lot of union contract rules in doing what they did. So I'm always kind of careful in mentioning why we appreciate them so much because don't want anything to come back to them. So maybe Dr. Kelly decided that she couldn't have someone in her staff going rogue like that. Although I will say that if I recall correctly one of the reasons why the principal at Clarksburg High was lauded back when he was at Shady Grove Middle School was that he made to sure to pay in person home visits to students. So one person gets applauded for it and the other seeing it as a negative thing? But that's besides the point.

I don't know what people thought of Lakewood's environment previously. But I see Dr. Kelly as fracturing the community and causing disharmony. For example:

-With the Lift Every Voice and Sing issue at the graduation ceremony, that was an opportunity for Dr. Kelly to share and teach many a wonderful and uplifting song that may mean a lot to her. But instead it was seen as her attacking and fighting back and that moment was looked at with suspicion

-during the graduation ceremony, people would kind of look sideways at Black families and wonder if they saw their issues with Dr. Kelly as them being racist. Then should they overcompensate by making sure to cheer for all the Black students? Did they support Dr. Kelly? And do they only support her because she's Black?

-having questions if she's attacking the community or being hostile. Going back to the song from the graduation ceremony. Or during the townhall meeting, I wasn't online and couldn't see but there some comments like "Wow look how angry she looks" But maybe she was just honestly just being silent waiting for responses. But the relationship is so broken that's how things are misconstrued.

-and then in general, are Dr. Kelly's plans and actions for the sake of the students and their education or is it for the sake of diversity and equity?

Looking at things a little bit more, I'm willing to say that a lot of issues are due to Dr. Kelly's inexperience and being tone deaf. But I'm also suspicious of her motives and see her actions as causing issues in the community rather than uniting it.

I couldn’t imagine being a Black family in this environment under these circumstances. First, they cannot voice a point of view without it being “in solidarity” with the principal.

THEN they have to be side eyed at a graduation ceremony for what, being a Black parent? Interesting.

I’ll give the benefit of the doubt here that this is a tiny extreme portion of the community taking advantage of an anonymous forum and not a true representation of the treatment and view of Black families at Lakewood.

[Anonymous]

My family and I are one of the black families that were apparently being watched and being side eyed. Unfortunately, i do not feel that it is a tiny portion of the Lakewood community that is extreme, but instead a larger majority. It is interesting that since the last post calling these people extreme, an email was sent telling people to no longer post on this forum in order not to make it look like it's about race, when in fact the posts from the last week prove that it is indeed about race, Dr Kelly's and the "Black Families " that were being watched as they were enjoying their child 5th Grade Promotion ceremony race to be specific. I was at the school today for the 5th grade clap out, and spoke to 2 black mothers with children in 2nd and 3rd grade, and they both told me that they now feel uncomfortable keeping their children at Lakewood and are considering private schools. Black families at Lakewood feel ostracized and I suspect things will only get more toxic until these extremists get what they want, which is getting the principal out. My child is done with Lakewood, but the idea of continuing to deal with such people is giving me pause about going to Frost and has me thinking about private school. I read in one of the conversations that they started that they were going to "watch her like a hawk" and " scrutinize every decision she makes" in hopes that she will resign, as the process to make her be removed from her principal role may take a couple of years. Sadly, I cannot say that i did not see this coming when she was introduced as the new principal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My family and I are one of the black families that were apparently being watched and being side eyed. Unfortunately, i do not feel that it is a tiny portion of the Lakewood community that is extreme, but instead a larger majority. It is interesting that since the last post calling these people extreme, an email was sent telling people to no longer post on this forum in order not to make it look like it's about race, when in fact the posts from the last week prove that it is indeed about race, Dr Kelly's and the "Black Families " that were being watched as they were enjoying their child 5th Grade Promotion ceremony race to be specific. I was at the school today for the 5th grade clap out, and spoke to 2 black mothers with children in 2nd and 3rd grade, and they both told me that they now feel uncomfortable keeping their children at Lakewood and are considering private schools. Black families at Lakewood feel ostracized and I suspect things will only get more toxic until these extremists get what they want, which is getting the principal out. My child is done with Lakewood, but the idea of continuing to deal with such people is giving me pause about going to Frost and has me thinking about private school. I read in one of the conversations that they started that they were going to "watch her like a hawk" and " scrutinize every decision she makes" in hopes that she will resign, as the process to make her be removed from her principal role may take a couple of years. Sadly, I cannot say that i did not see this coming when she was introduced as the new principal.

Hello central office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My family and I are one of the black families that were apparently being watched and being side eyed. Unfortunately, i do not feel that it is a tiny portion of the Lakewood community that is extreme, but instead a larger majority. It is interesting that since the last post calling these people extreme, an email was sent telling people to no longer post on this forum in order not to make it look like it's about race, when in fact the posts from the last week prove that it is indeed about race, Dr Kelly's and the "Black Families " that were being watched as they were enjoying their child 5th Grade Promotion ceremony race to be specific. I was at the school today for the 5th grade clap out, and spoke to 2 black mothers with children in 2nd and 3rd grade, and they both told me that they now feel uncomfortable keeping their children at Lakewood and are considering private schools. Black families at Lakewood feel ostracized and I suspect things will only get more toxic until these extremists get what they want, which is getting the principal out. My child is done with Lakewood, but the idea of continuing to deal with such people is giving me pause about going to Frost and has me thinking about private school. I read in one of the conversations that they started that they were going to "watch her like a hawk" and " scrutinize every decision she makes" in hopes that she will resign, as the process to make her be removed from her principal role may take a couple of years. Sadly, I cannot say that i did not see this coming when she was introduced as the new principal.

Hello central office.

Probably Dr Kelly. Same language she uses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My family and I are one of the black families that were apparently being watched and being side eyed. Unfortunately, i do not feel that it is a tiny portion of the Lakewood community that is extreme, but instead a larger majority. It is interesting that since the last post calling these people extreme, an email was sent telling people to no longer post on this forum in order not to make it look like it's about race, when in fact the posts from the last week prove that it is indeed about race, Dr Kelly's and the "Black Families " that were being watched as they were enjoying their child 5th Grade Promotion ceremony race to be specific. I was at the school today for the 5th grade clap out, and spoke to 2 black mothers with children in 2nd and 3rd grade, and they both told me that they now feel uncomfortable keeping their children at Lakewood and are considering private schools. Black families at Lakewood feel ostracized and I suspect things will only get more toxic until these extremists get what they want, which is getting the principal out. My child is done with Lakewood, but the idea of continuing to deal with such people is giving me pause about going to Frost and has me thinking about private school. I read in one of the conversations that they started that they were going to "watch her like a hawk" and " scrutinize every decision she makes" in hopes that she will resign, as the process to make her be removed from her principal role may take a couple of years. Sadly, I cannot say that i did not see this coming when she was introduced as the new principal.

Were there people at the clap-out today? I got an email it was cancelled.