Haycock class changes
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Anonymous
| The principal is a gonner. At least I hope so. He has been terrible. |
Anonymous
Epic. I'm not a Haycock parent but if all this is true, this video should be shared as a "How NOT to roll out change" on YouTube. What terrible leadership. Sounds like the dude got zero buy-in, came hard and fast at this meeting, and faced a BRICK WALL of parent opposition. And the teachers obviously feel emboldened (if I'm reading that right that they were indignantly opposed to what the principal was trying to sell) by the parent support. Fascinating... |
Anonymous
Epic. I'm not a Haycock parent but if all this is true, this video should be shared as a "How NOT to roll out change" on YouTube. What terrible leadership. Sounds like the dude got zero buy-in, came hard and fast at this meeting, and faced a BRICK WALL of parent opposition. And the teachers obviously feel emboldened (if I'm reading that right that they were indignantly opposed to what the principal was trying to sell) by the parent support. Fascinating... I was there tonight. It was what you'd expect. Some parents were able to present themselves like rational adults, some parents behaved worse then their children. I thought the videotaping was childish, holding up your smartphone while everyone was talking. We're supposed to be adults, not teenagers filming fights. That aside, the best testimonial of the night came from one of the teachers themselves, which I thought was awfully brave considering the principal was right there. He does clearly need to do more to earn the trust of his staff. I thought the best point made by a parent was that the principal was citing data that combined observations from something like 800 schools and studies, averaging out gains made by a different style of learning. What was not brought up is that Haycock is an exceptional school, and would likely be at the far right of any curve involving a sampling of 800 elementary schools. And lest anyone think this is Haycock snobbery, I think this could be said about many elementary schools in northern Virginia. So why drag us back to the average. A great point, I thought. I wish some folks could have behaved themselves a little better, but I suppose it is to be expected given the sensitive subject matter. I thought the PTA president, Nic, did an excellent job of moderating and getting things back on track when needed. She'll be missed. |
Anonymous
| Agreed. The study that was seemingly the basis for everything was a terrible study and also presented terribly by that unqualified person. It did seem like she read a book by this guy who ran a study once that didn’t correlate to anything and now should be gospel. Very odd. The school, any school, shouldn’t be using the middle to guide its trajectory and operations, moreso for high performing schools. And the admin led off with the idea that Haycock was a high performing school. Then followed with the study of what makes an average school average. |
Anonymous
| The presentation by the admin team was too long! It should be limited to 15-20 minutes and then let the discussions begin. |
Anonymous
While I agree they went on too long without making compelling points, the presentation also completely lacked context. He should have started with some history of WHY they were considering a change. He may have tried to do that with the "what we want Haycock to do" slide but instead of letting those points speak for themselves, he jumped right into how moving away from departmentalization would help. The administration was asked several times why they considered a change in the first place and was not able to give a compelling answer. My other takeaways - the most disturbing part of the whole evening was the teacher saying how low morale is and that this was the straw that broke the camel's back. I do think the teachers felt supported by the parents but we (teachers and parents) needed to hear some concrete measures to improve morale beyond "I'll send a survey to the teachers about departmentalization". Related: I don't see a path forward to Mr. Donnelly regaining trust and improving morale. I'm not sure how he can possibly stay at the school but maybe I'm wrong. Also related: I wonder how the woman from the central office will report back. Feels like FCPS need to be taking the concerns of parents and teachers very seriously and considering a leadership change at the school. |
Anonymous
I was there tonight. It was what you'd expect. Some parents were able to present themselves like rational adults, some parents behaved worse then their children. I thought the videotaping was childish, holding up your smartphone while everyone was talking. We're supposed to be adults, not teenagers filming fights. That aside, the best testimonial of the night came from one of the teachers themselves, which I thought was awfully brave considering the principal was right there. He does clearly need to do more to earn the trust of his staff. I thought the best point made by a parent was that the principal was citing data that combined observations from something like 800 schools and studies, averaging out gains made by a different style of learning. What was not brought up is that Haycock is an exceptional school, and would likely be at the far right of any curve involving a sampling of 800 elementary schools. And lest anyone think this is Haycock snobbery, I think this could be said about many elementary schools in northern Virginia. So why drag us back to the average. A great point, I thought. I wish some folks could have behaved themselves a little better, but I suppose it is to be expected given the sensitive subject matter. I thought the PTA president, Nic, did an excellent job of moderating and getting things back on track when needed. She'll be missed. Actually that was exactly almost word for word what that parent said - that he'd moved here specifically because the school is exceptional and is concerned about a change that will move us back to the middle. I hope that teacher didn't feel empowered to be brave because she has already made a decision to leave the school. Probably a high probability which sucks because I've heard good things about her. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
I'm the PP you quoted, and I apologize, I should have been more clear. What I meant was that this point wasn't brought up by the administration during their presentation. I still stand by my earlier point that several adults need to learn how to behave like the adults that they are. |
Anonymous
| Haycock parents sound kind of nuts. |
Anonymous
I agree. They sound like they want to have the ability to fire the principal, that they should be able to fire him. I can't imagine that FCPS wants to give them that power. |
Anonymous
Teachers must be nuts too then. Direct teacher quote was "Morale is really low and this was the straw that broke the camel's back." This obviously concerns parents. |
Anonymous
Out of curiosity, exactly what is it about returning to a more traditional elementary school classroom model that would so negatively impact teacher morale? It's not like teachers get to approve other policies that FCPS leadership adopts. As for JD's future, if enough parents tell Janie Strauss he's failing as a principal, he'll give notice by mid-summer. |
Anonymous
Two things - one is the workload associated with prepping for all subjects rather than one that the teacher specializes in. The much, MUCH bigger issues impacting morale is how this was rolled out without any input from the teachers and no opportunity to provide feedback. I.e., "We're changing the model and I don't want to hear anything from you." Sounds like that's been a pattern over the past 18 months of it and the teachers are tired of it. |
Anonymous
That's what principals do. That's the normal way changes are rolled out by principals. Teachers know this, even if parents don't. |