Shake Up at SSMA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find it fascinating that OSSE has required that people who work in daycares are required to have college degrees - but the person who is interacting with children for a dedicated amount of time each day at a school is not required to have similar education experience.

That's the beauty of charter schools for the people running them. It's like your own little fiefdom where the strictest rules don't apply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of this back and forth on Shining Stars being disorganized has made me decide to post here.

The school has three jobs up on the AMS website, one of the first places where Montessori teachers go to find jobs. And Shining Stars is not representing itself well at all. Look at the formatting of these jobs:

https://amshq.org/Impak/Content/Job-Detail?jobid=21016
https://amshq.org/Impak/Content/Job-Detail?jobid=21147
https://amshq.org/Impak/Content/Job-Detail?jobid=21148

Who posted these? There are no paragraphs. It's so unreadable this way that it's basically gibberish.

Look, I know a lot of people on here have been tearing the school down. But Shining Stars has some pretty good guides. That's my experience at least.

So if a bunch of guides are leaving, the school needs to recruit top caliber replacements. But it can't recruit anyone this way. It's embarrassing.

SSMA Admin: I hope you're reading this. PLEASE fix those ads. It makes the school look disorganized and a place where people won't want to work.

Please contact the school about this instead of assuming they’ll get the message from an anonymous message board.

You don't criticize anything admin does at Shining Stars if you know what's good for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of this back and forth on Shining Stars being disorganized has made me decide to post here.

The school has three jobs up on the AMS website, one of the first places where Montessori teachers go to find jobs. And Shining Stars is not representing itself well at all. Look at the formatting of these jobs:

https://amshq.org/Impak/Content/Job-Detail?jobid=21016
https://amshq.org/Impak/Content/Job-Detail?jobid=21147
https://amshq.org/Impak/Content/Job-Detail?jobid=21148

Who posted these? There are no paragraphs. It's so unreadable this way that it's basically gibberish.

Look, I know a lot of people on here have been tearing the school down. But Shining Stars has some pretty good guides. That's my experience at least.

So if a bunch of guides are leaving, the school needs to recruit top caliber replacements. But it can't recruit anyone this way. It's embarrassing.

SSMA Admin: I hope you're reading this. PLEASE fix those ads. It makes the school look disorganized and a place where people won't want to work.

One more thing to SSMA Admin. PLEASE change the education requirement from "High School" to "Bachelor's Degree". You won't get good candidates otherwise.

Also notice the start date is 8/1/2108 for the first job placement. That's WAAAY into the future. The second one doesn't even have a start date. No attention to detail

These job placements speak volumes about admin at Shining Stars.

[Anonymous]

Non- SSMA parent (but on the WL) thinks that is seems like there are many lovely things happening on the Facebook page, at least by the photos. So the admin sucks, is it impacting the kids?

(I am really worried about the payroll thing if that is for real)

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]Non- SSMA parent (but on the WL) thinks that is seems like there are many lovely things happening on the Facebook page, at least by the photos. So the admin sucks, is it impacting the kids?

(I am really worried about the payroll thing if that is for real)[/quote]

Montessori has children with the same teacher for three years. So a good guide is important. And the SSMA guides for PK3, PK4 and kindergarten have been good. I can’t speak to elementary.

Having said that, Montessori is also about self discovery as a way of learning. And the guide follows the child, guiding her gently as appropriate. So it makes for a great learning environment where kids want to learn. I think the kids have done well academically despite the chaos. And test scores just came in and were good. So the kids are doing ok.

The emotional attachment to teachers is strong though, because they are with kids for three years. And so when kids found out their teacher was leaving, they cried. Kids liked the principal too. And when she left, many kids asked about her. So this has been hard emotionally on kids, needlessly so. Small children need a stable school environment with a consistent routine. I don’t think the ED appreciates this because she lacks experience with small children.

Right now things are just unstable at Shining Stars. principal. The payroll snafu is just a symptom of that. I blame the ED, particularly how she handled the

[Anonymous]

That last part should have read: “The payroll snafu is just a symptom of that. I blame the ED, particularly how she handled the principal.”

[Anonymous]

Can anyone report if the tangle was untangled and the teachers indeed got paid today? I know that the guides are one level, but many of the support staff are likely dependent on payday happening... on time

[Anonymous]

Vendors come and go at SSMA as they do not get paid with regularity and have the option to terminate their services with SSMA. I wonder if the guides have been having payment issues as long as some of the vendors

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Vendors come and go at SSMA as they do not get paid with regularity and have the option to terminate their services with SSMA. I wonder if the guides have been having payment issues as long as some of the vendors

If I read this correctly, your suggesting the payroll vendor didn't get paid and so they didn't execute payroll. This seems like one plausible reason people didn't get paid. For example, a couple of months ago, everyone at Shining Stars got a letter from their CareFirst that Shining Stars wasn't paying their portion of healthcare.

The letter read: "This notice is to inform you that your health insurance provided by Shining Stars Monetssori Academy PCS through DC Health Link may be terminated due to non-payment by your employer." I was scared until I found out everyone at SSMA got the same letter. But still...

See, the ED has to go in and personally approve all payments to vendors. And for some reason or another, she always stalls and never pays on time. Vendors get sick of that and stop working with Shining Stars. My guess is that this is just another sign of the ED's disorganization. She should just let someone else do this, if she can't get it done on time. People depend on these payments. But she wants control of everything.

For me, it's stuff like this that makes it clear the board at Shining Stars isn't doing its job or they would have stepped in.

Don't be fooled by the new grievance process either. No one in her right mind will use it because it will put a target on their back. Because the SSMA board won't do anything and the Charter Board won't do anything either, the only thing parents and staff can do is go public and shame SSMA into making the right changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vendors come and go at SSMA as they do not get paid with regularity and have the option to terminate their services with SSMA. I wonder if the guides have been having payment issues as long as some of the vendors

If I read this correctly, your suggesting the payroll vendor didn't get paid and so they didn't execute payroll. This seems like one plausible reason people didn't get paid. For example, a couple of months ago, everyone at Shining Stars got a letter from their CareFirst that Shining Stars wasn't paying their portion of healthcare.

The letter read: "This notice is to inform you that your health insurance provided by Shining Stars Monetssori Academy PCS through DC Health Link may be terminated due to non-payment by your employer." I was scared until I found out everyone at SSMA got the same letter. But still...

See, the ED has to go in and personally approve all payments to vendors. And for some reason or another, she always stalls and never pays on time. Vendors get sick of that and stop working with Shining Stars. My guess is that this is just another sign of the ED's disorganization. She should just let someone else do this, if she can't get it done on time. People depend on these payments. But she wants control of everything.

For me, it's stuff like this that makes it clear the board at Shining Stars isn't doing its job or they would have stepped in.

Don't be fooled by the new grievance process either. No one in her right mind will use it because it will put a target on their back. Because the SSMA board won't do anything and the Charter Board won't do anything either, the only thing parents and staff can do is go public and shame SSMA into making the right changes.

The shocking thing is there are two parents (and one grandparent) on SSMA's board. Don't they want the best for their (grand)children? Forcing good Montessori guides to leave the school because of a culture of fear and total disorganization won't get them that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SSMA is a sinking ship as long as the ED is around making personal rather than professional decisions, as long as the Board continues to be her rubber stamp, and as long as the staff has few other viable options. It’s toxic.

This thread is so depressing.

How is it that so many people know that Shining Stars is a toxic work environment, yet nobody does anything about it? Was it always this bad or has the principal's leaving made it like this?

Yes, it is really depressing. This was the 3rd principal in 4 years so we were used to principals leaving (and hoping - maybe foolishly - that there were not deeper issues). But, the WAY that and the timing of the principal being fired was shocking and made parents start asking questions, talking to teachers/staff (who were shocked as well and it seemed needed to start telling parents more about the leadership of the school). What's more depressing is that the ED answers to the school's board, the school board answers to the charter school board. The charter school board only cares about advancing charter schools - so unless someone has done something illegal they are happy to let things continue as is. When the school's board responded to the PTO's questions/concerns with accusations of bullying and harassment, and threatening to get rid of the PTO, that's when parents should have begun looking for alternatives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SSMA is a sinking ship as long as the ED is around making personal rather than professional decisions, as long as the Board continues to be her rubber stamp, and as long as the staff has few other viable options. It’s toxic.

This thread is so depressing.

How is it that so many people know that Shining Stars is a toxic work environment, yet nobody does anything about it? Was it always this bad or has the principal's leaving made it like this?

Yes, it is really depressing. This was the 3rd principal in 4 years so we were used to principals leaving (and hoping - maybe foolishly - that there were not deeper issues). But, the WAY that and the timing of the principal being fired was shocking and made parents start asking questions, talking to teachers/staff (who were shocked as well and it seemed needed to start telling parents more about the leadership of the school). What's more depressing is that the ED answers to the school's board, the school board answers to the charter school board. The charter school board only cares about advancing charter schools - so unless someone has done something illegal they are happy to let things continue as is. When the school's board responded to the PTO's questions/concerns with accusations of bullying and harassment, and threatening to get rid of the PTO, that's when parents should have begun looking for alternatives.

It's so weird to me that the DCPCSB thinks the way to advance charter schools is to do no oversight and allow them to flail and fail in a publicly humiliating manner. Wouldn't it be in the best interest of the movement generally to have some quality control? There is so little transparency that it's hard for parents to provide effective oversight, so if the DCPCSB doesn't do it, who will?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SSMA is a sinking ship as long as the ED is around making personal rather than professional decisions, as long as the Board continues to be her rubber stamp, and as long as the staff has few other viable options. It’s toxic.

This thread is so depressing.

How is it that so many people know that Shining Stars is a toxic work environment, yet nobody does anything about it? Was it always this bad or has the principal's leaving made it like this?

Yes, it is really depressing. This was the 3rd principal in 4 years so we were used to principals leaving (and hoping - maybe foolishly - that there were not deeper issues). But, the WAY that and the timing of the principal being fired was shocking and made parents start asking questions, talking to teachers/staff (who were shocked as well and it seemed needed to start telling parents more about the leadership of the school). What's more depressing is that the ED answers to the school's board, the school board answers to the charter school board. The charter school board only cares about advancing charter schools - so unless someone has done something illegal they are happy to let things continue as is. When the school's board responded to the PTO's questions/concerns with accusations of bullying and harassment, and threatening to get rid of the PTO, that's when parents should have begun looking for alternatives.

It's so weird to me that the DCPCSB thinks the way to advance charter schools is to do no oversight and allow them to flail and fail in a publicly humiliating manner. Wouldn't it be in the best interest of the movement generally to have some quality control? There is so little transparency that it's hard for parents to provide effective oversight, so if the DCPCSB doesn't do it, who will?

It is a feature, not a bug of the original DC charter law. The PCSB has very limited power once a school is up and operating, unless a school fails to make academic progress or if there is financial mismanagement or bankruptcy. They have the most leverage and power when a school is authorized to open, and when a charter is up for renewal. But even then they have to make decisions based on finances and academic performance.

They can talk to schools about management issues, but they cannot force things to change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SSMA is a sinking ship as long as the ED is around making personal rather than professional decisions, as long as the Board continues to be her rubber stamp, and as long as the staff has few other viable options. It’s toxic.

This thread is so depressing.

How is it that so many people know that Shining Stars is a toxic work environment, yet nobody does anything about it? Was it always this bad or has the principal's leaving made it like this?

Yes, it is really depressing. This was the 3rd principal in 4 years so we were used to principals leaving (and hoping - maybe foolishly - that there were not deeper issues). But, the WAY that and the timing of the principal being fired was shocking and made parents start asking questions, talking to teachers/staff (who were shocked as well and it seemed needed to start telling parents more about the leadership of the school). What's more depressing is that the ED answers to the school's board, the school board answers to the charter school board. The charter school board only cares about advancing charter schools - so unless someone has done something illegal they are happy to let things continue as is. When the school's board responded to the PTO's questions/concerns with accusations of bullying and harassment, and threatening to get rid of the PTO, that's when parents should have begun looking for alternatives.

It's so weird to me that the DCPCSB thinks the way to advance charter schools is to do no oversight and allow them to flail and fail in a publicly humiliating manner. Wouldn't it be in the best interest of the movement generally to have some quality control? There is so little transparency that it's hard for parents to provide effective oversight, so if the DCPCSB doesn't do it, who will?

It is a feature, not a bug of the original DC charter law. The PCSB has very limited power once a school is up and operating, unless a school fails to make academic progress or if there is financial mismanagement or bankruptcy. They have the most leverage and power when a school is authorized to open, and when a charter is up for renewal. But even then they have to make decisions based on finances and academic performance.

They can talk to schools about management issues, but they cannot force things to change.

But it seems like they aren't even bothering to talk with them very much. And the change in contract disclosure from $25,000 to $100,000 served to reduce their own ability to conduct oversight. I'm not really a conspiracy theorist or against charters or anything, but it seems like they are not really trying very hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SSMA is a sinking ship as long as the ED is around making personal rather than professional decisions, as long as the Board continues to be her rubber stamp, and as long as the staff has few other viable options. It’s toxic.

This thread is so depressing.

How is it that so many people know that Shining Stars is a toxic work environment, yet nobody does anything about it? Was it always this bad or has the principal's leaving made it like this?

Yes, it is really depressing. This was the 3rd principal in 4 years so we were used to principals leaving (and hoping - maybe foolishly - that there were not deeper issues). But, the WAY that and the timing of the principal being fired was shocking and made parents start asking questions, talking to teachers/staff (who were shocked as well and it seemed needed to start telling parents more about the leadership of the school). What's more depressing is that the ED answers to the school's board, the school board answers to the charter school board. The charter school board only cares about advancing charter schools - so unless someone has done something illegal they are happy to let things continue as is. When the school's board responded to the PTO's questions/concerns with accusations of bullying and harassment, and threatening to get rid of the PTO, that's when parents should have begun looking for alternatives.

It's so weird to me that the DCPCSB thinks the way to advance charter schools is to do no oversight and allow them to flail and fail in a publicly humiliating manner. Wouldn't it be in the best interest of the movement generally to have some quality control? There is so little transparency that it's hard for parents to provide effective oversight, so if the DCPCSB doesn't do it, who will?

It is a feature, not a bug of the original DC charter law. The PCSB has very limited power once a school is up and operating, unless a school fails to make academic progress or if there is financial mismanagement or bankruptcy. They have the most leverage and power when a school is authorized to open, and when a charter is up for renewal. But even then they have to make decisions based on finances and academic performance.

They can talk to schools about management issues, but they cannot force things to change.

But it seems like they aren't even bothering to talk with them very much. And the change in contract disclosure from $25,000 to $100,000 served to reduce their own ability to conduct oversight. I'm not really a conspiracy theorist or against charters or anything, but it seems like they are not really trying very hard.

Well, I think they were genuinely embarrased about the WMST high school thing. Appropriately so.