Shake Up at SSMA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's what's happening at SSMA. The ED is a control freak who starting in the Fall of 2017 instituted a draconian time card system for all employees, drastically reduced autonomy for her direct reports and created an environment of intimidation and fear among the staff.

She has fired a number of staff members, some for minor incidents, as a show of force to intimidate the remaining staff. I don't expect good teachers to remain n that climate.

I have no idea why the sudden change. But staff morale has suffered. And with the firing of the Principal, it is is really, really bad. Most of the teachers liked the Principal. They had petitioned to get rid of the previous one. And so they saw a real positive change at SSMA with the new one. She was really hands-on, friendly and quick to respond. All of that changed with the new controlling system.

As for the ED, she really lacks interpersonal skills, knows almost none of the students, hardly goes into classrooms, goes to almost no school functions but has virtually no oversight from the board. As the saying goes, a fish rots from the head down.

So the best case scenario is the Board and ED are replaced and a new ED is hired. Than reform begins in the key areas of staffing and instruction among others. Man, that's a big job. A lot of people think they can work in education. Not that easy. SSMA may be looking at 3 years until really stable.

I am more optimistic than that. But only if we see change. The last Principal was good. She wasn't just a warm and friendly personality but someone who helped recruit strong Guides to the school. Someone told me she has an in at the Montessori Institute and knows a lot of good teachers because of that. I know that a lot of the current teachers at SSMA came onboard as a result of the departing Principal. So I think she put a lot of the building blocks in place for further growth at SSMA. But she insulated the Guides and assistants from all the craziness at the admin level. Now that she's gone, my fear is that that the best teachers will leave too. And at the end of the day, it's the teachers who matter most.

The thing is the ED's heart is in the right place. If you've ever talked to her, you can tell she is passionate about education. But, on the people skills front, she is hopeless. She's not a people manager. She's more of a researcher, an academic. Read this thread and you'll see what I mean: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/681911.page#11875733

This comment caught my eye: "I'm in the field - as in a senior admin at a HRCS - and the position summary is insane to me. Sounds like she is at odds with the rest of the team and looking to pay an ally: "

That was six months ago. And so now she's gone and fired the Director of Operations and the Principal -- who, by the way, is the FOURTH in FIVE years. And it was Teacher Appreciation week last week too. That's unconscionable. Clearly, that poster was right. The ED's basically at war with her own staff. And so she created a layer between herself and them. Now she's even advertising for an assistant principal position too http://www.shiningstarspcs.org/images/pdf/career/2018/assistant_principal_1.pdf That's going to make the ED even more removed from day-to-day operations.

It's crazy how much SSMA is wasting on consulting fees and admin costs. I bet it's a half million dollars a year. If the ED is not replaced, the admin chaos will continue, guides will leave, parents will leave, and SSMA will fall down to Tier 3. There's a board meeting on Saturday. Let's see what happens.[/quote

The Board allowed all the drama to occur without any action. They seem to have botched their fiduciary duty. All have to go! We were oblivious to everything until our child's performance suffered. So we started to ask questions and had meetings (entire class of parents) and the previous principal was clueless. My sense is she came from a private school and was fairly overwhelmed by all the accountability that is required by public schools. You have to respond to parents with "real" answers and plans. She couldn't do that. There is no plan to be successful. I'd be looking at other options. This will not be fixed for a while. Don't be optimistic, be realistic!

[enh124]

The Board allowed all the drama to occur without any action. They seem to have botched their fiduciary duty. All have to go! We were oblivious to everything until our child's performance suffered. So we started to ask questions and had meetings (entire class of parents) and the previous principal was clueless. My sense is she came from a private school and was fairly overwhelmed by all the accountability that is required by public schools. You have to respond to parents with "real" answers and plans. She couldn't do that. There is no plan to be successful. I'd be looking at other options. This will not be fixed for a while. Don't be optimistic, be realistic!

Sorry but that makes no sense. Have you ever seen a DC private primary school? Private schools have entitled parents who pay top dollar for "accountability". There's no way you can last at a DC private primary school without dealing with entitled, helicopter parents and having accountability. So I have no idea what you're talking about

The only things "overwhelming" at SSMA are the compliance issues. And SSMA has someone who is supposed to be taking are of that. After all, the ED has hired layers of admin folks.

[Anonymous]

enh124 wrote:The Board allowed all the drama to occur without any action. They seem to have botched their fiduciary duty. All have to go! We were oblivious to everything until our child's performance suffered. So we started to ask questions and had meetings (entire class of parents) and the previous principal was clueless. My sense is she came from a private school and was fairly overwhelmed by all the accountability that is required by public schools. You have to respond to parents with "real" answers and plans. She couldn't do that. There is no plan to be successful. I'd be looking at other options. This will not be fixed for a while. Don't be optimistic, be realistic!

Sorry but that makes no sense. Have you ever seen a DC private primary school? Private schools have entitled parents who pay top dollar for "accountability". There's no way you can last at a DC private primary school without dealing with entitled, helicopter parents and having accountability. So I have no idea what you're talking about

The only things "overwhelming" at SSMA are the compliance issues. And SSMA has someone who is supposed to be taking are of that. After all, the ED has hired layers of admin folks.

Yeah, the comment about no accountability at a private school doesn't make any sense. But maybe the PP meant something else. For example, in terms of SSMA's admin and staff and accountability, the sense I got in the last year is that suddenly all decisions were made by the ED - meaning you could ask anyone anything and not get a straight answer. It seemed to me like they were deathly afraid to make a mistake in responding for fear of the wrath of the ED. That's a sign of a culture of fear. I don't know what happened this year. But things changed a lot from the previous year.

My view: the ED is a toxic micro-manager. Make that one change and suddenly everyone has "accountability".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

enh124 wrote:

My view: the ED is a toxic micro-manager. Make that one change and suddenly everyone has "accountability".

That was also my experience, the ED is a toxic micro-manager...the ED really needs to go in order for the school to improve...

[Anonymous]

Has anyone seen this job posting on Indeed?

https://www.indeed.com/company/Education-Talent-Recruiters/jobs/Montessori-Elementary-School-Principal-e10875423b75af45?fccid=0aecfacb292e62d2&vjs=3

It's from "Education Talent Recruiters" which I Googled and couldn't find anywhere on the Internet. I think it's an advertisement for the SSMA job. It sounds like the way SSMA phrases stuff. But it's UNBELIEVABLY long... to the point of being bonkers.

And notice it was posted 14 days ago, which is May 3rd, 6 days before the departing principal's last day. I guarantee you the SSMA ED wrote this job posting.

Crazy stuff, really.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone seen this job posting on Indeed?

https://www.indeed.com/company/Education-Talent-Recruiters/jobs/Montessori-Elementary-School-Principal-e10875423b75af45?fccid=0aecfacb292e62d2&vjs=3

It's from "Education Talent Recruiters" which I Googled and couldn't find anywhere on the Internet. I think it's an advertisement for the SSMA job. It sounds like the way SSMA phrases stuff. But it's UNBELIEVABLY long... to the point of being bonkers.

And notice it was posted 14 days ago, which is May 3rd, 6 days before the departing principal's last day. I guarantee you the SSMA ED wrote this job posting.

Crazy stuff, really.

That has got to be SSMA. All that for $75k, good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

enh124 wrote:The Board allowed all the drama to occur without any action. They seem to have botched their fiduciary duty. All have to go! We were oblivious to everything until our child's performance suffered. So we started to ask questions and had meetings (entire class of parents) and the previous principal was clueless. My sense is she came from a private school and was fairly overwhelmed by all the accountability that is required by public schools. You have to respond to parents with "real" answers and plans. She couldn't do that. There is no plan to be successful. I'd be looking at other options. This will not be fixed for a while. Don't be optimistic, be realistic!

Sorry but that makes no sense. Have you ever seen a DC private primary school? Private schools have entitled parents who pay top dollar for "accountability". There's no way you can last at a DC private primary school without dealing with entitled, helicopter parents and having accountability. So I have no idea what you're talking about

The only things "overwhelming" at SSMA are the compliance issues. And SSMA has someone who is supposed to be taking are of that. After all, the ED has hired layers of admin folks.

Yeah, the comment about no accountability at a private school doesn't make any sense. But maybe the PP meant something else. For example, in terms of SSMA's admin and staff and accountability, the sense I got in the last year is that suddenly all decisions were made by the ED - meaning you could ask anyone anything and not get a straight answer. It seemed to me like they were deathly afraid to make a mistake in responding for fear of the wrath of the ED. That's a sign of a culture of fear. I don't know what happened this year. But things changed a lot from the previous year.

My view: the ED is a toxic micro-manager. Make that one change and suddenly everyone has "accountability".

The mission of a private school is totally different. They don't have to try to adhere "all" a students needs like a public school. I've dealt with both sides and private schools are way more secretive and don't really care. But agree to disagree..when you hit upper el you get a rude awakening...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

In my opinion, she was less than stellar and unresponsive to a number of parents and issues. She seemed to simply be over her head. Her termination is a sign of a much larger problem at SSMA. There is a"crisis of leadership" that needs to be addressed. There were other terminations that happened during the year that were not communicated effectively. Parents bond with school officials than they are just gone. I doubt a strategic plan exists. SSMA should be very stable right now considering it's been around for 8-9 years. It is certainly not that. The next couple of weeks will go a long way in determining the future of the school.

I kind of hate hashing this out here, but can you go into the "issues" a little more if they're not too personal. I was a little blindsided by this all: we use before- and aftercare, so we're really only interacting with our kid's teachers and a couple of staff and they've all been great.

Semi-related, and not really specific to SSMA, I wish someone could convince organizations going through moments of change that cryptic emails about "improving weaknesses" and "reenforcing strengths" usually look a lot worse than just being forthright about whatever is going on. I know if someone is fired/asked to resign there are legal reasons why you don't trumpet the reasons from the rooftop, but right now who the hell knows what's going on?

The awful test scores and lack of a plan for lower and upper elementary are major issues. We had a phenomenal teacher before changing classes so we were blindsided by the "downgrade" in expectations. The pmf was a major eye opener back in November. It was awful and a pretty lackluster response. We learned a great teacher can mask a lot. One of the drawbacks of Montessori is the lack of visibility of a kid's performance. You have to consistently ask questions, monitor, and visit the class. The homework was key for us to really gauge what was going on. When that pretty much stopped after we changed classes, that was a red flag. School is supposed to get harder not easier. That was an indication of lack of curriculum development and expectations. Montessori was designed to only go to third grade so I was curious to see how it would work past that. At SSMA, it's been a very disappointing result this year. In a nutshell, they don't know what they don't know. This won't be fixed overnight. So plan accordingly......

Huh? There is no homework in Montessori. And Montessori was always designed through upper el, that is, age 12.

SSMA is not a pure Montessori thus the AMS certification. It allows for more flexibility in the classroom, i.e. computers, homework, etc. Very few schools actually go to age 12 that I'm aware off.

What are you talking about? Plenty of schools go through upper el. Few go though middle or high school but there are plenty that go through sixth grade. All over the country.

Clarification..Public or Charter Montessori in DC that do it well? SSMA, Lee, Breakthrough, CHML, etc.--No or TBD. Some of the privates are ok from what I hear but nothing great. Of course a lot go to sixth grade.

What about LAMB? Goes to 5th and appears to be well-regarded through upper elementary.

[Anonymous]

Well, management is a skill and not everyone has it. The ED is basically MIA in the school's day to day operations. Basically no parent involvement at all. The guides are so great and my DC is doing so well there. Seems like the ED has to go. How would that happen? The complaints about the board are they are a rubber stamp so are they really going to step up here? The teachers need support and all the comments about a culture of fear are so disheartening.

I also feel like the managment layers are so unnecessary and wasteful. I can't believe there is a post for an assistant principal now. Too many hands...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, management is a skill and not everyone has it. The ED is basically MIA in the school's day to day operations. Basically no parent involvement at all. The guides are so great and my DC is doing so well there. Seems like the ED has to go. How would that happen? The complaints about the board are they are a rubber stamp so are they really going to step up here? The teachers need support and all the comments about a culture of fear are so disheartening.

I also feel like the managment layers are so unnecessary and wasteful. I can't believe there is a post for an assistant principal now. Too many hands...

Your board has to step up - that's your only avenue short of voting with your feet. Have you asked for a meeting? Sent a letter outlining your concerns?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

In my opinion, she was less than stellar and unresponsive to a number of parents and issues. She seemed to simply be over her head. Her termination is a sign of a much larger problem at SSMA. There is a"crisis of leadership" that needs to be addressed. There were other terminations that happened during the year that were not communicated effectively. Parents bond with school officials than they are just gone. I doubt a strategic plan exists. SSMA should be very stable right now considering it's been around for 8-9 years. It is certainly not that. The next couple of weeks will go a long way in determining the future of the school.

I kind of hate hashing this out here, but can you go into the "issues" a little more if they're not too personal. I was a little blindsided by this all: we use before- and aftercare, so we're really only interacting with our kid's teachers and a couple of staff and they've all been great.

Semi-related, and not really specific to SSMA, I wish someone could convince organizations going through moments of change that cryptic emails about "improving weaknesses" and "reenforcing strengths" usually look a lot worse than just being forthright about whatever is going on. I know if someone is fired/asked to resign there are legal reasons why you don't trumpet the reasons from the rooftop, but right now who the hell knows what's going on?

The awful test scores and lack of a plan for lower and upper elementary are major issues. We had a phenomenal teacher before changing classes so we were blindsided by the "downgrade" in expectations. The pmf was a major eye opener back in November. It was awful and a pretty lackluster response. We learned a great teacher can mask a lot. One of the drawbacks of Montessori is the lack of visibility of a kid's performance. You have to consistently ask questions, monitor, and visit the class. The homework was key for us to really gauge what was going on. When that pretty much stopped after we changed classes, that was a red flag. School is supposed to get harder not easier. That was an indication of lack of curriculum development and expectations. Montessori was designed to only go to third grade so I was curious to see how it would work past that. At SSMA, it's been a very disappointing result this year. In a nutshell, they don't know what they don't know. This won't be fixed overnight. So plan accordingly......

Huh? There is no homework in Montessori. And Montessori was always designed through upper el, that is, age 12.

SSMA is not a pure Montessori thus the AMS certification. It allows for more flexibility in the classroom, i.e. computers, homework, etc. Very few schools actually go to age 12 that I'm aware off.

What are you talking about? Plenty of schools go through upper el. Few go though middle or high school but there are plenty that go through sixth grade. All over the country.

Clarification..Public or Charter Montessori in DC that do it well? SSMA, Lee, Breakthrough, CHML, etc.--No or TBD. Some of the privates are ok from what I hear but nothing great. Of course a lot go to sixth grade.

What about LAMB? Goes to 5th and appears to be well-regarded through upper elementary.

They may not even be around after the lawsuit. But you are correct they appear to have done well. I'd liked to hear what some of the middle schools think about how prepared the LAMB kids are-sure I'll never hear that. They are an example of a Board that simply dropped the ball. SSMA's board should take note.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, management is a skill and not everyone has it. The ED is basically MIA in the school's day to day operations. Basically no parent involvement at all. The guides are so great and my DC is doing so well there. Seems like the ED has to go. How would that happen? The complaints about the board are they are a rubber stamp so are they really going to step up here? The teachers need support and all the comments about a culture of fear are so disheartening.

I also feel like the managment layers are so unnecessary and wasteful. I can't believe there is a post for an assistant principal now. Too many hands...

What do you mean no parent involvement? There is the SSMACA (PTA) that is very involved and has raised thousands of dollars for the school. I do think the parents have been too trusting with the ED and Board. There have been numerous red flags that should have resulted in action--20 pt drop on PMF, staff turnover, etc.

[Anonymous]

Yes the parents are very involved with the school. I mean the ED has basically no parent involvement (the board too), now all the parents are concerned about the principal's firing and questioning what is going on with the ED and all signs point to something being amiss. Too trusting is right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, management is a skill and not everyone has it. The ED is basically MIA in the school's day to day operations. Basically no parent involvement at all. The guides are so great and my DC is doing so well there. Seems like the ED has to go. How would that happen? The complaints about the board are they are a rubber stamp so are they really going to step up here? The teachers need support and all the comments about a culture of fear are so disheartening.

I also feel like the managment layers are so unnecessary and wasteful. I can't believe there is a post for an assistant principal now. Too many hands...

What do you mean no parent involvement? There is the SSMACA (PTA) that is very involved and has raised thousands of dollars for the school. I do think the parents have been too trusting with the ED and Board. There have been numerous red flags that should have resulted in action--20 pt drop on PMF, staff turnover, etc.

Yes, I agree. The parents are VERY involved at SSMA. But parents do need to step up at tomorrow's board meeting now that we know what's happening behind the scenes. Guides will leave if the ED stays on and that's going to hurt re-enrollment.

I have been doing some research and I found interesting stuff on the DC PCS Board website.

First is the PMF you mentioned http://www.dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/2017-11-8%20PMF%20Score%20Card%20SY16-17_Shining%20Stars%20Montessori%20Academy%20PCS_2017.pdf

What I noticed is that SSMA doesn't rank on all of the criteria and has a score based only on 55 out of a total 100 points. If you look at Bridges, for example, they rank on the full 100 point scale http://www.dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/2017-11-8%20PMF%20Score%20Card%20SY16-17_Bridges%20PCS_2017.pdf

Where SSMA got killed last year vs the previous year was on attendance and re-enrollment. We lost 17 out of 18 points on those two factors alone. On the academic side of the PMF, all the PARCC scores were the same or went up versus the previous year http://www.dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/Shining%20Stars%20Montessori%20Academy%20PCS_EC_PK3-8_2016.pdf

If we can get attendance and re-enrollment up, we would actually be a Tier 1 school with a score of 41.5 out of 55 or 75% instead of 24.4 out of 55. That's way above the cutoff for Tier 1. So it's not the academics, which have improved with the new director. It's attendance and re-enrollment.

To me, that makes this board issue critical because we NEED re-enrollment.

The second thing is the Annual Report:

http://www.dcpcsb.org/report/annual-report/shining-stars-montessori-academy-pcs-annual-report

What I noticed when I went through it is that the woman listed as Operations Manager is now listed on SSMA's website as Director of Compliance & School Performance. And she only has a high school diploma. Plus she's only been at the school 6 months. So, it's not like she was promoted to director because of her unique institutional knowledge. Not to be snobby, but this concerns me. To me, this looks like someone who is getting promoted not based on merit, but on allegiance to the ED. All of the other admin/directors listed in this Annual Report have advanced degrees.

Someone wrote about a "climate of fear". How about a climate of cronyism?

Anyway, SSMA is really close to Tier 1. If we can get rid of the toxic environment, we can fix the attendance and re-enrollment issues and we will instantly be a Tier 1 school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, management is a skill and not everyone has it. The ED is basically MIA in the school's day to day operations. Basically no parent involvement at all. The guides are so great and my DC is doing so well there. Seems like the ED has to go. How would that happen? The complaints about the board are they are a rubber stamp so are they really going to step up here? The teachers need support and all the comments about a culture of fear are so disheartening.

I also feel like the managment layers are so unnecessary and wasteful. I can't believe there is a post for an assistant principal now. Too many hands...

What do you mean no parent involvement? There is the SSMACA (PTA) that is very involved and has raised thousands of dollars for the school. I do think the parents have been too trusting with the ED and Board. There have been numerous red flags that should have resulted in action--20 pt drop on PMF, staff turnover, etc.

Yes, I agree. The parents are VERY involved at SSMA. But parents do need to step up at tomorrow's board meeting now that we know what's happening behind the scenes. Guides will leave if the ED stays on and that's going to hurt re-enrollment.

I have been doing some research and I found interesting stuff on the DC PCS Board website.

First is the PMF you mentioned http://www.dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/2017-11-8%20PMF%20Score%20Card%20SY16-17_Shining%20Stars%20Montessori%20Academy%20PCS_2017.pdf

What I noticed is that SSMA doesn't rank on all of the criteria and has a score based only on 55 out of a total 100 points. If you look at Bridges, for example, they rank on the full 100 point scale http://www.dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/2017-11-8%20PMF%20Score%20Card%20SY16-17_Bridges%20PCS_2017.pdf

Where SSMA got killed last year vs the previous year was on attendance and re-enrollment. We lost 17 out of 18 points on those two factors alone. On the academic side of the PMF, all the PARCC scores were the same or went up versus the previous year http://www.dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/Shining%20Stars%20Montessori%20Academy%20PCS_EC_PK3-8_2016.pdf

If we can get attendance and re-enrollment up, we would actually be a Tier 1 school with a score of 41.5 out of 55 or 75% instead of 24.4 out of 55. That's way above the cutoff for Tier 1. So it's not the academics, which have improved with the new director. It's attendance and re-enrollment.

To me, that makes this board issue critical because we NEED re-enrollment.

The second thing is the Annual Report:

http://www.dcpcsb.org/report/annual-report/shining-stars-montessori-academy-pcs-annual-report

What I noticed when I went through it is that the woman listed as Operations Manager is now listed on SSMA's website as Director of Compliance & School Performance. And she only has a high school diploma. Plus she's only been at the school 6 months. So, it's not like she was promoted to director because of her unique institutional knowledge. Not to be snobby, but this concerns me. To me, this looks like someone who is getting promoted not based on merit, but on allegiance to the ED. All of the other admin/directors listed in this Annual Report have advanced degrees.

Someone wrote about a "climate of fear". How about a climate of cronyism?

Anyway, SSMA is really close to Tier 1. If we can get rid of the toxic environment, we can fix the attendance and re-enrollment issues and we will instantly be a Tier 1 school.

SSMA is fully 20 points away from Tier 1. And the testing grades are getting larger, so PARCC will be factored in as well.