What is happening at Chesterbrook Elementary?

[Anonymous]

This is not true. I am a teacher and we have a few teachers leaving due to commute and getting more time with their kids. If your school gets out at 4:05 and you are spending an hour in traffic with an infant or toddler who goes to bed at 7, you want a better commute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is not true. I am a teacher and we have a few teachers leaving due to commute and getting more time with their kids. If your school gets out at 4:05 and you are spending an hour in traffic with an infant or toddler who goes to bed at 7, you want a better commute.

What's not true? You don't think people will ever leave due to bad working conditions?

When I leave I also plan to say "for commuting reasons." It's not true either but that's what I am going to say in public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not true. I am a teacher and we have a few teachers leaving due to commute and getting more time with their kids. If your school gets out at 4:05 and you are spending an hour in traffic with an infant or toddler who goes to bed at 7, you want a better commute.

What's not true? You don't think people will ever leave due to bad working conditions?

When I leave I also plan to say "for commuting reasons." It's not true either but that's what I am going to say in public.

Are you also leaving Chesterbrook or speaking generally? Overall not many departures were announced at CES and the vacancies have been filled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not true. I am a teacher and we have a few teachers leaving due to commute and getting more time with their kids. If your school gets out at 4:05 and you are spending an hour in traffic with an infant or toddler who goes to bed at 7, you want a better commute.

What's not true? You don't think people will ever leave due to bad working conditions?

When I leave I also plan to say "for commuting reasons." It's not true either but that's what I am going to say in public.

It is not true that all teachers leave due to work issues or admin issues. I know people who have lied to admin saying they left for commute reasons but I know for a fact several teachers who love our school but the end time and commute are killing them. I love my school and my commute is terrible but plan to stick it out.

[Anonymous]

Not all teachers are cut out for the virtual classroom. I’m hoping our teachers who don’t like it will hang in there until this nightmare is over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not all teachers are cut out for the virtual classroom. I’m hoping our teachers who don’t like it will hang in there until this nightmare is over.

Oh they will unless they have someone else supporting them or other means of income. Teachers are not likely going to leave the field or transfer in this time of uncertainty if they haven't already gotten a new job offer yet. I know several people who thought about leaving and now they will stay put because of financial pressure or the fact that they can see themselves dealing with online teaching. The virtual classroom is not fun, and for some teachers it is more work, but for many, it is a much better option. All the dumb things that drive teachers away are not as serious when education is done remotely.

Online teachers don't have to deal with a lot of administrative stuff like taking attendance, dealing with bad behaviors in person, or constant stress from admins/curriculum specialists + higher ups who have nothing else to do. No commute. It's awesome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s not a coincidence and it’s not about the commute.

Agree. My interactions with the admin have not been pleasant. My guess is admin. Is there a way for the PTA to get involved and do exit interviews to find out how to better support teachers? Speculation doesn’t solve problems. How can we get to the root of the problem and solve it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are at Chesterbrook and in the 3rd grade you likely know the reason all but 1 teacher in the class is leaving. If you are not, I'm not sure why you're here speculating.

I am at Chesterbrook and do not know why. Would you mind telling us? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Now that the assistant principal is leaving, I worry about the balance at Chesterbrook. I think the principal is so stressed right now that it casts on to teachers. The principal gets in her own head a lot and pushes her agendas. She caters a lot to the parents and that dictates how the school is run for the teachers. Teachers are afraid to speak up and when they do, they feel it doesn’t matter. It is a stressful time and only the third week of school. She is still pushing for live platform changes, new policies, new ideas, delegating work, etc when teachers are finally figuring out what is working. Teachers feel very overworked and stressed with the constant pressure and changes. If the principal learns to ease back and give teachers more autonomy, she has incredible leadership potential. I hope it gets better, covid and a new ap search are definitely not helping things.

Unfortunately, I didn’t want to wait it out so I left. I’m still in touch with everyone there and care about Chesterbrook so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Now that the assistant principal is leaving, I worry about the balance at Chesterbrook. I think the principal is so stressed right now that it casts on to teachers. The principal gets in her own head a lot and pushes her agendas. She caters a lot to the parents and that dictates how the school is run for the teachers. Teachers are afraid to speak up and when they do, they feel it doesn’t matter. It is a stressful time and only the third week of school. She is still pushing for live platform changes, new policies, new ideas, delegating work, etc when teachers are finally figuring out what is working. Teachers feel very overworked and stressed with the constant pressure and changes. If the principal learns to ease back and give teachers more autonomy, she has incredible leadership potential. I hope it gets better, covid and a new ap search are definitely not helping things.

Unfortunately, I didn’t want to wait it out so I left. I’m still in touch with everyone there and care about Chesterbrook so much.

Interesting. As a parent, I'm not a huge fan of the principal. I don't see that she caters to the parents (or maybe I'm just not in the select group!) But I agree that she doesn't give the teachers autonomy. She strikes me as a tech-obsessed control freak who thinks like a politician (smile and say agreeable things to everyone but then ignores everything that isn't in line with her thinking). I also get the impression that the younger teachers, especially, are afraid to question her or push back if her guidance is unclear. I agree that she has potential, but until she learns to relax and trust the expertise of her teachers, and stop trying to control every single thing that occurs at the school, more and more teachers will leave and parents will be frustrated. Meanwhile, the students pay the price.

[Anonymous]

On the bright side, we were really happy to find out Jim Patrick is the new principal at Longfellow. He'd come from Lake Braddock but had been at McLean before that, and I think LMS is going to be a somewhat more relaxed place than it was under the prior principal.

[Anonymous]

It is completely normal for a lot of teachers to leave 2 or 3 years into a new principal. There are new policies and new programs and it's a lot of work, and sometimes people who were favorites are suddenly not favorites, or people just don't like the changes. It's not necessarily a red flag.

[Anonymous]

The new principal - Kirkpatrick - was a confusing choice. I don't know her or much about her, but her background is odd for a principal. She was never even an assistant principal in elementary school, has very limited classroom teaching experience in elementary school, and was an elem technology specialist - those are absolutely famous for being people who can't handle the elementary classroom as a teacher. If parents have a negative impression of her, then it's very possible she is the problem. She's still on probation though, so writing to the school board and central admin could save you from having her for life. Literally, it's a job for life, no matter how bad they are.

[Anonymous]

I don't see anything to suggest parents as a group or teachers as a group have a problem with her. There are sometimes personality clashes among either group with a new principal that work out over a few years. And then on a forum like this people will get egged on by posters who then turn around later and claim the school or pyramid is hard on principals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now that the assistant principal is leaving, I worry about the balance at Chesterbrook. I think the principal is so stressed right now that it casts on to teachers. The principal gets in her own head a lot and pushes her agendas. She caters a lot to the parents and that dictates how the school is run for the teachers. Teachers are afraid to speak up and when they do, they feel it doesn’t matter. It is a stressful time and only the third week of school. She is still pushing for live platform changes, new policies, new ideas, delegating work, etc when teachers are finally figuring out what is working. Teachers feel very overworked and stressed with the constant pressure and changes. If the principal learns to ease back and give teachers more autonomy, she has incredible leadership potential. I hope it gets better, covid and a new ap search are definitely not helping things.

Unfortunately, I didn’t want to wait it out so I left. I’m still in touch with everyone there and care about Chesterbrook so much.

Interesting. As a parent, I'm not a huge fan of the principal. I don't see that she caters to the parents (or maybe I'm just not in the select group!) But I agree that she doesn't give the teachers autonomy. She strikes me as a tech-obsessed control freak who thinks like a politician (smile and say agreeable things to everyone but then ignores everything that isn't in line with her thinking). I also get the impression that the younger teachers, especially, are afraid to question her or push back if her guidance is unclear. I agree that she has potential, but until she learns to relax and trust the expertise of her teachers, and stop trying to control every single thing that occurs at the school, more and more teachers will leave and parents will be frustrated. Meanwhile, the students pay the price.

DING DING DING!

Now I wonder how many people wish they could follow Dr. Beaty to Haycock.