Churchill Getting a New Principal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How successful has Dr. Moran been with the Churchill cluster? He started three years ago at the same time as Mrs. Heckert. He was supposed to mentor Mrs. Heckert. Then there’s the problems at Hoover.

I do find the timing of Ms. Heckert’s departure odd. Seriously, half her tenure at Churchill was during online learning. Was online learning a bigger disaster at Churchill than other high schools? Again, where was Dr. Moran’s support for the community?

I find this strange, too. My family has had 4 years at Churchill and heading into 7 more. Of course, online learning was not good in general. But I found the Churchill-specific problems to essentially go away this year-- probably *because* of online learning. My AA kids didn't face direct racism (since they weren't sitting side-by-side other kids who often say racist things). They didn't face profiling by teachers, at least that they conveyed to me (and yes, every other year I've heard specific examples). There weren't vaping/drug/fighting problems since no one was in the building. On the other hand, the communication from the school was enormously better than it was under Benz.

This must be an issue between principal and staff because the types of student-related issues that can be explosive in a normal year weren't even possible this year.

I would agree with you that the problems above were not a factor this year because students were not in the building. However, cyber bullying by Churchill students continued during online learning. Also, students with disabilities were denied accommodations and services. These were blatant acts discrimination allowed by Heckert. My take was she wasn’t knowledgeable regarding a school’s obligations under state and federal laws. She should have had better support and guidance from Central Office. Heckert didn’t make the mistakes she made in isolation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Heckert had a different supervisor when she started. He left after her first year.

Not true. The principal search was conducted under Ms. Webster (Director over Benz) however, there was a major change in Director assignments for Heckert’s first year. Basically, instead of Directors only being assigned to high schools (or middle schools or elementary schools), Directors were assigned to whole clusters - the elementary, middle and high schools in the same feeder system.

Dr. Moran received his promotion to the Director of the Churchill cluster the same time Mrs. Heckert was promoted to Principal of Churchill. Ms. Webster is still a Director but she was assigned other clusters. Prior to becoming a Director, Dr. Moran was Principal of a Silver Spring elementary school.

I personally think both Mrs. Heckert and Dr. Moran had no clue about the deep problems at Churchill. They came in with preconceived agendas and did not take the time to listen to the concerns of community and staff.

[Anonymous]

Yes - as I said, she had a different director her first year. That guy left, I think for Baltimore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes - as I said, she had a different director her first year. That guy left, I think for Baltimore.

DP. No, both Heckert and Moran started their current positions in July 2018.

[Anonymous]

Did they have the interviews?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did they have the interviews?

No. The interviews were supposed to take place on June 18th. On June 17th, MCPS declared June 18th a holiday to commemorate Juneteenth. There’s been no updates to parents as to when the interviews are to be rescheduled. A staff member commented in this thread they were told the new date is June 2nd.

I wish there would be an update to the community. Meanwhile, two other high schools (RM and NW) are having their interviews before Churchill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did they have the interviews?

No. The interviews were supposed to take place on June 18th. On June 17th, MCPS declared June 18th a holiday to commemorate Juneteenth. There’s been no updates to parents as to when the interviews are to be rescheduled. A staff member commented in this thread they were told the new date is June 2nd.

I wish there would be an update to the community. Meanwhile, two other high schools (RM and NW) are having their interviews before Churchill.

“Interviews” are this Thursday July 1. They already know whom they’re placing at Churchill as well as the other HS openings. To believe otherwise is naive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did they have the interviews?

No. The interviews were supposed to take place on June 18th. On June 17th, MCPS declared June 18th a holiday to commemorate Juneteenth. There’s been no updates to parents as to when the interviews are to be rescheduled. A staff member commented in this thread they were told the new date is June 2nd.

I wish there would be an update to the community. Meanwhile, two other high schools (RM and NW) are having their interviews before Churchill.

The date of the interviews doesn't matter. They are planning to announce all three principals the same day, so one school isn't going to 'scoop' another simply by interviewing a couple of days earlier.

[Anonymous]

The whole system is broken if positions are decided prior to interviews. There definitely is a lack of transparency given the failure to send out a community update after the interview date was changed. I pray we aren’t just going to get another individual that only stays for a few years before going to another leadership position.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The whole system is broken if positions are decided prior to interviews. There definitely is a lack of transparency given the failure to send out a community update after the interview date was changed. I pray we aren’t just going to get another individual that only stays for a few years before going to another leadership position.

It's been that way for as long as I can remember.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don't need to go onto instagram to see the racism. Just read this thread in full. A thread focused on hiring a new principal turned into a thread of parents complaining that their kids were being taught not to be racist.

The IG page is worth going to for the racism in the school, faculty (names are called out) and the student body.

No question there's racism here, but those are the parents - the IG page is a clear indication that the apples don't fall far from the tree, but the faculty, that's a problem. Things have been said and done by faculty which clearly indicate that there's a problem.

That said, I haven't a clue to what extent the issues pointed out in the IG page were ever addressed with the faculty, instead ALL of the faculty gets to go through awareness training (last year's professional training was only about equity and race) and MCPS imposes Student Learning Objectives to help us see our problems with students of color and to track them (you gotta love the idiot at MCPS who came up with that, where the acronym is SLO - students identified in a teacher's SLO are the SLOW students, I mean perfectly idiotic on the part of MCPS and that no one has addressed this with them, and here I'm assuming, is telling - you track poorly performing students, with specific emphasis on FARMS and minority, who may or may not have academic problems but you're supposed to track them using MyMCPS data which helps teachers not one bit. It does provide for an excellent pencil whipping drill twice a semester for ALL teachers, though.)

Can’t blame MCPS for this one. SLOs are state mandated.

https://sites.google.com/site/marylandsloengagement/slosinmd

There are many problems at Churchill. No doubt. One of the never talked about and never addressed is this discord between staff and parents.

The PP says Churchill parents are racists. The problem with the students are the parents.

The parents say the problems in the school is the staff. Some teachers are not effective in teaching the curriculum. Administrators don’t deal with bullying and drugs. Teaching standards dropped to an all time low during online learning. A parent feels the tension and is sometimes treated with rudeness when reaching out to the school for help with their child.

Whomever is hired needs to rebuild unity for all within Churchill. The focus should be how to improve the school climate, not belittle one another. The moment parents and staff become advisories, the students loose. I hope a fresh face will bring a new perspective to support all in the community.

I have by and large found Churchill parents supportive and easy to work with. Now that said, in any group as large as what we're talking about here you're going to have problem people, but that's certainly not an issue specific to just Churchill. My "problem" parents are those who don't respond to email, don't engage with their child's issues (I'm supposed to fix it somehow, not appreciating that I wouldn't be engaging them if I didn't have a problem that I needed their help with, and every now and then you'll run into a parent that has a definite superiority complex - they're better than I am.

Also, one thing that definitely ticks off a teacher that I will say Churchill parents are inclined to do is immediately take a problem that's tied to a teacher to the highest level possible, usually the principal. So you as the teacher find out about the issue not directly from the parent but fourth hand through the RT who was told about this from the assistant principal who was told about it from the principal - sometimes they just cut out the RT and the AP goes looking for the teacher to address the issue, so it's third hand in that case. Mind you, this doesn't improve the solution to whatever the problem is, I'd like to think ALL teachers want to smooth over issues and to do so as promptly as prossible, though I know we have a few gems for which this may not be so true. Here at best you get the problem third hand, the first and second person in this don't really know the issue directly or the student so what the teacher hears is some iteration of what the parent was complaining about, and at this point the parent has definitely managed to leave a bad taste in the mouth of the teacher concerned - talk to the teacher first, unless it's an issue of such gravity that jumping to the top is actually called for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don't need to go onto instagram to see the racism. Just read this thread in full. A thread focused on hiring a new principal turned into a thread of parents complaining that their kids were being taught not to be racist.

The IG page is worth going to for the racism in the school, faculty (names are called out) and the student body.

No question there's racism here, but those are the parents - the IG page is a clear indication that the apples don't fall far from the tree, but the faculty, that's a problem. Things have been said and done by faculty which clearly indicate that there's a problem.

That said, I haven't a clue to what extent the issues pointed out in the IG page were ever addressed with the faculty, instead ALL of the faculty gets to go through awareness training (last year's professional training was only about equity and race) and MCPS imposes Student Learning Objectives to help us see our problems with students of color and to track them (you gotta love the idiot at MCPS who came up with that, where the acronym is SLO - students identified in a teacher's SLO are the SLOW students, I mean perfectly idiotic on the part of MCPS and that no one has addressed this with them, and here I'm assuming, is telling - you track poorly performing students, with specific emphasis on FARMS and minority, who may or may not have academic problems but you're supposed to track them using MyMCPS data which helps teachers not one bit. It does provide for an excellent pencil whipping drill twice a semester for ALL teachers, though.)

Can’t blame MCPS for this one. SLOs are state mandated.

https://sites.google.com/site/marylandsloengagement/slosinmd

Ok, MCPS is off the hook on this one. With that:

I'd like to meet the idiot working for the State Board of Education who thought something that results in an acronym like "SLO", where you're apt to find the "slow" students (which in this case translates into those with poor grades, which is in no way a reflection of intellectual ability in reality, but how would the average reader interpret this?), was honest-to-God smart, I mean really.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also, one thing that definitely ticks off a teacher that I will say Churchill parents are inclined to do is immediately take a problem that's tied to a teacher to the highest level possible, usually the principal. So you as the teacher find out about the issue not directly from the parent but fourth hand through the RT who was told about this from the assistant principal who was told about it from the principal - sometimes they just cut out the RT and the AP goes looking for the teacher to address the issue, so it's third hand in that case. Mind you, this doesn't improve the solution to whatever the problem is, I'd like to think ALL teachers want to smooth over issues and to do so as promptly as prossible, though I know we have a few gems for which this may not be so true. Here at best you get the problem third hand, the first and second person in this don't really know the issue directly or the student so what the teacher hears is some iteration of what the parent was complaining about, and at this point the parent has definitely managed to leave a bad taste in the mouth of the teacher concerned - talk to the teacher first, unless it's an issue of such gravity that jumping to the top is actually called for.

Entitled parents are throughout MCPS, not just at Churchill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The whole system is broken if positions are decided prior to interviews. There definitely is a lack of transparency given the failure to send out a community update after the interview date was changed. I pray we aren’t just going to get another individual that only stays for a few years before going to another leadership position.

It's been that way for as long as I can remember.

They will spend less than an hour interviewing each candidate. Interviews are longer for a JV coach. In MCPS, principals are chosen by whoevers turn it is. The decision has already been made. They wouldn't have pushed Heckert out the door if they didn't already know who they were picking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, one thing that definitely ticks off a teacher that I will say Churchill parents are inclined to do is immediately take a problem that's tied to a teacher to the highest level possible, usually the principal. So you as the teacher find out about the issue not directly from the parent but fourth hand through the RT who was told about this from the assistant principal who was told about it from the principal - sometimes they just cut out the RT and the AP goes looking for the teacher to address the issue, so it's third hand in that case. Mind you, this doesn't improve the solution to whatever the problem is, I'd like to think ALL teachers want to smooth over issues and to do so as promptly as prossible, though I know we have a few gems for which this may not be so true. Here at best you get the problem third hand, the first and second person in this don't really know the issue directly or the student so what the teacher hears is some iteration of what the parent was complaining about, and at this point the parent has definitely managed to leave a bad taste in the mouth of the teacher concerned - talk to the teacher first, unless it's an issue of such gravity that jumping to the top is actually called for.

Entitled parents are throughout MCPS, not just at Churchill.

Sorry, multiple times I had to go over the teacher at Churchill to get anything resolved. Teachers either blew my kids off, blew me off, or simply didn't try to come up with a fair resolution. I had to go to RTs and the grade level AP several times. I understand that the first stop is the teacher, which we always did, but there were multiple times that we had to move up the chain.