Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:She is not a good principal for students, families, or staff. Hopefully the Ravensworth community gets an effective new principal and leadership team.
One thing I have noticed after having kids at schools across the country over nearly 20 years, is that when a principal is bad, everyone knows it. Teachers, parents, staff and students will complain openly and often. No one is sad when they leave.
Usually though, with good to average principals, most people love them or are neutral, with complaints coming from just a handful of people.
From my experience, those handful of people either have a legit individual complaint often related to special ed accomodations or perceived bullying, which make the principal a "bad principal"
for them even if the principal is loved and respected by everyone else.
The other instance where I see people claim a principal is terrible when they are actually competent and well respected, is usually during middle and high school. This tends to happen when a kid is a troublemaker, the school finally quit accommodating their behavior and started punishing them, and the parent wants someone to blame.
For example, I have an acquaintance from sports teams with an otherwise affable and sweet kid, who cuts class to walk around school, vapes in the bathroom, doesn't turn in work, skips school, and otherwise is not an engaged or well behaved student. The school was patient and tried to work with the family, but after a couple of years of that, the school lost patience with the kid and started enforcing rules. The parents had many meetings with the school, which started to get really heated as the consequences started to get enforced.
My acquaintance will complain about the very well respected, competent and fair principal to anyone who will listen. She will blame the boring, unengaging teachers for her kid being disinterested in learning. She blames the school, and the district. It is well known that her kid cuts class and isn't a great student.
I think it is always important to take these kinds of complaints against principals with a grain of salt, especially on an anonymous message board. Perhaps the statement is accurate, perhaps not. But there is definitely a backstory which might or might not favor the person calling names. It could just be that while otherwise wonderful for 95% of the families, the principal is just not a good principal
for you.
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