Holton CCO

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD is a ten year girl and she is distressed about turnover in general. Many of her beloved teachers have left and there has been a high rate of turnover across the board—faculty have been leaving in droves and there is high turnover in communications and other areas of the school. While individual turnover can be explained I think there is a larger problem here. A new HOS can often trigger restructuring and departures but it’s been a few years and the rate of great teachers and staff leaving has not slowed down. Students are definitely noticing

Do you or does anyone know exactly how many teachers (“droves”?) have left in the last two or five or ten years? How does that compare to ten yrs ago? How does it compare to other comparable schools in the local market? Any actual numbers?

Here’s the thing: I don’t know about comparable schools in the market. I don’t care about comparable schools in the market

I care about the school I decided to send my child to, long before anyone here had ever heard of the current HOS

And I know that this school has clearly changed during the 6 (almost 7) years my child has been there. Highly esteemed teachers have left after long tenures. Cherished traditions that my child loved and/or looked forward to participating in are gone

We are stuck here now. But I will never understand why someone totally new to our community was allowed to show up one day and suddenly start changing things and losing teachers that nobody else ever wanted gone

[Anonymous]

While the board pats itself on the back because the kids are happy. The kids are doing well because of the teachers and staff members that the board has abandoned.

[Anonymous]

So 85 in 3 yrs. Really?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD is a ten year girl and she is distressed about turnover in general. Many of her beloved teachers have left and there has been a high rate of turnover across the board—faculty have been leaving in droves and there is high turnover in communications and other areas of the school. While individual turnover can be explained I think there is a larger problem here. A new HOS can often trigger restructuring and departures but it’s been a few years and the rate of great teachers and staff leaving has not slowed down. Students are definitely noticing

Do you or does anyone know exactly how many teachers (“droves”?) have left in the last two or five or ten years? How does that compare to ten yrs ago? How does it compare to other comparable schools in the local market? Any actual numbers?

This has been rehashed many times on this site. I think the count is somewhere 80-85 since the new HOS started, faculty and staff.

Every post is higher. Last month it was 60. Here is the thing, if you don’t like a restaurant do you try to change the chef or you keep going to restaurant and complain about the food. Not really. You go to another restaurant. It is exactly the same thing with schools. Are you unhappy with the HOS. Change schools and you might be surprised that the next HOS will not be your preferred choice. Move on or open your own school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD is a ten year girl and she is distressed about turnover in general. Many of her beloved teachers have left and there has been a high rate of turnover across the board—faculty have been leaving in droves and there is high turnover in communications and other areas of the school. While individual turnover can be explained I think there is a larger problem here. A new HOS can often trigger restructuring and departures but it’s been a few years and the rate of great teachers and staff leaving has not slowed down. Students are definitely noticing

Do you or does anyone know exactly how many teachers (“droves”?) have left in the last two or five or ten years? How does that compare to ten yrs ago? How does it compare to other comparable schools in the local market? Any actual numbers?

This has been rehashed many times on this site. I think the count is somewhere 80-85 since the new HOS started, faculty and staff.

Every post is higher. Last month it was 60. Here is the thing, if you don’t like a restaurant do you try to change the chef or you keep going to restaurant and complain about the food. Not really. You go to another restaurant. It is exactly the same thing with schools. Are you unhappy with the HOS. Change schools and you might be surprised that the next HOS will not be your preferred choice. Move on or open your own school.

This would be a great analogy if it took a restaurant 12 years to serve dinner and they replaced the chef halfway through with someone preparing a totally different cuisine and none of the friends you made during the first 7 years of the meal could come with you to another restaurant

[Anonymous]

Agreed. Of course if you’re determined to make a restaurant analogy Noma comes to mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a daughter in the upper school and while most of the new teachers are good the fact that so many are new leads to a lack of cohesion from grade to grade and the feeling that some of Holtons traditions and understanding of the school culture are lost. My daughter’s favorite English teacher from last year left abruptly a few months ago and her French teacher this year also left abruptly. I don’t know the circumstances but all of this seems to be taking its toll on students.

The French teacher leaving is a blessing. I was shocked by her hire to begin with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a daughter in the upper school and while most of the new teachers are good the fact that so many are new leads to a lack of cohesion from grade to grade and the feeling that some of Holtons traditions and understanding of the school culture are lost. My daughter’s favorite English teacher from last year left abruptly a few months ago and her French teacher this year also left abruptly. I don’t know the circumstances but all of this seems to be taking its toll on students.

The French teacher leaving is a blessing. I was shocked by her hire to begin with.

There is always a reason or excuse for all of the departures/firings.

The numbers of departures are still appalling, and much has been lost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a daughter in the upper school and while most of the new teachers are good the fact that so many are new leads to a lack of cohesion from grade to grade and the feeling that some of Holtons traditions and understanding of the school culture are lost. My daughter’s favorite English teacher from last year left abruptly a few months ago and her French teacher this year also left abruptly. I don’t know the circumstances but all of this seems to be taking its toll on students.

The French teacher leaving is a blessing. I was shocked by her hire to begin with.

Our lower school French teacher has been wonderful and the girls adore her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a daughter in the upper school and while most of the new teachers are good the fact that so many are new leads to a lack of cohesion from grade to grade and the feeling that some of Holtons traditions and understanding of the school culture are lost. My daughter’s favorite English teacher from last year left abruptly a few months ago and her French teacher this year also left abruptly. I don’t know the circumstances but all of this seems to be taking its toll on students.

The French teacher leaving is a blessing. I was shocked by her hire to begin with.

Our lower school French teacher has been wonderful and the girls adore her.

Agree she’s amazing. And she now teaches some upper school classes. They have found an appropriate hire as a replacement for the other US classes, and her CV far outshines the one who lasted half a year. I was confused as to why the last teacher was hired in general, especially for high level courses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid went to Holton. I don't remember it being called CCO, but will say the 2 college counselors were terrible even though mine ended up at HYP.

What made them terrible?

They wanted to save spots for donor kids. They encouraged mine to apply to the Naval Academy and Villanova. We just laughed. They were pretentious phonies.

[Anonymous]

I can’t speak to the total numbers of teachers and staff who have left but it is notable that all three division directors are new and the global education department, one of the reasons we sent our child to Holton, has been decimated with no clear plan as to what will come next. We have noticed high turnover in faculty but most especially in administrative positions who work the most closely with the head. That is the most worrying to me. I have considered reaching out to the board but it is my understanding that they are blindly loyal to the head and I don’t want to jeopardize my child’s experience.

[Anonymous]

The board need to hear from people whose jobs are not at stake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a daughter in the upper school and while most of the new teachers are good the fact that so many are new leads to a lack of cohesion from grade to grade and the feeling that some of Holtons traditions and understanding of the school culture are lost. My daughter’s favorite English teacher from last year left abruptly a few months ago and her French teacher this year also left abruptly. I don’t know the circumstances but all of this seems to be taking its toll on students.

The French teacher leaving is a blessing. I was shocked by her hire to begin with.

Our lower school French teacher has been wonderful and the girls adore her.

Agree she’s amazing. And she now teaches some upper school classes. They have found an appropriate hire as a replacement for the other US classes, and her CV far outshines the one who lasted half a year. I was confused as to why the last teacher was hired in general, especially for high level courses.

Interesting. Whom could have been responsible for making this confusingly bad hire in the first place?

[Anonymous]

Can’t speak to the other division heads but we’ve had nothing but good experiences with the lower head of school.