Elana Bell moves to Takoma Education Campus

[Anonymous]

I think you all are widely over estimating the applicant pool. No one wants these jobs. It’s not like Bell beat out some awesome candidates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you all are widely over estimating the applicant pool. No one wants these jobs. It’s not like Bell beat out some awesome candidates.

No. She is just that bad.

[Anonymous]

This next year is going to be challenging for all schools, based on accommodations for COVID-19. Can anyone from the Peabody-Watkins community speak to how Principal Bell handled the end-of-year distance learning? Was she communicative with families? Supportive of teachers? Proactive in getting technology into the hands of needy families? The majority of our families experience economic hardship and/or language barriers so communication will be particularly key this next school year. Thank you for your input.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This next year is going to be challenging for all schools, based on accommodations for COVID-19. Can anyone from the Peabody-Watkins community speak to how Principal Bell handled the end-of-year distance learning? Was she communicative with families? Supportive of teachers? Proactive in getting technology into the hands of needy families? The majority of our families experience economic hardship and/or language barriers so communication will be particularly key this next school year. Thank you for your input.

Basically zero communication. Left up to individual teachers so experiences varies significantly. She was a non entity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This next year is going to be challenging for all schools, based on accommodations for COVID-19. Can anyone from the Peabody-Watkins community speak to how Principal Bell handled the end-of-year distance learning? Was she communicative with families? Supportive of teachers? Proactive in getting technology into the hands of needy families? The majority of our families experience economic hardship and/or language barriers so communication will be particularly key this next school year. Thank you for your input.

I just did a count - from the time we left “in person” school we received the following electronic communication (she does not do robo calls) from her:

4 “weekly” newsletters
2 letters re: the tragic death of our PTA president
1 farewell letter

Then she did 2 parent/principal zoom check ins in mid April (both mid-day so I couldn’t attend)

Basically teachers took over when we went to distant learning - we didn’t really hear from any of the admin team except for the above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This next year is going to be challenging for all schools, based on accommodations for COVID-19. Can anyone from the Peabody-Watkins community speak to how Principal Bell handled the end-of-year distance learning? Was she communicative with families? Supportive of teachers? Proactive in getting technology into the hands of needy families? The majority of our families experience economic hardship and/or language barriers so communication will be particularly key this next school year. Thank you for your input.

I just did a count - from the time we left “in person” school we received the following electronic communication (she does not do robo calls) from her:

4 “weekly” newsletters
2 letters re: the tragic death of our PTA president
1 farewell letter

Then she did 2 parent/principal zoom check ins in mid April (both mid-day so I couldn’t attend)

Basically teachers took over when we went to distant learning - we didn’t really hear from any of the admin team except for the above.

Thank you. Is Principal Bell opposed to weekly robo-calls? That is what we are used to receiving from our (previous) TEC principal, and it was very helpful. It included all important things in the schedule for the upcoming week or two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This next year is going to be challenging for all schools, based on accommodations for COVID-19. Can anyone from the Peabody-Watkins community speak to how Principal Bell handled the end-of-year distance learning? Was she communicative with families? Supportive of teachers? Proactive in getting technology into the hands of needy families? The majority of our families experience economic hardship and/or language barriers so communication will be particularly key this next school year. Thank you for your input.

I just did a count - from the time we left “in person” school we received the following electronic communication (she does not do robo calls) from her:

4 “weekly” newsletters
2 letters re: the tragic death of our PTA president
1 farewell letter

Then she did 2 parent/principal zoom check ins in mid April (both mid-day so I couldn’t attend)

Basically teachers took over when we went to distant learning - we didn’t really hear from any of the admin team except for the above.

Thank you. Is Principal Bell opposed to weekly robo-calls? That is what we are used to at TEC from our (previous) principal.

(Reposting as I did not do the quote thing properly on the above post.)

[Anonymous]

Bell certainly couldn't have been more divisive than Clemens. Talk about divisive and out of touch. Clemens made personnel decisions based on ethnicity. Bell was, by far, a step above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This next year is going to be challenging for all schools, based on accommodations for COVID-19. Can anyone from the Peabody-Watkins community speak to how Principal Bell handled the end-of-year distance learning? Was she communicative with families? Supportive of teachers? Proactive in getting technology into the hands of needy families? The majority of our families experience economic hardship and/or language barriers so communication will be particularly key this next school year. Thank you for your input.

I just did a count - from the time we left “in person” school we received the following electronic communication (she does not do robo calls) from her:

4 “weekly” newsletters
2 letters re: the tragic death of our PTA president
1 farewell letter

Then she did 2 parent/principal zoom check ins in mid April (both mid-day so I couldn’t attend)

Basically teachers took over when we went to distant learning - we didn’t really hear from any of the admin team except for the above.

Thank you. Is Principal Bell opposed to weekly robo-calls? That is what we are used to at TEC from our (previous) principal.

(Reposting as I did not do the quote thing properly on the above post.)

I don’t know if opposed is word but she obviously had the access to do robocalls and our previous administration used to do them regularly but she just never did. Communication is really one of her biggest faults - she never could keep any one thing going over the course of a whole year - she’d do something for a few weeks then it would disappear for months or never come back. No consistency in the date, format or time - she really doesn’t value communication with the community.

[Anonymous]

We are currently experiencing the SAME issues you all have highlighted at TEC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are currently experiencing the SAME issues you all have highlighted at TEC.

Agreed.

[Anonymous]

What a disaster. Why can’t Takoma get/keep good administrators?

[Anonymous]

That wasn’t my experience at all. I think she’s a really smart, hardworking, and thoughtful leader. The Takoma community should get to know her themselves and decide based on their own experiences. I think people should also reconsider whether this is the appropriate way to have this conversation. I know none of us would be in support of our children anonymously tearing down someone online, even if they had reasons not to like them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are currently experiencing the SAME issues you all have highlighted at TEC.

I am really sorry....all I can say is document, document, document

DCPS knows the issues - you gotta build you case though

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That wasn’t my experience at all. I think she’s a really smart, hardworking, and thoughtful leader. The Takoma community should get to know her themselves and decide based on their own experiences. I think people should also reconsider whether this is the appropriate way to have this conversation. I know none of us would be in support of our children anonymously tearing down someone online, even if they had reasons not to like them.

Well, they are "tearing down" her leadership style, not her religion, race, gender, marital status, personal appearance, etc. Because of the culture of secrecy in DCPS (and charter schools, and private schools, and many other complicated bureaucratic systems), discussing how sub-par employees are passed from school to school helps keep the system accountable. And, it is true that Takoma has lots and lots of turnover at the administrator or teacher level at a time that they are trying to create buy-in for IB families.