A quarter of the teachers at Lakewood Elementary are leaving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://mdsoar.org/handle/11603/27893

Her dissertation

Her dissertation is exactly what McKnight seeks out for her new principals. I am in the system and I do believe that our students of color have different experiences at school. However, we hear nothing except the buzz words of anti-racist, RJ, etc. and no clear plan for addressing things so that ALL students get what they need. We can throw around lingo all day but it hasn't moved the mark in terms of student performance results. Ultimately, students with involved parents that have additional resources are going to fair better than students who lack the same resources. Is it fair? Nope. However, I don't know how a school is going to fix the societal problems that have come about in the last fifty years when they only have the kids seven hours a day. I know that during our summer leadership days, part of our work will be to identify in writing, all of the examples of racism at play in our schools. This is a part of the new school improvement process that requires a significant amount of work that is not grounded in any form of research. I'm a team leader and am dreading three days of this nonsense.

This is true of all races. Across the board.

It isn’t a race issue. It’s a parenting issue. There are good parents of all races and bad parents of all races.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've heard that this principal plays tricks and treats parents as if they're idiots. The principles should be investigated regarding her accountability.

Mommy rumor mill at it's finest.

It wasn't just a rumor mill. During tonight's Zoom meeting, the principal made her voice loud and clear, expressing her determination to educate all parents (a gathering of over 150 individuals/parents) and lead the community into her new world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately principals have so much power over teachers that working with a toxic principal is a nightmare you have to endure everyday you show up to work. I fled a school with a dictator/toxic principal who would do things like it sound this principal is doing.

Playbook of a toxic principal includes: make veteran teachers who are really good teachers and are vocal change grades, then the principal assigns the most disruptive students to those teachers, the teacher don't get supplies they need or support, etc. Then hire new teachers who are too afraid to speak up when they realize the principal is making awful decisions and running the school into the ground.

I now work for the most amazing principal and no one wants to leave. Everyone stays until retirement because the principal is so amazing.

You have got to tell us the school! This is my dream! My principal, (oh how I would love to expose her), is exactly like you described above. I seriously have PTSD from her. I love the staff and students, but she is a nightmare.

[Anonymous]

Can someone tell us what was said at tonight’s meeting?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How did you get from "I know at least two of them are leaving" to "A quarter of the teachers are leaving"?

There are 9 out of 40 teachers leaving and more to follow, including some 20+ year long term teachers. The new principle is toxic.

That's 22.5%

So 2.5% short of a quarter makes it acceptable?

The principle also made 8 out 18 grade teachers to change grade next year, plus the ones leaving, which would make more than half of the grade teachers new to the grades they will teach next year.

No you fool, 22.5% is not a QUARTER. it is ALMOST a quarter, NEARLY a quarter but not a QUARTER.

"Sig figs". Google it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone tell us what was said at tonight’s meeting?

1) Most parents couldn't even get in. Instructions did not state that they had to use their kid's mcps account to get into the meeting. There were 150 attendees.

2) Principal Kelly spent 35 minutes on her slides and repeating a lot of information.

3) Instead of using the Q&A function of zoom, they decided to use a Google doc and gave everyone open access to submit questions. You can imagine how that turned out. Someone was deleting all the questions, and the form had to be locked.

4) It was obvious that Principal Kelly had no interest in answering any of the parents questions. Lots of buzz and empty words for each question. When parents pushed back saying "that doesn't answer my question" or "could you please clarify" it was brushed off to the next question .

5) One parent was very direct in their dissatisfaction of Kelly's lack of transparency and squashing teacher's voices. Instead of letting them complete their statement and question, Kelly took offense and asked for this person to be muted. Yes you read that right, Kelly censored a parent.

6) Lots of parents were asking why there has been zero communication or transparency about the 25% of teachers leaving. This was also brushed off. I firmly believe that if the parents had not pushed this issue, the topic would not have even been "addressed" tonight.

And yes... as of tonight 10/40 staff are leaving. Exactly 25%.

Most parents were asking for another meeting since we had little time to address these issues and a good number of other parents couldn't even login.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone tell us what was said at tonight’s meeting?

I was there, but frequently interrupted by a toddler. I took some notes though. (I can post them if there is interest, just be warned that I started a glass of wine when I started and it becomes increasingly editorialized.) It was a fiasco!

A lot of angry parents -- I saw 90 people in the meeting when it started, but people had trouble logging in because (for some reason) the admin decided to set it so that you had to be logged into your child's MCPS account in order to be admitted into the meeting. So, that alone probably excluded a bunch of parents. Meeting was scheduled from 7PM to 8, but it went over. I checked attendance, and I saw 151 people dialed in at the peak. Considering Lakewood has a total attendance of ~450, including siblings, that's a pretty significant chunk of the population who were invested enough to join this meeting. Finished up at 8:38.

It started out civilly enough, where Principal Kelly started talking about the accomplishments of the team, and how she has done a great job of responding to parent feedback, etc etc. They introduced a Google Docs file where people could submit questions that they wanted addressed during the meeting.

She acknowledged that there has been a lot of chatter about staffing issues at the school and promised that she would make time to talk and answer questions. She said there was a lot of "misinformation" in the community that she wanted to address. She had slides and a presentation prepared, including on the staffing issue. She spoke about how the decisions were made and why, and then, very conveniently, the Google documents went blank. Eventually someone chimed in and accused her of trying to run out the clock.

That's when the parents started asking questions and demanding to be heard. One parent chimes in and really tears into her, saying, "what you have done has devastated Lakewood." Principal Kelly says he is being disrespectful, and mutes him.

The parents are quite passionate about this, and in general, do not seem to be satisfied with the answers given by Principal Kelly and the administration. For the most part, the answers are either vague, or dismissed (can't talk about it because professionalism, it would be unethical to reveal personal information, etc.)

Because the Google documents is down, people are asking questions in the Zoom chat.

Anyway, the admin team is still struggling to get the Google documents working again, and eventually it does, rather briefly, before pictures of hentai (anime porn) are uploaded, and they (conveniently) have to lock all access to the document.

Final statement of the night from a parent: "the problem has been minimized and has not been addressed -- just a lack of listening to the teachers -- and your job as the principal is to make sure our students are safe and being educated, and take care of your teachers, and I think you failed at that job. Sorry."

Principal Kelly responded: "I respectfully disagree and we are going to close on that note."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How did you get from "I know at least two of them are leaving" to "A quarter of the teachers are leaving"?

There are 9 out of 40 teachers leaving and more to follow, including some 20+ year long term teachers. The new principle is toxic.

That's a pretty hostile new-age accusation to throw out there. How about something more concise that actually conveys information?

[Anonymous]

Also, there was discussion about the entire 5th grade class getting punished. Does anyone know what happened there? It wasn’t clear.

[Anonymous]

One more thing to add. Back in Feb. Zero teachers had stated their desire to move on from Lakewood. After doing a teaching preference survey and listing their top three grades they'd like to teach, we now have 10/40 leaving.

From what I witnessed tonight and how Kelly "addressed" negative feedback from parents, the teachers never stood a chance. We're on a trajectory to lose more teachers. It's obvious that it's either her way or the highway.

There are parents who have expressed concerns about not raising their voices due to potential retaliation against their children. This is the atmosphere that the administration has fostered.

[Anonymous]

Curious what are some of this principal’s accomplishments this past school year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How did you get from "I know at least two of them are leaving" to "A quarter of the teachers are leaving"?

There are 9 out of 40 teachers leaving and more to follow, including some 20+ year long term teachers. The new principle is toxic.

That's a pretty hostile new-age accusation to throw out there. How about something more concise that actually conveys information?

Did you read the posts from parents at the school? Principal sounds pretty terrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious what are some of this principal’s accomplishments this past school year?

Biggest accomplishment: Destroyed a good elementary school and devastated a happy community.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like this principal doesn’t like her school community, so I can see why the community is reacting to her in this way. There is a lot of distrust and suspicion. Part of the problem is cultural differences. I find it annoying that Asians are not seen as the minority group that they are, and this principal seems to have this prejudice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like this principal doesn’t like her school community, so I can see why the community is reacting to her in this way. There is a lot of distrust and suspicion. Part of the problem is cultural differences. I find it annoying that Asians are not seen as the minority group that they are, and this principal seems to have this prejudice.

Sounds like she wants to push her woke anti-racist (meaning only black to her) agenda and doesn't view anyone else as a minority. I mean white kids are a minority at her school!

Keep voting for the woke progressive BOE / counsel
candidates! This is what you get. It all trickles down