Reply to Springbrook HS Staff Letter

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[quote=Anonymous]document an exorbitant amount of data regarding student grades, interventions, and strategies in multiple locations (spreadsheets, communication logs, and in PLC notes). This not only creates an unsustainable workload but also takes valuable time away from meaningful planning, teaching and engagement with the students.
6. PLCs & SLOs: This year she has become fixated on ALL staff including "structured student discourse" in our planning and instruction to the point that it was a MANDATED topic objective on
ALL STAFF SLOs. Select Teachers are subjected to micromanagement via "target" PLCS which are observed by the entire administration team regularly (sometimes up to 10 people) with follow up observations the following day to document what is "actually" taught. Also, she has mandated that 50% of ALL instruction in ALL CLASSES be dedicated to "structured student discourse". It is impossible to do this daily in some classes such as PE or Math. It is also impossible to cover State and County mandated objectives and standards in addition to this 50% "structured student discourse" mandate. We suspect she is collecting our data for a personal dissertation or research project of some kind. We would appreciate it if you could look into this.
7. Lack of Clear Communication: While working under Principal Valentine's leadership there is a lack of clear and consistent communication. Decisions are often made without prior notice or explanation, leaving staff confused and unsure of expectations. Meeting dates are often added to calendars or changed with little to no notice.
8. Undocumented suspensions according to MCPS policy: Inconsistent transparency for student discipline & related staff communication. Ms. Valentine has been known to suspend students verbally, use the suspension as a threat to the student- and then excuse or not document the suspension at all.
9. The 2023-2024 School-Based Staff Climate Survey for Springbrook High School, as compared to all MCPS High Schools, has 22 of 33 areas of possible improvement and no areas of school strength.
a. Two relevant questions were question 14, "Overall, how positive is the working environment at your school?" and question 16, "How positive is the tone that school leaders set for the culture of the school?" The results from these questions dropped more than 20% from the year prior. These results demonstrate the effect Principal Valentine has created on the school's climate and culture.
We believe these issues, if left unaddressed, will continue to have a very negative impact on the working conditions at Springbrook High School. Staff members (and some students) are feeling unsafe, demoralized, undervalued, and trapped in an environment where our attempts at professionalism and collaborative discourse are met with punishment rather than support or collaboration. People are literally terrified to sign a letter like this and that is why it is being sent anonymously. We suggest you try to speak with the following former SBHS staff: John Weinshel, Adrian Charley and Dennis Scott in addition to current students and staff (in a safe place).
We respectfully request that you assist or that the Office of School Support and Improvement intervene address these concerns.
Thank you for your attention to these critical issues.
March 11, 2025[/quote]

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