Reply to Revolving Door at Holton

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]So here's what I don't get. You chose a school that educates, challenges, and inspires your daughter, one that increases her understanding and knowledge, and one that helps give her a sense of confidence and belonging. You know that the educational experience is better with a strong sense of community, mission, and legacy. The people responsible for that, the people who actually care about and build community and tradition, the people who hone the curriculum and teach your child, those are the teachers and staff that interact daily with your daughter.

While it's true those people can just get another job if they don't like Penny (and many of them have), that flippant attitude shows you have no idea what it takes to actually build a successful school community.

While some teachers have left with no regrets, there are many whose departures were truly heartbreaking. These are people who love the school and students, who have been devoted to the community for years if not decades, people who have developed programs and designed curricula that are at the heart of the educational program. They don't want to leave Holton, the school matters to them because their students matter to them, but they had to make a hard decision to look for work elsewhere. There are many like them who have chosen to stay for now, who hope that Penny is just a temporary blip in an otherwise great school. And somehow those devoted teachers are losers and they deserve to be abused and mistreated, just because they stay? Parents, is this really the message you want to send to faculty and staff at your daughter's school? Board members, is this really what you want them to hear? Administrators?[/quote]

Holton has been the kind of place that faculty and staff stay for a long, long time. Not only is it a great place to work but most teachers believe deeply in the school’s mission and are dedicated to girls’ education (esp secular). Looking for other jobs is possible—it’s easy to say there are plenty of other schools, and there are. But Holton has been the kind of place where the educators WANT to stay. Now it’s not, and there are plenty of veteran (beloved) teachers who are trying to figure out if they can outlast Penny. Most teachers hope they can just stay out of the sights of the current administration, which is crazy because there has never been fear with past heads. Maybe disapproval or dissatisfaction but nothing like this—fear of retaliation, no willingness to go to hr (they go right to penny), paranoia. It’s so unhealthy. Holton teachers will always give their best to their students. But as their best is dimmed by a hostile work environment, constant turnover, and absolute administrative incompetence, eventually students will come to feel
The effects. [/quote]

Everyone before me has said it beautifully. Even if parents and students didn't necessarily feel any shifts in the past two years, the culture and community are impacted by a mass exodus of skilled teachers and fearful remaining employees. To those of us who have been at Holton for longer than two years, the shift has been immense and will create reverberations for families and students for a long time.[/quote]

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