Reply to Shake Up at SSMA?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Here's what's happening at SSMA. The ED is a control freak who starting in the Fall of 2017 instituted a draconian time card system for all employees, drastically reduced autonomy for her direct reports and created an environment of intimidation and fear among the staff.

She has fired a number of staff members, some for minor incidents, as a show of force to intimidate the remaining staff. I don't expect good teachers to remain n that climate.

I have no idea why the sudden change. But staff morale has suffered. And with the firing of the Principal, it is is really, really bad. Most of the teachers liked the Principal. They had petitioned to get rid of the previous one. And so they saw a real positive change at SSMA with the new one. She was really hands-on, friendly and quick to respond. All of that changed with the new controlling system.

As for the ED, she really lacks interpersonal skills, knows almost none of the students, hardly goes into classrooms, goes to almost no school functions but has virtually no oversight from the board. As the saying goes, a fish rots from the head down.[/quote]

So the best case scenario is the Board and ED are replaced and a new ED is hired. Than reform begins in the key areas of staffing and instruction among others. Man, that's a big job. A lot of people think they can work in education. Not that easy. SSMA may be looking at 3 years until really stable.[/quote]

I am more optimistic than that. But only if we see change. The last Principal was good. She wasn't just a warm and friendly personality but someone who helped recruit strong Guides to the school. Someone told me she has an in at the Montessori Institute and knows a lot of good teachers because of that. I know that a lot of the current teachers at SSMA came onboard as a result of the departing Principal. So I think she put a lot of the building blocks in place for further growth at SSMA. But she insulated the Guides and assistants from all the craziness at the admin level. Now that she's gone, my fear is that that the best teachers will leave too. And at the end of the day, it's the teachers who matter most.

The thing is the ED's heart is in the right place. If you've ever talked to her, you can tell she is passionate about education. But, on the people skills front, she is hopeless. She's not a people manager. She's more of a researcher, an academic. Read this thread and you'll see what I mean: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/681911.page#11875733

This comment caught my eye: "I'm in the field - as in a senior admin at a HRCS - and the position summary is insane to me. Sounds like she is at odds with the rest of the team and looking to pay an ally: "

That was six months ago. And so now she's gone and fired the Director of Operations and the Principal -- who, by the way, is the FOURTH in FIVE years. And it was Teacher Appreciation week last week too. That's unconscionable. Clearly, that poster was right. The ED's basically at war with her own staff. And so she created a layer between herself and them. Now she's even advertising for an assistant principal position too http://www.shiningstarspcs.org/images/pdf/career/2018/assistant_principal_1.pdf That's going to make the ED even more removed from day-to-day operations.

It's crazy how much SSMA is wasting on consulting fees and admin costs. I bet it's a half million dollars a year. If the ED is not replaced, the admin chaos will continue, guides will leave, parents will leave, and SSMA will fall down to Tier 3. There's a board meeting on Saturday. Let's see what happens.[/quote]

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