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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have to echo the sentiment of poor leadership (in both the HOS and AHOS) at this school. My child has been taught by many wonderful and dedicated teachers, but the school has been fraught with issues concerning leadership and communication (especially in the lower school.)

[b]The spring DL was a total disaster, and I have to blame that on the leaders not taking the time to develop a cohesive plan for use by all of the teaching staff! I understand that no one planned for this pandemic, but the Burgundy leadership left all of the teachers to fend for themselves. Some did a fantastic job, while others floundered. [/b]

This summer, Burgundy continued to push the message of on-campus learning, even though (from the sound of it) a number of the teachers were not on-board with this plan. They spent a lot of time and effort to prepare the environment for on campus learning, with full awareness of the possibility that school would have to start remotely. (I wonder how much effort went into their remote learning planning?) This abrupt shift in direction highlights the leadership’s shortsightedness and systemic failure maintain open lines of communication with their staff and the parents. For this, and several other examples from the past, I often wonder how the Heads of School have been able to continue with this lackluster performance year after year. I am especially displeased with Ms. Lener, and often wonder who thought she was a good candidate in the first place? Sometimes I feel like Burgundy hires some (not all) of it’s staff out of desperation.

Anyway, I still love this little school and the community within it. I wish the teachers the best of luck as they begin this school year, because I know it’s not going to be easy for them. However, after this year’s debacle I think the board needs to take a really hard look at Burgundy’s vision for the future and how to restore confidence in their ability to provide an effective education to our kids. I hope the leadership will respond to our comments as a wake-up call, and rise above their inadequacies![/quote]

Speaking to the bolded above, I agree that this was a huge failure and I am not confident that it will be different in the fall, based on langauge I see coming out in the plans. It has been said that "some" teachers will offer on-campus experiences in September and "teachers are encouraged" to offer additional content beyond the 45-90 minutes outlined for grades 1-2. That means they aren't required, but again, can do it if they feel like it.

[b]A message to Burgundy administrators and board members:[/b]

[b]We implore you to create and enforce standards and expectations [/b]for the teachers so all students can have a good experience.
[b]We implore you to offer transparency to parents about how decisions are being made[/b] and what the rest of the school year will look like. HOS Sindler said last week's meeting was in the name of transparency, when there has been little actual transparency other than a heads-up that a plan was about to be formalized by board vote. No information on why certain decision were made.
We recognize that no one can predict what will happen with this pandemic week-to-week, but [b]we implore you to be transparent with parents about what may or may not happen in October.[/b] We all know that K and 1st grades aren't on campus because teachers can't/won't come on campus. What happens if this continues in October? (Completely understandable if they need acccommodations due to health issues). However, it is then Burgundy's responsibility to hire additional staff who are willing to be on campus to deliver an education to young children who cannot learn via DL, supplementing whatever the WFH teachers are doing.
[b]We implore you to tell us if you are willing to hire additional staff [/b]to bring little ones back on campus? 
[b]Lastly, we implore you to tell us how we can help make this safe[/b] for everyone (we can have a PPE drive, etc.).[/quote]

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