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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I've now been at 2 FCPS schools that went bad after a principal change.  Dramatically bad.  In both cases, the principals had come from Title 1 schools to high performing schools in middle class areas where SOL passing rates were great and the school had been kind of under the radar, with longtime principals who weren't chasing every FCPS fad and buzzword.  Principals who understood that true instructional leadership means hiring and supporting great teachers...and then largely removing obstacles so that those great teachers can stay great teachers.

Toxic principals I have been heartbroken to encounter have been FCPS bots...diving 100% into every FCPS fad and trend from central office.  Favoring compliance over brilliance, conformity over individual teacher strengths.

In both cases, the new principals quickly created new "coach" positions to create more layers of bureaucracy, changed one CLT a week to 2, and turned team planning time into dog and pony shows where people presented spreadsheet after spreadsheet of data with little or no instructional value.  Principals who created so much extra work, so much unnecessary stress.

In both cases, the teachers they targeted and started to make miserable were the outliers...the ones who were experienced and confident and effective enough to push back against insane time wasting edicts.  Usually teachers who were smarter than them.

I recall vividly one of our most brilliant teachers, one whose students got the highest test scores in her grade by far.  She was a divergent thinker, someone who planned on the fly, someone who had unique ideas and had her students do all kinds of engaging and fun projects.  She engaged in quiet rebellion about some things....like, teaching phonics when central office boys weee pushing Lucy Calkins or bust.  Having kids sing jingles to memorize multiplication facts.  Previous principal loved her, new Central Office Bot principal hated her, and over 3 years made her life a misery.  Big things and small...bad evaluations (claiming her higher test scores were evidence she wasn't a team player), removing her from leadership positions, moving her to another team, moving her to a room without windows.

She transferred to another school with a principal who had previously been at our school.  Over 3 years, at least 6 of our best staff moved to that school.  Another half dozen retired...these were not teachers who had planned to retire that year necessarily, but the new principal was toxic so they got out when they could.  Several more transferred to other schools for different opportunities, but wouldn't have thought of leaving that school before the principal change.

I WISH anyone in leadership would car about these kinds of school climate tsunamis.  But they just seem to be concerned about getting people who play the game and are all in for the dog and pony show stuff.   [/quote]

Clearly, this is a sensitive topic for you, but as a teacher, I’d like to let you know that the coach position and two CLT’s have absolutely nothing to do with school leadership. Those are mandates from the county and your previous principal would have had to have done them as well.

With over 20 years of teaching experience, I can tell you that your beloved teacher was undoubtedly a bully to all the other teachers on staff, no matter how great their test scores were. In addition, many of those teachers lie about their test scores; it’s a part of their whole bullying persona.[/quote]

2 CLTS and coaches are not mandated by county.

We have no coach and 1 CLT a week this year. [/quote]

Wow jealous~ we have a do nothing coach(not his fault but that is how he is seen) and 2 mandatory CLT's-plus all he other pointless meetings.[/quote]

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