Reply to Shake Up at SSMA?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Well, management is a skill and not everyone has it.  The ED is basically MIA in the school's day to day operations.  Basically no parent involvement at all.  The guides are so great and my DC is doing so well there.  Seems like the ED has to go.  How would that happen?  The complaints about the board are they are a rubber stamp so are they really going to step up here?  The teachers need support and all the comments about a culture of fear are so disheartening.

I also feel like the managment layers are so unnecessary and wasteful.  I can't believe there is a post for an assistant principal now.  Too many hands...[/quote]

What do you mean no parent involvement? There is the SSMACA (PTA) that is very involved and has raised thousands of dollars for the school. I do think the parents have been too trusting with the ED and Board. There have been numerous red flags that should have resulted in action--20 pt drop on PMF, staff turnover, etc.[/quote]

Yes, I agree. The parents are VERY involved at SSMA. But parents do need to step up at tomorrow's board meeting now that we know what's happening behind the scenes. Guides will leave if the ED stays on and that's going to hurt re-enrollment.

I have been doing some research and I found interesting stuff on the DC PCS Board website.

First is the PMF you mentioned http://www.dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/2017-11-8%20PMF%20Score%20Card%20SY16-17_Shining%20Stars%20Montessori%20Academy%20PCS_2017.pdf

What I noticed is that SSMA doesn't rank on all of the criteria and has a score based only on 55 out of a total 100 points. If you look at Bridges, for example, they rank on the full 100 point scale http://www.dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/2017-11-8%20PMF%20Score%20Card%20SY16-17_Bridges%20PCS_2017.pdf

Where SSMA got killed last year vs the previous year was on attendance and re-enrollment. We lost 17 out of 18 points on those two factors alone. On the academic side of the PMF, all the PARCC scores were the same or went up versus the previous year http://www.dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/Shining%20Stars%20Montessori%20Academy%20PCS_EC_PK3-8_2016.pdf

If we can get attendance and re-enrollment up, we would actually be a Tier 1 school with a score of 41.5 out of 55 or 75% instead of 24.4 out of 55. That's way above the cutoff for Tier 1. So it's not the academics, which have improved with the new director. It's attendance and re-enrollment.

To me, that makes this board issue critical because we NEED re-enrollment.

The second thing is the Annual Report:

http://www.dcpcsb.org/report/annual-report/shining-stars-montessori-academy-pcs-annual-report

What I noticed when I went through it is that the woman listed as Operations Manager is now listed on SSMA's website as Director of Compliance & School Performance. And she only has a high school diploma. Plus she's only been at the school 6 months. So, it's not like she was promoted to director because of her unique institutional knowledge.  Not to be snobby, but this concerns me. To me, this looks like someone who is getting promoted not based on merit, but on allegiance to the ED. All of the other admin/directors listed in this Annual Report have advanced degrees.

Someone wrote about a "climate of fear". How about a climate of cronyism?

Anyway, SSMA is really close to Tier 1. If we can get rid of the toxic environment, we can fix the attendance and re-enrollment issues and we will instantly be a Tier 1 school. [/quote]

That's a lot of "ifs". When you can't get parents to get kids to school on time, there is no sense of respect for school. It's not a daycare center and that's how some of them treat it. You have to simply un-enroll them and move on. Check the PMF for K-2 Reading..what in the world is that? Instructional support is the real problem area. It is virtually non-existent and linked directly to horrible staffing.  Our lower el experience was simply phenomenal.  But this past year in Upper El has been just say "less than stellar." That's where all the lack of leadership and planning manifests itself. Meetings with the ED and former principal were a waste of time--no clue  what to do! I fully expect the PARCC scores to be flat out awful. I don't really agree to with all the PARCC\MAP testing but I do recognize it's importance in placement.

Be very snobby and down right anal! The school needs more parents like that to survive. This may be the last straw unless radical changes are made. At the core, independent charter schools are a business. No way a business can survive like this. The problems won't be fixed anytime soon. I'd recommend looking at other options. We knew in November we couldn't continue and had to scramble to come up with a plan. The lower el experience had us fooled.[/quote]

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