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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]NP. I think every Haycock parent would be thrilled to have the interim principal stay permanently. Obviously that is not what he is looking for.  OP is asking some understandable questions. My opinion is that this interim is likely better than anyone Haycock can hire, that we are fortunate to have him, and that, as long as he is willing to stay, I am happy for the process to move slowly.

Re: the last principal, I don't disagree that many Haycock parents are a PITA, but it was the teachers who had issues with the principal. The parents sided with the teachers for both logical and likely personal reasons. It had become an untenable situation and something major needed to change. [/quote]

What exactly did the last principal want to do?[/quote]

[b]The former principal was a young, inexperienced guy named Jerome Donnelly, who had never been a principal before[/b].  His first 2-3 years as principal were relatively uneventful.  People didn't think he was great, and the number of teachers leaving started to increase, but there were no major problems.

Then, in early 2018, he announced that he was ending the longstanding practice of allowing teachers in the upper grades to focus on a particular subject area, with kids moving to different classes during the day.  And he did so unilaterally, without consulting with the teachers or families in advance and telling them at first that he wouldn't answer any questions about his decision.  Many of the teachers were unhappy and made clear that even more would leave if he didn't change his mind.  When the parents found out, most backed the teachers. Donnelly then backed off, but it was clear that he'd lost the trust of the teachers and parents, and he soon stepped down.  He was replaced with Augie Frattali, who had previously been the principal at Carson MS for many years (and obviously had lots of experience dealing with demanding AAP parents at a large school).  Frattali was the interim for the 2018-19 school year.

Next, over the summer of 2019, FCPS announced that Scott Bloom, who had been the principal at Freedom Hill ES in Vienna, would take over as the new principal.  Bloom was off to a reasonably good start but was arrested last December for having failed to report allegations of abuse by two teacher's aides at Freedom Hill.  Bloom was suspended following his arrest and Frattali returned.  As OP notes, there hasn't been much to suggest that FCPS has been looking very hard to find a permanent replacement.  [/quote]

This should have been a good first school for him to learn how to principal, with good experienced teachers and administration.  But the parents were totally out of control and ruined his career.

Now no one will touch the school.  No one who values their career.[/quote]

I wouldn’t say haycock has a lot of experienced teachers. Most seem to have taught under 10 years, many under 5.[/quote]

Yeah the teachers are very inexperienced at Haycock.  I have two kids there, and it is a tough working environment for the teachers for a number of reasons.  The biggest that I see are the crazy number of "type A" parents who are too involved.  The other issue is that as a school that is closer to DC, the real estate prices are very high in the surrounding areas.  As a teacher you will make the same salary teaching at Haycock as you will teaching in Chantilly where the cost of living is a lot lower.  You could make more teaching in Arlington county which is just down the road.

As to the experience level of the teachers in general at Haycock, most of the teachers my kids have had have been very early in their career.  For many it was their first year at Haycock or they had only been teacher for a few years.[/quote]

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