Reply to Call to discuss the state of Hardy 05/15/23

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[quote=Anonymous]Current Hardy parent. I’m not sure about all the ins and outs of what is happening and I trust those who are closest to the situation. However, some of the examples of this principal’s failures don’t seem to have much to do with him specifically and have a lot to do with DCPS red tape and this school system’s inefficiency. I understand that at the heart of the issue may be how he responds to these concerns. But some of these concerns are not new.  
As an example, someone mentioned a lack of instruction in a class this year. One of my kids was at Hardy during principal Cookes first or second year. A teacher fell ill in the early weeks of school. My kid had subs for that core class until April or May. Principal Cooke did not alert any of the parents that this was happening until some parents realized it was going on in January—got fed up and organized meetings with him about it . The kids had nearly no instruction that year and worksheets and goofing off seemed perfectly acceptable to Cooke until the parents got mad about this. It was only at that point that any attention was given to that class. This happened in a few classes during my kids’ 3 years at Hardy. Teacher absenteeism, inability to fire/rehire quickly, use of of long term subs is a DCPS wide problem that has only been made worse by the pandemic. My kids’ years at Hardy under Cooke were “meh” at best. They had a couple of good teachers, some terrible ones, and a lot of absenteeism from a lot of teachers.  The fighting was also constant—they didn’t have Snapchat but there were fights all the time. This was 4 or 5 years ago. Was it acceptable then? No. Is it acceptable now? No. But is there a hint of hysteria about the amount of fighting that is taking place? I don’t know.  My current middle schooler there has never mentioned feeling unsafe and said the fighting is mostly between a small group of 7th graders. I would not feel afraid to send my kid there.

I am more concerned about the 90 minute block classes. It sounds like the principal had a chance to fix this problem and sort out better options for electives and hire new teachers and failed to do so. If that is correct, that is very concerning. Why did that happen? I worry my kid cannot concentrate for this long and next year they will be bored again. Is there any hope of changing the schedules now? Will there be more teachers hired? My child has complained of large class sizes and next year I had hoped would be different.

If the principal is not removed is there any chance he will receive better support and guidance as a second year principal? What are steps short of removal that can help? I’m just thinking long term. If he’s still here next year how will we know he is getting the help and supervision he needs. [/quote]

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