Anonymous wrote:The article said that the year before he received an effective rating. 31 out of 40. I know nothing about how FCPS rates teachers, but 31 out of 40 does not seem very high to me.
Could some teachers weigh in on this?

There is likely a lot on both sides of this issue that we do not know.

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately, we can only hear this guy’s version as the school is not able to share about personnel matters. Teachers are really difficult to hire right now, and there’s a lot that mediocre teachers can get away with simply because there are so few qualified candidates to replace them. In other words, he really had to be awful for administrators to go through this process. My educated guess is that the decision to non-renew was not done lightly and without specific evidence.

The guy posted a lot of very narcissistic stuff on Instagram, and he has made a bunch of heavy-handed comments about how white parents at Annandale (how many are even left there) are out to get him, but I do feel sorry for teachers who get solid ratings one year only to see their ratings tank the next year when there’s a change in supervisors (Annandale had appointed a new head of student activities). I thought Shawn DeRose was one of those principals who walked on water - which is why Ricardy Anderson and Fabio Zuluaga made sure he was appointed principal of AHS - but he doesn’t seem to have mediated this situated well at all. And now the usual folks such as Sujatha Hampton of the NAACP are demanding an investigation by FCPS.

Anonymous wrote:The Annandale HS band director has claimed he was unjustly terminated from his position due to racism.

https://wtop.com/fairfax-county/2023/06/fairfax-co-band-director-says-there-was-a-coordinated-effort-to-get-him-fired-parents-are-outraged/

Ironically, if a student made such claims there would be a whole reporting process under the new equity policy, but one suspects any such claims by an employee will be met with FCPS’s typical litigation defense.

The guy posted a lot of very narcissistic stuff on Instagram, and he has made a bunch of heavy-handed comments about how white parents at Annandale (how many are even left there) are out to get him, but I do feel sorry for teachers who get solid ratings one year only to see their ratings tank the next year when there’s a change in supervisors (Annandale had appointed a new head of student activities). I thought Shawn DeRose was one of those principals who walked on water - which is why Ricardy Anderson and Fabio Zuluaga made sure he was appointed principal of AHS - but he doesn’t seem to have mediated this situated well at all. And now the usual folks such as Sujatha Hampton of the NAACP are demanding an investigation by FCPS.

Anonymous wrote:Our band director used to yell. She was a jerk. But, she also got results.

WTH are you even basing this on? One teacher's version of events? Do you know anything about FCPS evaluation policies? If this guy was in his first three years, the bar to remove a teacher through the evaluation process is relatively easy within some very tight deadlines & procedures. Shawn DeRose wouldn't have been able to move forward with a dismissal without following everything to the letter.

Anonymous wrote:The article said that the year before he received an effective rating. 31 out of 40. I know nothing about how FCPS rates teachers, but 31 out of 40 does not seem very high to me.
Could some teachers weigh in on this?

There is likely a lot on both sides of this issue that we do not know.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Madison band director is known to be very rough on kids during practices but he got congratulated for the band’s success, not canned. But there may have been other things going on at Annandale.

As someone who had a kid in Madison marching band, that occured to me when reading this story, too. The things the Annandale director did are EXACTLY what the Madison director does, but people at Madison are okay with the competitive, band-is-everything attitude because they want the trophies (and the overall environment is pretty high-stress/high achieving so band doesn't stand out in that regard.) If I believed that complaining about how the band director treated students would have changed things, I would have done it, although I think this situation sounds pretty fishy and definitely deserves looking into, if for no other reason than it seems procedures weren't followed correctly.

Anonymous wrote:The Madison band director is known to be very rough on kids during practices but he got congratulated for the band’s success, not canned. But there may have been other things going on at Annandale.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately, we can only hear this guy’s version as the school is not able to share about personnel matters. Teachers are really difficult to hire right now, and there’s a lot that mediocre teachers can get away with simply because there are so few qualified candidates to replace them. In other words, he really had to be awful for administrators to go through this process. My educated guess is that the decision to non-renew was not done lightly and without specific evidence.

There's more to it than that.

My oldest is now 18 and going to college. I've seen really crappy teachers stay their entire career, and excellent teachers get pushed out. My son's English teacher lasted a year, even though she was the best writing teacher he ever had. My son's AP calculus teacher and my daughter's science teacher have been teaching at their respective schools for years, and basically do the lesson by rote, with minimal effort and no motivation or inspiration, and fly under the radar because they've been there a long time and have a system for admin work.

This teacher might be a great teacher, you never know.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately, we can only hear this guy’s version as the school is not able to share about personnel matters. Teachers are really difficult to hire right now, and there’s a lot that mediocre teachers can get away with simply because there are so few qualified candidates to replace them. In other words, he really had to be awful for administrators to go through this process. My educated guess is that the decision to non-renew was not done lightly and without specific evidence.

There's more to it than that.

My oldest is now 18 and going to college. I've seen really crappy teachers stay their entire career, and excellent teachers get pushed out. My son's English teacher lasted a year, even though she was the best writing teacher he ever had. My son's AP calculus teacher and my daughter's science teacher have been teaching at their respective schools for years, and basically do the lesson by rote, with minimal effort and no motivation or inspiration, and fly under the radar because they've been there a long time and have a system for admin work.

This teacher might be a great teacher, you never know.