Anonymous wrote:Back to the original question. For starters, a uniform communication system does not seem to be in place. I was volunteering in my son's classroom and even my child teacher seemed unaware of basic schedule changes that day. I had taken the morning to be there so this was annoying. I could see it was also frustrating to the teacher.

And to 09:28, on here, it's all gossip. Go to the source. And I agree with the post that said he would wait to see what else happens. If more murch teachers, staff or other personnel leave we should be concerned.

my point is just that if it was gossip (which I agree it is), it should not have been brought up in this forum in the first place. simply that.

Back to the original question. For starters, a uniform communication system does not seem to be in place. I was volunteering in my son's classroom and even my child teacher seemed unaware of basic schedule changes that day. I had taken the morning to be there so this was annoying. I could see it was also frustrating to the teacher.

And to 09:28, on here, it's all gossip. Go to the source. And I agree with the post that said he would wait to see what else happens. If more murch teachers, staff or other personnel leave we should be concerned.

Murch grandparent here. I don't think anything said here will determine the truth of what happened. I suggest perhaps a talk to this teacher directly might help those that are still curious. But from what I can tell from her most recent posts she is doing well. I did not know her really well beyond her art blog posts but I very much appreciated her communication with parents, including her goodbye letter.

I am concerned though about the 'no one is minding the school' comment.

Not a Murch parent but I find it refreshing to see a teacher gave some notice on why she was really leaving. The teacher got sick or wants to spend more time with her children is BS.

This is DCUM -- no common sense or basic courtesy is required!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: do not give any facts. how can we address the problems if you give us nothing to start from to act and address the problems

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One minute the teacher is oh so horrible for airing on the forum and now you want facts, you mean more gossip? And how would you 'address' the problems? Are you the principal?

no, I am not the principal, just a Murch parent. if you read my post, you should see that I was referring to what that poster said, that the school is chaotic , it is not clear who is in charge and that "we should watch the school". I asked the poster for facts. chaotic why?, why he/she said that it is unclear who is minding the place - specific facts, examples and situations the poster witnessed - noy just vague references to some not better specified gloomy situation corroborated by "rumours I heard from others" and similar stuff. I am not blindly defending the school, on the contrary, I have a lot invested in that school, my kids education and future, I want to know the specific facts to make my own opinion (and not, if you say the school is not well run and chaotic and I ask you for specific examples, I am not asking for gossips, I am asking you to support your allegations with facts, the same facts I assume you based your assessment on). and these are the problems I would address as parent.
as for the teacher, I never said she is horrible for airing her issues. I just said I found her note unsettling. I wonder if she posted it in the heat of the moment, and maybe in six months from now she will regret doing it. anyway, even in this case, I do not want gossips. she herself put out a public note saying that she was leaving bacause of several negative issues she had with how the school was run (=the principal) and the main reason was the location of the class. she is the one who opened the vase and made the reasons for her departure fair game, nobody else did, so is perfectly fair for us to consider whether the principal in this issue was fair or not. to me, the school has awful space problems, he made this call, I frankly think she could have worked things out. but this is my opinion and I can understand that the teacher and other people may have a different and I respect it.. what I find unfair is that another poster came back and said this is not the real reason (the one that the teacher herself gave in her note), the real reason is that there was some gossip or misunderstanding weith another teacher, the principal was very unfair and treated the art teacher bad. when I ask for facts, I am not asking for gossip. again, if you say that the princiapl was very unfair, actually was "hyper paranoid" I want to know the facts, so I can judge by myself if his behavior was justified or not. and the reason for the meeting is not just gossip, is very very relevant to determine wether the principal's behavior was justified or not. gossip is saying the principal is paranoid without giving the facts. in short, if you say that somebody is mean, you need to share all the facts so people can make their own opinion, or you should not say anything, to me this is just common sense and basic courtesy

Anonymous wrote: do not give any facts. how can we address the problems if you give us nothing to start from to act and address the problems

.
One minute the teacher is oh so horrible for airing on the forum and now you want facts, you mean more gossip? And how would you 'address' the problems? Are you the principal?

Anonymous wrote:How is it that the exiting teacher has taken up so much space on this thread? My thought is that the school constantly needs a scapegoat, and that one way or another, they find one. The parent culture at Murch is supportive and enduringly optimistic, but blindly loyal. God help you if you complain about anything or ask for there to be better standards. Art in the trailor is a terrible solution to a terrible problem, and therein lies the rub with DCPS. To be in that system is like being the pea in a shell game.

As for the real reason for this thread, the principal this year is a good enough sort, but the school overall appears chaotic and disordered. It is hard to know who is minding the store, and from stories I have heard as well as what I have seen personally, Murch has become a school we should all be watching more closely.

19.07 here (yes, I know, I have too much free time today) - again, as others, you make strong statements without support. the teacher a scapegoat. of what? of whom? parents were not involved with her choice to leave. something happened apparently between her and the principal and I feel that we do not have all the info on what happened to make the call (or chastise the principal as hyper paranoid). I find her note on the listserve a little unsettling though. you talk about the blindly loyal parents' culture at Much. but where? there are almost 1000 parents there and based at least on the parents of my DD's classmates, for most of us the quality of our kids's education is the paramount, and this is what at least I am loyal to. I liked a lot the previous principal, but when last year the counselor's position was in danger, my DH and I voiced our strong disappointment very loudly, and we were hardly the only ones.

your last phrase is the usual garden variety of vague and unsupported gloomy warnings "from stories I have heard" and "who is monding the store" and the school is chaotic and we should watch the school. you do not give any facts, how can we address the problems if we do not even know what they are. I do not follow blindly other poeple's opinions, I want to form my own based on facts. if the school is chaotic tell me why. if we should watch the school, explaint why and what we shouls watch for. otherwise your post is just pointless bashing that serve really no purpose. you give us nothing to form our own opinion, and nothing to start from to act and address the problems

Anonymous wrote:As for the real reason for this thread, the principal this year is a good enough sort, but the school overall appears chaotic and disordered. It is hard to know who is minding the store, and from stories I have heard as well as what I have seen personally, Murch has become a school we should all be watching more closely.

Chaotic and disordered? How?

What stories have you heard? What have you heard personally?

Anonymous wrote:I think it's nice that she had enough respect for the community to try provide to families an explanation of why she was leaving. To view it as a ' airing out' is purely a matter of opinion. For those of us who knew her, this was an important part of the transition process.

For those of you who knew her, I'm sure it was important to understand her perspective and explanation. The rest of us--the vast majority if the families in the school--really didn't need anything more than a goodbye. And some of us resent her need to create drama.

How is it that the exiting teacher has taken up so much space on this thread? My thought is that the school constantly needs a scapegoat, and that one way or another, they find one. The parent culture at Murch is supportive and enduringly optimistic, but blindly loyal. God help you if you complain about anything or ask for there to be better standards. Art in the trailor is a terrible solution to a terrible problem, and therein lies the rub with DCPS. To be in that system is like being the pea in a shell game.

As for the real reason for this thread, the principal this year is a good enough sort, but the school overall appears chaotic and disordered. It is hard to know who is minding the store, and from stories I have heard as well as what I have seen personally, Murch has become a school we should all be watching more closely.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate when people post vague references to some awful truth without actually saying anything.

Parent here. I have volunteered in the art room a few dozen times this year for my son's class and two years ago when I now middle schooler was at Murch. I just had to chime in seeing as a lot of misunderstanding is being spread here and I feel I've gotten to be close to this teacher over the year and s based on the factscan speak on her behalf.

The art teacher did not resign because of the room change only. She was a pretty flexible person who would have make do with a room without water. To all who know her, it was pretty obvious that she loved the kids, the community and her job. Her own kids go here. She lives a block away. And she would have loved to stay in her community school has things not gone very wrong. As far as the sink, she was able to make my own kids make amazing art out of trash for goodness sakes. Obviously she was enough of an outside the box thinker and she would have been fine without a sink, had things not unfolded as they did.

As far as I know her leaving was directly triggered by a meeting with the principal. The principal called her into some interrogation meeting based on some untrue gossip or misunderstanding he got from another teacher. She strongly felt he was purposely trying to both humiliate and intimidate her by the way the meeting was set up, school secretary taking notes and door open, her crying. She was very shaken up from the experience and even three days later when I volunteered in her class, she could not speak of it without breaking down. I tried to change her mind but it was as if she's seen the devil. She just knew she could not do it.

Despite all the wonderful things he's been telling parents, including me, about her and posting on the website, I was shocked to learn that he has never once apologized to her personally for putting her through such a scarring experience; and all based on absolute garbage gossip. Who'd want to work for a hyper-paranoid leader whose target is on your back? I could tell that it was a very hard decision for her to make.

It's unfortunate that the principal is as paranoid about gossip as he is for most of what I do hear about him is actually hopeful. I really hope next year he'll relax a bit and see that despite all the talk we all do, we all wish him well. As far as I know the art teacher is now very content with her new decision, so perhaps a new school year could begin where we all call to our higher selves and not fall prey to our weaknesses. I certainly hope this will be the only incident such as this.

06/20/2012 20:02 here, and I still think that your message is vague and does not tell the story fairly for the poeple involved. the issue is how is the new principal. some people, including me, posted their impression based on their first hand direct dealing with him. any opinion is obviously welcome, including the negative ones. but your post is based on second hand related experience, and most of all, you keep saying that the reason for the principal's action was mere garbage gossip, even referring to a hyper paranoid leader, apparently basing all this on gossip yourself, since you were part of it and you did not talk to all the people involved. moreover, after using this harsh assessment of the principal, you do not give us the tools to make our own judgment since you do not say what the gossip was. this is very relevant. in a MS school I know a teacher walked into a room to find a teacher inappropriqtely touching a child. you can bet she ran to the principal and there was an unpleasant meeting before the police was called. this is an extreme example that does not have anything to do with our situation, but it is just to show that the nature of the problem is relevant to determine if the reaction of the principal was justified or not. at this point we should hear all the bells and know all the details of the situation to judge. sorry for the long post, my point is that if we post something in response to the question how is the new principal, good or bad, we should stick to our personal direct experience, and give all the facts so readers can make up their own minds based on the facts and not on somebody else's judgment. at this point, I am left with the curiousity to go both to the principal and to the teacher,( who BTW I am sorry to see go) and aske them WTH happened.
ps. for the people downtown
just think about doing your job, especially during business hours, that would be enough

I think it's nice that she had enough respect for the community to try provide to families an explanation of why she was leaving. To view it as a ' airing out' is purely a matter of opinion. For those of us who knew her, this was an important part of the transition process.

Can anyone name a school where the principal is loved and admired by every staff member? Everyone is replaceable, including the principal. Let's see what the new year brings. If more teachers leave because of mistreatment, then judge. If not the reason for this teacher's departure can be put to rest.

Who is judging harshly? Where is the hatred? It sounds like people are saying that while a great teacher maybe not a great fit.

I am a parent too. Not embarrassed. What I found embarrassing was her trying to air her grievances in public. When questioned she changed her story. In addition she feels comfortable enough to leave her children at the school sobi can't imagine she feels hatred.