If you all know so much why aren’t you band directors?!?! I challenge any one of you step in the shoes of a band director and see what life is like. I can assure you that it won’t be an easy one, especially one for a teacher of color in this area. You know nothing about this teacher or his character. He has written letters of recommendation for his senior band students, offered his office as space for students to hold virtual appointments, supported his students during times of grief, and mentored students to be on track to graduate

These are the things you don’t hear about. He never advertises his deeds on social media for those who claim he’s self centered. He has high expectations for his students. He passionate when they do not meet them, not because they can’t, but because there’s not always effort. This man has been wronged and shame on the people in these comments who speak and are totally ignorant about who they speak of.

I have no idea of the details, but have a couple of thoughts:

1. He resigned Is it just possible that there was something not reported that made it better for him to resign than be fired? I don't know this to be true, but it is certainly possible.
2. According to DCUM, his social media reflects bias against white people. Did it reflect this before he resigned? His question to Youngkin at the CNN Townhall would indicate that he felt there was racism in the system--was this in his social media earlier?

There is a lot that we do not know.
He's had several school jobs over a short period of time. Is there a reason other than ambition?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:there is a lot more to this story. for instance, the Poe Middle School teacher making things up and disparaging the Annandale teacher and band kids. Holmes band teacher was also logging complaints because he wanted the high school kids treated like middle school kids. this is only a fraction of the crazy crap. lol the Poe teacher then interviewed for the position but didn’t get it.

This is so untrue and I love how you say it with such authority. Neither of those band directors have any plans of leaving their respective schools as both are close to retirement. The Holmes teacher has been there for more than 25 years!

It’s funny how you people claim to know so much, but when others have receipts you’re on mute. Complaints have be filed on both directors with HR for slander. Poe’s band director even stooped so low as to slander Annandale’s band director using Poe Middle School band’s Instagram account. But this guy is unprofessional?!?!? Typical of you people to paint him that way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There has to be more to this story. It's not ok to scream and yell, but being strict with a large group of kids is not a bad thing and probably needed. We've had lots of activities, including music and you need strict and structured, especially for music but one issue we see in MS/HS band is the lack of teaching and kids need to know the instrument or be in private music lessons to be successful as in ES they teach individual instruments but not in MS/HS so many kids struggle.

For a band director, yes, it's ok. Otherwise chaos and mediocrity.

My child is in private orchestra and there is no yelling or screaming. It's not ok. He's to focused on being a digital content creator and its not ok to be filming his classes and broadcasting them. He's not screaming in what I saw but he's pretty flat and bland and putting on a show for the camera. He's not making the classes fun or engaging. And, not much instruction, a few comments and that's it.

Well, orchestra is inside while marching band is outside with literal moving pieces/students and isn’t marching band twice as big as orchestra.

Screaming outside is a bit different so kids can hear vs. scream and being negative. From what he posted there was very little engagement with the students and he was very flat. Ideally marching bad should have 100-200 kids if it's fun and engaging.

Shows how little you know. Have you seen the marching bands in FCPS? Majority of them are small. Falls Church High School has 16. I guess that band director is ineffective as well and needs to be fired, according to your logic.

Anonymous wrote:The teacher’s social media posts really rub me the wrong way, but he may be a great teacher and band director. Do most young teachers post cringeworthy material on social media personal accts? It may be a generational thing. I graduated from college 15 years ago so may be oblivious.

What did he say on social media that rubbed you the wrong way? From what I saw he posts motivational videos. If you think that is a red flag, then maybe you’re the problem.

None of the competitions that he took his band to were easy! His students worked hard and earned EVERY award they received. You can say whatever you want to say about him. You don’t know him! He is passionate about his career and wants his students to succeed. There is no ego in it for him. Unlike you I’ve seen him in action first hand. He’s the sale of the earth!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He’s flat and not engaging, yet his band has won countless awards as soon as he set foot in the band room. It appears that you all have the facts! Just say it already! You don’t like the fact that a black male is acting black.

His marching band may have won countless awards playing easy pop music with a good show…there’s talent sure. But what about the concert band. I heard tons of kids were quitting and their quality in traditional music was way going down hill. The band alumni community have been watching.

I don't know about this man but people are getting tired of their kids not being able to do a sport all year because of band. Pick a season to require to stay after school. Not all year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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.

The ratings are needs improvement, effective, highly effective. Highly effective is extremely rare. Needs improvement as an overall score is not common and usually results in a PIP but doesn’t have to for a teacher within the 1st 3 years. Effective is the score for 80%+ of teachers. Highly effective is a score of 35-40. 31 is a very good score. Needs improvement is down around 20, I believe.

Depending on the subject taught, a good quality teacher can get a needs improvement in a sub-rating category just because enough students didn’t score high enough on one single score measure. Imagine teaching at a Title 1 school with high absences and getting a needs improvement sub score because 74% of students made expected progress instead of 75%.

These evaluations are only as valid as the relationship between the evaluator and evaluatee. If they want you gone, you’re gone.

Has anyone ever considered it suspect that the athletics director left after this guys’ first year and maybe he didn’t care and that’s why the rating was good because he was like peace out! Have fun!

And the new guy comes in and recommends firing him in the first semester he's there. That seems extreme.

It’s not that easy to just get rid of a teacher.

That's what happened. Great reviews for year 1. For year 2, two semesters of recommendation of do not reappoint. Gone.

There is more to this story. A do not reappoint has to come with countless steps like mentoring, progress plan and documentation. I suspect there was probably documentation from last year as well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The ratings are needs improvement, effective, highly effective. Highly effective is extremely rare. Needs improvement as an overall score is not common and usually results in a PIP but doesn’t have to for a teacher within the 1st 3 years. Effective is the score for 80%+ of teachers. Highly effective is a score of 35-40. 31 is a very good score. Needs improvement is down around 20, I believe.

Depending on the subject taught, a good quality teacher can get a needs improvement in a sub-rating category just because enough students didn’t score high enough on one single score measure. Imagine teaching at a Title 1 school with high absences and getting a needs improvement sub score because 74% of students made expected progress instead of 75%.

These evaluations are only as valid as the relationship between the evaluator and evaluatee. If they want you gone, you’re gone.

Has anyone ever considered it suspect that the athletics director left after this guys’ first year and maybe he didn’t care and that’s why the rating was good because he was like peace out! Have fun!

And the new guy comes in and recommends firing him in the first semester he's there. That seems extreme.

It’s not that easy to just get rid of a teacher.

That's what happened. Great reviews for year 1. For year 2, two semesters of recommendation of do not reappoint. Gone.

Anonymous wrote:
A lot of FCPS schools REQUIRE kids in symphonic band to be in the marching band. They can’t get a lot of kids to join, so to go to the higher level classes they have to join. Consequently, their musical performances often outshine schools from other districts who take students at all ability levels. I don’t know the policy at Annandale. But if you’ve got a lot of kids who don’t want to be there in the first place, who are then treated strictly, they will turn on you in an instant.

Every FCPS school, except TJ, requires the higher bands (at least) to be in Marching Band. The Virginia culture of marching bands is all about the bands and not about the kids and what’s best for them.