The Decline of a Great School

This post is part 2 of a short series. 

By the second year money was flowing like water.  New materials flowed into classrooms, new computers were purchased for almost everyone, avenues of communication between school and parents were opened, teacher salaries increased, students were allowed more freedom.

Life seemed great.  But that was an illusion.  The principal was trying to buy good will for what was to come.

The cracks showed up in the third year.  The principal started playing favorites among the faculty.  The weakest, most compliant teachers became his inner circle.  His pets were given leadership responsibilities, raises, extra classroom resources.  His enemies were ignored, neglected and given nothing (not even what the rank-and-file got).  While nearly everyone else got a smartboard and new white boards, the art teacher continued to struggle making do with a chalkboard in her classroom. 

The principal started hiring new administrators.  Half of the very small teacher's lounge was converted into office space.  Now only a third of the faculty could be in that room at any one time.  Most teacher salaries were frozen, but administrator salaries (including the principal's) continued to increase at a double digit rate. The principal started making penny wise, pound foolish requests of the faculty.  Turn off the lights when you leave the room, don't set your classroom thermostat about 72 degrees.  I got an idiotic lecture about heat rising because I left a door open while hauling 200 pounds of musical equipment from the multi-purpose room to the library.  The principal ignores the fact I had my hands full during the process and had no way to open or shut the damn door.  (No, he did not offer to help me, a very small woman, finish moving the equipment once I explained what is going on.) 

Bigger, more substantial changes started to occur.  Those avenues of parental communication came back to bite the faculty in the butt.  Instead of listening to the faculty and their collective expertise, the principal listened more and more to selfish parent demands.  Teachers were no longer allowed to discipline students.  If a student was disrupting class, teachers were "encouraged" to send him to the office where nothing happened.  Teachers could no longer require work to be finished before a student could go to recess or lunch.  Homework requirement were loosened to the point of being non-existent.  Teachers were reprimanded for requiring students to follow directions or for criticizing students about their poor quality work.

When teachers were critical of the administration, they are ignored or reprimanded.  When teachers not in the principal's inner circle make requests, they were "accidentally" forgotten.  I never got a response from the principal to any of my emails.  When I stopped him in the hall once, and requested a conversation, the answer was, "No."  The art teacher got pregnant and immediately requested a long-term, art substitute for when she needed to go on maternity leave.  The principal "forgot" to find someone until three weeks before the art teacher left to have her baby.  Naturally, he couldn't find anyone capable of teaching art in that short length of time, so a general sub was used, and the kids' art class for the remainder of the year was a disaster.  I started getting physically injured from having to move musical instruments and equipment between teaching locations. (I had no classroom of my own.)  My pleas for assistance and a minimization of my teaching locations were ignored completed.  As in, I got no response whatsoever.

Direct communication between teachers and parents was all but outlawed.  The administration had approve of, or at least be a part of, all messages sent to parents.  There were new policies requiring teachers stay later each afternoon and come earlier each morning.  Faculty meeting were held whether they were needed or not.  The schedule was changed radically, without input from anyone but the principal's inner circle of pets, eliminating a prep period and assigning everyone extra duties. 

The end of the third year is when the exodus started.  Experienced teachers, great teachers, teachers who cared about quality education started leaving en masse.  By June, 25% of the faculty had announced they were not returning in the fall.