Over 30 people crammed into a tiny conference room at the Brattleboro Food Co-op Tuesday night with another 25 or so out in the hall outside to participate in a School Board planning session for future “public outreach” meetings that the board plans to hold. The meeting began with an hour long open session during which people were allowed to speak for two minutes each.
A number of parents and teachers spoke with criticism of the schools including over-reliance on data and standardized tests, changes in teaching methods and management style, treatment of experienced teachers, and other issues.
By contrast, a large contingent of teachers from Academy School also spoke, many of them younger, with the large majority of them saying that Academy School is a wonderful and supportive place to teach and that they feel honored to be there. Many of them also praised standardized tests, standards-based curriculum, and data-driven instruction as modern tools that help them to be better teachers.
Windham Southeast Superintendent Ron Stahley made brief remarks, pointing out how well teachers at Academy rated their school in the most recent T.E.L.L. report.
Principal Andy Paciulli of Academy had even briefer remarks, praising his school and pointing out that a number of his teachers were there to speak and that he looked forward to hearing their comments.
What follows is an abbreviated transcript (paraphrased) of the comment period, followed by a summary of the planning process that followed.
Public Comment on Brattleboro Public Elementary Schools
School Board Chair Margaret Atkinson declared a two minute limit to public comments and as at last week’s grievance hearing, admonished attendees to be respectful, refrain from personal attacks, and not interrupt others. She explained that when the meeting was planned, they had not expected members of the public to attend and hadn’t planned for that contingency. But since members of the public were there, they were prepared to give them one hour to allow as many to speak as possible.
The goal of the meeting, Atkinson said, was “to generate ideas to structure public engagement.”
Jen Rice: 22 years in Brattleboro, two children in the public schools. Taught 18 years in another school district. It’s very important to have a chance to talk to the school board. It’s not a time for the board to put up defenses or to create “sides” but to listen and learn. When administrators are present, it’s very hard for employed teachers to speak out and many don’t feel safe doing so. I implore the board to find a way to talk to staff and teachers about their concerns. It’s a wonderful opportunity for the board and administration to hear from the public and for schools to improve. Listen and investigate — don’t just dismiss concerns.
Gale Greenleaf: 10 years teaching in Brattleboro. I just left to teach in another district because of frustration and grief over how we meet our children’s needs, their actual needs. There are a number of things I was asked to do while teaching here that constituted malpractice on my part. I was told by administrators that if I didn’t like it, I could leave. I think it’s a loss when we lose teachers because they feel pushed out. What happened to developmentally appropriate practice? How much play should children be allowed?
Greenleaf continued: There is a disparity between teachers who are allowed to do as they wish and others, like me, who were told in no uncertain terms to cease and desist. We can’t just be meeting the needs of the bean counters, here or in Montpelier or DC. Teachers need to be empowered to teach.
Andrew Paciulli: I can only speaK for my school but we do this every day — we’re constantly seeking ways to improve and to measure our improvement better. I’m really proud of what we do.
Paciulli thanked the public for coming but said that with regard to some staff being afraid to speak, “I know I have a lot of staff here from Academy and I want them to speak.”
Diana Mazucchi: Retired teacher. Mazucchi said that she retired a few years ago because she felt she couldn’t focus her teaching solely on standardized tests.
Deb Cardone: Many of us are here to speak of Academy School. I love my job and the school. I feel honored to be at Academy. We have many discussions about what’s best for the kids. We have fun, we dance, we sing, we take field trips throughout the year, we have art in the classroom… The administration supports us and cares about our well-being. We embrace change. We use data to inform our instruction. When people come to our school, they’re impressed.
Chelsea Wheeler: Oak Grove Kindergarten. I feel proud of our school. We do a lot with curriculum but that’s good, because the curriculum helps us to know what works with kids. We’re doing a good job. Kids are allowed to play a lot but we also have high academic expectations.
Sheila Linton: Community member and parent. I know from my experience as a student in the schools and as a parent that we have no resource against administration. The School Board is expected to comply with whatever watered down information they get from them. It’s an old boy system. I know dozens of parents with concerns.
School Board Member Mark Truhan: Your time’s up.
Linton: I just need a minute. The process is broken every step of the way. Process makes it harder for people to protest or complain. We need to not turn a blind eye to the problems, large and small. Community members need to be able to give anonymous feedback. It’s ok to love the District but not to minimize the experience of those who haven’t had such a great time.
Andy Davis: Canal Street School in the 1980s. Taught in the District 30 years. I watched the meeting where Vicki Roach read her letter. I was surprised that adminstration didn’t address any of her issues. We need a safe space for staff to speak. It’s ironic that the day her letter was published in the Reformer, the top story was about Dover Elementary School. Dover has high test scores and a lot of freedom for teachers. It’s a very different culture in that school from what’s going on here. We have problems.
Davis continued: I look at our test scores. The public is always assured that test scores are not the whole story. Those assurances are not accurate. The emphasis is on data but not all the relevant data. Changes have been made to improve test scores. I risk saying this but schools have changed. They’re less collaborative and more from the top down, more data-based with less across-the-curriculum. Some of these changes are reflected in a change in the style of management. These changes are in the last ten years.
Teacher, Academy School: There have been changes in the last ten years. Academy School has become really student-centric. We have great professional development and lots of data and analysis. We believe in each other and because of that, our kids believe in themselves.
Applause. David Cadran from the Co-op comes in to tell us that there’s a larger room down the hall. Silence. Another comment is heard. Jill Stahl-Tyler of the School Board says she feels uncomfortable not moving to a larger room with so many stuffed in the current room and a crowd out in the hall unable to hear. No one appears to declare a decision but everyone walks down the hall to the larger, climate-controlled room with a collective sigh of relief.
Chris: Teacher at Academy School, two children attending there. Academy School is very child-centered. My children love it. They really feel like Academy Stars. We have cheerleaders at school for the tests. Our children actually look forward to the NECAP (standardized test). They set goals and are proud when they meet them. I’m glad their progress is being monitored.
Tara Sullivan: Green Street parent. My son was a student at Green Street for three years but now he’s at St. Michael’s. I want to speak for kids who are above grade level. Several other parents and I met with school administrators a few years back but nothing changed. So we moved him to another school and he’s soaring this year. He was bored to tears at Green Street. We’ll be back for middle school, and we hope things will have changed.
Susan: Parent. Overall, I’m happy with the schools but I was shocked at Tuesday’s meeting by how badly run it was. The setup was bad with the two sides facing each other over the School Board. I didn’t like it when the person who I went to hear speak was not allowed to do so. I was upset when I had to witness her break down and suffer humiliation. Lauren Ashley helped my son learn. She helped him develop a work ethic.
Susan continued: I don’t like bullying. I wasn’t comfortable with the atmosphere of that meeting. I wrote you, Ron — you didn’t write back to my letter. Teachers at Academy may be happy this week but things can change in a minute. I don’t want to see anyone hurt. I want a fast resolution to this.
Maureen: 19 years at Academy School. The curriculum helps new teachers. Paciulli has done everything he can to turn around a school in chaos. Paciulli will bend over backwards to help us. We support Andy. We are happy. We are proud of Andy and that he’s going to DC to meet the president as Teacher of the Year from Vermont.
Applause. Atkinson asked the audience not to applaud because that turns it into a popularity contest and some people might be intimidated.
Eric Cummings: 7 years at Academy School. This is the most comfortable school I’ve ever taught at. I love it when we do the NECAP and PACE tests. One thing — earlier, I had time management issues and was called into the office to discuss them. I knuckled down and now I’m an AMES Web manager and attend BMI (math institute). Older teachers who say they were pushed out — there are retired teachers who’ve come back to Academy as substitutes so they must feel supported.
Cai Silver: 8 years teaching in Brattleboro schools, 8 years in another school district. I see the difference in the system: The other school district, every year, they have this principal’s evaluation going around in the school, and also the superintendent evaluation going around. It’s anonymous. I thought that was a really good system. For the eight years that I taught [in this school district], there wasn’t this kind of evaluation going around. There’s a teacher’s evaluation but there isn’t an administrator’s evaluation.
Jim Olson: 3 years as Behavior Specialist at Oak Grove Elementary. Data-driven instruction and standardized testing are not negative. Data is gathered all the time. Great teachers work with the curriculum but also look at data and analyze it. Data enables a rich, amazing conversation about improving student performance on tests. I’m super proud to be there. The kids are happy. Data is a really powerful tool to help kids reach their potential.
Becky Graber: Former Brattleboro teacher, teaches elsewhere now. I left because I didn’t like the way my husband was treated as director of the After School program at Academy School. I think the rule about treating others as you want to be treated was not followed in that case. We scapegoat those who don’t have the same great experience other Academy School teachers say they are having. It’s important to listen to those who are singled out.
Deborah Ayer: 1 year Academy School. I’m brand new this year. It was high pressure. I came in just before school started and didn’t know where to begin. Six to ten teachers came to my classroom to help me that day. I felt the teamwork was extraordinary. Administration, support services have all been great. I’ve worked in other places for twenty years.
Melissa: 6 years as counselor at Green Street School. I no longer work at Green Street due to a “constructive discharge.” When people say “We love kids, we love our school,” that makes people who have issues with school administration feel shut out. I heard from others that Paciulli asked teachers to come to this meeting.
Academy Teachers: No, no! He didn’t ask us to come.
One Academy Teacher: He did make us aware of the meeting.
Melissa continued: I have safety concerns. There are problems on the buses — bullying goes on every day. I really care and I loved my job but I had to leave.
School Nurse, Academy School: Students have pride and confidence instilled. Teachers are accountable. Their job is harder now. My concern is that the school is being misrepresented as a bad place to work or for students. I’m here to do damage control. People reading about this may lose faith. Our kids are very happy. My kids are happy there.
Planning Future Forums — And More Public Comments
Peter Yost of the School Board announced shortly after 8 o’clock that it was time to start coming up with a list of topics for future public forums.
Ron Stahley: I was struck by the comments, both supportive and critical. Improving the schools is our goal. I believe we have a supportive system, certainly for students and also for staff. In our work, we do have to make judgements about teachers which are sometimes painful for them. However, I encourage everyone to look at the T.E.L.L. survey that Diana Mazucchi pointed out in her letter. Academy School had a 68% response rate and their survey results were very high — 10-30% above state averages overall. There are issues in the surveys but I’m very proud to be with the District.
Peter Yost continued with the topic list, saying the School Board planned to hold several hearings throughout the year.
Mark Truhan: We’ve heard a lot of passion but we need facts.
Margaret Atkinson suggested that Programs and Resources be a forum topic.
Mark Truhan noted that there were a lot of teachers in the room but he felt it was important to hear from more parents and taxpayers. He suggested that the board solicit feedback from three distinct groups: faculty and staff, parents, and taxpayers.
Sheila Linton said that everyone contributes to taxpaying and preferred that they solicit feedback from the community at large and not just property owners. She also stressed the importance of external review of the schools, and not just an internal investigation, saying it was important not to pick and choose the individuals who would be represented.
Ron Stahley countered that there is a process. Linton said the process doesn’t work.
Former teacher Vicki Roach noted that with regard to teacher input and fears of retaliation from administration, that state laws against harassment only apply to so-called protective classes, not to everyone. She said the board needed to find ways to allow more perspectives to be heard. She asked that the community think about what we value in educaton and what we want our children to know, what we want kindergarten to achieve and what kinds of people our high schools will produce.
Members of the board agreed that it was important to find a “systematic way” to talk to all constituencies.
A teacher from Academy School said that she would like the forums to focus on how teachers are doing well and to enable them to keep doing what they’re doing. She said that the problems noted by others at the meeting were small compared to the things that teachers such as those at Academy were doing well. She said that students are happier and that all the survey data supports that claim.
Ellen Schwartz, a retired teacher, said that her take on the feedback so far indicated that local teachers have had really different experiences. If you really want feedback, she said, you need to make sure you can hear the stuff that makes you uncomfortable, not just what you want to hear. She also cautioned against the lulling effects of jargon. “Jargon can cover up,” she said. “Data-driven is jargon.” She also cautioned against teamwork that ostracizes those who are, for one reason or another, not deemed to be on the team, and that the board needed to provide a mechanism for those whose experience has been less positive to talk about it.
Peter Yost pointed out that vision is only half of the School Board’s responsibility. The other half is the budget, he said, and anything the board does or recommends must be able to be paid for. The budget needs support from the community to pass, he said. “Last year, we were 6 votes away” from not getting the budget passed.
David Schoales pointed out that another responsibility of the School Board is to provide oversight of the schools.
David Truhan suggested involving the parents through an existing organization like the PTO (Parent Teacher Organization). Some members of the public thought that was a good idea, others thought that parent input should come from a larger pool including people who would not normally be members of the PTO.
There ensued a fairly convoluted discussion about how the public should provide feedback to the board. Margaret Atkinson said that they can look up board members’ email addresses on the Internet and contact them directly, or use the phone book and call them. Mark Truhan said they would acknowledge receipt of the email but could promise no more than that. Some members of the audience wanted a suggestion box set up somewhere but no resolution was reached on that idea.
Margaret Atkinson said that there were issues to be worked out but assured the public that there would be a lot more meetings. And with that, the members of the public who remained the full two hours filed out into the night.
Great write up Lise! It was a
Great write up Lise! It was a great meeting where a lot of concerns were expressed. It was eye opening for many and I hope the board and administration will take the time to address the concerns. As it was said in the meeting, this is just the beginning – people in this community are watching how the schools are run and they are concerned and want to see some changes.
I would also like to say that it was indeed quite obvious that the turn out of Academy School teachers was brought about by the “encouragement” of their principal. It was unfortunate that the teachers at that school came under the pretense that negative things were said at the last school board meeting in regard to their school. This is not true. I encourage all Academy School teachers to watch the BCTV recording of that meeting to see the facts for themselves. There has been no attack on Academy School – although one might have guessed otherwise by the parade of cheerleaders we saw last night.
Yes, great write-up
It seems that Lise captured the essence of the meeting rather well, from my perspective of being in the hall trying to listen, and then the community room until the end.
I have two thoughts that came to me during or shortly after the meeting:
• Following on a point that one teacher raised, the district could engage in a process known as ‘appreciative inquiry.’ It has been shown that for an entity (organization, business, family, etc.) to focus on what it does well can often do much greater good than ‘problem solving.’ This isn’t to imply that there aren’t problems, or that resolution or solutions aren’t needed. Both can happen at the same time in a synergistic manner.
• As with most organizations I know of, a lack of emotional intelligence can lead to all sorts of conflicts, strife and interpersonal turmoil. One idea would be to develop a curriculum in I.E. for the schools, starting very young and continuing right through high school. Having an anti-bullying campaign, for example, will do little good if the underlying causes of bullying are not addressed. Then, as I.E. is being taught to the children, it can ‘trickle up’ to teachers, staff and administration and be incorporated into personnel policies. Teaching healthy conflict resolution techniques would be a part of this, and someone at the meeting even suggested involving the Community Justice Center and mediation. Not only could this help to resolve issues quickly, it could reduce costs by avoiding the need for lawyers because faculty or staff would have other recourses besides bringing in their union.
Unusual story, unusual meeting
The number of people attending, in and of itself make this meeting quite remarkable.
Perhaps I have not been following local news, but it seems to me that there has got to a “story behind the story.” An event like this does not just emerge, full blown. Clearly, something has been brewing. Can anyone give some background?
School Board...
Read Vicki Roach’s opinion piece in Reformer from 10/9 and/or my letter to iBrattbleboro.com about erosion of respect. They might give you some idea of what’s going on. Unfortunately neither the Reformer or the Commons has printed my letter and the Reformer has not yet reported on the special school board meeting but the Commons had a pretty decent piece though Lise’s is more thorough.
I wish I had gone....
As a former paraprofessional at Academy School from ’79-’94, I wish now that I had attended this meeting. I really feel for the teachers who have dedicated years to doing so only to feel singled out, or intimidated by administration. Is it not hypocritical to address the act of bullying with children, yet it takes place among the adults? There is due process whenever unions are involved, and legal guidelines to be followed. Obviously if certain teachers feel singled out, there are a few reasons for this. One being that there could be personality conflicts between these people, another is the possibility that there is intimidation on one or both sides. Or possibly the most personal reason would be if the principal/superintendant/board feels they just aren’t doing their job. If someone feels as if there is little or no support for them, then they aren’t willing to open a can of worms, so to speak. Only a person/teacher would hire a personal lawyer if they passionately believe in their job, themselves, and that something went terribly wrong. The question that needs to be answered and addressed is WHAT brought this teacher to feel a need to do this, and why? Also, how many others haven’t spoken up for fear of changing their enjoyable job into a dreaded environment,feeling like they are under a microscope.
The number of students at Academy has more than doubled in the years since I left, and possibly that is just one of the factors in the everchanging school environment. I left before school shootings were common, before lockdowns, before ‘Stranger Danger’ was introduced, and honestly, for that I am greatful. I have two grandchildren who are in attendance there, and from what I understand alot of the day is a hurried, beat the clock type of atmosphere. I remember when kids actually ate lunch in the cafeteria, and had more than 15 to 20 minutes to eat. Don’t we as adults tell kids to ‘slow down, take your time and pay attention’? Don’t misunderstand, it isn’t just lunch that is hurried, it is all through the day. Teachers work hard enough to fit everything in any given day. When you add to that busy schedule, the stress of being questioned or singled out about their methods of teaching, after years of doing it, and doing it successfully, what then? I’m not sure that a once pleasant and rewarding job, would surely change to something negative. Maybe principals should take over classrooms for a whole day once in awhile, not just pop in and out of them.