Dear Editor:
I have experienced my ups and downs with the district office and
various administrators in my 41 years of teaching kindergarten in
the Hollister School District.
Dear Editor:
I have experienced my ups and downs with the district office and various administrators in my 41 years of teaching kindergarten in the Hollister School District.
I started teaching kindergarten with two classes of 33 children each and no aide in the early 1960s. However, most mothers stayed at home and the curriculum was very simple. Then came team-teaching with 35-38 students per class with a similar curriculum. Next came ECE – early childhood education.
Sunnyslope was the kindergarten through second-grade school with no segregation. We still team-taught, but also had a full-time aide and all the materials we needed to teach. After this, we went to four-track year-round school at Sunnyslope, then one-track year-round, and finally back to a neighborhood school with different boundaries, but still one-track year-round.
Next was modified summer school option and now we are back to a traditional school year without team teaching, so it has been full circle for me.
Sunnyslope became a California Distinguished School because we have small, effective classes, good early intervention programs taught by kindergarten teachers in the afternoon and after-school enrichment programs taught by staff volunteers. But these things are all threatened next year.
Sunnyslope has had some spectacular administrators, which have allowed our staff to be in on decisions affecting out campus and the education of our students. We also went through the period where the school board thought “all new blood” would be good.
Our principal went to a different site and we got a new principal from out of town. It was a demoralizing period where teachers were pitted against teachers and the board didn’t empathize much. Finally, our present administrator came on board and the teachers were treated as professionals and parents were supportive.
The current curriculum is standards based and thanks to Anita Franchi and Pam Little, in the district office, we have a complete reading-language adoption and math materials to meet these standards.
Our present principal is innovative and honest and openly communicates with us as soon as things that affect our staff are known. However, it seems Sunnyslope has been singled out more than once this year. This is disrespectful to our site administrators, and not fair to the staff, students and school community.
When test scores went down and we felt chastised by upper administration, we received no constructive criticism, just miscommunication on their end.
Then came the layoffs, which affect all teachers districtwide. Sunnyslope teachers are a close-knit family, and our teachers were double pink-slipped on Open House Day. This required our principal to fill positions that were open immediately with the remaining staff, which brought morale down. No one from the district office was laid off, even though the head of personnel was to be eliminated two years ago. Instead, the position still stands, with added clerical help, while the schools clerical and custodial staff has been reduced each year.
Kindergarten classes with 31 students to one teacher were the next bit of happy news. Houghton-Mifflin reading and language is great and kindergartners are reading by the end of the year in a 20-to-1 classroom. This will be almost impossible in a larger class even with such a great program. Besides, new classrooms are configured for 20 students, not 31, so this will lead to overcrowding.
Our end of the year celebration was destroyed by the latest news, shared at an urgent staff meeting. Parent of about 60 students were notified by the district office, by mail at the end of May, that their children would be at Calaveras next year. A parent called the office before our principal even know of the letter mailed or the situation. This will greatly reduce categorical funds at Sunnyslope, which are used to pay for aides, a resource teacher and instructional support staff.
This will also require some staff, perhaps two to three teachers, to involuntarily go to Calaveras. Hopefully, Calaveras has extra classrooms to house the new teachers and students. I don’t understand the lack of communication from our current superintendent. This problem between the district and school sites has been ongoing and was addressed at the last board meeting. Is this why excellent, hardworking site administrators have chosen to go back into the classrooms?
Hopefully, the board will not try the “all new blood” fiasco again. This is not the time to play ring-around-the-principal either. Our teachers and many of our co-workers at other sites are demoralized. I am lucky I have put in my time. My greatest achievements are watching my students grow into responsible adults.
Our site administrators, test scores and parents hold us accountable. We need to feel heard and supported by our school board and district office. Mistrust grows with poor or dishonest communication. Actions speak, and when questions are not answered and school sites and staff are ignored, quality learning cannot be obtained.
The lack of communication is disrespectful to our employees and the community served. All concerned administrators, teachers and parents need to attend the June 24 board meeting at the district office and let their opinions be heard. I feel the district office needs to be held accountable for its actions and things need to change.
Mary Beth Edwards,
Sunnyslope School
kindergarten teacher
