During my teaching career I have taught at charter schools on two separate occasions. The second time, I took a position at fairly new school that was billing itself as a “classical academy”. The promise was that students would study the great books, western civilization would be taught as a good thing in history and literature, students would be encouraged to love the U.S. and its founders, and that there would an enforcement of rigorous academic standards.
Now, contrary to what the teacher’s unions would have you believe, charter schools are not “private,” nor can they “cherry pick” students from surrounding public schools. Additionally, the slanderous report from unions, charter schools cannot, and in my experience do not, refuse services to special needs children. In point of fact I had so many special needs kids I was often overwhelmed with that paperwork alone. Those special needs children were there because their parents had pulled them out of surrounding traditional public schools (with heavy union involvement) that were not providing for their needs.
Additionally, the charter I worked at proved, for a time, that with good leadership minority students can excel. The Black students I taught at this charter easily outperformed most of the white students I have taught in traditional public schools. This included multiple subjects (I have several certifications), and this success was apparent in other subjects as well. This was not simply grade inflation either, an accusation made against charter schools, as our standardized test scores were well above surrounding public high schools, even though we were drawing from the same pool of students.
So things were going well…. and then the principal who had hired me informed the staff he was leaving at the end of the year for a school in another state. This is where things always get dicey if you’ve got some success going on, and we soon found out the hard way our board was not always thinking straight.
Our new principal was announced that summer. He was tall, tanned and had great hair and teeth. He had never in his life taught in a classroom. At the time he was working as a tennis pro at the local country club, and also part time as a waiter. He was handed a salary double any of his teachers and put in charge of the school. It’s never what, but who it is you know. He later boasted to the teachers that he got the job because all the school board ladies who were also at the country club liked him so much. Turns out he was telling the truth.
The next year he began by abandoning the classical academy model and instead decided to focus on college prep. That might have been okay, except it wasn’t what our parents and students had signed on for, and quite frankly college prep meant steering our kids towards ACT testing tutor shops after school… one of which he had recently set up himself.
Things went downhill quickly as well when he decided to quit enforcing our closed campus rules, as well as allowing students to wear gang attire at school. We soon had people coming and going from campus who had no business being there, and kids who were our responsibility going missing during the day. One group began claiming affiliation with the Gangster Disciples; another student, whose family was definitely in the life then showed up with his Bloods colors out and looking for trouble. Not a great look for your charter school.
The new principal also began removing our emphasis on Western Civilization; one of the first things he did to the campus physically was to remove the large portrait of President Washington from our front hallway. Other artwork depicting American heroes of the past soon disappeared as well.
Not content to be a complete destructive force himself, he brought with him a woman who was a “friend” of his who had been working in a secretarial position at a local college and put her in charge of teaching one of our English classes. She was a great fan of modern poetry, unfortunately I finally had to call her out and shut her down when she was leading sixth graders to chant “molly and Percocet, Percocet and molly” (Mask Off, by “Future”). When I physically disconnected the sound system I could tell she was about to physically attack me, fortunately she thought better when I stood my ground.
Before his first year was out our principal’s mug shots surfaced online, and by the middle of the spring semester he was gone… But not before he had wrecked all the work done building the school up before that year. I stayed on one more year, but things were impossible, and I moved on. That charter school, which had been thriving, went defunct. Another charter has since taken over that location, and from what I hear is doing better, and I wish them success.
Some people never learn…. https://theothermccain.com/2023/03/06/it-cant-happen-here/
Bottoms up… https://sylg1.wordpress.com/2023/03/06/its-time-for-another-probe/
Do this… https://sigmaframe.wordpress.com/2023/03/06/glorifying-god-in-the-flesh/
Millstone, please… https://winteryknight.com/2023/03/06/gay-activist-mayor-of-college-park-maryland-resigns-after-criminal-charges/
Two questions…. https://www.scifiwright.com/2023/03/against-the-mountains-of-madness-ep-14-the-two-questions/
okrahead 