It was probably a good decision to move all 24 teachers at West Valley Elementary to other schools

This story is updated HERE.

Maura Larkins: In my experience some schools have serious problems behind the scenes that are caused by teachers who appear to be sweet and caring.  Often these teachers have won "teacher of the year" awards. I taught at two such schools in the 90s/early 00s: Harborside and Castle Park in Chula Vista Elementary School District.

All the teachers at Harborside Elementary were transferred out a few years later.

The same thing should have been done at Castle Park Elementary, but instead Superintendent Libia Gil, and Assistant Superintendents Richard Werlin, Dennis Doyle, Lowell Billings and Maria Guasp allowed themselves to be led by the nose by the teachers who controlled the school.  The school had 11 principals in 11 years.  Finally a few teachers, dubbed the "Castle Park Five", were transferred out in 2004.

All 24 teachers at West Valley Elementary will be moved to other schools, district says By Kristi Myllenbeck and Matt Wilson Mercury News 06/19/2015  In a stunning move, the Cupertino Union School District announced late Wednesday night that all 24 teachers at West Valley Elementary School will be reassigned to other district campuses. As a result, the high-performing Sunnyvale school will open in the fall with an entirely new roster of teachers as well as a new principal. The district and the Cupertino Education Association agreed Wednesday evening to start with a fresh slate at West Valley, which by the district superintendent's own admission was rife with tension for a long time. West Valley teachers were alerted via email Wednesday night of the decision; included in the message was an attachment of a memorandum of understanding jointly crafted by the district and union. The latest development came as a surprise to teachers and parents, who had been told at a community meeting Monday that West Valley teachers would have to reapply for their jobs; they weren't told that the teachers would necessarily be sent to other schools. Union president Dave Villafana said the decision to reassign everyone at West Valley stemmed from a desire to protect teachers from feeling singled out if moved elsewhere. "We were looking at a fair process of how you would elect the teachers that would stay (at West Valley) and the teachers that would leave," he said. "The fair process would be to move everybody and we agreed with that." The Cupertino Education Association would not have been involved in the rehiring process but wanted to avoid any fairness or perception issues." "[Teachers would be asking], 'why did I get moved and somebody else didn't? And what criteria did you use?' " Villafana said. "We're trying to protect all the teachers when it comes to that." The memorandum asks West Valley teachers to indicate the schools and grade levels they prefer for the upcoming school year, which begins in August. It also states that special education resource specialists, speech language pathologists, psychologists, nurses, fourth- and fifth-grade physical education teachers and music teachers are exempt from relocation. It remains unclear what specific event or series of events at the school resulted in the apparent turmoil. The district, citing legal reasons, said it won't release details about individual personnel or specific incidents. But on Thursday, Superintendent Wendy Gudalewicz sent out a letter to school parents elaborating on some of the issues that sparked the dramatic changes. "There has been a great deal of tension at West Valley among and between teachers, support staff, parents, and administration," Gudalewicz states in the letter. "If you and your family did not experience or were unaware of this tension--that's a good thing." Gudalewicz adds that the group dynamic at West Valley created "a culture that was not serving educational needs" and that the district's decision to break up the faculty was "not taken lightly." The letter confirms that a number of measures were taken to try to deal with issues that appear to have been simmering even before this school year. "Multiple interventions took place throughout the year," Gudalewicz states in the letter. "A new principal was put in place at the beginning of the year. District level union leadership talked with staff. An all-day session with a facilitator took place at the end of the year to access the school climate. At this meeting it became clear that progress was minimal and internal change seemed unlikely." Teachers were first alerted to the campus shakeup the last day of school June 11 when teachers were informed by district administrators during a staff meeting that they would have to reapply for their current jobs.  Read more, including promotions for principals, here: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_28341929/all-24-teachers-at-west-valley-elementary-will Wesley Stace's Cabinet of Wonders: The podcast http://www.salon.com/2015/05/21/cabinet_of_wonders_the_podcast_april_1_2/

How unhealthy is teacher culture? Suggestions to create a culture of collaboration

In my experience, far too many teachers spend their energy trying to sabotage other teachers rather than improving their own teaching. The phrases "teamwork" and "collaboration" are often just a cover for team dysfunction. The reality is that teacher cliques tend to operate with the tactics of high school girl culture.

Response: Several Ways Teachers Can Create A Supportive Environment For Each Other
By Larry Ferlazzo
Education Week
November 29, 2011

S.H. asked:

Our school culture has a growing sense of [unhealthy] competitiveness. I believe a lot of this stems from the fact that our administration does not recognize (or maybe they do and simply don't voice) teacher expertise using specific, positive praise. We do receive thanks yous - but they tend to be blanket statements and pretty general. (For example, "Thank you Ms. _____ for helping your team out.")

This appears to have led to some teachers to measure themselves against others. Rather than feeling grateful that the students in our school are being taught by many talented teachers, it has become a zero-sum game and fed rivalries and pettiness.

It's sad for me to admit this, but I don't think there's a ton of hope in my administration changing their ways. I guess my question is, how can teachers create a sincere, supportive environment for each other?

I've asked Bill Ferriter and Parry Graham, co-authors of Building a Professional Learning Community at Work: A Guide to the First Year, to provide guest responses to this tricky question, and also include some excellent reader responses later in this post.

I think they offer excellent specific suggestions. The one thought I'd like to contribute is that a challenge to many of us -- whether it is how we operate as teachers with our colleagues or with our students, or if we are administrators or policymakers -- is that it's easy to get caught up in the belief that power (or potential advancement, or success -- whatever you want to call it) is a finite pie -- that if you get some that means I will have less. The reality in the vast majority of instances is that the more I share with you, the bigger the whole pie gets and greater possibilities are created for everyone.

If I share my lesson plan with you, that really means that you might be able to make it better for both of us. If I tell you about the challenges that I faced in the classroom today, instead of making me appear weak, it instead demonstrates that I have the self-confidence to share and hear ideas from others who have probably experienced similar problems (or will in the future).

This perspective of the "pie getting bigger" is a core belief of community organizers (which I was for nineteen years prior to becoming a teacher). The first step towards making this happen in any institution or neighborhood is to build relationships -- an exchange of personal and professional stories -- so that people can learn the hopes, dreams and challenges of each other. The trust that develops during these conversations is the key building block towards countless possibilities...

Response From Bill Ferriter:

Bill Ferriter teaches 6th grade language arts in North Carolina, where he was named a Regional Teacher of the Year for 2005-2006. He is a member of The Teacher Leaders Network.

Another factor that feeds rivalries and pettiness in PLCs is the unhealthy push in many districts and states to use standardized test scores to rate and sort teachers.
Anytime that we try to assign numbers to individual teachers--rather than recognize that improvements in student performance come from collective reflection around practice AND the collective contributions of all of the practitioners that work with a group of children--competition is inevitable.

One way to address this is to establish a team norm that collaborative efforts AREN'T about studying successful people. Instead, they are about studying successful PRACTICES. While that may seem like a subtle bit of semantic gymnastics, it is an essential shift made by every healthy learning team. Conversations focused on the practices--instead of the people--that produce the best results are safer for everyone.

More importantly, they send the message that by working together to enhance and amplify effective instructional practices, a learning team can make tangible improvements in student achievement.

You'll have to be militant about language in order to cement this norm into your collaborative work, though.

Because teachers are (1). surrounded by efforts to tie performance to individuals instead of collaborative groups and (2). used to working in isolation, it is only natural to see competitive teacher-centered language slip into our conversations.

"Wow," we'll say, "Mary is a master! Look at her student's scores on the last assessment."

Instead, we should be saying, "Wow. Mary has discovered a practice that works! Look at her student's scores on the last assessment. How did you teach those skills, Mary?"
When your team stops talking about teachers and starts talking about teaching--or more accurately, student learning--you'll begin to erase the competition and defensiveness that is destroying your collaborative work.

Response From Dr. Parry Graham:

Dr. Parry Graham is the current principal of Luftkin Road Middle School in the Wake County Public School System. He is also an adjunct professor in the education department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

From what I can tell, there are two levels to this complex question. The first level is, what can an individual teacher do to impact the culture of her individual professional learning team? The second level is, what can teachers do to impact the culture of their schools?

At the team level (or department level or grade level), I think there are a couple steps a teacher can take. First, model what you think is positive behavior: don't gossip about other teachers, keep comments about others positive, praise others when you see something worth praising. Second, bring up your observations in team meetings. Mention your perceptions of negativity during a team meeting, ask if others have similar perceptions, and identify specific behaviors at the team level that can help to build a positive team culture.

At the school level, things get more complicated. First, I am somewhat dubious that a relatively simple behavior on the part of the administrative team--i.e., not recognizing teacher expertise using specific praise--could be the primary factor underlying a competitive culture throughout a school. School cultures are complex creatures that typically result from years of behaviors, actions, attitudes, and beliefs. Yes, administrators have some control over culture, but my guess is that the factors underlying this school's culture go much deeper.

So get involved in the kinds of groups that can influence school culture. If they exist, volunteer to serve on the school's improvement or leadership team, on curriculum committees, or on a hospitality group. If your backyard will handle it, host a schoolwide barbeque to bring teachers together outside of school. Set up a Friday afternoon club that meets after school to decompress over beverages of choice. In short, work to improve the relationships between the adults in the building, one interaction at a time.

Reader Responses

Kristen Hewett:

Building a sense of family and community spirit has been something that my school has struggled with for the past few years. As a mentor to our beginning teachers, one thing that I have started this year has been to ask them to select a staff member who exemplifies a certain trait that they admire and would like to emulate and have them let this teacher know this through a short note or a card. My hope is that this will allow my beginning teachers to make connections with other staff members and that it will help to build morale. My ultimate goal is to take this idea and slowly branch it out into other areas and begin a "pay it forward" type of movement. I know that this is just one small step, but my hope is that our small steps will eventually spark bigger changes.

Tyrion Lannister shares a way not to create a supportive environment:

My old school ordered teachers to collaborate, and then graded our collaboration according to a rubric.

Which part of “PUBLIC schools” don’t you understand?

The Educated Reporter
December 11, 2009
Which part of “PUBLIC schools” don’t you understand?
Linda Perlstein

Major-league kudos to Michael Miner at the Chicago Reader, who writes about the culture of fear in that city’s school system that shuts out reporters—and, by virtue, the public. Reporters around the country tell me it has gotten worse for them, nowhere moreso than in districts led by big-shot reformers. There is no justification for filtering every single contact between journalists and educators through PR people, or creating a climate in which nobody feels free to talk about ... anything.

Miner writes that the head flack at Chicago schools “spoke of the value of having ‘everybody on the same page.’” Ack. I could rant pretty thoroughly about how creepy and unproductive it is to want everyone in a massive organization to be on the same page—and foray into my loathing of how “being a team player,” which principals say all the time, has come to mean “not questioning anything”—but perhaps today is the day I should start trying to blog shorter.

I’ll just say two things:

1. The “same page” climate means that only the crankiest, most out-there gadflies have the guts to question or criticize, which is not as productive as an honest dialogue among everyone.

2. Reporters should write forthrightly, in the stories themselves or on their blogs, about every roadblock they face in this regard.

COMMENTS

john thompson said...

"Everyone on the same page" may be the most destructive cliche in education. It tends to be an exxcuse for ... whatever, as in "this will only work if everyone is on the same page."

If its Tuesday, everyone must be on the same page, is the most destructive sentiment around. One of the best lines in The Wire was the teacher's comment on nonstop test prep, "this year the term is curriculum alignment."

How does the Chicago flack reconcile his statement with secretary Duncan's recent endorsement of "creative insubordination?"



dlaufenberg said...

In a time of technological development that makes transparency so easy, it is interesting to see the 'age of accountability' in education coupled with less access for the media. How perfectly contradictory.




Mar 1, 2011
What Happens When Schools Shut Me Out
by Emily Alpert

I heard recently that the four small high schools on the Kearny High campus are slated to lose their nurse. While other schools have trimmed back a few days of nursing, the Kearny campus is going from a full time nurse to none. It's the most dramatic cutback in nursing I've heard about in San Diego Unified.

What will that mean for Kearny? I wanted to find out by shadowing the school nurse to see what she did. The nurse was OK with the idea. But after a week of going back and forth with Laura Bellofatto, one of the Kearny principals, I was told in an email that "we are not moving forward with the visit."

Why? I still don't know. Getting shut out of schools happens to me much more often than I'd like. While California law does not require journalists to register with the principal to gain access to a school, San Diego Unified policies give principals the ultimate say over whether journalists are allowed in.

I can walk onto a school without principal permission. But teachers and other staff are often reluctant to talk to me if they haven't heard from their principal that I'm coming to campus. So I ask first. And that has made a big difference in which stories I tell and how I tell them.

Some schools just don't return my calls. I've been sending emails and phone messages to Michael Jimenez, the principal of Serra High, for a month. I don't have any specific story in mind; I just want to visit the Tierrasanta school since I've never been there. Principal Jimenez, if you see this, please call!

Others tightly control media access. For instance, the King-Chavez charter schools require all media questions to go through their CEO. When I rung up a teacher after school to ask about how an infusion of federal money was impacting his classroom, he said he couldn't talk to me directly about it. Instead I had to email CEO Tim Wolf my questions for the teacher, who emailed responses back to Wolf.

This might just sound like griping about people making it harder for me to do my job. (OK, a little bit of it is.) But the bigger reason that I get frustrated is that it makes it impossible to show what really happens in schools — good, bad, ugly or fabulous. Does it matter if Kearny loses its nurse or not? It's really hard to tell if you can't sit down and see what she does. And at a time when San Diego Unified could be cutting back significantly on nursing, it's something that parents, elected officials and the public should know about.

This isn't just a problem in San Diego. Linda Perlstein, who helps education reporters around the country as the public editor for the Education Writers Association, wrote last year:

There is no justification for filtering every single contact between journalists and educators through PR people, or creating a climate in which nobody feels free to talk about ... anything. ... The "same page" climate means that only the crankiest, most out-there gadflies have the guts to question or criticize, which is not as productive as an honest dialogue among everyone.

Thankfully, most schools are willing to let me in. For instance, Principal Stephanie Mahan at Carver, a K-8 school in Oak Park, was incredibly helpful when I wanted to know about their unusually small classes. Mahan spoke candidly with me, introduced me to teachers who talked to me on their own, and let me watch classes in action as long as I liked. That made the difference between hearing small classes matter to Carver and seeing why they do.

Of course, getting into a school doesn't mean school leaders always love what I write. And I don't expect schools to spend a lot of time accommodating me — that's not their job and it shouldn't be.

But I worry when public schools shut the media out. And frankly, it usually makes me way more suspicious than anything I find out when I actually get into schools.


COMMENTS

Genxer65

Emily: I must agree with you that this sounds suspicious. Everyone's busy, but I think it is more of a fear of the bad reality getting out, than someone not being willing to accommodate a reporter. I'd rather know the truth and the reality; be it good bad or ugly. It is what it is and as taxpayers, we have the right to know.


Maura Larkins

It's surprisingly rare to find a school where the staff is truly in a learning mode, willing to freely discuss the best solutions for problems. Usually the decision-making process is controlled by a few powerful teachers and/or administrators. If everybody and his brother were sticking his nose into how the school operates, offering suggestions and asking for explanations, that would make the whole process less comfortable for those in control. But a little discomfort is needed in our failing schools. If the adults don't know how to solve problems, how can they teach that skill to students?

The "Castle Park Five" and Speaking English in Cali-for-nia

Arnold wants Californians to focus on English, but I like to know what other people are saying and thinking--even if they aren't saying it in English. Sometimes I'll do a Google search and the only article that talks about the precise issue that interests me is in German or Japanese. In that case, I use Google's handy "Translate this page" button.

But the results aren't always that great. As an example, I offer an article that came out in San Diego's La Prensa newspaper in October of 2004. It concerns the teacher culture that developed at Castle Park Elementary School over a period of many years. In 2004, the Chula Vista Elementary School District, which had paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend the criminal actions of Castle Park Elementary teachers, finally got fed up. Five teachers were transferred out of the school. La Prensa told the story of two of those transferred teachers, Peggie Myers and Stephenie Parker-Pettit.

Here is the Google translation of the article. I found the translation fascinating to read, but the Spanish version made a lot more sense.

October 8, 2004
The teachers of Castle Park count their history
By Luis Alonso Perez


The first day of classes in Castle Park Elementary did not begin like in previous years.

This year the children outside ran into with a group of parents and teachers pronouncing itself with posters of their school, against the unexpected change of establishment of a group of teachers that had been several years working for that primary one.

Some children carried in their clothes transfers with the word “Respect”. When he arrived Tom Cruz - Attending of the district inspector he bothered themselves and he asked the demonstrators who did not involve the children, who that problem did not have to do with the children.

But for Peggy Myers - One of the teachers reasignadas to another primary this has to do the children directly, its nine years of masterful effort as in Castle Park have been by the children and the community.

Now, Peggy Myers has to his position a hall fifth primary in Allen Elementary School, but she continues thinking that its change was totally injustificado and still it is furious by the form in which this situation was carried out, specially the form in which found out its transference.

In August last Myers was vacacionando in London, taking advantage of the opportunity to see his husband by five days - as she is assigned by the army to a base in Saudi Arabia when she received a call of his son Greg, informing to him that she had been notified by Tom Cruz who wished to speak with her as soon as she was of return.

In the following days Greg received calls of other teachers commenting to him that Cruz and Lowell had spoken with Billings - Inspector of the district and had been transferred to other primary ones. When finding out, Myers was disturbed totally since she never waited for it. The news obvious ruined its vacations.

Pero Peggy Myers was not the only teacher surprised by the news. Stephenie Petti, teacher of third bilingual degree received a call of Tom Cruz the 16 of August, in which it informed on a meeting the 18 to him into August to discuss on problems that arose the year last in CP and to analyze his subjet for the incoming scholastic year.

His first impression was that it was a hunting of witches to undo of the teachers who caused to problems in Castle Park. For the day of the appointment, Petti she was so estresada that it began to present/display symptoms of complications in his pregnancy. It could not sleep and it underwent panic attacks.

The day of the appointment received the surprise of which the following scholastic year was not going to give to classes in Castle the Parks, who had assigned it to Salt Creek Elementary and she was not going to have a bilingual group.

The news impressed it to the point in which it began to have childbirth contractions then, which caused that in one week it had to go to the hospital because of physical and emotional problems.

When the teachers asked the reason for the transference the answer was simple: The changes were made “By the benefit of the educative program and the students”.

When listening this Peggy Myers asked how was going to benefit to the program or the students, to transfer to a member of the only equipment in Castle Park who had developed a curriculum different from the traditional program?

Lowell Billings did not answer.

When he asked How to transfer a teacher who taught to other teachers in USD on how to give classes to bilingual groups was going to benefit?

Again Billings did not answer.

Stephenie Petti will not be able to begin to give classes in this scholastic year, since is disabled person by her pregnancy. It will return to his workings like teacher when January or February is born its baby in.

Myers and the rest of the teachers thinks that the true reason for its exit of Castle Park was because they were not scared to show his inconformidad with the way in which the director of the primary Ollie Matos directed the school.

“I am arranged to defend what I believe that he is the correct thing and to criticize what I believe that is bad, - Petti- comments concern the students and the educative programs to me of Castle Park. I have a deep interest in its well-being, the academic progress and its personal lives. The families (of the community) are my families, their children are my children”.

“I am not scared to him to the administrative ones, - Petti- added we have had many directors who arrive at Castle Park and try to change the programs that we have developed. Later they go away, and the teachers stay themselves as people in charge to badly repair the damages caused by a director. They come and they go away, but the teachers continue”.

“I widely am described to make my work, perhaps the director felt intimidated by me and my colleagues”, added Petti.

“For a pair of years - Peggy Myers- comments we had a very good leader like director, who looked for the strengths of each teacher and he fomented them, so the results of our tests were highest than it has had Castle Park. From the entrance of Ollie Matos, which has been a very weak leader, the behavior of the students is at its worse moment and the moral of the staff is in its lower point”.

“The problem is not the five teachers in Castle Park - the problem added Meyers- is that if Lowell Billing allows the transference of teachers simply because the directors cannot work with them, then all the teachers of this district run the irrigation of being transferred to express itself in favor of the well-being of the children and the community”.

“The parents of family of the community need to know that they have the right to show his inconformidad before the decisions of the directors if they think that they do not benefit his children, - Petti- commented need to know that their voices have value, that their opinions tell and that it has the power to change the things in the primary ones and the scholastic district. The teachers, and the employees of the district we worked for the families of the community. The parents must of knowing and believing this”.

Note: The correct spelling is Peggie Myers.