should have the same terminology across the district. No tolerance for bullying, misbehaving should be followed.

Cliques need to be abolished. More admin support for ALL subjects, areas, teachers in their building.

-Many resources within all the schools and at all levels to support all student needs...academic, social, emotional

-Desire to build community and relationships with students

-Many options at secondary level for extracurricular activities

How about the numerous admins/ support staff step in?

“The culture of any organization is shaped by the worst behavior the leader is willing to tolerate”

It is promising and reflective.

However, for it be embraced and bring about change, the leaders in the district need to be held to those standards and be willing to allow their staff to feel safe and comfortable having a dialogue about it. Oftentimes, they don’t acknowledge the behaviors through any lens other than their own and those they consider “in the know” or their staunch supporters.

In several posts, it has been mentioned to not keep turning to the same staff for input. That is a great suggestion as there are many quiet bystanders that the leaders don’t hear and don’t make their input feel valued.

There has been, for many years, an unspoken (and oftentimes spoken) air of leadership that has been referred to as the “good ole boys club”. Many that have spent time in the district relish an end to that era and some true change- which is sorely needed.

With that said, it would be interesting to know if the building level leadership embraced this message at the succeeding faculty meetings. Was it echoed, was it reinforced, was it even mentioned? Or did they leave the auditorium and conduct their meetings as usual?

The faculty slides should be shared with all staff in the building, take a peak and see.

Hopefully the building I work at was the only one that gathered and did business exactly like we always have. Admin standing up, reading from a slide with little to no discourse and dialogue.

Perhaps all buildings should have open Padlets such as this where thoughts can be shared safely.

With that said, it is about time that we have a place to feel safe to speak, and hopefully heard about things that have bothered many but have been ignored or excused as “oh they are just difficult”. Perhaps the simple act of expressing it out loud can offer the voice people need.

No one enters education for the money, it’s for the love of the craft and the students. Spirits have been broken by poor leadership and a history of doing what we have always done. Spirits have been broken by taking away the voices of those that may have disagreed. Spirits have been broken by favoritism and the perpetuation of toxic climates. Thank you for giving a silent group their opportunity to have their faith in their profession restored.

These poor Freshmen walked into a building they had never been to before with no orientation, no first-day assembly to introduce staff, counselors, or building administration, no explanation of how the bell system works, nothing. How do we expect students to feel welcomed, safe, and ready to succeed when thrown into a new school?

We offer a New Teacher Orientation and mentoring program for our staff; when students go to College, there is an Orientation. How do we find it acceptable to offer our students nothing more than a self-guided tour the day before school starts? How does this provide a welcoming atmosphere and prepare our students for success?

The leadership in this district will say they are essential. But the teachers that work day-to-day with students know otherwise.

Compass doesn't have the room for ALL of them.

Students missing for class - Teachers are told to wait to see if students show up and at the end of the period to write a referral if they do not come to class. No one is looking for these students who are skipping/missing from class. They roam freely and are not escorted to their classroom once found. We have cameras, they should be utilized.

Students do not sign out to leave the building during the day/lunch and leave through random doors. Is AHS an open campus?

Students on work release are not leaving the building when they should per their schedule or are not reporting to their specified location if they do stay.

AHS classroom windows - huge safety concern! Have we talked about U-bolts for doors, third-floor classrooms should be given escape ladders for windows, etc.

In light of the threat on 9/16, for further updates, I had to seek out the information on Facebook. This pertains to AJHS as well. There should be clarification to staff on what the threat was specifically, so we can be listening and watching, but rather we are left in the dark and listening to the rumor mill or getting information from the students. I did not see any extra police officers. Were they just in the circle to show off for morning drop-off? Who are the extra staff we hired for security? Were they introduced to staff?

While the event was publicized as a JrHs and Hs threat, the message went to the entire district community and parents were expecting follow through. We cannot assure parents one thing and not follow through. They need to trust us with their children. We know the reality of the threat, however in the heat of the moment? Parents expect what we promise.

Can we offer retired teachers a stipend to come back to sub or pay hourly to do interventions at elementary schools. We have lots of great retired teachers that may not want to work a full day or run a room but have a great background in Math/ Reading and wouldnt mind coming back to do interventions a few days a week or a few hours a day. Maybe for the interventions make it a month by month basis so they dont have to commit for a long time. A month of a support here and there is better than never having it at all.

If staff feel uncomfortable approaching either colleagues or admin, don’t shame them for it. There are reasons- either real or arbitrary- that are stopping them from approaching the source and that needs to be accepted. Just like we need to accept our students where they are at, we need to start accepting our colleagues where they are at.

Some people have trauma response to conflict.

Some people have avoidance issues.

Some people just don’t live in a perfect world where it is or has been acceptable to confront difficult topics.

To respond with- well they should have just talked to me- is shaming them and their response- and most likely the reason they don’t do it.

We need to offer each other some room for compassion and understanding.

The morale in our building has quickly declined this year. We have staff focusing on the negative , talking about each other and treating each other poorly. I challenge you if you have read this far to change your mindset. Start the week off using the 5:1 method. 5 positive interactions for every negative interaction. If we all did this the morale in our building would change quickly.