The "Principal's Report" - Part 1

We have separated our report on the “Principal’s Report” into 2 parts due to the length and space required to cover it well and provide our commentary. This is Part 1. Part 2 is being released simultaneously. Once again, before you read this report, ask yourself these questions:

1. Why didn't I get any notice from SAA of its 2021 Constituency Meeting?

2. Why isn’t there an official, authorized report published by SAA or Spencerville Church to the school community about this meeting?

3. Why do I have to go to an unofficial, unauthorized blog to find a report on the important information and Q&A from the 2021 SAA Constituency Meeting?

For more context on the SAA Constituency Meeting we have prepared a series of blog posts for your consideration. See the list here:

Introduction to Our Report on the “Principal’s Report”:

On June 15, 2021, SAA held its 2021 Constituency Meeting in the school auditorium. The primary focus of every such meeting is the “Principal’s Report” in which the delegates assembled hear and see a detailed report on the school’s curriculum, programs, operations, and much more. Anyone that is interested or concerned with the health of the institution, its management, successes and challenges should have this information. But in fact that does not happen. SAA announced nothing about the meeting, failed to stream it, and failed to record it and make it available for later viewing. Could this be just an administrative oversight or accident? See our blogpost: “The Best Kept Secret".

There was no 2020 Constituency Meeting (CM) held. While the COVID-19 pandemic made a live and in-person CM impossible due to county restrictions, we had by then already entered the third decade of the 21st century and technology made a virtual CM well within the reach of a school that prides itself on a STEM-enhanced education. The annual CM is not simply a courtesy extended by SAA administration to whomever may show up; it is required by the SAA Constitution so that the constituents of the Spencerville SDA Church (the exclusive constituent church) can know what has happened at 2502 Spencerville Road during the school year and theoretically to exercise their authority as delegates.

SAA’s failure to hold a CM in 2020 was a violation of its own constitution. Even more, SAA’s convening of the CM on June 15, 2021, was yet another violation of its own constitution which requires the CM to take place in May while the school is still in session, before people leave for their summer travel plans. To our knowledge, there has been no accountability for violating SAA’s constitution for 2 consecutive years. We will explore that question in a future blogpost.

We commend SAA’s Head Principal Mrs. Bowerman for a thorough Principal’s Report with much important information and details. As expressed in our commentary, it was not a perfect or fully forthcoming report, yet many good and even great things are happening at SAA for which the school community can be grateful and proud. Other things are not so good, if not outright dysfunctional and need fixing. Whether the information is good, bad, or ugly, every single student and parent should have been properly notified of this meeting, and provided online access to it. The meeting should have been recorded and archived for the school community to be able to find and listen to. There is no justifiable reason or excuse for SAA’s complete failure to do so.

With no further ado, Eyes On SAA presents its report on the “Principal’s Report” with our running commentary in bold and italics.

Section A: Principal’s Report

This most important part of the CM is delivered at breakneck speed both orally and visually by slides with detailed information projected on screen. We know that delegates in past years have made repeated requests for copies of the slides. But the slides are not provided in writing, and we suspect that few if any attendees took detailed notes. Since no report is given or prepared by SAA or the Spencerville SDA Church for its constituent members, all the information presented is essentially lost to history.

[This Part 1 will cover Sections 1 through 6. The rest will be covered in Part 2]

1. School Accreditation.

2. School Enrollment.

3. COVID-19 precautions.

4. New Educational Standards.

5. Teachers’ Continuing Education and Training.

6. Inclusivity and Diversity Training and Curricular Implementation.

7. Staff Changes (separations and hires).

8. Spiritual Curricular Programming.

9. Academic Curricular Programming.

10. STEM Certification.

11. New standardized testing.

12. Athletics (extramural and intramural).

13. Fine Arts.

14. Graduation Ceremonies.

15. Marketing and Strategic Planning.

16. Miscellaneous.

_______________________________________________________________________

1. School Accreditation. SAA is 5 years into a 6 year term of accreditation by the Middle States Association of Colleges & Schools; In addition SAA is accredited by the North American Division of SDAs.

2. School Enrollment was at 425 (a record high) going into the Spring 2020 pandemic before it dropped significantly for 2020-2021 due to families opting for either homeschool or sending their students to in-person boarding academy. Enrollment is down; we have been very intentional about maintaining connections with families who have moved to other schools/options; some will return and others will not. [The low watermark of enrollment for 2020-21 was not disclosed. Neither were enrollment figures for 2021-22 provided.] 33 SDA church congregations are represented at SAA [This is nice and interesting. However there really is only one church that matters here, the exclusive constituent church: Spencerville SDA Church whose weak and ineffective model of constituent oversight results in virtually unchecked power by a Secret School Board which operates outside of the light or view of SAA stakeholders.]

3. COVID-19 Safety Precautions. The HVAC system has been updated with air purification system and boosted fresh air intake. Zero transmissions of COVID on SAA Campus Online + blended/hybrid with social distancing. [We all can be thankful for zero transmissions. But before we get too excited let’s remember that about 80% of the any given student’s academic year was done online. Online school was great for some, disastrous for others. Why did SAA remain primarily online while several other area private schools were live and in-person for the whole year? This was never addressed.]

4. New Educational Standards (Standards-based education). The NAD (North American Division (of SDAs)) is moving to this approach, which means teaching to standards needed for success in higher education (rather than just blindly plowing through the textbook).

5. Teachers’ Continuing Education and Training. SAA Staff has a combined 37 undergraduate degrees, 25 graduate degrees, 33 educational certificates, 140 specialized subject matter/administrative endorsements, 604 combined years of experience within SDA educational system teaching (not counting outside of the SDA system). Continuing Education: Teachers are working on advanced teaching certificates and degrees and professional development: MAP testing, distance education, mental health, equity and inclusion, cultural awareness, STEM. [Congratulations Teachers! Keep up the good work. You are the ones that we entrust our children’s minds, bodies, and spirits for learning. Not only for reading, writing, and arithmetic, but also for biblical and spiritual instruction and godly character development. We choose to tolerate the dysfunction in the school hierarchy because we think that you are loving and committed to our children’s growth and development.]

6. Inclusivity and Diversity Training and Curricular Implementation. Inclusivity & diversity will be intentional in the classrooms, a curriculum is being developed for classroom implementation. Meanwhile, teachers and administration are working toward those goals but without the framework. Principal Bowerman has evaluated processes/procedures being followed and materials being used to make sure they are in place and being followed, with the help of the [Secret School Board’s] Executive Committee, the Chesapeake Conference, the Columbia Union, and the North American Division. Together they have found that there are processes and procedures in place, but there is a high degree of sensitivity on this topic requiring more internal checks. They are working on more internal checks. For instance, at what point does supplemental material get transitioned into curricular material? This changes procedures and the number of eyes looking at it. They are looking at communication on matters of higher sensitivity. Mrs. Bowerman was surprised to observe a direct connection between politics and conversations about race/equity. She seeks a way to “change that” and work together with the community on these issues. Her expectations going forward are professional development for staff, a search for best methods and materials, and to work with our community and continue following the plan that NAD has on this.

[This extremely general and vague portion of the Principal’s Report appeared calculated to address the “main event” of the night, which was about 45 minutes Q&A around whether or not SAA has adopted the Marxism-based “Critical Race Theory” (CRT) into its high school curriculum without notice to parents. The other main question was if teachers and administrators should be permitted to show bias towards certain controversial political and social views. This portion of the meeting was too big to cover in this short comment and is worthy of its own blog post. We will bring that to you in the near future.]

[And now a note on Mrs. Bowerman’s stated efforts at “increasing diversity” at SAA: Do you mean by firing Judie Rosa on April 1, 2021? This must be an addition by subtraction "fuzzy math" trick. Have you noticed how many Hispanic/Latino students are (and/or were) enrolled at SAA? Heaven only knows how many families and students’ enrollment decision at SAA were attributable at least in part to Mrs. Rosa, who was a tireless recruiter for the school. How many students with family members who preferred to communicate in Spanish was Mrs. Rosa able to build rapport, communication, and trust with because of her bilingual skills and multicultural competence? There is more, but for now let’s just all acknowledge that the school is less “diverse” without Judie Rosa as Elementary Principal, and that this is bound to have a negative effect on the diversity of the student body.]

End of Part 1, Click here for Part 2.

We hope you found this report on the Principal’s Report informative and helpful, and that it raises enough interest for you to stay tuned for more reporting coming very soon. If you appreciated this post, please show your gratitude by subscribing to this blog, contacting us with news and information of concern to you about SAA’s programs and operations, and finally by sharing the link to this report on social media and directly with other members of the SAA Community so that they can know more about the product that they are purchasing at SAA, and take an active role in making it better with their observations and feedback.

Again, we thank our contributors that gathered and provided information, documents, and notes for us to prepare this series of reports. You are the lifeblood of Eyes On SAA and are contributing to the important work of bringing change and improvement to this school that we all care about. If the SAA of the future could speak today it would say "thank you" and that it is in your debt for your love and courage.

Shining Light. Breaking Silence. Holding Accountable.

We’ve got Eyes On SAA.

-Lillian Hepburn-Richmond

(A Cohort of Concerned Parents)

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