The "Principal's Report" - Part 2

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 2. Part 1 was 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:

[This report covers sections 7 through 16. Sections 1 through 6 were covered in Part 1]

Section A: Principal’s Report

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.

__________________________________________________________________

7. Staff changes (Separations and Hires): [Whatever happened to “we are not at liberty to discuss personnel decisions”? Apparently SAA can and does reveal information about personnel decisions after all. That is, when it wants to for public relations imaging or optics. See the proof of how they they openly dished and threw boatloads of shade at our former Elementary Principal on 4/1/2021 and on 5/5/2021.]

Ms. Gatica – left because always wanted to be a chaplain.

Mrs. Walter – left because she has a baby coming.

Mrs. Nixon – left because she wanted to transfer and work with her husband.

Mrs. DaCunha – left because her husband retired and they want to be closer to family.

Mrs. Carlson – left because she has a dream of going back to the Union College area.

Mrs. Judie Rosa – left because “she accepted the principal position at Hinsdale in Chicago.”

[Really? Yes, Mrs. Rosa took a job offer to lead Hinsdale, but only after she was fired from SAA on April 1, 2021! See our Epilogue & Lessons Learned for analysis on that. But what a blatant half-truth your explanation was, Mrs. Bowerman. We don't think anyone in the room believed that. But here’s something we do believe: Hinsdale is smarter than SAA. The same for the Illinois Conference which is smarter than the Chesapeake Conference.]

Mrs. Dawn Thompson - moving to work at the Columbia Union to replace Christine Green

Mrs. Mindi Nix - moving closer to family

[How many of these decisions were catalyzed by Judie Rosa’s sudden firing? According to the Principal’s Report, none of them. Sorry Mrs. Bowerman, but we don’t believe you there either. The timing of the departure announcements and job postings for elementary school staff speak for themselves. Almost all of them came after the Rosa termination scandal. An anonymous source inside SAA indicated that the Rosa termination shocked and demoralized the elementary teachers, and that this was a factor in several of these decisions.]

Teacher Positions Being Filled:

Joan Waite – Incoming 5th Grade teacher. [Welcome back to SAA.]

Laura Steinert – She requested to leave the high school English position to teach in the middle school, and will be the 6th Grade Homeroom Teacher.

Jason Martz – Incoming 8th Grade Homeroom Teacher (Math/Science). [Welcome to SAA.]

3rd Grade Teacher position has been offered to unnamed applicant, but not yet confirmed. [Mrs. Ingrid Rivera, welcome back to SAA.]

School Counselor position has been offered to unnamed applicant, but not yet confirmed.

offered but not confirmed. [Mrs. Carmen Esposito, welcome to SAA.]

Positions Still Needed:

Elementary Principal.

High School English Teacher.

Registrar.

[It comes as no surprise that SAA still needs an Elementary Principal; because they don’t just grow on local bushes and trees, especially talented pros like Mrs. Rosa. At the time of the Constituency Meeting, over 10 weeks since Mrs. Rosa’s forced disappearance, there still was no Elementary Principal under contract. Now there is an interim Elementary Principal who is at SAA only because an alumnus called in a favor (as per SAA’s Administrative Announcement email introduction to Dr. Kelly Bock on July 23, 2021). Eyes On SAA joins everyone else in welcoming Dr. Bock to SAA and hoping he successfully bridges the gap to the next permanent Elementary Principal. Without any disrespect to Dr. Bock, SAA is weaker with any interim replacement for Mrs. Rosa who did an outstanding job for 5 years at SAA, by overwhelming consensus. Her reward was to be taken out in the middle of the night in an internal coup and made to vanish by some combination of Chesapeake Education Superintendent Janesta Walker, SAA Head Principal Bowerman, and the Secret SAA School Board Chair Noble and/or his Executive Committee. For complete analysis, please read our Report on the Termination of Judie Rosa. Whether we are correct or not in our analysis, the school was obviously damaged and weakened (not to mention less “diverse”) thanks to those persons. The school has yet to recover. That could take years.]

[Note: At the time of the Constituency Meeting, the High School Principal position was held by Mrs. Ellenor Paul-O’Neil. At the High School Graduation ceremonies, a mere 2 weeks prior to the CM, Mrs. Paul-O’Neil addressed the Class of 2021 and gave no indication that she would not be returning for 2021-22. It seems that this resignation was a surprise to SAA as well since nothing about it was mentioned at the CM on June 15, 2021. Yet on July 14, 2021, the SAA Community was informed that Mrs. Paul-O’Neil was resigning her position for family responsibilities [See: Farewell and Adieu, Mrs. Paul-O’Neil]. A mere 9 days later, on July 23, 2021, SAA's Administrative Announcement introduced Mr. Joram Regis as its new High School Principal, and described his fine academic credentials and experience. Despite the curious and rapid timing of these two events, as if staged, Eyes On SAA welcomes Mr. Regis and wishes him great success. We hope the discipline and code-adherence of his military and public education background will be highly contagious and infectious to the rest of SAA administration.]

8. Spiritual Curricular Programming. The school intends to do “Disciple Development” of students by engaging them in activities and a “Spiritual Growth Plan” by developing plans/benchmarks/themes based on character traits; Developing discipleship team (students, parents, church members, teachers) finding community service activities and determining student needs [This sounds very good.]

9. Academic Curricular Programming. American Sign Language, Aviation, and French were added 2 years ago (2019-2020). New programs next year (2021-22) will include AP Biology, AP Spanish, and Dual Enrollment Microbiology [This is all very good. On the point of AP classes, Eyes on SAA has received a report from a parent who questioned the quality of the AP Calculus instruction and sought data from SAA on point but was denied. This will be the subject of a future post to our Blog.]

10. STEM Certification. NCSE - SAA working on gaining STEM Certification for the entire school - headed by Mrs. Paty Serrano - only 48 schools have this certification, and 26 schools in process. This certification is for “Commitment and growth to best practices and skills/strategies for 21st century skills and teaching STEM in classroom.” The only step left is to celebrate this certificate. [Thank you Mrs. Serrano. This sounds excellent. Teachers like you that go above and beyond are why we enroll our children at SAA.]

11. Standardized Tests: No more ITBS (Iowa Test of Basic Skills). From now on it will be the “MAP”, an adapted testing system designed for individual student knowledge and growth. It provides projected proficiency to help teachers develop and re-evaluate growth plans for students in areas of need. It’s not just subject matter knowledge, but specific skills are measured. Because of the irregular COVID year, 2020-21 MAP results are not being used as a baseline. There is no way to correlate ITBS and MAP testing. 78% of SAA’s students’ test scores are in the average or above average categories. [This seems like a rational and evidence-based decision. The students may not be so happy about more testing.]

12. Athletics (Extramural and Intramural). The league in which SAA has participated, PVAC (Potomac Valley Athletic Conference), didn’t operate due to COVID. P.E. Teacher Isaac Tyman has pushed very hard to have intramural PE/Sports activities despite COVID and will be working to do the same with coaches over the summer. [Well done, Mr. Tyman. Your initiative is commendable and you worked hard to provide these fun opportunities for our children.]

13. Fine Arts. The music department found a way to do music despite COVID. The drama (“Cheaper by the Dozen”) was recorded and then broadcast on a mobile jumbotron screen at the Spencerville Church with students selling snacks to raise funds. [We thank Mrs. Froelich, Mrs. Lanning, and Mr. Martinez. You worked so hard under extremely challenging circumstances and limitations, and overcame by improvising to deliver for your students.]

14. Graduation was done in person last year (Class of 2020) which was very complex, but got done. This year was also done in-person despite some weather. [Congratulations Classes of 2020 and 2021!]

15. Marketing and Strategic Planning. SAA will be building a greater social media presence to be spearheaded by Merle Poirier. SAA will contract with Niche, a school marketing company which uses stats from report about schools and rank them. SAA will be doing a complete website overhaul. It will be a lengthy process but provide more accessibility and integration of documents. SAA will begin “PFE” (Partnering for Eternity) a mentorship program for cross-generational relationships that will provide scholarship money for elementary and secondary students. Volunteers are needed for this program and some have been found. [Thank you, Merle Poirier. These are all excellent initiatives. Please include a link to the Eyes On SAA Blog in the new website.]

16. Miscellaneous. The garden plot being used more and more by classrooms. More technology infrastructure is coming, particularly updating Wi-Fi network in building. There will be work on some unfinished space in the Cafeteria/Multipurpose Room. Despite the obstacles, children’s skill sets are growing in amazing ways. Partnership with the Home and School Association has produced new picnic tables, a canopy, and completion of a nature trail behind school. The constituency of Spencerville Church makes all these things possible. [All very good.]

Our Grade on the Principal’s Report: C

Conclusion:

We commend SAA’s Head Principal Mrs. Bowerman for a thorough Principal’s Report with much important information and details. Our grade for this report would have been a solid “B” were it not for what we call some gas-lighting, half-truths, and unanswered questions about controversial issues like CRT and the Judie Rosa termination fiasco. In fairness to Mrs. Bowerman, she did not really answer any questions on matters of controversy. That was done almost exclusively by SAA Secret School Board Chairperson Mark Noble who seemingly shielded her as much as possible from hard questions. We will report more detail on this point in our next blogpost covering the Delegate Questions & Comments on the Principal's Report. That part of the meeting was the most compelling of all, and you do not want to miss our next blogpost covering that.

End of 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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