In year three of the dual language program, the School District told us that it desired to open a language academy. The problem was that they didn't want to tell us where. In addition to that small detail, they didn't want to hear anything from parents or the teachers on how that academy should take form. That's an issue that will come out soon in this account, but to the point, it started as a failure.
Once the "where" was set, the next mystery entailed who was going to lead the school. When we discovered it was Izela Jacobo, we knew there would be issues. First of all, she had no experience as a Principal and her only experience in the district was as an English Language Learner Coordinator. To this day, we are uncertain what her credentials are and question whether she has a Bachelor of Science or Arts much less a graduate degree for her current role. We do know that her reputation is one that not many think highly of her from a professional or personal standpoint. She's plain nasty to people and it brings her joy.
As involved parents, we spent our time supporting the new school. We wanted it to succeed, so we invested our time daily for six months. My wife worked in the three teachers' classrooms (school implemented a three teacher rotation noted in my second blog) and wrote a monthly newsletter for the school in both English and Spanish. She also put together the inaugural yearbook that took six months of nightly work. I also helped in the classroom and as a Board member of the School Site Council. In addition, I trained eight teams of six students for the school's color guard. The other parents of our group were equally active. The point in bringing this to light is that we gave a full effort to better the school.
In comparison to the three earlier years of volunteering in the classroom, we observed a lost program with no form or academic rigor. It's a daycare with no plan for education. In the meantime, the Principal and her group of followers, or Yes Women, were claiming all kinds of success to the district headquarters. The mantra of these teachers is "lo que diga la hefa" which translates to "whatever the boss says we do." They used this mantra when Izela Jacobo had report cards changed without a connection to student output school. "If the grades are too low, then the parents complain".
We had a meeting with the three-teachers and although they gave such raving reviews of our student's work, they had nothing to show for it, and wondering why we wanted to meet with them when we told them we noticed a decrease in her Spanish vocabulary and writing skills. We insisted that the three teachers get on the same page and start conducting spelling tests in Spanish and English. We also found ourselves instructing the teachers on how to lead their classrooms. I've never seen that before. They were lost and couldn't figure out how to work with each other.
We then met with the Principal and her defensive response was that nothing was going to change. She even told one parent to leave the school if they were not happy with the program. It was such a clown show. One of the teachers was escorted off the campus after not agreeing with the principal at a meeting during the month of March. So there our kids are; 75 students without a math teacher.
New Flash; Kids go to school to learn. You get five hours a day, Monday - Friday over the course of nine months. Take out the holidays and weekends and that leaves anywhere from 140-150 days of instruction. Principals get paid to guide teachers. Teachers get paid to follow through on the education plan. The Principal did not have plan and was not talented enough to figure it out how to lead a school much less a dual language immersion program. So she retaliated at her experienced teachers and FIVE resigned. Yes, brand new school and five teachers left.
After we discovered that the principal was altering report cards, to keep parents from complaining, and a raw attack on some of the teachers, we took the conversation to the Superintendent and Board of Directors. Once we aired the problems of the school, our kids were singled out by the teacher clique and we were no longer to volunteer in the class.
I'll discuss the School District Leadership and Board of Directors in my next blog.
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