The parents of Stratford Landing Elementary School believe that establishing new leadership at the school is necessary to preserve the safety of our children, provide adequate consequences for disruptive children, provide support to staff to address and reduce behavior distractions that affect classroom instruction and regain stability in retaining top teaching talent.
Although there have problems with the administration at SLES for many years, the administration has for the past several months shown gross negligence in the handling of serious bullying and behavior incidents. The administration’s approach to these incidents includes victimizing and abandoning the children who are being bullied as well as humiliating the children who are bullies in front of their peers. The administration has also suggested to our children that they must be vigilant while inside the school in order to be safe, and that they are responsible for adapting and/or changing their behavior inside the building.
The administration’s lack of proper action for bullying and behavior issues has required teachers to repeatedly address these problems in the classroom, which in turn has taken away from valuable teaching time for ALL students. The administration’s band-aid approach to addressing these serious issues is not working and is affecting students throughout the school.
On top of the above safety issues, SLES loses significant staff year after year because the atmosphere created by the administration is neither supportive nor creative. It is toxic. Teachers are publicly demeaned during staff meetings and disgraced in front of their class by the principal and vice principal. Teachers are not supported nor mentored in a way that is creative or conducive to learning. The most recent survey, taken by FCPS, reflects the demoralization of the staff.
On top of these serious issues, the current administration’s contempt for community involvement equals their contempt for empowered educators. All of these issues stifle creativity in the classroom, in our school, and in our community. The signatures below show support for this effort, either for these reasons, or other reasons that individuals may have.