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Only 10% Michelle Anderson - 90% Everything Else

Prairie Vale Parent responses were swift and strong to the 2/20/2007 Post on where posts come from regarding Michelle Anderson. March 7, 2007 Parent Post Regarding Michelle...I am very disappointed in the education that my child is receiving.  My older children had teachers that cared and received a top rate education.  Prior to the principal change, we were a "Private school in a public school setting".  The teachers that are being hired have no mentorship program and are basically thrown to the wolves. That being, the parents, very opinionated teachers and some of the very spoiled children.  PV API scores continue to fall.  Isn't that saying that something isn't being done right?  How can you go from being a number 1 school to not even making the top 10 in such a short period of time?  The BOE need to step in before this gets any worse. Our Reply The time has come to take this message to the school board.  As with the case with any website such as the DCSPost, some members of the board view it as a nuisance and not as a sounding board.  The whole problem boils down to the board not willing to openly and honestly investigate the situation to establish were the problem lies.  If the board is unwilling to come to the problem, then let’s bring the problem to them.  Maybe then they will have to listen to the people that voted them into office. John Robertson said during his election that he would open up communication with the patrons.  To date John has lived up to his word and should be commended for sticking to the platform that he ran on.  Now is the time to hold the rest of the board accountable.  It is their responsibility to address and deal with all of the issues that the patrons bring to them.  It would seem that some members of the board believe they can establish the merit of an issue brought to them based on their feelings of the individual who brings the message.  If they would communicate with the patrons directly there would be no need for a website of this nature. Our recommendation is for everyone to start talking to the board about their concerns.  For those who don’t understand, this is about the quality of education that is dropping at Prairie Vale not about a particular person.  Truth be told, if the board had addressed the issues from day one and not ignored them, Principal Anderson would not be under the scrutiny she is today.  Did Principal Anderson need to be replaced to fix the problem?  In the beginning the answer was "no", but today too much water may have gone under the bridge that it may be the only answer.  While I find fault in many of the things Principal Anderson has done, I am totally disgusted with the board’s unwillingness to correct the problem.  Being on many boards myself, I would be embarrassed if the legacy I left matched the legacy this board is leaving.  March 6, 2007 Parent Post Mrs. Anderson seems to be very open to suggestion by patrons of her school.  In fact, it seems who ever yells loudest gets their way.  Now, if this is a person of integrity - great.  But, more often than not that person is someone who likes power and prestige.  Therefore, you have patrons in charge making personal decisions about things like who gets free gym usage and who does not, how to buy or bully their kid's spot into a classroom or change curriculum, how much to politic to get what you want at a fundraiser. These are actual instances of a professional accepting, aiding and sometimes initiating misconduct. We don't make these facts up.  They come to us daily. Some things are worth mentioning and some things are just conjecture.  But none of these things are good for our kids. So, if you're new you should dig a little deeper before opening your mouth/laptop to take offense at our discontent.  If you've been here a while, shame on you, you should take your blinders off or were you appointed by the aforesaid with an "important" position? Perhaps attend the same parties?  How many well-tenured, outstanding teachers do we have to lose for you to understand the problem runs deep enough to affect your adorable offspring? Not everything can be conveniently attributed to a split with RU.  We can continue to gripe about little things or we can wait for a big thing to happen.  (which I'm not sure hasn't already happened). My challenge to patrons and teachers...how big is big enough for you to understand and support the fact that PV needs a change of leadership for our kids?  Is it the financial deficit, the constant purchase of items that don't impact education, the fundraising disputes, the slow depletion of seasoned volunteers and teachers, unrest in the classroom and between colleagues or issues of personal and professional irresponsibility?     Like it or not, Mrs. Anderson is a role model and a professional.  Being a leader for our public school system comes at a bit of a personal price.  Most of these professional missteps have been the direct outcome of not drawing a line between personal relationships and a professional responsibility to the community and staff.  What is her responsibility to handle, what is the teacher's and what is the volunteer's?  I don't think she can answer that question herself.  Is she naive or very, very clever?  Neither of those choices lend well to developing personnel, communicating openly with the parents or effectively directing an entire school.  And if a professional is apt to show favoritism, will said professional also show the opposite?  Is this the reason so few parents are willing to be seen in the office asking the hard questions or even carrying on an email dialogue?  Is this the reason those who are willing to lend their name or mouth get so many calls for advice or just pass on the latest and greatest pitfall? As involved patrons we feel we are in constant damage control mode.  Some of us strive to make the mistakes she makes right. We volunteer, we take over events, we serve on PTO and we donate and donate and donate. These people are usually well-meaning, but the fingers in the holes holding the dam together can't hold back a hurricane. What kind of storm will it take for the Superintendent, BOE or Mrs. Anderson herself to notice those piling up the sand bags are running out of steam?    So....If you're not willing to stand up, dig in and fortify...then get the heck out of the way and let the water run in. Quit telling those plugging those holes they're running out of fingers or just pretending it's another day in paradise. March 5, 2007 Parent Post 1: I have spent the last hour reading the parent posts on this website and there are several broad negative statements about Michelle Anderson.  I would like to challenge these people to give some specifics as to what they think is unethical about the way Michelle handles herself as the principal.  It is easy to give statements, but without supporting information, it is difficult to believe there is really an issue that needs to be addressed.  Also have any of these people tried addressing things with Michelle directly and make her answer their tough questions or respond to their issues or do they just post nasty statements about her behind her back? Parent Post 2: Being a principal or a person of authority cannot be easy. With that being said, there are a lot of issues concerning PV and their administrative leader. The biggest issue is who to listen to, does she listen to the board? Or does she listen to others? It is all a political game. On one hand she needs to keep her job, but how do you do that without making both sides mad? It is tough call. On the matter of her being rehired, the board must of thought something was going right. Whatever you believe, it was not the public's decision and will never be in administrative hirings. Our Reply: To parent number 1, I am not sure what you read but many of the topics listed are straight forward and to the point.  I don’t know about everyone who has posted a note on the website but I can tell you that a good number have already addressed these issues with Principal Anderson, Superintendent Wilkinson, and certain board members.  But if you would like the issues spelled out here you go: Awarding a contract to individuals doing work for her personally. Buying extravagant Items while there is no money for books or teachers supplies. Going drinking with subordinates and parents.  If you can get one to tell. you asked what happened next. Not following school policy for school building usage. Most recently,  The rumor has it she was inflating bids at the Prairie Vale auction by bidding on items that she had no intention of buying.  The cover up on this has already begun. To parent number 2, I agree with you that being a person of authority is never easy.  Your question of who a principal listens to the board or the public is kind of ironic since Principal Anderson is listening to neither.  Her issues were created by her and nobody else.  And if we use you logic regarding the board rehiring her, take it one step further and they also must condone fraud, philandering, and incompetence.  Unfortunately you may be right since they renewed her contract.  Lastly the public does have a say in the hiring and firing.  Every time a high level administrator is hired, the public is asked to take part via a search committee.  The public also elects the school board who represents the public.  Just because our current board doesn’t take the public’s opinion into consideration doesn’t mean that we don’t matter or it isn’t so. February 21, 2007 Parent Post 1: Quote from previous Post: “I cannot be the only one who feels like the DSC Post has turned into the ‘we hate Michelle Anderson and anyone who likes Michelle Anderson’ board.” Parent's Reply:I have yet to read any such statements of hate. There are statements and questions concerning Mrs. Anderson's ability to make sound decisions and be accountable for them (as taught in the ever so pushed upon us "Love & Logic"). Quote from previous Post: “If you don't lay off of PV and Michelle in particular, you lose any credence your opinion may have carried. I am sick to death of your personal tirade. Enough already?” Parent's Reply: Sounds as if a nerve has been struck here. The “personal tirade” you are so sick of is coming from the families with students at the school. The people running this forum have given the district community the ability to be heard. This is something that we cannot do at board meetings as we are restricted to what's on the agenda as long as it doesn't pertain to personnel or how they do their jobs (guess that leaves us with the weather). Quote from previous Post: “We have other things to talk about, surely?” Parent's Reply: Okay, so how's the weather?   Parent Post 2: Regarding Michelle Anderson haters. I can't speak for everyone but the majority of people concerned about issues at PV don't hate Michelle Anderson. She's a likeable person. The "Hate Michelle Anderson" spin was started by a school board member who tried to manipulate the public school system last spring with his donation and a lawyer who is the secretary of the DCSF. These "gentlemen" find it much easier to try and discredit others and cover problems than to try and fix them. Michelle Anderson has shown in the past 10 months that she is unethical, immoral and inept at her job. Simply "liking children" is not enough. February 20, 2007 Parent Post I cannot be the only one who feels like the DSC Post has turned into the "we hate Michelle Anderson and anyone who likes Michelle Anderson" board. If you don't lay off of PV and Michelle in particular, you lose any credence your opinion may have carried. I am sick to death of your personal tirade. Enough already? We have other things to talk about, surely? Our Reply I am sure you are not the only individual to feel the way you do. Considering only about 10 percent of the website posts mention Michelle Anderson and of those about half address issues about her directly, I am not sure how you came up with your conclusion. If you hadn’t sent in your post, there would be one less on our website. Just for clarification, the different posts that you are reading came from Prairie Vale Student parents with our replies attached. Shouldn’t you be concerned with why there are so many issues with one person and not that these issues are being posted on a website? Moving on to our credibility, if we were not credible why would certain board members such as Jan Larsen go out of their way to explain the issues posted on our website? Why were there changes made in school policies? For the record, while certain administrators and board members go around covering up issues addressed on our website and saying they are not true, they have yet to show that any issue brought up on the DCSpost.com has indeed been untrue. The problem at Prairie Vale needs to be addressed by the school board. Unfortunately, the problem is growing and now is starting to affect individuals outside of the school. Hopefully the School Board and administration will fix the problem before we get anymore posts about Michelle Anderson. There is the alternative. We at the post can start burying our heads in the sand and pretend that the problem doesn’t exist.