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Local NextDoor helped fuel all this fuss...another reason I quit it.
Meanwhile that same high school sure has a huge collection of trophies and robotics stuff over in a workshop in a vacant store at Cary Towne Center Mall.
Meanwhile that same high school sure has a huge collection of trophies and robotics stuff over in a workshop in a vacant store at Cary Towne Center Mall.
They rent that space - the club is Black Falcons. Not sure what this has to do with the principal issue.
Shows the school leadership may have/had more interest in robotics than dance? Just a hunch.
That club took that space a year or two ago and manages its own funding - any club like that that does competitions is pretty much on its own. It's not a class - dance is a class at GHHS.
I generally take the position that parents tend to react in a slightly augmented fashion when it comes to the critique of school policies/admin practices; especially for a school like Green Hope and the crowd it pulls from.
Having to cut programs/restructure class selections (minus the whole freshman pick first thing... that's silly though not as detrimental to seniors in practical sense; how many freshman are going to take seats in classes that seniors need to graduate?) is probably a necessary and unpleasant part of the job.
This tardy table business though....that SCREAMS power-grab. Someone who feels they need to show that they are boss and thus enact extremely counter-productive "discipline" practices just to prove a point.....that reeks of insecurity and probably an underlying lack of critical thinking.
I finished out middle school at a school where a new principal came in during my 8th grade year and tried to rule with an iron fist in this same fashion. Several years later she was fired after numerous scandals; some of which made national headlines.
I worked under her husband at GHHS. He was a hard-nosed former football coach guy who got his Ph.D. Didn't like BS. I thought he was fair. He always treated me well.
Dr. Hedrick (Camille), well...I found her to be abrasive. I attended a job fair last year. Her comment to me was that whoever she chose for the job had to be used to being in the spotlight, since the school had a stellar reputation and person had to have impeccable standards and a spotless record. It was a very bizarre encounter that left me puzzled and running as far away as I could.
As for being fired...maybe those who started the petition need to check to make sure she is not doing the Board's bidding. This may not be all her.
You have to be kind of hard nosed and not like BS to run a school of 2500+ kids where 90% of the parents think their kids should be in the top 10% of their class. I mean, kids who had Summers as a principal at Davis Drive Middle didn't bat an eye over her as principal at GHHS, but my youngest never had her at DDMS and thought she was soooo tough. So sometimes it's about the perspective of running a certain grade level of school. But Sassakitty's interaction tell me that she approached this job with no small amount of paranoia about it. But again, it's not like the kids are suddenly going to run amok because there's a new principal, and the school actually has less kids now than it did two years ago and will have even less going forward. And the communication has been poor since she started, which to me was telling - like "I'm gonna do it my way and your opinions don't matter" unfortunately she is finding out the hard way parent opinions do matter. WCPSS lives in dire fear of kids leaving for charters and private schools and this is the kind of publicity they DO NOT WANT for the crown jewel of their non magnet high schools.
I think "fire" is a strong request, but she's a "my way or the highway" type of person and that's not really needed at a school like GHHS. 99% of the kids there are just looking to do the best they can and not cause trouble, but they are teenagers and they can get loud and boisterous etc. I had not heard about the "tardy table" till I read this article, but that seems pretty stupid, to make kids miss half a class instead of a minute or two. And what staff is being used to handle that table? They have nothing better to do?
Also - she mans the door at lunchtime so you can't drop anything off for your kids. Understand that in a school of 2500+ students, SOMEONE is going to forget their lunch, their instrument, the athletic uniform, etc. That's life. She just doesn't seem equipped to deal with teenagers at all. Or maybe she's just burned out. But she was the wrong choice for this school. I know the BOE put her there (and saw it coming miles down the track) because they assumed the GHHS parents would only accept a principal transferring from another high performing school, but that seems to be all the thought they gave to it.
You have a right as a leader to lead the way you wish, you do NOT have the right to make sweeping changes in an educational environment without some dialogue with the parents who support your efforts, almost to the extreme. A school isn't a business, but for lack of a better term it's bad business practice to run any organization this way.
I can only equate to Broughton, where my children go.
Tardy kids (assuming we're talking in the morning), have to report to the front office to get a slip.
And nobody's supposed to be walking into any building/meeting at a doorway to drop off stuff. You go to the office. And yes, my kids forget stuff.
Does GHHS not yet have building security where you have to be buzzed in?
You have to be kind of hard nosed and not like BS to run a school of 2500+ kids where 90% of the parents think their kids should be in the top 10% of their class. I mean, kids who had Summers as a principal at Davis Drive Middle didn't bat an eye over her as principal at GHHS, but my youngest never had her at DDMS and thought she was soooo tough. So sometimes it's about the perspective of running a certain grade level of school. But Sassakitty's interaction tell me that she approached this job with no small amount of paranoia about it. But again, it's not like the kids are suddenly going to run amok because there's a new principal, and the school actually has less kids now than it did two years ago and will have even less going forward. And the communication has been poor since she started, which to me was telling - like "I'm gonna do it my way and your opinions don't matter" unfortunately she is finding out the hard way parent opinions do matter. WCPSS lives in dire fear of kids leaving for charters and private schools and this is the kind of publicity they DO NOT WANT for the crown jewel of their non magnet high schools.
I agree. You need to be hardened to deal with the parents. Sorry to say, but many can be overbearing in such a competitive environment.
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