Can A terrible Principal destroy a great school? Just ask the faculty at Forest Hills High School and they will tell you yes. 91% of the facility gave Principal Ben Sherman a no confidence vote in a poll conducted recently. His failure to collaborate with staff, make questionable decisions detrimental to students and staff alike, and goes after teachers with a passion reserved only for the worst principals in Queens..
Principal Ben Sherman has a history of problems with school staff before he was given the Principal job at Forest Hills High School. He was already despised by school staff in his previous school, East-West International . You can read it on the ICEUFT blog Here. You can also see that Principal Ben Sherman had one of the lowest teacher trust factor when it came to Queens high schools during the 2015-16 school year at East-West Here.
Ben Sherman, despite his problems with the staff at East-West, was promoted by Superintendent Juan Mendez who always seem to select and protect the worst Principals in the Queens high schools. Just read my posts Here and Here and who can forget this?
Now Principal Ben Sherman has made life miserable for the staff at Forest Hills High School and once again has one of the lowest trust factors in all of Queens high schools. You can see my list Here. His teacher trust factor is lower than the infamous Judy Henry and Namita Dwarka.
Will Chancellor Carranza remove Ben Sherman? Probably not unless the Forest Hills faculty can get Susan Edelman to published a New York Post article about the Forest Hills High School fiasco.
NYC Educator, Ed Notes online and the ICEUFT blog have also written about the Forest Hills fiasco..
Why not conduct a walk-out? Would you think if all tenured staff scheduled a walk-out at 8 a.m. on March 1st that would not draw immediate attention?
ReplyDeleteUnity is corrupt.
DeleteBecoming an administrator in a system that is so unbelievably corrupt is telling in itself. In the past 15 years, I do not know one teacher, who has become an administrator, who has the children as a priority. The teachers who I do know that have gone into administration have done so for the pay increase, the power, and/or to get out of the classroom.
ReplyDeleteThe loss of human decency and the rise of political correctness is further deteriorating the NYC DOE. I have no confidence that anything will improve anytime soon.
Our Union is becoming a joke.
ReplyDelete7:51 One highlight about my principal hiring newbie admins is that I make a lot more money then they do. Actually, all the senior teachers remind ourselves of that. It’s not much, but it does make me happy.
ReplyDeleteAgree with 7:51 except that none of the teachers I know who became administers were successful in the classroom. They did know most of the buzzwords but just couldn't connect with the kids.
ReplyDeleteFor them, teaching was very difficult and a bit mysterious. Moving away to the admin ranks was a way to stay in the pension system, get a raise in pay, and get away from the kids.
Of course they carry a bit of resentment towards those who do meet with success in the classroom and occupy positions wherein they evaluate teachers.
8:14 said the magic word, buzzwords. I don't mind an admin who evaluates me based on his (or her, but currently I only have male admins) experience teaching the subject in his classroom. I can actually learn something from that and be more successful implementing some of it.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest problem is when Admin (including Supes) evaluate us not on how well we teach or how well the kids are learning but on buzzword nonsense. They look at the walls and the way the furniture is arranged and make judgments. Worse yet, they prioritize social engineering over actual content knowledge.