From a "Start a new post," Anonymous wrote:
"Seeking Allderdice updates: We got a robocall last week about a suspicious package being found, sitaution handled by police, no danger to students; Allderdice's new principal is out on maternity leave; my 9th grade son says he got a contact high in a first floor bathroom.
What's up at Allderdice these days?"
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34 comments:
They added pipe bomb making (whoops, I mean go-kart making) to the curriculum. I wonder who received the fallout from that PR mess?
It turned out that the students weren't really making a pipe bomb.
But the various types of smoking in bathrooms at PPS high schools is a problem that does not seem to be addressed.
Another issue, specific to Allderdice, is that if the robotics program moves from Peabody the suggested location is Allderdice. The administration was asked if there is space and responded that there is. But many report Allderdice already being crowded.
Don't knock the go-kart making. Did anyone ask the kid what the item was before involving the cops and school security? What happened to the Personalization we heard about a few years ago? I would have expected some teacher to know a bit about the interests of that student.
A kid I know thinks there should be designated smoking spots in each high school. He says he would be less likely to smell like smoke and more likely to use the restroom during a school day. This is an old problem. What would suspension rates look like if enforcement occured?
Remember "Smoking in the Boys Room" from the 70s? Some things never change.
The PELA is weak and has no clue, she's over her head
How can that be- hasn't she been on maternity leave?
Principal Friez is on maternity leave. They left the PELA in charge.
A fight got bloody in the boys room
today. Halls are a free for all, groups of kids roaming the halls interupting classes.
The PELA is losing control
Some things never change... The PELA should not have been left in charge.
What does PELA stand for, please?
And does anyone know anything about a suicide earlier this year? A 9th grader, apparently. I seem to remember a vaguely worded letter about it being sent home from the school.
Here is how the district describes PELA:
"One of the District’s major reform efforts is its Pittsburgh Emerging Leadership Academy (PELA). PELA is a component of the District’s Pittsburgh Urban Leadership System for Excellence (PULSE) accountability system to recruit, train, support, evaluate and compensate principals. The PELA program provides a corps of highly skilled administrators prepared to meet the District’s needs."
The program seems to have led to a major turnover in principal staffing, replacing mostly older long term principals with young PELA trained principals.
Thanks. Friez seems to be a fairly recent PELA herself. Is she due back this term? Could be a long spring, discipline-wise.
No info on when she will be back- but one many young principals it will be important to expect and plan for more maternity leaves than when principals were older.
Some principals have also reported long evenings filling out paperwork. You have to wonder how that will go over with principals who have young children at home.
Mrs. Friez is outstanding, she is the best out of the first PELA class 3 years ago, but she is one of the exceptions. She's a good and fair person, she will probably move on to bigger and better things out side this district. She's a great fit at Allderdice, Alumni, very positive, a light during a dark time in Pittsburgh education. Much better fit than Mr. Schere, his move to The Sci-tech program was the best thing that happened to Dice in years, Do not forget who funds the PELA program
Eli Broad and his foundation
Before school ends thers is at least 40 to 60 kids walking around, going to the store, smoking, hanging out. An hour before school lets out. It is been getting worse as the weather is geating warmer. Should these kids be in school? Some are up to no good, they look and act like a buch of holigans.
Concered Resident
Anonymous wrote the following earlier today, but information that identified a student needed to be taken out:
Kids running halls all day, security constantly chasing. Anarchy & Chaos
A [student related to a district employee] was caught having relations with another student at school, he was not even suspended, he had a conversation with Kim Safran the weak PELA who is running Dice.
Sex on School Grounds, No Punishment
The PELA program should have been named "Junior Executives Program". It's hard to feel sympathy for this bunch. They knew what they were getting into--a way to validate their decisions to get into education and get out of the classroom at the same time. It seems their best attribute is the ability to target teachers. Heck, even the PELA leader is coming into schools and telling teachers how horrible they are. Neither she nor her PELA people would know effective teaching if it bit them in their backsides.
I like Mrs.Friez too, but would wonder if Dice is a bit too demanding for her--or any PELA principal. Maybe Roosevelt should have his HQ there and do double duty.
Apparently it used to be necessary to spend 3 years as a vice principal before becoming a principal (and that was usually preceded by a good number of years as a teacher), but the thought now is that the PELA program can replace all of that.
All the current High School principals are now from the PELA program. As a result, a lot of what you are complaining about happening at Allderdice is happening at all the High Schools; students cutting classes, leaving the building, smoking in the building, etc. A couple of the PELA principals seem to be doing an okay job when they are in their buildings, but they spend the majority of the school week at meetings together at Greenway. That does not help with student discipline. There are many PELA principals who are in over their heads, but it seems like no one listens to the staff any more. In the good old days a person had to work up the ladder by being a vice principal for 3 years before applying for a principal position. Unfortunately, now you just have to be a graduate of Roosevelt's acclaimed PELA program to get the job. Most of the new hire PELAs are from outside of the district and have no idea of the policies and protocols that used to be in place at Pittsburgh Public Schools. I also think that for some of them, they had no idea what they were getting themselves into.
I do not think all high school principals are PELA grads. If they are then some went to PELA after being VPs in buildings and must have been accelerated PELAs because they were not in training long enough.
I can't speak to high school but it does seem like principals are out of the building a lot getting developed or in meetings.
First off, the comment that all principals are now PELA grads is incorrect. Not at the high school level and not at the middle school level. I certainly believe that building administrators are being indoctrinated into the Roosevelt/Broad way of thinking, no doubt, but there are still some individuals in administration who hold a certain amount of queasiness about what they are being asked to do these days where teachers are concerned. Sadly, their hands are tied. They are given little in the way of opportunities for input and let's just say that there is a clear line they'd better not cross or risk charges of insubordination. As a teacher, I find the current thinking that comes from our administration--and in particular, one assistant superintendent--to be outrageously out of step with the needs of our students. Most notably, this mentality extends to the completion of curriculum in each subject area that in no way prepares students for what they will need in college and confuses academic rigor with hit-and-run style instruction that essentially dares teachers to stay up to speed or refers to mindless drivel that someone has researched as being "cutting edge" and packages it as curriculum.
But I digress.
PELA people aren't being taught how to deal with problem kids. They are being taught how to deal with teachers. They aren't being taught how to move students forward. They are being taught how to put the feet of teachers to the fire.
No, myriad dates out of the school every week are not helping matters, but the statement that PELA grads did not know what they were getting into is again, a falsehood. They knew and were all too eager to get out of the classroom. Sorry, but I have no sympathy for these people, nor do I understand a pay system that grants huge raises to building administrators for the work of their teachers.
And I cannot fathom how a PELA supervisor can be allowed to dress down regular PPS staff. I hope teachers in these circumstances have good lawyers.
The Principal at Perry, Nina Sacco, is the only Non-PELA Principal running a High School. The only school I am unaware of the principal is Langley. Friez is by far the best. Sacco was told to raise test scores or she would be replaced by a PELA. Take that with grain of salt, it is a teacher rumor from Perry. From the teacher rummors, Friez from Dice & Pearlman from Capa are very capabale and the best. Thats why they got those schools, the rest of the PELA's are coporate wana bee's who got out of the class room as soon as they possibly could. The sad thing about education is that the very best teachers have no desire to leave the classroom and be administrators, these are the people with the know how. More than half of administors are people who could not cut in the classroom, It is an upside down model.
By the way, I am very (Aware) of all grammar and spelling mistakes, sorry Grammar Snob
Old Timer,
I wish you where the president of the PFT or better yet Superintendent. You are one of the teachers I was ranting about, one who could run things, but choose to be a teacher first and fight in the trenches. Instead of kissing up to move up and get out of the classroom.
Much Respect
Hope to be an old timer, 2/3 of the way there LOL
Anon12:07, I don't think the Brashear or Carrick principals are PELA. I think each served as VPs under principals and got to be principals. We have to be accurate here at all costs. This blog is the last place where we can support one another and get info and ideas.
Brashear principal is not a PELA. He came up through the ranks.
Anon at 1:18, thank you for your comments. Anon at 12:07, you are incorrect. Sophia Facaros at Schenley is no PELA principal. She is one of the last of the old guard, if anything. Wayne Walters at Obama/IB is no PELA, whether you want to consider Obama/IB a high school yet or not. Jennifer Murphy at Carrick is no PELA, nor is John Vater at Brashear, although I believe both have been indoctrinated in PELA methods and are affiliated with PELA leadership. I also don't believe Dennis Chakey at Oliver is a PELA grad, or at least took a year out of the district and then returned from Penn Hills, a district that was threatening to sue for breach of contract. At least, I think I remember his situation via the newspapers a couple of years ago.
Perry principal Sacco is also a young principal in charge of a school in which I hear many comments about situations that have been horrible for subs and individuals who take the time to present info to kids. And I mean horrible. She surely has her hands full there.
No, I don't believe PELA has had the across-the-board presence in the backgrounds of high school principals as some would have you believe where PELA residency and instruction prior to principal assignments are concerned and in truthfulness, it does not matter. We are almost uniformly talking about young principals. These people have long careers ahead of them and understand that you don't ask questions. To some degree, I can't fault principals for the task that has been placed in their laps although it strikes me that old school principals likely would have made concerted efforts together to be more vocal.
Still, to state that these folks had no clue about what they were getting themselves into is simply not true. For whatever reason--and I always suspect the idea that being a classroom teacher is simply too overwhelming--these young PELA people made the decision to get involved in the program. Most old timers like myself take comfort in the fact that we have seen many administrations come and go. Dick Wallace. Louise Brennen. Dale Frederick. John Thompson. We like to think that teachers weather the storms that come from each different administration and yet, it's rare that firings and disciplinary actions have become lynch pin of any of the aforementioned. PELA principals are one thing, but allowing supervisors of departments who also have had little experience in front of students to make a call about a teacher's effectiveness can only be called outrageous. How many of us will weather this particular storm when all is said and done?
Anon at 1:18, thank you for your comments. Anon at 12:07, you are incorrect. Sophia Facaros at Schenley is no PELA principal. She is one of the last of the old guard, if anything. Wayne Walters at Obama/IB is no PELA, whether you want to consider Obama/IB a high school yet or not. Jennifer Murphy at Carrick is no PELA, nor is John Vater at Brashear, although I believe both have been indoctrinated in PELA methods and are affiliated with PELA leadership. I also don't believe Dennis Chakey at Oliver is a PELA grad, or at least took a year out of the district and then returned from Penn Hills, a district that was threatening to sue for breach of contract. At least, I think I remember his situation via the newspapers a couple of years ago.
Perry principal Sacco is also a young principal in charge of a school in which I hear many comments about situations that have been horrible for subs and individuals who take the time to present info to kids. And I mean horrible. She surely has her hands full there.
No, I don't believe PELA has had the across-the-board presence in the backgrounds of high school principals as some would have you believe where PELA residency and instruction prior to principal assignments are concerned and in truthfulness, it does not matter. We are almost uniformly talking about young principals. These people have long careers ahead of them and understand that you don't ask questions. To some degree, I can't fault principals for the task that has been placed in their laps although it strikes me that old school principals likely would have made concerted efforts together to be more vocal.
Still, to state that these folks had no clue about what they were getting themselves into is simply not true. For whatever reason--and I always suspect the idea that being a classroom teacher is simply too overwhelming--these young PELA people made the decision to get involved in the program. Most old timers like myself take comfort in the fact that we have seen many administrations come and go. Dick Wallace. Louise Brennen. Dale Frederick. John Thompson. We like to think that teachers weather the storms that come from each different administration and yet, it's rare that firings and disciplinary actions have become lynch pin of any of the aforementioned. PELA principals are one thing, but allowing supervisors of departments who also have had little experience in front of students to make a call about a teacher's effectiveness can only be called outrageous. How many of us will weather this particular storm when all is said and done?
The student death earlier this school year was an 11th grader, not a 9th grader. It was discussed at the PSCC meeting a few days later. The rumor (and I stress RUMOR) I heard was the young man died of a drug overdose. I have no way to confirm the facts since I do not know the family.
Interesting discussion about PELAs, but thanks for coming back around to my original query about the Allderdice atmosphere.
Can anyone give me some perspective--is student misconduct and the apparent lack of rules enforcement worse, better or par for the course at Allderdice?
I have no clue about what might be up at 'Dice. I will say if anything is off track it does not serve the district well. Dice is held up as a standard to be met by other schools. With Schenley essentially gone, it is the last of its breed.
I think what has been "the standard" at Allderdice for some time has been the school within a school there. I don't think the school appeared to be anything approaching a standard bearer when purported rioting took place there last spring, and I don't think it was looked upon as a standard bearer when students belonging to two neighborhood factions clashed over one Christmas break, resulting in the death of one of the students. We can talk ancient history, or about a part of the school population, but the fact is that there are some problems there as there are at most city high schools which are problematic.
Standard bearers in the district would have to be CAPA, and Obama and to a it-remains-to-be-seen extenet, Sci Tech.
I think Mrs.Friez is a good person to be in charge of the school where PELA grads are concerned, but times have changed.
Three more fights Today, kids leaving the building at lunch time, walking through out the community, what a Joke
Three hour delay today so that 11th graders can take standardized tests. Maybe the fights yesterday were just acknowledgment that there'd be extra sleep-in time today.
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