Josh, below is the actual email sent out by the chairperson. I left it in it's entirety to help understand the last paragraph where he stated we would not discuss this at the meeting. There are no provisions in place for exit interviews neither in our board policy manual nor with the school leadership. My motion was to discuss exit interviews and what process we will adopt moving forward as we just had all but two teachers quit. My point of order is to ensure we as a board are understanding what exactly might have occurred from all levels of perspective. Our annual survey is expected to be given to parents and staff next week, but I find it not relevant to the discussion of exit interviews.
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There has been enough discussion about this "exit interview" process, the urgency of which seems to be to gain some sympathy for the teachers whose contracts weren't renewed and those who simply refused to renew them. The ONLY people who can speak for the teachers are the teachers themselves. Everything else is hearsey. One of the teachers called me a couple months back and wanted to discuss some issues but wanted to remain anonymous because she was afraid of reprisals. I told her that as an individual board member and IAW our policy manual, I could not accept those terms and advised her to follow the grievance procedure in the teachers manual which would eventually get to the board if it could not be resolved with the administrator. The manual specifically states that there would be no reprisals and I told her that if there was, I wanted to know about it. She made the decision not to follow the policy. That was THEIR decision. I know what the teachers have done for the school and I was chairman of the church during the worst turmoil in the school's history and I interviewed all the teachers myself during that time. The HHLS Policy Manual, The Parent Handbook and the Teachers' Manual are the governing documents of this school and this is what we use to deal with issues.
I spoke with a couple of parents yesterday and the day before. One wanted to remain anonymous because she simply didn't want her name mentioned and the other wanted anonymity because she was afraid of reprisals against her child. I was aghast that anyone would think their child's education and welfare would be put in jeopardy simply because she made a complaint. To me that is the height of paranoia and I can't imagine where she got that idea in her head. Both of these parents got only one side of the story or maybe they heard it from someone else. All these teachers (to the best of my knowledge) signed NDA's and if they are spreading news to stir up parents and get back at the school, then they are in violation of those NDA's. Once again, there are procedures in place for parents to deal with grievances but if everybody remains anonymous, my hands are tied and if they leave the school because a particular teacher is not there then they are doing their children an injustice and not being fair to the school because it is just as likely the new teachers are just as good if not better than the old ones as it is that they will be worse.
Concerning the exit interviews, I trust Analeigh to do the job she was trained for. There will be no discussion of this at a board meeting until the surveys and exit interviews are done
