Petition To SJCDS Administration To Stop Staffing Shakeups And Requesting Followup Communication

We, the community at St. Johns Country Day School respectfully submit the following petition with several distinct and general requests and statements as delivered below.

  1. The community of this school is vehemently opposed to the dismissal of Ms. Huling as a senior resource, mentor, and guiding force in the school. Considering the imminent departure of the middle school dean and several other positions, there are numerous critical roles to be filled in the upcoming year.

2. The community of this school is vehemently opposed to further dismissal of experienced staff until open communication and transparency is shown by the administration regarding staffing strategy and elaboration as to what the intent is behind the organizational shake up and how it relates to the core mission of the school.

3. The community of this school feels that the sole core mission of the school can only be achieved by the retention of stable, committed, long term, experienced staff that enrich our programs.

4. The community of this school feels that teacher turnover and mass exodus are best left outside the walls of this school with other institutions. These elements are not just undesirable but wholly unacceptable considering the small size of the school. These actions risk both undue morale issues with staff as well as generalized alarm among the parents. Our tuition dollars are expected to be utilized in a “no-compromise” fashion with respect to faculty experience and quality. Recent school actions, contrary to this, instead indicate a deliberate and purposeful compromise that seems centered on forcing out experienced teachers with presumably less expensive external hires. Some of which only last 6 months (as one middle school math example comes to mind).

5. Such turnover, in the absence of transparent and open communication, can be construed as implicit indicators of a school in an existential struggle.

6. In the shadow of recent events at Arlington Country Day School, the community requests the initiation of a transparency plan whereby the administration explicitly communicates:

(a) the relative financial standing/operating health of the school prior to and post building construction and related projects

(b) the net effect that student enrollment has had on the relative financial health of the school

(c) if future projections regarding financial position or enrollment are on target, or the confluence of the two have created a net deleterious effect on the schools financial standing

(d) the administrations human resourcing strategy and plan for the 2018/2019 school year and how that plan is justified and conforms to the core mission of the school in regards to quality education