I’ve been trying to express my concerns/complaints regarding the behavior of teachers, the Principal (of the Dr. Normal W. Crips Elementary school), the Nashua School District assistant Superintendent (Matthew Poska | Kimberly Sarde), and the curriculum at Dr. Crisp School for months now.
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In the fall of 2022, I was hearing reports from a 5th-grade student that a couple of kids wouldn’t stop talking in class when they should have been listening, therefore, the teacher shut down her teaching of STEM. The teacher and students just sat there for the remainder of the class.
This happened on several occasions so I spoke with this teacher outside the school while students were being dismissed. I asked her why disruptive students are not removed from the class. Her response was: “Then you’d have 15 kids in the principal’s office.” She was evading the issue which was a couple of kids…not 15.
I told this teacher that her shutting down teaching was not fair to the majority of her students who are there to learn. Her response was: “The disruptive students deserve an education too.” To me, this is insanity!
This same teacher asked a student that was with me, “Where were you today in class? I didn’t know where you were for one hour.” The student replied: “I was at the back of the room in the quiet area.”
This teacher claimed she did not know where one of her students was during class for one hour, but she never notified the office or the principal about it!
Another day the teacher cheated her students out of STEM by using that class time in spouting off an extremely long complaint about the disruptive students. Does any actual teaching take place at this school??
The issue of disruptive students takes place in 5th grade reading as well, and the solution is the same. Refuse to continue class instruction as scheduled, but give the entire class a 12th grade spelling test as punishment. Words the students never even heard of.
This is yet another example of a teacher that doesn’t have a plan or any knowledge on how to rightly and effectively run a classroom.
A teacher should never refuse to carry out that day’s lesson because of disruptive and disobedient students. That teacher needs to quickly and effectively deal with the troublemakers so she can continue with what she is being paid to do. TEACH!
On another day punishment was a SILENT LUNCH because ALL 5th grade classrooms had a few disruptive students. On this occasion, 6 kids insisted on talking during this silent lunch. All 80 students were punished by having heads down in their classrooms and NO RECESS! Another time the whole class was punished with no recess because a few kids threw snowballs on the playground. Recess is necessary for fresh air and physical exercise. It should not be taken from the whole because of a few.
In January 2023 it was reported that two students were having an argument that escalated into a physical altercation and they (were) removed from the classroom. Perhaps punishing the whole because of the few is actually inciting violence among students.
There should be no silent lunches. Meals are a time for good food and some conversation with your peers. There are sensible ways to handle the few problem students; this is not one of them. I recently heard a student say, “I officially hate my classmates. Everything is taken away from US because of THEM!”
The actions taken by these teachers are so unjust and abusive, and in the end, totally ineffective. They implement their own abusive ideas and their rules (do not comply with the Nashua Board of Education’s discipline policies). Plus, the teacher’s wrong actions affect not only the bad students, but the entire class harming their emotional well being and severe loss of education. In my opinion, these women should have no authority over children or education.
Other issues: PAJAMA DAYS!!! Who authorized such idiotic activity?? To my knowledge, there have been 3 PAJAMA DAYS thus far this school year. This is not only stupid…it is shameful and it teaches students that they should not take their education seriously!
Another time, students were told to come to school dressed like adults and the teachers would show up dressed as students.
In November 2022, just before the Thanksgiving break, the teacher had the 5th grade students watch a LITTLE RASCALS movie to get them ready for Thanksgiving! Another ignoramus idea!
In January 2023, the teacher held a class party in advance of Martin Luther King Day and gave out candy to the students. This is inappropriate. Many parents do not want their kids eating candy, especially with no way to brush their teeth immediately after. No edibles should be given to students other than what is served by the cafeteria.
School is not for entertainment! Students are in school to gain a high quality education, but I guess that is not available anymore in ‘America’s public schools. It seems to me that students are being dumbed down with foolishness. All of this idiotic nonsense being carried out in schools, is devastating especially in light of the fact that students lost over two years of education due to the COVID-19 fiasco.
On February 8, 2023, a teacher gave an assignment that brought groans from the students. The teacher yelled out “STOP YOUR BITCHING AND COMPLAINING”!!! When the students expressed shock at her words, she yelled out “OH!! LIKE YOU DON’T SAY WORSE??
This kind of behavior by a teacher or any school personnel cannot be tolerated. Students are supposed to be able to look up to their teachers as a good example for themselves. In my eyes, there is a lot of mistreatment of students at the Dr. Crisp School. Education has been reduced to one big ugly, destructive joke. Heads should roll!!
I met with the Principal to no avail. First, I was stunned that her office is the size of a walk-in closet that had a small desk, a chair, and two rocking chairs. It also had a very large stuffed animal and every inch of wall space was covered with colored papers. It looked like her home away from home. The principal said, “The kids love it”! I thought students were supposed to have a healthy fear of being sent to the Principal’s office.
I relayed the issues to the Principal but in the end, she did nothing about it. She did tell the STEM teacher that I’d requested a phone call from her…which I never requested. I’d already had my talk with her. After receiving that call from that teacher I was so upset that I contacted the Principal again and she quickly pushed me off to the assistant Superintendent.
On 11/01/2022, I connected with the assistant Superintendent who was unprofessional, rude, haughty, condescending, and came across as an intellectual snob. I tried to explain my concerns to her making it clear that the disruptive students make a habit of talking when they should be listening or working silently. She continued to cut me off talking over me trying to CHANGE the issue into something completely different by referring to the students’ disruptions as ( academic discourse) which she insisted is encouraged by the school. She said that in today’s education, there are no silent classrooms! (Yet, the teachers are demanding silence and not getting it.) She claimed that on October 28, 2022, she had visited every classroom at the Dr. Crisp School and found not one case of disruptive student behavior. She threatened that if I didn’t lower my voice she would end the call, then she went into a fast paced, non-stop tirade about Common Core, brain research and government mandated S.E.L. Then she ended the call. This woman has no place in the public school system.
January 2023, I emailed a BOE member and was told that they cannot discuss any corrective actions taken regarding school employees due to labor laws.
In January 2023, I emailed BOE member Jessica Brown three times, but was completely ignored by her.
On February 19, 2023 I emailed the entire school board with all the information I’ve spelled out here. I received only one response and that was from member Neil Claffey who defended the assistant superintendent and told me that the board has never received any other complaints. I was ignored by the other board members.
To my knowledge, nothing at the school has changed. Whole classes of students are still being punished for the actions of a few bad students. I’m keeping my eyes on the other issues to see if they continue as well.
More and more parents are pulling their kids out of public schools and it’s easy to see why. SCHOOL CHOICE HAS NEVER BEEN MORE IMPORTANT THAN NOW!!