Preschool administration is mistreating the staff
Hello! I am looking for advice on what to do when you find out that some staff members you really love at the preschool your child attends has some disturbing news about how they (the staff members) are treated by admin. This year, I got to know some of the staff very well, where my child enjoys seeing some of them and always prefers to be with them. However, I have noticed that the teacher turnover rate at this preschool seems to be high and that there seems to always be a new teacher every few months. After the abrupt departure of my child's favorite teacher over the summer, I tracked this teacher down because I realized my child was no longer enjoying preschool and was going through a difficult transition. I wanted to know what happened. What I found out from the ex-teacher was that basically, the admin was toxic and abusive. The teacher felt horrible about leaving kids behind, who had been so attached, but it seemed like it was either resign or be fired. Now, I am getting wind that another current teacher is having a similar experience. The admin are not open to suggestions, are condescending, have their own clique, and do not support certain teachers, even retaliating against them (for instance, taking down decorations that teachers have put up, just because the admin decide that they want to display something else, but this is also because admin want to 'make a point' about who's boss). To the admin, the staff are disposable, so whoever has a problem can just leave because the attitude is that 'we can always find someone to replace you'. The situation is all very hush-hush because people don't want to lose their jobs, even though the pay is extremely low (less than $22/hr according to the ex-teacher, but I do not know the payscale). Many parents have asked, where is so-and-so Teacher because they are surprised when someone just doesn't show up anymore, and I only found out the real story because I went out of my way to find one of them. I am upset by this and want to know if there is anything I can do. My child seems to adjust OK now and kind of accepts that there is a new face all the time at this point and doesn't seem to complain about the school as much now. I wish I were knowledgeable about labor protections and stuff so that at least I could try to help empower the staff members. Unfortunately, I am certain that not all parents will feel the way I feel because this is a highly regarded preschool and they 'get results' (as in, kids come out learning their ABC's, numbers, etc. and have a beautiful portfolio to show for it, which has been painstakingly collected and put together by the teachers). I should also mention that while we parents pay for holidays and breaks in our children's tuition, the teachers all have unpaid holidays (according to the ex-teacher). They also raise tuition each year by over 10% (citing inflation), but the staff do not get raises. This just all smacks of some illegal things going on. Any ideas on what to do...?
Parent Replies
Some of this sounds similar to our preschool... I know our Director promised that they would send out official announcements and introductions upon staff departure and with new staff-- as parents we have a right to know who is taking care of our kid! and deserve explanation when there's turnover-- but I just saw new staff last week with zero notification. Organizing a big school-teacher conference can also help, which we've done in the past-- even just 1/3 of the families showing up can have an impact.
Overall, it sounds like the staff should unionize. That's one of the few ways to get bargaining rights and worker protections. See: https://www.aft.org/our-members/early-childhood/about-aft-early-childho…
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It is the director who determines the culture and feel of a school, not the teachers. If you don't like the environment the director has created, you have to leave, because it is not going to change unless the administration changes, regardless of how much you like the teachers. It's just like a workplace - the boss can make or break the work environment.
One of my kids attended a school that ran very smoothly and had a very good reputation but it had a lot of teacher turnover. I didn't know about the turnover until we'd been there a couple of years - turnover is a well-kept secret at schools like this. I eventually realized that the problem was the director when our family had a bad experience at the school that was spectacularly mishandled by the director. The director had an iron grip on staffing and made their lives miserable if they didn't toe the line. We left the school. But most other families at the school remained satisfied with the way the school was run, even though there continued to be an almost complete changeover of teachers from year to year. The director had a strong message about the school's mission that parents liked, and they were not experiencing problems themselves, so parents echoed the director's claims about why teachers were leaving: "All schools are experiencing this right now" ... "She left because she is moving out of state" ... "He is exploring other careers" etc. None of this was true because the new school we went to had a staff that had been there for years, and there are other schools like that too. But the parents at the school we left had never experienced any other school, and they liked the culture of the school, so they stayed on.
When you are visiting a school, ALWAYS ask how long the staff has been there, and if a lot of them are new, ask why.