BOE Communications Survey Reveals Broader Community Frustrations with Administration
On June 2nd, Dr. Addley released the results of the BOE Communications Survey as part of his weekly Superintendent Communication email.
Please click here for the full community survey and click here for the staff survey results.
While this survey was intended to gauge community and staff views on communications efforts by the Administration and the Board of Education, the ~174 community responses from the final open ended question revealed broader frustrations with the Administration, particularly around lack of transparency and inappropriate content in schools.
Key takeaways from the surveys included:
Community responses focused on frustrations with the Administration were the most popular, representing 23% of all open ended submissions
Criticism around embedding links to PDF files in the weekly Superintendent Communication was the second most cited community feedback, representing 12% of all open ended submissions
40% of the surveyed staff either disagreed or strongly disagreed that the "District provides opportunities for staff to engage with the Administration"
31% of the surveyed staff either disagreed or strongly disagreed that the "District respects and values dissenting opinions"
Feedback from frustrated community members included:
"Stop the pornography in our schools and let's choose an Administration that's aligned with our town's values"
"It also seems that the vast majority of employees hired by the district and/or superintendent are extremely progressive. I draw this conclusion by my interactions with district employees and the comments and choices by the curriculum heads, and our superintendent himself..."
"To be transparent with their agenda prior to implementing- to be forthcoming"
"I feel that the District picks and chooses the information they want disseminated instead of sharing everything. There should be a commitment to measurement and accountability/reporting on any and all decisions that the District makes, and an annual review of all decisions that is public."
"This administration is pushing a politized agenda that is not aligned with the prevailing values of this town and our family. Those in charge are catering to trends that promote their careers and ego over the value and quality of our children's education. The over-emphasis on non-academic ideology (in terms of time, money and resources) is detrimental to our children's education. The forums available to parents to speak up are contrived to give the impression of an open exchange but it's very clear that dissenting views and probing questions are consistently dismissed/ ignored. Forums are generally one-directional, limited (e.g., max of 3 mins to speak at a BOE meeting) and lack accountability (e.g., the Board is not required to provide a response). Further, Dr. Addley is not transparent about decisions and actions. It's disingenuous, disrespectful and arrogant. We deserve better. We deserve an administration that is committed to providing a quality education to our children above all else and preserving to the (greatest degree possible) a childhood unburdened from politicized pseudo-science masquerading as truth. I hope you asked for this feedback with earnest intentions and won't shy away from listening if it isn't what you expected to"
"I think the district tries. I don't think the board or the administration actually care about hearing dissenting voices. I do not believe either have an open mind to change - sorry. Maybe there is an open mind to your political party but above and beyond that the district has become incredibly CLOSED minded and the communication has followed suit."
"We need a complete overhaul of this administration. They are about being held accountable for their lack of transparency and their dishonesty. We also need to get rid of all the pornographic material in our school libraries. Let's also stop devoting so much time to SEL and RULER and get back to the basics of our core subjects."
"More balance and transparency"
"The district does a fine job of communicating relevant information. I think the administration can do better responding to community/parent concerns and being transparent about policy and procedure..."
" Clarify content of curriculum! Not transparent."
"I disagree with the new emphasis on SEL"
"I feel that the district has zero transparency in certain areas including the inclusion of HIGHLY sexual book content in the school libraries. After telling dozens of parents these books exist they did not believe me and said they had no idea and ate absolutely opposed to these books and are shocked the district has not alerted parents to these books. The district also has very little transparency in highly sensitive topics being introduced to elementary level students including topics about sexuality. The district also has little transparency regarding issues such as open choice. When discussing this topic with dozens of friends, they repeatedly have said they had no idea this program was even being considered and they are disappointed the town has not sent communication outlining the program. Very disappointed in the direction the district is moving."
"We have grown increasingly concerned around the priorities of the administration and the disingenuous nature of their communication. In particular as it relates to SEL curriculum matters and age inappropriate materials for our kids in elementary school. There has been outright lies and subversion and I don't see how things will improve under this current administration when they continue to blatantly disregard policy and parents concerns to continue to push non- academic, time consuming nonsense down our youngest children's throats under the guise of 'the district's goals'."
"Be transparent regardless of the topic/issue, after DEI was brought in quietly through the back door within our district, I have lost trust with our administration and BOE in believing that the academics are the main priority for our school children. The focus on academics has been replaced with DEI without any discussion.
Allow for the BOE meetings to go back to the town hall auditorium so that anyone can attend to listen and engage if desired. Keeping the BOE meetings in the small conference room gives off the impression and desire to not be transparent, or hear from concerned parents on any issue. Limiting the seating area for those who would like to attend is disingenuous for those of us who pay administrative salaries. You all work for us who live here in Darien, actions and behaviors speak much louder than words to placate. Thank you.""Be transparent and respond to parents who inquire about the disturbing content our children are being exposed to. Respond to emails written not in generic form letters. Stand up and explain to parents the reasoning g behind the acceleration of SEL curriculum and the decline of academic performance. Provide an in depth curriculum content overview that includes SEL materials so that parents can see the graphic books that are available to our children. The District and Dr Addley are failing our children and are implementing an agenda that oversteps their bounds."
"I am so angry that inappropriate books regarding sex and gender identity were not removed from our school libraries in spite of many parents complaining. If a group of parents disagrees with these books being in schools, that should be enough reason to remove them. Those who wish to have their kids read these extremely disappointing books, can buy them for their kids. Books such as Gender Queer and Famer. Kids should go to school to learn about academic subjects and leave anything regarding sexual identity and orientation to parents. What is next religion!?"
"There should be other options and tools for parents to voice their thoughts and concerns. The district needs to be more transparent on how they are quietly introducing controversial subjects, all in the name of "DEI", that many parents are opposed to. Please spend more time on academics and less time on SEL and DEI. Please give parents a voice in our children's education."
"Have transparency with regard to all decisions including: background of potential hires, curriculum changes and anything else that will directly affect my children including Open Choice. Transparency is not the forte of the current administration. We pay for the teachers and Administrators and the town's citizens should be aware of and if possible have a choice in the decision process. In the past, Darien has been focused on strength of family, excellent education and a moral and value system that was present with the first founders of our country. Decisions to detract from any of these issues are not acceptable. Sexually explicit anything has no place in the school system. Focus on Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. It's time to stop catering to a small minority."
"I believe the administration is deliberately secretive and not open about the inclusion of sexually explicit material in school libraries. Teachers and administration members should either (i) share listings of such books before populating our schools with sexually explicit material or (ii) stop the process entirely and have parents do their job in teaching children about these topics. We do not pay our teachers or administrators to teach out children about such concepts. Teachers and administration should refocus on test results and addressing the very real issue of declining test results in our district and why that is happening. People move to our town for the academic experience and at the moment our teachers and administration are failing our children and taxpayers by delivering an education experience that continues to decline year after year. The school district should focus 100% on academics and when our teachers feel they need to deviate from teaching the core academic skills, the community should be made aware and decisions should be made as to whether our district is the right place for such teachers."
"Stop communicating important information with parents when they are heading into a break week or when you know they are clearly not paying attention (ie. When pandemics break out). This is clearly an underhanded attempt to get controversial subject matter through in the "dark of night." Listen to what all parents are saying not just those that feel "unsafe" or those that are always complaining that we aren't "inclusive" enough. Stop giving privileges to students in school that claim to be "different". The same rules and consequences should apply to ALL students. Do not push an agenda on our children. Let parents be parents and raise their children as they see fit. Let all voices be heard at BOE meetings and don't cut off or correct just the voices you don't agree with."
"On a school level, specifically Tokeneke, I am happy with the weekly email school newsletter, and it is a great tool, along with the school Instagram page. On a district level, I find that the superintendent's weekly email doesn't address any hot topics that are brought up during BOE Meetings, and feel like these concerns are swept under the rug, specifically regarding curriculum content. I am not happy with Dr. Addley's communication, as he does not provide clear answers regarding curriculum content, and Julie Droller has also not provided any clear answers regarding curriculum content. Simply avoiding answering questions is not a communication style that will work in this district and I'm very disappointed by their lack of transparency."
"I've never received a response from emails I've sent to Dr Addley or MMS principal Dahlstrom. The mass emails I receive feel like they're going through the motions. There's little innovation. Please get on top of the technology piece- we don't have published policies like other schools. There's no channel for bringing up what's working/not working."
"Stop promoting SEL/DEI and have academics be the focus again. All sexually explicit materials should be removed from school libraries. It's unacceptable to have pornography available to our children."
"Dr Addley should not have his employment contract renewed. He has had 2 beautiful young children take their lives on his watch. The poor state of the mental health in Darien Schools falls squarely on his shoulders. He's too busy, along with all of his progressive hires (in a conservative town as evidenced by school board elections) pushing ideology that confuses and depresses students instead of educate and inspire. The town should be educating children not indoctrinating and confusing them. All of this is because of Dr. Addley and because of that he should be excused from his position. The 2 suicides alone should have resulted in AT THE VERY LEAST his removal, if not"
"Your communication skills are not the problem. Too much woke ideology for me and my family values."
"Communications are like a one way street and need to be more open for parents to provide input. Many times, parents receive information about inappropriate things happening in school from our kids; when we reach out to the administration and faculty, we get canned highly politicized answers. This is totally unacceptable. Separately, the district is lacking in policy around required communications to parents related to sensitive topics like curriculum and child health issues (social/emotional or other). Faculty and administration is creating division between themselves and parents and between parents and their own children by "keeping secrets" from parents. This is also totally unacceptable. Finally, it seems that the breakdown in communication even amongst the faculty and administration is poor and has resulted in a lack of accountability for rogue decisions made that have not been approved by the board of education."
"I think it would be helpful to better publicize agenda items before there are important votes. People here are over scheduled and very busy. So much that goes on politically is "if you know you know." The district can do a better job making sure issues that affect the school community are more widely known in advance of the critical votes. It means nothing to provide the fora for commentary if people don't know there is an important issue on the table. Whether it's social media, local papers, through the wires: key agenda items should be communicated more widely in my opinion. Thank you for organizing the survey and seeking input on this issue - I appreciate it!"
"It would be great if the District screens the books are students are reading and gave parents the opportunity to opt out of our students reading certain ones. Why are students able to access books in school that have sex acts in them but no book with a mention of God is allowed in? It's no wonder we have the mental health and other issues plaguing our town/nation. Can we please allow in the complete opposite type of book like the one written by Kirk Cameron?"
"We do not believe that this administration has been transparent with: Addressing parental concerns on sexually explicit material in school libraries. Discussing the full impact of their continued push for Open Choice and the opening of our schools to Norwalk students, a first step towards regionalization. Identifying the reasons why Darien test scores have declined under their leadership. Promoting SEL -- rather than academics -- when Darien test scores have declined. Aligning their agenda to reflect the values of the community and parents."
"The district is not transparent on the goals of SEL and the use of that curriculum to teach about sensitive issues surrounding gender and sexuality; the district could do a better job of providing rigorous material for children in elementary and middle school that are tracking ahead of grade level benchmarks. We need to shift our focus back to academics and better balance the SEL curriculum with the core, academic curriculum. The middle school communications are very limited and very high level. The principal does not engage enough with parents, teachers or students. Teachers do not communicate enough with parents. In all the years that I have had a child at MMS, I have only had 1 teacher that has regularly sent emails to parents regarding the lesson plans and updating us on progress. We need to be able to have some insight into what our children are learning. Parents are regularly referred back to the DPS website to find information when asked questions about curriculum. The website is not easy to navigate and you often have to click through several layers to find some of the information you are looking for. It almost feels as if they are trying to make it difficult for parents, while at the same time, able to say the material is "there" somewhere."