Alan Borsuk: Teacher letters describe abuse, damage, lost hope at MPS school. Is this a signal for a broad reassessment?
“I am writing to you today to express the heartbreak I have for Grantosa Drive School.”
That was the opening sentence of a letter from a longtime teacher at the northwest side school to members of the Milwaukee School Board. She went on to show why the word “heartbreak” was justified. Five other staff members of the school also sent letters describing the alarming situation at the school.
And those six were joined by 18 other staff members in signing a letter asking the school board to do something about ”the extreme concerns of culture, climate and safety that have been occurring at our school this year.”
At least on the record, the set of intense letters brought mild responses from the school board and Milwaukee Public Schools administrators. And beyond that record, it is hard for an outsider to tell. My request to visit the school and talk with the principal was not granted.
Even in schools with records of good student achievement and in higher-income locations, student engagement and behavior, along with stress and turnover among teachers, have been issues of increasing concern in recent years. The impact of the COVID pandemic has accelerated the problems.
Grantosa Drive School may be a particularly vivid example. But the alarms that were sounded by Grantosa staff members strike me as a broader call for reassessing what is going on with a lot of kids, parents, teachers and schools, and for considering fresh approaches to what is needed to establish constructive learning atmospheres more broadly in many schools.
Grantosa, 4850 N. 82nd St., had 585 students in 3-year-old kindergarten through eighth grade as of September. In recent years, well below 10% of students who took state standardized tests scored at levels considered proficient or advanced. Seventy percent or more tested at “below basic” levels or, in spring 2021, didn’t take the state test.
Make of it what you will, but in the school report cards released by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction last fall, Grantosa was rated at the “meets expectations” level.
Here’s what teachers told the school board about what was going on within Grantosa around the time that report card was released:
“Coming to work each day has always brought me excitement and hope,” wrote the teacher who said she was heartbroken. “Those feelings are quickly turning to fear; fear of how my colleagues and I will be abused for yet another day.”
Referring to students, she went on to say: ”Teachers at Grantosa are in abusive relationships that are only escaped by quitting. ... We see the individuals committing these abusive acts return to our classes repeatedly without consequence. We struggle to make contact with parents as many of their phone numbers change weekly.” And when they do make contact, “some teachers are not met with support, but blame and further verbal abuse.”
The letter continued, “Today I have a student who I’ve developed a great relationship with cussed me out and threatened me for stopping her from watching Netflix” in class. The students had found a way to get around the system in place to block that.
“These examples have become ‘the small stuff.’ Teachers are trying to put out the ‘bigger fires;” the fights, the furniture being flailed, protecting their students from bodily harm, and preventing property damage. I’m seeing my colleagues give up. They have come to the point where they are hopeless, therefore go on enduring the toxic environment they are in.”
The letter from a second staff member said, “Our staff are forced to adapt to a system that is clearly broken.” She described the large number of vacancies in teaching positions and other jobs in the school. She and others from Grantosa said that the principal had been out of the school for an extended period and had been replaced by ineffective administrators from the central administration.
She wrote, “Not only has the lack of staffing created a climate of stress, but the lack of leadership present at Grantosa has negatively impacted the morale of our staff.” She said the school had “a disillusioned staff, inconsistent structure and feelings of anxiety over the unknown.”
She wrote that she looks to schools as important parts of preserving the safety and well being of communities. “It disheartens me when the very system that exists for this purpose appears to be crumbling before me.”
In a third letter, the writer said she had been an educator for more than 20 years, more than half of them at Grantosa. She recalled how great educators at Grantosa gave so much to the students.
“Unfortunately, recently, they have given their bodies and mental stability to their profession.” Teaching “has become a job that is no longer in the field of education,” she wrote. “We no longer have the hope that we can educate at all.”
She also wrote that students know that “with the revolving door of administrators, they won’t receive any effective consequence” for bad behavior. “As more and more students realize that they can come to school, but not actually have to follow any rules, teaching lessons is difficult or becomes non-existent.”
She concluded, “We need support and communication before our school dies. Our students, our staff, our communities deserve better, but we will not survive if things continue in this way.”
A first grade teacher wrote, “In my classroom, there are several students who are disruptive to the point where other students’ learning and, oftentimes, safety is hindered.” She said that when she calls for a safety aide to help, the phone often goes unanswered. “I have gotten punched with no consequences for the student,” she wrote. Some of her students wander the hall and “lately, since they know nothing is being done and I am spread immensely thin, more have joined in with this behavior.”
“In most cases, calling parents does very little, especially when no one can be reached,” the teacher wrote. “Students are taken out of class and brought right back a few minutes later, returning with the same or worse behaviors. There seem to be no consequences. ... My students who come daily and are doing what they need are tired of being unsafe, not getting the help they need, and being sworn at, having constant disruptions, and not enough adult support in the room.”
The letters from the staff members are public record. However, given some of the intense rhetoric and action around issues such as those raised here, I am choosing not to use the letter writers’ names in this column.
I heard last fall about the situation at Grantosa and later heard that staff members had sent letters to the school board. On Nov. 9, I filed an open records request for copies of their letters. A letter from Jacqueline Mann, head of MPS’ Office of Board Governance, sending me the letters, was dated Feb. 3 but was not sent to me by email until March 10, more than three months after I requested the letters.
Separately, I was given a letter from Mann to one of the teachers, saying the staff concerns should be taken up with MPS administrators, and a letter dated Dec. 9 from Patrick Chatman, an administrator who oversees schools on the northwest side, including Grantosa.
Chatman’s letter said: “While we recognize this has been a trying time for the staff, the district has remained committed to ensuring consistent administrators, safety and additional staffing support have been present daily to aid in the work at Grantosa. Staff has been hired to fill several vacancies and the district’s handbook on discipline is being used to address student behaviors. The regional team along with the senior staff continues to make Grantosa a priority and will aid to ensure students have a meaningful learning day.”
I asked MPS for comment for this column, describing the content of the letters. Here is the full text of the response:
“Milwaukee Public Schools remains committed to ensuring each of our schools have the daily support needed from administrators and staff members. The district has worked diligently to fill vacancies and to assist administration and staff in addressing student behaviors. Our goal is to continue working with Grantosa, as well as all our schools, to accelerate student achievement, build positive relationships between students, staff and families, and cultivate leadership at all levels.”
However, a source within the school suggests not much has changed since the letters were sent on Nov. 26.
Yes, student achievement needs to be accelerated and positive relationships should be established within school communities. But what if that is not happening? What if there is clear evidence it is not happening in a big way?
Then what? That sums up a question, a conundrum and a crisis that is at the core of the problems of schooling in Milwaukee now.
Alan J. Borsuk is senior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette Law School. His column typically runs in print on Sundays. Reach him at alan.borsuk@marquette.edu.