Glenview School Needs Yolanda Brown
- by: Concerned Parents, Teachers & Staff at Glenview Elementary School
- recipient: Tony Smith and Mynette Theard
Dear Glenview School Community,
After 12 years of dedicated service to our school and children, Ms. Yolanda Brown has received notice that she is being replaced by a more senior secretary from a different school. This procedure is known as "bumping." When staff members are laid off due to budget cuts, the school district can move other staff members around to fill the void.
We hope you will sign this petition to let our superintendent, Tony Smith, our school board representative, David Kakashiba and the union representative for Oakland school employees, Mynette Theard know that we support Ms. Brown and want her dismissal reconsidered and reversed in light of her many years of service and our need for her knowledge and experience in this period of transition from our current principal, Deitra Atkins, to our new principal, whoever that will be.
Thanks for your support!
We the undersigned ask that Yolanda Brown’s removal from Glenview Elementary School be reconsidered in light of her extensive years of service to our school and the need to retain as much school-wide continuity as possible while we are in transition to a new principal. The loss of Yolanda Brown – during the same year as the loss of Glenview’s longtime principal, Deitra Atkins, who together represent two-thirds of Glenview’s administrative staff - would be devastating and deeply disruptive to our school’s continued, but still vulnerable, success.
During her 12-year tenure at Glenview, Yolanda has worked diligently to support the principal, teachers, parents, and most importantly, the students. Yolanda is honest, kind and cool under pressure. Current and prospective parents often comment on Yolanda’s warm yet professional demeanor, and she is often the first person that speaks to prospective parents interested in sending their child to Glenview. For that reason, Yolanda has been a tremendous asset in helping the school recruit involved families. These families can see, from their initial conversations with Yolanda, that we have a very special community here at our school.
Along with dedicated teachers and parents, Ms. Brown has worked diligently to facilitate Glenview’s evolution into a vibrant, successful school community. In fact, over the course of her tenure, Glenview’s API has increased from 618 in 1999 to 835 in 2010. The District cannot afford to lose her at this time and risk letting Glenview slide backwards.
Yolanda is also key to a successful transition with our new principal. A secretary like Ms. Brown, who has been with Glenview for 12 years, can bring a type of support to a new principal that no operations coach can. From her deep understanding of each family’s circumstances (she knows every parent and child’s name!) to her unparalleled institutional memory, Yolanda’s administrative presence is essential to our upcoming transition.
We know that the district has spent significant time and resources during its principal “matching” process. Retaining Ms. Brown will leverage this financial investment and greatly increase the odds of a new principal’s success. Indeed, experiences at other OUSD schools have demonstrated that a solid administrative foundation is key to the success of a new principal.
To conclude, we ask that you retain Yolanda Brown at Glenview. We understand that the decision to lay-off Ms. Brown is not final and that OUSD can still change this outcome. We implore that despite OUSD’s short-term economic turmoil, it prevent long-term turmoil by doing everything in its power to retain Yolanda Brown at Glenview Elementary.
Thank you for your consideration.
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