Promote Dr. Bates at Berwick K-8!

April 2014

Dear District Partner,

The purpose of this letter is to express my opposition to the transfer of Assistant Principal, Dr. Keisha Fletcher Bates, from Berwick K-8 Alternative School. Research suggests that strong leadership is paramount to a successful school. Dr. Bates’ administrative, academic, and relational leadership is what has made Berwick a successful K-8 school and we urge you to reconsider her abrupt reassignment to preserve academic achievement in our school. Moving Dr. Bates is detrimental to student learning for the following reasons:

The whole premise of changing Berwick from a traditional K-5 Elementary School to a K-8 Alternative School was: (a) to build upon the track record of a high-performing school, and (b) to create a community school where students residing both inside and outside the neighborhood could be educated as a cohort until they entered high school. It is Dr. Bates’ role as middle school administrator, since the inception of its K-8 configuration just 4 years ago, that has given parents the confidence that the school can deliver solid academic gains in grades 6-8 when only 6 of 27 schools serving grades 6-8 earned effective or excellent ratings in the 2011-12 school year.

Dr. Bates is a data driven leader, serves as the school’s disciplinarian, community liaison, and school social worker. More importantly, Berwick students are thriving under her leadership, both academically and socially;

Middle school student performance is what earns Berwick’s effective rating and Dr. Bates is acting principal of the middle school. Given the district’s overall middle school performance, it only makes sense that the district should want to keep a successful middle school in tact;

Berwick is a science focused middle school and Dr. Bates possesses an extensive math and science teaching background that contributes to our students’ command of these challenging subjects;

Dr. Bates implemented student engagement programs and boosted school spirit with initiatives such as: morning announcements, secured Smartboards & Elmos for every classroom, Honors Breakfast, Annie the Musical, Science Night, Career Night, Student Council, Science camping trips in each grade, Berwick Bucks for the Berwick School Store, informed the Berwick Neighborhood Association about the rental of the school to host the Vineyard Church, Father-daughter and Mother-Son dances, Soul Food Dinner, etc.;

Many students, parents and staff were under the impression that Dr. Bates would replace Mr. Jeffreys—many are still not aware that she will not be at Berwick next year. This precludes parents’ ability to enroll their students in the lottery to attend other district schools. Now the only recourse that parents who are uncomfortable with the changes have is to seek charter and/or private/parochial school placement for their students. This is at odds with our desire to stay in and build upon what is becoming a strong community school;

Because school leadership is key to student performance, it is important to note that most high-performing schools have a seasoned staff and continuity. Many of these high-performing schools were established a decade or more before Berwick where high academic performance has become ingrained in the culture. Removing Dr. Bates and losing Mr. Jeffreys without at least a year of transition for new administrators will disrupt the academic gains that have been and are being made while the new principal gets up to speed.

Having seen Dr. Bates in action, I can say unequivocally that the school’s academic performance and overall well being of students will be negatively affected should she leave in this manner. While we understand that other schools in the district could benefit from Dr. Bates’ talent and respect district administration’s professional judgment, we cannot stand by and allow decisions to be made that will hurt the academic achievement of our students. As parents and concerned community members, we stand ready to partner with the district to resolve this issue and request a meeting with Dr. Dan Good, Darryl Sanders, David Baker, Gary Baker, Bryan Steward, Michael Cole, W. Shawna Gibbs, Mary Jo Hudson, Dominic Paretti, and Ramona Reyes. In the event that the issue is not resolved by the next Board Meeting on April 22, 2014, we request public comment and that this issue be listed as an agenda item for that meeting. For the academic and social development of our students, we urge the district to promote Dr. Bates as head principal of Berwick K-8. Let’s keep one of strongest schools in the district intact and do what’s best for our students.

Respectfully,