Clarke Middle School principal Christopher Pendley speaks at a community listening session in the CMS cafeteria on Feb. 18. Pendley addressed a wide variety of issues, including the future of the band program and student behavior. “I want to start with our purpose tonight, (which) is really to make sure that I am hearing the concerns that I am aware of from the emails that I got recently from social media, and I’m communicating as clearly as possible to you about the current state that we’re in,” Pendley said. Photo by Audrey Enghauser
On Feb. 18, Clarke Middle School principal Christopher Pendley met with community members, teachers and parents to speak on the urgent questions and concerns about recent events at CMS.
Clarke Middle School principal Christopher Pendley spoke to community members and parents in the CMS cafeteria on Feb. 18, addressing various issues currently facing CMS.
According to Pendley, the meeting was sparked by a recent change in CMS’ faculty.
“I had multiple members of our school community reach out with concerns about (former CMS Band Director Brian Parido’s resignation), and that led to people reaching out with concerns about other school issues,” Pendley said. “Rather than trying to talk individually to people, it seemed like there was this broad swell of concern, I thought (it would be) better to bring everybody together.”
In an email to band program parents, Parido outlined the reasons for his resignation including, but not limited to, student behavior.
“This year has been the most challenging year with student behavior that I can remember,” Parido said in the email. “When students start chanting ‘F*** Mr. Parido,’ I know something is simply not working. I incur verbal abuse like this from students almost every day and it is definitely more of an issue now than in previous years. No amount of lesson planning can prevent a child from cursing out their teacher. There must be a more effective solution out there.”
“I want to assure everybody that we are in the process of ensuring that your students continue to receive instruction in music, and we are going to make sure that anything that they’re excited about in the spring in terms of the trip or performances we continue to do.”
— Christopher Pendley,
Clarke Middle School principal
With a focus on attendees’ specific concerns, Pendley began addressing the future of the CMS’ band program following the resignation of Parido effective Feb. 17.
“We have pre-screened four candidates for our band director position, and we’ve done second-round interviews with two different candidates. My goal is to have a decision on those candidates by (Feb. 19),” Pendley said. “My intent (is) to hire (someone for) the position solely for the remainder of the year and then post (the job opportunity) again for the (2020-21) school year. Then, we can feel like we have the same pool of applicants we would have for any other position.”
According to Pendley, the band will attend their spring trip to Orlando, Fl. as planned, despite changes in leadership.
“I want to assure everybody that we are in the process of ensuring that your students continue to receive instruction in music, and we are going to make sure that anything that they’re excited about in the spring in terms of the trip or performances we continue to do,” Pendley said.
To begin the discussion, Pendley facilitated hands-on activities with those in attendance which included writing down questions on sticky notes and discussing their concerns with those around them.
Community members discuss their questions and concerns regarding Clarke Middle School at a community discussion session on Feb. 18. Those in attendance discussed and wrote their thoughts on sticky notes, passing them along to be categorized for CMS principal Christopher Pendley’s consideration. “We need to have more involvement for all students instead of just one area of students. I have been to a number of meetings here, and this is the first time I’ve seen this many people here,” CMS parent Suzi Mojock said. “Hopefully, the people who did show up today, which is awesome, will come to other things where maybe their child isn’t directly affected by it, but their involvement and support can help change (that area), too.” Photo by Audrey Enghauser
“I think having time to talk in a smaller group first was a really good idea,” CMS English department teacher Missy Jersawitz said. “I think (using sticky notes) made it a lot easier. That way, we weren’t here (asking Pendley) question by question.”
Pendley also discussed the future of discipline and behavioral issues through restorative justice practices at CMS.
“Usually, when behavior (issues) happen with the kids, the punitive rote is (in-school suspension), (out-of-school suspension) or expulsion,” Clarke County School District restorative justice consultant Gregory Winly said. “But, that happens (in) so many incidents it’s to the point where we’re saying there has to be another way to give the student a voice, a way to advocate for themselves or a way to work with each other and a way to work with teachers to find better way to solve problem and fix mistakes that the student makes.”
According to Pendley, this system requires more time to show success.
“I want one more year (of restorative practices) so that I can have a really good data set (and) say that my whole building has been inducted into this. After that year, if the data doesn’t show, we’ll move on. We’ll pick something else,” Pendley said. “We just need a little bit of time to do the work.”
Pendley also addressed concerns regarding student behavior, closing out the discussion on the topic of open communication between CMS students and faculty.
“I have to remind kids that (teachers) don’t have superpower vision. You have to tell them (your concerns), and so you (should) encourage your students to stand up for themselves by telling adults that things are happening or to stand up for others when they see this happening,” Pendley said.
CMS parent Suzi Mojock believes that holding public meetings like this to discuss various issues is beneficial for the school community.
“I think that having group communications like this really cuts down on the hearsay, it cuts down on the rumors, it cuts down on assumptions, incorrect assumptions, and you get the actual facts from the people who are dealing with the issues,” Mojock said.
CMS math department teacher Henry Siebentritt feels that this communication is important to parents’ understanding of the issues within their children’s school.
“There needs to be a lot of communication between the community and the school,” Siebentritt said. “I think parents have a glimpse into what’s going on but not a full picture, and I think it’s important that everyone gets a full picture with all perspectives brought to the table.”
Moving forward, Pendley hopes to use this information from the school community to address the needs of CMS.
“I feel like we have a good plan in place with our school growth plan and some of the initiatives in terms of solving problems,” Pendley said. “But, I feel like this input (from the community) will identify whether we need to make shifts (at CMS), especially going into next year.”
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