Two former educators have voiced their concerns to the Gilmer County Board of Education.
Sam Snider and son Josh Snider were in attendance at the March 17 regular meeting, and they spoke of a teaching environment they believe to be suppressive and retaliatory.
Josh addressed the board first, and he previously spent 10 years in education, which included seven as a teacher at Gilmer High. He left the profession at the conclusion of the 2020-2021 school year to start a business. His wife has been a teacher for 12 years, and they have three children enrolled in Gilmer schools.
Sam spent 25 of his 30 years teaching in Gilmer County. He retired as a full-time educator in 2015, but continued to teach as a 49-percent employee and coached GHS wrestling to its 17th state championship.
Josh stated he was speaking to the board on behalf of his children, wife and “several other teachers who do not feel they are able to stand before you tonight because of possible retaliation.”
The Sniders have taken umbrage with the Ready Georgia Reading program used at Gilmer’s three elementary schools. They believe it has been strictly implemented and offers teachers little creativity when educating students.
“The amazing teachers of our county know how to teach, when to teach and when to test and assess their students. Teachers do not need a new program to tell them how to teach their students,” Josh said.
“We constantly try to fix unbroken employees only to break them into submission to implement the newest plan. This unfortunately is the current state at many of our elementary schools. As a district under the current leadership, we have implemented a new reading program. The program is being pushed as the final say of how teachers teach and assess the student.
“You’ll probably be told this is not the case. You will be told that the reading program is only supplemental and each teacher has creativity in how they teach. You’ll be told administrators simply misinterpreted how the program was to be implemented and they’re at fault for this simple misunderstanding. This is a lie.”
Rather than pique students’ desire to learn through a wide array of literature, Josh believes the program’s narrowed reading offerings are hindering both advanced students and those who need extra attention and guidance.
“Students who cannot read do not need to be on the same program at the same pace as students who can read,” he said. “We have left the commonsense approach in education, which allows teachers to pick literature that interests their students and grow their ability to learn and read. We are sacrificing a group of students who cannot read.
“Ellijay Elementary has the highest subgroup of ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) students among the elementary schools. However, EES has been set up in my opinion for failure. The teachers have been given the same strict instructional diet to follow as their neighboring elementary schools who serve a different subgroup of students.”
Sam was a physical education and health teacher for 30 years. He taught CTAE’s teaching pathway in his final years in the school system as a 49-percent employee and recalled taking his classes to elementary schools.
“We were in awe of those teachers . . . how they can direct off-task students so easily, can keep an entire class on task while managing to inspire those who are advanced while tutoring those who are slightly behind. Their craft has been mastered through trials of experience,” Sam said.
“They put together a series of lessons and books and activities. The way they do what they do is a sight to behold. My high school students could not get enough. They wanted to drink in the experience of watching master teachers, and many of them are teachers today. Six years later, those same teachers appear to be under attack.”
Josh noted that when teachers are encouraged by administrators, it creates a trickle-down effect. He believes students sense teachers’ excitement, which nurtures a positive learning environment. In this situation, he said, “(Standardized) test scores take care of themselves,” because students are motivated to learn.
“When you beat into the brains of administrators a program that is forced onto teachers to teach something that does not work, when teachers struggle ethically to sacrifice a group of students to the idea of ‘common everything’ and completely lose the art of teaching, we have a problem,” Josh said. “Our school system has lost its compass in that area. We have forgotten why people teach.”
Both Sniders hope for greater communication throughout the district, and believe teachers are unable to speak their minds because of fear or retaliation.
“Retaliation keeps good teachers and administrators from speaking out,” Josh said. “Retaliation in education does not happen in an email response or in a room with a camera. It happens in a one-on-one conversation that never happened if questioned about it.
“Retaliation happens by moving teachers to grades they are not prepared to teach, by breaking up teams and adding additional duties and responsibilities until the teacher is eventually run out.”
Sam likened today’s atmosphere to a robotic existence where teachers must follow a script and not deviate from the course. He believes a group of teachers is “discouraged and disenfranchised.” He said teachers attempted to schedule meetings with “people at the highest levels of leadership” before the school year began.
“Meetings were scheduled and canceled. They (teachers) became truly offended by the actions of some other new professionals,” Sam said. “And yet that meeting that was scheduled to work it out was also canceled. And yes, they do fear repercussions, and they do fear for their job. The only response they get by email is, ‘You should be thankful you have a job in Gilmer County.’”
District’s response
Once a speaker’s five minutes have expired at meetings, the board moves on to the next item on the agenda. The Times-Courier reached out to Gilmer superintendent Dr. Brian Ridley, and he discussed the issues presented by the Sniders.
Ridley noted that the Ready Reading program was selected and installed prior to his arrival as superintendent and during the pandemic as part of the Literacy for Learning, Living and Leading in Georgia grant process.
“Georgia Ready was one of the last pieces (of the literacy program to be implemented), and it was picked out during COVID,” Ridley said. “Of course the teachers didn’t get as much input into that decision as they normally would. I wasn’t here, so I don’t know all the specifics of how that rolled out, but it is what it is.
“Every district has a reading program and a curriculum, and that’s what we’re expected to do by the state. We’re expected to teach at a high standard because that’s what the state tests.”
In regard to how the material is taught, Ridley acknowledged “it is a scripted program,” but they do not want teachers to simply follow a script their entire career.
“Scripted programs come scripted so you can teach the teachers how to do them,” he said. “Over time, you’re supposed to move off the script and learn to question and infer and teach the lesson using the same techniques the script has, but you’re just not reading the script. You have a little bit more freedom that way. I think we’re still in the early stages of the program, and folks need to give it a chance.”
Ridley said lines of communication remain open to those with concerns.
“I’ve never retaliated against anybody. We welcome teacher input,” he said. “I don’t know because I have not been told who either of them (Sam and Josh) were speaking for. I have to assume they’re speaking for themselves and the things they’ve heard, but I don’t know what percentage of teachers they would represent.
“I meet with teachers all the time. I’ve met with that particular school’s leadership team (who employs the teacher referenced by Sam) on many occasions. I try to be very accessible. If someone has a concern, I certainly don’t mind them telling me.”
Ridley said about 10 teachers from Gilmer’s three elementary schools attended the board’s yearly retreat last Friday. He felt the meeting was productive and that teachers were able to share the specifics as to how literacy is taught.
“I thought it was an amazing interaction between teachers and the board that you don’t often see,” Ridley said. “This was a great event, and we just went from kindergarten through fifth grade about how literacy works and what programs we’re using. We wanted to talk about the level of rigor the Georgia Milestones testing demands.
He added, “We’re still dealing with a lot of the learning loss brought on by the pandemic. The learning loss associated with COVID has created significant challenges in keeping our academic standards as high as Milestone testing.
“At the end of the day, the legislature has recently passed a literacy bill that will require all Georgia school districts to review and revamp their literacy approaches. We’ll be going through that process ourselves, and we’ll be taking the perspectives of our teachers and other stakeholder groups into account during that process.”
Ridley had a final message for those with concerns, saying, “I want people to know we have an army of fantastic teachers here that are all working very hard. I can totally understand how it can be hard dealing with the increases in rigor and learning loss and some of the kids who are struggling with social and emotional needs.
“I understand it can be frustrating when we’re implementing something new, but there’s no reason to be frustrated because we’re all in this together, we’re all moving forward, and we’re going to do great things.”