Departing Teacher, Parents Decry Conditions in District

Teachers – and families – are leaving the Wauwatosa School District in growing numbers, according to a departing instructor and several parents who spoke up Monday night to the School Board.

And in the case of teachers, said former Lincoln Elementary teacher Carrie Sgarlata, it isn't for more money, but for more respect and because of academic policies she believes hinder both teaching and learning.

Reading a prepared statement, Sgarlata told the board that after growing up in Tosa schools, beginning her 18-year career in Tosa schools and sending her own children to Tosa schools, she intended to remain in teaching here until she retired.

Instead, she said, she has resigned to accept a position as a reading specialist in the Oconomowoc School District, because she no longer believes in the direction the Tosa Schools administration is taking.

"I come before you tonight with a heavy heart to inform that I have made the terribly difficult decision to not return to the Wauwatosa School District this coming fall," Sgarlata said. "It is a bittersweet end for me.

"I'm extremely concerned about the state of our school district. Over the last several years I have questioned some of the decisions that have been made by the administration and this board."

In a nutshell, Sgarlata said that the administration's demands for assessment testing and data collection for pupils from kindergarten up have cut into the time teachers can actually spend teaching toward proficiency, while programs being instituted, especially in reading, have actually become the enemy of proficiency.

"The district is really going down a slippery slope with the amount of assessment that we are requiring our students, especially elementary students, to do," Sgarlata said, "and the amount of data that is being asked to be collected by our teachers regarding elementary school students is becoming, I think, a little bit absurd." 

Sgarlata said that elementary reading programs – especially the Treasures program – in the district were not challenging students and lack exercises in critical thinking.

Finally, she said, while district officials have listened politely to hers and many other teachers' concerns, "nothing has changed," and there is an air of "tension and disconnect" between faculty and administrators.

Parent Meg Lee also dismissed the Treasures reading program with "spelling and grammar dummied down," in her opinion, and challenged grading policies "encouraging turning in late homework and retaking tests."

Lee also blasted a middle school program that created an eighth-hour session in which students just play non-educational games.

"I understand it's an effort to help kids who are having difficulty in school," Lee said, "but you have taken away in excess of 40 hours of teaching time."

Another parent of elementary and middle school kids, Meg Miller, said she had chosen Wauwatosa for its schools, but was finding that more and more parents were opting for private school – among 16 children of mothers in a workout group she participates in, she said, "not one is attending public school."

The concerns reach to the high school level as well.

Patrick Coffey, a teacher at Brookfield East High School but a Wauwatosa resident and parent of Tosa schools children, referred to a letter of concern presented to the School Board signed by 68 Tosa East teachers.

Reportedly, 10 Tosa East teachers have resigned this year, most of them not into retirement but to take jobs elsewhere.

Coffey called for a survey of teachers and an open dialogue between teachers and the board and administration, and to address the flight before Wauwatosa loses its professional edge and the reputation it has built.

Indeed, the consent agenda of the School Board on Monday night, which is neither read or discussed, contained the resignation notices of 13 teaching staff, and there have been more in recent agendas.

Sgarlata and the parents' concerns were not immediately answered by the School Board as non-agenda items cannot be debated in session.