BARNET- The Barnet School's teachers recently did a poll on principal Shawn Gonyaw's performance. This past fall, many parents and community members were concerned about the way Gonyaw has controlled bullying and now things have turned around for the better.
Although a few teachers left the school due to the bad climate of having a lot of bullying amongst students with nothing being done, The other teachers were never asked about how they felt working for the school.
"I don't think we ever assessed the staff's view back in the fall the negativity's all been coming from the outside so I don't know if there was a change this is the first time that we've actually gotten results from the staff about how it feels so all of the negativity is coming from out in the community, said Meg Clayton an interventionist at the school.
All teachers at the school had to answer 17 different questions that a few staff members created including Clayton who was previously a teacher of the school at one point as well. They wanted to do this as a way to show how happy they are being employees of the school and how happy they are to be in the atmosphere of having wonderful students. Also as a way to prove that Gonyaw has been doing his job well.
Some of the questions included My administrator treats me like a professional in a fair consistent way, my administrator supports my decisions about student behavior and I enjoy coming to work most days. The answers were strongly agree, agree, disagree and strongly disagree. They ended up having 15 pages altogether worth of questions.
"We are carrying on teaching with their children and doing a good job with their children, we've had a lot of phone calls and emails from parents who are pleased with what we are doing and want to support us, said Clayton.
Clayton also expressed how pleased she personally has been with Gonyaw's work.
I see him as very child centered he cares about the children, they come first he's very open to talking to anybody if he has problems they can go sit down and talk to him, often times when I am stuck with an idea I'll go and brainstorm with him and he gives me some great ideas to pursue... on a personal level I am very satisfied very supported and highly inspired by him as an administrator, said Clayton.
The school hopes to continue positive efforts to succeed.