I love that my principal trusts and has given me autonomy in my job, with clear understanding of my various roles.  I appreciate that my job allows me to continue to work with students and also work in an administrative role, particularly in intervention.  I feel the role has given me a broader base to affect student learning at large.  I love the collaboration with my teaching team and trust I receive in working with our school leadership team. I greatly appreciate the support those of us who fill in as subs have been given to find a person who can take on that load much of the time, and that NHA sees and attempts to make this better too.  I love that families can see how much we love their kids.  This appreciation starts with Jeff, and trickles down through all staff.  I'm grateful for the support we all receive when family issues arise.   I find joy in watching kids grow through the years, especially if they stay with our Vanderbilt program.

The culture at Chandler Woods is why I've stayed there for so long, not because of NHA.  My manager, Samantha Hill, is amazing!  She supports her teachers by helping, especially with behaviors.

I feel like our benefits have declined in the last 10 years but they are still very good compared to others.  The standard for a clean school has really dropped over time. Conflicting information on PTO for an Office Administrator. I have been here a very long time and although I feel we have lost some of our edge (due to lack of autonomy, weakened curriculum) but the staff make it an excellent choice for students and families. Our staff is amazing and need to be supported by NHA, not micromanaged. I fear staff will be driven away and replaced with less seasoned and with lower standards. I think our Admin team do an excellent job of helping staff feel appreciated and supported but can only do so much within the framework that NHA sets. Lastly, I despise the way NHA micromanages our work with a "to do" list, and public shaming. That is terribly unprofessional and not the least bit motivating, it is insulting. If a person is not doing their job, it should be addressed with them.

Having a "work family" makes coming to work fun each day.  My manager is giving me opportunity to grow and learn new areas.

I am noticing improvements in the cleanliness of the school.

Cross Creek is a great place to work! I'm grateful to be here.

I appreciate the benefits I receive.  My co-workers are very supportive. If I am having difficulty, they are quick to step in and help or bring words of encouragement.

I wish we had a Library in our school.

My co-workers are what keep me at Cross Creek.

My manager is splendid. However, the expectations for the different managers in the school seem to be varied. Some managers are more professional and reliable than others, to say the least. The K-2 manager has a reputation for being notoriously unreliable and unprofessional. Similarly, the co-workers on my team are dedicated and dependable. However, some on other teams are clearly not so.

I love everything about what we built here at Pembroke Academy.  There are many practices that we embrace as a school, taking collective responsibility for both our success and continued growth opportunities, from the climate and culture standpoint, to highly visible leadership, strong and transparent communication, from the planning/academics, to school safety, and everything in-between we work together like a well-oiled machine and are fully aware we would not be able to come to these levels of success (National Blue Ribbon School, etc.) without the support from all the powers that be...and for all of that, we are beyond thankful.

I feel the culture is one based on trust that all staff are here to improve the education of the students we work with.  My manager trusts me to do what is best for my students and provides feedback when he sees areas of opportunity for me to improve.  The middle school staff are constantly talking among themselves on how to meet their students' needs.  The school cleanliness is outstanding.  I feel safe when at the school.

Our students and families are amazing! Our deans and principal are extremely supportive!

Our new principal, Krista Cramer is amazing!!! She truly cares about all of our students and the staff here at Paramount. I feel fully supported in my role here. Lori Stayner has done a great job stepping up as the Y5's -2nd grade Dean.

 Exceptional leadership team!!! Resourceful teachers whose work hours (8hrs) exceed those of teachers (6.25hrs) in surrounding districts Support staff (Paraprofessionals) who exceed expectations. The vast majority will do whatever is necessary to ensure student needs are met. Strongly recommend focusing on staff retention  and an increase in parental community involvement.

I appreciate NHA's commitment to being on the forefront of curriculum and moral focus compared to local public schools.

I'm given the freedom to take ownership of my work, while also benefiting from a collaborative team environment where co-workers are supportive and open to sharing ideas. My direct manager provides clear guidance but also trusts me to make decisions and grow.

It saddens me that I can no longer say that NHA (not the department I report to) follows the Core Values set, has a great culture, takes meaningful action from this survey or provides the appropriate resources. The most recent shift in CEO/Executive team's focus and actions have resulted in my feelings of not trusting the vision and commitment NHA has to our students nor does it have me feeling any confidence that this is a people first organization.  The actions of upper leadership is showing that there is no longer a focus on doing what is best for kids- but instead- doing what is best for the bottom line regardless if students are directly impacted by the focus on making money.  The same feels true as it relates to how employees are treated.  Examples of this- less time off- previous years, 4th of July consisted of not just 1 day off, short term disability pay/protections. This is not directly related to how I am treated within the leadership team of my department.

I will always love Stambaugh and have a heart for the success of families and students.

Being a part of a supportive team makes even difficult days workable. Having a Principal that always has your back is phenomenal. Knowing that your principal takes time to learn how you think and work; so he can then support you the way that you need makes all the difference in the world. I am pleased that we have such a principal at Ridge Park.

I have been at NHA for almost 16 years now and I continued to be impressed.  NHA / Prevail is doing amazing work to service underserved communities.  The provided curriculum is top notch, the support is unmatched, and the growth opportunities are endless.  My manager shows me appreciation and trust only a daily basis and goes above and beyond to ensure that I have the tools and knowledge necessary to be successful.

I love the collaboration with my grade level and the connection that my wing has. My co-workers make coming to work enjoyable. I like the positive impact that the teachers and support staff have with the students.

I appreciate that both my manager and director are open to assisting and finding solutions when problems arise, and are willing to explore options when unsure of how to proceed with integrations or future tasks. Listening to us is essential, and both always do that.  It's nice to have the support, encouragement, and confidence in the work I do.

I truly feel blessed with the balance I am given. I do not feel guilty when taking time off and am encouraged to take time for personal needs. I feel valued in THAT way and that is part of why I am here and not somewhere else. I really hope that doesn't change.

I absolutely love working at PVA. Our leadership is exceptional and our staff has created a great culture of support and continued education.

Over the years at NHA, I have had many opportunities to learn and grow in multiple areas. I also very much appreciate the time that NHA takes to teach morals and virtues through the moral focus curriculum. This truly makes this organization stand out from other schools in the area.

Queen's Grant is a great place to work and learn! I have alot of pride in my school and work hard to keep our staff and families happy. I love my team and learn so much from my principal - my team is one of the biggest reasons I enjoy my work. I trust them and know that we will support each other no matter what is happening! I appreciate all of the support that NHA gives for special departments such as SPED, EL and Intervention. Having those supports in place make my role so much easier and give me people to reach out to if I have specific questions. Truly, the level of support from the service center is unmatched!

Give our students a gym!!!! Why have they been without one for more than two decades when NHA has the money to build it?

I really love and appreciate the relationships that I have built with my coworkers over the years of working with NHA.

I truly feel supported in terms of belonging here, even on the tough days. I appreciate that my team and manager consistently check in...it really helps me feel seen and valued. I also want to acknowledge that administration does a great job with communication overall.

The staff is like a family, and I know I can count on my co-workers to do what is best for both staff and students. Staff supports other staff in a myriad of ways. School leadership has been flexible and supportive over the years as life events have come up. That is a definite blessing.

One of the things I appreciate most about working at NHA is the strong support from my manager, who consistently advocates for both me and my team. This leadership fosters a positive and empowering work environment. I'm also grateful to be part of a content team and broader leadership group that is collaborative, communicative, and reliable—traits that make day-to-day work both productive and enjoyable. Additionally, I value the opportunity to help shape the vision of effective instruction, which allows me to contribute meaningfully to the direction and impact of our work.

Having Allison at the helm has made a significant impact on our department. We finally have a leader who truly understands the complexity of our role and is willing to advocate on our behalf. Her leadership has brought clarity to our responsibilities and helped the executive team gain a deeper appreciation for the work we do.

I enjoy all members of my team.

I believe in what we do here at SCA. We truly create an environment of academic success. We strive to have scholars with a strong moral compass, and we try to hold our scholars (and parents!) to high standards so that they can take accountability.

Hiring Julie Zirille as our principal was the single best think NHA has done for Knapp Charter Academy. I know that the culture of Knapp will change for the positive because of this. I love my job and my role at Knapp. I actually look forward to coming to work. I love the students and I love the people that I work with. They are the hardest working teachers I've ever met. We have a solid foundation to make Knapp the best school in the area. There are a few tweaks to be made and we will do it. We just need to keep the good teachers we have!

I have worked for several managers and I have never been supported as well as I am by Ms. Chapa. She continually pushes me to be better, but I also know that I can come to her with anything that I need; personal or professional. The amount of tasks that she takes on, off of teachers plates is phenomenal. She prints and hand staples each student's progress report every week, allowing her the opportunity to look over the grades of each student under her wing. She checks the Lexia levels personally for each student and resets them if they are not passing, furthermore she calls them in and reteaches them material if she consistently sees them struggling. She handles lunch and recess detentions. She takes on parents so that teachers can maintain a positive relationship with them. Ms. Chapa is one of the reasons that I stay at GOA.

I love the support here of work-life balance. I love the things they come up with to build culture at our school. I love that they reach out to get our input to make things happen.

Previously I would have marked culture, but it has started to feel like culture is a much lower priority now.

This survey makes me sad & frustrated every time. Sad that this survey is written in such biased way it doesn't actually allow for feedback. Sad that this survey gets sent twice a year & all we hear is rhetoric from the ETeam about it. No actual change is implemented at a level that can actually institute change. Sad that the ETeam seems to think that a biased survey is good enough.  Frustrated that I'm going to be asked to improve things on my team that I have no control over when what my team wants I can't change.

Vista has been intentional about building a more collaborative culture to support co-planning and co-teaching. These practices have supported our work in elevating our instructional practices and better supporting our students. We have seen a lot of growth with this model and I am excited to see the growth over the next school year.

I'm often frustrated that we are expected to do more with less especially when it looks like other teams are getting the people support they need. It's my manager and my co-workers that keep me here.

I absolutely love the culture and spirit of collaboration at NHA.  It keeps me going strong.  I trust my manager and my DSQ peers.  We learn a lot from each other and I am growing in my leadership because of the professional development and collaboration afforded to me.  This component is truly appreciated as I thrive on talking with others and discussing best practices.  Keep this opportunity of collaboration as a priority - it is truly valuable.

Leadership is great and they make it a fun and loving environment for the kids.

My specific team was the only reason I came back this year.

I really enjoy the Climate and Culture of Pembroke. I also love being valued here at Pembroke. In addition, I appreciate my dean Dr. Worden along with my Principal Kinsey, Dean Scott, and Dean Hetzel for continuing to pour into the students, parents, and teachers. I enjoy working with my Pembroke family. The maintenance crew are absolutly amazing. This building is very maintained. I feel very bless to work here at Pembroke. I also appreciate NHA providing things like technology, PTO, compensation, and recognition. I would recommend Pembroke and NHA to family and friends.

There year there has been a massive increase in safety procedures and information.

I appreciate my teammates as well as my dean. I know that my dean and teammates will help me out and I will help them.

My Dean and Principal are a major reason I stay at Ridge Park! They totally understand that before we are teachers we are parents and they allow us to make sure we put our families first. They are also very supportive in our classrooms and often times take the heat when it comes which I greatly appreciate!!

While there are many bright spots at Center Line there are some areas that need improvement.   The athletic department needs better organization as well as needed support with student behavior. Coaches need better management and higher professionalism. Athletics collides with Academies and there are many academically low performing student athletes.   The special education department though under development needs the proper guidance and support for true change. Communication to and from the special education department is lacking. There is a huge lack of follow through on requested IEPs, 504s and support for students who are in or need to be in the IAT process.   There is an imbalance in the workload/expectations of various departments and or people across the building. Some departments also obtain more financially than others which shows a lack of fairness.

Our team has worked to create high quality resources and these resources have a positive impact on students and teachers. I enjoy my role while working with deans and teachers to ensure students are getting high quality instruction from teachers. The quality of teacher that I have been working with this year has made things very challenging as the majority of my teachers still are not certified. I enjoy the opportunity to innovate and create resources and programs. My manager is the reason I enjoy this team and continue to weather the storms.

Making an impact on students and seeing growth throughout the school year is the best part of my job.  Being fairly and more adequately compensated will cause others to feel  more valued and appreciated and lead to better retention among staff members and better outcome for students due to sustained relationships.

WE often speak of work-life balance here at WCA and yet individuals do not respect the boundaries. I am committed to working daily and I take on my full responsibilities and then some however, I do not feel it is respectable to group text (on non emergencies) in the evening hours (4pm and beyond) and then text as early as 6:30am. If these were building issue text, safety concerns or any emergency it would be understandable but to text during personal/family time simply to say 'reminder we are testing today or I am going to be 5 minutes late' is not something that needs to be shared during personal/family time. Having a purpose and positive impact on students is hurting specifically in middle school! There are no reasons as to why students can walk around the hallway out of uniform, hoods on heads, ear buds or headphones on their person, in the hallway at 8:30am (rather than in class for instruction) etc... This is an expectation that should have been set in September not May!

Perhaps if employees chose three from this category the data would be more reliable.

THE CULTURE AT INSPIRE IS SUPER LOW. WHEN ASKED FOR SUGGESTION, THEY ARE GIVEN BY STAFF AND THE ADMINISTRATIVE TEAM SHUTS THEM DOWN. STUDENTS ARE MADE PROMISES FOR DOING WELL ON INTERIM AND STATE TESTING AND NEVER RECIEVE THE GIFTS PROMISED TO THEM.

I have an incredibly supportive admin team that I can go to when I need help or have questions.  I have a great manager and a wonderful team that works really together.

I appreciate the confidence and trust my manager has in me to do my job well. I also appreciate the fact that she still continues to provide me with small ways to improve my performance and student learning even more. I am grateful for the learning opportunities presented for my contnued growth as an educator as well..

I appreciate all the opportunities that Chandler Woods has afforded me. This school gave me a place where I could grow into a fully confident educator. Although, I know others do not feel the same way, I appreciate autonomy I was afforded.

This year we have been without a direct Manager for almost the entire school year.  We have little support from the NHA Special Ed team and our Administration is all doing the job of multiple people and are overwhelmed. Our EC team, those of us who are left, (as many members have left during the year) are overworked as we are expected to manage our caseloads and then pitch in for others.  We are overwhelmed and our students are not getting the best we can give. There is no work life balance as meetings are happening only after school hours because of the amount of meeting and amount of team members that need to be available.

I really enjoy my immediate co-worker (in my team). They are the reason I keep coming to work.

Being able to teach the content in various ways is great for me and the open-mindedness of my boss to let me do lessons and activities when I want is great and very helpful for myself and students.

Willow is a great place to work, but an even better place for children to be educated. The educators here care about the students and genuinely want the best for the kids.

i think it would be helpful if teachers could give other teachers their PTO days if needed and they should roll over to the next year if not used

Benefits are great and I appreciate all of the professional development opportunities.

the benefits are great, i just dislike when i go to use my insurance i have to always come out so much money to meet a deductible and i did not have to do that until a few years ago. Its an extreme inconvenience and understanding all the plans and benefits is confusing. Sending a representative to schools would help clarify a lot

I love the people I work with; I feel I am making a difference in the kids' lives; I like the extra curricular activities/events we offer.

I feel very valued and respected here at Burton Glen. It is a great place to work and help students grow academically!

My New principal Clancy!

The workplace culture is safe and inclusive. It is a positive environment for both staff and students. My coworkers are professional and always willing to help, which makes teamwork effective and enjoyable. My manager is very supportive and approachable. I can always count on her to help me in difficult situation.

We have a very consistent and present dean, she has made sure our wing gets along and always has our back. I feel like I can bring up any concern or idea and get reached with an open mind and my thought are always heard.

Aspire is family to me. I almost cannot function on days off because I'm thinking about my students. I love this place and the people I work with. I am extremely in love with the kids I teach everyday!

One of the best parts of working at Pembroke is the collaboration among our team. Weekly admin meetings for the leadership team, monthly safety team meetings, bi-weekly data digs amongst grade level teams, weekly whole school assembly's, and staff meetings make so much happen for our school. Without all the collaboration amongst ALL stakeholders we couldn't be as effective at what we do! While there are definitely leaders in our building, we couldn't do it without everyone rowing in the same direction. It may be a cliche but "TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK

There are aspects of the company's benefits that I genuinely appreciate, such as the healthcare options and overall support for employee well-being. However, some benefits that were previously very motivating, like the 401(k) match and retention bonuses, have been reduced or eliminated. Moving forward, it would be encouraging to see the introduction of merit-based bonuses and raises tied directly to evaluations and performance. Currently, there is little differentiation in pay between high performers and those who may underperform but have degrees or years of experience, which can feel discouraging for those who consistently exceed expectations.

I love my co workers and their high standards for themselves and students.

I love Endeavor and I love working with Nancy and Team Kouba!!!  We are on an upward trajectory and we are excited to sustain the momentum.

Working at NHA has provided me with a meaningful opportunity for personal growth, and my coworkers have played a significant role in supporting and empowering that journey. They make coming to work each day a positive experience, and it would be truly disheartening to see some of them leave due to feelings of unhappiness.

Dean McClendon is very supportive about her team of teachers, and cares tremendously about scholars' academics. She also does well with discipline for student misbehaviors.

Jessie has cultivated a positive and supportive culture within our team, and I am grateful for her leadership, organization, and expertise in multilingual education. I have learned so much in this role. The work I do at NHA is very meaningful to me, especially in its role in closing academic gaps for multilingual learners to thrive.

I feel like this was the best year I have had even with student behavior at an all time high in my classroom.

the students and parents I work with

I love the fact that I have the opportunity to be apart of some many different things for the students. I also love that I have always had the opportunity to teach middle school math and never had to have the fear of loosing my position. Following that, the chance to earning all my SCECHs in all the PDs we have is great. I do t have to worry about taking extra classes.

The kids

Katie Ruwe is an amazing dean.  She genuinely cares about me both personally and professionally.  I also have great co-workers.  They are supportive and always want what's best for our students.

Role clarity has nothing to do with my school.  I believe the position is intended to be used in one way throughout NHA, but the reality is that not many are able to do this job as intended due to a lack of full understanding of the position.

I truly enjoy my position at NHA.  I feel I have impacted many students' lives academically and socially.   I do believe we need to work on keeping our new staff.  We need to grow our teachers like our students.  I believe NHA helped me grow as a professional.  I am not sure what it will look or sound like, but I believe this is an area we could work on to help retain and grow our new teachers.  Thank you, administration, for all your hard work.

I love working at North Saginaw.  It feels like home and the people I work with are great.  People are willing to help and support.

I genuinely feel that NHA goes above and beyond to make both our school and service center employees feel truly valued. While the value may not always be monetary, it's reflected in so many meaningful ways—through opportunities to support and volunteer at schools, the celebration of the incredible work happening across our schools, the recognition program of our Moral Focus virtues in PSD, and thoughtful feedback from our leaders. The transparency and communication from our Executive Team during huddles are especially noteworthy. In Total Rewards, this culture of appreciation is clearly visible from the top down. Courtney, Lyndsey, and the TR Leadership team embody the kind of leadership people hope to find in their careers—authentic, transparent, and appreciative.

Pembroke does a wonderful job at providing valuable and resourceful Professional Development throughout the school year. The administration does a great job at providing trainings that are beneficial to the entire staff, as well as ones that are requested by the staff. Each Professional Development we have had this year has been awesome!

My team is always supportive and I feel like we have each other's backs no matter what.

We have the best leader here at Laurus. Carolyn creates an environment that fosters growth, success, and work life balance.

There is no such thing as work-life balance when kids keep passing to grade levels they are unprepared for and NHA does nothing to accommodate that or the increased number of disruptive behaviors. Please advance this to whoever needs to see it because our curriculum is entirely too rigid for proper differentiation in a class with kids who are performing at multiple grade levels and you expect us to stay on schedule for assessments that do NOT allow for differentiation. The number of assessments, wording of some of them, and pace is ridiculous. ESPECIALLY for kids who are not at grade level. Teachers are not magicians and we have lives outside of this building that I know personally I have neglected because I know unfortunately that the performance of these apathetic students reflects on me. These students have admitted to being tired of tests and not even trying on many.

I greatly appreciate all that my manager and director do to make me feel valued, appreciated, and have work-life balance. Incorporating the moral focus virtues further within PSD this past year has been great to see and be part of. Collaboration across SC teams is also appreciated.

The role I am given at JCA is a blessing and a great opportunity.  I feel chances for growth.  My manager is extremely supportive.

I love working at Pembroke. We have built such a postive culture amongst staff, have our families bought in to supporting our school and what we do here at Pembroke to help our students suceed, and also, we have so many different support systems put into place here there is always someone with the building willing to support you or someone available to go to.

The reason I was able to give all 5's or strongly agree because that is the goal I see in my co-workers and leadership at Warrendale. In all of life things happen, but Warrendale as a whole seeks to operate at 100% proficiency. Quick to address any concerns academically or personal. It is a fresh breath to know you are heard, and are not alone in meeting your goal of excellency.

Kathryn Archer is a wonderful manager. I receive a lot of support from her and am very clear on my roles and responsibilities. Libby Rowe is tough to work for at times. Her support is less than helpful and results are very inconsistent with students, staff concerns, and parents and she often seems not to care. She is unrelaiable when she schedules a meeting or agrees to do something. That makes it very frustrating to work here at times and can make staff feel unimportant or overlooked.

Curriculum has many grammatical errors and is all over the place. Also, the curriculum lacks American Patriotism. (I am learning the curriculum and doing much better with it.)

I feel like one of the main reasons to stay are the coworkers. Some become friends and that makes you want to come to work. The other is health insurance.

I want to express my sincere gratitude to my Dean for their unwavering dedication and support. Dean Robert commitment to creating a positive and nurturing environment for her team and our scholars has made a significant impact on our school community.  Her approachable nature and willingness to listen have fostered a sense of trust and respect among students and staff. Thank you Dean Robert for being an inspiring leader and for all the hard work you do behind the scenes to ensure our school's success.

My direct team and only a small handful of co-workers that are trust worthy.

Compensation should be higher for the work that is done here and the amount of work that is expected.

I feel that I am an important member of my specific SPED team but not necessarily an important member of our full school community. I have good work life balance because that is important to me but not necessarily because NHA makes that a priority for teachers. I feel that my immediate team does well with collaboration but collaboration as a full school is still lacking.

The best part about working for NHA is the people I work with directly. My manager and team make being an Admissions Representative truly fulfilling. While I love the work I do and the families I serve, I’m not sure I could maintain the same drive to keep pushing and growing without the support and connection I have with my team

My direct manager is one of the reasons I continue to stay at NHA. She is supportive and willing to talk me through any concerns or questions I need clarification on. My direct manager has helped me become better at my job, challenging me to improve and providing me clear examples so I can better support my students in the classroom!

I feel very strongly that the leadership team and my manager are knowledgeable in what the school needs to be successful, I do however feel they are held back from making meaningful actions by the NHA leadership above them. If our management team here at RCA were able to proceed with any plans they implement for more than a short period of time we would be extremely successful. It would also stop our high teacher turnover.

Achieve is such a great place to work. I love my coworkers, student and parents. My leadership team is amazing and very supportive. I definitely see myself staying here for as long as possible.

I felt a definite reduction in stress knowing I had 8 PTO days instead of just 5, even though I only used about 3.  It was just reassuring to know if an emergency came up, I could take a week off without resorting to short term disability in addition to a few hours here and there for doctor appointments and such.  Thank you.

My co-workers and the students have kept me here.

This has been one of my favorite years working at Paramount. Our principal and leadership team are doing their best to support us as a team. Our principal is ALWAYS here at school and if she isn't you would know before school even starts because she is constantly on the floor, interacting with students and teachers, getting kids out of cars in the morning. This is a huge change from last year. There is also a sense of accountability that I don't think we have had in the past for staff and students. There have been issues I have had in the past with other employees trying to "get away with things" or not doing what is best for students and staff. I have seen our principal uphold our school values and deliver both good and bad news in a professional manner. This has been a huge change from the past years. I feel like my voice is being heard as I have brought concerns to our principal and leadership team this year.

Paragon has done a phenomenal job handling student behavior this year.  You can feel the difference in building.  The kids that are often on the bubble of having negative behaviors were more easily shown the right way to behave, and in some cases kids that we would have lost to disruption ended up thriving. The leadership team has worked very hard this year and it shows!

This is the population I have always wanted to serve. These students need a trauma informed teacher and advocate. I do my best to make connections to remidiate behaviors and be a positiveinfluence for students that may not have another.

I really like everything about working here - co-workers, management, and curriculum (with the exception of not having foreign language classes) couldn't be better. The only downer is that fact that our building does not have a dedicated gym, auditorium, or lunch room. Not having those things makes it hard to maintain a level of cleanliness, limits the opportunities for parent and community engagement, increases parent dissatisfaction and makes more scholars ask to leave the school.  Quite frankly a lack of a gym limits scholars access to physical activities, and no auditorium stifles the creativity needed to put forth some great activities to showcase and celebrate our students and their talents.

I feel that I am well compensated for the expertise I have and work that I do, especially in the education industry; I'm always baffled that others don't feel that way. My manager is one of the smartest people I know, has a sense of humor, and is an extremely hard worker; who wouldn't appreciate that? There are opportunities for growth and advancement everywhere I look; if you are able to see challenges, problems, and needs as opportunities to roll your sleeves up and get to work, your potential and NHA is limitless.

Being able to work in a place that accepts that I am a mother first!!

This job is great! I feel very comfortable in my own classroom and respected by the people that I interface with. My department is rock-solid. I really like my students and my classes this year. I very rarely experience negative emotions while working.

I love working here because I love how much we care for students as a staff and leadership team.  We are helping the students achieve their goals.  I appreciate the sense of belonging that I find in the staff and the intentional ways that a positive staff culture are built.

The students

At Southside I feel that there is a great delegation of power to the point that I do not feel over or under managed. My roles are clearly defined so that I am able to proceed in my job every day and go home without a work load to continue to do. When I am in need of assistance I can go to my direct manager with out judgement and I know I will always receive feedback in a timely manner. I feel praised for the work I do with my students and I genuinely feel I am making a change in these kids lives to better impact their future.

It means so much to me that the leadership team at Southside recognizes my priorities as a single mother and supports me without question when I need to take time off to care for my child.  They do not pressure me into living and acting like work is the only important aspect of my life.  Because of their flexibility, understanding, and support, I am a more productive and enthusiastic team member.

 I have truly appreciated the positive culture,  and the support I’ve received from colleagues.

You will have problems at any job, let alone any school, I believe aside from anything negative you can say, pinnacle is a great school with great staff . One thing that will keep you at a job is the staff , the staff is the heart of the school and I feel we do very well getting along with each other in our own grade teams . I feel even though this year has felt off, admin does still try to make us happy with little treats and activities here and there .

I enjoy the impact that we have on our students. I appreciate that we do a lot of fun things for our students, they deserve that. I appreciate that our boss shows appreciation for his workers. I appreciate that he provides explicit feedback to grow into the teacher I want to be.

There is a real feeling of family at Laurus. The people there care for each other. The rigorous curriculum builds strong scholars. The atmosphere at Laurus is inclusive.

The cooperative work I get to do with my team is very helpful to me and my students. My immediate manager is flexible and coaches me to be a more effective teacher.

Julie Zirelle has changed a lot of my views on Knapp. When she came I changed my mind about leaving because I think she is the change that can help the school succeed.

Canton Prep has an unbeatable staff culture! I truly trust, appreciate and look up to all of my coworkers and supervisors. I think we especially excel at supporting one another and making things work despite difficult circumstances.

Rolesville Charter Academy is a great place to work, with a talented management team, teachers, and support staff.  It is supported by a strong set of values that makeup the NHA system.  As a school, we are poised to be an exemplary educational system in the state of North Carolina.  This has been a rocky year for us in many ways, we've gone through much!  All of which are opportunities for reflection and growth.  However, I believe we've been able to weather the storm and are now on the precipice of soaring like the eagle that represents us!

I love how the curriculum is structured.  I wish there was more time to teach the concepts that do not cross the path of the students.

One of the best things about Fortis, aside from working with great students and great staff, is that we're provided with ample resources to best help us meet the needs of students. I feel so supported in meeting my students needs and I feel that I am able to ask for new innovative resources and it be given a sincere consideration. It's great to have support in this way!

I feel pressured to take Glint. I've heard that managers read the comments and guess who would have said that. When I read the results in email they seem skewed to show that Glint survey's painted a collective positive for NHA.

Since most of the teachers we hire are uncertified or have very little experience, I feel very secure in my job. My manager is a wonderful person and is always willing to help.

Working at NHA certainly fills the bucket of doing more mission based work by supporting thousands of students on their educational journey. My direct manager gives me autonomy in my role, provides feedback and guidance along the way, and is always there to support me. However, I do feel that their leadership style is not the consistent style across NHA.

Other: Support specifically from my manager and the K-2 Dean. I have continued to appreciate Slusser in my role as she continues to push me to be the best I can be. She always holds me accountable while helping me when I am feeling overwhelmed or unsure where to start on a difficult task. I am so grateful to have her as my dean and the dean for my team. It has been her efforts and care that has pushed the Sped to be better and have better practices overall.  For VanDyke, I appreciate you always having the back of my team and ensuring to always hold your team to our standards especially when you are constantly getting push back. I see you and I appreciate you.

For collaboration I would like to have more grade level meetings across all the levels (K-6), for ideas and curriculum to use moving forward.  Work-life Balance-I love being available for my students and my own children at home when they need me.  Just need to work on simplifying curriculum to the online platform more.

The benefits at NHA are great. I enjoy working with my direct K-2 co-workers and their high standards for themselves and their students.

My colleagues are spectacular. They often work together to fix the issues that result from a lack of communication from the higher-ups (see below comment).

My manager (Yesenia Baker) is one of the reasons I stay at Cross Creek. I feel that she cares deeply for her staff and students. She deserves recognition for going above and beyond daily.

Comradery among co-workers (friends)

I am really pleased to see the changes in curriculum. From Phonics to Reading is really working.  I feel very supported by my manager and heard here.  I am thankful that we will be getting rid of the carpet since we eat in the classrooms.

My manager is amazing! She does a great job in supporting my decisions and my ability to complete my job! I feel that she is truly here for her staff and the students! I really enjoy my manager.

I absolutely love my grade level team and support team. The benefits are okay. I think teachers should make more money than we do, but I come here for the kids. They need positive role models and someone that is in their corner, because they don't always have that at home.

I see the affect I have on the students

I feel that my managers have always allowed me to take time when I have felt overwhelmed and just needed a day to collect myself. They are understanding of the constraints of my outside life and are respectful and willing to work with me.

I love the people I work with in my leadership in the building, but NHA as a whole and  organization not so much. Employees are vastly underpaid in regards to teachers and support staff, and seem to be undervalued by the organization as a whole not by the leadership that is in our building.

If I can make a difference with one child my work is not in vain. Just like I helped them I can only pray that they help someone else.

This year the micromanaging has become stressful to the teachers. The way the teachers choose to coach students into better behavior should not be micromanaged by the dean. Meaning if I put a student in detention for talking too much in class and it is a time for reflection, it may not warrant a write up that time. Going forward, it may need to be written up unless it continues.  Go guardian: We now have our go guardian micro managed and the teachers can't do any of the fun things with the students when we have a down day. They only way to get it unblocked is to text....ask.....wait...and hope they unblock it for you. I feel like a child.  Breakfast: This was removed from the gym and put back on the teachers in the classroom. It seems your specials teachers get all the breaks. Heard a specials teacher bragging that she has no duty in the morning anymore since breakfast is back in the classrooms. She laughed about it.

NHA/River City has a lot of support from leadership and C&I. I truly appreciate the training and coaching culture.

I appreciate that my dean takes the time to know me.  He also listens to my suggestions and trusts my knowledge of my students to make decisions.  I appreciate my coworkers.  They make it fun to come to work.  I love that I trust them to support me when I need it. I feel the work I do is helping my students be successful as they grow up.

Being able to work in a department where I can make a difference in the lives of students that most don't believe can grow.

It would be great if we had more staff restrooms; all employees receiving the same Holiday pay opportunities.

Salaries do not match the work at all. we are all over worked and over stressed, and there is no support for us anywhere

At NHA, it's not just about maintaining the status quo; it's about challenging ourselves to deliver excellence every day. By focusing on our scholars' growth, we empower them with the skills, knowledge, and confidence they need to excel in an ever-changing world. I'm inspired by how we turn ambition into action.

Dean Solite does and amazing job ensuring the team is happy! He holds us accountable but with love!

I enjoy working at Walton Charter Academy because, despite some areas for growth, it’s a good place to work. While the curriculum is okay and there’s room for improvement in better meeting the academic needs of all students, and discipline can definitely be challenging at times, the overall environment is still supportive. The staff is committed, and there’s a strong sense of teamwork and care for the students’ well-being.

I like nothing. When first employed I enjoyed everyday. Now I do not feel supported. Nothing after working for JCA

Knapp has given me the most meaningful relationships. The teachers are all so caring, and the teams are always willing to collaborate with each other.

I love working at Holly Park because they truly value my hard work and recognize that I put alot of effort into making the kids do the best they can. I feel like all of the people at work want me to be here and care about me outside of work as well.

Best coworkers I've had by a country mile.

I enjoy the difference that I get to make in building the foundation of our school. I received a lot of recognition from my coworkers upon my return from maternity leave as they realized the impact I have on the school community and overall functionality of the school.

I feel very supported by the admin team.  Huwih and Spears especially have had my back on so many occasions and I am so grateful for them.  I love how awesome Marrugi is at running the school so effectively!  She supports the specials team and it really shows.  Thank you admin team!

I am very pleased and Thankful with the group of people that work with!

The best part of my job is having a manager that invests in me to succeed. I truly feel supported by her in every aspect of the job.

I would like to commend Dean Spears and Principal Marrugi for their exceptional leadership and unwavering commitment to fostering a positive and supportive environment for both students and staff.  Also, I want to highlight how much my middle school colleagues and the behavior specialists mean to me—they are an incredible support system, and their dedication and teamwork have made a huge impact on creating a positive learning environment for our students.

My manager is very helpful and is always there whenever I need her.

I believe that NHA, specifically Pembroke Academy, is the best place that I have been in my 28 years in education!

NHA should provide more PTO days because 5 days is not enough. Also, teachers should get retention bonuses no matter if they pass the MTTC or not. I believe when I hear retention bonus it means to keep the teachers in their positions. As teachers we work hard and barely get recognize for our hard work. I'm not saying providing 8,000 dollar bonus is necessary but not giving a bonus at all is kind of unfair especially when we work hard all year. We should get some type of bonus for our hard work.

Emily does a great job at giving feedback and sharing updates at they arise with the team. She is always willing to explain new changes we deal with. She is encourages good work life balance. She has also done our job so she understands the demands. Emily is a good listener and shows she cares about our wellbeing. The confidence in my leadership team was scored a bit lower due to the fact that Megan has not worked with some of the systems we use on a daily basis and therefore it is hard to ask her questions about those systems. Megan is caring and understanding and willing to try to help as best as she can, but she is always pulled in different directions for different meetings. Communication between my leadership team could see some improvements. They have improved over the last year. I scored the action taking low because the service center doesn’t seem to hear or care about us as much as the managers and executive team. Role expectations was 4 because our tasks are always changing

I feel like everyone from the principal, dean, para support and anyone who works with students is truly invested in students. Everyone is supportive towards student success.

Dean Williams listens and makes you feel like your opinion matters and also redirects you when needed

This is my Second Year at Willow Charter. I absolutely love it. NHA does a wonderful job in securing all domains of the educational system. My Dean is beyond words. She is kind, informative, professional and always there for  both personal and work purposes. The principal is flexible, knowledgeable and also there to support us both professionally and personally. The balance of work and life works quite grand. If not, we find a way to make it work! Willow Charter is a great place to be!

NHA benefits have come in great use this academic year with personal health struggles. I believe that NHA is onto something with the use and teaching of 'Moral Focus' and 'Core Values' but do feel that they are not carried out as intended.

I love the co-workers I work with. I feel that we have had to bond and work closer togeto the circumstances that ve been under throughout the school year. I feel that this year has taught us to depend on each other more than ever because of the frequent changes in administration due to things out of our control.

I have taught in several different schools, and Triumph is one of the best. I love the people I work with, and enjoy working under my dean and leadership group. I feel heard when I have an issue, and my dean is quick to come talk with me if I am struggling. I feel like criticism is constructive and help is given readily. I enjoy the culture at Triumph and feel I am given the freedom to adjust lessons to help connect with my students.

Working together as a team to give and receive instructional ideas and techniques to teaching

I would appreciate if there were more PD opportunities for my content area (Specials Team). Currently, the only PD that is available to me is my State Content-Area PD. NHA does not provide meaningful PD for my content area.

I love my co-workers and the collaboration I get to partake in with them. I have a strong sense of belonging with my peers and enjoy the work I do with students.

Stephanie has been a breath of fresh air since the last survey, bringing clear direction and strategic, well-considered decisions. She clearly cares for her people and advocates for them when needed. Aneke has been a strong champion for changes and also advocates for her team.

I dont necessary like the curriculum more than I like the fact that we have a curriculum.

This year, I felt a stronger sense of belonging amongst the whole team. Last year felt cliquey. I remember feeling like the weird girl that was getting made fun of/excluded from the popular girls in high school. This year, some of my coworkers have become some of my closest friends. I am so grateful for all the opportunities we were given to get to know each other better. And GOD BLESS EDGA JOHNSON for keeping Prevail beautiful. Other special shout outs go to Martinez for being so helpful all the time and to Mrs. Walsh for leading my scholars to their reading goals!!!

I think we have a fantastic curriculum for the ELA department, and I love the concepts and values being taught to kids through the themes and characters of the stories.  I'm also very thankful for getting the benefits I received through NHA that paid my tuition for my certification, and reimbursed me for what I already paid iin.  That helped SO much!

NHA and WCA, in my experience, is an ideal place to teach.  There are people and resources available at any time, and I've literally never been turned away when I've asked for help, coaching, development, advice, support, etc.  Our Deans and Principal know what each room's needs are at any given moment, and it seems like they're always around the school doing anything they can to support the teachers, as they support their respective students.

Being part of this community is amazing! I look forward to coming to work every day. My manager and co-workers are supportive and deeply care about the students we work with.

Moral Focus is something that is unique to NHA, and something I have loved getting to teach in my time at NHA. Socio-emotional skills are so important for our students, and I think Moral Focus helps us to bridge that gap between just teaching them academics and helping them to be well-rounded, better individuals in life outside of school.   Leadership/manager is awesome and I feel supported and cared for by them.

Pay is much too low. It is difficult to consider staying when fewer hours at better paying less stressful jobs are everywhere...but I will stay!

I love that NSCA caters to my SVSU classes during work hours!

I love the students.

Feels like a family and teammate so the core value made me out ambassador for Canton Prep

I truly enjoy my role at NHA. In the short time I’ve been with the company, I’ve grown to love the Moral Focus curriculum, my team, my manager, our scholars, and their families. The North Carolina Admissions team is outstanding—I couldn’t have asked for better training. Janet, in particular, is a strong and inspiring leader. Her work ethic sets a high standard, and she’s always available when challenges arise. She also encourages creativity, resulting in meaningful resources for families—resources that benefit NHA when they’re replicable. The most common concern I hear, however, is about the compensation plan. It often doesn’t reflect the level of responsibility and effort required. Working in a Service Center role embedded in schools is challenging. My frustrations aren’t with NHA or my job, but with some school staff who don’t seem to fully support NHA’s vision for families. That disconnect is disappointing, especially given the importance of our mission. Schools are also very dirty.

I appreciate that the grade-level content curriculum at NHA is well-organized with a year-long overview and detailed unit plans, which helps with pacing and planning. The curriculum is aligned across grade levels, providing consistency and supporting academic growth. It also holds students to high standards and clear expectations. In addition, certain procedures, like the no phone policy and uniform policy, are strictly enforced, which helps eliminate distractions and leads to higher student engagement.

Communication is a huge issue at Quest. A weekly newsletter from the Principal is not enough to keep everyone apprised of what is going on. The turnover in employees is astronomical and very bad for students. Their families are likely reconsidering sending their middle schoolers back to Quest because the inconsistency is insane. During the last meeting, it was suggested that people left because there were going to be fewer classrooms. This is not altogether true - there were many unhappy people and it all comes down to communication. If we want a solid workforce focused on those core concepts listed above, we have to make sure everyone feels heard. We cannot make people stay, but we have to create an environment where everyone feels validated and valued.

It is important for the leadership in Wake Forest to acknowledge all teachers for their hard work and dedication. Recognizing a consistent group of teachers may inadvertently overlook the valuable contributions of others. A more inclusive approach to recognition could foster a greater sense of value and motivation among the entire teaching staff.

I like the people I work with and I truly believe they care about the children. As far as compensation for my particular position needs to better monetarily compensated for the amount of responsibility and accountability. As far as PTO days, I feel there should be more days added as the holidays cause a large deficit in pay and weather related days-loss of Five days of pay ,in our region, really hurts.

NHA is great, I feel supported.

In 17 years of teaching I have never taught at a school with such a positive culture as Canton Prep. Administration (specifically Dean Brown and Dean Lawyer) are readily available to answer questions and/or clarify procedures. I feel respected as an educator and as a person. Staff meetings begin with opportunities to recognize colleagues. This adds to the positivity that I feel in our school culture.

I enjoy coming to work everyday.  I can count on my Mentor Teacher, All Deans, Principal, Admin, and other teachers.  I love the support and training that we receive.

Coming from another NHA mid way through the year, I truly appreciate the "light" Gate has given me back to teaching! Love it here.

I enjoy working at South Pointe. It has a great culture! Deans are very supportive as well as our Principal!

I feel supported when I am at work and if I ever need help with anything, someone is always there to help!

I feel truly honored to work in an environment where I am genuinely seen, heard, and valued.  My manager’s trust in my abilities empowers me to approach my responsibilities with confidence, knowing that the work I was hired to do is recognized and respected.  I appreciate the thoughtful feedback I receive, which encourages both personal and professional growth.  Additionally, the staff at Metro Charter Academy foster a positive and supportive culture, making it a truly rewarding place to be a part of each day.

NHA fosters a love for learning and professionally growing.  I appreciate being a lifelong learner in this season and time with NHA for the benefit of our scholars.

As a working mom, I greatly appreciate the support and encouragement of a work/life balance. When my own children are sick, my dean is asking me how I'm doing...not just how my child is doing. I am reassured that I'm making the right decision if I have to stay home with a sick or injured child. I also love that we have open communication at the school and all grades are encouraged to support each other.

Ms. Raymont has been very encouraging, supportive, and knowledgeable. Whenever I need ideas regarding how to motivate students or redirect a behavior, Ms. Raymont always has suggestions and they usually work great!   I love the switch over to the phonics to reading program --it definitely does a better job of "meeting students where they are".   It's really nice to be able to actually address student needs during math intervention rather than be required to teach a pre-set curriculum that offers little flexibility.  Love the learning apps (lexia, dreambox, edcite). Need more headphones and more devices. In my opinion, a purchase to keep classrooms at 1-on-1 would be worth it in the grand scheme of things -- a little every year, rather than a big buy when the tech gets old enough that half the school's ipads/comps stop working and end up needing replaced within a school year.  The reading and math interventionists I've worked with have all been great! :)

I believe the 8 days of PTO should strongly be reconsidered. Maybe 8 days per semester totaling 16 days a year or a way to accrue days with each paycheck. Trying to balance only 8 days for a 9 month school year is almost impossible especially when working with children who bring illnesses to school, and trying to juggle personal life as well.

I feel the training provided by NHA has been very limited. I don’t often know who to reach out to if I have a question on a particular topic.  Our registrar Nicole Mellin has been a great resource to me but as an incoming employee I feel things could have been presented with more clarity from the start.  A lot of my training focused on enrollment and not on the tasks I spend most of my time doing.  Medical training has been particularly lacking.  Compensation for my role seems unusually low.  It is a professional position with a lot of responsibility and as a college educated person with many years of experience in areas directly related to my daily tasks I feel that I am being under compensated, even for someone working in education.  I did not get paid for a snow day that we had on November 8th.  I thought I had read in the handbook that hourly employees were not paid for snow days so I did not push the issue but that was not my experience at a previous school.

I truly enjoy being at Emerson, even though my long-term career goals are leading me in a different direction. I’m grateful to my leadership team for doing an amazing job of making me feel welcomed and included.

This is my first year with NHA. I am honestly surprised by the amount of appreciation and check-ins done at the national level as well as within my school. I love that people passing through my room leave feedback! It helps me either feel appreciated or know what needs to be fixed. As far as compensation, professional development, advancement, and innovation are concerned... I reserve the right to comment on these next year as I really don't have a good feel for them yet.

My fellow Paraprofessionals and the students are my favorite part about working at NHA. The fellow Paras are the only staff in the building that go out of their way to support wherever they can.

The students I work with and my co workers are the number one reasons that I enjoy coming to work. It feels as though the high needs students are not having their social and educational needs met. Work for high needs students is not at grade level yet they do not have alternative curriculum and what feels like “busy work” is given to students instead. But when this was addressed at a para meeting Miss Hamilton chose to be offended and complain to admin, who was not in attendance at the meeting. The switching of case managers in October felt confusing and not beneficial to the students. I have seen an increase in negative behavior in students that spend time watching movies, playing, and receiving rewards after negative behavior in Miss Hamilton’s room.

While I appreciate the 10 days off, it’s difficult to maintain work-life balance when they’re used for sick days, leaving no time for personal life. It’d be nice if we had a 4-day school week like during COVID. Teachers work 5 days but get 1 day without students to plan. There’s no time during the day for planning except during specials, but those are filled with meetings. We need more planning time that isn’t after work or on our own time. Behaviors need addressing, but filling out behavior charts for each student per period creates more work. With 5+ students needing charts, it’s time-consuming, and write-ups often don’t happen due to lack of time and too many disruptions. We need a better work-life balance and a separation of sick and PTO. We should be allowed one mental health day a month that doesn’t impact PTO, so we can schedule appointments, etc., on those days.

I am very impressed with the leadership, culture and community that is Cross Creek. The o O3's are invaluable to feel heard, have needs met, get questions answered and to get specific feedback and information. Then support for student learning, behavior support is bar none. I'd like to keep my Dean and then have the music and P.E. teacher with my Dean, so at social events I could see the people I connect with the most and have us have a consistency of administrative oversight. I would also like morning prep time (equivalent to a classroom teacher) instead of having a duty, because I have so many preps (up to 7 a day).  This truly is my dream job, I absolutely love coming to work every day! There still are times that I feel like I am in a dream and couldn't have asked for a better place to work and people to work with!

Some of these do not apply as a part time employee.

I started off in one position and transferred into another position. I feel I resonate with the students here and the culture Garza creates. I've worked many different places and Garza is one of the best bosses I've worked under. I care about how my boss makes the job feel, and he does a fantastic job. I look forward to making a bigger impact here at SPS!

I am an educator !  I have the highest degree in this school, My name is Dr. Sharon Coleman.  I entered into this job as a second grade teacher.  I was demoted within two weeks, I couldn't believe what had transpired in a few weeks, I have 30 years of educational experience this has been a nightmare!  I feel totally disrespected, belittled, and treated very unfairly discriminated against because I'm not in the clique!  No one should have to report such negative behavior to the Lord God Almighty telling Him that his child is being mistreated.  To be demoted for a teacher to a para pro is just heart breaking not to mention the heart attack in my salary as if I am a convicted felon.  I owe student student loan $200,000.00 .  By being a para it removed me from the status of being a teacher not allowing me to be considered for loan forgiveness.  I do not bless Laurus Academy !  I asking God to judge between me and thee. I've held all this in because I am a Pastor and I don't Gossip!  When ever someone wrong me I r

I truly appreciate the sense of belonging I’ve experienced since joining the team. From the very beginning, I felt welcomed and supported by my manager and colleagues. The encouragement I received when I first started really helped me settle in quickly and feel confident in my role. I also value the ongoing support I continue to receive, which makes it easier for me to grow professionally. It’s great to be part of an organization that genuinely cares about its employees and fosters a positive, collaborative environment.

Dean Solite is a great manager ! He puts his team first ! I like that he make sure everyone has what they need to be successful ! He pushes us everyday !!

There's a lack of communication regarding role clarity. I originally was in a kindergarten classroom as an interventionist, then I left for other obligations, I was told that I would be returning to the same position. Upon returning I was blindsided by becoming a one on one to a special needs student. Management did not inform me of this change until the day that I returned.

Communication could be better.

NHA is a great place to be. My co-workers are amazing and help me out a lot when I am struggling. The friendships that have been built make coming to school easy to do even when I want to stay in bed.

Remote/Hybrid Work Flexibility for the IT team

My biggest observations about Orion is the inconsistencies with holding students accountable for consistent negative behaviors, lack of communication within the building, paraprofessional pay, and role clarity.

I would like a few more day of PTO. With unexpected life situations 6 in not enough for a whole school year. I would not take if not needed.   I do appreciate the technology available.   The support I received as a new teacher to NHA was very appreciated.

I love the students that attend Riverton. They are literally my family. I have amazing relationships with them and their families. It is the most involved and included I have ever felt in a classroom. My principal is amazing at creating a culture of inclusivity and acknowledgement. She encourages students to represent all walks of life and all backgrounds in a way I have never seen before. The teachers here are the most collaborative I have seen in my career! Always willing to jump in and help. Living the motto "we are all we got" and I love it. Some of the deans here are extremely encouraging and demand Teachers have a healthy work-life balance. While a select few Unscrupulous deans serve to ensure we are chained to our desks with very little time to smile. It is unfortunate for those who can not navigate away from those. Employees subjected to their relentless tirades often can not maintain their capability to perform well and burn out or leave. The hope is one day that changes.

I love that Oakside Prep encourages current employees to apply when positions are open. Not only does this motivate me to succeed, but it also makes me feel valued. Thank you for that Oakside Prep Academy.

I enjoy working in an environment with personnel that are committed to teaching, despite obstacles.

I really value that my manager truly allows me to prioritize my family. I appreciate being able to show up and give my best work, but then also go home and show up my best for my family too.

I love being a teacher and the impact I can have on students, however I do feel a lot more supports need to be in place for behaviors and that will go a long way with shaping the culture.

As a new team member at NHA, I've genuinely appreciated how welcoming and supportive the environment has been. There's a clear focus on professional development, recognition, and a sense of purpose that's felt throughout the school.  I'm impressed by the commitment to core values and the balance between innovation and a strong academic program.  The opportunity to grow, connect with dedicated coworkers, and make a positive impact on student is motivating, and I feel valued both for my contributions and my potential. One area I see for continued growth is the mentoring and onboarding process for staff who are transitioning into new roles-especially those of us coming from different fields.  Providing a bit more guidance and mentorship early on would make the adjustment period smoother and empower new team member to contribute even more effectively, right from the start.  While I am still getting to know the full culture, I've experienced firsthand a spirit of collaboration, open feedback, and a genuine desire

Paragon has great systems in place that make the day and year run smoothly. There are many resources and opportunities to learn more/grow as a professional. The planning is great!

I would like to address the disciplinary actions standards of NHA and the attendance policy for students. Within my institution, these tend to be the most popular topic of discussion. The lack of accountability with both topics creates a supportless environment. Receiving opinions and ideas are good was to source ways to address the issues, but it is solely up to administration to do their part in keeping students and parents accountable to their responsibilities/behaviors. I also want to discuss the curriculum. The curriculum for kindergarten is too vague and basic for students who are just starting school (it’s boring). We should be able to provide books like the phonics/handwriting material that shares the goals and standards of NHA’s foundational learning with physical books with color and pictures with structured lesson plans, not print outs. The amount of printing is outstanding, and it takes too much time out of our planning period to just do print jobs.

The opportunity to have Influence and impact on students

I feel completely supported by my coworkers on my team, everyone in the building is friendly/ welcoming, I thoroughly enjoy working with my students, and I am rewarded with the ability to directly see a positive impact on my students' learning as well as through positive affirmations from my team and manager.

I joined the Service Center recently and have had an extremely positive experience. My coworkers have been very welcoming and knowledgeable, my Manager has been patient and attentive to my needs, and I'm very impressed with the resources and accumulated talent at the Service Center!

I love the students we have here at Vanderbilt.  It is a joy to see them progress emotionally and academically throughout their years at Vanderbilt.  The variety I have in my job also allows me to grow and give to students in many ways.  The teamwork within my team is something I am grateful for each day.  My manager does a great job of supporting students, staff, and families in so many ways.  Our leadership team at Vanderbilt is pro at working with students who need creative behavior and emotional support.  It is fun to watch those relationships grow.  Over-all the "Can Do!" attitude of  staff members at Vanderbilt is inspiring and what makes us a loving place for students to learn and grow in each day.

It’s sad that this is the best thing about work. A few coworkers are decent. The rest are self absorbed and only care about the latest gossip or getting whatever they can from the administration team.

Chandler is a fantastic dean!

There is much I like about working for NHA. I have seen a shift over the years causing a decline in morale. NHA often micromanages and often publicly shames employees in email threads. I feel this is very unprofessional. Direct feedback from those involved would be more productive. I feel that we have lost some autonomy to supplement curriculum causing us to "be easier" academically than we traditionally have been. We are losing students to other charter schools that are more academically challenging. Not having a high school has really hurt us, including the shift in student population. Staff are required to focus time/energy on student behavior and communication differences instead of academics. I see the exhaustion and dip in morale. So much is expected but little given in return.

My dean is the best dean I’ve had in a long time because he supports his teachers by dealing with students’ unproductive behaviors. If the extreme behaviors are dealt with, I can do my job and teach the rest of the students.

I have an amazing manager and co-workers.  I love my work family!

I am glad to see our custodial staff has improved on cleanliness. I see them out way more often cleaning rather than seeing them on their phone in their closet. One area that could be improved upon even more is toilet cleaning. In the staff bathroom the water bowl has rings in it from not being scrubbed for who knows how many weeks. There are times when that build up is in the student bathrooms as well. Which grosses me out that those are not being cleaned daily...

I'm thankful to work at a school with dedicated, hard-working staff and a clear purpose. Cross Creek is a special place!

My husband works at a hospital, and his benefits are even as good as ours. My co-workers are the best part of this job.

I would like to be compensated at a fair rate, comparable to the area schools that are around Eagle Crest. Many of my former co-workers have left EC (despite WANTING to stay) to go teach at Holland Public or Zeeland Public who pay them much more for the same work. I think EC is suffering due to the loss of these veteran teachers who were replaced with younger more inexperienced teachers. It is greatly effecting the quality of our instruction and culture to have lost so many teachers at once. I hope this can be better addressed in the near future.

Ridge Park is a great place to work.  NHA is not.

I think that our school has a great climate, there are so many great resources and data reports to help us push our students and staff to higher levels!

I stay because I can see the positive impact we have on students here at GRP. I am surrounded by like-minded co-workers who share the same vision for your students and genuinely care about our students.

My co-workers are a large part of why I chose to stay at Cross Creek.

My school culture is outstanding!  The staff (and leadership) are focused on providing our students the best education possible, while also realizing that some of them have concerns other than school.  The leadership team wants me to be the best teacher I can be and provides me with the materials and knowledge needed to accomplish this.  The teachers are great at holding each other accountable for our students' learning.  The work life balance is always top of mind with Mr. Williams. I feel fully supported by my dean.

I love the students & value my relationships with my fellow teachers.

I really love working with my Staff and Leaders. Everyone supports each other and always are supporting the students. It is who you work with that helps you appreciate your job and be a succesful eduacator.

I feel that Triumph has a family atmosphere and culture....I believe in Triumph and the difference we make in our student's lives.

Prevail is a place to grow, learn and teach others to be successful. The student population gives me an ability to teach with passion and fill needs in my community. The families are very appreciative of all the opportunities we provid. I am a proud Prevail Panther!

I like growing each year a being a stronger wise teacher. You never know what you will encounter at Stambaugh but it has taught me to plan well and be ready to help.

Team is a more than a word. Team is a group of people that not only support and encourage one another, but have the ability to share ideas and strategies to help each of be the strongest teacher we can be. Being part of a collaborating team is one of the best parts of the job.

Despite increasing costs, our benefits are still very good. This holds a lot of value for our employees.

I have a team and a manager in the 3-5 wing that supports me and makes sure that I am successful daily. I am respected as a human and encouraged to be open and honest when having conversations. I also appreciate the fact that we have abss that support my high needs students and listen to me when I ask them to respond and help with situations.

I feel that working at North Dayton that I am making a difference in children and their education that may help them throughout their educational years.  I believe in them and strive to help them learn, achieve to the best of their individual abilities.  It is rewarding to have students/children smile and be happy that you are present each and every day!

In the area of compensation, NHA is definitely lagging far behind area school districts.  I have included this in all of my years at South Arbor that teachers need to be recognized far beyond verbal acknowledgments.  While my experience at South Arbor has been a strong acknowledgement of DEI, NHA needs to step it up.  There is a sense of hypocrisy when staff members are required to use one of their PTO days for religious holidays, while the majority have the day(s) off for holidays.   I work with an incredible group of dedicated educators supported by the compassionate and involved Deans and Principal.

I have an abundance of confidence in and feel supported by my manager and feel that the ability to collaborate and work together towards solutions is a strength of my team.

I like my role in People Services. I have an excellent manager. My team works well together so collaboration is great.

I love my role at Knapp. I am so happy with the vision insurance and dental insurance that NHA provides. Though I will not use all of my PTO days, I am pleased that they have offered two more days this year.

Krystal is a wonderful Dean. She is relatable and delivers information to us in a helpful way. She takes the time to make sure we understand what we are accountable for and understands when things get in the way. I appreciate that she is genuine with us and is a great role model. I feel comfortable in seeking advice from her and appreciate her feedback.

I love the culture at Sky Ranch!

My Dean has been phenomenal this year (and other years!).  He communicates well and has put a lot of effort into making sure resources that we need are readily accessible.  He is always available and his presence in our hallway has really made a difference in our student behaviors already this year.  He is a calming presence and a great leader.  This has been a great year for me.  The atmosphere on my wing has been great and that is due to our amazing team and leader!   I also appreciate that NHA not only provides PD to help me grow, but encourages me to find PD that I WANT TO ATTEND.

While I do feel some autonomy, it still takes an act of congress to be able to work from home on a random Friday if needed, even though some teams still don't have to come to the service center even if they live local..

I do not feel that there is a real concern for work-life balance. Many of the tasks are redundant and could be condensed for the same purpose. I also feel that some of the meetings look at data and detail what has to be done to reach goals but do not focus on offering realistic strategies to help teachers be more effective.

I enjoy the work I get to do everyday with students.  I am thankful that I am trusted enough to make a lot of my own decisions however, I am not included on a lot of things decided in my area/classroom.  Also being told one thing about how the following year is going to go and then it change as soon as the year gets rolling is very frustrating.  Leadership team sometimes are too involved in areas not under them so too many micromanagment situations can occur which can be very frustrating.  It also causes breakdowns in communication when each expects that the other is communicating information and it gets lost in translation.

Brooklyn Scholars has a positive and supportive school culture, which I truly appreciate. However, after working with NHA for 11 years, I’ve noticed a lack of professional development directly aimed at my growth as a building leader. Over the years, I’ve had to seek out my own development through building leader courses. Moreover, while there have been market value adjustments for teachers, similar increases have not been made for Deans/Assistant Principals, despite the critical role we play in instructional leadership and school management. It’s disheartening, especially since our positions require us to act as instructional coaches and oversee school operations, without compensation that reflects our level of responsibility. Additionally, NHA does not offer compensation for further education, unlike the Department of Education, which impacts long-term motivation and growth in these roles.

Academic Program/Curriculum-Our direction with the math curriculum is amazing. Once implemented fully with fidelity scholars will show amazing growth. Autonomy and Manager-My manager has coached me to make the right decisions and feel confident in various processes and procedures.

Extracurriculars for students

The only thing that keeps me here are my coworkers and manager. NHAs made up ELA curriculum is not effective. We need a real reading intervention program (Reading Mastery/Corrective Reading are not intervention programs and we've seen it with our own eyes that it does NOT work). The Formative Skills assessments that were added this year add so much more work to the teachers plates. We have 6 different groups of students going to multiple classrooms working with multiple teachers/interventionists. Keeping track of it and finding the time to administer these assessments takes a lot of instructional time away. I really wish NHA would allow teachers to pilot these things and give feedback beforehand.

Mrs. Chandler does a great job helping me do my best and I am thankful for her experience and feedback.

The benefits are second to none if people pick to use them. MF is good when it can be taught on a regular basis. We have a good impact on students and their families.

My Dean and Admin team (Priincipal and Deans) are the best team I have ever experienced in my career.

I love working with my Team. My manager makes me feel valued and support. This team, these students and staff are the reason why I contuine to work at North Dayton School of Discovery.

Ridge Park's administration team understands that family is first and does an AMAZING job of making sure everyone is able to carry that out! This is a rarity to find that and I feel incredibly grateful to have it. The co-workers here are really like family too and I feel so blessed to work with all of them.

I love my manager, director, and team. I am devastated about Roberto Martinez leaving he has led our team and ensure the math team has been able to drive our goals. I appreciate the work we are doing and the impact we are having on teachers and students. I appreciate the opportunity to work with school leaders and grow teachers. The emphasis on school support this year and teaming with DSQ Hunt has been great and has made me feel more valued in my job.   Math Dean Cohort over the last two years has also been great and has truly developed the deans I work with and helped to make them believe they are math people!

The safety of the building is a concern. There are consistent issues with plumbing and the roof of the building. We are often met with pungent smells and orders. Some of our windows are missing screens, which poses a huge safety concern. We need pull handles for the inside of our doors that lead to the outside. If an individual is trying to enter the building he/she has an advantage as there is no way for use to pull the handle closed. Our security cameras could use sound. Often times the dialog would be supportive to a situation. The video is good but the audio makes it better. I would like to see the perimeter of the building sprayed more often during bee season. Children have been stung waiting outside to go home as well as the lunch and custodial staff fight profusely when throwing away the trash. Finally, having our back parking lot paved with arrows for flow of traffic. I understand the building is rented however, other NHA schools that rent have smooth parking lots with arrows.

I am very happy with my teammates and the way we work together.  We always put each other first and make sure that we support one another with our students.  The benefits are also a perk here which help my family.   The moral focus program is a great tool and learning expectations for the students but we need to all uphold the moral focus program and make sure we follow the rules everywhere

I feel highly supported, respected, and appreciate the clear expectations that Dean Hardy Bonner exemplifies.  She truly cares about each child’s needs and a work/life balance for her teachers.

Our current school building was originally designed to accommodate grades K-5. With the expansion to K-8, the facility is no longer able to effectively meet the needs of both students and staff. The limited space impacts classroom functionality, extracurricular programs, and overall student engagement. Addressing this issue is essential to ensure that we provide a conducive learning environment and adequate resources for our growing community. We recommend exploring options for expanding the current infrastructure or identifying alternative solutions to accommodate the increased population.

I absolutely love working at TEA!!! Our culture is unlike any other school out there! I love that we support one another and lift each other up. My team and wing are absolutely amazing!!! And on top of that, my dean, Mrs. Huwih, is truly incredible.  She has created the culture in our wing as a place of honesty, growth mindset, and positivity.She goes above and beyond what any Dean as ever done for me.  She always actively listens, supports us, helps with curriculum and classroom management, always has our backs with parents and is so supportive with behavior.  She is always doing the work of 5 people and yet always has time to lend a listening ear, check in with each and every one of us, and cares about not only our classrooms but our personal lives as well.  Even when it is a crazy time of school year, she is right there to help and lift us up when we need it.  I truly cannot say enough amazing things about her leadership!!!! She is someone who truly makes TEA the place that it is :)

I really like working here. I have the autonomy to use NHA lessons while also adding in some fun other extensions. I love my dean, Marcella. She cares for us, or work-life balance, and trusted us. I hope she knows that we are grateful to have her here as a dean in our middle school. We thrive for her advice on how to become better teachers.

I have always had wonderful Deans & Principal

My co-workers are amazing and I feel supported by my manager while I am navigating a health issue.

I enjoy several things about working with NHA including the people I work with, the ability to get supplies for my science classroom, the fact I have a curriculum provided but I also have a say in how I teach the curriculum, and environment in which I am working.

People Services does a good job of moving around internal candidates and promoting from within giving growth opportunities. My co-workers are the best. NHA has always supported my work-life balance whether it be time away uninterrupted for a vacation or the ability to stay home for an illness or a kid's illness or the other things life throws our way my leader has always partnered with me to navigate it.

I feel super blessed to work at GA.  I have thank God multiple times a day that I landed a job here 8 years ago.  The culture here is amazing especially this year with the Energy Bus movement.  I can't say enough good things about it.  I feel like the leaders here (admin and the deans) are the best humans on earth both professionally and on a personal level!  Their hearts are in the right place and they genuinely care about their staff.  At the end of the day, I've worked in the public school sector and sometimes I don't think teachers realize just how blessed they are to be here at GA (especially if they've never taught anywhere else).  The support and love here is amazing.  Yes, there are things that are stressful (constant assessments) and negativity at times (that's with any job) BUT at the end of the day those are just little things BECAUSE IN REALITY the BIG picture is:  I am beyond grateful to be here!  This is how I choose to live and hopefully it shows in all that I do.

My manager knows the level of support and areas of discussion I need.  She is able to help bring questions/concerns back to the whole MLT as needed.    Resources we create for schools and teachers are top shelf.  What could some resources of development be for the team that could be offered?  I think some on team do not think any development is needed and would love to open their eyes to opportunities of growth to build them up as a specialist and person in general.

The culture this year feels different. More teachers seem to be open minded towards collaboration, meeting basic school culture requirements and supporting each other.

The leadership team provides me with clear communication and checks in with me often to see if I am in need of anything. When I do need items or have questions, my leadership team is quick to answer me. I feel comfortable communicating any needs with them.

I love Burton Glen and our community

I am happy with my co-workers who although have different backgrounds and cultures, are easy to get along with and give an ear to listen when things are going good and when things are not so good.   I am happy that I have the opportunity to make an impact on kids' lives here.  After seeing some students that have graduated from Pinnacle and high school, they remember me and remind me by their success and their thankfulness to me, It reminds me why I am doing this job.

My Dean and co-workers are amazing when I need any kind of support or input. We collaborate very well together to get things done especially when there are so many "non-negotiables" to do. Many teachers do not have time to complete them and then need to take time outside of working hours. Most of this is busy work and is not helping anyone become a better teacher. Having multiple sets of lesson plans so that admin can check up on teachers adds time and stress to teachers' lives. Having burnt out teachers is not going to get us off a closure list. We should trust that our teachers who went to school for 4+ years know what/how things need to be taught. And if they do not or need help, then give support, strategies, and suggestions, not extra work.

I would love to have Mr. Watts back on morning. He keeps the building clean and stocked the lavatory in a timely manner with an amazing willingness to help at any time.

I absolutely love working here at Advantage Charter Academy.  The warm culture, family feel is very inviting.  From the amazing leadership team, teachers and support staff, everyone is very helpful. My manager is always supportive and providing me with the support I need to feel empowered and successful.

I appreciate the leadership team and feel very supported in taking care of my needs.

I’m grateful for the autonomy to lead my school with the support of my DSQ. Dr. Brown is always available, no matter the day or time. He is an active listener and seeks to understand first. He has definitely started to “speak my language” when it comes to showing appreciation for the work I do. What I enjoy most is the opportunities he provides for me to collaborate with my Team One, GALA principals. I feel more comfortable and confident in my role this year and look forward to my continued growth.

I have always felt that hard work is valued, noticed, and rewarded at Southside. I truly feel that I have a purpose in coming to work, and I believe my peers share the same purpose and drive. Southside has a great staff of caring, kind, diverse, and dynamic individuals.

The support that I receive from my manager, and the rest of the leadership team, in my my new role has been absolutely amazing!

At this time,  I am disappointed because I do not have a classroom due to students' under-enrollment. However, I feel that my years of dedication and experience have not been appreciated enough to be noticed and offered a classroom while there was an opportunity.

I love being able to work with the schools and help try to find ways to make their jobs smoother so they can focus on the school day. Work life balance is a big one right now and it is nice to have that. Our management team is amazing as well.

Doug knows how to motivate his people to a purpose that goes above and beyond the job.  He also does a great job communicating and prioritizing incoming challenges.

I enjoying working at Willow Charter Academy. It gives me great pleasure to watch our scholars learn and grow. Principal Dominique is an exceptional leader who leads by example. Dean Epps has grown into her own leadership style and is doing well. I am clear on my role and responsibilities and feel supported by my principal, dean, and colleagues. Willow Charter is destined for greatness and I am here for it all!

I truly love working at Fortis and I'm extremely excited to continue in my current role here in the building.

NHA provides a plethora of curricula and examples of the core academic areas.  I think the rubrics are above our scholars and must be modified for success.   I love how we recognize student success with the data walls, and students being recognized at Moral Focus assemblies.

This year, I have truly enjoy working with most co-workers and my manager! My manager gives me the trust and autonomy I need to be effective at my job. She inspires me to do my best and try new things while reflecting on what worked and what didn't. I enjoy being able to collaborate with other educators to see what works while trying to implement their ideas.

I will honestly say that I highly contemplated returning this 24/25 school year, but my faith was restored knowing that there was going to be a fresh approach lead by one of the greatest people I've had the pleasure of working with years prior, not to mention one of the greatest people in general.  I look forward to all of the amazing things to come!

I love my job!

I truly appreciate how supportive, kind, and smart my manager is. She truly strives for the best for our schools and for our team. I appreciate that she lets me collaborate with other teams so I can continue to learn and grow. Her guidance is amazing.

1. *Not knowing that our ELA curriculum was missing key components until we go into emergent state. Teachers have been saying this for . Unacceptable. listen to whom is teaching it. #2. Appreciate us in more tangible ways. #3. A teacher with more than 25 years of experience should not have to work extra hours(after school/summer school) to make a proper scaled rate, no teacher should. This plays into work/personal balance life. Deans for all they do should make more money. #4.Role Clarity: I know my job and I do well at it but I can not do my job which I feel is important to the stability of all teaching if told to do another's job. No consistency! Find enough help and let us do our jobs.

My manager, the leadership team are what keep me at Paramount. They are inspiring and dedicated to NHA, the school, staff and students. They work very hard to support all those around them and are very underappreciated with all that they do on a daily basis.

We have a great collaborative team

I feel many of my innovations have happened here providing great advancement in my life, career and JCA.  My position is one of purpose, meaning, and success.  I really enjoy it.  Despite flaws (that will b mentioned in below sections of this survey) JCA is overall a place I love.

Working at Pembroke and NHA has truly been the greatest job I have ever had. I feel valued, heard, appreciated, and like I belong here at Pembroke. The school has an incredible staff where everyone brings something different and beneficial to the table. We are always working as team with the same goal in mind. Each year, the staff gets closer and stronger. Not only is the staff getting stronger each year, but the students are as well. Our student body is showing growth and determination to work hard day in and day out. I also notice such a positive relationship with parents as well. Pembroke is just truly amazing!!!

My direct manager truly cares about our work-life and is always open to talking through needs that I may have in the moment. She is great at problem solving and looking at the big picture. I have truly been about to grow and feel confident in what I do due to the support that I have been given.

Angela is one of the best managers I’ve ever had! She is hardworking, dedicated, and ensures that her team has all of the resources necessary to be successful.

Dean Solite is a great Dean. I am elated to have him as a dean. I wouldn't want to work for anyone else. He gives great feedback as well as coach his teachers to be more than just educators, but leaders.

My immediate supervisor (dean) is very supportive and understanding

I have been working at Queens Grant since I graduated from college and I don't see myself going anywhere. I love the culture of our school and the people I work with. I am especially thankful for my manager, Errin Schie, and how she has been there to support me and help me grow over the years.

We are constantly looking for ways to improve every child's learning experience. We work together to support each other and grow. We have a dynamic staff.

I love that we are granted access to so many materials and resources here at Quest. I don't feel like I need to spend a fortune to provide my class with the tools I feel they need. However, I wish we had more autonomy to be able to use those tools to best teach our students. We are required to teach in small groups, but the lessons are not differentiated. Our school is also required to annotate these already scripted lessons which is a huge waste of time, particularly for experienced teachers and is also a waste of resources because we're making an excessive amount of copies just so the upper administration don't have to be bothered to look at the scope and sequence. I struggle to complete my classroom copies anymore because everyone is using the printers for their annotations. I have to stay after school to regularly to complete my tasks and even then I am fight crowds of other teachers doing the same.

Mr. Garza is an amazing leader for this school and even better to work for. His compassion for the students and genuine care for his staff is like nothing I've ever experienced.

My manager is competent in what she is doing.  Her goal to change the culture, communicate effectively and provide support is well received.  The curriculum tools that NHA provides makes the teachers job easier.  I enjoy the extra compensations that are provided as well.

N/A

I think in the past while the Admin has been positive and semi helpful, often many items states on weekly emails are not carried out and their seems to be no clear vision more feedback to the staff as a whole as to whether we are moving in that direction.  All stakeholders (teachers) seem to be doing their own thing and a cohesive group team environment was not fostered and the school felt disconnected.  Kids would just float without school structure nor follow through nor response to address yearly issues that popped up.  I look forward to the new administration creating a more cohesive environment and following through so that the staff feels their is a clear vision and road map to improvements across culture and safety for students, for teachers that have raised concerns and for the families that entrust us with their children.  Thank you and I look forward to big improvements this year and a clearer presence and support from admin.  (not micromanagement but support and visibility

Advantage Charter Academy culture is unmatched. To be apart of this team truly feels like family. From the safe to the scholars.

Our Admin team takes a lot of time to show appreciation for all staff at Fortis. Their commitment to making us all feel like we're all an essential part of the team does not go unnoticed!  I also appreciate the multiple opportunities we are presented with to earn stipends and an annual opportunity for a merit based raise.   This year, I feel especially thankful for my manager and all that she has done to improve our department. She has put several much needed accountability procedures in place, which has really helped the team to stay in compliance. She communicates well and really makes sure we feel appreciated. One of my favorite parts about having her as a manager is that she leaves detailed feedback on all observations she does and always takes the time to leave a genuine hand written note, highlighting our strengths.   I am also very thankful for all of the time the admin team spent on gathering resources for the entire school this past summer!   Thank you for all that you do!

I love the culture at Pathway! Friendly and welcoming environment and staff as well as Leadership team. Love and respect our core values.

Janet has been an incredible support, and I truly enjoy working with her. She is always encouraging, approachable, and leads with positivity. I feel valued and motivated every day, and I’m grateful to be part of this team under her leadership!

My manager is an amazing human being and I always feel supported and appreciated by her! Our O3s are always productive and I leave feeling more confident about my skills and that my needs are met the way I need them to be.

I appreciate the work-life balance that NHA offers. It allows me to thrive in my position while also taking care of myself outside of work. I also value my co-workers and my manager. They are supportive, kind, and collaborative.

Have age appropriate material for young learners to help them be successful.

I notice that you can pick multiple things you like but not so many you think could be improved. This kind of thing is part of what I think feels slightly dishonest about NHA materials.

I love my coworkers!

Building cleanliness is beginning to slide.  The copier rooms are dusty; the elevator steps have dirt that could be brushed off; the floors are marked with what looks like candy or gum spots that are easily scraped off.  The bathroom has hand cleaner dispensers that don't use.  The stalls in the bathrooms need to be repainted as they have graffiti from last year.  The building, once pretty pristine is beginning to have the hallmarks of marginally maintained buildings.

The success of our students is completely due to the wonderful, collaborative and caring staff. As a staff we work together and share common values. It is helpful that in Special Education, I have autonomy over what and how I teach as well as how I provide support for the other teachers.

I feel secure and respected here at APHS. I appreciate the autonomy granted to me by the administration and the efforts they go to to see my needs met. Boots on the ground, day-to-day, things are pretty good around here.

We are the NHA school with the least turnover every year. Most of us have been here for at least 6 years so we know each other very well.

Building Leadership

I truly believe Prevail Academy is a wonderful school to teach at! I feel supported and absolutely love the teachers and students I get to work with each day! I have become a better person and teacher because of Prevail.

They allowed me to teach while I got my certification renewed. That was instrumental to my career developement.

My coworkers are the best. We are able to work together well and collaborate to make sure our students are successful

For other - I enjoy working at Brooklyn dreams for the scholars. They are well rounded children who are eager to learn when you bring in the right tools to foster their environment. I have always had such a strong connection to work here and stay here because of them.

The culture at PVA is amazing, and the amount that teachers can work together and help each other is the best I've seen.

I really do enjoy working here. I feel like I have done a lot for this school and have grown so much personally and professionally because of the opportunities to make a difference. I like the challenge of our curriculum, even though it could be more flexible.

I genuinely appreciate my position teaching art here and witnessing the support from both the staff and leaders. It's comforting to see my ideas being embraced and supported. I also value the support staff and professional development opportunities. Our officers consistently demonstrate their presence and readiness to go above and beyond the call of duty.

Having the opportunity to work with my teammates is one of the few aspects of the job that is keeping me going.

Our IT/Security department has taken nearly a month to make earnest attempts to approve websites that I've used for years at NHA as an educator. This makes me feel like I cannot access or use the best information and tools necessary to teach our scholars.

I love everything about working for NHA. Paid time off for paras would be nice.

My manager always works hard to support us in any way she can.  She sees it as her responsibility to help those under her leadership be as successful as they can be, and we all benefit from that.

I feel like I have grown as a person and appreciate all the hard work that goes towards the children .   The admins team is always approchable in my time of need.  I am currently trying to find a program that fits me to go from parra to teacher . The resourses that admins have give me have been very useful.  I enjoy my jpb, I enjoy working with children

I have no complaints.  The service center is a great place to work.

There are many things I love about my organization: the curriculum that pushes our students to be independent learners, the moral focus values we teach, and the organization's core values. I truly appreciate my manager and leadership team for their guidance and professionalism. They are shaping me into an excellent educator, and I couldn't thank them enough.  I've been here for nearly four years, and this place has become home. The positive impact I have on my students, and the reciprocal impact they have on me, has transformed my life. I feel like I've found my purpose here. I’m grateful for the new leadership and the direction we're heading in. The supportive environment, strong school culture, and commitment to family engagement make me proud to be part of Metro Charter Academy. I'm committed to contributing to this positive culture and making a meaningful impact on the children and families we serve.

I like that we have both a rigorous academic curriculum and a moral focus curriculum. The benefits NHA provides are so helpful. I love my dean (well both deans). Teaching has always been my lifelong pursuit to help make a positive impact on kids.

Our team’s successes are because of the safe and inclusive atmosphere our leadership has cultivated.  Our leadership team continues to nurture growth and excellence.  I've really appreciated the opportunities given me to show my worth, and the support provided to encourage me to be my best.  Their willingness to have the hard conversations and foster deep relationships makes all the difference.  They invest in our lives both inside and outside of school, supporting each of us based on our needs.  They empower us to make decisions in the best interest of our students, offering support each step of the way.  I am unbelievably grateful to be part of such an incredible team.

My leadership team prioritizes the person first, which encourages me to work even harder. I know that if I have something come up, my leadership team and peers will do everything they can to help support. I also appreciate the level of trust my leadership team has in the work I do and how much they value my unique perspectives.

Working with my different learners and seeing them advance.

I have always felt supported in my role at Triumph. My manager provides productive feedback and my team mates are always willing to jump in where needed.

I love my job here at GOA. The work life balance is ideal for me as someone who is consistently busy at home. My role and the expectations of me are very clear set by my dean and admin team. I love the feedback that is constantly given to me in order to grow professionally. I enjoy working with my co-workers as well as admin. I feel very supported in my role.

My ratings this year have been significantly different than years prior. Over the past 6 months, I have seen exponential growth in our department specifically, but our school as a whole. Our school as a whole, has made diligent efforts on professional development, positive impacts on students, resources, communication, appreciation, and so much more. More specifically, my manager has made a meaningful and needed change to our department. That includes providing more structure, feedback, clarity in roles, and advocacy for her staff and the students that belong to the Special Education Department.

I would just like to say that happiness is working with great people. I come into school every day with a smile on my face knowing that no matter what the day may bring, Principal Houston, Dean Jordan, Dean Mangum, and Dean Childs will always be there for me if I need support. Not only can I count on my own grade level dean, I can count on all of the leadership team at my school. They go out of the way to form positive relationships with their teachers and lend a helping hand no matter what.

Recognition is provided by the admin throughout the year which is appreciated. Teachers and staff pitch in regularly to help and support each other. However, we could use more parent help for things like lunch, recess, driveline.

While I enjoy the ample opportunities for growth and development at NHA, what I enjoy the most is getting to contribute towards our positive impact on thousands of students.

Technology: - prodigy was taken away- this is such a fun and interactive way that children enjoyed to learn. Prodigy really made math come alive for the children. Once minutes are met on Dreambox- Prodigy can be used.   -My new projector is NOT bluetooth enabled- this would make it a lot easier to set my classroom in a way to meet the needs of children.   -Increase pay

I appreciate that NHA plans a lot for us. It helps save so much time and allows us to leave school and go home to our loved one at the end of the school day. NHA cares a lot about safety, and I am so glad we take it seriously.

Taylor Prep is a wonderful school to work for. This fall there has been a much greater sense of family throughout the school among the staff. The students are wonderful at helping each other in times of need.

Dean McClendon takes the stress off of my job by having my back. She knows that our wing works hard and she makes sure that no one can say we are not doing our job because she sees us and hears us. She is an amazing Dean that makes sure we stay afloat with deadlines.

I feel like for the first time in the 3 years that I have been at DEA, I feel like I am being supported and I have the resourses that I need to get my job done. I feel like I can grow and get essential feedback.

Coworkers

Dean Bakoulas takes time to listen to concerns and helps come up with solutions to those concerns.  She is very responsive and you know she will make time to speak with you and treats you as a professional.

My students make me happy

I feel Ms. Hawthorne has really tried to help us get through this difficult time with the new curriculum and I really appreciate all her help and guidance.

I genuinely believe my manager is one of the main reasons I enjoy working at NHA. I've never had a manager who supports me and has my back the way my current manager does.

It really feels good to be part of a WINNING TEAM!  From multiple Eagle awards to now the highest recognition a school could receive, a NATIONAL BLUE RIBBON!

Krystal is an invaluable source of support in my professional life. Her ability to foster a judgment-free atmosphere has made it easier for me to approach her with questions or concerns, knowing I can be open and honest without hesitation. She consistently offers thoughtful feedback that not only helps me improve my skills but also builds my confidence in my role. Krystal’s support goes beyond just guidance; she is someone I trust to provide sound advice, and I always feel comfortable turning to her, whether for professional insight or simply to confide in her. Her presence is a key factor in my professional growth.   My co-workers are truly wonderful, and I am fortunate to work alongside such a supportive team. I can always rely on them to collaborate and help problem-solve when needed. Our ability to mesh well together creates an environment where ideas flow freely, and we collectively elevate each other’s performance. They inspire me to continuously improve as a teacher, and their encouragement helps me fe

The time off is unacceptable it should have accrued time and  or time you can cash in.

My manager understands and works with my schedule and changing needs. Very important for my needs.

I feel that Burton Glen/NHA school is a Great School to work for. I am glad that I made the decision to stay. The Work life balance is unmatched and I truly appreciate it. The Support and team atmosphere is AWESOME. The Leadership team here always make sure that we are always taking care of.

I always wonder if Mr. Kleiman is aware of all the wonderful interactions I witness daily! The staff is so loving and caring for each other as well as the families that are here. I'm very proud and delighted to be a part of the Westfield family!

My teammates (grade level) are a great support system. We collaborate well together and value our uniqueness. We equally share leadership roles based our our own strengths and support each other in places to grow.

It's close to where I live.

I do feel like the staff and admin team do genuinely care for one another.

My teammates and my dean are the very best! I look forward to working with them every day!

The group of teachers that I work with always are willing to help each other.  We have each other's backs, and we support each other with challenging behaviors and prepping lessons.  We are a team, and I appreciate that.

I enjoy my service at Prevail, my manager and leadership team demonstrate concern for scholars and staff.  Student class size continues to increase in Middle School; instructional/behavioral support  would be beneficial to meeting students' academic growth by providing support in the classroom. Additional Substitute staff is greatly needed so the Caseloads of the Academic Specialist and Instructional Paraprofessionals are not compromised. It is an important part of keeping moral high; most importantly, establishing consistency with scholars schedules.  I appreciate NHA/Prevail value of work life balance, and the support from Dean Singleton and Principal Laney.  Throughout my career attendance has always been a top priority; so when I need time off to care for family it is good to know I can do so with the consent of the leadership team. I feel valued by the students and leadership. I look forward to Intervention observations to improve or enhance the programs used in my role.

Dean April Campbell is one of the best to have as a dean. She is very supportive inside and outside of work as well as being very understanding. She goes the extra mile for her staff and sped students.

My Principal Mrs. Danati is fabulous. She is intentional with staff and I feel appreciated by her. I wish she was my dean too. The Dean is not as helpful and in fact mostly off hands when help is requested. I am usually redirected to someone else if help is requested or to go and look it up my self with NHA help. I am impressed with Mrs. Danati because she holds her staff accountable and has implemented many great changes to the way the school runs, safety procedures, driveline and holding the students to a higher expectation, that we the staff should be following through with.

I'm thankful for how much I've grown professionally over the past two years.  I truly appreciate how Amy H., (manager) Katie C. (Sr. S.S. Curriculum Specialist), and Colby T. (Former S.S. Curriculum Specialist) have poured into me in my tenure at NHA so far.  With that being said, I'm concerned with our team being cut in half due to budget cuts, and employees pursuing other career opportunities.  I believe our current workload is unsustainable, and I would like to see more employees added to the department.

I really enjoy working here at Willow Charter Academy.  I feel that my role is well defined, and I get positive feedback from my dean .

Peak is my second home. I love it here and I never want to leave.  I believe the Principal Gorman is doing an amazing job during a tumultuous period of transition and change.  I feel the same about Dean Angel and Dean Lawton.  I think it’s obvious that we’re experiencing some inevitability challenging times as the result of multiple circumstantial changes, but at its core, Peak, its teachers, staff and administration are all exceptional and wonderful.

I feel over worked and underpaid.

There is very little support this year. Teachers are being asked to single handedly remediate bad behaviors-use of cell phone/air pods, dress code violations, head down/opt out without enough support from admin. There have been times when I have had a situation with a student that needs attention and I'm waiting days for a response from admin. In addition, teachers are being asked to sub and cover classes and are left with no time to use the bathroom, eat lunch, plan for classes, communicate with parents. This is very demoralizing and frustrating. Teachers at Wellspring are asked to do more with less time and support and are not monetarily compensated for their work. This is why so many of the staff left and many more are looking to leave.

I like that I am new and that has never counted against me. I like that I know that if I have a need, my team and leaders will support me to assist in getting it fulfilled. I like the direction the leadership is taking us because it seems to be a really good direction and it also seems sustainable.

My Principal and Deans are the best!

I truly enjoy working alongside families to invest in their lives by teaching children and sharing life experiences. I love the diversity of families and the different cultures at SCA. It's a unique experience and the leadership of the admin team is very special. Truly a family! I enjoy the goal of ONENESS

I truly enjoy my role here and believe I bring significant value to the team. As I consider my future, I’d like to discuss the possibility of increasing my compensation and exploring a transition to a full-time position. I believe this would not only benefit me but also enhance my contributions to the team.

I LOVE the new Team Sellers Dashboard resource! Last year, many of us felt that resources were spread across too many platforms, making them difficult to access. The setup of the dashboard was a great response to the need for accessible resources! I look forward to seeing it more fleshed out. I think adding a "Teacher Expectations" resource for Lesson Plans, SEL/Moral Focus, and Safety could help with getting everyone on the same page.

I love the teachers I work with, we are a strong group of adults who support and work together to make Sky Ranch the best place for families. I love the culture that teachers create for the students!

I appreciate that I am trusted to make decisions about what I am doing. I appreciate that I am not micro managed. I appreciate that it appears my manager and other administrators trust me to do good work.

I have worked in the field of education for 28 years, and I have to say that Pembroke has the best climate and culture that I have ever seen.  I really appreciate my principal and the leadership team and the amount of collegiality that is present here is second to none!

My manager treats everyone with respect and fairness, creating a supportive atmosphere where team members feel valued.  Despite lacking certain management support, my manager finds creative ways to meet team needs and ensure everyone has the resources to succeed.  Manager takes the time to listen to concerns and offers guidance, showing a genuine investment in each team member's success.  Management divides her time in ways I don't know where she finds the time.  Unfortunately, she doesn't have the support she deserves.

There are great things about NHA. I feel that our technology is advancing so that we can be more efficient in doing our jobs. All the new features have increased in the time I have been here. I love that there is room for advancement in the company. I also see the effectiveness in our core values and how we can collaborate with other teams to assist parents in getting their students in a seat and trying to make it as streamlined as possible for them. I feel that PTO is needed to keep a good work-life balance but there could be some improvements in this area as well, especially during the busy season for enrollment.

NHA needs to improve their work life balance. The constant requirement to be "on" is overwhelming.

My manager (Dean Solite) always makes us feel appreciated and is always very supportive of his team. He is a great mentor and goes above and beyond to make sure we all feel a sense of belonging and appreciation. He encourages all of us in and out of the classroom. Overall, I wouldn't trade Dean Solite and the middle school team for anything in the world!

There is very little work-life balance. Policies only apply to some not all. Relationships are strong for those "in" with admin and if you are not "in" you are "out" and held to task when others are not.  Unprofessional talk goes on between and from members of admin. There is very little innovation when it comes to teaching and practices.  Learning specialist', Behavioral positions, Ancillary Staff, EL, etc. (basically anyone not in a classroom teaching fulltime) are afforded great freedom to have "free time" and are held to zero standards and have no accountability to perform. Ancillary staff put on movies regularly.  Learning specialist walk around with earbuds in having phone conversations, and scrolling on their devices in plain sight on the halls.  There are too many persons employed at Inspire that are related by blood and it is a problem when admin makes allowances for relatives in plain sight of other employees that are not allowed the same allowances. Nepotism at its finest.

Students, teachers, and support staff.

NHA could do a better job with professional development, concerning how to use the tools that are available, giving more time off such as a week off for fall break and an entire week off for Thanksgiving. Teachers at Forsyth Academy are only given a 30 break during the day and it usually is not a break because someone else is in the room teaching. There needs to be more Paid Time Off and the salary is low. Teachers need more money but NHA is paying the teachers the least amount when they are the most important staff members in the building. There are no teacher workdays on the calendar. After Regional Professional Development, there should be a teacher workday to implement the tools learned. Teachers are paid to teach core classes and we are required to teach electives. Teachers whom are hired to teach core classes should not be teaching electives. Teachers need a hour and 20 minute planning period rather than a 30 minute planning period. Teachers need time to reflect on the lesson so that they can improve th

I think we are doing better but there's still a lot of room for growth in multiple areas. Sometimes you just feel very unheard

As a teacher, I do not feel any autonomy. There is a huge disconnect in communication between leadership and classroom teachers. Directions are consistently unclear with minimum support provided. . Feedback is consistently given on extreme short notice without enough time to prepare. As a result, I feel that work life balance is not possible to achieve. Directions are given without any input or consideration from the teachers who are actually serving the scholars in front of them. Teachers often leave PD feeling frazzled, stressed and unsure of what to expect in the week ahead.

Over the past three years, BP team Glint surveys have consistently highlighted positive aspects of our work environment, including Co-Workers, Flexibility/Remote Work, and Collaboration. Granted some of these are old comments when remote work was available and there was more flexibility so not sure if they will arise now, but the Co-Workers was by far the highest praise!  The BP/BPC's are great to work with!  I expect that not to change, sucks we have lost many people, but we have a good team with knowledgeable people and fun to be around when we are able.

Louise, Carmen, and Sarah are great leaders. They listen to my questions and concerns and make me feel heard. When they offer suggestions and feedback, they work with me to make sure that what they are suggesting would work in my classroom, not just on paper. I feel confident that they will help me find solutions.

Work place feels unsafe and admin clearly doesn’t care about work life balance.

 I love my coworkers and very much appreciate the love and support they give me. I feel like I belong here. The feedback I receive from my dean feels genuine, like she really wants me to be successful. I also enjoy feeling comfortable enough to give feedback to her. BIIGGGGG shout out to Edga Johnson for keeping our school immaculate, and for making everyone she interacts with feel seen and heard.

It's almost absurd to be able to put so many positive things down about the place I get to work.  Talking about it with my colleagues at a staff outing, we all agreed that we have a unicorn situation.  We have all worked in different places that had really good things going for them, but there was always some major thing that made it a drag.  However, working at South Pointe is like nothing before because every single aspect is incredible.  I know I can count on every single person in the building, no matter the position they serve, to give each other and the students the support needed to be as successful as possible on any single day of the school year (and outside of school too!).  I've never seen or experienced anything like it.  It is truly something you dream of getting to be a part of.  Our conclusion at the outing was that we hope that it's quite some time before we awaken.

The curriculum is to intense for my students. I can see where is program could work but most of our children don't even know their letter. Having them write sentences when they can't even write their doesn't seem fair to the student.

Working for Principal Wilson has been an incredible experience. She is truly the best leader I've ever had! Her guidance and feedback have helped me fully understand my role(s) as an NHA employee, allowing me to grow and excel in my position. The staff I work with directly are amazing as well; they've made me feel genuinely welcome and like a valued member of the Stambaugh family.

The children

I truly like the collaboration and cleanliness of achieve. We have an amazing custodial staff that go above and beyond their job. I love that other teams and willing to collaborate to make each of us successful teachers and help us to have successful students.

I love Dean B (k-1) she is awesome about checking in on her employees and listening to their needs. She’s compassionate and understanding and cares for all of  her employees. I love my coworkers at 4020. We help each other get through the hard days, we love on, support and genuinely care about one another. At 4020 we are a family.   I do feel compensation for hourly employees needs to change. In today’s economy what we get paid doesn’t go very far these days. A substitute teacher makes more than I do and I do twice as much as they do in a day. I really don’t understand how that is fair when I’m a full time employee. I sub in classrooms as well as many more jobs during a normal school day but yet someone who is not employed full time makes more. This to me makes no sense at all. Hourly employees need to be paid for the same holidays that the teachers get as well. If we are full time why do we only  get a few paid holidays?

I appreciate being heard. I appreciate being valued as an educator not just an employee who fills a quota.

NHA has a diversity of students and families from all backgrounds, from non-english speaking to various income levels. I think the Service Center could always do more to reach out and/or reflect our student and family population.

Working at Mill Creek has been an interesting experience. I love working under my supervisor (Ms. Sadowski). I know I can go to her whenever I need help or to feel heard. The communication between staffing can us some improvements.

Holly Park is a great place to work. Our leadership team goes above and beyond to make sure I feel comfortable, and I am able to give my scholars the best every day. Thank you, Holly Park, for believing in me when others count me out. I've fell in love with this company and found my long-term career. I look forward to my growth here at NHA!

My absolute favorite thing is all the K-2 staff and Dean Baracy! There are many struggles but I know I can turn to every single person in our wing for guidance, support, constructive feedback/advice, or even just a hug.

I feel highly valued as a member of the team. I am able to make more money here with NHA than I could doing the same job in the local public school system. I appreciate the administration's willingness to listen to differing opinions on how to best address the needs of our students and parents.

I appreciate the entire South Arbor team.  I look forward to coming into work each day.  I have not had that excitement before in any previous positions I have held.  I feel that NHA is preparing students for the future properly and I am proud to be a part of that.

I think compensation needs to be commiserate to the employees work load. Or bonuses for having extra. For example less planning or lunch then peers, or significantly more students who instructional time and impact.

N/A

The people and students at Alliance make it a great place to work. However, there are many policies and procedures that I do not agree with that I think make my life a lot more difficult and strenuous than it needs to be. If it were not for the people that work here that really care about their job beyond the disagreeable policies and procedures, I would not be able to work here.

This curriculum is excellent, but only works for kids who come in on grade level. Most of our kids are not ready to work at the level the curriculum demands. We need to shore up basic skills, or they won’t have a prayer of success in this well-written, demanding curriculum.

NHA provides me with the tools to be an effective teacher and the people to help me strive for excellence.

Advantage has embraced me and made me feel supported tremendously. The staff is very friendly and helpful. Dean Solite is a wonderful dean, who makes sure that his staff is okay and taken care of. He checks in, greets us, and is just an overall positive person to be around.

My coworkers, licensure advancement and dean support are keeping me at Emerson and NHA.

NHA seems to offer so much and care so much about their employees. I do not feel Phoenix is up to NHA standards. I believe there should be a NHA leader in each of the three buildings at Phoenix to ensure the standards of NHA are upheld

There is next to no work life balance.

The structure is great

Raymont is responsive, direct with her feedback but mindful of her wording, and has great suggestions, which makes me feel supported and empowered to improve in certain key areas. I love the Heggerty and Shared Reading portions of the curriculum; The reading comprehension skills are useful, usually well-defined, and support students' overall success later on. However, Bridges does not dive deep enough into the math concepts, sometimes presenting them significantly more abstractly than what some students need and the required pacing does not allow for students to truly master what they need to master in order to be successful in latter portions of the curriculum. While small-group math story time is important, I think small group time during math should alternate between math stories and deeper exploration of the lesson's concepts. Also, there is no dedicated time within each day to teach science/ss. My "other" is that I like that classroom furniture is provided.

The direct guidance from my supervisors have been exemplary. From day one I have been treated as a member of the team, and guided to ensure that I was comfortable in my role as well as set up for success. This by far has been of the best work environments that I've been a part of.

I find the communication at Vanderbilt to be very helpful; however, some more organization with planning (meetings, scheduling, etc.) would be very helpful as well.

I feel totally supported as a new teacher in this school by many staff members from several departments!!!!!!

Our team is great. They care deeply and work hard.

The school expects way too many hours in the day for the teachers to work. Teachers aren't given time for a break or to use the bathroom.

There is no work-life balance for teachers, especially in the first few years of service.

When starting employment at NHA I immediately felt welcome, and embraced.

I am very happy here, but I would like a serious increase in pay.  I do hold a Masters plus 30 in education .   Thank you    Sincerely  Sharon Coleman

Teamwork, communication and work environment are within EC

would Like to Have 10 Days PTO

At the moment, I have had 0 positive interactions or have any benefits to working here. The pay does not accurately reflect student's needs. Class rooms do not have the space needed for students. We do not have supplies. The building looks like garbage. The staff is inconsistent, and you are not allowed to discipline students when necessary.

It seems as though decision-making, particularly cross-departmentally or at the executive level, takes longer and more effort.

Please provide differentiated learning for teachers at Regional PD days.  New teachers need entirely different things than veteran teachers.  Another option would be to provide a variety of different choices for teachers to choose what interests them.  Right now, every grade band is doing the same thing at the same school.  We differentiate for our students, why not our teachers?  Provide technology trainings for things like AI and Canva.  Make the learning practical.

Getting input from multiple viewpoints and explaining the why would help to get everyone on board when big changes need to be made.

One area of home/life balance that may need some consideration is the extra 2.5 hours school staff has weekly due to dismissal. Admin has a longer day if there are late pick-ups (and there often are). My school is currently brainstorming ideas for this, but if NHA could also put this on its to-do list, it would be appreciated.

Pay teachers at competitive levels to surrounding districts.  We have lost some very good teachers due to poor compensation levels.

I suggest higher compensation to deal with inflation and to save more for retirement.

I would like more clarification from NHA regarding how students can qualify to receive Special Education services that include Resource Room Support.  Qualifications seem to change throughout the years, without information being shared as to why or what the new qualification standard is.  Also, more support for Special Education staff as their caseloads increase would greatly benefit the students.  This could include NHA more actively recruiting Special Education Staff, a quicker willingness to hire Sp. Ed. Paraprofessionals based on caseload #, and even incentivizing current staff to complete a certification in Special education, allowing them to possibly hire in as a part-time Sp. Ed. Teacher as they work on the certification.  This incentivizes people we trust to stay with Vanderbilt in vital teaching roles.  Scheduling of many students in one time-slot, regardless of IEP goals and levels could also be an area to look at, especially in the lower grades.

I think it would be good to have sabbatical opportunities.  Since the Service Center doesn't support positive programming to help get to know our SC collegues and support our school teams in fun and innovate ways, it would be nice to offer sabbaticals so employees could learn and grow outside of the company while at the same time, coaching others in the role of the person having the sabbatical.

Quality computers for teachers, sound system for plays. In gradebook it would be very helpful if 'late work' and 'missing work' could be two separate reports. Also I would like to be able to rename a course in gradebook; example, instead of Science B, Science Smith, etc.

Changes in some curriculum especially the ELA!

leadership needs to be specific in what is expected of us

Local districts are way above NHA's pay scale for experienced teachers.  Many teachers are leaving to pursue work at other schools due strictly to compensation.  This has been an ongoing issue in West Michigan, and changes are not being made.  Retention is a huge issue and needs to be taken seriously, especially when families leave schools when they see veteran teachers leaving and not being taken care of financially.

Ongoing efforts to make sure Excel doesn't lag behind local districts with a big gap in pay for veteran staff.

NHA keeps tightening the "purse strings" adding more to overflowing plates.  The amount of work expected from one person is unattainable if one is to have a work-life balance and do the best job for kids.  Enrollment keeps increasing while adjustments for our budgets keep decreasing. Last minute changes from the Ex team are unrealistic and puts principals in a position that feels unethical to meet the expectations of NHA.  NHA says they want to serve more kids, but NHA keeps underserving them by putting more in a classroom with no extra support.  The amount of work required is not feasible given the 180 calendars.  More work days allowing teachers to plan without going longer in the summer would create balance that would allow teachers to plan more effectively during work hours instead of taking so much home on nights and weekends.  This pace is not sustainable.  Start paying attention to what is going on in your buildings, listening to the people in the trenches, and be more realistic

Teacher and support staff compensation has to improve; otherwise we will continue to lose quality teachers to neighboring school districts where they will be paid more to do less work. At one point, NHA's selling point (to me at least) was that NHA pays less but class sizes are smaller (capped at 24 at that time). This is no longer the case as I have class sizes of 29 and 30 this year.

There is way too much testing going on at our school, especially in the lower elementary. I know that data is something we need to collect, but can it be done a different way or less often. With the amount of testing being done, it leaves less time for direct instruction, puts unnecessary pressure on the kids and teachers, and lastly is not age appropriate.

I wanted and always select compensation, however nothing has ever been changed in this selection.  NHA you are losing so MANY amazing teachers due to the terrible compensation at all NHA schools.   Our curriculum issues could be gone, if NHA would select teachers on the writing team.  Teachers are in the trenches here every day and should be part of the curriculum trial and all of the curriculum testing.  Allow teachers to be the VOICE of what we teachers are doing in the classrooms.  We know our students the best.  We are trained in college to know what is best, so please trust us to make good decissions.

Every year we address the same problem and it  goes nowhere. This is why people feel these surveys don’t change anything. I feel we are top heavy in admin and behavior people.   The paras really need more compensation.

NHA should not have a "one size fits all" curriculum and expectations for teachers.  Schools are different!  The inner city schools and English Language schools are different! There are so many great things about the NHA curriculum BUT it is not appropriate for all students and schools.  Schools need to have more flexibility to meet the needs of their learners.  I have taught in 3 NHA schools in the last 20 years.   What worked at one school does not work at another.

There are so many changes that NHA implements at the school level, it is a wonder if they know how it affects the staff at the school directly.  So many changes and often, leaves one puzzled and many times frustrated.  Working at a busy school is very different than working in an office setting.   The admin at our school is beyond compare.  We are fortunate to have such a great team, not only who work well together, but who has worked together for so many years.  We have a well-oiled machine.

To be quite honest, I'm tired of being told that the remote work policy only includes one day per week and that Friday is a mandatory in-office day.  Why are we re-iterating this with employees that already abide by the rule, but see no change from those that do not?  I realize that there a some positions (although this seems pretty loose) which are approved to be remote - but this is unequally applied across our department.  It creates a divide between the haves and the have nots.

This year, it has felt like there’s increasing tension around our core values. While some level of tension can be healthy, the current push and pull between doing what’s right, making our schools the best choice, and ensuring financial viability has felt more frustrating and unclear than constructive.  Decisions such as reducing starting teacher salaries, delays in decision-making, and sudden navigational changes (retention) have left me genuinely puzzled. I’ve found myself wondering about the direction we’re headed and trying to anticipate what might come next that could significantly impact both myself and our leadership team.  Operating in uncertainty is difficult, and it feels like we’re spending more time in that space than we should have to.  One other piece of feedback is around the registrar role as it has morphed this year. I truly feel for the folks in this role who have been in the game a while. One registrar equated her role to being a "call center" at this point.

There have been numerous BIG shifts at NHA in the recent year.  These shifts have come down without much rationale as to how this connects to our core values and our 'why'.  Due to this, others are left to create their own narrative around the rationale, resulting in a negative sentiment.  NHA needs to do better in crafting the narrative of these big changes and allow others to interact with questions as folk process through the change.  Biggest example is centered around decisions made involving finances.  Without proper processing, folk are believing that NHA is cutting costs to add to their profit.  Maybe not true, but not dispelled, either.

Pay our teachers and deans more.

I have worked at NHA for many years and support my family with my salary and benefits.  The cost of benefits has increased in HUGE percentages (20 to 30%) annually over the last three years; far outpacing my 3%ish salary increase.  This year is the first time I have truly questioned whether or not NHA really cares about their employees and their families.  The evidence suggests we are not "doing the right thing, always" when it comes to our people.  I was only given the opportunity to comment on one area, but must also say that tighter supply reimbursement policies this year (no reimbursement for snacks, candy, prizes, or any books/tools from Amazon) have made it MUCH harder to do my job, which is educate our students.  That policy needs to change.

We have many students who are in need of extra help in certain curriculum areas, but there isn't enough money in the budget to accommodate this.  I don't have a solution of how to improve this, just thinking about the students that could be helped.

I shared this last year, and nothing happened.     Academic Program/Curriculum  HOW TO IMPROVE THIS AREA? **Assign fewer tests (in math especially)  There isn't time to grade the tests and provide actionable feedback before the next quiz/test... and have work/life balance.  Too much time is spend quizzing/testing- time taken away from instruction. **Share the research, help us understand how giving so many tests is "best practice"  **Create the charts and slides for the teachers for Read Aloud and Shared Reading **Provide a variety of ways to teach/learn than the same old charts with the RA or SR.  The kids get very, very bored after awhile. **"Clean up" the RA and SR lessons so they are less confusing

NHA should review the pay received by teachers of the same length of service in surrounding schools. Our pay should be comparable. Local school districts pay teachers with a Masters degree and 25 years experience much more than I make.

Get a different ELA program.

Have sped social work sign out students when they take them from the class. So there is a paper trail to satisfy the IEP goals.

I do not feel that my salary is comparable to other teachers with the same degrees and experience at other schools. I don't worry too much about this, but it's becoming harder now that I have started a family of my own. I really enjoy working at Chandler Woods - I just wish my pay would reflect my experience and education better.

There is some confusion with the role and what responsibilities of the position fall under whom. I am told by one that it is my job, and told by others that is the other persons role

Make our pay comparable to other public schools.

Find a way to pay teachers more.  Teachers should not be at poverty level when considering household annual income for a family.

Provide meaningful PD for Music teachers, especially those who are new or struggling. Maybe tier the PD according to how many years we've been teaching, so we aren't spending all our time helping new teachers and repeating the same content every year.

I see my Dean but never my principal. Our special ed team doesn’t give students the support they need.

Better insurance with better costs.  Insurance costs are far exceeding pay increases.

Our program would benefit from a solid social studies curriculum for grades 3-5.  I'm excited that there is one coming for grades 6-8.

Recognize extended employment histories with additional Service Center PTO. Example: 1 day per 5 years of service past 10 years.

Our school is dirty.  We have to sweep our classroom floors and they are never mopped.  The women's bathroom is horribly dirty and they smell bad.  Floors are sticky and sometimes there are flies flying around the toilets.

Find ways to merge some of these curriculums together so they don't feel like so much and so overwhelming.  There is just not enough time to teach everything required.  The new Science and Social Studies program feels very difficult to understand and even more difficult to teach as a lot of the concepts are not age appropriate.

Rewards for longevity and loyalty over time

The extra work that teachers are required to complete is excessive.

As a veteran teacher of 25 years, I feel like I should be making more money.  I would like to see the pay scale increase specifically for veteran teachers and we should get compensated for our invaluable experience and our LOYALTY to the company.

Consider paying employees for unused PTO at the end of the year.

Compensation needs to be more closely aligned to the salary of district schools, especially over the long-term.  Teachers need to feel valued for working and staying with NHA for many years by receiving a more equitable range of salary increases.  Yearly increases are sometime so minimal, they do not cover the increase costs for benefits or inflation.

Have a pool of substitute teachers, or if none are available in our region, to hire more people to be substitute teachers. We don't use the existing sub system because it is out of Kent County and no one will come to Ottawa county, subs don't sign up for our school through that system. Because we don't have a sub pool, only classroom teachers will get coverage and most of the time we have to pull a support person to be that sub. This disrupts the education of our at risk and ML students. I am on our emergency sub list and I get pulled from my own schedule supporting struggling students. This harms the education and growth of my students, who are with me because they already struggle.

We need all students to have consequences for bad behavior.  It becomes very obvious to "good" students that certain students get favored or no consequences.  This makes for an unsafe feeling.  Some students can make comments that would get other students in big trouble.  The excuse is always, they don't know better.  How will they learn, if we don't teach them what they said or did is wrong?

In order to hire high quality teachers to improve results, we must pay staff more. We have a lot of turn-around due to compensation. The leadership team has to keep training new staff, which effects our students.

As inflation and minimum wage increase, I would like my years of experience and my dedication count for something and be reflected in my paycheck.  We need more than a 1-2% raise.  Newly hired teachers make close to/more than experienced teachers.

NHA should have a model where you are compensated for your years of experience. A significant jump in pay should take place after 5 years of employment, then again at 8 years, etc.  There is currently no monetary incentive to stay with the organization.

None

Salary increase

When you get great reviews but only a 3% raise - it's like getting punched in the gut.  The raise does not even cover the cost of living and if I were to add up the changes in cost of living vs. the raises I have received for the amount of years I have been here - it would be so far behind that I wonder how I made it - good thing my husband works as well.  I do love my job but would like the recognition in the raise to reflect the eval I'm given.

I feel that NHA has changed over the past few years. It is becomming harder and harder to do my job because there are so many initiatives/changes put into place that make my job harder and less productive, but seem to make the company run smoother.  I feel like I have no say in anything anymore.  NHA is looking for cookie cutter schools and so they are taking away all our autonomy to do this.  It really makes me feel like I don't matter.  Our administration used to stand up for us as teachers and that isn't the case anymore.  We are third on the list and NHA and parents are first.  It's difficult to feel like I am an asset to the company when parents and NHA policy are all that is important to the people in charge.  We don't get paid a fair wage.  Great teachers are leaving our school because of this.  I've heard of others that will follow.

Based on my experience (24 years at Cross Creek and 4 years at a different school) and my education (Masters), my compensation is sorely lacking.  As compared to school districts near Cross Creek, I am paid $25,000-$30,000 less than people of equal experience and education.  On top of that slap in the face, NHA seems to regard new teachers as more valuable than veteran teachers who have proven themselves year after year.  It is time.  It is past time for NHA to make a market adjustment to the teacher pay scale.

Provide more inclusion opportunities for remote workers who are left out of large SC meetings that are not live streamed. If the content of a meeting is important enough to gather the SC employees together, it should also be important enough to include employees who work remotely and cannot drive to Grand Rapids for the meeting.

Continue efforts to get service center compensation competitive with other organizations.

Our building has been in disrepair for a number of years.  The roof and the plumbing has been terrible...the day to day maintenance has gotten better.  However, the restrooms for children not good...strong urine smells in the hallways when our new parents are considering our school as a possible placement for their child.  The cleanliness of the building does impact enrollment.  Parents will not bring their children to a school that they consider a dirty school.  Children and team members getting sick from the germs of a dirty building. I have spoken to the manager and he does not really take ownership for the school...he would say that it is an upper management problem.  Meanwhile, the school is literally falling apart...it's an old building that is in desperate need of repair.

I think some of this is already being addressed in next years calendar.  I think maybe increased breakfast coverage like we had last year is helpful.

-When the SC makes decisions that school leaders are required to implement, it is imperative that leaders are consulted to provide feedback and a sense of levity (not just PAG). This will create buy-in and a sense of value as well as ensure that leaders can actually implement the decision/initiative successfully. Partnering with school leaders will ensure an 'on-the-ground' perspective is taken into consideration. -There are several SC departments that are bringing back “world class back-office support”, however, there is room for improvement. 2 years ago, “a day in the life of a principal” was presented at a director’s meeting. With so many new SC employees, this concept needs to happen again. IDEA: SC directors/managers visit schools and DO a ‘day in the life’ (traffic/lunch duty, sight word practice, monitor hallways during passing time, sub for a morning, observe in classrooms problem solve as needed, etc.) -Increased dean compensation and/or a bonus structure is a need.

It is always hard to reach someone at the SC when we call.

Those that have worked for NHA should have more paid time off and flexible work hours starting at 15+ years.

We need leadership starting with a principal and deans that are consistent. We need another dean as well to deal with all the behaviors at Knapp. Our ABSS staff needs to be trained on how to handle behaviors so there is consistency between classroom teachers and them. We need a major breakthrough here and it starts at the top. I also think NHA needs to listen to us when we say we NEED another dean. We are the ones going through the day to day problems, not them. You have teachers who have been in the classroom for a long time and know what it takes. Please listen!

Employees should be compensated better. Especially for the number of years dedicated to Vista. I don't feel benefits are great at all, especially health insurance.

Office Administrator's do not appear to recieve paid time off other than designated holidays. This seems a bit strange to me. I have never understood this. Additionally, I repeatedly say that NHA should not lump all schools together as the same. Speaking from experience, some schools are way busier than others and that is just not taken into account with NHA expectations.  Additionally, if something is working well for a school that is doing well, leave it alone. Focus on the underperforming schools, their needs, changes, etc. I feel the "air" of frustration that abounds from the micromanaging from NHA to ensure that we are doing our jobs. It treats us as though we can't be trusted as professionals. There are some that may need that "thumb", but handle those cases individually. Praise, don't overload with rules and constant reminders to do our jobs.

compensation needs to increase for hourly paid employees

Pay should increase to be reflective of the work not just at or below industry standard.

I recommend having a bank of PTO days/sick/personal days that can roll over or be compensated if not used. I also think teachers and staff should be paid for the extra duties they have (arrival, dismissal, lunch duty). It's the same every year: compensation. Yet nothing is done to retain veteran teachers who are certified. NHA has increased the pay for beginning teachers but soon as they are certified, they move to traditional public schools with shorter days, less work, and less micromanaging. For South Pointe, we need to get back on track. Too many inconsistencies across K-8 with uniforms and  lack of consequences for swearing. Classroom doors are frequently left unlock. Too many changes in middle school.  The dean is not able to focus on the MS wing and it's causing problems. Teachers are not having 03s, meetings getting cancelled, teachers are not informed about things that are happening.  Teachers not being prepared for standardized testing and it's just accepted like that's okay.

With cost cutting strategies we have lost the some of the recognition programs that we had in the past.

What is the strategy for this innovation group? Are they selling a product? I see a lot of things being worked on, but they all seem to be disjointed in their purpose. Do we have a strategy and what is it for this Innovation team?

Different math curriculum. Let our school choose a curriculum that would best meet the students' needs.

I would like to see more after school technology programs implemented for students. Hands on projects that include math, reading, technology, and science. I would like students to apply knowledge learned in upcoming contest when completing projects.

In 2nd grade  Not all scholars need to do the FSA.  It is a waste of teaching time  and paper to ask readers who are at and above the reading level  to read the words on a sheet. These would be the the blues and greens. The encoding part is okay to do with the whole class.

Our veteran teachers need to be compensated at a rate that is equal to our local traditional district. In a teacher shortage most are alt certification which means they need to be taught from the ground up. Holding onto strong teachers to balance the amount of new, unqualified staff is the only way we are going to be able to make it work. Training new staff, that are not teachers by trade, is a HIGE task, especially when that number is more than half of our teachers.  We also need a gym for our scholars and for our school community.

Evaluation bonuses for teachers that show excellence in the classroom.  Dean reviews are based mostly on how the students model things.  Focus on the time, effort, and energy given by the teachers.  Compensate for quality education and time given to the role.   I'd like to share that the admin team has done an outstanding job this year in the area of addressing behaviors.  We have a manager and principal that have listened to our needs and worked with us by instituting the behavioral program with qualified ABSS.  I believe that Tyler and LaShon are building a strong foundation by holding the expectations high for students in the middle school.  Mike and Marsel have been supportive and ensure students are learning while in the Ready to Learn Room.  Strength in numbers, strength in responses, and strength in support for teachers have been a plus.  No matter how hard people try, there will always be a few that don't feel positive about the NSCA experience.  Take notice of the positives!

There is opportunity to streamline our curricular tools to make them more teacher friendly.

As I have said for the past few years, making our pay competitive with our local districts so we can retain great quality teachers we have and stop losing them for districts that pay significantly more than what we do. Especially with the inflation and things costing more and more all the time. Our raises definitely are not keeping up with the cost of living. I know many teacher that have to get 2 or 3 extra jobs to supplement their income just to get by. This extra work leads to burn out and feeling like we can never get ahead.

Benefits keep getting more expensive or if you don’t want to pay more, you have to downgrade your selection, which I had to do this year.   Other than this area, the Service Center seems more and more disconnected to what’s happening at schools or what is needed by schools. Some examples are more and more BP tasks being passed to principals (oracle tasks, etc), more micromanaging than ever before (what we spend grant money on, master scheduling template and new TIS task, etc), and recently determining a certain percentage of students that should be retained (a seemingly random benchmark number regardless of individual student performance). Bottom line is it seems like all levels of the Service Center care less and less about individual students’ well-being and leaders work-life balance than ever. It is not longer “world-class back end support” but rather telling schools how and what to do without the why.

Please make our pay closer to the local public school rate.

Please stop requiring PD at the start of the school year so early and for so long. I don't understand why we have to report 4 days before school starts and we have to sit through hours of meetings. Please allow us time in our classroom to prepare for our students. Why can't some of these required PD hours be implemented throughout the year and offered as potential 1/2 day afternoon PD's instead. Especially for veteran teachers with years of experience.

Local school district, Charlotte Mecklenburg, increased their Paraprofessionals hourly rate to a minimum of $20 an hour with experience paying higher hourly rates. This was passed in Jan, 2025 and was retroactive back to the beginning of the school year.  Queens Grant and Matthews Charter both work in this school district.  I also sent a letter to NHA in Feb, 2025 regarding this subject.  Our neighboring county, UNION, has their Paras on salary for 10 months instead of hourly.  Their pay ends up more with more consistent pay based on salary.  I have worked with NHA for 22 years.  I have been faithful and dedicated to my job and feel I deserve to be paid what the local counties are paying for the same position.

Can NHA staff address this with our school and school staff.

Interventionists need to get paid during the summer and the breaks

I would like for NHA to put an effort into more diverse recruiting and hiring practices. I would also like to see NHA come out strongly in support of DEI - even if you don't want to call it that, it's important with everything that is going on in our country for our teachers and students to know that NHA still supports efforts in these three areas and that they won't be taken away.

The Admissions Rep bonus is contingent on the efforts of the School Office staff, however, they receive the retention bonus no matter what, which is not fair. Especially if the applications and other work by the Registrar does not get completed by the deadlines......count day

I did not mean to press benefits but could not undo the choice or go back.  Sorry about this.  I love my benefits.

Benefits need to be cheaper.  I am tired of getting a raise in the fall then when the new benefits take over in January, I take a pay cut (loss of the raise and then some) because the benefits are more expensive.  A fix to this would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you.

To foster greater organizational effectiveness, I'd like to highlight a few interconnected areas for consideration. A clearer articulation and consistent communication of a long-term strategic vision would provide valuable direction and enable more focused resource allocation. Currently, the breadth of initiatives undertaken can strain our capacity and potentially dilute the quality of execution. Furthermore, establishing stronger linkages between our daily work and the overarching strategy would enhance decision-making processes and streamline workflows. Finally, cultivating a greater sense of trust and empowerment at all levels could unlock further potential and efficiency within our teams.

Can we install better ventilation in the conference rooms?  This has been a problem for years.  If a team of people has their laptops all on, it gets really hot.  Except for some rooms where the person sitting right under the AC vent has to move because it's freezing in that one spot.  But many of the rooms just get really hot.

After having been with NHA and the teaching profession for over 20 years now, I recognize that the issue with compensation is much larger than just the company.  I feel that NHA has gotten better over time about allowing opportunities for extra stipends (i.e. Content Leaders, etc...), but the profession as a whole is seriously underpaid.  I know the magnitude of this issue and understand that what it takes to move in the right direction is quite difficult.

We need a better Phonics program in the lower grades with support staff working (more time) with the lowest students.  This is not possible currently as they are still working with the high students.   We need an actual program t teach reading

Would like to be able to get back to having a PPO. I accidently choose a different plan and have been with this company for over 20 years. It is very unfair to not be able to do this.

Increase teachers' salaries

Our school desperately needs updated heating and cooling as well as an appropriate play space (back field) for older students.  The heating and cooling is a constant battle year-round, and the children have recess in the mud for the majority of the year because the back field is actually a drainage field.  The windows in many classrooms also need to be fixed- many are falling apart.

Allow teachers more flexibility with the curriculum pacing and have less assessments.

Less meetings and half days for Parent Teacher Conferences instead of working all day  and having conferences.

Last year, benefit costs increased at a higher rate than salaries.  Staff who were given a good raise (3%) in the spring had that raise eaten up when the benefit information came out in November. The increase in plan cost along with the higher deductible made for a reduction in take home pay of over 7%.  This means that staff were taking home 4% less in there pay checks after their raise was applied.

Provide resources that allow real extra curricular programs that will keep current students and attract others.  Also provide resources to expand our very basic course offerings.

Allow DSQs to utilize the director PTO plan as stated.

I feel like there's continous scrutiny around schedules with too much focus on how much time is in-person versus how productive an employee or team is. Perks that made the work envrionment enjoyable have slowly dissolved. We are also a very meeting heavy organization, sometimes leaving days where there's no actual work time because too many of us are bouncing from meeting to meeting all day.

the surveys for end of the year recognition are all based on popularity and not what actually happens in the classroom. We do not get into other classrooms so how do we know what the others are doing? If we are going to continue to vote, we need to be able to do peer observations in order to know better who to vote for- or we need more about other teachers brought to us in in an email or meetings or something so that we are better educated in what all is going on in the other rooms.

Facility cleaning

The Regional PDs need to improve.

Give veteran staff a bump to make sure we keep strong educators in every school.

A lot of NHA's problems got worse as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.  I am not sure how I can help solve those problems.

We need a tier 1 phonics program in K-2.  Also the writing curriculum is hard to use and follow despite many years of teaching it.  I also think NHA as a whole needs to utilize the teachers that they have that are having success.   I don't appreciate being micromanaged by people outside of our building who have very little time spent with teachers and students at Timberland.  People want to take ownership of their work, not be told what to say and how to say it.

I feel very fortunate that NHA provides extensively for my professional development.  I provided the feedback earlier about our winter regional but would like to mention again that when new curriculum or programs are coming the following year, the spring regional be used to educate our staff, so they have adequate time to be fully prepared.

The cleaning team can do a better job at consistency in keeping the building clean, stocked and well maintained.  Insects  should be taken care of immediately and done building wide, not just in isolated areas.

It seems that NHA is more and more just worried about the bottom line to the detriment of kids and staff.  While fiscal responsibility is important, it shouldn't be done at the expense of kids.

I love my work on the C&I team and truly value the collaboration we share. Within our team, there’s a strong sense of respect, support, and a growth-minded culture. However, outside our team, it often feels like our work is undervalued. We’re asked to do more with fewer resources and limited time, and the lack of opportunities for team-wide professional development makes it harder to support growth. I’d love to see our team’s contributions more fully recognized and supported across the organization.

Coworkers should work as a team and adhere to changes. things always work out better whenever there is full participation and team effort. We need people who not just single out their assignment but is willing to help wherever help is needed.

Paid time off should increase according to the length of time you've been employed by NHA.

The science assessments need to mirror the OST and need to be in EdCite to allow students opportunity to pracitce answering online questions like the state test.   Science NEEDS to be taught in grades K-4 to allow students to be successful in higher grades.  When they come to us with NO background knowledge (because the K-4 curriculum does not leave time for science) they struggle more than they should.   When CIS or ABBS or Social Workers have lunch bunches or pull out groups, they need to insure that students are returned to the classroom ontime.  If every minute matters, students should not miss 15-20 minutes of class because an adult thinks that "nothing was going on" in the classroom.  There is always learning and work time.

Pairing up teams across the Service Center so they can gather to get to know each other better -would help for this to happen at a smaller scale (in addition to the larger events where everyone is invited) -could be some kind of rotation or seasonal schedule so a team could gather with more than one other team -voluntary basis -ways to connect could include: Mentor Program (especially for new hires on a team), Book Clubs, Service Projects in the community and at schools (restart the Tech Boost program that visits schools), Craft Clubs in the CZ

I have been saying this on recent surveys, but I will lask for it again.  We need our annual raises to cover the annual increases in our insurance.  My family situation has not changed, yet I have less money every year because my insurance increase is greater than my pay increase.  This is hard on my family as well as on other with the inflation of everything else.

Structure is important and needed but we work with people not machines. It's ok to be flexible when needed and not rigid all the time. People feel like they are wearing targets.

I really appreciate that NHA’s commitment to providing healthcare benefits & offering different tier levels. However, I am finding along with the consensus of other employees that the last several years the increases in premiums and deductibles to be substantial.   Considering inflation, cost of living compensation has not been factored into paychecks to help off-set any of the ongoing increases.

The increased cost of our benefits is more than the raises we are given.

NHA needs to pay veteran teachers/admin accordingly. It is not fair a teacher who has been with NHA for 10 years receives only 1,000 more than a teacher who has been with NHA for 5 years. The same goes for admin. It is not fair that new teachers are getting big raises when admin don't receive larger raises, especially since they have a larger workload.

comparable compensation compared to other surrounding public school districts and consistent  and improved communiction between admin and teachers keeping early elementary classes smaller and keeping all competent teachers in their classes to better educate all students hiring more qualified ABSS staff and certified sped. para-pros and regular class para-pros hiring competent and experienced admin staff to support a school with many behaviors

Compensation continues to be an issue here at the SC.  In order to remain competitive and decrease employee turnover, NHA should consider salary increases above the approximate average 3% merit increases.

Veteran teachers need to be paid as they would be paid at surrounding districts. We lose too many talented teachers because they leave for higher salaries that often come with a lighter work load. Paying experienced, long term employees better would encourage them to stay at NHA which would strengthen schools by creating less turnover.

At times, individuals may feel discouraged from sharing their honest perspectives, as their feedback is sometimes met with defensiveness or dismissal. As we have shared, it is important to foster a culture where all feedback is welcomed, respected, and thoughtfully considered. Kierra started this conversation on our team at our last team meeting and this work should continue. Ideas include: revisiting team norms/ social contract, ensuring all members of the team (regardless of role) are accountable for fully participating in every aspect of team meetings from start to finish,  and clearly defining roles such as using RACI when asking for feedback to ensure role clarity.

I hate how things are micromanaged.  We no longer have access to websites that can be used in conjunction/enhance curriculum.  Epic was WAY better than Sora.  It was differentiated and allowed us to create collections for the students to do research.  Students could be taught at their level and encouraged to continue learning on their own. Xtramath is an amazing tool for students to learn math facts on their own.  Being told this is not in line with the NHA math mission is absolute non-sense.  There are also many reading websites that are not blocked.  What's great was we could assign topics that they needed to focus on (something lacking in Lexia).  Read Aloud and Shared Reading lessons are not meeting the needs of students and programs that we used to have like Reading Street (as an ex) were far superior offering hands on practice pages for the students to actually practice the skill.  The lessons provided by NHA only allow students who are auditory/visual learners to truly benefit.

Pay doesn’t match the workload.

More money.

Increase pay

Although I feel heard, I don't feel supported.

I recommend that the paraprofessional get paid for sometime went off during winter and spring break.

The overall direction, leadership, and academic strategy have been in decline for a few years, which I believe directly impacts the culture of an organization. Multiple asks and expectations continuously piled on our school leaders with little to no consideration of their daily life and work experience. Professional development opportunities have shifted from engaging and intentional to disconnected and compliant; what were once exciting, collaborative, team building, "personalized" PD events have become siloed online update-heavy meetings. Events like New Teacher Summit, March Principals' Meeting and Leadership Summit were sacred and part of the NHA culture, taking intentional time to highlight what is important to us, continue our learning and development, and have fun together. As an individual contributor and identified subject matter expert, I feel ignored and unvalued by my leadership team. My opinion does not seem to count, and unfortunately, I doubt any action will be taken.

Would like to see a streamlined curriculum that's easy to follow. One with data that backs up its ability to support students academic growth.

Increased wages.

The salary is not up to par with the area schools in our area.  Work life balance is preached by NHA but more things continue to be put on our plates.  There isn't time to have a life when you have to work all the time.

I think with the way students and families behave we need a security officer assigned to arrivals and dismissals for just in case.  Parents nor students have any boundaries.  I often feel unsafe.

I would recommend that NHA revise the curriculum to allow all academic components to be taught in a timely manner.  For example, I love the moral focus core values, but there isn't enough time to teach it the way that NHA has designed it (videos, activities, readings etc.) AND teach the other components attached to the curriculum in a given time span.  Also, the test schedules need to be revised.  Scholars are tested weekly in math and are expected to regurgitate one skill after another without properly comprehending what they've learned. These scholars are fatigued, but are expected to perform at their "greatest potential".  I believe that better results would be obtained if the curriculum wasn't as stringent and scholars could "breathe" more. Some scholars don't receive the continued academic support at home and this continues to create wider learning gaps for them.  I always tell my students that "learning just begins with me"! However, due to the lack of education and other factors in the home, learning b

The leadership team at the service center is becoming increasingly overbearing and making life more difficult for teachers instead of supporting.  I feel less and less trusted to make decisions myself and more pushed into a one size fits all plan designed by people with very limited classroom experience.   I am EXTREMELY happy with the leadership team and co-workers in my building.  The leadership and micro-managing from the service center would be the one thing that will push me to seek employment elsewhere (in addition to non-competitive pay).

Open enrollment so late in the year sometime brings in behavior problems that we do not know about.

being able to carry over days off from year to year.

encouraging teacher to teacher collaboration-could be common planning time. time to work with each other to share ideas and strategies that are effective. bouncing ideas off each other etc.  The days get so busy teachers have little time to do this.  So if it is intentionally put in place this can encourage that collaboration.

Ones that would go along with going 5’s program more than to sit through PDs that don’t go with our program.

Over the past six months, the team has experienced several major changes, including shifts in leadership, reduced staffing, and limited resources. Despite these challenges, expectations have continued to grow, and the increasing workload is difficult to sustain. There’s a sense that advancement opportunities are not always aligned with performance, and key roles often remain unfilled, impacting overall team capacity and morale. While we’ve worked hard to keep pace, the current workload is unsustainable. A more structured team model—with clearly defined roles and additional layers of support—would help us manage responsibilities more effectively and foster long-term success. Although we’ve made progress in building team cohesiveness, we’re still finding our rhythm. O3s are often focused primarily on tasks, leaving little room for conversations about growth, development, or long-term goals. At times, it feels like the emphasis on processes and outputs comes at the expense of supporting the people doing the work

The rooms are not cleaned daily and when they are cleaned it is not a very good job.  The outside grounds are not kept up at all.

The staff we have just doesn't seem to get much done at night. During the day they seem to be working.

The erosion of trust and lessening of autonomy for employees is very concerning.  The organizational structure seems to have changed, but that hasn't been communicated consistently.  Who has or no longer has the ability to approve what (purchases, staffing changes as examples) is foggy at best and the process is lengthy and frustrating.  I often don't know who to turn to for answers.

I would like to be in the classroom as an Academic Specialist at times to see the students from both angles how do they perform within the regular classroom setting vs the intervention setting.

I feel you would draw the best teachers, if you would match the local district.

Consistent measures implemented.

We have made improvements in focusing on our moral focus values. I would like to see more exposure to our monthly moral focus in other areas of school life than just a morning meeting on Wednesday mornings. Give the students opportunities to identify the moral focus throughout their day and have an opportunity to share it with others. Writing samples on bulletin boards, notes of affirmation to fellow classmates, identifying the moral focus across all subject matters.

I appreciate the curricular resources that have been provided. However, with so many alternatively certified teachers on staff, it would be beneficial to explore ways to simplify the curriculum. The current curricular tools assume a foundational understanding of the art of teaching, which can feel overwhelming for new or less experienced teachers. This steep learning curve is impacting instructional delivery and, ultimately, hindering student achievement. Simplifying the curriculum could help better support teachers and lead to stronger outcomes for students.

NHA needs to provide clear communication regarding pay when additional roles are added onto your current roles. We need better health insurance as well.

It would be helpful if we could promote more direct, transparent communication across the team. Clear expectations around how and when to communicate - especially when addressing concerns or feedback - could help reduce misunderstandings and foster a more collaborative environment.

Please consider developing an unpaid sabbatical program.  If NHA can figure out how to cover duties during FMLA leaves or position vacancies, they can also figure out how to cover duties during a sabbatical.  It would offer NHA another way to capture vacancy savings and retain employees, and it is an additional low-cost benefit to employees.    Consider updates to the 401k program that would allow employees to make after-tax contributions and in-plan conversions.

We have high absence and turnover with teachers. I believe that if teachers could get paid for PTO time at the end of the school year (they did not use) it would be an incentive to improve teacher attendance.

More PTO days for sickness, and brain break.

Aramark staff can do a better job with maintaining the cleanliness of the building over the course of the day.  There is clearly a difference between the a.m. janitor and the p.m. manager in terms of sense of urgency with cleaning tasks around the building.

An extra bonus for teachers with proficiency in both math, ELA and for having all of their students reading in the principal!s reading club, especially Kindergarten.

Trust me to make the right decisions for my students and our situation. Less of a one size fits all approach to education.

Each year I believe that the standard raise for a teacher performing their job should be "the cost of living". We should then receive additional %s based on performance. Without getting at least the cost of living I am actually making less money each year.

As NHA grows, I think there needs to be more conversation about how to hold on to good teachers. How can we break the cycle of great teachers moving to nearby districts for more money and less hours? I'm tired of losing my best co-teachers.

The physical space at Fortis is not adequate to meet the needs of students and staff.  The gym is so small we can't have home games. The field where middle school has recess is a drainage field that is always muddy - making the floors always dirty, has no recess equipment, and isn't used for soccer games (too muddy), so we have no home games here either. It has taken 20 years to get a better parking lot, and while that is awesome, our building still leaves much to be desired.

Any improvement in compensation to close the gap between what we we earn at Endeavor in comparison to what is earned at local school districts would be greatly appreciated.

Too much testing emphasis in the younger grades.

I do not feel that I am fairly compensated given what I could make in other school districts. Raises are minimal. I do not feel that my salary reflects the amount of experience that I have.

Recognize valued employees with longevity with the company monetarily. Adjust raises to reflect inflation and increased out of pocket medical expenses.

Improvements in compensation and benefits.

Increased PTO is not just a perk—it’s an investment in the health, motivation, and performance of a company’s most valuable resource: its people. As an employee of almost 20 years, it is often frustrating to have maxed out my PTO 10 years ago.  Even an extra day per year would go a long way to showing appreciation and rewarding company loyalty!

Our grounds that surround our school look run down and unkept.  Fields are full of dirt and the landscaping looks unkept.

Benefits are very expensive

Have time to work with others to improve my technology skills.

Get a contract with a cleaning company that will provide the resources and personnel to meet the contractual obligations that are currently in place between NHA and the cleaning company. The cleaning expectations look great on paper, but there are not enough qualified personnel or the personnel are not motivated (I am not sure which) that can meet those expectations.

all staff should support one another professionally and all Staff  should be  treated  equally

Our building is in need of some improvements.   Our parking lot is in dire need of resurfacing.  We have had flooding and large pot holes that get filled but it is only a temporary fix. It's been several years since it has been redone. Parents call the office to complain often.  Staff bathrooms could use new toilets and the flooring could be updated throughout the building.  Our site coordinator does an amazing job keeping the building clean but some things are just wearing out.    We really could use either an outside storage space or another option for storage.  Every available space is filled with staff, even 2 of our printer rooms are being used now as meeting spaces.  Some classrooms could use upgrades too since we keep increasing the amount of students in a classroom teachers need to get creative on how to accommodate them.

I am concerned that we are losing teachers because of compensation. There are rumors floating about that brand new teachers have a starting salary that is higher than some of the teachers who have been here for several years. I'm not sure if that is true. Maybe we just need more transparency about how salaries are determined so that we don't lose good teachers. Or maybe the pay structure needs to be changed so that new teachers are not making more money than seasoned teachers.

I know the students misuse the bathrooms, but I also think that the bathrooms are not as clean as they could be.

I feel there is still a lot of work to be done between school operations and finance, finance and our school customers.

This year has been extremely challenging.  I find myself struggling with feeling a sense of belonging at RTCA and on this team which makes me incredibly sad.  I feel like the work that I do is meaningful to me.  However, I often feel like it is never enough for others.  It is to the point where I question if I want to be here anymore.

bring back to pay scale but to include the individuals that have work for the company for many many years.

Meeting students where they are and not hurrying to the next lesson. I feel like students do not always have time to understand the lessons and as staff we do not always have the time to stop and address what they do not understand. We use to have the saying "Meet them where they are." I do not think this is always true anymore. This is not because teachers do not care, I believe it is that time is micromanaged and the ability to stop and reteach at the moment is not available.

Reallocate money, ???, I don't have access to enough information to make a recommendation

lower student-teacher ratios, grade level para for each grade level to utilize for small group/differentiated learning, increased salary to reflect cost of living and inflation increases, etc.

Since there isn't a roll over for PTO it leads to staff saving up their time and then using it all at the end of the year causing there to be many staff out and low support because of coverage.  Many of these staff wouldn't take their time off and would save it if that was a possibility to roll over like many other positions out there.   I have heard other careers that allow time to roll over but staff are required to use up time if they reach a certain amount of days.  Or perhaps get creative and allow a certain percentage of time to roll over to the following year.

Many of the staff/teachers at our school must work 2nd jobs to make ends meet. This 2nd job necessity and lack of income takes away from the personal time most teachers use to recharge after school to mentally and physically prep for the next day. NHA teachers deserve comparable pay to teachers working in regular public schools/non-charter schools.

Concerns: 12 year old carpet in some of the classrooms/offices; lack of proper ventilation in classrooms/offices (classrooms with 30+ students cannot be adequately cooled by portable AC units, air purifiers are supplied but no maintenance schedule; filters on AC units are not regularly serviced); in 400 hallway (oldest part of the building) there is peeling/chipping paint in classrooms); ceiling tiles with water stains are not changed out; custodial staff does not come in until the end of the day (leaves staff to clean up spills/vomit/bathroom messes until service arrives); cleaning service does not regularly wipe down surfaces in classrooms/cafeteria/common areas (should be done daily); additional cleaning service should be scheduled for after sports and weekend activities (often left until after school on Mondays); paper towels/toilet paper/soap dispensers not refilled regularly; cafeteria/bathroom/hall floors need to be mopped daily; gym floor needs routine scheduled cleaning.

Fair pay compared to local districts and aligned with experience.

I feel like nothing is going to be addressed about compensation. However, as a long-time employee, I think NHA needs to do a better job of working to keep seasoned employees. A good way to do that is to provide them with compensation appropriate for the number of years they have been working. It is very disheartening when these new teachers are not making much less than our seasoned employees.  I would also like to address student behavior. I feel like something needs to be done to better address student misbehavior. There has been a shift in our behavior expectations at Cross Creek. We are allowing more misbehavior from our students, and it is having a negative impact on the Cross Creek students and staff. Parents are choosing to send their students to Cross Creek, so we should do a better job of holding these kids to behavior expectations. If they do not meet the behavior expectations, they should not be welcomed back. We are allowing students to behave the way they are.

Have a pay scale and be more competitive with the local districts

PTO and work-life balance are free.  I think it would go a long way to looking into how to improve the alotted PTO days.  I have been a part of NHA for 20 years and my PTO days remain stagnet. Showing appreciation through the use of additional PTO days is a cost effective and meaningful way to appreciate employees for what they do when regular compensation is not always possible.

Less expensive medical insurance coverage.

I really appreciate the strong sense of belonging I feel in my department. We’ve built a collaborative, supportive team that I truly value. My concerns aren’t about our team, but about the overall direction the company is taking.  It feels like we’ve drifted from our core values and are now more driven by financial decisions. I understand staffing challenges are common, but the way that it's been handled has been frustrating.  Our team is carrying more and morehandling tough conversations, school frustrations, parent concerns, and complaints given decisions outside of our department. This pressure has created significant burn out. The fulfillment I once found in my work has been difficult to reconnect with, and I haven’t had the capacity to focus on the parts of my role that used to bring me the most satisfaction.

Honestly, this is a hard one to address because being in education, there are always too many tasks to complete.  Therefore, I put this area because I do appreciate our leadership team is always trying to find ways to keep our work-life balance in check and I would like them to continue to keep this important.

Salaries being comparable to other area schools!!

Providing compensation relative to peoples experience and work performance instead of overpaying underqualified staff and underpaying overqualified staff.

We are in desperate need of wireless connections to the projectors.  Something akin to a screenbeam mini (unfortunately out of production).

Be competitive with those in other districts to acquire & retain teachers, & staff.

For the salaries of dedicated veteran teachers to be so comparable to those of new teachers, some who are not even certified, is atrocious. Additionally the discrepancy between our salaries and those of equivalent positions at neighboring districts is truly demoralizing. That combined with the uniquely extreme demands on teachers from NHA, and the inconsistent support from leadership, contributes to high rates of teacher turnover. Turnover damages every aspect of the school- student performance, family retention/ enrollment, teacher retention, staff morale. NHA is wealthy company. For the staff at the corporate office to be making so much more than the people putting in the work with kids represents the true value that NHA puts on teachers.

Our benefits are great! Paid or affordable health care for retirees

Allow building leadership to have more creativity and decision-making in intervention, curriculum and teaching and learning decisions. Each year, the company continues to grow into a top down or one size fits all leadership model. Listen to the people on the ground. Seek to understand before making sweeping decisions. Different communities have different challenges and different needs.

There are many things I enjoy about working at Laurus, but the one thing that makes it difficult for me to sometimes do my best as an educator is the extreme heat in some of the different classrooms. Our HVAC system is in long need of replacement.  Some rooms are blessed with air when they need it but many rooms are often extremely hot. No exaggeration. Learning/teaching is a struggle in a hot room.  Every year, I see the HVAC guys come and do some repairs/work, but the problem persists. The students get tired, cranky (me too) and often complain of headaches when it gets warm in the rooms. It's difficult to breath, focus, or to be engaged when you're hot. We try to use fans, but they are loud and don't remove the heat/humidity. In the winter, you have teachers with extremely cold rooms, but similar effects on teaching/learning. Thank you for your consideration in looking into this issue.

The cost of benefits decreased with increased compensation rates for all staff members, not just newer teachers, but also school administrators and teachers who have been with us a long time.

More communication is needed and compensation is another one that has not happened

I would like to see the dean and principal salaries reconsidered for increases. The entire time I have been with NHA, we have not seen a cost of living increase or market increase outside of the regular performance based increase. I feel that NHA has done a lot to bring up teacher salaries and such over the years but I do not feel like dean and principal salaries have been considered for that in the same way.

Mandatory two-week planning time before the start of school should not be applied equally to all teachers/staff members, Instead it should be flexible and based on a staff member's experience and years of service.  Veteran teachers often have established routines, resources and strategies that reduce the need for extended planning, while new teachers may benefit more form the full two weeks.

For those that have longevity with the company to receive the bumps when new staff hires salaries are updated. Opportunities to earn more money when working consistently over the hours assigned each week by the use of stipends.

I would like to have a better understanding of the vision for NHA as we continue to grow. What are our goals as a company.

Continue to look for ways to incentivize employees. Continue to give market based raises.

Higher salary.

A new curriculum in novice classrooms.. Bring back Open Court! Students are not reading or learning phonics through the current reading program.

This year especially it is disappointing to see the decline of cleanliness of the building.  Despite providing feedback to the site supervisor and their direct supervisor very little was done for improvement.  After contacting NHA, they helped address the concerns.  However, there were still many areas that are a concern.  staff is very frustrated.   Dust is in a lot of areas that should be cleaned.  There seems to be wasted time by the cleaning crew after the end of the school day. The Oracle experience has been very concerning because of the negative impact on staff pay.  We had a couple of staff members that pay was delayed several weeks after Kinder Camp in August.  The result was nothing on our end but issues with Oracle on the service center side with incomplete information.  We also issues with reimbursement.  One staff member took two months to finally get their reimbursement.  The issue was with the input side of Oracle at the service center side.

I've been here almost 20 years and my pay doesn't reflect that I have 25 years of experience with a Masters Degree.  I only make $6k more than the newest teachers.  I've begun looking for other positions that will pay its veteran teachers what they are worth.  I'm regretting not leaving NHA years ago.

Compensation:  Compensate positions competitively with the local traditional public school system.  Building/School Grounds:   We desperately need a need resurface of our parking lot.  We have been here since 2009.  Besides being dangerous to drive over when trying to miss the huge potholes, we are putting unnecessary wear & tear on our vehicles. There are at least 3 "islands" of mulch that serve no purpose other than taking up at least 18 parking spots; they need to be demolished and made into parking spots to accommodate our staff and parents. Our flooring in our parent room and art room need to be replaced. We could use additional storage for our folding chairs which currently are being stored in our gym.  All of these improvements are necessary to ensure our NHA school is presented positively to our parents, staff and the general public.  Please consider addressing these items.

There are some roles that do not get supported well or recognized with financial compensations

I have been teaching for 15-20 years. I think to show appreciation for those teachers that have been with NHA for so long, that they should get a bigger raise each year.

Communication has increased, but there are still areas to improve upon.

There needs to be some incentive for staff members to maintain better attendance.  In the past, staff members were allotted a certain number of personal days (3).  Any that were unused at the end of the year were reimbursed to the staff member.  This system would incentivize staff members to be faithful in attendance.  The outside of the building-landscaping and entrances-need attention.  There is garbage and yard waste that is not tended to on a regular basis.   This survey is a nice chance to give feedback.  However, I wonder at the integrity of it if our leadership team is telling us that "agree" is looked upon as "neutral" to NHA. To be a valid and helpful survey that helps us grow as a school, staff members should be free to give ratings they are comfortable with and not be pressured to check the highest ratings ("strongly agree").  We all grow from accurate and honest feedback.  Perhaps another type of survey should be considered if honest, valid feedback is requested.

Have you thought about offering health care for the same price as employees pay, to those who retire early?  It would be offered from the point of retirement until medicare kicks in, that the retired employee and spouse could stay on benefits, say if they had 10 or 12 years or more years in working  at/NHA?

Find a way for parity with Public schools

The pay should match county schools or if you want quality teachers pay them more than the county schools.

NA

Mandatory Open House for returning students and new enrollees covering schools policies. SUPPORT from Administration and teachers to enforce with consistency policies throughout the school year. Hold parents and students accountable for behavior problems. New Deans K-2, 3-5, 4-6, 7-8. Deans should be rotated familiar with all grade levels. HIRE effective teachers that have strong knowledge of subject matter, excellent at classroom management. PTO Days should be allowed to carryover into following school year. Lack of trust mainly due to non-communication through out building. My manager(Sherry Mikell )inspires, supports, effective with communication, provides constructive feedback)and encourages professional development. PARENTS and STUDENTS do not run our school. If we work together as a team we can become one of the top schools and the best choice with our parents. Alliance lets do it for 2025-2026.

I would recommend that the school calendar line up with neighborhood school districts.

Way too much to discuss here and I need my job . I do not trust that any of this is exactly "confidential

compensation/salary

As an intervention para, we are working hard with students all day and I do not feel that the hourly rate is enough compared to other local schools for the same position.

The wage increases by year make it difficult to stay here. I know that if I left, I could make more with a different company because the 3%-4% is not enough to get me caught up after so many years.

Make wages competitive with surrounding districts but not just for new hires. We lose quality, experienced teachers because they can make a higher salary in traditional public schools. There has got to be a way to pay teachers more so they want to stay at NHA.

Health insurance change is costing my family much more for our medications.  No NYS retirement system, which many local charters take part in.

I am writing to you as a proud member of the Paramount Charter Academy staff — someone who shows up every day committed to my students, my colleagues, and our school community. I believe in the mission of this school and the potential of every child who walks through our doors. However, I also believe it’s time to be honest about the challenges we face when it comes to compensating and supporting the people who make that mission possible.  Right now, National Heritage Academies is behind when it comes to fair, competitive, and progressive compensation for its staff. In an economy where the cost of living continues to rise and other school systems and industries are offering salaries and benefits that meet the realities of today’s world, we are being left behind. The work we do is difficult, emotionally demanding, and essential — and our compensation should reflect that.  If something doesn’t change, I know we’ll continue to lose talented, passionate educators year after year. High turnover affects every aspec

Social workers in general are underpaid compared to others. How speech pathologists continue to make more that Social Workers is a mystery to me.  Both Master's Degrees. The significant turnover in SW'ers is by and large a direct result of this discrepancy. It's really hard to get conistency in buildings with social/emotional/behavioral treatment as it stands now.  Social Workers can make (on average) 20 to 30K per year more in a public school.

Currently this year I am working with an extremely high number of students, most of those students are high needs, and NHA has done nothing to rectify this situation. My immediate school team has done what they can, but when going higher things take forever to be processed. I know that this is a for profit school, but the mental health and work load of staff should seriously be in top concern.

I say this every single year I do this survery. It is very disheartening to be underpaid in this role. Subs are making more than I do and I have more responsibilities. Is it being encouraged to quit and be a sub because I am underpaid. The raises feel like a slap in the face. 3 to 8 cents. Really?! That makes me feel unseen and uncared for.

I have a great boss!!  I appreciate the resources and support.  I love making a difference and showing the world how smart my students are.    Feedback  More accountability for Aramark  Staff changes caused some change management challenges - contracted staff received notification of termination at school before Principal knew    Call me for anymore feedback- Simmons

Making sure that the pacing and YLP ensures we are able to address and review standards before the M-Step

At our recent all SC meeting, I found myself wondering if everyone in the room truly understood two things:   1. Being an NHA teacher, dean and principal is a very challenging job. 2. We serve predominantly low-income minority families.  Like several of my Board Relations colleagues, I've worked in our schools, and I have the benefit of experience to inform my job. We are all here in Grand Rapids in service to the people in our schools. That's the job above all else and I think that my department exemplifies this. I wonder if that's the case with every department or the culture of the Service Center as a whole.

Ensure that compensation is comparable to the local district especially for the afterschool tutoring rate also including the leadership team in the per session opportunity.

GLP1 coverage stopped mid-treatment. I now have to pay out of pocket.

Pay veteran teachers and deans more.

Not sure

My salary as a Principal is not competitive and doesn't accurately reflect my years of experience and all that I do for my school.  It makes me feel unappreciated and taken for granted.

 Increase salary; lower benefit costs

Our school's enrollment is so high, which is good, but so many of my classes are over 29 students and I'm not sure if my compensation reflects the extra amount of effort it takes to educate more students. A class of 32 students vs 29 requires 10% more time for assessment, making seat charts, etc. and puts additional stress on the supply budget that's already hammered by inflation.   Also, my hands are tied with 32 kindergarten students and no para in specials - there's only so much one person can really do with them while managing their developmental and behavior needs.

First of all, I'd like  to say that I wanted to choose compensation, but we all know that after years of communicating the need for better pay, it falls on deaf ears.  So, I choose something else that maybe NHA will listen to.  I believe that communication is happening very poorly from NHA. Because we have gotten so big, there are so many chiefs. No one knows who is supposed to send out communicaiton to staff, so often things just don't get communicated at all.  It would be nice to get a quarterly communication about new things such as pd changes, curricular supports, assessment/interim changes, new policies, etc.  I also find that with special education, there is not enough communication/support for some of our higher needs students.  We have kids that don't get supports early enough because we are held back from giving it for so long because the special ed coordinators have too much to coordinate and can't keep up with communicating about specific student needs.

Leadership at the school level needs to be stronger, more experienced, and more accountable. Leaders, including DSQs, should better understand instruction, communicate consistently and transparently, and foster a culture of trust and follow-through. Staff deserve leadership that listens, acts, and makes informed decisions based on real conditions at Knapp, not the standard 'this is the NHA way'. For leaders at Knapp, focused professional development in instructional leadership, communication, and emotional intelligence is critical for the leadership team to more effectively support staff and students. Also, competitive compensation must also be prioritized (and I don't mean a retention bonus). To retain experienced, capable staff, especially given current student behavior challenges at Knapp, NHA must offer salaries that match skill and experience, not just attract beginners. We need to keep strong people, not just cycle through new ones.

I am making tens of thousands of dollars less each year than other teachers in neighboring school districts.

Better explanations where possible and getting the information out quicker instead of waiting for certain meetings that can end up being canceled. I'd rather have you record it and send it out or type it up in an email.

Compensation and benefits are much lower at NHA than area schools. We have less PTO (that doesn't carry over if unused), lower salaries for the years put in, higher health care costs. The only way to make a comparable salary is to tutor and work summer school, and that still isn't enough. Teachers shouldn't need to take a second job to afford basic needs. The summer is time to rejuvenate and prepare for the upcoming school year, not work to make ends meet. Please take care of your teachers, so they don't have to look elsewhere to make a living. If you ever wonder why you lose so many teachers, it is because we work harder and get paid less. We are a top school. I wish we were paid like it.

Bonuses based on results and longevity.  (Results are based on student scores AND teacher ratings.  Student scores do not always show how a teacher has positively affected a student)

give a higher percentage wage increase for dedication and years worked

In my opinion, the restrooms can and should be clean  throughout the course of the day. There should be check-in times for that to be done.

Higher pay.  The cost of living has gone up so much but our pay has not gone up enough to balance/reflect.     Honesty/Transparency:  Also, summer school pay was supposed to be at a higher rate.  It was approved in the grant budget completed by our principal, and then the NHA Service Center went back (overrid what the original amount was), and changed our pay (less).  In my opinion, that was completely unethical, and I feel very uncomfortable about the entire situation.  It doesn't make sense where did that money move to or go?

NA

Please give raises. Everything is more expensive now and pay has not increaded to compete with this

Work to increase dean salary. Could we do a bonus structure for deans? Work to increase salary for our teachers who have been with us for multiple years.

We should be using accredited curriculum.

I believe that teachers that have worked at NHA for a long period of time and have excellent observations should be given a large raise (6-10%) to compensate for the increase in rate of new hires that have been given. This would accommodate for the amount of support that NHA desires for the experienced teachers in supporting so many newer teachers. It also would lessen that gap between what NHA pays to what a public school teachers is given for the same amount of years worked. I have a friend that left NHA and was offered $20,000 more with all of her experience years given to her in the transition. Compensation is the one reason that keeps me open to leaving NHA.

We need a different dental carrier. Delta dental is not accepted at a lot of dentists and/or they won't pay the full amount of a cleaning.

NHA's accountability in task completion. There are a few tasks of great importance that need to be completed in a timely manner. Often the completion of these tasks is rewarded by listing schools that have completed them ahead of schedule. With fear of sounding like sour grapes, and as one that typically completes these tasks on time and usually not early, listing the schools completed early puts undue pressure on a very demanding workload. Instead of being a positive motivator it can be a bit demeaning. A reminder to complete the task and then a celebratory completion email when the window closes would be more effective for morale building.

Please consider having less staff treats and parties, encourage better stewardship of items (like paper) so greater compensation is available

First it would be nice for the feedback that you receive to actually be listened to and taken more seriously.  This is for the higher ups at NHA.  Our benefits are not good at all.  The dental insurance barely lets us see any dentists and the health insurance continues to rise but doesn't cover any more.  I am paying almost $1000 a month in insurance which is ridiculous.  The employees need more say in the insurance programs offered.  On the plus side I do like our vision insurance.

Treating everyone fairly and not having different expectations for different employees.

Provide Professional Developments that are more aligned in the area of special education and how to improve with IEP writing, progress monitoring, writing progress reports, etc. Also, PD's during the year to improve as a Dean and not just things at leadership summit.

The accountability to balance life decisions and behaviors, helping us aspire to be our best selves.

Pay is always one of the topics of conversation. It is important to pay teachers, administrators at a competitive rate as public districts. I think NHA does a nice job bringing in new teachers, but longevity and dedication to NHA employees does not seem to be rewarded. In order to continue to keep schools functioning in a high performance we need to retain teachers and admin with experience.

I feel that there should be sick time offered over PTO.

I think many of our students are academically already behind, and the curriculum is too advanced. We need to make sure that our students have a strong foundation before trying to build onto that.

n/a

Improving Professionalism at Noth Dayton  At NDSD there is a clear need to improve professionalism throughout the school.  The conduct exhibited in various areas of the building does not consistently promote a culture of respect and accountability, which can contribute to a more negative and unproductive work environment. To foster a more professional and positive atmosphere, staff should be held accountable in the following key areas: Punctuality and Reliabilitythere is a clear need to improve professionalism throughout the school. The conduct exhibited  Arrive on time. Being punctual shows respect for colleagues and a commitment to shared responsibilities. Effective Communication Communicate respectfully. Use polite, professional language in all verbal and written interactions. Attitude and Behavior Maintain a positive and respectful attitude. A constructive mindset contributes to better morale and a more collaborative work culture. Dress Code and Appearance Dress appropriately for the workplace. Profession

New computers that really work.

Science curriculum needs to be more clear with hands on experiences rather than the books provided. Writing/ Grammar is paper heavy, students are tired of RACE writing. I’d like to see students enjoy writing creatively without having to follow the RACE repetitively.

I strongly believe the "Other" area of concern will be addressed appropriately after it is brought to the attention of our Leadership. If not, I will respond in detail if given another opportunity

I have no specific ideas in how compensation can be improved within NHA, but I do know that AMAZING teachers are being lost because they are not being compensated. NHA is a starter school for teachers, but it isn't built for longevity because of the lack of pay compared to districts around us. I am watching amazing co-workers leave and consider leaving because of this one area in particular and it makes me sad for our school and students who are going to be missing out on these amazing educators.

When changes are made that directly affect teachers and their students, whenever possible, it would be nice if teachers had more input in these changes.

I feel that we are understaffed. We could use a couple more dedicated workers,

Our pay raises need to at least match cost of living increases. Snow days need to be paid to hourly employees. NHA still collects funding for those days and hourly staff were budgeted to work those days. Hourly staff have no control of those days and should not be forced to use PTO for these days. The purpose of PTO is for sick time and for appointments, etc.

10 PTO Days for everyone with the opportunity to earn more

Work-life balance is a personal choice and it can be a difficult choice with the workload. That workload is only increased when people leave and positions aren't filled and or are absorbed into existing positions.

Please return to teaching kindergarteners basic skills and stop trying to introduce so many other skills that are beyond their heads.

I woul like to see a higher earning maybe for employees that have been with Burton Glen for 10 years or more.  Instead of having new comers come in and start of like few dallors less than the old timers that have put in time and dedication with out quitting and coming back employees that had accomplished and achieved awards as well as taking on more roles as an eduactor. These employees provide growth, work hard, and are loyal to their job I do think that would be nice.

I have wrote about this on every survey & I just don’t think anything will be done to improve compensation

As I've always said in all my previous surveys, NHA needs to do more to match local public schools pay and to match the economy.

It would be really nice to get schools on Slack since there are too many forms of communication to keep track of at times and I love the channels we can create

Salary should be equitable, based on experience, credentials, education, job performance, and number of years with NHA.

Most of don't need theory. We know how to teach. The NHA created PD days are below what we need and we don't like the role playing we are "forced" to do during PD.   Instead, let us share best practices, ideas, and strategies. Let us ask questions and then get other teachers ideas.  I am in a few country-wide facebook groups where teachers do just this. I feel like I get more PD from those groups.   I envision this: give us some topics and we will come prepared with our ideas of how we do things in our rooms. Then give us time to ask questions and anyone who has good ideas on those topics can jump in.

Additional time off during summer based on the number of years of service.

While financial responsibility is important, budget constraints should not prevent backfilling open roles or hiring staff to manage growing workloads. The “do more with less” approach is unsustainable and is already affecting morale, productivity, and leading to burnout. There’s a fine line between offering growth opportunities and overloading individuals due to insufficient staffing or a reluctance to promote. What’s framed as development can feel like being taken advantage of when proper support and resources are lacking. Retaining strong employees is more cost-effective than managing turnover, onboarding, and the loss of institutional knowledge. Clearer, more accessible paths to internal advancement would benefit both staff and the organization. Yet, even when employees meet advancement criteria, the target often shifts. It’s disheartening to see other teams expand and promote from within while ours continues to be overlooked. Although management’s follow-up on past Glint surveys has improved, a sense of d

I do not feel a sense of belonging at the service center nor a sense of belonging with my department.  Travel policy restricts my ability to be included in any service center celebration.  When I do work at the service center, there is not adequate work space, like a desk or chair, that will afford me to work at the service center.  Our SE team in person meetings have been reduced- and there isn't any clear indication that we will ever meet again in person.  This impacts my growth and development as a professional, this impacts me from feeling like I belong and I can see a negative impact on our team's culture because of travel restrictions and focus on making money.  This makes me feel that NHA does not care about my well being nor developing me as professional- the only concern is not spending money, not employee well being

A policy needs to be implemented to support staff who do not use all of their PTO as well as compensate staff who must cover classes for teaches due to the sub shortage. If teachers were paid a stipend for unused PTO, there may be less need for substitutes.  Additionally, a stipend should be provided for staff who are pulled from their assigned duties to sub. NHA is saving a lot of money by using staff to sub and these funds could (and should) be passed on to those who are taking on additional duties by subbing. Finally, NHA should do more to support schools in building a greater pool of subs to call upon.

New Curriculum books-more autonomy

The volume of tasks and initiatives being delegated to us particularly with the number of inexperienced teachers we are supporting has been overwhelming. At times, it feels like we are being asked to implement and resolve complex issues without sufficient clarity, resources, or guidance. Expectations are often unclear, and it feels as though the target is constantly moving. One recent example is the change to the retention policy, which was introduced in the last week of April with new guidelines. This last-minute shift places an unfair burden on principals who are already managing numerous responsibilities. It’s difficult to lead effectively when policies are changed without adequate time to plan and communicate with our teams. Additionally, it can be discouraging to see the same schools repeatedly recognized, while others aren't. The best trainings this year were sessions where we could actually work on plans or things we wanted to get done in our building and then get feedback.

We have not had consisitent 03's or team meetings since November.  There were very little observations done, and after feedback was given, the implementation was not followed up on or discussed.  Next year more support and more of a presence from our Dean would improve the area I identified.

The culture and communication at Laurus need significant improvement. As a teacher, consistent and constructive feedback through regular classroom observations and team meetings is essential for growth. Unfortunately, the inconsistency of these practices makes it difficult to clearly identify areas for development. While teachers often receive criticism, they are rarely provided with the guidance or support needed to make meaningful improvements. This creates a discouraging environment rather than one that fosters professional growth. To better support teachers and strengthen the community, Laurus must prioritize clearer communication, consistent feedback, and actionable professional development.

The most updated version of Bridges Math would be the first step.  Ask teachers for their opinion about curriculum.

Allow schools to make decisions and/or have input on things that direct effect their staff and students. Many times, decisions are made unilaterally and without truly looking at individual schools. It makes us feel like we are not trusted or considered capable of making decisions.

The rise in benefit cost takes my entire raise and then some.  Our benefits continue to decrease while the rate continues to increase.  The raises are not covering the basic living increase along with the increase of benefits.

Building needs a lot of attention, and has become uninviting. Parking has lot of big potholes, gardens are full of weeds, dirty and stained carpet everywhere, smelly bathrooms, dirty tile floors, and lots of clutter even in the parent room. The building needs many improvements.

Don't do so much testing, especially on Edcite.

There needs to be a market adjustment. Our pay is $20,000-$30,000 less than other schools in the area. If NHA hopes to keep its highly qualified, veteran teachers they need to have competitive pay.

Another year, and NHA has not directly addressed salary increases for veteran teachers. Also, the CEO's summary of survey data never mentions compensation. It is always glossed over. I would like NHA to address salaries directly. Public districts snatch up NHA teachers when they can, because we are well-tested, and well-trained. If you pay teachers better across the board, we'd be more willing to stay.

we need better resources and tools for our struggling students

I understand that rigor is important, but we are giving kids a chance to experience their learning. They're being rushed through at all times and while reteaching in small group helps the sense of urgency is getting to be too much. Kids are acting out and falling behind on life skills like how to hold and cut using scissors. I recommend taking some of the weight off reading comprehension in kinder and allow them to spend more time on foundational reading skills (phonological awareness and phonics). The teachers can still model skills during read aloud, but not assess comprehension skill until first grade.

Allow for more roll over PTO days each year and accural of additional PTO for dedicated and loyal employees.   For example, someone who has been working at NHA for 10 years can get an additional 2 days of PTO a year and then at 15 years it's another 3 and at 20 years it's an additional 5 days and so on...  This not only encourages employees to remain at NHA (reducing attrition) but also shows that NHA cares about employees and wants them to have a healthy work-life balance.

I think compensation should be commensurate with the educational degree and experience.

Parts of the curriculum feel like “one size fits all.” There needs to be more differentiation for students who struggle with grade-level content.

Finding new ways to utilize staff that are gifted in specific areas to benefit student growth and keep amazing educators at NHA. Thinking outside the box to equip and educate staff (training from highly qualified staff on topics that are currently affecting education, more time spent coaching teachers with new strategies for behavior and academics, etc).

Communicating changes throughout the day in real time could be better.

I have spoken with my manager. I need compensation to fairly reflect the quality of my work and years of experience. I am hopeful that change occurs, but I am at the "seeing is believing" stage.

Professional development could be more hands on, working with resources we use and team building within our own school. Going and sitting to people read off a PowerPoint feels useless.

1. Compensation needs to be addressed immediately for veteran teachers. As a high-performing school and an excellent teacher, I am currently being paid as a new teacher in comparable local districts.  If we are expected and encouraged to perform at our best and at high standards, my compensation MUST reflect this.  2. Student behaviors MUST be addressed. Students are not being held accountable for their negative impact on other student's learning and unsafe conditions. This is especially true for students who have a SPED diagnosis. Not holding student's accountable for their actions creates an unsafe working environment and impacts the learning of the rest of the class.  3. As a veteran teacher, I would love to have the opportunity to grow from where I am now, as opposed to receiving the same PD as a beginning teacher.  4. I have not felt valued and appreciated for what I contribute to Cross Creek, and there is not much opportunity for positive recognition.

I really enjoy working here at Warrendale Academy . Dr. Glass speaks to you with utmost class.  The deans are wonderful. Dean Smith is a dean with known comparison. I am grateful and fortunate to have her as my leader. I am only human and I have personal issues . The personal issues that I have is received with kindness, support, and affection. I have learned so much under her leadership. I really appreciate all that she does for me and the team.  Dean Smith you are one of a kind.

 I am paying over $1,000 a month in benefits.  but I really enjoy the job.

We need more help with keeping the building clean and well maintained. When I go to other NHA schools around us they look so much cleaner and well maintained. Their student bathrooms have several soap dispensers as well as paper towel dispensers. We don't even have soap dispensers that work sometimes.  They have very nice grounds as well. They have nice fencing and signage around playground areas and cameras to ensure safety of their students while on the playground. We do not have these basic things that should definitely be in place at our school. I feel like we are forgot about or do not matter to Michigan. This makes me very sad and frustrated. Please don't forget about our school.

Our staff is under paid for what they do. We continually lose fantastic staff to public schools that pay much more.

PaperCut has greatly added to the time it takes me to prepare for the students.  The fact that I can't print anything from my computer until I'm at the printer/copier means that then I have to stand there watching it all print out.  I used to be able to to go to the printer/copier and just pick it.  There are several other details that cause copying to take longer because of PaperCut, but I won't go into all those details here. I want to use Interims as a learning tool for the students.  I want to be able to go over Interim questions after my students have taken it because I think that is the most effective way for students to learn from them.  Unfortunately, it has become very difficult to do that since the teachers can't see the questions in an easy way.  In order for me to go over questions with the students is now very time consuming for me ahead of time and almost seems not worth it, which is unfortunate because I don't ever want to give an assessment and not give feedback on it.

I feel as though NHA needs to take a look at compensation and how to keep long standing teachers from going to neighboring districts.

Please hire more cleaning staff. its too much for just three or four people.

n/a

Compensation: Experienced, certified, and highly effective teachers are the backbone of a strong education system. Their expertise, dedication, and proven impact on student success deserve to be recognized with competitive, higher salaries. Investing in these professionals is an investment in our children's future.   Building Needs: Our school truly needs a gym to support students' physical health, well-being, and overall development. A dedicated space for movement, sports, and physical education is essential for fostering healthy habits and a strong school community.   Training Needs: Professional development is essential for instructional coaches because it keeps them current with best practices, deepens their expertise, and strengthens their ability to support teachers effectively. Continuous learning ensures they can lead with insight, relevance, and impact. It would be nice to see some sessions for the IC at regionals.

Higher pay for teachers, especially those with more experience/education. Raises each year that match or exceed the rate of inflation and salary/ hour rates that match those of surrounding or comparable districts

Sometimes the right thing isn’t the most beneficial to the company but it will always be the right thing to do, always.

N/a

None.  The purpose of the service center is to be avalable to support our schools, transactions, and emergency issues at all times, and that often requires working during non-working hours.

I am increasingly disappointed with the lack of consistency and fairness in the company's compensation practices. Despite strong performance and dedication, compensation adjustments often seem arbitrary, lacking transparency and alignment with contributions or market standards. This inconsistency not only impacts morale but also undermines trust and loyalty. I urge leadership to prioritize equity and clarity in compensation decisions to retain and motivate employees. Another concern is the overall student experience is often overshadowed by the extreme behavioral issues of a small group. The majority of students, who come to school ready to learn, frequently have their learning disrupted and their needs deprioritized. This imbalance affects student outcomes and staff morale and the broader school climate. More effective strategies and support systems to address chronic behavior issues are needed to ensure the larger student body feels safe and able to achieve their fullest potential.

I feel that there should be something in place finacially speaking to help keep our veteran teachers.

I understand that navigating the path with students that push against rules and  structure can be difficult. I perceive that my manager struggles to take a strong stand with a student that is disruptive in class. There seems to be a lack of  understanding that upfront strength often leads to a student recognizing the need to uphold the rules that are in place.  It truly is about relationships, but not at the expense of consistency and consequences.

Making the Office Assistant full-time employee

I would like to see a different writing program, and the opportunity to really explore a text (instead of snippets)

We have seen an incline in behaviors year after year. There needs to be guidelines/procedures/plans put in place that hold the students accountable. These need to be there to support teachers and to teach students what is absolutely NOT accepted at our school. This way teachers can do the job that they have been given and the job that they love. Without this, we will continue to lose incredible families and the sense of community that Knapp has had.

Having more buy in from the parents when it comes participation and support of students' academics and behavior. Parents can help by holding their student more accountable.

I feel that total experience, evaluations, and the national average of teacher salary should all be considered in compensation.

As we push to use new technologies to help improve organizational efficiencies, we should take care to remember and prioritize our organization's core values.

Benefits cost is too high for the amount of coverage given

The number of people on my team is barely enough to meet the asks we receive. This leads to the following potential consequences: (1) Feeling as if working at anything less than 110% will let the team and organization down risking burnout and (2) preventing the team from establishing and following through on their vision and goals (3) prevents opportunities for professional growth whether that is through participating in additional training (i.e. conferences, book studies, etc) or through taking more active roles in committee work (4) deprioritizing of school support in favor of projects.

We need to focus on compensating deans and teachers at a level that is closer to market for these positions.  We do this pretty well for new teachers, but my experienced teachers on staff are making well below market value.  This doesn't feel good and has led to many leaving, leaving even mid-year which has had a negative impact on the parent satisfaction and enrollment.    Also, with the influx of new teachers, deans have the most important jobs of coaching teachers up and should be compensated that way.

Salary Schedule

National Heritage Academies needs to give their deans and principals pay comparable to public schools.  The amount of work a dean does and the time spent away from their families is not compensated for. This is the reason people leave our company.

I love NHA and the culture of the company and my specific building.  At times, however, I feel as though some of the financial cut backs have taken a bit away from the family feel / culture / individualized feel / what makes sense for each school approach that NHA used to have.  I understand being fiscally responsible, however some wiggle room is needed to ensure we can still meet the needs of our scholar and staff.  Systems are great, however when we work in a company focused on people, cookie cutter approaches don't always fit the bill.

All full-time staff paid during the summer, or allow workers to file for benefits.

More programs for typing practice and coding.

There is not financial compensation for longevity at NHA and financial appreciation for being loyal to the company. There is no financial incentive to retain staff yet higher and higher entry salaries go to unqualified, untrained, and uncertified new staff members. Salaries are not raised proportionately for those who have worked here and were hired in at lower starting salaries to compete with inflation and new hire starting salaries of the aforementioned uncertified and unqualified new hires.

A number of our team members work really hard and work well together, but the difficulty caused by a small number is really affecting the morale and collaboration.  There is a lot of negativity and back-stabbing done by certain people on my team.  My manager often plays favorites and micromanages things.  In addition, when something is said about someone, a decision is made and a reprimand is given without the manager getting both sides of a story.  Also she is fairly new to the position, and not expected to know everything because things are complicated, but when an error in understanding is challenged, often the manager attacks the person who is doing the challenging rather than accepting the correction.  There are definitely people who are considering leaving the team because of the management style, and that would be a great loss for Vista.

I recommend having more opportunities to receive professional development outside of NHA.

Continue to provide world-class customer service to our internal and external facing clients.

The required common assessments are too long and too frequent.  Common assessments are beneficial, but the length and frequency doesn't allow teachers time to analyze the data and reteach before another assessment is given.

It is deeply concerning that a for-profit, multi-million dollar company is experiencing difficulties providing a basic educational tool—computers—for each of its scholars. Given the substantial revenue and resources at its disposal, ensuring access to technology should not be a challenge but a priority. In today’s learning environment, especially one driven by digital tools and platforms, equitable access to computers is not optional—it is essential for student success and academic equity. If a company of this scale is unable or unwilling to allocate the necessary funds for such fundamental needs, it raises serious questions about its financial priorities and commitment to the educational outcomes of its scholars.

More closely aligning salary and benefits with that of the public school system would help to retain quality staff.

The school in general is very dirty. We don't have a cleaning company that does a good job. Classrooms, hallways, and especially the bathrooms are extremely dirty.

This year the small raise I received covered the increase in my health benefits. I need a cost of living raise to cover all the other expenses that are increasing, car insurance, groceries, utilities. Our school meets enrollment and makes money for the company over the majority of the NHA schools and we should be compensated for what we are doing here at the ground level to make MCA the best choice for parents and students.

While I appreciate the current AR bonus structure, I believe there is an opportunity to revise it in a way that more fairly reflects individual contributions, and the effort invested in our roles. Also, a small bonus/incentive of some kind would be an appreciated consideration for the Team Lead role.

Overall cleanliness could improve. Bathrooms need to be checked and cleaned more often. Students who are visibly ill and cannot keep that illness to themselves need to be removed for the day. HVAC system needs to be fixed.

Para salary needs to be raised to meet the amount that is offered by the public school system.

Support staff are not equal in bonuses or pay with the teachers. I understand teacher certification and degrees but some do as much work as the teach for less pay

When a person is covering the job of more than 1 person due to a vacancy, they should be fairly compensated. As a dean I should not be expected to cover responsibilities for special education vacancies and simply be told, "It's part of your job." If there is a vacancy this means that there is money that is not being used and to simply not have the money at the end of the year and offer the dean a few hundred dollars is honestly an insult and puts into question where the money is going since it is clearly not being used for staff or to fairly compensate those doing extra work.

Corporate consistently makes decisions that are not in the best interest of our staff or students.  NHA could stop restricting access to programs that would be helpful for our kids and also stop buying and forcing us to use materials that are not helpful.  NHA could allow more flexibility for schools to develop their own culture and to work with the gifts and skills sets within the individual building.  NHA could give our managers (principals and deans) the ability to make decisions that are best for our school.  Empower our managers.  Empower our teachers. C&I Specialists could edit the many errors in NHA materials, or adjust interims so they are congruent with the curriculum rather than have us hop around in the curriculum to match the interims, or they could help with our subbing needs and get back in touch with current classroom life; rather than monopolize time with unrealistic platitudes.

The two that I see regularly that we have are great at their jobs. However, the building itself needs the services of at least one or two others to make sure that the entire building is up to par.

I believe within a school year {7 }days are just not enough PTO Days, also we need to consider Mental Health days aa well.

I am disappointed at changes that are being done to students, especially regarding staffing.  The changes that were done has put some schools out of compliance because of the removal of contracted staffing.  While there is a very firm understanding for the why, and an agreement of being financially responsible, the rapidness of this plan was emotionally draining.  On top of that, trying to get staff into the building, when our only option is for contracted employees has been a massive struggle that involves a lot of jumping of hoops and a very lengthy process.  In the end, the students are the ones who are missing out on critical services.    There needs to be trust in those who are requesting for these positions to be filled in a timely manner.  I feel that that can be done, and that we can move forward from all of this, but at least trust the team when we are advocating for our students.

It doesn't make sense at all that there is an innovation team that is completely separate from the regular dev team. The handling of how that team was created and given deference and preference over the dev team is unsettling.

Staff retention- more support for the new teachers, especially the ones that are still working on their education degrees. Perhaps a monthly get together to discuss issues they are having, to answer questions, discuss their experiences with the education program they are going through for their degree, and ways to balance their job, school, and a personal life. Help the current teachers to not feel so structured with the curriculum that they have to read it from the script. More planning time for the classroom teachers. Improve the communication with the staff, so they are not hearing about activities when a flier is sent out to the parents. Validate teachers feels when they are overwhelmed. Have more empathy for the new teachers who don't know everything but are willing to ask questions so they can improve. NHA says that they hire the best teachers, and they want to retain them. Without retaining teachers most of the other areas would not matter.

I would like to address the lack of follow-through regarding the staff dress code policy. There is a consistent pattern of noncompliance among several teachers, with little to no accountability being enforced. This inconsistency undermines the expectations set for staff and sends a conflicting message about professionalism to students and staff who do adhere to the policy. I urge administration to ensure that dress code standards are upheld uniformly.  I would like to raise a concern regarding Vinnie’s professional conduct during school hours. Each morning during arrival, he can be found sitting on the table outside of Cooper’s classroom, rather than actively engaging in morning responsibilities. Additionally, at the end of the day, he consistently spends extended periods socializing in Cooper’s classroom. This behavior not only appears unprofessional, but it also sets a tone that could be perceived as favoritism or lack of accountability, which affects staff morale and cohesion.

N/A

We pay alot more out of pocket expenses than other schools in our area. Our deductibles should be lower, our cost for insurance should be lowered, and  Express Scripts is difficult to use so maybe another provider.  I also think compensation should be higher but that rarely gets addressed meaningfully.

I believe certified staff and dedicated staff should recieve an increase in compensation.  NHA hires non-certified staff at rates just as high as veteran teachers with experience and credentials.

Class sizes are too big for all grades, causing too many distractions, student competition for teacher attention, and too much noise constantly.  Too many things are required to be posted on the walls and are visually overstimulating.

To help improve in pay, stop hiring so many people at the service center who do nothing and work from home yet still do not do their jobs effectively.  Teachers and admin need to be paid better since we have to do all of the work.

bring back the GL-1 medication. Prescriptions keep changing

Using a more hands on curriculum that scholars can interact with especially in ELA.

We must move beyond curriculum coverage to truly prepare students for professional success. Meeting academic requirements doesn't equip students for life beyond school. Are good grades the goal, or is it developing superior learning and problem-solving abilities? These distinct aims are rarely clarified for students. Grades don't measure learning capacity and shouldn't be the endpoint. We need to refocus education on what truly matters: building lifelong learning skills.

NHA has not provided me advancement opportunities.

I have a few ideas that would enhance my experience with NHA. I would like to see them prioritize those who stay with the company long into their career by improving their retirement plan offerings. I feel like after 10 years you should be able to pay into a pension system as my 401k is tied to the value of the stock market and that is not hopeful right now. I also feel like creating a regionalize school psychologist would be both cost effective and more supportive of schools. I am sure we pay over the top for our psychologist now where as we could likely share the paying the salary for one and they would be able to help in the schools aside from just testing students but help with FBAs and programming.

The curriculum is strong, but teachers need more support in adapting it for students who are several years below grade level. Many are unsure how to address learning gaps without losing key elements of the curriculum. Providing examples, modeling, and professional development would help teachers understand how to differentiate effectively while preserving the value of the curriculum and its methods. Stronger clarity around the "why" behind the approach would build greater teacher confidence and buy-in.

mid-year raises if deserved and earned, bonuses around work impacting large groups,, and outside of the traditional job role

Our reading program (shared reading) is good in theory but does not meet the needs of our scholars.  It is unengaging and some of the selections barely fit the skill being taught.  Teachers need the autonomy to be able to adapt stories both in level and interest to truly engage our scholars and foster a love of reading. The shared reading program needs help or replacing to be successful.  Also, in terms of academic programming there is far too much testing.  The amount and length of continued assessments does not allow teachers time to reteach, students are tested out, and the amount of testing takes away valuable learning time.

Continue tapping into the national network of NHA schools - sharing best practices across states on curriculum, processes, and programming that has shown great benefit to students.

Increase in compensation.

Teacher salary compensation!! Make our pay comparable to districts around us.

Getting rid of touch-screen computers in a school lab and switching to laptops was not a smart decision, financially or access-wise. We have more and more diverse needs coming into our schools, and when technology that allows access to the curriculum is taken away or made less accessible, it just makes it that much harder. In addition, not having a consistent process for assistive technology or someone at the service center who fully understands AAC and special education puts more work on providers to fight for what their students need. If we are going to continue to accept students who have increasing needs, technology or behavior-wise, then the higher-ups are going to need to allocate more money to supporting those needs. Otherwise, you just burn out the providers and increase turnover among your people.

My manager is wonderful, so this has to do with the Service Center. We work very hard with, many times, enough work worth for 2 people. Schools have Teacher Appreciation Week or admin, office staff etc., but C&I Specialists don't get anything like that.  We are doing so much at schools as well as behind the scenes that they (schools) don't see or understand the workload. It would be nice if we received appreciation like school staff does.

Increase our salary !!!!

Our classes are too large (with many high needs) for one teacher. There should be help in our classrooms or less students. This current set up is not what is best for kids and will continue to cause teacher burn out and teachers looking to other districts for smaller classes, support or more money to compensate for all the extra work that comes with 30 kids in a classroom.

I kindly request a market increase for Dean Salaries in Colorado. Not only is there a significant discrepancy between NHA and our local school district, but they also have only a 4-day work week. We fulfill NHA's full-time requirement of instructional coaching, full-time requirement as student behavior and parental relations support, and "additional duties as assigned." Compensation should reflect this daily commitment and workload.

Enhance 401k options.

Reduce the cost of health care insurance.

Work/life balance does not seem to be a priority when opportunities to earn additional PTO for people with 10+ years with NHA are not available.  Bringing back summer Friday hours, week off for 4th of July and Christmas break, and/or opportunity to increase to 5 or 6 weeks of PTO would go a long way to making service center/C&I employees feel valued, particularly with the amount of extra time that is put in for summer events like Leadership Summit and NTS.

Keep offering retention bonuses to loyal, consistent, and competent teachers.

PD in the beginning of the year that is actually useful. We had two August PD's this year that contradicted each other in ways. Also, not having two weeks of PD before school starts. Allow us to get our rooms ready on our own schedule instead of scheduling that time for us.

Scholars and their parents need to be held accountable for behavioral issues. If we could implement a system to engage the parents with academic training, social emotional training and kindness workshops there could be endless possibilities of positive outcomes.

I understand that compensation is not fully in PrepNet's control, but I'd say working at PrepNet would be just about the best job ever if I was paid like a district Public School teacher with my experience and education. The raises we get do not even cover the raise in medical costs and inflation, so I am essentially making less money each year. Please consider these things when raising our wadges.

I feel that the tests that students take in ELA does not always match their grade level or that skill that is being taught.

We need to continue to expand our special education program to include and support ALL students with special needs.

More resources to support Technology.

At times it feels like the same people are being noticed, recognized, appreciated, etc. while others slip under the radar in the work that is done. Sometimes a simple note, email, or comment of recognition or appreciation can go a long way. And not just hearing the same people receiving shout outs. I also think the importance of thanking those that put in work above and beyond can go a long way.

Seasoned and well-performed teachers should be recognized and compensated for their dedication and loyalty working at NHA.

I feel that Staff and Admin should be compensated for going above and beyond in their roles. At the end of the school year they should get compensation for student proficiency and hitting their targeted goals.

It would be nice if we could carry over our unused PTO to the next year.  You never know when you may need to take a longer leave because of sickness or a family emergency.  Being stressed about going over the designated number of days off isn't a good feeling when you are going through such a time.  I also think teachers would be more willing to come to work when they know they can carry over days to the next year.

N/A

Although the small raises are appreciated, it would be nice if they could be a bit more. Our salary per year is significantly lower the public school systems, which just does not make sense to many of us. It is disheartening when we love our job and people we work with, but our salaries do not compare to other school systems.

You have to pay a competitive wage.  Public schools pay significantly higher wages and have fewer extra duties outside of the classroom.  Stop hiring more admin and hire more competent and professional teachers.  Incentivize being a regular classroom teacher over being an EL teacher, at risk teacher, etc.  The money is there but it's going to have to come from the top.  Teachers are the base and most important part of the educations system, but we get paid the least.

Hire subs so we dont have to split classes and/or compensate us for covering classes like other schools do.

Compensation- As a veteran teacher who has worked incredibly hard to maintain a classroom with high academic standards along with being held to high standards in general at Cross Creek, I feel we are not compensated fairly for the work we do. We have proven to be a high performing school, and the compensation discrepancy between us and local school districts has started to become a major issue for a lot of people. I am concerned that if this doesn't change somehow, we are going to lose the Cross Creek that we have now.

I have none I love my team

Work life balance, there are times under our control that people need to take days off increasing the amount allotted days for time off for employees will help with turnover.  We understand that scholars need to take assessments, but there are to many that are required for them to take. This puts a lot stress on the students and teachers.   No Interim 3 especially since it was right before M-step.

Limit assessments- make interim 3 optional and allow us to use as a resource for review for mstep. Students were burnt out with consistent common assessments and then state testing that was back to back.   Also achievement boards that were due during testing is a struggle because of back to back testing little work that is curriculum is being completed due to mstep reviews and testing. And our focus should be on testing not what my bulletin board says or has on it.

Hire a new cleaning company.

To NHA: Staff pay is not comparable to neighboring districts once teachers have been at NHA for 3+ years. My recommendation is to pay your teachers a comparable teaching salary. You have lost and will continue to lose highly effective teachers due to this.

I am concerned that NHA is not giving a proper cost of living increase. Groceries, transportation and utilities have increased over the years but my wage does not reflect the change.

I feel that the amount of testing in NHA schools is excessive.

Many times I feel like I can never get caught up with work. I hate that it is 'normal' for an educator to always bring work home. I'm putting in 10-12 hour days and still need to do work on the weekend. Lesson plans, grading, unit plans, prepping (photo copies, activity set up/clean up) takes much more time than our allotted prep periods. I often just feel overwhelmed like I will never get ahead.

Find a happy medium between the social aspect of work and getting things done. It seemed like for a short stint things started to get a little too social at work, and maybe not enough productivity was going on. Now it seems like it's totally flipped and people are supposed to just stay in their chairs instead of getting to know co-workers personally. The culture has definitely shifted. Some of the "family" aspect that made the NHA culture so great has been lost.

I love what I do at NHA and feel like I consistently meet and exceed performance goals. I would like to see increased abilities for manager to provide performance based bonuses.

Communication from the service center has been inconsistent this year, particularly regarding the Summer Discovery program, which has created trust issues among staff and administration.  More urgently, the late-April directive to retain a set number of 3rd–6th grade students based solely on two rigorous assessments—more challenging than MSTEP—is unreasonable. These last-minute decisions put schools in a difficult position and risk losing students who are likely to withdraw, along with their siblings, significantly impacting enrollment.  If NHA is comfortable with that loss, it should also be prepared to accept lower enrollment numbers without penalizing schools or tying it to bonus outcomes. Effective change management has been lacking, leading to frustration and distrust among staff and families.

We are continually given more and more to do as teachers and nothing is taken away.  I also feel that consideration is not given to younger grades that take more time to properly do their assignments and activities.  There is no work/homelife balance.  Deadlines this year are also not given proper communication and time to accomplish them with everything else.

Weekly deep cleaning of high impact areas.

The amount of assessments need to be decreased in K-2, especially Kindergarten math checkpoints and FSAs across the board. FSAs should be 1x per unit or monthly. The amount of time spent assessing students is drastically taking away from instruction. Please don't tell me there's time given already because frankly it is not enough time, especially when NHA continues to want to increase class sizes and only has one teacher to do 29-30 1:1 assessments. While I appreciate the tightening of the purse strings at NHA I would like to see some of the money saved come back into the schools to positively impact programming and staffing, especially because we are fully enrolled and bring in alot of money. We are consistently asked to "do more" ie up our enrollement and over subscribe but yet we do not get the additional support needed to accommodate more kids which equals more work which contributes to negative work life balance and staff burn out. Compensate us for the extra work!!!

The focus on counting beans has overshadowed the 'what is right for kids' and 'moral focus' model at NHA.  I am surprised that Leadership Summit is still an annual event given the amount of money it must cost to bring 3-5 leaders from every school into GR for almost a week.  Flights, cars, hotels, venue and food- regardless of any discounted rates, seems like it would be high.  Moving to a bi-annual tradition would save (what would seem like) a lot of money.

Given my added responsibilities this year, I’d like to discuss the possibility of a salary adjustment to reflect my contributions.

Lesson plans with the curriculum provided would make teachers jobs a lot easier. Nearby states have taken this task off their teachers plates, thus giving teachers the opportunity to focus more on the lesson delivery.

Economy and cost of living. Work expectations and working outside of work daily to get work completed- because at work it is near impossible to get all things completed in order to manage teachers, students, parent communication, and daily responsibilities as dean.  The time put in and work doesn't divide by hourly wage and compensation to get the job completed to a exemplar or effective level which is what I will always strive for and what I assume is expected in this role.

No communication (emails) over the weekends, unless it's an absolute emergency. Emails are tied into work which cuts into our work/life balance.   I would also like to revisit an early release day during Parent Teacher Conference Weeks. It's a lot to ask of staff to complete 100% of their conferences while teaching a full day. A half day of no students would help to alleviate the stress of having to do so much during that time.

Offer more days off that are comparable to local public schools

Stronger Special education department with strong teachers and assistants.

The benefits have diminished over the past couple of years.  I have been with NHA over ten years, and our health insurance has become terrible.  We are paying for more out of pocket than ever before, and it is becoming tough to stay healthy with the extra costs of everything.  We need better health insurance!

NHA needs to be competitive within our current market for compensation (Ypsilanti). The discrepancy in pay is about $10,000. There are teachers/academic specialist who also make more deans. With deans working over the summer, they should be making more than 9 month staff.

With the amount of assessments we take and have to grade, it can be difficult to have a ballanced work/ home life.

My job is paid way less than at other schools for the time I have been here.  It makes me feel unappreciated.

Policies and Procedures. Even though we got bonuses during Covid era. I still do not understand why Paraprofessionals did not share bonuses with Classroom Teacher for academic growth. Note: most children today learn better in small groups. So a lot of the academic growth was based on Teacher and Para's hard work, not just the classroom teacher. But the classroom teacher got all of the bonuses. I think this policy along with some others should be changed. I see a need for all staff who teach the children at our school she be treated equally, in pay and recognition. In all my years at NHA, what Para do in the classroom now, has changed. One example, is how we do flooding during reading mastery time. Paras are teaching the same thing teachers are but in 2-5 more groups and different classes. It can be quite exhausting. I think flooding is a good thing but it is being pushed to the limit. If a para is working in 1 to 2 classes that is reasonable but in 4 or more classes that is exhausting. Please consider changin

Our ELA curriculum has many holes that need to be addressed, such as, meaningful vocabulary and word study for our older students.

Allow retention bonuses to go to more than just classroom teachers.

Increase pay according to inflation rates

I recognize NHA is doing quite a bit to make benefits affordable and compensation fair compared to local districts. This is an area I hear about from staff especially support staff frequently. I appreciate the continued effort to grow this area at NHA.

We are allowed 40 PTO hours per year.  Half a year in, we had been closed 5 days due to weather.  35 hours.  Five hours left for “Personal Time Off.”   The reason I chose to drive to CPI training is- EVERY communication sent before the training  said we would be compensated for mileage “from home school to host school.”  I have never felt more SHAFTED than I did when my mileage was not approved, and I learned there was a 150-mile cap.  How can you ask hourly employees to drive 220 miles and only pay them for 150?   Rent a car?  Laughable. Are you going to pay for my time to go pick up and return said car, plus 5 hours travel, plus 7 hour class?  Asinine through and through.

.

I feel that the longer you have been here at the company the more PTO you should get!

The lack of coverage for GLP1 Meds for weight loss is very disappointing as they have worked for me, however they are currently unaffordable to the average person without insurance coverage. Proves that major pharma and profits are more important than actually helping people get healthy.

I think we could do with slightly less autonomy. Each state/authorizer is different in what they require, but to maintain & build efficiencies we could be doing things more consistent across a portfolio of similar schools.   I would love to see improvements to 401k match! I'm still curious about implementing ranges in health premiums, maybe based on bonus level? The increases the past few years have been hard on my team and it would be better accepted if we were distributing this differently. The impact of a 3% salary increase + flat rate premium increase varies significantly.  I also think some level of paternity leave as well as a sabbatical program would be great and wouldn't necessarily have to increase costs. Having people take an extended period of time off allows the organization to identify gaps/control risks as well as encourages better cross training. It also allows employees an opportunity to completely disconnect, which many people find hard to do during a short time off.

Salary increases based on merit and final observations as well as certifications and years of experience.

Being situated in the corner classroom of the school often leaves me feeling isolated. People rarely stop by unless they need something, as I'm tucked away from the main hallways. I have to step outside my room just to greet others unless teachers are dropping off their classes for specials. My classroom is even overlooked in the door signage for teachers, forcing me to create my own. Despite my efforts, no one has even noticed the different sign. I'm only recognized for my work, yet I'm excluded from the broader conversations and connections that foster a sense of community. This lack of engagement makes it clear that I'm not fully valued as part of the school environment.

I believe that we should have an increased match in our 401k program.

I wish for all the doors to be closed during the school day, nothing propped open.

NHA needs to increase their pay for veteran teachers. The turnover at NHA schools down in the city are high. It’s a stress on veteran teachers to have to grow kids to EOY grade level when they are coming to our rooms well below BOY levels. NHA’s curriculum has a lot of components to it and a lot of front end work by the teachers. When we consistently have new teachers in and out, it’s hard for them to teach curriculum effectively while trying to learn the ins and outs of NHA.   NHA needs to stop expecting us to work for free. I could be wrong but I believe we are paid for 180 days with students. We work for free during pd days and when we come in at the beginning of the year. Traditional public schools are getting out earlier than we are and are working less days because PD is counted as a work day. NHA needs to either figure out how to have those days count when we are in PD or pay us extra for those days that we are working for free.  We need a gym!

Teachers are not well compensated for the work they do.

It is wishful thinking, but I would like to see the salary of teachers doubled.

pay people what they deserve. make it clear why certain people make more.

I mention every year in this survey that compensation is an area that could use some improvement, but there is never any follow up.  I have been working for NHA for over 13 years and am barely making more than new paras.  Experience is so important when working with special needs children, it is not an easy job!  Yet there is not much incentive to keep people with experience.  In the 7 years I have been in this position there has been quite a turnover.  We have also recently been seeing an inability to find someone who will work in this position for the pay NHA is offering.  Something needs to change.  The starting pay needs to increase as well as the pay for those of us with experience.    Last year we saw a response to the request for title one paras to receive benefits, but there was no response to any increase in pay for special ed paras.  It disheartening when some areas are responded to, but some which are brought up year after year are not even considered or offered a response.

We need to reach students where they are. Classroom has a broad range of ability sometimes a difference of 3-4 educational years. I know that what we are doing is not helping. We need to bring students to a place of reading proficiency, they are not ready for grade level work.

For those who have been here many years, what advancement opportunities and benefits are we receiving?

Lower costs and better coverage.

The school is 20+ years old.  Things need replaced and updated.  Spend the money.

We need a better school year calendar and more PTO. Hard to schedule appointments during breaks when we barely have breaks.

There continues to be a major lack of trust from our Executive colleagues. Both management and individual contributors are becoming exhausted from constant micro-management and oversight. Every detail is scrutinized and questioned. Funneling decisions, projects, purchases and renewals through one person is a slow and painful process. Even after a project/purchase has been budgeted and approved there is an immense feeling of mistrust as the Executive team often requires the entire project to be re-evaluated and/or re-justified before it can begin.   Recommendations:  - Trust teams with the autonomy to move forward with projects (especially when critical or time-sensitive) - Relieve the decision-making bottleneck by empowering subject matter experts and managers - Ease the constant pressure and scrutiny on managers, team leads and employees - Trust teams to focus on the details and relay the big picture to Executives

Pay needs to increase. Pay does not reflect what interventionist are asked to do. Para interventionist do exactly what academic specialist do, yet are paid much less.

Lower costs for health care.

More aggressive recruitment of quality candidates for open positions that directly support students.  More than one of the schools I support has positions that have been open for a great length of time with no candidates.

Be more competitive with salary.

Based on some decisions made that are out of the schools control, it feels that some core values are sacrificed for the sake of others. Core value 5, Act with discipline to sustain our academic success and financial viability, is key to longevity, but at times it feels like the actions taken aren't always in alignment with Core value 4,  Make our schools the best choice for parents and students. We had to let go of our contract special education paras halfway through the year, which caused students to lose consistency, stability, and a trusted adult. I understand the cost of this was high, but midway through the year only caused additional stressors for our highest need individuals. We've also struggled to find an SLP this year but we haven't been allowed to utilize contract employees because of the expense, causing many of our students to go without services designed to help them succeed.

I understand that NHA exists to challenge the status quo and that we need to be flexible, however, when new ideas come up, thought and time needs to be applied.  Technology can't not be modified over night. We need to provide time to vet out the best way to implement new things, not the fastest/cheapest way to do it.

All teachers and staff should be considered for advancement opportunities.  Favoritism should be shown toward certain staff members.  There should be equal opportunities for everyone.

I  feel we need a new reading curriculum that is not NHA created.  That is more aligned to CCSS something more like Bridges that other districts use

I am not sure if I have any recommendations to improve compensation. I just feel as a valued employee at NHA, I should be paid similarly to those in my community with the same position I hold.

Compared to local public school districts, employees at National Heritage Academies earn, on average, approximately $20,000 less than their counterparts in other Michigan schools. Additionally, the salary increases provided do not adequately keep pace with the rising cost of living. As a result, several of my colleagues and I, though we have master's degrees, are required to work second jobs to meet basic financial needs. The compensation offered by NHA is not competitive, making it challenging to remain committed to the organization when employment at another school could provide sufficient income through a single full-time position.

Increase pay to match local districts, or bring back bonuses.

It's a lot to ask for in reality, but at it's best on a good cleaning week it's the minimum I'd expect from an institution.  Details, mostly dirty glass, mulch everywhere, make it look sloppy.  I am aware it would take double the cleaning crew to do this and that's not possible, so the survey is still a 100-.   It's a nice place to go to work every day.  It's a very, very rare thing to be in the place you want to be, doing the thing you want to do, around the people that you want to be around.  I have 2 and a half of those things.   What's the half?????   You'll have to ask...    Haha!!    No, I'd like all this situated on Maui, you could ski and surf in the same day.

Salary schedule that is fair for all teachers. New teacher and veteran teachers (10+ years) should be farther apart in pay.

 At the beginning of the year, we had a meeting to express our concerns about the issue of support. Teachers are managing extremely large class sizes, often with 30 or more students, on their own. When we ask for help by sending a student out due to disruptive or defiant behavior, it’s discouraging to have them sent right back without any clear consequence or interventions in place. This cycle doesn't support behavior change and leaves teachers feeling unheard and ineffective. At times, it feels as though unless the behavior is directly targeted at an administrator, it isn’t taken seriously.  This approach is not sustainable and undermines both classroom management and teacher morale.  I strongly urge leadership to establish and follow through on a more consistent behavior support system—one where teacher documentation is taken seriously, follow-up consequences are meaningful, and administrators are more visible and involved in reinforcing expectations across all classrooms.

I would love it if we could better utilize our limited space during Interim and state testing times such that K-2 and Intervention pullout groups had defined places conducive to teaching and learning while older students are testing. I'm not sure there is a great answer to this, though more fully utilizing certain spaces for small group testing may free up additional quiet spaces. We should be striking a balance between doing the right thing for the students who are testing and doing the right thing for the students who are not. At times, the RtI room has had three staff members and their students displaced while a single group of two or three students has been using the room for testing.

Pay equal to that of public school teachers

Provide more opportunities for AR's to have opportunities to grow in role through PD

I have none.

Recommendations for compensation would be to pay us more.

There is not enough time to cover both the read aloud and the shared reading texts each day, especially the longer text passages.  There are times when I believe the students are not focused by the shared reading time because, just like adults, there is only so much information their brains are able to take in within a certain time frame.  The shared reading texts, graphic organizers, and constructed responses offer ample opportunity to introduce and discuss the weekly skill in depth.

Salaries should be adjusted with the rise in the cost of living.  Teachers who have worked more then 8 years at DMA and continually perform well on their evaluations should be rewarded with a bigger raise. Also, bring back performance bonuses instead of giving each teacher the same bonus.  WE want teachers to stay at DMA and that is only going to happen if NHA pays them more, especially the veteran teachers.

While communication within my immediate team is strong and consistent, communication across the broader network often falls short. This lack of clear, timely, and transparent communication leads to frustration, compressed timelines, and work that must be redone—sometimes multiple times—to meet deadlines. Additionally, our content area is frequently perceived as undervalued based on how priorities and resource allocations are communicated. This not only affects team morale but also contributes to poor work-life balance, as our small team is often left to manage network-wide demands, last-minute changes, and shifting priorities with limited support. Improving communication at the network level would go a long way in increasing efficiency, preserving morale, and ensuring sustainable workloads.

Needing to ensure that we have all the technology that we need to do our jobs.

Our salary increases are not keeping up with the cost of living. Our healthcare plan has increased in price but decreased in coverage over the 10 years that I have been here.

If the cleaning service could be more thorough in cleaning building and bathrooms.

I would like our leadership team to be a better presence at Fortis. To get out of the "Dean Den" and play an active role in our school. When you need support from SOME of our admin it is difficult. At times I've felt ignored, the dean den is an intimidating space for teachers, you are made to feel like you are inconveniencing them.  Most of the time communication is only email and non personal. Each dean runs their division differently with no consistency.  Our middle school is run like a whole different school, without our schoolwide expectations being enforced. Behaviors in this division have been extreme and consequences have been absent which jeopardizes our safety. Leadership team gets defensive and points fingers. Students with behavior problems and their families are being catered to while excelling students are ignored, only for those students to leave Fortis and seek a different school. I want Fortis to be the best we can be but we need changes made.

Benefits have drastically increased in price, plus you've taken away the PPO option if we went with a cheaper option the previous year. The benefits towards mental health, obesity, etc are significantly lacking, especially with the higher costs and being forced to stay in a lower tier plan. Also, you've taken away the area to make free-form comments on this survey. Year after year, we see the same areas needing improvement with no improvements made. This survey feels as though it is strategically built to focus on what NHA does well and not what it needs to improve upon. Majority of the questions steer towards the positive and want details on the positive, but then when it comes to the negative you ask one question and allow a comment on that one area. It feels as though you've arranged questions that can only make the score seem higher than it maybe would be otherwise.

Inspire already has a great culture environment, I would just like it to continue.

This is a vital area for teacher work and personal life balance. This is an area where we as teachers have been given the tools in many of our professional development training sessions. It is our responsibility to focus on the application of what we have learned.

Compensation in my opinion isn't fair. New hires make more than people who have been working here for years. Company took away bonuses and the high five system. Seems unfair.

The compensation is too low when competing with other districts. If you provide higher compensation for support staff then they will stay. Otherwise NHA will consistently keep having this revolving door of exemplary support staff leaving and having to constantly be training new staff.

It often feels like policies and procedures are evolving rapidly, and at times, these changes may not fully consider the complexities of other roles within NHA or the potential impact on our families. A more collaborative approach to policy development could help ensure smoother implementation and better outcomes for both staff and parents.

I would like to see more opportunities to work remotely. Trust that employees will get the job done no matter where they are.

Continue with retention bonus

 Compensation for educators overall should be better, but I appreciate where we are compared to other schools

Na

Honestly, I don't believe, based on past evidence, that anything I have to say matters so....

Lower cost, lower deductibles. More in line with public school benefits

Continue to provide various opportunities for staff members to make additional funds, especially with rising costs and the state of the economy for middle class workers like education staff.

Teachers should be paid a salary that is comparable to what they would get at the public schools surrounding us.

•Be present -I would like a manager that is physically and mentally present. My manager has missed over 30 school days and when she is at work she is either typing on her computer or spending time with her “friends”.  I think o3’s that happen should be spent actively listening and having discussions instead of just constant typing. •Be fair -I think my manager should treat everyone on her team fairly and not favor certain teachers because they are the same race as her.  •Be approachable -My manager is not approachable and takes every conversation as a direct attack on her which makes it very difficult to come to her with concerns.  •Be professional -My manager gossips about other teachers to members on the team which creates conflict within the team of teachers.  •Be available -There have been several times no one on the team knew where she was or if she was at work. If you can’t be available let someone on the team know so we know to go to someone else.

Pay more.

More resources for the students

NC dropped 5 in the countries pay for teachers. Something has to be done about this or more good teachers are going to have to look elsewhere for work to make a living salary.

I recommend that teachers get paid a comparable wage to their surrounding county.

Clarification of our academic plan regarding grades and test scores. We are required to give NHA made assessments. The assessments need to be re-evaluated. Many questions don't align or are confusing. We need clarification on EdCite grading! Maybe we need to look at our overall grading expectations.

The only advancement opportunities seem to be moving into administration. It would be great to have advancement opportunities within specific roles.  Advancement opportunities connected to financial incentives such as raises and/or bonuses for people that go above and beyond in their specific role as well as going above and beyond to be an overall asset to the school (volunteering at school events, tutoring, coaching, offering camps, being flexible and filling needs beyond job description, supporting school teams/clubs/bands, bringing a consistent attitude that contributes to positive school culture, making families want to come to CW, positively impacting enrollment) There is difference between simply fulfilling a job description effectively and the people that effectively do their job while also providing a lot more to the overall community. High levels of dedication to go above and beyond for the school community should be recognized in the form of advancement opportunities.

I wish there were professional trainings that really pushed our veteran and excellent teachers to the next level and gave them new tools and ideas for their classrooms.  New teachers and struggling teachers receive needed support, but good teachers are always wanting to get better and I see a lack of resources and training for that to happen at NHA.

NHA changed our school to a placement model school, yet has not given us the training or resources that the other ground up school is using. It seems that they forgot that they put us in this situation and never sent us the life boat. NewsELA, Read Works, CommonLit.org, and Chatgtp are not adequate resources for teaching. They are meant to supplement skills already taught, we should not be using them as our main platform for teaching. Worksheets don't grow dendrites! Placement model schools should all be using solid, proven curriculum with a strong intervention component to move students to proficiency. Real resources and training please!

student loan forgiveness opportunities for admin higher compensation to accommodate for the rising cost of living and increase in cost of insurance/benefits it would be nice to be back in STRS

Many of the benefits do not apply to me. I no longer have student loans, which means that I "miss out" on potentially an extra $250 a month. I also decline the insurance with NHA, saving the company thousands of dollars a year, and yet I am no longer offered any sort of compensation for declining.

I feel like even though my hours are kept below the part-time hours. I feel working here as long as I have I should be able to get FMLA.

For professional development, we need a new teacher must-do for high school. A session that tells them what must be done in advisory, parent conference items, submitting weekly attendance grids, gradebook do's and don'ts, when grades should be entered in gradebook by, champs, walkie calls, and google chat usage. Just something to get them a jump start.

I could leave GOA and easily make more.  Our benefit prices keep rising, yet the benefits get less.  Pay needs to improve.  The only thing keeping me here is my coworkers, once one leaves we might see a mass exit.

While I LOVE my job here at Greensboro Academy, I would love to see our salary be more competitive, especially for teachers who have committed to being here for 10+ years.  There is nowhere else for comments, but I just want to say that our admin team has done a great job addressing concerns this year.  I would like to say that some teachers in 3-5 specifically, need a reminder that they are here to do a job and so is their dean.  It is the dean's job to hold us accountable and make sure we are the BEST for our students and families.

Teachers are required to stay after school too many afternoons/evenings. In addition to weekly after school staff meetings, we are required to attend parent information sessions, family fun activities, conferences, and EC/IEP meetings. Administration doesn’t respect or encourage a healthy work/life balance asking staff to stay after school an hour or more most weeks.

At PSCA, we really need some other materials in ELA. While I love all the civil rights and African American literature that we read, our students don't fit that demographic. I feel there are other classics and great poets, and novelists that we should be introducing our students to. The curriculum is heavily geared towards the African American struggle from the beginning of the year in writing, to the poems that we read, to the read alouds, and the final novel study. I think 4th grade could use some light hearted content as well.   When I was first hired, we used HOLT Literature book. I really liked that curriculum. There was a great diversity of material and genres, as well as worksheets and quizzes.  Social studies needs some type of assessments be provided. We use the interim and create our own assessments, but I feel that NHA should provide some type of quizzes or something....

Same staff are getting recognized multiple times with in a year. Also not everyone knows what everyone does to "vote" for someone in a different grade level/department. Just feels like a popularity contest in high school. Need to find a new way to recognize staff for their achievements.

Staff should not have to volunteer to help at after school events. Any extra time should be compensated. Missed planning periods should be compensated. Special ed team should have compensation for high caseloads and for time spent doing tasks that would normally be handled by the vacant social worker positions . We should also get compensation needed to cover our licensing fees/maintain our license.  I would love to see my manager hold me more accountable by providing actionable personalized  feedback. They have not mentioned my personal goals for the year one time since I had to fill them in at the start of the year. There are very few opportunities for real relevant and well put on professional development in our building.  There is no reason we should have to pay for the sunshine committee dues to receive treats and cheer.  Behavior support staff (ABSS) needs training in writing behavior support plans.

Make our pay comparable to public school districts.

Not to sound like a broken record, but I would like to see more flexibility around working from home. It's a big hit to my time and budget to come to the office 4 days a week. Most of the work/meetings I have are virtual anyway as the largest demographics I collaborate with are virtual.

Appreciation. "Thank you" can mean a lot.

Curriculum does not meet scholars with all learning deficiencies.

We need to have a site cordinator that is on site and gets paid well to take care of our building. Cleaning staff changes so often and is not invested in the school or taking pride in “their” building. Ever since our carpets were removed my floor is barely ever cleaned. Mopping should happen as frequently as vacuuming if you choose to have floors that do not need to be vacuumed each night. Children sit and learn/read/play on these floors and if you take a wipe to them it comes up very dirty.

More affordable health packages that still provide good coverage.

Hourly employees need to be paid more and should not have to use PTO for days that our building is closed due to snow,lack of power,etc. The cost of living keeps going up and up, yet many of us hourly employees have to work second jobs just to make ends meet. NHA needs to be better at paying us more so we don't have to work multiple jobs. Please be better and do better to take care of us. We work just as hard as salaried employees and should be compensated for that.

We need to look into behavioral alternatives to out of school suspensions.

Compensation needs to be more competitive in order to retain and attract new staff who we are losing to surrounding districts who are paying a significant amount more especially in the area of special education. While of course we need to be make decisions that are financially sound, we also need to ensure we are doing what is best for the students we support, which includes having high-quality teachers and paras.   Since at many schools the Dean of Special Education is often given the role without wanting it and is coupled with grade levels, the special education side is not prioritized. Having a company-wide expectation that the the admin over SE is by itself or possibly coupled with intervention would help others show the importance and give the admin the time it takes to support the SE team and students.

Provide compensation where compensation is due.

Being appreciated need to be recognized each and every day as well as every opportunity possible.

Allow teachers to complete a survey to determine some of the areas they need the most support in. Incorporate a session that addresses those areas.

The curriculum works well for students that are working at or above grade level. It's difficult to use common assessments for all students, especially those that need Tier 3 interventions. Perhaps a modified curriculum or a multiage classroom or interventions could be considered.

The corporate office tends to micromanage too much. There should be more decision making at the school level since all school are different and have different needs.

More support from Admin regarding student behaviors

It’s frustrating that the survey allows unlimited space for praise but limits constructive feedback to just one response. Balanced input is essential for real growth.  I believe funds could be better used. Instead of spending so much on marketing—radio ads, billboards, and branded items—it would be more meaningful to invest in teacher pay. Teachers are the heart of NHA and should be treated as such.  I don’t feel supported by school leadership. The principal is rarely visible (unless the DSQ is visiting) and tends to prioritize parent satisfaction and NHA norms over teacher input. The school is losing the unique qualities that once set it apart. I hope leadership starts listening to staff and works to preserve what makes this community special.

Either reduce the number of meetings or incorporate another plan period so that work can get done during the day and not after school hours or at home.

Pay should be based off of years of service as well as higher college degrees. Some educators have masters degrees and more years of service than others, but are making less money than those without a masters degree and less years of service.

While i do currently love my job and my role that i function in. I feel within NHA the creation of a diverse career advancement pathways beyond the current model of advancing to "dean". Where NHA can expand the leadership capacity or specialized positions that leverage for more specific job titles. I feel it would be a great way to retain but yet grow talent within NHA. Having a way, for employees that teach or work in certain areas that allow for opportunities to step into roles that help to continue to shape NHA climate and expectations. For instance, instead of having just the deal model to advance to, maybe offer other developmental roles, that are not strictly into the administrative roles. Having roles that value current positions and can still expand someone's expertise without the person requiring a full shift into an administration role. I believe it can shift more opportunities and offer more long term career paths within NHA, outside of the supportive roles that are offered.

Make sure that PTO is always available

Prioritize culture over profit again.

I think we need a pay scale and we need to be more competitive with other school districts. We are going to lose good teachers because of this.

More opportunities for recognition for support staff or staff in roles not limited to administration or teacher.

Paid parental leave

Provide additional options

Encourage the staff to have honest and meaningful conversations with those that they need to and not others about them.

My team enjoys working together, but turnover remains high due to limited opportunities for promotion, pay raises, and maternity leave. While we are able work from home one day a week, other departments, have significantly more flexibility. This inconsistency creates resentment and a perception that some teams are more valued. I have no control over these issues, but if NHA is unwilling or unable to address them, we will continue to lose skilled employees and with them, valuable institutional knowledge. This directly impacts our ability to provide best-in-class service. To retain talent and support long-term success, we must: Offer competitive compensation & benefits Provide advancement opportunities Apply flexible work policies equitably across departments Hire beyond just recent grads I spend significant time training new hires, only to see them leave for better-paying, remote jobs. We can't deliver consistent, high-quality service when employee tenure continues to decline.

Student behavior seems to be a big issue. These need to be handled more consistently and firmly.  Teacher morale is lowest I have seen it in many years.  Appreciate staff input/opinion.    Leadership seems to not be on the same page as the faculty.  It appears that leadership thinks things are going much better (ie: behaviors - because of all the purples) than it is.  However, staff was encouraged early on to slow down on the "blues" that were being put in the system and increase the purples.  I believe this has backfired on the faculty while on paper looks good for the leadership/school.  Recognition program isn't effective.  Staff sees it as an "everyone gets a trophy" situation.   Original Living the Mission was more specified.  Leadership makes decisions without discussing with the staff person in that classroom.  Our input is important and taking (or at least asking for it) goes a long way.  The dean change will likely fix issues with communication and other issues with dean.

I feel the curriculum does not address the basics. A lot of skills are taken for granted and the children are missing a good foundation, which is needed to further their education.

N/A

Resources for transportation (buses or vans)

NHA has a lot of policies.  A lot are good but a lot are bad.  This means teachers have to do more but it doesn't help our students learn.  The worst policies are those about behavior.  The consequences don't work.  The behavior of a few kids in each class wastes a lot of learning time for the rest of the students that want to learn.  Calling home doesn't work.  It also wastes teaching time.  It makes teaching way harder.  The students that are here to learn are robbed of valuable learning time.  This has been a problem for a long time.  It is not getting better.  It is getting worse.

None

Give teachers more freedom to teach to the needs of their students.  There is a lot of testing within NHA.  Too much.  the common assessments are not driving instruction and that should be the point of assessment.  Interims, and MSTEP, FSA, and Numeracy, and math unit assessments (should only be from unit taught, not higher level questions that cause extreme curve to the grade) should drive instruction.  Should have more freedom within ELA (less common assessments as it is a compliance, not changing instruction) and less pressure within math for all quizzes.  Students are testing constantly and as a teacher it feels my experience is not valued to make the best decision for students.

There has been a loss of autonomy for leaders to make decisions. It seems that all decisions require multiple layers of approvals and conversations slowing things down. If given clear parameters within which to operate (for example on the budget/spending) we could be empowered to make wise decisions with the dollars in the budget. Instead it feels as if the budget is never really approved, and each time spending needs to occur there must be multiple conversations, justifications, and approval steps even on very low dollar amounts. We could probably serve in our roles better than we are and make better use of our time and executive time.

Appreciate us with bonuses. I feel like pizza and dinner is nice but not sufficient enough for the amount of work that is done.

I think it would be beneficial if during the regional PD the C&I instructors were in the classroom with everyone to help all teachers to have a strong understanding of what is being presented to them.  The science C&I instructor is always in the room to be there to help answer questions and help guide the discussion.  I have not seen the math or ELA instructor in the PD classrooms at all.  I think they are the most knowledgeable about the curriculum so they should be there to help guide the PD.

NHA has invested in many curricular tools for our teachers.  They are rigorous and research based.  However, many of our students are performing below grade level.  We must also invest in practice materials (especially in grammar and math) and intervention tools that are based on the science of reading.  It should not be up to teachers to find, vet, and utilize additional practice tools that are at the appropriate level for their students.  Furthermore, our assessments should match those in the math program.  The assessments we utilized are very long and tedious.  Also, while it is unrelated to what was selected above, our students deserve to have a fully equipped school.  When we travel to other NHA schools we see beautiful gyms, libraries, and cafeterias.  We are shortchanging our scholars by not providing these things.

We have several cultures in our schooI and I  would like to see not only Black History month but would like to see other cultures history presented as well. I believe that all of our students would benefit from this.

More advantageous policy for new employees. This is always going to be a hard selling point. Even the idea of flexibility is valuable to employees.

Classrooms are small.  It's hard having so many kids in small rooms.  It often doesn't feel like we have the appropriate space to support our students.

Support staff should have much better compensation.  I believe that there would be much less turnover and less vacancies.

I think we need to clarify expectations with the Dean around supporting teachers, being present, and communicating more openly. It might help to offer some leadership coaching or mentorship, and create a way for staff to share honest, anonymous feedback. Encouraging more classroom visits, attending team meetings, and engaging in regular check-ins could really improve trust and connection. Some targeted training and opportunities for reflection might also support growth in the role.

Compensation continues to be an area that needs thoughtful attention and adjustment. Currently, there are instances where newly hired staff are being paid more than veteran team members with years of service and proven impact. Staff with higher-responsibility within their roles are earning less than those in lower-level positions, which creates inconsistencies that can negatively affect morale and retention. Addressing these disparities is essential to valuing staff equitably, maintaining trust, and recognizing the experience and leadership that drive our school’s success.

Increase pay or provide opportunities for additional income

Our para pros need to be paid more or at the very least, make them salary, so we can keep quality help.  Also, pay us at the end of the year for unused PTO so teachers aren't so concerned with using up "all my days" at the end of the year, when we don't have a sub pool for teachers to just take time off.

I feel that there is a large amount of our students who have behavior issues.  It does not seem like we are doing anything to decrease the behaviors.  Also, I do not believe that we are holding students accountable for their actions.  It seems like there are excuses for the behaviors and why they don't have to account for them.  I do not believe that this is helpful to the student.  The NHA approach is to build character and expect more.  I don't think either of these things are happening.  We are not teaching our students perseverance.  I find that so many students have very minimal stamina for hard work.  Also, nothing about "We Expect More" is something that we do as a whole at Knapp.  There are individuals who do this.  Just not most, and we are definitely held accountable to this.

Ensuring that teachers are being compensated at a rate that is comparable to districts around us to ensure quality teachers stay.

Bring long term staff up to pay scale with the people you are paying more to start the same job.

There is a need on our team for growth. We've been stuck in a rut and told we can't get more managers but we continue to be asked to do more with less. Let's work on promoting some of the key players on our team to retain good talent and continue to build a strong team.

I am not sure

Items that affect our job need to be identified sooner than later and not be told to us as the 11th hour.

Office Administrators are not paid enough, have to use pto for snow days, and should be salaried.

I know it goes higher up than our school, but compensation to put us at market value with other similar positions in public schools. The only downside to my job is how much work I put in and to end up living paycheck to paycheck due to compensation adds stress. Other than that I love my job and the people I work with.

The cost of benefits for employees has increased significantly and when a 3 percent raise is the standard, it doesn't cover the increased costs.  Each year I am actually making less money.  If everyone is given a 3 percent raise regardless of performance, how does that encourage people to do their best? We have been told that this has been our most profitable year ever, so I am hopeful that this will be reflected in our salaries.

I am highly satisfied working at NHA.  I do believe one thing to work on is "autonomy."  At times, I believe NHA does not trust school leaders (DSQs and Principals) to make best decisions for students.  I believe in the practice of "earned autonomy," and hope that more trust is given to leaders in the future to make appropriate decisions for school improvement.  We have such a diverse group of schools and leaders with different points of view and perspectives.  It would be good to allow for more discretion at the DSQ and Principal level.  There are specific examples: (1) determining how to use school funds for presenters that will keep our schools engaged - the vetting process claims to take a neutral stance, but that is not true.  It seems as though if presenters/groups are focused on students that are historically marginalized those presenters are "denied" or put on the "no list." (2) Supplemental tools seem to get on the "not allowed" list with no rationale or "heads up" to schools

So many things that we do here are last minute. We regularly fail to communicate important details in a timely manner or attempt to plan big important events in the same week they are occurring. This is frustrating for teachers as well as parents and students.   The seniors have had so many disappointments this year. They have had many events cancelled, even at the last minute. Our 12th grade dean left but it seems that no one was assigned to step up.

Communications this year have been a bit unclear and some things were dropped or left to last minute which does make our job more stressful and causes confusion between grade levels. I would greatly appreciate that any changes or new things be addressed in our wing meetings weekly or via a g-chat message as soon as possible so that we can plan better for our students, families, and ourselves.

Higher compensation for teachers, deans and support staff.

Sometimes I feel invisible because I'm not as vocal.

I don't know

Most of the professional development does not apply to my specific role.  I do my best to apply the information to what I do, but it is often difficult.

Policies and procedures are continually being implemented and refined. This area affects me the most, and while I hope to see continued improvement, I trust that my manager will ensure progress continues.

N/a

Pay teachers based on experience, qualifications, and performance.

We recently had a large increase in the cost of our insurance per paycheck.. that was disappointing to see. Also, please consider alternatives to Delta Dental. A significant number of local dental providers won't work with them.

The level of pay needs to be both competetive and reflect the cost of living. I should not need to find a second job in order to be able to pay my bills which has been the case for the last two years.

Market value pay increases that matches surrounding districts.

While South Arbor is a safe environment, I wish every school could have one or two trained security guards on staff.

Compensation is a sticking point for many, and I wonder how we might get creative in recognizing and showing appreciation for a job well done—especially when we’re unable to offer significant raises. Could we consider providing additional time off around the holidays for the service center staff?  Additionally, can we review market rate comparisons by state to ensure all employees are being compensated fairly for the work they do?

There should be more proactive measures taken and less reactive measures.

Provide higher pay across board for staff. The cost of live in New York compared to other states is very expensive. The pay rate needs to be increased annually.

Our benefits are getting more and more expensive each year and the deductibles continue to rise.

I feel the role of an Intervention Specialist is not viewed at the same level as a General Education Teacher.  Intervention Specialist are asked to do the jobs that no one else wants to do and those job  interfere with the job that the Intervention Specialist was hired to do.  Watching the restroom during transition is a waste of valuable education time. Supervising extra recess is a waste of valuable education time.  Intervention Specialist are not seen as "teachers" in the eyes of everyone.  We have the same or even more education as a General Education Teacher.  Students do not respect us.  When we give feedback about how certain activities have gone, and lack of respect from the students is a problem, it seems to get pushed under the rug and not addressed. This is part of the reason why Intervention Specialist are stressed. We also go into classrooms to work with our caseloads to walk into chaos no place to sit, our caseload kids spread all over the room, no sense of organization.

Benefit prices for families is outrageous and it causes car insurance to go up because our company won't allow BLUE Cross Blue Shield to be our primary insurance in a car accident

Paid for unused PTO

The cleaning team needs to be more open to feedback.  They seem to take the survey and assume that it is staff being mean, when we are just trying to help remind them what is being missed.    I also feel like there are inconsistencies in how student behavior is addressed.  We create processes, but when it comes to upholding them, we do not always uphold them and then it creates a problem in showing the teachers that we are here to support them when it comes to handling the unproductive student behaviors.  When we have a process, it needs to be consistently upheld throughout the whole year.

To address the issue of compensation, we should begin by identifying the pay scale for the school district(s) that serve the children in our program. Understanding the district's salary structure will provide a useful benchmark and help inform any discussions about equitable pay and staffing.

I feel that communication is lacking in many areas, from school level to NHA level. Not all parties are always included and on several occasions the info comes last minute and then it makes it hard to be prepared for the day. Also the amount of info not shared that was pertinent to my job with encoding and FSAs and we had to discover it on our own. Then the info wasn't even communicated at Regionals and the info covered didn't concern my role. It is very frustrating. It does not seem that NHA always does what is best for students in mind with some of the changes that have been made in the past couple of years.

Addressing compensation discrepancies between NHA and other area schools/districts; discrepancies within the same role from NHA school to NHA school; discrepancies between compensation of longtime employees vs. new hires

Make pay commiserate to the school district the school is located in, including all state and local supplement pay, for all school employees (paraprofessionals, teachers, administration, service providers, etc.).

Pay teachers more.

Seems like the same individuals are selected to take on other roles in the building without other staff being made aware of the opportunities. It would be beneficial if other job roles/ titles were listed to all staff to give everyone the opportunity to try out for the position or roles.

With the loss of the esser funds and uncertainty of retention bonuses, the rise of costing of living and inflation, I am feeling not as confident in my expected annual income as I have in the years past.

I think the best way to support this are is to pay teachers what they are worth.

For the past few year, a bonus (funded by ESSER I believe) was given every year. With that funding gone now, how is NHA going to make up the difference? I know bonuses should not be expectations, but when it has happened over a few years, it becomes so. That's a significant amount of money.  There should be some compensation for those with advanced degrees past the job requirements. When I was hired my position required a masters degree. Now it doesn't seem to have any requirements.  I don't like how the content leader position is paid. Everything else in NHA is detailed and organized, but content leader pay isn't. Some examples: Pay is sometime in (insert season here), retention bonus(we decided not to give them this year), we're changing how content leaders work (yet our content leader supervisors do not have any knowledge of what is changing)  That being said, I enjoy my work here in the community, co-workers and the admin team here. These are entirely NHA concerns.

Compensate  your employees what they are worth with decent raises and bonus. NHA adds work to your plate and no money.

Some built in time to get paper work done.

ELA needs more independent practice for students. There is teacher lead instruction for grammar, read aloud and shared reading. PLEASE PROVIDE MORE INDEPENDENT PRACTICE FOR ELA

Compensation for staff who have been loyal to the company for an extended period of time.

Some recommendations are listed below: Revise the policty on state and city taxes that are deducted from the grant funded positions since we do not live in those states.  Increase the salaries of those who support states like New York where the base salary is already much higher.  Increase the company match for retirement funds.  Conduct a market pay analysis for comparable job titles and adjust the service center salaries to be competitive with those of public schools.

Response to student behavior is still a problem. When you call for help it takes too long for the behavior specialist to respond in the k-2 hallway. We need to go back to the days of 2 recesses in the k-2 hallway, I firmly believe this would help with some of the behavior problems.

We continue to try to have others take on areas that will help meet the students needs as well as help relieve some of the burden off of us, yet there is not way to MAKE a person work outside of their contract hours and we already do it for free. The best way I can say it, it some sort of compensation for programs that are outside of our contracted hours. Whether that is extra PTO or pay.

I really think that our current programs are fantastic and I don't want to change them.  Bridges (Number corner) have wonderful tools to grow students.  Heggerty and our Phonics to Reading is terrific.  Students understand how it all ties together.  Maybe check out the Heggerty readers to complement our Heggerty ?

i would like to be compensated similarly to our neighborhood schools. what about a pension?

I don't know if OA positions at other schools are the same as the one at Fortis, but I feel I do quite a bit more than what's required. Why isn't the OA a salaried position like the Registrar? I feel that my principal greatly appreciates me and the work I do, but the SVC puts very little importance/value on the OA position. Also, hourly employees should be able to earn at least 4 hours of additional PTO time for every year after 3 years. Why do I have the same amount of PTO time after 10 years that incoming employees have?  Time for an adjustment on both items!

I feel that a big resource room for the children with issues I needed at this school.

Work life balance does not exist. Too many new projects are sprung with quick deadlines. We are forced to work extra events outside of normal hours and too many meetings every week take away planning so we have to plan outside of our hours. The capstone project, by definition, is a year at a glance but we were forced to rush to do a poor presentation in three weeks with no time worked into the schedule. We are forced to memorize every word of OOS and print out the script for principal to read along with us when she visits or we get into trouble even though C&I have said over and again this is just a guideline. We are expected to answer texts and emails over the weekend and over breaks. Having 2 consecutive of 13 hour conference days followed by a regular school day is too much stress no our bodies. More and more staff are getting sick due to these extreme demands and some are even having to use PTO for a healthy mental day due to the extreme pressure and principal's micromanaging.

Raises that match the cost of living and bonuses that are reflective of the work that we do.

Recently, many decisions have been made that appear to be financially driven and not what is in the best interest of our schools and students.. They are done in a way that feels like they're being "done to" employees and schools and we aren't given believable reasons why. There are also a lot of initiatives randomly thrown on people's plates without any intentional thought or planning, coming across as reactive instead of proactive.

You are losing very highly qualified teachers due to compensation.  We have put our time in and it is never transparent how each person is paid.  We have teachers starting here that are making about the same amount of money I am and have been here for 11 years.  I can leave and go to a public school district and get paid 10 grand more for the amount of work and education that I have.  I used to feel valued as a veteran teacher but now you are valuing the new teachers who come into our schools.  I love NHA and everything it stands for but I wish they loved their loyal teachers just as much.

We have been informed that the Parent Relations team will be meeting with families in the reception area. This is a change to the policy in the past. I want to make sure that similar safety measures used at our schools and for front desk staff are also implemented for the PR team, to make sure that all staff are protected from unsafe situations that could arise.

We have been working three years with an open position and can count one one hand how many have applied.  Other districts offer more money and I have been doing double the work with no end in sight.  I know my manager appreciates my efforts but NHA does not seem to.  This make me sad and disappointed.

Identify the people in the building who intentionally "play both sides" to create chaos and discord in the building. For example, our Instructional Coach, Michelle Shepardson is a beloved figure in the building. Teachers feel seen and supported by her, but she is known to speak poorly of administration to these teachers and say unprofessional things about others. She will smile, be kind to everyone, but then behind peoples make, she is talking negatively about them. This is not professional behavior from a person who is an Instructional Coach, someone who interacts with all areas of the school.

Hourly staff compensation for unforeseen days off. Staff need to be paid for snow days and other days the school is closed without notice.

Principals have become puppets for NHA.

As and educator, we were directed to hold a printed lesson plan while teaching students. As a teacher all my books are annotated and contains the same information.

Curriculum and resources should align and be used consistently with fidelity.

Making sure that personal devices are not over used for daily communication before and after work. Communication should be conveyed thru emails. Which should be the primary source of communication, unless there is something that requires immediate attention or needs to be shared.  -Also allowing some form of autonomy w/o feeling like there is a need to micromanage productivity.

Offer higher pay than public school teachers, as the workload and expectations at NHA schools are significantly more demanding to ensure rigor and high-quality care.

I would like opportunities for art-specific PD so I can grow as an art teacher and enhance the courses that I offer. I think I do pretty well, but I know I could be great id I had access to some cool trainings! :)

1. Explore new math curriculum to purchase- C&I send out survey to math teams/teachers for input. 2. Modified math and ELA classes for lower performing students that align with state standards but DOK and pacing is differentiated-C&I collaborate with SPED department within NHA or consult select group of teachers. 3. Shared spaces for multiple adults-buy another building, NHA is a multi-million dollar company. Use it for the kids/teachers. 4. Large caseloads-two IS/ grade level 5. Two Sped Deans-one for compliance/meetings and one for instructional coaching for paras/IS. This lightens the load on grade level deans and gives struggling teachers and paras more support. Another option is a  Sped dean for K-4 and one 5-8.

I believe that decisions are made at both school and network levels that are not in the best interest of students or their success. In order to be a truly successful and great network, a better alignment around what constitutes effective instruction and best practice needs to occur.

The bendfit package could be in tune with what the Dept. of Education offers.

Sometimes our classrooms and staff bathrooms do not get cleaned each day..... it has gotten much better but some days certain rooms get skipped..... but overall, it is an awesome place to work.... would highly recommend Pembroke to anyone looking for not only a place to work but a place to send their children. Caring and compassionate staff always willing to help each other and ALWAYS do what is best for the students.

Lower deductible insurance, WITHOUT a coinsurance.

I would like use a variety of resources that could additionally help students grow academicaly.

Reading Mastery is an intervention program designed for Tier 3 students who require intensive support. To further strengthen early literacy, I suggest implementing a comprehensive reading program for K–2 students, focusing on foundational reading skills. A structured, holistic approach will better equip young learners with the necessary skills to become proficient readers.

Pay increases would be helpful in maintaining current staff and recruiting qualified and quality new staff.

It would be really nice if our compensation and raises were directly tied to the amount of work and the results of performance reviews. When hard work and achievements aren’t reflected in pay increases or bonuses, it can feel discouraging. It’s especially frustrating to receive the same bonus as under-performers, despite putting in extra effort and consistently delivering strong results. This leads to feelings of frustration, as it diminishes the drive to keep excelling when the rewards don't reflect the level of effort and contribution.   Managers should take ownership of Glint survey results, viewing them as feedback on their leadership. Rather than placing more work on the team (committees, team lunches, or volunteer activities that not all managers even attempt to attend) , they should lead efforts to address concerns and drive improvements, showing commitment through action, not delegation.

Teachers who have more than three years experience should be compensated based on their years.  Compensation for veteran teachers should be comparable to surrounding school districts considering their experience and education.

We need better materials for intervention. A&H teachers need to be given student IEP’s and expected to implement them. They also need training on how to work with all students, regardless of ability or behaviors.   All teachers should be held to the same standards. Some teachers get away with not doing their work, treating others poorly or being habitually late or absent. This is not fair to the rest of the staff.

Increased pay

I feel that NHA could make improvements to their curriculum pacing and assessment calendar to better suit students' needs. In K-2 math, assessments are too frequent (every week or twice a week). This puts stress on both students and teachers, and encourages teachers to "teach to the test." We are not given adequate time to reflect on data from the assessments and re-teach skills that students are struggling with. I believe some checkpoint quizzes could be replaced with exit tickets or other types of formative assessment to guide instruction and help address skills that are lacking. I would like to see our Curriculum & Instruction team take a more involved role in meeting with teachers and accepting feedback.

The administration is encouraged not to exclude individuals who voice their opinions. Understanding  the cultural framework of the envoy's operation can promote sensitivity towards cultural differences, leading to more constructive relationships and a diminished gap between teachers and students.

As an MSW, we are required to have a Master's degree for our positions but do not receive compensation comparable to our level of education, years of services, nor local school districts.

Classroom teachers need better raises, or even choose a few exemplar teachers every year to get a higher raise than others. We should not all be getting a base 3%.

Recognize the people who need to be recognized. Show some appreciation for the hard work they do. They have a lot of people who go above and beyond for Willow but never get recognized by admin or others. And if you give us PTO then don’t penalize us for actually taking the days that are given by saying that we’ll be ineffective on the framework for taking days that are given to us.

NHA loses it's best teachers because public schools pay significantly more. That's why NHA has so many inexperienced teachers. You can keep your talented teachers by paying them more! A move to neighboring schools like Kentwood would get me a $10,000 pay increase.

My team is consistently given projects that are beyond our capacity and with insufficient resources and time to execute them. It is one of the largest frustration points of my team. We see the value in all of the projects and tasks, but we don't have the time or resources to complete them all without consistently working far beyond 40 hours per week. I think as an organization there needs to be a better understanding of capacity and more prioritization when it comes to projects and tasks assigned to various team (or more resources/capacity provided to teams prior to the start of the project).

more consistent polcies across the board and actually following through on them.

To be competitive.

The recommendations that I have to improve the Academic Program/Curriculum would be to incorporate and develop an AI policy as well as to contiune to include digital resources. During Covid-19 pandamic we were using these resources because we were at home, and our students started to thrive. Our data shows that students are more engage with digital resources. There is also data to show that the jobs of the future are incorporating AI into their work and our jobs as educators is to prepare the students for the future. I have asked C&I if I could help write the policy for AI and use certain technologies.  My leadership team supports this effort, however I haven't gotten any direction from C&I yet.

I would like to be making similar to public school teachers with similar experience instead of having to constantly choose between what may be best for my family and what I want to do with my career.

The recommendations to improve would be to have curriculum that meets the need of our students for below level stiudents as well for students who are above level.

It's the same complaint every year. We know our principal has his hands tied with compensation but NHA has to step up or they are going to see a mass exit of all their experienced teachers. The pay difference for new teachers vs experienced is actually insulting.

Having 100% or close to that as a paid maternity leave and for a full 12 weeks is something that is very important to a lot of women here at NHA, being in a very female dominent profession, offering them the highest amount and longer time is something that would be extreamly helpful to their mental health. The cfompensation now and time off while recovering is not accepable by any means. Please do better.

There needs to be better support for behavioral issues in the school, instead of just putting all of the work on the staff who are already struggling with the behaviors in the classroom. When we ask for help its because we've already tried in the room.

Being a multi-million dollar company I would hope that in the future NHA can structure their pay scale to help pay teachers (especially veteran teachers) what they are worth and what they deserve.

I don’t know; it just feels like there’s constantly new things being added to our teacher plates. Between meetings during planning and after school every week, there’s just not a lot of time to feasibly get all the things done. I guess building more teacher work days into the calendar next year is a good start. But it’s also frustrating when some teachers spend the whole day at school working on work days while other teachers don’t even have to show up for even half the day.

I am becoming increasingly concerned with the ongoing lack of communication regarding important process changes initiated by upper management in finance.   Effective change management requires that changes be clearly communicated to all impacted stakeholders before their go-live date — not afterward, when confusion and frustration have already taken hold. Unfortunately, it is often the case that some stakeholders across departments and within the schools are not informed of changes or how those changes may impact their responsibilities.   Proactive and timely communication is essential to ensure smooth transitions, minimize disruption, and maintain trust across all teams. The current gaps in disseminating critical information that impacts staff responsibilities and workflows must be addressed as a priority moving forward.

I wish there was an opportunity to grow my knowledge of the content area I teach.

Supporting teachers in the classroom is crucial for improving student outcomes, reducing burnout, and fostering a positive learning environment. Here are several key ways to support teachers effectively:  1. Provide Adequate Resources Ensure access to teaching materials (books, technology, supplies). Provide functional and comfortable classroom spaces. Use support staff to handle non-instructional tasks. Schedule regular planning time during work hours. Foster a culture of sharing ideas and resources. 5. Provide Emotional and Mental Health Support Offer access to counseling and wellness programs. Build a supportive and respectful school culture. Recognize teacher efforts and celebrate small wins. 6. Involve Teachers in Decision-Making Invite teachers to participate in school planning and policy development. Respect their expertise in curriculum or disciplinary decisions. 7. Ensure Fair Compensation and Recognition Advocate for competitive salaries and benefits.

Look at each school's area competitors and match/exceed their programs (both curricular and extra-curricular). Parents (at least in this area) want to enroll their students in a school with an actual STEM curriculum and where sports/ extra curriculars are comparable to public/area schools.  Teaching students to be good humans is great, but having cute characters or stickers for a moral focus curriculum isn't what matters to parents.  Parents want their child exposed to a STEM education to ensure they'll thrive in this technology-driven economy.  Area schools understand this, whether they're k-5, 6-8, or the few that are K-8.  If our k-8 schools are consistently under-enrolled (in 6-8 specifically), does the year over year numbers support changing the model to a k-5 in some areas? Instead of trying to be an elementary school and a middle school, maybe focus on being just one, and being the best at that one thing.

Working at NHA has provided me with many opportunities.  My team has been impacted by our manager.  We are micromanaged, delegated, and get no support that is effective.  We have several new staff and the manager has not provided help or mentorship to assist.  Expectation but no clear communication. The manager doesn't have any experience in our field.  We have had a turnover of more than 10 staff members in just our wing since the manager started.  When we are observed, the feedback is negative and doesn't offer growth.  The manager also often here after many staff and leaves before.  No communication when they are out.  They do not attend any of their students' sports or events.  They are not present in a positive way.  They do not know the students nor do they know their staff.   The issues have been brought to administration and no action was taken to make the situation better.  We have 5 administrators and no clear communication or commonality of expectations happen between them.

Allow teachers the opportunity to supplement materials with research-based sources to effectively provide differentiated instruction for all learners (aside from Workshop plans).

College loan forgiveness

The school calendar is not as balanced as it could be.  Too long without any breaks, no time given for parent-teacher conferences, we could have more professional development days like other schools.

Curriculum that connects culturally and socially with our population of students.

We need more technology in our school. Smart boards, I pads, things that the scholars can relate to.

The school owners, authorizers, and continously changing school leaderships generalized and spotty vision has not done the best job of supporting Center Line Prep with implementing and sustaining proper systems as a newer school. Dedication and stability in these areas is necessary to build a solid foundation for CLPA to stand on.  NHA does not provide Deans a good enough reason to remain in their roles besides gaining experience. The Dean role consists of many expectations yet the compensation does not match what is expected. Additional compensation for Deans is lacking while other staff get bonuses and opportunities for additional pay. With all that said Dean's have to put in a time card in addition to all the other tasks they have. The payroll system is flawed and confusing for all.   The desired team model for CLPA is lacking and most departments are functioning in isolation. This divide shows unfortunate dysfunction and disunity.

I would like to see the moral focus curriculum updated. I feel like the activities and engaging questions are just the same things each month.

Not sure what to put that will help. Hourly employees tend to suffer a little bit. Those of us who work every single day and go above and beyond sometimes get over looked.

Our team has had multiple leadership vacancies—both manager and team lead positions—open for over a year, with several roles unfilled since October 2024. These leadership positions are critical to the stability and growth of our team, and their continued vacancy has had a tangible impact. I personally aspire to grow into one of these roles and contribute more meaningfully, but the prolonged delay has been discouraging. It often feels as though I've been overlooked by leadership, and this sentiment has been echoed by teammates who have since left, citing similar frustrations. Right now, opportunities for advancement feel stalled, which makes it difficult to stay motivated to grow, develop, and excel in my current role. Additionally, our requests for professional development opportunities as senior specialists have been denied. This decision has left me feeling undervalued and has raised concerns about the organization's commitment to employee growth and well-being.

I recommend a curricular tool that includes in-class intervention tools to meet the academic need of all student groups.

Everyone works so hard and deserves to be paid more.

In order to attract and retain the best professionals to work with students at Warrendale, it is important to compensate in a competitive way.  We also need to be able to retain support services that are essential for our students to success (social workers, speech pathologists, special education and intervention providers).  With improved compensation, we'd attract and retain better talent.

More  meeting times to reflect  and share ideas in order to come up with common problem solving strategies to improve the teaching and  learning environment.

Pay more. If my paycheck is about $2000. After being a teacher for 13 years. And my health insurance is $900 a month. I am not bringing much money home. All while NHA is a for profit company.

Building safety is a continued concern! The entire parking lot should be paved (not a specific area). The roof needs to be REPLACED not patched, the heater should work in ALL classrooms. I'd like to see a newer/updated dispenser for soap and paper towel in the bathrooms. We could also use routine extermination for bud bugs, mice and roaches. Unfortunately, this is a consistent issue we see yearly. Middle school is a weak link! The dean is not present when needed most! For example, 4/5 hallway functions like a machine with their morning routine while MS hangs in the hallway with a few staff members yelling 'GO TO CLASS' or 'CLEAR THE HALLWAY.' Leadership made an impact in MS and not in a good way. The admin team has taken our comments into consideration in the past, I am hopeful necessary changes will take place with this survey. Also, can a cheat sheet be created for new staff members on FAQ's? There seem to be some repetitive hiccups yearly.

As the administration transitions, setting the tone for culture and belonging is vital. I know it will be a great year!

They do not clean(shampoo) the rugs over the summer and do not thoroughly deep clean our rooms. Our restrooms where we change diapers were without soap  for 3 weeks at beginning of year and we were told "Wait and tell Ms Martha when she comes back

Accepting new students in the last quarter of the school year is very difficult.  By the time we get to know the students the school year is over.   We do not have Dibels teat score on them until end of the year testing.   Many of these students are well below grade level and require alot of support.  We do not have time to help them.

Pay instructional coaches and deans competitive pay to local districts.

I believe the data in this category would be less skewed and more accurately reflect reality if employees selected three responses.   Also, replace Reading Mastery, instead of attempting to patch it up, with an up-to-date, relevant, reading program. Finally, keep our principal and give her a raise!

Pay teachers and staff at same level as district pay

ADMIN TEAM BEING MORE RECEPTIVE TO IDEAS FOR STUDENTS AND NOT CHOOSING ACULTURE TEAM THAT IS MAJORITY COMPRISED OF THEIR FRIENDS OR PEOPLE THAT WILL TELL THEM NO

I feel that since most of the Para's have been taking on a Teaching roll that they should be paid according to them being in the classroom. It also would be great if the Para's got paid through the summer. It is difficult to find a summer job for a short length of time.

I would love to see more time taken to really discuss data, classroom culture and overall the job that we are doing as teachers.  I think there are so many check boxes we need to complete that we forget to celebrate the wins and look at the positive things that are happening.

To continue providing classes/courses/worksops/seminars/trainings that focus on improving and evaluating junior staff and mid-level management.

Next school Year ; Gen Ed teachers should make time to work with ALL SPED students  during small group to reinforce what's being taught in the GEN ED classes. This year it was a divide between the SPED students and the classroom teachers students. It may have been because of the class size this year and the teachers wanted to be responsible  for  "less" students.  This divide did not allow students to be as successful and they did not fell "a part of the class".  The Gen ed teachers the teacher of Record and the SPED teacher is to implement interventions to help them be successful in the class. Moving forward Gen ed teachers should have at least one day to reinforce what's being taught in the classroom while the SPED teacher works on remedial skills that will help mend the gap - such as adding , subtracting , multiplying , fractions ..

There is tremendous pressure from higher up in NHA to improve test scores despite the many challenges our scholars face and the many roles educators hold each day. It can feel like we are reduced to numbers - I am expected to perform at an unrealistic pace with curriculum and assessments that often times burns our students and teachers out. I am asked to perform far past my compensation level. My administration team is amazing and understands the true struggles we face as educators on the ground, but I can't say the same for all executives above them. This nuanced issue is the main culprit for teacher burnout and the revolving door that many of our schools face.

Pay teachers a livable wage.  Our pay should be comparable to schools in the area or better.

I would provide PowerPoints or lessons for shared reading program based on the lesson plans (This can be done using Commonlit presentations) similar to what is done with bridges.

Often times major changes are announced less than 48 (sometimes less than 24) hours before happening which leaves people scrambling to alter schedules, lessons, etc.

I don't feel like we should receive write ups for going over days if we have provided doctor notes.  I understand losing pay.

I feel that I need more autonomy to do what I need to do to move these children from limited and basic and get them to proficient and beyond.

Veteran teachers need to be compensated as so. Within the last few years we have seen many great veteran teachers leave to go teach in other districts comparable to ours so that they can make more money. We also need a gym at our school for class and functions and that is a huge reason we loose great families and teachers.

More pay. I cannot stress this enough. The rate of pay has never kept up with the cost of living and inflation. Unfortunately, SA will continue to lose great staff to other jobs with higher pay. The rate of pay falls drastically behind what other districts pay their employees.  We should be able to use PTO for the time that is actually needed so we do not have to take a half or full day every time.   I also feel that our students are suspended too much for non-safety related behaviors. I am looking forward to potentially having a new approach to behaviors next year.

I am appreciative that I was given the opportunity to be on a feedback group regarding FSAs. I wish that they would do that more often. While I enjoy our Moral Focus Program, I think that there is room for improvement and we have found a lot of book series that are really great and could definitely be used to connect with younger students especially.   I wish that NHA would send out a yearly survey of some sort asking teachers for (solution- oriented) comments/recommendations/suggestions regarding curriculum. I think there would be a lot of great ideas to come through.

Absolutely love my dean and leadership team. Feel like I have found my home at PrepNet.

Make salary increases more than just a bare minimum cost of living increase.

If staff members opt out of medical benefits, saving NHA money, I believe they should receive a portion of the allocated funds that were saved.

Maybe a different custodial/building maintenance company

There are many ways to express and show genuine sincere appreciations, for teachers.  Here are a few ideas I can think of: Handwritten Letters, Notes or Cards – from leadership or my Dean expressing their gratitude it means a lot.  Have each student contribute to a collaborative piece like a poster, quilt, or book. Set up a space where students and leadership can post messages. Each day could involve something fun (e.g., “Snack Day,” “Flower Day,” “Memory Day”). Surprise Luncheon or Breakfast – Organize lunch or breakfast with the teachers and school staff. Gifts, Tokens Gifts or Personalized Gifts – Mugs, tote bags, or stationery with the teacher’s name or class-related designs for coffee (Starbucks), bookstores, or for classroom supplies. Class Set of Books for the Classroom – Donated with a note inside recognizing the teacher. Help with Behaviors in the Classroom – Ask teachers if they would like support with Handling Students with continuous Behavioral Issues. And other things.

Giving teachers autonomy to implement and plug in fresh ideas

Build a high school for SCA and Greensboro Academy NOW....sooner than later....before we lose the good students and families and culture.

Communicate in a timely manner/respect teacher's time, don't plan last minute meetings during planning.  Don't repeat the same discussions/ask teachers to provide the same information month after month.  Spend more time in the classrooms, not just when a behavior issue arises. When a behavior issue does arise, support the teacher. Be a coach. Model areas for growth so teachers don't feel criticized.  Teach the curriculum so you can understand the how much time it takes to plan and prep.

First, I want to be clear that my concerns do not lie with my manager or any member of the leadership team for Special Education. This is the most supportive team I have ever worked with and am truly only still at NHA due to the support I receive from this group of people.   While I recognize that NHA has a different pay scale than the surrounding LEAs, it is frustrating that this continues to be the factor that leads to a domino effect of so many things. Starting with our paraprofessionals all the way up to principals/service center staff. Due to this significant area of need, we cannot maintain the teachers we have and we cannot acquire new, quality candidates for our vacancies. The amount of work that we have to put in to train, keep and support our staff is unreal. In addition, it feels like our most vulnerable students and their needs continue to be put last, or even dismissed. The number of SE staff we have lost over compensation and workload is truly disheartening/ scary.

 A kindergarten curriculum means creating a structured yet flexible learning environment that supports young children's development across many areas — academic, social, emotional, and physical. Kindergarten is about building foundations and should focus on language and early literacy (letters, sounds, simple words), basic math (counting, patterns, simple addition/subtraction), social skills (sharing, cooperation, expressing emotions appropriately), fine and gross motor skills (cutting, writing, climbing, running), creativity and curiosity (art, music, science exploration). I think a great kindergarten curriculum should compass all of the above mentioned daily.

I appreciate the gestures of stipends and bonuses here and there, but what is really needed is for compensation in the regards of salaries to be taken into consideration with the neighboring districts. I have seen multiple colleagues leave for better salaries, teachers that this school could not afford to lose. These were colleagues that helped me grow into what I am today and there was nothing done to try to keep them monetarily. At this point though, it feels like I am talking to a brick wall when it comes to compensations/salaries. Which is too bad.   As far as autonomy goes, I was, gratefully mind you, to be given autonomy in my growth as an educator. Not a lot of my colleagues are afforded that. Why is it that core classes are given so much focus and less autonomy and other classes, such as Specials, are not given so much focus and given more autonomy? I would say this uneven. The classroom teachers need more autonomy and creativity to help make their classrooms come to life.

Our technology for students is one-to-one. This was purchased with Covid money. As covid money has stopped, what is being done to continue replacing and maintaining these devices? Printing out workbooks and worksheets that have been digitally mastered for the past several years would be costly and time consuming. It would be wiser to figure out a way to replace and maintain the devices our students have rather than letting them wear out without replacing them.

Oakside has a good place to work so far, by being new to the school I would have like to get more coaching and feedback from my dean this year. I do also appreciate the support I have been given with my grade level lead, although she wears many hats, she is always willing to help me when I need it. I would like to get more training on classroom management, and the curriculum.

I don't feel that teacher's are always adequately recognized. A video was sent with reasons to put highly satisfied on the parent survey and it mentioned how active the administration was but did not mention how hard the teachers work. It made me feel as though I was not appreciated.  In terms of building cleanliness, the bathrooms are gross and always smell by the end of the day. If they could be cleaned mid day, it might help.

The cost of living is higher every year and I feel NHA could do more to keep the employees they have. Some of us love our job and don't want to move elsewhere but yet we know that elsewhere our wage would be higher. I just wish NHA would take that into consideration.

Increase wages.

Be aware of what is happening across divisions

Class size, class size, class size. I will say it everytime. i know money is important but if we really want to see a difference in test scores, teacher happiness and even student happiness; we have got to do something about the class size. I normally have 28-30 students...this year I had 25 and it truly made ALL the difference. I cannot describe how much it helped to just have 5 less students. My mental health improved, I was able to put more focus on my red and bubble kids. It felt like our class was able to come together more easily. Please reconsider the class sizes.

Benefits need to be more affordable for all staff members. $500 per paycheck for a family of 4 is too much.  Keep the yearly bonuses for staff!

NHA as a whole should pay veteran teachers more so they do not go elsewhere. Many districts have pensions as well. Bring back bonuses and incentives.

I would say that compensation could be a lot better than it has been. I feel that the raise every year is very low.

Proven successful reading program.

Behaviors are still not adequately dealt with and there are not consequences for many students actions. It makes teaching the 20+ other students difficult and is not setting those behavior students up for success later in life.

I would like NHA's policy allow a spouse to select our insurance even though their employer offers health insurance.

We give the stuent WAY TOO MANY assessments. I feel like I am losing a lot of teaching time to give all of the assessments. then I have trouble keeping up with grading them all, which effects my work-life balance.  Teachers kow their students best, we should be allowed to teach them in a way that is best for them, NOT in a way that someone at corporate thinks we should. the curriculum should be a tool to help guide, not a book to be followed to the T.

I would like to have access to a health plan that doesn't have such high out-of-pocket costs.  I feel I currently have to choose to go without healthcare when I need it.

I am concerned that if I spend the next 20 years here, what happens after? There are no benefits in regards to insurance.  I will have my 401k but is that all? I also believe that with the rising cost of everything else in the world, are we being equally compensated to keep up with the rising costs.

Please stop making us stay until 3:45.  I seriously just sit here in my room twirling my thumbs from 3:30-3:45.  I feel like i am taking responsibility for those who aren't productive and can't get their work done by 3:30

I feel that many large decisions are rushed within the organization and the right team and groups are not involved in those decisions. For example we take on or open new schools with new grades without having the proper teams within the service center set up to support those schools and students properly. Once things come back that are needed its a scramble to determine who needs to be involved and it all falls on the shoulders of others to figure out and fix.

There are many items from corporate which are pushed through at the last minute and it is the expectation that the school drops everything and gets them complete. Which is incredibly hard while completing the daily tasks that a required in a school.

We need more time in the schedule to effectively teach moral focus to the students. I rarely get through the whole lesson provided by NHA. Also some of the lessons are not age appropriate or engaging enough to students. We need to provide some SEL opportunities to go along with our Moral Focus and make it part of the curriculum. Provide resources to teachers to have students actively practice these SEL Skills. Provide extra recess time for student to practice these skills independently.

Allow for more small group focused curriculum. We need a curriculum that focuses on skills that reinforce previous grade level skills while continuing to teach grade level skills. We need a curriculum that allows for more teacher autonomy and that is better engaging for our scholars.

I miss managers being able to take people for lunch on their anniversaries or get lunch for the team sometimes

I feel the math curriculum doesn't give the students the key ideas in a manner that helps them achieve quickly.  I also feel the pace at which the students are expected to learn concepts is  way too fast and many students do not show growth on the assessments as expected.

I think that staff should be compensated when they sub for classroom teachers. I also think that teachers should be given incentives if they do not use all of their PTO.

I would like to see Smart Boards installed in classrooms.

Select an ELA curriculum that aligns better with state testing schedule.

Updated tools for teaching for teachers

Having summer school for the students

his year we have been without a direct Manager for almost the entire school year.  We have little support from the NHA Special Ed team and our Administration is all doing the job of multiple people and are overwhelmed. Our EC team, those of us who are left, (as many members have left during the year) are overworked as we are expected to manage our caseloads and then pitch in for others.  I have only had two one on one meetings with administration since October and those were only held because they were post observation conferences and they were due.  The NHA Special Ed team does not check in or provide support unless they are reached out to multiple times or by administration, even then it is only with "big cases" that they step in and provide support.  Minimal support has been provided to new EC employees, and the expectation is for the more seasoned teachers to be helping them.  Communication is only given with something needs to be done or is due and instead of on a weekly basis.

I’m grateful to be part of a work community that cares about students and supports each other. I think if we keep working on building even stronger relationships with one another, our team will be even better, and our students will grow even more.

Education as a whole deserves better pay

I feel that the lack of communication is a big problem. Admin needs to slow down and actually let the staff know what is happening. The "Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you" is getting old and way to common. Also I feel that opinions of staff that is not in the "bestie" (Kelly, Karsten & Gen) club goes unheard as if it goes against what they want. I mean when all people in a meeting need to say that the regrouping of sped cases so Gen can have her autistic room is a BAD idea yet it still happens. Now ALL the teachers are upset and it's not working. I think admin needs to actually back up their teachers not just say they will and then side with the parents. It feels like the parents run the school and admin are their puppets.  "change the adult not the behavior" is a horrible motto yet, it is what keeps happening.

If there is something happening that involves students in classroom, please advise the teachers ahead of time so that we can plan accordingly. It would also be very helpful to have more help in the hallway during the day to help monitor the bathrooms and just the hall in general.

Virtual Fridays to assist teachers with additional planning and prep time.

Offer bonuses tied to clear, measurable performance goals to reward high achievers and boost motivation. Introduce automatic annual adjustments to salaries based on inflation or cost-of-living increases. Implement scheduled salary reviews (annually or biannually) to ensure compensation stays competitive with market rates. Offer bonuses tied to clear, measurable performance goals to reward high achievers and boost motivation.

i picked innovation because i think it will be vital to staying relevant in a time of increasingly rapid change

Update or new technology more cameras in and outside school - vape and weapon detectors - more key cards to classrooms - tenant on exit doors -  remove any objects that blocks the view of cameras

Differentiate during Regional PDs for new teachers vs. veteran teachers. They each have different needs for professional development and differentiating would propel us further.

There should be a points rollover system into the following school year for PTO that not have not been used.

Classroom teachers should follow and respect WIN times and let teachers know via email if a student isn't coming to group or if they are going on a field trip.  This info was not shared that often this year even though we asked and dean's asked...It seems like teachers don't think it's important to collaborate and tell other teachers (who work with their kids) when they will or won't be coming. It effects our planning A LOT, and it feels very disrespectful that they don't care to do that.

Students take too many online assessments. It is hard to see what mistakes they are making when they are taking an online math assessment, and we can't see their work. As a parent, I would not send my own children to an NHA school because I know how many online assessments students are expected to complete. Interims are painful and torturous for students and staff. Doing them three times a year is too much. Students are more than a data point. The curriculum is boring, students don’t like it, and it is hard to teach. When C&I comes to visit, it’s a stressful time for teachers because they always find something that we aren’t doing right. C&I would be more helpful to us if they came to assist with prep or let us observe them teach a lesson. I truly enjoy the culture of Ridge Park and love it here despite the shortcomings of the curriculum.

New lap tops and chrome books are an absolute  must for the iimprovement of instruction and learning .

Our moral focus program/ scope and sequence is great. However, with the other demands of following ELA and Math scope and sequence/ block structure, and state test prep, there is often not much room in the schedule left for Moral Focus. I think as an admin team, we need to pave the path of intentionality toward embedding moral focus throughout the day, even if the lesson plans aren't followed. I think our new house program for next year will be a great next step!

Just a suggestion... if possible, the bathrooms, should be cleaned every two to three hours, daily. Cleaned as in toilets wiped down, mopped around around the toilets and whole floor, tissue refilled, counters wiped.

Benefits always seem to go up and cost more than the yearly raise and my pay ends up going backward. It is never a cost of living raise.

Stop sending kids to enroll in the middle/end of the year or a few days before testing who have been kicked out of other schools for extreme behavior, who also have attendance issues, expecting them to instantly assimilate and bring the data up.

Teachers should make more money. Teachers are valuable and should be paid accordingly. Years of experience should provide teachers with a larger raise.

This school needs to focus on the things that will make students successful.

I do appreciate all of the opportunities given to me thus far.  I feel as though staff that is seeking advancement opportunities get stuck in a holding pattern due to a lack of positions.  That said, I would love to see more opportunities in leadership training, professional development, mentorship, and new opportunities to showcase my leadership skills and growth.  I have reached a level of frustration in my path to leadership and want to avoid this affecting my progress and goals.

Clear concise communication from proper sources.

We must compensate our educators and leaders more if we want to keep them. If paying 107% of the local base is the plan, we will keep losing them when they finish 3 years with us. Also paying everyone 107% of the base, regardless of their years of experience, keeps us from attracting and retaining veteran trained staff

Please fix the potholes in the road!  I understand that the situation is complicated.....but it's ridiculous and has gone on far too long.   BUY THE ROAD and take care of it.   It's not safe for families or employees.....and none of us can afford to fix the damage done to our cars.

Improve rate of pay and more rate increase incentives

A flow chart of who to go to for which concerns or needs. After onboarding, these things may be more common sense. As a newer hire, I am still figuring out who everyone is and where I go for specific needs.

Sometimes I feel like we receive communication at the last minute (i.e. students who are serving ISS, no lunch in the gym on certain days, things we are supposed to attend, and other important things we need to know). It would be beneficial to have more timely and detailed communication so we know what is going on and can be prepared.

More novel studies for upper elementary. New math program. Better phonics program for upper elementary students.

I would love to discuss any of my answers with anyone that would like to know more of the why behind the scores.  As always feel free to call Chris Mustard 937-260-6671.  Here is a link to some of my reasons - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1usG8QeCtv6xfr8G-SqDyXnLwawBV7fRBTeFwxP2bESI/edit?usp=sharing If it asks for permission to see it, I will respond as quickly as I can. Thank you for your time.

1. Inconsistent Expectations: It feels like different staff members are held to different standards. Some avoid responsibilities while others are overworked trying to pick up their slack. We need consistent expectations for everyone.  2. Conflicting Communication From Admin: Staff often receive different answers to the same question depending on which admin they ask. This inconsistency creates confusion and frustration among staff.  3. Lack of Direct Communication: Much of the information about my role comes secondhand from coworkers. This leads to misinformation and makes it hard to know what is accurate.  4. Student Safety Concerns: There are too many situations where students are left unsupervised or sent somewhere without adults. This puts student safety at risk and damages trust among staff.   I want our school to be successful, and I believe we have the staff to make that happen. However, nothing is going to change until we all get on the same page and work together.

The student bathrooms are smelly, not all doors lock, the blowers make too much noise, and students drag their urinated shoes over the carpet. The carpet on the elementary side should be removed, at least in the hallways. The school should be cleaner in appearance in my opinon.

n/a

I don't believe that bonuses should count towards our salary. I am actually making less this year as a result of that. Last year my bonus was bigger and now my pay this year will be less because my raise didn't ofset that. I can't afford to make less. You need to be able to keep up with today's economy, and NHA is not. The micromangaing is also very difficult to contend with. It has gotten a lot worse through the years. You are running this place too much like a big business with big brother looking at every little thing and allowing very little autonomy. You are sucking the joy out of teaching and driving great teachers away with not enough compensation and allow schools to manage and trust the leaders at the school level- each school is different and there isn't a "one size fits all" model for each school. We are all different with our demographics, teachers, etc. Trust your people to be adults!

Just trying to do what I can for now to impress in hopes that I will not be in this entry-level position for much longer.

I feel the rate of pay for non- salary should be reviewed and revised to fit the economy.

I want to start by saying that I truly love our school, the administration, and my job. I feel grateful to be part of this community and appreciate the support and leadership we have. For the most part, I am very happy in my role.  That being said, there are a few areas where I believe we need more consistency. I feel that one of the main reasons we continue to lose great teachers and families is the way we handle student behaviors. While I understand there are legal considerations and processes that must be followed, it seems other schools are able to enforce stronger, more immediate consequences without the same hurdles we face.  In our school, when students exhibit unsafe behaviors — such as hitting other students or teachers, or using inappropriate language — the consequences often seem minimal or unclear. In many cases, unless a student has a specific behavioral plan, they are rewarded or placated (such as being given a sucker, extra attention, or preferred activities) rather than receiving appropriate c

Sharing all content with employees. Being able to have access to certain resources in order to maintain the classroom when subbing (attendance, grade book, etc. )

Executive Management should clarify and differentiate support expectations for new versus veteran principals to better facilitate change management efforts in high-needs schools. This includes increasing support from the service center, assessing the mid- to end-of-year impact of policy or contract changes (e.g., SPED services, staff retention norms) on families and school culture, and reevaluating principal workload to prevent additional responsibilities from being disproportionately assigned to campus leaders. Consideration should be given to what tasks could be reallocated to service center staff or other support structures.

People need to feel appreciated and not just for doing something above their job description.

I would like some ability to teach things that are more specific to my students, our demographic, and things that interest them. I would like to choose more of my own ELA and writing teaching materials/curriculum.

I wish that NHA would not treat all schools like a "one size fits all". Queen's Grant has been fully enrolled since the doors were open and has an amazing culture. I feel that when corporate makes phone calls and texts during enrollment and other occasions that we lose the personal touch that we offer here. It becomes over communicating and I think we lose people that way. I think that we are losing our autonomy on several levels with this. I also think we need to have some wiggle room with summer hours. I did not have one person drop in last summer on my evening hours which I felt was a waste of my time. I live close to the school and am happy to meet families by appointments.  I know I work during the school year more than a 40 hour week so I think summer needs to be a little more flexible.

One key recommendation to improve this area is to prioritize compensation and work-life balance. At the end of the day, this is a job, and while we are passionate about the work we do, it’s important to remember that a majority of staff members have families and responsibilities at home. Equally important is fostering a strong work-life balance, which includes the ability to leave work at work. Ensuring staff can finish their day at a reasonable time, like 3:30, and still function effectively at home is vital. A clear boundary between work and personal life helps prevent burnout, allowing employees to recharge and return to work refreshed. Supporting personal well-being through manageable workloads and flexible scheduling leads to higher job satisfaction and long-term productivity. Both enhanced compensation and a culture that respects personal time creates an environment where employees can thrive both professionally and personally, ultimately strengthening the entire organization.

Communication should be upfront and not at the last minute.

A curriculum that adds study guides or guided notes so we can push study habits with our students.

Evaluate market compensation and make adjustments

Give salaries that sustain and maintain good teachers and educators. The turnover for teachers is high because the salaries are not competitive.

Fifth grade testing is too much. ELA is every other week, but Math is screening, weekly quizzes, and a unit test. Then when we get to the end of the year we have interim 3, M-Step Science and SS practice tests, followed by M-Step for ALL subject areas, and then NWEA. The scholars are tested out and getting accurate data will be difficult.

communicate things ahead of time. leaving teacher with little warning makes them feel even more stressed and anxious

My DSQ keeps our team informed and up-to-date, however, as we progress through the school year communication from NHA changes. One example of this is our retention guidelines changing in April 2025. We are diligent in communicating with parents starting in October and this change is challenging for leaders.   Compensation for leaders still needs to be more competive with disctricts, including our dean compensation.  MPM - March Principal Meeting - this year we seemed to have moved away from our professional development and more of fillers. It wasn't our traditional training sessions and could've given leaders back time.

Policies and procedures have been changed a lot this year at the NHA-level without a lot of transparency.  It gives the strong impression that the company is in grave financial trouble.  One member in particular on the administration team has made a negative impact on the culture in the school.  While she has great qualities, it has taken a long time for her urgency to pick up.  Given that she is the Dean focused on culture, it would have been very beneficial for her to establish a schoolwide behavior system that she reviews regularly, perhaps including interventions for frequent fliers, in order to be more proactive rather than reactive.  Additionally, her outside relationships have been brought into the school building.  And while this is not entirely her fault, it does not seem like clear and consistent boundaries have been set in order to keep those matters separate.  As a result of this, trust amongst many teachers has been lost.

Our PD's should be presented by professionals in the field in stead of co-workers. Who wrote these programs/guidelines why aren't they presenting?

The culture continues to decline. We understand the need to be financially responsible but it feels like we are being put through the ringer. We can't spend money on engagement for our teams. We have to make drastic cuts at the schools. We can't have offsites anymore to allow for strategic time. It feels like we are being put under a thumb more and more. It is understandable with so much new leadership but frankly it is very concerning the amount of restricting that is happening all around us and more and more are starting to notice. It is causing unnecessary fear. People shouldn't be terrified to go to an all staff meeting and fear that everyone is being fired. We need to seriously consider the culture in this building and it starts with leadership at the top. The turnover in people services is concerning and it feels like no one is taking it seriously and just counting it as natural, there is nothing natural about this amount of turnover. If this was a school we would be leaning in.

This year has felt very different from years past. The service center no longer feels like a service that is being provided to us as it is presented. There is a lot more being put on the Principals but nothing is being taken off our plates. There is an extreme amount of micromanaging and a one sizes fit all approach that is happening. The way things are being communicated and presented are no longer representing the very pillars NHA stands on such as behaving with care and our moral focus virtues , specifically integrity, honesty, compassion. Examples of this are the new master schedule that requires a tremendous amount of time on the Principal's end, the enrollment goals that have been added to specific schools only, the quick turnaround times with no respect given to our own time and deadlines needed on the school level, the new family program with the excessive logging of information in addition to monthly attrition data inputting, NC completing Indistar AND the CNA documents.

Fundraisers or other means of funding to support special projects.

When adding tasks, take others away.  Have less after school requirements. Give more time during the day to complete work, grading, planning and less time in meetings.

The kids we teach are changing - their parents now parent differently, there are many neurotypes, and more technology influence - and our teachers need to be trained and taught how to help those kids in the classroom. In the past year, I've watched NHA push moral focus teaching, which most of our teachers already know how to do. What our teachers need is to learn how to tailor their teaching to the ADHD or autistic child in their classroom. It's no longer a question of "who will have the hard kid this year," it's now "which hard kid am I going to have?" Our special education team is not adequately staffed to provide the support these teachers are asking for - NHA should be focused on building our capacity for teaching our teachers how to help multiple kinds of learners in their classrooms. If we're looking to draw back on the amount of paraprofessionals we have, then the teachers need to be taught more strategies - and they need to be OPEN to that teaching and feedback from others.

Higher match for our 401K

I don't feel that am I reaching my full potential as a special education teacher at NHA because of the amount of testing we do. Since we got back in January, I have missed 9 weeks of instruction time and owe the students on my caseload HUNDREDS of minutes because I am constantly out of the room for testing. It's April 28 right now, and I STILL owe minutes to students from interim 2 and winter NWEA, which we took in January. How can I be effective if all I do is test? Doing 3 NWEA tests, all of state testing, and 3 interims is too much and make me confused about my role. Am I a special education teacher or am I a test proctor? Something has to give because I am legally required to meet the minutes in the IEP and NHA does not allow me to do so. We are not effectively servicing our students on IEPs and that is not fair to them. It's incredibly frustrating to be constantly testing and not be able to teach and to owe hundreds of minutes to students.

Since covid, we were able to earn bonuses that made a big difference.  Now that those funds are no longer available, compensation is back to pre-covid standards and that was low.

Before decisions are made to give a level 2 behavior consequence, which impacts job security, NHA needs to ensure those consequences are inline with the the behavior which warranted the consequence.

I often feel as if I'm learning about events at the last minute although we have the ability to disperse the information sooner.

I would like to see a recognition program for specialists similar to the Teacher of Excellence program. Currently, the only way to differentiate between specialists is through promotion, which does not fully capture the value or contributions of individual specialists. Some specialists work harder and achieve greater impact than others, yet the only available recognition is advancement into leadership roles. A separate acknowledgment system would help highlight and celebrate outstanding specialist performance without requiring a transition out of their current roles.

Let staff know of opportunities to advance in positions

Allowing for more than 3% or lower raises every year.  This does not compensate for the cost of living increases.  Every year I work here I am making less even with the raise because the money does not go as far.  Bonuses and additional funds are allotted for specific employees, but not all are eligible, so our position only gets the compensation offered from salaries.  No where else to put:  Our leadership team has been cut down drastically this year with no word on replacing.  So, now management will be and has been stretched much thinned than before.

This years leadership team have made great strides in making sure each teacher is supported throughout the year.  I think communication can always be improved.  I think some coaching in the area of writing specifically K-2 would be so helpful.  Retention bonuses continuing would also be helpful to retain teachers.

differentiate the curricullum for leveled classes.

The FSA’s should be administered by the reading mastery teacher or interventionist and the classroom teacher should only be responsible for administering the AimsWeb Fluency assessments, not both. Both assessments require that we administer the assessment one on one with a student. There is just not enough time in our ELA block to teach and administer the assessments.

made recommendations before and nothing changes so I have nothing new to offer.

The student bathroom stalls have been broken for some time, which has created ongoing issues for both students and staff. Additionally, the continued shortage of substitute teachers makes it feel impossible to take necessary time off to maintain a healthy work-life balance. When I do have to be out, the lack of coverage also impacts the cleanliness and overall condition of my classroom, making it harder to return and immediately refocus on teaching and supporting my students.

Appreciation and recognition is great but monetary compensation is better and also appreciated :)

Krista Cramer has exhibited amazing leadership skills this year serving as Principal. Her leadership allowed me to feel confident in my skills as an Educator and I also felt empowered to make decisions. I appreciate PCA and the culture that it has.

Increased pay and salary pay for full time paraprofessionals. Not having pay over breaks and summers sometimes make it hard to return to the job.

There’s growing frustration with how hiring and spending decisions are made. Some teams must cut back and justify small expenses, while others expand without clear reasoning. MyNHA has to fight just to backfill roles, often told no due to budget or enrollment. Yet those limits don’t seem to apply to the Innovation team.  MyNHA has experience and strong business ties. Innovation is rebuilding apps that already work, including ones users like. Without user input or a support plan, it’s hard to see the value. Why not grow the team that’s already aligned?  We’re also asked to help with deployments and data, which feel like afterthoughts. Stress is being put on other teams to support gaps in planning and experience. If the goal is to sell these products, what’s being done to ensure they are viable? Speed has trade-offs. Without planning, QA, and support, quality suffers. Better alignment would help.

More discipline support, content teachers, EC teachers

The curriculum & assessment expectations for each classroom (proficient, on level, novice). The skills should remain the same, but at the level and pace of the students in that classroom. Reading Mastery Assessments in the grade book should be organized so that it is easy to select.

To engage all students, it is important to diversify reading materials and content. Also, provide professional development that demonstrates, showcases the actual facilitation for executing the curriculum in the classroom.

Ms. Marrugi is the best. She is kind, understanding, helpful, and truly cares about the well-being of her team. I love working for her.

Immediate removal of children with aggressive behaviors. Endangering students and staff after 3 offenses the student should be removed. Security in and out of building there should be at least some officer in building to keep behaviors down. The need to help in the event of parents that become out of hand. Just a visual of a presence of security could make a difference.

I feel that teachers would feel more motivated with treats, staff outings etc. I know the hard part is people complain but then do not show up to an outing, but I remember the good ole covid days when we had lots of meals given and treats at staff meetings. We HUNGRY! LOL

By allowing for Flexible Pacing and allowing students to move at a speed that matches their leaning understanding, not just keeping up with a schedule.

It's really hard to be in a manager role but not have true control over how much we are able to pay our teachers and staff. NHA has some of the most dedicated, hardest working educators, yet they're treated as just another employee working for any other company. I appreciate NHA wanting to be more aware of school spending and ensuring the money is being handled responsibly, but with all that we seem to be "saving," why don't our teachers see that as an increase in salary? When asked about para pay increasing it's been brought to the "E team" for several years with no action. Pay our people what they're worth or the cycle of losing good teachers and gaining staff with minimal to no education experience will continue. No wonder we see a drop in enrollment - if our teachers aren't valued (by NHA through compensation) our students see and feel it!

I would like to see my immediate supervisor become more knowledgeable about what happens here. She is often incorrect or mis informed about dates procedure or policy.

More support with already documented behaviors that disrupt the flow of learning daily.

Implement a nationally recognized ELA curriculum that meets the needs of all our students.

Work within the budget to locate the money needed to provided bonuses, incentives, and other monetary motivations for staff.

Additional days added as benefits and/or ability to roll over from school year to school year

Professional development is based solely on teachers. There should be professional development for different roles.  Just because NHA doesn't have many nurses shouldn't mean that we aren't offered opportunities to learn and grow also.

I was on Zepbound, a medication for weight loss for a year. My BMI, weight, blood pressure and cholesterol all were lowered significally. As of this past January our insurance will not covered it anymore. I went from paying $80 for a 3 month supply to an out of pocket expense of $504 a month.  Per my Dr this is a lifetime medication. I would like it to be covered again. Please and Thank you!

To improve PTO/time off, I recommend adding more PTO days and allowing unused days or hours to roll over into the next school year, giving staff greater flexibility.

Full pay for at least part of maternity leave without having to use PTO. It is important to spend time with your growing family, and you shouldn't be financially burdened by having an baby, nor should it be considered part of your "Vacation time". Even 6 weeks of full pay and 6 weeks of FMLA would be better than what is currently happening. 12 weeks paid maternity leave would be lovely.

Paid and longer maternity and paternity leave

Admin should NOT threaten staff with write-ups, when something isn't done that is not in the job description. That creates at toxic and unhealthy work environment from top down.

The only thing that is ever focused on when it comes to academics and curriculum is teaching to the test. There is no time for writing, science, social studies or moral focus. Our students especially need the moral focus instruction and a strong emphasis on treating themselves and others with respect. If students do not have good behavior, respect, and a positive attitude the test prep and all else will not matter. The kids are tired of hearing about the tests. There is too much testing and by the time we get to the tests which count the most the kids have been tested so much they don’t put forth their best effort.

NHA has nothing set up as far as a retirement package.  There is no incentive to stay and retire from NHA like health insurance coverage until 65 and is not part of the NYS pension system.  These two things hinder those that would like to stay and retire which inevitably affects turnover and retention.

Moving away from bridges to something more conducive to our scholars learning.

Deans should be compensated appropriately for their hard work. Many teachers are making similar salaries, which does not incentivize deans to remain with the company.

More competitive pay to retain good teachers.

Holding Staff accountable for upholding the policies and Procedures.

I don't have recommendations for this area, but teachers need to be paid a wage that makes it easier to pay the bills.

The scope and sequence is very fast paced and rigid. The phonics program sometimes moves too fast and lacks the repetition needed for student mastery. I suggest inserting more pause days into the schedule, especially after week 15 when the phonics skills become increasingly challenging for first graders. In addition, alternating some Shared Reading days with in class review or intervention days would facilitate response to assessment for more students. Teaching the RACE lessons in first grade should be moved to later in the sequence when students have begun to master writing and sound spelling.

It would be great to be able to hire paras to help out in each of the specials classes.  I also feel that we could still hire more ABSS to help assist with students.

There are NO incentives for persons with longevity and commitment. When  I mentioned this to my supervisor she gave me a speech about fairness. When I mention it to Dr Roberson during my check out at the end of the year she just looked at me. I have been a good and faithful employee ushering in new employees, students and families with encouragement, support, respect and integrity. I've received little or no appreciation, respect, or  compensation from my dean or principal. Hopefully with new principal Clancy there will be change. Well needed holidays and breaks are not so enjoyable because I am not PAID  for those days and weeks. However I am held accountable just like my cohorts who are paid.

To improve professional development, I believe it should be more meaningful, inclusive, and empowering for all educators, especially in special education. PD should focus on helping each of us grow into the best version of ourselves as professionals, so we can bring unique value to our schools. One way to do this is by encouraging staff to develop a niche or area of expertise. When everyone has a specialty, whether it is behavior supports, sensory strategies, communication tools, or academic interventions, it builds a collaborative culture where we know who to go to when we need help. This not only strengthens our teams but ensures that every student benefits from the collective knowledge and strengths of the staff. For this to happen, PD should offer choice, foster collaboration across disciplines, and focus on practical skills that reflect the realities we face in the classroom. When we feel seen, supported, and challenged in our growth, we are better equipped to make a real impact.

We can all help out by picking up whatever trash we see on the floor. "It takes a village : ).

Compensation needs to be addressed.  We continue to lose teachers and have excellent candidates turn down job offers because of the compensation.  Teachers, admin, and paras need have a more competitive pay.    The incoming first and second year teachers are getting market increases, however, those of us that have been here for more than a few years still have to pay the same for groceries, housing, car payments etc. as the new teachers.  Increasing only newer hires to market value is not the end all be all.  You need to continue to look at everyone for market increases.

Allowing more time for teachers to do work while in school specials, not being in classroom so the teachers have time to do their classroom work during their prep less class is scheduled for prep at the same time so that the copier are not always used during prep time or after school

The FSA's are good but should happen once a month. Or get rid of the comprehension tests. Shared reading isn't working. 2 books in a day is a lot for kids. Cut shared reading and give more workshop time so we can read decodables provided by Phonics to Reading in small groups so we are reading books that include our sight words/better target reading skills.  If we continue 3 schoolconnect posts, 2 should come from teacher, 1 from dean/leader. Parents take what we say more seriously when it's said by a leader. Gives families a chance to get to know the dean besides for behavior reasons. To no ones fault we're always understaffed and our enrollment number should reflect our average number of staff, not total number of positions. Enrollment for all grades should be cut off 3rd Fri. in Jan. after that we're only getting low/behavior kids.More team outings.All testing ends in June.Too many staff meetings.Better Maternity/Paternity leave care, especially in extreme cases.Class sizes too big.

 The health benefit fees are so expensive

Give compensation to teachers to participate in LETRS training. Allow teachers to use a better phonics program in the younger grades. Increase pay for teachers and paraprofessionals.

I think there are two sides to this.  First, the Culture of the team I see every day is fantastic, we jump to help each other and we trust each other, we have a great culture in my immediate team.    However, there have been changes to policies that I see significantly and negatively impacting the Culture at NHA as a whole. These encompass the difficulty in requesting staffing, scrutiny on spending, and I think the most unfortunate is that we seem to be adopting a more virtual format of supporting schools. For example, training events are increasingly being held remote and this limits the relationship building that is so very necessary to the work we do with schools.  Relationships and the trust built by those relationships keep people with us in an occupation that is already difficult to staff.

There needs to be an increase in pay to match our industries norms and inflation. I’ve been with Holly Park for almost a decade without any significant pay increases. Compensation is how I feel valued and I’ve felt invisible and overlooked for a long time. My work is meaningful and makes a difference everyday and I would hope my employer would recognize these impacts through compensation

Chromebooks for specials(music,art) classrooms. The unblocking of online resources and websites that are good educational resources for scholars in specials

When you are doing a good job and are consistent you tend to be forgotten. This is true this year especially since we have so many new teachers. I would just like some acknowledgement of a job well done.

Increased pay for additional duties and requirements that are expected from NHA staff.

Since we do not work in a "commission-based" field, the idea of withholding salary increases is silly. Many staff members work hard throughout the day to teach and support the Scholars academically and emotionally in the building and withholding is a slap in the face of all the hard work, late nights, and early mornings that is poured into our many roles. In today's economy, it will leave many finding other options. Additionally, the fact that the Interventionists are still hourly employees, but have a bigger teaching role than salaried competing NYCDOE paraprofessionals is humiliating. Every year, I'm surprised that some of our Interventionists return because they know they could be better paid and have a few more benefits with neighboring schools, including paid holidays without having to use their PTO. If our Interventionists are a crucial part of our school environment and help make BSCS, and NHA at large, a good choice for families and students, they should be treated as such.

Team meetings were too brief and not very productive.

Professional Development for staff that are not teacher.  Conferences that apply to other staff.

Since NHA is not buying new computers for students every year to keep and take home, some of that money could be used to pay teachers more.  I have a daughter who is in her 4th year of teaching and is making the same amount of  money than I am.

Compensation have been my only area I feel NHA is unfair. I love my job and get so much joy from it each and everyday. I just wish I was compensated for it. NHA is a great company to work for and look forward many more years with the company.

This question should allow us to choose more than one option.  If there is not much you can do to raise compensation, then my choice is wasted.  Please change this.  Even allowing us to choose two or three would be beneficial.

Provide teachers with a manual or syllabus of different opportunity to advance in their work field.

If possible, our compensation should be equal to the districts that surround us. I feel it is the one thing that would help retain staff by recognizing the above and beyond that so many of us do! :)

Our curriculum does not support our students' needs. Half of the standards that are on state tests are not addressed in ways that are digestible to students or are not covered at all. When we are forced to follow the curriculum "with fidelity", we are unable to fill in gaps of what they are missing or to cover material adequately. Supplemental materials should be allowed to be used when they are clearly helpful to students. Our curriculum does not prepare our students for the next grades especially in math. They are missing fundamental information that makes higher grades more and more difficult for these students.

If students in middle school are testing on certain things like grammar, there should be more resources made available to the middle school ELA teachers. Middle school teachers should have access to various worksheets and practice worksheets that practice the grammar concept taught in the grammar mentor sentences. Same thing with passage-based writing. If students in grades 3-8 are tested on PBWs during Interims and MSTEP, somewhere in the curriculum should be built in lessons to cover and teach passage-based writing.

I would like the school to have smartbards instead of white boards.

Improve the math curriculum if possible,

Comparable amount of sick days, pay, and insurance benefits to public schools.

Paid time (not PTO Time) for hourly employees due to acts of God e.g. inclement weather days, building problems.

Educators have an extremely challenging job. In comparison to other professions that require an advanced degree and training the compensation is not always equal. It would be nice to have incentive bonuses or just a bonus to supplement the pay if a higher raise is not available.

Communication was not the best this year. Some communication was missed/confusing about certain things this year, like late conference communication, and sometimes communication about interventions/interventionist roles. We pivot, I just think intervention and classroom teachers need to have the same communication instead of separate

We need more training and support when it comes to student behavior. ABSS way of addressing students behavior does not always help.

My recommendation to improve the area of compensation is to have a salary scale based on several key components such as: number of years worked, experience, sliding pay scale, degrees earned and "Effective" "Exemplary" evaluations.  I should not earn the same salary and/or lower than a colleague that is not a certified teacher or with lesser experience as an educator/teacher.

Larger retention bonuses for those who have been here the longest, regardless of their position

Our benefits are way too expensive for how little they cover. Unless it is a well visit/check up, it is outrageous, when all I’m trying to do is help my daughters when they’re sick.   MATERNITY LEAVE, not just FMLA. Women deserve to be able to be with their babies more than just 6/8 weeks. There were many times I was driving 30 minutes to school on one hour of sleep (due to my newborn at the time) multiple days in a row, which is extremely unsafe. However, I couldn’t afford to stay home longer.

As expectations and responsibilities increase, we should receive an appropriate increase in pay.

The second grade reading curriculum could use improvement. The read aloud books are rather boring and don't always fit the skill that we are teaching. Or, they cover topics that are not appropriate for second grade. Some of the shared reading texts are way more advanced than our students can follow. In addition, there are not opportunities for the students to practice answering multiple choice questions and finding evidence tied to those questions. The reading tests are too advanced and don't fit the capability of seven year olds. Also, the phonics tests require them to complete skills not within their developmental range.

More percentage increase in pay at the end of each school yr

A wage increase would improve my experience because the cost of living has drastically increased, but income has not.

We don't have the adequate resources for science and social studies that mirror ELA and math.  Stemscopes and InquirED do not do enough to educate our students in these subject areas.  With ELA, I just feel there needs to be more comprehension questions attached to charting and constructed responses.  In math, there needs to be a spiral or Do Now somewhere in the curriculum.

An increase in pay would reduce turnover costs, improve education quality, and help support teachers with fair wages.

I do not have any suggestions for improvement. Choosing “other” was simply my option to say that I am happy with all aspects of my employment experience at GA.

Have more funds to provide more college trips for seniors.

I recommend NHA pay Support Staff/Sped Paras at or closer to the rate they were paying the contract Support Staff/Sped Paras.

The back door of the school has been propped open all the way for over 30 minutes on a few occasions.

Opportunities to grow with the company.

the breakroom needs to be updated. eveything is old. cabinets refridgerators, ,microwaves, coffe pots carpet etc.

I recommend the building cleaning crew do a better job.

The amount of turnover is extremely high.  Leadership can maybe include grade levels in interviews.  Also, better incentives for staying the entire year?  Better coaching.

Reasonable pay

Provide protected blocks of time during the school day for lesson planning, grading, and preparation, reducing the need to take work home.  Mental health days to support teachers' emotional well-being.

Review our PTO policy at the Service Center. New hires to start with 15 days to avoid all the exception requests.

NHA is a for profit company. Teachers and employees who actually work with the students should be more important than the investors. But they don't seem to be. At least pay a competitive wage compared to surrounding districts. I hate knowing I could make more money and have fewer students in my classes if I switched schools because I love this school. But it is always something to consider. And I have friends considering it all the time.

I trust that my leadership considers me a master of my craft and for that I am grateful, however, it does not feel like NHA C&I feels that way. I make it a priority to share my opinion on our ELA Middle School curriculum as often as I can and it is falling on deaf ears. The curriculum is too fast for our students and it is not preparing them to be involved readers or students - instead requires more of a checked box than a learning experience. Please change the number of novels in the curriculum at every level as it is too many and not benefiting our kids.

I would love to see more competitive pay rates at NHA. I love what I do, but would like to have the opportunity to receive higher compensation.

Let everyone know if improvement is necessary.

I think the leadership does a great job with handling behaviors. However,  I would like to see more options for redirection of student behaviors.  Example of my suggestions would be in-school suspension, after school and or Saturday detention for students. That way students are still learning while having consequences.  One possible way of  staffing this is by volunteers and/or the options for staff to make up days they take off during the week with flex time.

Moving forward into next year, I would like to focus solely on my primary responsibilities. The additional duties, such as supervising extra recess, attending every transition, and testing, have significantly reduced the instructional minutes available for interventions. I respectfully request that the Dean of Intervention advocate more directly with the deans to ensure that interventionists remain in classrooms as much as possible, allowing us to meet our required minutes and better support our students' academic progress. This approach will help minimize the loss of instructional minutes throughout the year and reduce the need to make up large amounts of time at the end of the year.

Sometimes things are not addressed in a timely fashion. Last minute meetings, work that needs to be done, events etc

I just wished NHA provided a pension plan like the public school.  i think this is the main reason people leave in general.

Professional Development days with other schools I feel they don't benefit anyone.  Schools do different things on how they teach etc. P.D days should be with your home school. Its more room to grow and get to know your team better. Especially with new teachers. The content being led at P.D I feel is the same every time, just worded differently and staff show negative expressions and don't participate in discussion. And staff don't like the traveling and would rather be at their home school. And could also save money for NHA in the long run..

I’m noticing a pattern with some of our severe behavior students: when they are removed from the classroom, the experience seems more rewarding for them than corrective. They often enjoy the break, receive positive attention, and avoid the demands of the classroom environment, which unintentionally reinforces the behavior we are trying to address. I would love to see alternative strategies that maintain a supportive environment but also ensure that the consequences for repeated disruptions are consistent with our goal of helping students learn self-regulation and accountability. As a general education teacher, we have little to no formal education on ED students, nor enough time in the day to chip away at their trauma.

 It’s important that leadership models honesty and transparency, as this builds trust both within the team and with parents. At times, I’ve noticed inconsistencies or a lack of openness that have caused confusion or affected morale. It would be really beneficial to focus on clear, honest communication-especially when engaging with families—so that they feel confident in the care and information they're receiving. Another area for growth is in how team members are supported. Listening more actively to staff concerns and showing empathy when making decisions can greatly improve trust and collaboration. Considering the feelings, values, and perspectives of others -both staff and families—would help create a more inclusive and supportive environment. I believe with some focused professional development in these areas, leadership can all grow together and create a stronger, more united team at Gate!

Opening new schools affects every single person working at the Service Center. Some teams are drowning more than others and need more people. From the most recent huddle it sounds like NHA is doing fine financially, but adding more people to teams that really need extra bodies to continue with this pace doesn't seem like a priority. Burn out is real and no matter what I end up saying in these comments, nothing ever happens by the Executive Team.

My work-life balance this year was severely compromised. The unique challenges presented by a significant number of students entering third grade far below grade level, coupled with daily, extreme behavioral issues and a lack of both parental and administrative support, created an unsustainable workload. The constant disruptions, particularly during weekly testing, negatively impacted student performance and overall class morale.  Furthermore, the absence of a supply allowance until the second trimester hindered effective instruction. The late arrival of consistent observation feedback also affected my evaluation. The overall lack of support led to staff resignations mid-year, which I understand given the severity of the behavioral problems.  The expectation to bring students, many of whom were two to three grade levels behind, to on-grade level standards was unrealistic and incredibly stressful. Daily behavioral management took precedence over instruction, leaving little time for effective teaching. The dem

enrichment for younger students

Cell phone stipend was changed in December and now it's part of my hourly wage, so therefore it's taxed now since it's part of my wage which means we receive less. Also on the weeks when the school is closed and I do not work, means I do not get paid, I get NO money for my cell phone in which my role requires me to have a work cell phone.

Offer higher pay for more experienced teachers to better compete with local school district/teacher pay.

We have an overflow of SPED students and we really need another full time SPED resource teacher next year. The amount of students in SPED we have is overwhelming. I am happy with our culture, team, and admin, however, soon-to-be 26 students is a VERY high caseload. Please highly consider adding another full time resource teacher next year.

I don't think schools and the marketing departments are efficiently aligned to best serve our students and families. We need to do a better job of listening to the schools and their needs while making decisions at the service center. We implement a lot of expectations and procedures that affect those at the school just as much as us. But the schools are often made aware after the fact, which puts employees like our ARs in uncomfortable positions when they can't meet their own expectations because of their school teams, or another departments own strategy. At the school level, it's often the AR and AM who have to play peace maker when the schools don't agree with marketing strategies or decisions. School quality should be more involved with the decisions made in the various marketing depts to ensure swift and accurate communication to their schools so everyone is on the same page. Better partnership between schools and marketing would create healthier working environments for our team

Testing is starting to become more tedious and taking away from kids being kids. There are times when scholars are only testing during the week and they are getting TIRED. Teachers are also getting tired. There are other ways to gather data rather than testing. We need to allow more time for scholars to WORK on the skills. With the achievement gap so wide we are setting up these kids up for failure. Instead of working on skills that they do not have we need to working on simple foundational skills. Shared reading is great for older scholars who have the stamina to read 2 books. However, younger scholars need to be practicing reading simple decodables and learning the beginning skills of reading and foundational skills at the very least. NHA needs to make a cut off for new scholars because having new scholars come in the middle of Q3 effects data because either they are far below grade level or coming in with an extreme behaviors that disrupts the culture and learning environment.

I believe that all teachers should have access to Lexia Spanish, IXL, and phonics to reading program for K-2.

Deep cleaning the entire building often.

Get a new cleaning company!

Staff member's pay should reflect the amount of work that they do and their willingness to do more than just their assigned jobs.  Many staff members go above and beyond by being willing to help out in other areas when needed such as covering lunch duties, the parking lot during drop off and dismissal (the dismissal parking lot people work about an extra 15 minutes everyday while other go home prompltly at 3:45). These staff members do it because they are team players and are willing to do what is needed to make South Arbor a great place for students and families but, it would be nice if this was recognized and people were compensated for their efforts.

Fair and unbiased decisions on promotional opportunities.

I think more pay is desirable.

Benefit costs have skyrocketed to the point any annual salary increases based on performance are completely offset by benefit increase costs. NHA needs to offset this cost better as people that are high performers making less money even with the increase in salary due to this problem. If there must be an increase in benefit cost than there should be an increase in salary to offset it.

NHA needs to improve the pay for its employees.  They need to recognize how much the surrounding school districts pay their employees and match or surpass their salaries.

Examples that NHA can easily implement immediately:  for all salaried/professional-level school staff and teachers a 5% annual salary increase those who have remained with the company 7+ years; all salaried/professional-level school staff and teachers who receive all 'exemplary' ratings in their annual performance evaluation a 5% raise; increase stating Para wage to attract high-caliber applicants AND adequately compensate current paras.  *This should be ON TOP OF any type of retention bonus that has/is already awarded.  Exceptional school & teaching staff are leaving OR seeking new jobs away from NHA due to low pay OR simply are not adequately compensated.

It would be helpful  to get paid during Breaks and snow days.

My manager (Dean Robert) is recommended 10/10 for any job!!! She is supportive, encouraging, and understanding.

To be given clear and concise messages on what may be lacking so, that a proper course of action can take place. In addition, to having the tools and resources provided in order to excel as an educator.

Raise or bonus at the end of the school year. A teacher spending account for classroom supplies.

Opportunities to access training at KentISD other than the summer or evenings.

I think the culture of our school has gone down from when I first started. I don't feel a sense of community like I once did, and I feel the quality of new hires has gone downhill. There is too much gossip that happens within the school, and rumors/information is spread between staff at an astounding rate.  One recommendation I have is more team building opportunities especially at the beginning of the year PD. Being introduced to new staff members, being able to collaborate with teammates at grade level and wing level, and overall having a common goal that we as a staff can work towards.

I don’t believe we are being fairly compensated for the level of work and dedication we bring to our roles, especially when compared to industry standards. In my time with NHA, I’ve noticed frequent rebranding efforts and other expenditures that, in my opinion, could be redirected toward improving employee compensation. There are areas where costs could be reduced without compromising the quality of our work, and doing so could make a meaningful difference in employee satisfaction and retention. Fair and competitive pay is essential to recognizing and valuing the contributions of the team.

I would like train professionals to be in our school due to the climate that we live in with school shootings.

Compensation is all encompassing. As an hourly employee, I have never  made as little money as I have this year due to days out for inclement weather, half days, no school, holidays, etc.  It is very difficult to pay bills and plan on a salary that is not secure due to unknowns.  At the same time, If I take more time off than allotted, I face a "write up".  It's OK to not pay me when a problem arises, but it doesn't work the same way when we are out unexpectedly.   I understand not being paid in the summer, but almost 4 weeks due to " school closure, is cumulatively a month more without pay.   It's not easy to work for 20 K a year.

maybe a Zen moment class for a Teacher to recenter.

Give different types of PD for different teachers. For example, have different PD for inexperienced teachers than from veteran ones.

The role I was hired for is sometimes abandoned in order to fill other roles in the school when needed.

- Heggerty Phonics for grades 3rd through 5th - Reading curriculum that has more engaging lessons for students and flexibility for planning / teaching the lesson

he amount of PTO offered feels insufficient given the limited number of days off throughout the year, leaving little room for necessary rest and balance. Recognition also appears inequitable, as the same individuals are consistently acknowledged, while others, despite strong efforts, are often overlooked; in my own experience, I had to request HighFive points each time, and even then, recognition was minimal. Communication across the organization is often lacking, creating confusion and disconnect. Additionally, there are very few opportunities for career advancement, making professional growth feel stagnant. Teachers are frequently blamed for broader systemic issues, and while leadership occasionally seeks teacher feedback, it rarely results in meaningful action or follow-through, contributing to a sense of frustration and being unheard.

Having people on my team who are capable, motivated, dependable, positive, and calm.

Having set interview questions that pertain to our scholars and that will allow us to weed out really strong candidates vs. weaker candidates. I personally would like a guide on a strong candidate vs. a weak candidate because I know this is an area of growth for me.

Role clarity is a top concern due to unbalanced work relationships, mismanagement of school resources, and lack of accountability. Deans wear a lot of hats and I believe Karsten is overwhelmed by her role and makes more reactionary decisions rather than proactive. This has led to a mismanagement of school resources, time, and priorities. Karsten has given Gen a inequitable amount of resources compared to other sped and k-2 teachers. This is evident by the amount of subs, paras, 03s, and preferential treatment. If this was benefit to Gen's students this would be acceptable but its the staff's view that the students of Gen's case load are regressing. These concerns have been brought to admin's attention and little to nothing has been addressed. Deans need to work on clarifying their many roles, relationships, and priorities to benefit ALL staff and students. Karsten's wing is frustrated by her overpromising and underdelivering due to lack of time management and needs a proactive leader.

This building is deplorable and does not have the physical space to bets help our students success. The students at Hamtramck Academy's success continues to not be of importance to NHA.

Bonus for "loyal" employees - 5 yr Anniversary, 10yr, 15yr, etc. - Either a boost in salary or one-time, paid out bonus. This could also help with employee retention/turnover.

Better bonus

Compensation at NHA is a major concern for myself and my team. It should be addressed as an immediate need.

The health care offerings are not as great as I would have anticipated.  I don't have anything to compare it to, however, when I switched to the "gold" plan (whatever one is the new "top tier" plan) and I feel like it's super expensive, even with the two installments of $500 to help to offset the high deductible.  If possible, I would reduce as many other benefits as possible and try and reduce the health care cost (again, I'm not sure if that is even an option).

I think that there should be clear information put out about how bonuses/raises are given out. I would like to be paid more given the increase in prices of everything in the world right now.

Improve the tissue dispenser

Building maintenance can be so much better. Day to day is one thing (scrubbing and cleaning up wear and tear vs. wiping. But I'm talking facility management, major updates that are so needed. Having new flooring in the hallways is great over spring break, but I hope that continues. First impressions are everything with parents, new flooring in the hallways shows just how dated other areas really are. I certainly probably do not know all that is involved, but from a staff perspective it seems like it takes a really long time to see changes, and that improvements (flooring in other areas of the building, covered walkway for carpool, bathroom renovations) could make a huge difference and positive impact.

A more (overtly) open policy on problem/solution conversations surrounding work conflict/discontent, and a more clear procedure for water-cooler talk. I am not sure, but this is a potential suggestion.

n/a

The administration does the best job they can possibly do, but there is so much for them to do, they have little time to be supportive of teaching staff. The structure of responsibilities looks unrealistic from the perspective of a teacher.

competitive raises comparable to area schools

I have been with NHA for over 7 years and still have not caught up to the pay cut I took coming from my previous school. (about 8,000 dollars)

Opening more schools in the area

When the principal makes decisions that affect the entire teaching staff and curriculum implementation, the feedback considered often comes from staff who share her views. As a result, opportunities for broader input from other experienced colleagues are sometimes missed, which can affect the success of new initiatives.  Limited feedback can also lead to misunderstandings. At times, staff may seem defiant when, in reality, they are simply unclear about expectations. These situations have occasionally led to avoidable tensions.  Creating more structured opportunities for diverse feedback would benefit both the principal and the staff. Encouraging open dialogue, acknowledging different perspectives, and explaining decisions clearly would help strengthen implementation efforts. The principal brings excellent ideas and a strong vision, and with broader collaboration, the school community can move forward more smoothly together.

Higher Yearly increases and bonuses

Just continue to make sure we are compensated accordingly. A bonus needs to be in place for reaching your yearly class goals!

Having a strong culture in the building helps ease the workload stresses by promoting open communication, providing role clarity, and ensuring staff feel genuinely appreciated. It fosters a sense of belonging and ensures our voices and discussions are heard and valued.

As a SPED resource teacher, I am always looking for ways to break down and teach, assess, and progress monitor my students. I would love a resource like iReady.

Establish a fair and transparent compensation plan that is equal to or higher than area schools. Base wages/salaries on level of education and years of experience. A first year teacher with a bachelor's degree should not be paid the same as a 6th year social worker with a master's degree. A teacher with a doctorate and 11 years of experience should be paid more than a teacher with a master's degree and 12 years of experience. Higher compensation, stipends and bonuses for returning staff will provide incentive to retain expert staff and allow students to have more consistency. So many issues arise when having to onboard and train new teachers every single year. I advise NHA to establish a transparent, compensation increase plan similar to what it might look like if a union were involved. Informing staff of what will happen over the next 3-5 years may incentivize returning. NHA should work toward a goal of becoming a higher paying organization than public schools.

Increased support from service center with compliance tasks - what can be taken off principal's plates?!

Open more Professional Advancement programs.

Maybe giving PTO in hours vs days.

I feel that teachers need support from leadership to help students with disruptive behaviors in the classroom and the school.  In my opinion, students need to perceive a sense of consistent discipline not only from the teachers but from our school leaders.

Every class should have technology for each student.

Meaningful PDS

I feel a curriculum audit to reiview curriculum gaps and redundancies is important, identifying underrepresented topics(outdated materials-to help increase teacher efficiency and effectiveness by modifying curriculum to fit time frame provided to teach) and prioritizing culturally responsive teaching-maybe offering PD in equity and inclusion.

I believe we need to rethink how the innovation team is structured. Their leadership has repeatedly undermined and disparaged IT, creating conflict, wasting resources, and duplicating efforts. This toxic dynamic has already driven away valuable IT staff and raises serious concerns about the quality and security of the systems they deliver.  At the same time, we’re seeing a broader shift from a culture of trust to one of fear and micromanagement, which makes these challenges even harder to solve. The increasing tendency of the executive team to step deep into operational details is eroding confidence in leadership at all levels. To succeed long term, we need executives to empower their leaders to manage effectively—focusing on strategy and direction, not day-to-day control. Without that shift, we risk continued turnover, stalled progress, and a growing disconnect between leadership and staff.

I feel like there have been times this year where my manager has given into parent pressures about student write ups/ placements that have made me feel that they agree with the parent that I as the teacher am in the wrong or not doing my job correctly. However, instead of coaching me on what I should've done differently or including me in on the conversation with the parent which would've made me feel more valued and understanding. Also, while I feel the year started really strong with taking a no-nonsense approach to behaviors, I feel the more the year goes on the more relaxed attitudes have become. I feel that we need to remain consistent with the behavior plan we have in place all year and not get complacent at the time of year where behaviors tend to rise.

So much favoritism

It would be great to align our salaries/compensations to surrounding area school systems.

It is hard to have role clarity when there is not a defined definition of this. I get that in teaching, that is hard in general, but this year it has felt like a lot of things that should be handled by higher ups have not been, or things have not been taken as seriously. There have been people in the school that have the same role, but yet, some have more put on them and are expected to do more than the others in the same position. I know a few teachers here who have so much scrutiny on them and what they do, whereas some in the same position, have less expected of them and can "get away" with more.  This, in general, has been a very rough year where it feels like there has not been as much support as there could have been. There have been many transitions that have occurred throughout the year that have come across as more important. Student behaviors seem to be at a high in that we just are letting them happen, therefore they think they can continue to do it without consequences.

Increase salary to offset raising prices for insurance and other things.

I would recommend an improved maternity leave policy. One where it is for a longer period of time, and second for more compensation. For example, I had a baby over the summer so when the school year started again my maternity leave was unpaid and I only did it for 6 weeks. It would have been nice to take the full 12 I was allotted too, but I would not be able to afford that being unpaid.

I would like to see more in person professional development opportunities

Pay increase

Match compensation to other companies with similar roles. I could be a manager and sit in a cubical at an office all day and get paid 25K+ more than I do now. Any manager should not be paid under 80K a year.

Align compensation with other school districts

None

I recommend thorough background checks on all employees and random drug test. Also, ensuring managers are mature enough to not be petty and understand we all have a job to do and to hold ALL employees accountable and to the same standards. I have given Inspire 100 of me since being here the past 8 years. Also, discussing other employees salaries and personal business. There should be Professional Development on Privacy Act. It has been verbalized that according to the rubric NHA gives management the autonomy to rate you and get rid of you if  they want to. of course when your friends are on a team the team, I am sure no one else will admit this statement was made. Well, it has definitely been done to me and it's very petty and unprofessional. How can a manager be so cruel and expect someone to trust them when playing with their livelihood. In summary, just ensure your leaders are properly trained and not cohered into trying to mistreat people because of  personal reasons.

Adjust interims based on repetitive feedback. Adjust pacing and the number of assessments students take. Allow access to interims for planning and responding to data.

Pay teachers a competitive salary and increase the pay for paras so that we can hold those positions consistently with qualified people.

Communication continues to be an area in need of improvement. Too often task/responsibilities and details about events and happenings are not communicated clearly. Too often things continue to be communicated verbally or in passing or just do not end up happening as planned. One thing that could have been better communicated was the capstone project. Yes, it was communicated during a meeting and the basics of the expectations were reviewed. However, effective communication also involves timeliness. This is a major project that was introduced to us at the end of the year right when the state testing window was opening and we have a lot of things we need to complete and focus on at the end of the year. Suddenly we have a massive project with quick turn around added to our load. I feel that proper communication would have been communicating this project as something we are introducing the next school year, not something we are expected to immediately turn around and implement right away.

The current math curriculum is only partially aligned to state standards, highlighting the need for a more comprehensive and rigorous resource comparable to those used across the state. Frequent weekly assessments, often containing only three to five questions, may not accurately reflect student understanding and could be done bi-weekly. Students who struggle with reading by third grade lack sufficient intervention support due to limited resources and personnel. Additionally, a thorough review of Edcite assessments is critical, as many errors from the 2023–2024 school year remain uncorrected. Recognizing that students learn in different ways and through various mediums, it is also essential that the gradebook reflects a broader range of learning experiences and assessments. Teachers should be able to give students credit for group work, projects etc. Currently, this is not the case in grade book as grades that are put in  manually do not have any impact on students' overall average.

Our school needs substitute teachers on a regular basis.

Pay staff more including administration, teachers, paras and front office. GCS pays significantly more for these positions.

Every single teacher is stressed about missing five days of work in a single year, knowing it makes us ineligible for them. This is an unrealistic expectation that should change.

When I transitioned into the EL specialist role, I initially started on a part-time basis after moving from a teaching position, where I had summer, spring, fall, and winter breaks off. This year, I am working full-time in a year-round capacity now. Given this shift, I believe it is necessary to revisit and recalculate my salary. In my previous teaching role, I had approximately 71 days off each year, compared to only 16 days off annually in my current position, in addition to Service Center holidays. This substantial change in schedule and responsibilities should be reflected appropriately in my compensation.

All staff members pay should match inflation. In addition, with the phonics to reading program there should be some added in pause days to respond to data. We assess and get data then there is no time to respond to the data. The new assessments are great in helping identifying holes or gaps in learning but again we cannot pause phonics to respond because the assessment schedule does not pause. A few pause days would be beneficial. Also, adding in some time for skills that students struggle with. A day or two review at the end of a unit that introduces new skills for practice and review. This would be better throughout the year rather that ending phonics to reading 7 weeks before school is out.

Adjustment of the Compensation scale so that it is competitive with the community public sshools in the area.  Currently, NHA pays about 15,000.00 less than the surrounding schools.  In order to retain your employees (Teachers; General Education & Special Education) from year to year.  Also NHA TImberland Charter Academy is suppose to report to the Office of Retirement.... and this is why so many excellent teachers have left.

Increase pay! We are paid significantly less than other schools in our area.

I would like to have the opportunity to create lessons that are more fun and engaging.

$$$$$$

Our roles here get more taxing every day with taking on more and more students, many of which come with significant challenges. We are constantly asked to take on more and more, and yet our compensation doesn't reflect that. It's cause to have to look elsewhere and I really don't want to have to do that:(

I would like to see improvements in the ELA curriculum.

My wages do not keep up with inflation. I have gotten some form of raise every year, but dollar for dollar I am not making as much as I was five years ago.

Trust in staff to know and believe they will make good decisions.

Have more resources/curriculum for all areas (reading, writing, math, science) for teachers/staff that pull small groups, Also have professional development that benefits our content area and is worthwhile.

Great place to work but who doesn’t enjoy more money? Great work life balance at TEA. Great sense of community and belonging. Thanks for having me!

Performance based bonuses

Salaries are not competitive with district/private counterparts.

I would like to see more PD opportunities for all staff and general education teachers to know more about differentiated instruction and how to support our higher needs kids with inclusion. How can rooms be set up/rearranged for different needs, what expectations should be had for accessing the curriculum.....etc. I would like to see more practical tools to use and have in our back pockets now that we've had multiple years of the same curriculum. Let's have neuro-affirming strategies presented to all of our staff so we can have a shift in thinking and the ability to reimagine education and be on the same page.

Compensation for all employees, specifically support staff. Compensation is much higher at surrounding districts which causes good employees to look outside of our school for employment. NHA needs to look at the negative impact vacant positions have on our students and overall enrollment and figure out a way to ensure these positions remain filled.

To be consistent with students & staff about following school policies and procedures.

I believe that the ELA curriculum could be improved. Read alouds and shared reading resources could more strongly align with the weekly comprehension skills. Some of the resources are not great examples and I have to look for others. I also think it would be helpful for their to be exit tickets created that helped teachers to give their scholars opportunities to see rich test questions and that could aid in pulling small group. Lastly, I think taking away weekly comprehension tests from 2nd grade completely hinders the success of our scholars. They should be seeing rich, complex passages and questions each week to practice their weekly skills and so that teachers can use this resource as a way to give actionable feedback. I do not understand the intention of taking this away. Our scholars need these to prepare them for the rigorous testing that happens the following year in 3rd grade and taking these assessments away does not set them up for success.

PD for new teachers on classroom management techniques (like classroom/table intensives, implementing class dojo points, positive reinforcement, etc.)   Also, the writing curriculum could start the school year by reviewing how to write a complete sentence independently, then move into reviewing basic grammar concepts before having students complete a RACE or All About story.

The stipends for team leaders, mentors, coaches etc. have remained unchanged for several years. Given the significant rise in the cost of living and ongoing inflation, it is both reasonable and necessary to reevaluate and adjust these stipends accordingly. An increase across all stipend categories is not only appropriate but essential to fairly compensate staff for their time, commitment, and impact.   Another area to increase fair compensation is increasing the salary for staff who hold a master’s degree. Earning this degree requires a significant  investment and costs thousands of dollars. The advanced knowledge and skills gained impacts our student outcomes yet the current salary increase remains minimal.

The 4 before the door sheets were a good idea but it is just one more hoop us teachers have to jump through to get help with a behavior student. Sometimes the behavior escalates too quickly for these sheets to be useful and then are being told unless I have one filled out I won't get help. I understand that some teachers call when a behavior starts because they "don't want to deal with it" but many like myself put multiple interventions in place before calling and help isn't coming because I didn't fill out a sheet. I also believe that deans and ABSS should ALWAYS be in their respective hallways unless meeting with a parent or making a phone call (where only one should be doing this). We see many times that we have no support sitting in the hallway and are in their offices talking with one another.

Increased pay rates and raises. Paid time during school winter & spring breaks. Cheaper deductibles for health insurance.

Tap into employees who have longevity, consistency, and who have been flexible supporting the students and vision of NHA.

Aramark is not doing a good job keeping up with janitor duties and the outside of the building is deteriorating--Find a local cleaning service

More focus on individual talents.

Decrease the amount of funds withdrawn from my paycheck for the benefits packages provided.

Improved writing resources

I understand that NHA is a large organization and that it would seem to make sense to want to streamline and "normalize" as many policies and procedures as possible. However, each school is located in a community with a unique culture and a unique population so it may be very counter-productive to attempt to make all the schools the same. In order to continue to meet the needs of each local community, local staff and the school's admin team should have autonomy in more decisions and fewer directives should be pushed from the top down. At the very least, local staff and admin should be consulted and conferred with regarding big decisions (such as reducing the number of Chromebooks per student or not reimbursing teachers for TPT materials). Staff, local admin teams and Content Leaders may have some ideas that will allow NHA schools to successfully compete with local state schools. Content leaders have shown a commitment to NHA policies while excelling in their field of teaching.

With the rising cost in living; the compensation continues to be something that needs to be addressed. It is not competitive with the local districts and it is a struggle to stay in a job I love but then be financially strained. Many of us here continue to choose Vista because we love it here but compensation should match the incredible work we do.

We need more recognition/appreciation for the work that paraprofessionals do.  We need to implement a process for paraprofessionals (who are employed with NHA for over three years) to be paid when the school has to unexpectedly shut down (snow/ power outage/ unpaid holidays). I have a plan that I feel could work and I would like to discuss the plan that could be put in place.

In order for all staff to know and understand what the expectations are daily it needs to be communicated to everyone not just a select few.

My dean proposed new student events but did not take on planning or implementation. These responsibilities fell to teachers, adding to an already heavy workload. Additionally, the events proposed were primarily academic in nature and did not fully engage our younger scholars. We believe it’s equally important to offer events that are fun and age-appropriate—such as dance parties, movie days, or game fairs. While not strictly academic, these activities can serve as powerful motivators for classroom engagement and provide meaningful opportunities to celebrate student success.

The cost of insuring a family is too high for what we get. Limited drug coverage and deductibles.

There seems to be a limited opportunity for advancement, with recognition often reserved for a select few. Many of us dedicate extra hours beyond our required commitments, yet this effort frequently goes unnoticed. It’s disheartening to see favoritism among leadership, which affects morale and the chance for others to be acknowledged.

Focus on foundational skills in K-2.  Making sure the foundation is strong before introducing more complex skills would we time well spent.

Implementation of Zearn over Dreambox. Zearn reflects what is taught inclass.

Money is needed.

Smaller class sizes, help with managing challenging behavior, less Monday meetings.

I realize that benefits cost money. Get that but wow we pay alot out of our check for this. It would be nice to see more in our pay checks.

Continue to increase salary with market raises to match with years of experience and to stay competitive with surrounding districts.

I would love to provide some feedback without repercussions. Let my thoughts count. And see changes

**Cost of Living Adjustments**: The cost of living has risen due to inflation, and my current salary no longer provides the necessities.  **Increased Responsibilities**: we are given additional responsibilities or roles that go beyond the original job description.

Allow more time learning basic skills like writing letters, learning how to spell their names, how to hold a pencil. Basic math skills to how to add and subtract,  for Kindergarten

Respond to disruptive scholars even when you are unsure of how to handle the situation especially when the scholars are extremely aggressive towards staff and scholars. They should not accept scholars whose recommended setting is not available at our school. Scholars should be placed in a school with an appropriate setting as soon as one is open.

Role clarity has been a huge question mark the past couple years at North Saginaw. Staff members know what their title is but do they all know what is expected of them? Such as…. what time to be at work and what time to leave, being late all the time is not in the role. Teachers must teach in all classes not just core classes. As a staff member you have to dress a certain way and not however you feel.  Can admin and NHA have better training for new staff? They need to be showed the processes and procedures in the specific school they are working in not just the summary of it all at NTO. Could this be a mentor job? However, can mentors get time to do so during paid hours or more compensation outside of school hours? If staff is not completing their role to the best of their ability and admin are not holding all of us accountable and to the same standards we start to fall apart as a team and then we are not giving the best to our students.  Please help with the specifics of role clarity.

They're employees here that do the bare minimum. It is not fair to the employees that show up everyday and do what they are supposed to be doing, and go above and beyond. Getting rid of employees who are not fulfilling their day to day tasks and rewarding those who go above and beyond with better pay would solve a lot of issues.

Providing information in a more timely fashion, especially for those teachers who like to plan ahead

Create a clear path to leadership, offer meaningful opportunities for growth and new challenges, and ensure employees feel heard and supported in their career aspirations.

Training with different programs

Our rooms get cleaned properly when Debbie helps but the other days wrappers and crumbs and little things get left on the floor. I would reccomend walk through when the cleaning crew are done to make sure the floor is clean.

I feel there should be a police force during dismissal and arrival. There have been two serious incidents and it concerns me.

I feel that Paraprofessionals should get some type of compensation during spring and winter break.

It is not fair to have to consistently substitute and not receive any extra compensation for it. I do not understand why the substitute incentive was taken away. It is also unfair to hear that newly hired people are making almost the same amount of money as people who have been here for years. Hourly employees should get paid for days off due to weather closures. It is not fair that hourly employees have to suffer a pay cut due to circumstances beyond their control.

For people who make decisions to communicate more effectively.

Continuing to raise pay or performance based bonuses

Fair wages that align with the rising cost of living.

Separate bank of PTO and sick time.

I would really like to see a solid phonics program for k-2.  Heggerty has been amazing at hitting phonemic awareness, now we need phonics to match it.

NHA has gone down a very troubling road of poor decisions (in my opinion) between IT and I&A that has and will continue to cost the org far more time and money than it should.  We have a well staffed and high performing IT department (infrastructure, dev, database, identity, etc)  that sets and adheres to best practices in design, maintainability, automation, and performance.  While I have no issue with the Innovation team's goals and the org's desires for a single app experience.  Choosing to operate as separate teams and refusing to share knowledge, experience, process, code, and design language has and will continue bloat the cost and time for delivery. It will also take a large toll on the org to maintain and support and app of this scale if it continues down its current path.

Better cleaning staff that actually clean. The bathrooms are disgusting and need to be cleaned better.  The classrooms have garbaged dumped but carpet and floors dirty.

I want to acknowledge that the recent change of defining PREMA into separate teams has provided role clarity, focus, and seemingly a step in the right direction  - being part of a team that size with one Director was challenging for everyone and did not foster a supportive environment simply due to the capacity of our leadership. I'm hopeful the newly defined Enrollment Operations team will continue to grow in a focused, meaningful way that only benefits our schools and students.   While the changes to structure have been a step in the right direction, changes are still needed to create more infrastructure within our team. I greatly enjoy managing enrollment and my team, but continue to feel a sense of being spread to thin. Our team essentially lost a manager in order to gain a leader with a sole focus on Enrollment. My recommendation to create more support would be to promote a current enrollment specialist into a team lead to create another layer of oversight to our Support Schools.

Pay staff a quality wage that reflects the environment and challenges we have to deal with/experience; give more opportunities for staff to earn more that is not climbing the ladder

The biggest thing I struggle with is lack of follow up on behavioral situations. A lot of times when kids are suspended we are not aware. The kids sometimes know before us teachers do. It would just be helpful to be informed when suspensions are given.

Teachers need to teach. If a behavior needs to be removed, they should be removed without question for whatever period of time it requires to safely bring the student back.  Escalated, violent students should NOT be returned to the classrooms. The safety and success of the entire classroom should be more of a consideration vs. the offending student. It is unrealistic to expect the classroom teacher to put all their energy into one or two recurring behaviors, instead of teaching the rest of their classroom. Hiring more and more behavior support is not going to be effective if students and families are not held accountable.  The safety of EVERY students matters.

Pay more money

I would recommend talking to teachers or whoever decisions that are being made could affect. Be open to teachers and support staff suggestions because their schedules, routines, etc. are affected the most when decisions are being made.

Staffing- There is a great need at Timberland for behavior and academic interventions, as well as teacher monitoring/coaching. We have not been successful in recruiting school social workers necessary to assist with behavior interventions. We struggle to attract quality academic paras/educators that will help us achieve academic goals. Deans are overwhelmed with responsibilities for their direct reports (observing/coaching) while also taking on the multiple tasks that come with running a school (schedule making, event planning, student behavior, parent/IEP meetings, C&I visits, interviewing applicants, etc.). Staff on all levels are spread thin due to the fact that these tasks must be done, yet there aren't enough people to share the load. If pulling back on funds is to support increasing salaries, that is great; however, decreasing staffing numbers to do so has greatly impacted the ability of the remaining staff to meet all the needs of the students, parents, educators, and leaders.

I've noticed that often times it is the same school and staff that receive special/spotlight attention for either building wide or staff recognition. I love that we have these opportunities for praise within NHA, I just wish that they were dispersed more evenly among the schools and their staff within the regions. I've worked at Timberland Charter Academy for 8 years now and have yet to see our school or staff highlighted in one of our NHA Spotlight moments. I love my school and I know we have our challenges like any other, but we are a dedicated school and staff and I feel we have earned the right to see ourselves deservedly recognized for our achievements. Via regionals and other opportunities to collaborate, I have heard similar sentiments from schools like mine that we aren't as recognized as we would hope to be. Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback and I look forward to the next school year!

NHA could improve this area by being more competitive with what other businesses offer employees in PTO. My experience has been that 3 weeks is the start and 6 weeks is the cap.

There seems to be an "us vs. them" mentality when it comes to 3/4 the leadership team and the staff they are supposed to lead. Much of the staff does not feel that the administration are on their side or are available for support when it is needed.

The discipline of students who are consistently disruptive needs to be improved.  There are times when a whole group/class is disciplined for a student who is a consistent bad actor.  Additionally, we ask students and parents to sign the contract of excellence but there's no teeth to that.  Either bring that up as a piece of our culture or get rid of it.  When a student is consistently breaking the rules and violating policies, the contract of excellence should be brought up with them and their parents and have some bearing:  it's why they chose the school, so they should be a contributor to the overall excellence.

I would ask the new leadership how they bring the team together instead of dividing the departments with frustration, micromanagement, and inefficiencies.

I would like to see more resources allocated to the special education department. I think EC needs their own curriculum.

I believe there's room to significantly improve our workplace culture and the level of trust among employees. Focusing on greater transparency, a clearer and more consistently communicated vision, and a stronger emphasis on employee well-being would be beneficial for everyone. It's important to remember that sometimes the "little things" can make a big difference in employees' day-to-day experience. Feeling valued and supported through small gestures of appreciation or policies that acknowledge their personal lives can contribute significantly to a positive culture and build trust. By focusing on these areas, I believe we could see increased employee engagement, improved collaboration, reduced turnover, and ultimately, a more positive and productive work environment for everyone. This seems to be something that has been missing lately and a change from prior years.

The curriculum is a bit too ambitious for our students. The lesson plans are long and wordy.

I Danni Sanders, feel that because I am one of the people who is so critical to every facet of what we do here at NHA in our quest to transform thousands and thousands of lives that the compensation receive should reflect that. The work that I do is vital to strong parent partnerships, student success, and school community is another reason fair compensation should not be optional.  I appreciate Metria Washington for her efforts in trying to improve on this area.

Placing money to positions or for positions that are necessary for the school so we can keep those great assets and teachers.  I also would like to see improvement to Middle School resources such as Moral Focus (connecting with situations that are more relevant to today's world) and elective opportunities/curriculum, etc. Different sports for NHA to play against one another.

There is a lot of blurring of roles between paras, subs, specialists, admin.  I'm not sure of the exact definition for each role, so this leads to stress and anxiety.

If I had to nitpick, I'd look at instances like these:  - it appears some staff have changed positions? we're unsure (never told - so just try to update us) - teachers being walkied while their walkies are off due to active instruction (calling would make more sense) - PA system cannot be heard in all areas of the building (scary re:lockdowns - professionally check areas with no phones like hall, bathrooms) - sometimes teachers are unaware of holds b/c they were announced only via walkie (PA instead) - specials teachers unable to use their rooms with little-no prior notice (give notice) - those who were out sick, etc. miss important announcements from huddles/meetings (brief email summaries when vital info comes out)  Communication cannot be perfect in our whirlwind jobs, but whenever possible, info that benefits the whole building should be shared with the WHOLE building (not just in PLCs or wing newsletters, as some staff don't have these). That'll keep us cohesively functioning. :)

Match surrounding county pay with supplements. I would make $11,000 more working in Wake County.

Currently none at this time, I know my job role and I feel comfortable performing my daily duties. When I do have concerns or needs I know how to get them addressed.

Our schoolwide PD's this year were fantastic and very meaningful. I hope we continue with that. The regional PD's are redundant and repetitive. We cover the same material in different ways every time. I'd love to have new and interesting material be presented. I'd love to leave the PD and say, 'I learned something new today and I'm excited to use that with my teaching/with my students.' It's been years since I have felt that way. Instead, PD days feel like wasted school days or a wasted free mental health day.

I would like to respectfully recommend that our team take a closer look at improving compensation for staff. Competitive and fair pay not only helps recognize the hard work and dedication employees bring every day, but also supports stronger retention, boosts morale, and enhances overall job satisfaction.  An adjustment in compensation—whether through salary increases, bonuses, or additional benefits—would acknowledge the growing demands of our roles and show continued investment in our professional contributions.

Other schools (county) have 3 janitors on site all day. We do not even have one some days and I have watched admin have to clean the school or take out trash. When janitors are here they are on their phones or in their wives classrooms. How can the school be clean if no one is cleaning it?

Resources and Funding have been reduced this year causing programs to be cut and certain initiatives within the building to suffer due to lack of funding.

NHA is spending a lot of money on technology that doesn't need to be replaced/rewritten in-house. On top of that, the massive team NHA has decided to hire hasn't produced any solid products, has no product roadmap, has seemingly done no user research or feedback, and uses poor software development practices. I would suggest that teams with proven practices and procedures in place be given the opportunities to tackle software needs.

While the administrative team is clearly dedicated and works diligently, there are often challenges with availability when timely support is needed. Timely communication is essential in these situations and becomes frustrating when we don’t have the support that is needed in the moment.   I’m happy to contribute where I can however, the volume of tasks outside my job title is starting to affect my ability to fully focus on my primary responsibilities.

Teachers are constantly told how important and essential we are, yet our compensation doesn’t reflect our worth. We’re one of the only professions expected to spend our own money on basic supplies just to do our jobs. This disconnect between praise and pay is discouraging and makes it hard to feel truly valued. Increased funding and support are necessary if we want to retain passionate, qualified educators.

Some of the programs ie Amplify Science assumes the students have an adequate background in science to proceed with Amplify. ( I do believe this is being addressed

Feel like both sides of IA and IT could and should do more to improve information sharing. Think it would improve efficiency and accuracy of our work.   Also, improve work between IA and Innovation team. IA seems to have to react after the fact to things versus a collaborative process.

More phonics in the reading curriculum for K-2

We need help with kids behavior,a strong team to help with these students,please ????

An increase janitorial staff may help.

To improve compensation for me would to be fairly paid as cost of living is higher in today's economy.  I believe one should be able to afford to pay reasonable bills in a household while working to help NHA continue to be successful.

NOTHING

One recommendation I have for management is to try to be on time for 03 meetings. Try harder to end and start o3's on time and if o3's need to be canceled to reschedule them.

Required all teams to have detailed policies and procedures, and share them out with all of the Service Center. Also requiring communication between teams when a change impacts another team.

Teachers need to be paid more based on their credentials. In addition, aids need to be hired to better support classrooms. Also, Intervention needs to be conducted in this school to better support our students.

I believe that a strong manager is one that embodies communication, accountability, dependability and trustworthiness. When interacting with my manager these skills are not very apparent to me. Our team is not communicated with for events/educational opportunities ahead of time, we are missing that sense of collaboration. When change is made to the way of teaching, I would like the opportunity to collaborate on it, ask questions, and/or just be informed of the new techniques that are being required of me. Communication regarding my evaluations was lacking; non-descript comments that were never fully explained or directly shown how I should apply them in the classroom.  Being able to trust your superior that they have your best interests in mind and want the best for you are key to a successful working relationship. I do not have this with my manager. I do not feel I can ask for help or ask questions for fear of an attitude or showing weakness that she might use against me down the road

This is a hard one because we could do so much more with middle of the road (Tier 2) students if the structure was preserved and protected across NHA in this position.  I'm speaking more for the position as a whole than I am with my personal experience at my school.

This year has been about building routines, procedures, relationships (between staff/students, staff/parents, school/community, etc). I am excited to see what can be done to develop extracurricular programs that encourage students to build desire in becoming lifelong learners and find enjoyment in academic settings. Music, languages, theater, robotics, mock trial, debate etc. I look forward to the relationships we are building with parents and the community to make these things a reality

An insurance plan option with better coverage. If any major medical (such as surgery) occurs, there is a high out of pocket for the current plans.

We drastically over-assess our kids. I and MANY others have given this feedback for years now and the amount of assessment the students experience has only increased. This makes it difficult to focus on tentpole assessments that do produce great summative data as the kids tend to lose enthusiasm and struggle to identify which assessments are key for them. Also, taking this amount of tests/quizzes imbued into the curriculum is super boring for the kids and kills their engagement in school writ-large. I am certain that NHA will continue with this strategy FOREVER and will disregard the feedback of everyone who actually has to administer this caravan of assessments each year.

Bathroom procedures. Classes have scheduled bathroom breaks built within their schedules to reduce unwanted bathroom behaviors and frequency of students coming and going during instruction. Middle school would follow the same procedure of having scheduled bathroom breaks. But if students need to use the restroom outside of designated times, have a sign-out/in system (with time stamps and teacher initials approving student left) that is FULLY implemented to assist with bathroom disturbances, mess, and reduce frequency of students roaming the halls.

Pension needs to be reviewed. What do we actually gain at the end of our tenure?

The amount of prep / work expected outside of school is a lot. Meetings, trainings, after-school activities add up especially for new teachers and parents of young children.

Cleanliness. I feel like the classrooms should be vacuumed on a regular basis

Compensation - I love the retention bonus provided for staff- I think this is a wonderful benefit and would hate to see this go!  Support- We need to grow our teachers like our students.  I believe NHA helped me grow as a professional.  I am not sure what it will look or sound like, but I believe this is an area we could work on to help retain and grow our new teachers.

It would be nice if paras/interventionist were paid for their subbing. Also paid when accidents happen in the building that they cannot control like plumbing issues resulting in school being closed and paras not being paid, or having to use acquired time. It would be nice if snow days were given back, because we are not paid for those as well. When we come back from Christmas break, we already are struggling considering we are not paid, but to come back to 3-4 snowdays is detrimental and sets us back for the first few months of the year. It would also be nice to at least pay for our breaks like Christmas and Spring considering Summer we don’t get paid.

I recommend that specials teachers (music, art, gym, and tech) receive para support during classes. This could be achieved either by assigning paras to travel with classes or by providing dedicated paras for each specials teacher. Additionally, I believe better benefits and more recognition through compensation would greatly improve staff satisfaction and retention.

Pay teachers more every year. This is a very very difficult school to work at so each year that a teacher comes back, they should get paid substantially more, especially since the amount of PTO is cutting into less than half of what it's been for years.

Notification of positions that are available in building.

Provide higher compensation to teachers for their current position, along with additional responsibilities they may take on.

Would love if NHA considered dean salaries in comparison to assistant principals in the district.

We need to establish a benefit program for retired teachers from NHA. At this point, we have nothing except our 401K's and that will not be enough. We need to add medical coverage and some sort of a pension program for our staff. If we don't then we run the risk of losing veteran teachers.

There are too many tests in K-2. 2nd grade should have the ability to ditch FSAs if our class doesn't need it, vice versa with comprehension-if our class isn't reading words how can they read a test and comprehend it. It should be an either or situation. FSAs are a very lengthy process to pull students one-on-one then give another whole group test on top of it. If you have a group of students who can read, do a comprehension test. If you have a group who still really struggle with reading, just give FSAs. Grammar tests are a waste of time.

Ability to address multiple issues.  It feels like issues fall by the wayside and are not addressed in a timely manner (behavior, etc.) or are delayed because of a focus on a single issue.  It also feels like some issues are, for similar reasons, not addressed or investigated appropriately, leaving teachers to find extensive fixes and solutions to problems that could have been addressed sooner and taken care of. Examples include but not limited to behavior (letting certain behavior issues escalate), poor planning (ie in many logistics/operational issues), and lack of investigation (eg 8th grade trip plan with new company leading to extensive work forced on staff).

Competitive Wages

We are required to test in math way too much.  There is hardly any time to teach lessons when we have checkpoint quizzes, unit quizzes, numeracy tests and checkups.  FSA's are a waste of time.  There is no time to constantly be testing in those, much less to reteach the items missed.  It's very difficult to find them in the gradebook.

 I want to start by emphasizing that I understand NHA is a business. However, I believe that decisions should prioritize the needs of students and the school community rather than just budget constraints. It is not unreasonable to expect NHA to ensure that each school is equipped with the necessary staffing and support to create a positive environment for families and the community.  ALL SCHOOLS NEED A DEAN OF INTERVENTION - NO EXCUSES.

Match our pay to that of the districts. As an admin, to know that I only make a few thousand more than the teachers I supervise, is very disheartening. NHA should be paying all positions competitively.

I just love working at RCA. It is such a wonderful environment for teachers and students. Bonnie Stallings is the BEST there is for a Dean. She is just so organized and understandings and so helpful with constructive criticism that helps us as teachers grow and grow. I am so thankful that she is my Dean!

I would like to see an increase in support within policies for students who are not meeting expectations. I believe the admin team works well to the best of their abilities to be present with teachers and problem-solve different situations that may arise. However, I feel that there needs to be a more substantial presence on the admin team among the wings to uphold the expectations stated at the beginning of the year for teachers. Teachers have a role to play as well, but without that backup from the admin team, it can almost feel like an uphill battle with little to no results of positive change.

To improve in the area of compensation, the organization could benefit from increased transparency around salary bands, regular market benchmarking, and more frequent reviews of compensation tied to performance and inflation. Clearer communication about how pay decisions are made, combined with a structured and equitable approach to raises and bonuses, would help employees feel more valued and aligned with company goals.

I would like to see the curriculum be more age appropriate. I feel that the curriculum is too advanced for the grade level for which it is made for, and it would be nice to have more hands-on materials for ELA.

Be more specific about what's expected from staff!

Increased raises, mid year raises, and retention bonuses.

I know a lot of this is do to capacity of our engagement team, however I miss the ENRICH program. I felt this program was valuable not only in content but an opportunity to meet other people throughout the service center and engage in meaningful conversation.

Additional monetary compensation to continue to retain teachers.

I believe it is on me to figure out ways that I can contribute more to NHA and therefore advocate for more compensation

Holding kids accountable with damaged Chromebook that were obviously not an accident.

In order for students to be successful, all student's needs have to be met. Some students that have IEPs have difficulty following the curriculum. Although I do my best to differentiate instruction, some students need more resources. Due to staffing shortage of qualified teachers who can help these students or when these paraprofessionals are pulled to fulfill other roles, it is difficult for these students to live to their potential. Also, as a teacher it is hard to see students who need more support fall behind becuase our goals are to make sure "bubble" kids are proficient instead of ensuring success for all students.  I love working at our school. I love the people I work with especially our dean. One reason why I would need to search for employment elsewhere is due to student loans. I wish there was another way for teachers who received their teaching certificate to find help with their student loans whether it is an influx in pay or another resource like non-profit schools.

The dean needs to be receptive to feedback and not take an attitude that places blame on others.  There seems to be little personal accountability on her end.  New teachers in my wing are not onboarded properly, one did not even know what an O3 was.  There is not good trust or communication between the teachers and the dean on my wing, but all of the blame for this is placed on the teachers.  Professionalism is lacking.

I would like to be paid a wage that is comparable to other schools in the area. If I can not talk to my own administration about this issue, who can I talk to? I do not like NHA hiding behind the administration when it comes to compensation. We are always told how valuable we are and how wonderful our school is and I wish we were valued in a more tangible way.

I think that we start the school year off so strong and pumped but within a month or two the culture wears off. Teachers are never on the same page when it comes to following expectations. You have some that adhere to the rules and provide consequences to those that don't, then you have some teachers who either don't care or they want to be the "liked" teacher. We should be a united front from start to finish. I tried starting a Sunshine club but that fizzled out when all of my ideas ran by admin at the time wanted to revamp my ideas to make it their own. I would love to see that brought back. We used to have team outings, staff lunches where we could speak to one another while breaking bread, but we don't do that anymore. It feels like every man for themselves. We have potential we just have to stick to the commit.

Maternity leave should be paid. NHA should also ensure that market raises are assessed regularly to match inflation.

Restructure our budget so that high performing staff members are compensated. Have mid year checkpoints to determine which staff members fall into this category. (set money aside for this).

Implement a process to remove disruptive students from general education long term so that teachers can teach.

I put resources for both a strength and weakness. Monetary resources are a strength. Departments always have plenty of money for supplies and our PTI does an amazing job. I feel that NHA needs to step up resources by providing at least one para profession per wing and ideally one per grade level like most public schools have. Class sizes are also out of control...especially given that they don't have the support of a designated para. NHA is going to loose good teachers to public schools with small class sizes and more support.

Raises. Instead of giving $8,000 to staff who quit trying to incentivise them to return, that money should be spent on staff retention.

N/a

The clenliness of my room has been a huge concern this year. I return to my classroom the next day (even after stacking chairs, picking up big items, etc.) and my floor is not swept, and it does not seem to have been mopped. When it does get mopped, there are huge muddy streaks. I am really dissapointed in the clenliness of my classroom, as I try really hard to make it a clean organized environment for the kids to learn.

Offering more structured guidance, ahead of project implementation, and clarifying roles when new initiatives are introduced would strengthen collaboration and reduce confusion for project work.

Increase Base Salary: Adjust teacher compensation to be more competitive with neighboring districts and to meet the rising cost of living.  Reinstate Incentive Opportunities: Bring back programs that allow exemplary teachers to earn additional income, such as stipends for leadership roles, professional development, and mentoring new teachers.  Expand Summer and Tutorial Programs: Offer more extensive summer school and tutorial opportunities beyond the current reduced sessions to provide both academic support for students and supplemental income for teachers.  Offer Retention Bonuses: Implement retention incentives for experienced and high-performing teachers to encourage long-term commitment to the district.

There are too many opportunities for parents to approach staff. There is always a parent being let in the buliding, students in the wrong area, and procedures not being followed. There seems to be no consequences or few passed out. Rules seem to only apply to certain staff and students.

It is essential for effective communication to take place between all teachers and staff. This helps minimize confusion when everyone understands their roles and expectations. If there are any schedule changes within the building, it is crucial that all teachers and staff are informed. Additionally, teachers need to know that their work is valued and that they have support and appreciation, especially during challenging times when they may feel lost or out of place. New teachers at NHA should be given a proper opportunity to transition into their roles, with ongoing support and feedback that enables them to grow and develop in alignment with the NHA way.

We should be compensated based on years worked, work performance, and dependability. A new teacher, with zero experience should not make the same amount as a veteran teacher. We also need more sick/personal days.

I would like additional trainings which could really help me better support our students and contribute more effectively to the team, especially in the area of self harm and suicide threats.  And professional development geared toward school social workers.

Pay us a rate that mirrors our surrounding schools and that is based on teacher performance

Actually follow through with chalk change.  Deans almost never pass it out.

Start time changing.  Shorter breaks limit being in school til mid june

Wish that I could tell the truth on these surveys without being retaliated against.

In the last year, I believe NHA is not aligned with their core values regarding key decision making.  Fiscal decision making is important, but should not be placed above "do the right thing always" or "take ownership for the success of our students"  We are not living up to either of these core values.  I highly value my immediate team and leadership team, but believe NHA as an organization no longer aligns with my core values.

On a larger scale, NHA could stand to be more competitive with pay and benefits, along with opportunities for growth. A 2-3% merit increase each year is not enough to cover the cost of living which seems to be increasing exponentially. It also does not reward those who are dedicated to their work and their teams for sticking around and continuing to provide quality work.   On a more granular level, our division and smaller team have seen a great deal of change over the past year, with more changes promised but still unclear. This change is exciting and I'm grateful for extra communication from our leaders, but it has been increasingly difficult to not feel overlooked and anxious about what is to come.

I believe the incentives are great!! With the cost of living and economy being the way it is, more pay would be awesome!!

EA needs curriculum that does a better job of meeting our students needs and  scaffolding their prior knowledge with new information.

Seven days is not adequate enough PTO time. Personal and sick days should be seperate. Life is unpredictable. There are days when we are required to work over but if we surpass the seven days of PTO, we are no longer paid for the days that we take off.

I love working for NHA.

Continue with the same NHA curriculum rather than switching to a new curriculum.

The most important area I would like addressed to improve my experience at NHA is the Academic Program and Curriculum, specifically in terms of providing more robust support for high-ability students and targeted interventions for students struggling in math. I believe that enhancing the curriculum to better challenge and engage high-ability students would allow them to continue growing and excelling. Additionally, having more structured and effective intervention strategies for math would greatly benefit students who are falling behind. Incorporating tools like IXL could be incredibly helpful, as it provides personalized, interactive practice to target specific areas of struggle, allowing scholars to progress at their own pace. By improving both enrichment for advanced learners and tailored support for struggling students, the overall academic experience for all students could be greatly enhanced.

#NAME?

Pay teachers better and not just new teachers but those that have been here and who have shown dedication

Deans coaching more consistently in the classroom. Providing teachers with hands on feedback.

I often see the response to the Glint survey, that you hear the employees. The issues that I hear put forth are normally above the pay grade of the people in the building. Teacher compensation, the concern that we are testing to often, and class size. The Leadership group at the building level does not have the ability to effect any of those concerns. NHA as an organization appears to no longer scribes to smaller class size, teacher retention, and the trust in the teachers to deliver quality instruction. NHA competitive advantage is gone and its time to reimage who we are. My one suggestion would be that we start with the relationship between the buildings and the service center.

Offer more raises or incentives.

none at the moment...

While the pay is better than local districts, teachers are still underpaid. Teachers should have higher pay rates for the large class sizes we are expected to manage.

Over time, the increasing demands on teachers have made it nearly impossible to maintain any real work-life balance.  The scripted curriculum we are required to teach is poorly written and inconsistent. It often lacks appropriate developmental alignment, either offering too little substance or overwhelming amounts of content, leaving no room for meaningful engagement.  On top of that, assessments continue to be added, cutting into instruction time without allowing space to actually respond to the data. We are constantly testing, with little to no time to analyze or act on what we learn. Grade entry and administrative tasks eat up even more time, and bringing work home has become routine.  The pace is relentless. Between the large number of students, increasing demands, and minimal support—especially in younger classrooms—there is rarely a moment to catch my breath. What makes it harder is knowing that it wasn’t always this way at NHA.

Scholars need to be held more accountable for their behavior. There needs to be protocols in place and tangible or visible consequences for scholar misconduct and lack of effort.

Increase pay for staff members.

NO areas need to be improved at this time. I've had great support from my Manager Mrs. Strick this year.  This is my first year where I am not overwhelmed and I am completing all of my work/duties in a timely manner.

PTO has been changed in the last few years.  PTO days should be able to either roll over into the next year so events like maternity and paternity leave can be banked for those looking to start a family.  If that is not feasible, then staff should be paid for the days they do not take.  Right now there is no incentive to come to work for the whole year because you lost your days at the end and get no compensation for them.  Staff is encouraged to take time off which can lead to others having to fill in roles.

none

I do not have any recommendations for improvement at this time.

The curriculum shouldn't be a one size fits all. What works for Chandler Woods or Walker Charter does not in most cases work for River City. Students can't relate to the writing prompts and the manipulatives for math are just seen as play toys. RSC scholars need the basics, how to read, how to write a sentence and basic math skills. We spend a lot of instructional time playing with blocks or learning about figurative language, etc., when they are not able to read, or do basic math.

I do my best to make appointments for during breaks or after school, but there are times when I need to leave a few minutes early. I feel that it isn't fair that this is counted as me taking a half-day for pto. Perhaps there is a way to make pto counted by the hour or by the minute to alleviate this problem.

Less rigid in terms of how to teach curriculum and grading standards

Pay based on student performance coupled with years taught.

Our dean and admin team are extremely supportive, professional and do the best for our staff and students

At times it feels like there are two schools. Upstairs vs. Downstairs. When teachers try to communicate with other teachers, we can be met with an unwelcoming behavior. Makes us want to stay on our floor.

It's simple, we need more PTO. Teachers will leave to have more days off. Most schools have 12-15 days off to take how they need. they also have the option to roll unused days over. This would help teacher want to stay if the PTO was increased to 12-15 days off and we could take them as needed. Dictating how we can take days off is crazy work to me. Teachers are adults NOT children even though we may teach them. In addition to PTO, retention bonuses cowardly not being communicated to staff that we weren't getting them is unacceptable. We can't be expected to be held to a high standard and leadership isn't being held to a high standard as well. We expect to get what was communicated to us until different is communicated to us. This just speaks to the reason for low moral that has been created because of these things and many more. Making your teachers feel appreciated goes a long way, buying them lunch just because you appreciate them goes a long way. I could go on but I will stop.

The building could be a bit more clean but this is more of an NHA Armark issue rather than a Laurus issue.

The limited time off adds stress to us when we get sick.

Hourly employees should not need to use their personal PTO for calamity days or snow days. It is not my choice to NOT come to work therefore I shouldn't have to exhaust what little PTO I am given to make up for days off that are out of my control. We should also be paid for ALL holidays in which school is closed (ie. EID, MLK Day, etc)

To improve the curriculum I would recommend it be accessible to all. For example our students who receive accommodations - the use of this curriculum makes it harder to modify and still make use of the curriculum. So having a curriculum that helps you address the needs of all types of learners on different levels would be helpful.

The health insurance is horrible and is not beneficial to those who don't have major health issues.

Nothing to improve. This has been a great year for Pembroke. We have an awesome leadership team that has the same goal that helped put Pembroke on the map! We should all be proud to say we work at a National Blue Ribbon School in the city of Detroit! I love the culture and climate here. Even though I don't cross paths with everyone daily.... Pembroke is our home away from home. So when we get together it’s like a family reunion (the reason I enjoy my Pembroke gear to match my family) Our camaraderie always shows in our collective and individual achievements.

Resources for special education. Not enough, especially working with students with cognitive impairments.

for NHA to look for better insuracne and better coverage.

We have managers fighting for raises for paras, but they are denied. Substitute teachers get paid as much as paras, which makes those who are paras at NHA not feel valued.

Please give more than 10 days PTO when new employees start

None. I am very happy with how this year went and have no real suggestions for improving.

Stop acting like we're the problem. The parents and the kids are the problem. This year I felt underwater the entire time. A lot of responsibility was pushed off on us teachers that shouldn't have been. I feel like we back down to the parents/students too much. There have too many behavioral incidents that should have resulted in suspension. Kids knew there were no consequences for poor repeated behavior so they kept doing them. On a given day I have to provide around 200 redirections. I have to do logs for an increasing number of students. Most days this place feels like a daycare. I felt like leadership treated me with distrust this year like I wasn't doing everything I could for these kids at my own expense. When a student is being disruptive enough to be a possible danger to the classroom, no way should there not be an immediate response, removal and suspension. Allow us autonomy in our classrooms. And they need more recess, not less. Their attn span is 15 min.

Better Compensation

I would like to see better PTO time or benefits based on the years worked rather than across the board.

Special Ed teacher is needed. More Paraprofessionals are needed to support teachers.

PSD is constantly treading water to keep up with the non-stop projects, changes, system improvements etc. There are an insane amount of projects happening at all times that no one can keep up with. It is very overwhelming and worse, brings negative impacts to our schools. Because we can only accomplish 'MVP' and any enhancements take years to complete, changes are barely sustainable. The expectation to constantly improve every aspect of our work does not make sense when the day-to-day work needs the most support and would have the greatest impact on our customers. Improvements and changes are always needed but we desperately need to find a better way to balance them. We can't keep pushing for the bare minimum in projects and think that's a success.

I have already tried to ask and negotiate but I still did not receive what I felt was fair.

Writing curriculum needs to be a more geared to gradual learning... basic skills of holding a pencil, letter formation, writing words, basic sentence structure, writing once sentence then two, etc.  Teachers should be able to make their own schedule that works with their day.... writing 2 or 3 days a week before and after lunch OR social studies/science 2 or 3 days a week = more time to devote to the things the curriculum is asking us to commit time to; Even having writing one week and then social studies/science the next week and so on.

More PTO, better raises, cheaper health insurance

Each teacher deserves to be fairly compensated for the work and additional hours they dedicate to their teaching.

N/A

Opportunities for classroom work to be included in the grades instead of just assessments.

I feel the teachers especially towards behavior and curriculum should be listened to more consistently. Meaning:  teachers that are teaching the class should be able to make choices towards student behaviors that constantly interrupt the majority of student's learning. Ex: How many times a student is sent back to class and continue repeat the same behavior. *There should be a limit to misbehavior that limits the whole class learning.

Pay us what we are worth and not what you think we do many jobs under one title.

up to date flooring and more cleaning support flooring is a little out dated and could use a make over

Making Pto acquired from working hours. Hours should be able to be earned monthly.

I do not agree with the lower pay rate for paras to do their lunch duty. And the fact that some people do not have to take the lunch duty pay and some do. Then for my regular pay. I have been here for 7 years, and I work hard and do whatever is asked of me. I really love my job here, but i am one of the 2 lowest paid people here. There is one other that has been here for 5 years, that is the other lowest paid. Paras were hired during this year and they all make from .50 to 1.00 more an hour then we do. I have tried to talk to my principle and the HR person from NHA but apparently nothing can be done. I just don't think that is right. If something could be done about that it would be great. Don't get me wrong I love my job here and I love working with the kids everyday! But i just don't feel very valued here when   it comes to compensation. Thank you.

Better compensation

Having different advancement opportunities for teachers which would allow them to have different job duties outside of being a Dean.

I would like to participate in more professional development courses on social emotional learning. I really enjoyed those. Also, I would like to participate in other P.D's that focus on small group intervention.

I need a clear job description on the Special ed. administration

Many PD sessions could be condensed into an email. I am capable of reading a prepackaged script and power point as well as or better than instructors. The time spent traveling to and from PD is not adequately compensated, and my time would be better spent in my home school, working on topics that affect my specific students.

It would be wonderful if we were about to roll over our PTO. Or gift it to a coworker that may need it.

The reading program

Our job is working with the hardest kids. A compensation package more comparable to a public school teacher would  improve teacher retention which is more beneficial for not only teachers but also students. It increases the ease of relationships and stability for our students.

I identified work life balance.  I am not really sure that I have a solution to improving work life balance. Maybe having some teacher work days where we can get some things done while being at work would be beneficial.

Hire someone to work as a sub for middle school so at risks teachers and paras can focus solely on doing their jobs.

Hourly should get paid for snow says

Well I know you all here this a lot but I feel that para's need to be paid throughout the school year. I understand not having it in the summer, but this is hard on a person who is head of household. Our bills don't stop either.

Improve benefits and reduce costs. I was highly disappointed this year when medication I had been taking and was making a large impact in improving my health over all was no longer covered by NHA due to costs. Also, a large part of my paycheck goes to health care.

Underpaid for the expectation that we are supposed to be available at all times when other teams do not. While I feel my manager/director are great, the scrutiny we are put under by the e-team is taxing on our jobs and our managers

I understand that public schools have opportunities for pension programs connected to the state of Michigan. It has never been an opportunity for employees with NHA.

As always teachers are underpaid for what they do. Benefits are a way for NHA to give back to their teachers.  I would like to say thank you Mrs. B who is literally down on her hands and knees cleaning glue off our awful tile floors. Please bring our carpet back or at least make the investment to do the tile floors correctly with the correct moisture wicking layer.

I overhear groups at the service center talking about what they are making, it is obvious you find some groups much more valuable, thou I work for a group that brings in funding all year. The knowledge and commitment involved in my job is not reflected in my pay, but I am expected to do more every year. I suppose from a company standpoint, good job! but employee burnout is real ...

My M-STEP goals were exceeded two years in a row. My previous co-teacher recognized for this achievement along with other team members. I felt passed over.

Make pay competitive with surrounds districts

Please communicate more effectively

There are limited growth opportunities available within the Enrollment Operations Team. During the Marketing Divisional, it was discouraging to see other teams promote their teammates to team leads or managers, while our team had a manager promoted without filling the vacant position. Expanding our team and promoting current employees would better enable us to support the growing Enrollment Support Program and enrollment across all NHA schools.

Making sure that all team members are given the same opportunities as others.

Maybe hire more daytime cleaning crew. I feel the janitor is a little old, and needs more help.

It would be beneficial if the standard second work from home day could be reinstated. For those with longer commutes, it results in unnecessary time, stress, and vehicle wear and tear to perform the same work that can be achieved remotely.

I feel like we are not being paid enough for all that we do inside the classroom.

We get less than 3% of the school year in the form of PTO. Based on the 180 days with students we only have 2.8% of those as PTO days. This doesn't factor in the PD before and during the school year that we also work. In most other jobs people get 6-10% of their working days in PTO. I am not asking for 10%, but we should receive more because it is extremely difficult to avoid being sick in our line of work. Furthermore, other schools in our area give their staff 10+ days off; which means, that we are not even close to the average in the area. More PTO would allow for people to stay home when they are sick and allow for staff to take the time for their children's field trips or take care of necessary things that can not be done outside of working hours such as doctors appointments. This would also allow for staff to take the much needed mental health break because our job is very mentally demanding. So, I believe that we deserve a more realistic expectation with PTO.

Use the High Five system, or whichever system is taking it's place. There is inconsistency with the admin team giving out the points, where some grade levels receive that recognition and others do not. Be more consistent with it. When you see a staff member doing something that is going above and beyond, use it. When there is an observation, use it, especially when admin is in each classroom at least once a week. GOOSE passes and jeans passes are great, but this would be more meaningful, just like we do with the students with their positive write ups.

Our custodial crew, nothing personal against them, but they do not clean the school very well at all and they neglect many rooms.  They need to be held accountable for this or we need to find a different cleaning vendor.  The lack of cleanliness effects teacher and student health and holds up many classes and activities in the school.  Also, even though I was only able to pick one I would also say the Culture at our school is awful.  Everyone is "Me Me Me Me Me Me".  They do not care about being compassionate and respectful.  Some even try and pick on me.  Some act like they are my boss (I am not talking about our Deans and Principal as they are the ones who are my bosses and I will honor all they give me), and sorry, but I am not going to be below anyone who is supposed to be equal with me at this school.  This lack of respectful and compassionate culture by fellow workers effects student behavior as well.  Many co-workers allow students to misbehave towards me without reprimand.

Please inform families of any safety concerns like a student making a gun threat or students threatening to jump teachers on the last day of school.

She does not take the time to get to know her direct reports as teachers. The things that we are told in meetings and O3's are inconsistent. I can be told one thing in an O3 only to be told something completely different in a meeting. It makes it hard to understand what is expected of me when I am getting told different things. Mistakes are often met with harshness which negatively impacts myself, and I'm sure other teachers who are treated the same. There is a lack of consistent, meaningful support and it is not just myself, but other teachers I have spoke with that feel the same.

It would be nice to receive higher pay raises for staff members with teacher certification and seniority (years worked at the school) within the building.

People with a desire to keep our building clean. Children should not come to school and have to use a dirty or stinking bathroom first thing in the morning. Our school does not smell clean, it has a stale smell to it daily. Classrooms are not vacuumed also.

One thing that can be improved is the ability to not be able to easily bring things into the school. metal detectors or something to detect things that are not allowed in the school.

Current promotion offers remain strict vertical-management positions. Some of these vertical-management positions are afforded to team members with no direct reports. I would recommend that, either, additional vertical management positions are afforded or consideration for specialist lateral-promotion positions are made.

Salary increase!

More money for teachers and staff

I'm not sure what else can be done other than create more job opportunities within NHA or at the school level for teachers who would like to move beyond the classroom in non-administrative positions.

Stiffer consequences for repeated bad behavior, i.e. out of school suspension, after school detention, community service/  cleaning up the school; lower thresholds for BSPs so parents are required to attend meetings for their child to return to school.

Making sure that parents and students are following the handbook guidelines and consequences are taken seriously if they are not following the rules that are in place. There needs to be a standard set to ensure that the quality of academic excellence can be taught and demonstrated.

Some students understand that there aren't any consequences if they don't do any work. We need to create a culture in which students understand that their success is dependent on their own effort, i.e. students should not be able to 'succeed' if they don't put in any effort.

Trust and autonomy are essential in fostering a positive and sustainable teaching environment. When educators are given the space to make professional decisions without constant micromanagement, they feel valued, empowered, and more capable of meeting their students' needs creatively. Unfortunately, the current climate often overloads teachers with rigid mandates, excessive oversight, and unrealistic expectations, draining their energy and diminishing morale. Without trust, teachers struggle to maintain a healthy culture, as stress and burnout replace collaboration and passion. Supporting educators through autonomy and respect isn't just beneficial—it’s necessary for the success of both teachers and students alike.

No to sound like a broken record, PTO is the area I would like to see improvement. In the area that Warrendale services, Paraprofessional are an necessity. Para's provide academics support for the teacher and the students. They also provide personal and family support. Paraprofessional is a fulltime position, and anytime lost due to building closing, should not be at the lost of the workers. Paying the full-time employees when the school is close for snow, building problems or repairs should be seen as an opportunity to support those that support our school.

Pay more to those who have been loyal and productive. Otherwise someone else will steal us away

NHA should provide more health coverage to employees

If we want to attract and keep great teachers, it's important that we take a thoughtful look at how we support them, starting with good pay and meaningful benefits. This could mean reviewing how our salaries compare to those in nearby districts, considering the current cost of living, and raises based on experience and performance. I also think strengthening our benefits like healthcare, retirement plans, and funding for professional growth is equally important. Investing in good teachers not only shows that you value them but it also improves the overall outcome of the students we serve.

Definitely need to be paid more

NHA could improve by providing greater transparency in decision-making processes and ensuring equal opportunities for growth across all positions. Currently, evaluations do not reflect the diverse roles and unique responsibilities of support staff, leading to support staff feeling undervalued and less important compared to teachers. Additionally, compensation practices favor teachers regardless of performance. A prime example being the distribution of ESSER funds, where teachers received double the amount given to support staff for 3 consecutive years. This decision was discouraging and made many feel like their work was not valued. Furthermore, it's difficult to comprehend why a teacher who performance evaluations are significantly lower compared to a support staff members would received such a high monetary bonus. Overall, it seems NHA is prioritizing budget cuts over creating pathways for professional growth and fair compensation.

Find more grants, 4 day work week, decrease some of the salaries for the staff that makes over 6 figures.

I don't feel we are compensated for our good work. I was hired in many years ago and I feel new hires are gettng hired in with hire salaries than me without the years of experience I have in my department.  I feel some of us should be "trued up" in compensation. This really bothers me.

Bonus compensation

It would only let me pick one! I'm trying to figure out how I made less income last year while doing my taxes... It has been challenging being a single household, and positive compensation certainly inspires feeling of value. I'm willing to take on additional responsibilities and open and receptive to having this communication with my manager.

I believe the manager role could be improved with more consistent and constructive communication. Specifically, my manager rarely gives positive feedback or recognition, even when goals are met or extra effort is shown. Regular encouragement and acknowledgment would go a long way in boosting morale and motivation. Additionally, clearer expectations, more timely support, and open, two-way communication would help create a more positive and productive work environment.

Restorative Practices

If you ask teachers to divide up classes so that behaviors are even distributed and classes are balanced. Please trust them to do that. If you are going to divide based on ability then let your staff know that is what it is so they can proper prepare. Finally, if you move someone from one grade to another or one subject to another, make sure they have had the proper training so they understand what has changed since their new teacher orientation.

ELA should include grammar, spelling, workbooks, worksheets, or something tangible for students to apply those words.  Vocabulary, spelling, and grammar from novel studies would be beneficial, as well as how to use them in sentence structure and grammar.  IM/Bridges does not prepare students for basic math skills.  We have upper-grade-level students who cannot state their math facts and need assistance.  Our special education students also lack the support they need.  The lack of a resource room and insufficient staff impact daily assessments of their learning.

Outside of a retention bonus, providing a holiday bonus or performance bonus.

Clearer communication, more buy in from staff and students

Helping World Language teachers within NHA collaborate with one another and help them get connected initially.

A raise or bonus for educators would be sufficient enough for me.

Public schools make much more and have smaller class sizes.

There is a lot of favoritism at Pinnacle Academy. Individuals who are favorites of the leadership team are the only ones to be given advancement opportunities or pushed to develop further. It is extremely demoralizing to feel like I will always be stuck in my current role, especially considering that I have asked for chances to grow and further my development as a teacher and leader.   Behavior at Pinnacle Academy is extremely concerning, as actions are only taken towards students that act out in front of or to the dean. Teachers can ask for assistance multiple times with the same student, but consequences are not put in place until the dean witnesses or experiences that same student behavior. When teachers ask for help by putting a behavior plan in place, they are often ignored. Teachers cannot successfully teach when there are constant disruptive behaviors not being handled, and students even express that they know they can get away with behavior because there are no consequences.

For being a for-profit organization, you'd think NHA could pay people a little better.

Opportunity to attend at least one professional development conference for my specific subject area that does not affect my PTO time.

I would love to have a principal who has proven reliable and trustworthy to our staff, parents, and community. The staff wholeheartedly agrees that Emily Hansen would make a truly exceptional principal.

Teachers put in a lot of work and hours. I personally work 10 hours every day and some weeks more. We often bring home lessons to prepare/plan, papers to grade, etc. We need a higher wage. Our salaries are insufficient for the skill level of the work we provide and the hours we put into it. A substantial salary increase is needed and deserved.

para should get paid  when its snow days . this year during January we didnt have school that whole month really cause of snow days and busted pipes and etc. not getting paid hurts. we all have a living we have to take care of bills etc. during the winter its kind of hard to keep up with your bills if you dont get paid on them snow days. will be paying catch up for months

Hire Airmark employess that are thorough and take pride in their work and our school. We would also like to see a quicker turn around time on HAVAC request. Students and Staff should not have to wait weeks and months even to have heating or air working in their classrooms.

Leadership has taken a very them vs. us approach to managing the school and  have little to no presence in the building. Additionally, because of this, they have chosen to take an extremely hands off approach to handling student behaviors, leading to an extreme lack of accountability for students, and increasingly escalated student behaviors. As a result, safety is also a major concern at Brooklyn Dreams.

As we continue to deliver high-quality work and support our students and community, it's important that our compensation reflects the standards set by comparable districts. Professionals in the same role in neighboring districts receive significantly higher compensation for far less responsibilities and expectations. A fair increase based on these comparisons would recognize our value and ensure you retain talented professionals.

N/a

We all do a lot of extras outside of our job expectations.  There are stipends for some of those things, but it would be nice if there were either more stipends available or if there could be PTO added based on a teacher's extra time commitments.

Consistency with cleaning in the building. Better management of the Aramark staff

Across the board NHA continues to pay their staff lower then other schools in our Grand Rapids district. Your company does a great job of supplying us with the resources we need to become great, successful teachers but unless you start paying us for our worth, you are only training us to leave you. I know that I make only a bit more then new hires and I have been here for 6 years. I have the merits and test scores to prove that I deserve more money. Unfortunately, if my tests scores in May prove that what I am doing is successful and I dont receive a fair pay increase, I will be looking else where...

More time for grades/subjects to work together

The following recommendations for collaboration amongst teachers and students  will be emphasized in the domains: academics, & student experience.  1. increase in purposeful PLC’s where we can identify essentials skills, analyze results , and create an action plan for students achievement. I believe that these meetings should be based on departments  versus grade level . My suggestion is that resource, and intervention teachers  be included so that they will know how to best support in the classroom .  2. Have monthly staff meetings to discuss ideas about upcoming activities such as fundraisers , dances , fun friday, and staff engagements  3.  Introduce academic goal setting to the students as a team and create rewards when students achieve their goal. Yes we celebrate those students who score Mastery , but creating something for those  who simply grew 4. Regularly survey the students as a whole about their learning experiences and provide them with choices when permittable

We could use more planning time, 2 of our 5 days are taken by meetings and sometimes IEP/504 meetings take more. Being kicked out of the room for specials does not help either. Many tedious, trivial tasks are heaped on us with zero extra time given to complete them. Staff concerns are brushed off and ignored, as if our thoughts on issues are not important. Feedback from observations is discouraging and not representative of abilities and delivered so long after the observation, that they become invalid. This has lead to a lot of stress and frustration, that then interjects itself into my personal life. Also having meetings with all staff, about issues that only pertain to a couple of staff members is a waste of staff time. These conversations should happen with the individuals causing the problem, not all staff. Confrontation is not fun, but it wastes our time and causes more frustration, when we have to sit through a tongue lashing that has absolutely nothing to do with most of us.

Provide benefits that cater to our overall needs.

Communication between admin and staff still needs a lot of work. We never seem to know if we are having committee meetings, I don't think those are every formally canceled, we just get an e-mail at 1:00 saying that we are meeting that day. Communication about tutoring this year was awful. I didn't know what students I was actually getting until they showed up on the first day. Last year I was given permission slips of the parents who had committed to sending their child and that did not happen this year.

A school-wide calendar of events would be helpful, as long as it is updated regularly. Time to collaborate and discuss the needs and strengths of the students would also be vital to improve communication.

Cross Creek/NHA teacher salaries are much lower than other schools in the area.  I love working at Cross Creek, but the increase in pay would make a huge difference for my family. Each school year it feels like I need to choose between a job/school that I love and my family.  I know pay is an NHA area (not CC) but the pay difference between NHA and other schools (outside of NHA) makes it seem like NHA doesn't respect/value its employees.  We should be able to have comparable pay to other educators in our area.

Compensation based on performance no matter what position you have at the school.

Hourly staff who has been at Vista for many years are making significantly less than staff who are recently hired. Also, hourly staff this year have gotten observed which is great, but I'm not sure if it will impact raises and pay. I would like it if I was compensated for my work ethic and not just get the same as everyone else.   Hourly staff also makes unlivable wages. I feel most valued when my paycheck allows me to afford things that I need like rent, groceries, etc.  I love my job, I value the work I do, and the only reason I see myself leaving is lack of pay. Especially since as hourly staff, I work hard with the interventionists on my team as well as the classroom teachers to make sure our team has the best quality support and would like that reflected in a paycheck.

I would love to see the recognition of teachers going above and beyond to give to their school improve. I often feel overlooked and underappreciated for all of the work that I do by my dean. I also wish that teachers weren't so micromanaged and allowed to do their job and teach. There have been multiple times that a teacher managed issue/situation has been taken over by admin and the control taken from teachers.

I think the school does a great job of making this school a great place for students. However, I feel like not enough attention is taken to making this a great place for the staff. The inconsistencies in behavior management and not supporting the teachers when they are stretched too thin make it hard to have a good balance between work and home. Periods of true "gift of time" (no sub plans) would be great, as well as supporting teachers when they are unable to be at school.

Teachers and students working together to create new ways to move through the curriculum (ie. independent study).

work on clicky behavior, make sure coworkers express concerns with their coworker prior to talking to everyone else

Our Special Education Dean was taken away from our building and as a result there have been major consequences for our special education department.  We have a lead teacher who stepped up - WITHOUT COMPENSATION - and has been filling in a lot of the gaps for our department.  There absolutely NEEDS to be someone qualified who understands the law and has the time to devote to meetings and helping our students.  The staff member who stepped up is AMAZING and deserves to be compensated for all the extra hours he put in to helping our team run as smooth as possible this year.  All NHA schools shouldn't have to follow the same model for administration.  We've always had a special education dean because it's NECESSARY and this year and the following years should be no different.

The compensation does not seem to go up in accordance to the area school systems or enough in relation to the cost of living increases that continue to happen. Realistically thinking a person can live off of a salary of 55,000 dollars or 2000 dollars a month when rent is that is unrealistic.

social studies plans and math bridges need to be updated to meet the environment of the students we teach. At times it seems that the expectation is too high when teaching.

Match the district pay scale and pay for years experience to all employees, not just new hires

Admin is constantly caught speaking about other teachers in the presence of other staff. The consistency on supporting student behavior is difficult to create a positive school culture.

Though the Core Values at WPCA are strong and followed, I do not always see that coming from the company as a whole with different initiatives and requirements that they have.

I’d like to have a consistent policy regarding student behaviors. This would help both the kids and I feel safe at Orion.

While I love working at North Dayton, this year has felt suffocating. I feel as if the leader has added so much to our plates on short notice, but never took anything off. The principal has added huge projects at the last minute- with very unclear instructions. While I love the projects, it was stressful and disrespectful to add them at the end of the year and during state testing. A common phrase this year was to "raise the crown," but so many times we got emails/blanket statements with new rules for everyone-when it was clear it was meant for certain staff. It felt like we were lowering the crown to our lowest denominator instead of helping those staff members raise themselves up. Why must something be a school wide policy when it was only an issue for certain people? The micromanaging by the leader was on a whole new level from the leader. It felt like we were being dictated to instead of allowing us to make decisions for our students.

Leaders should regularly seek teacher feedback and follow through on concerns by being visible to both teachers students and parents. Establish open-door policies and trust-based relationships through 1:1 collaborative conversations with all administrators.  •Encourage peer-to-peer recognition  •Offer PD that’s relevant, teacher-led, and applicable to their classrooms. •Give teachers choices in their professional learning paths. •Ensure regular, structured opportunities for team collaboration without it being just another afterschool thing… •Protect planning periods from being overtaken by non-instructional tasks or behavior tasks that take over professional  Involve them in decision-making around policies, schedules, and programs. Positive Student Culture •Promote consistent behavioral expectations and support systems. Teachers feel more satisfied when students are respectful and routines are in place, say and do what you said or what the policy say  then follow up

Hold ALL employees accountable. Address matters directly. Be transparent. Be supportive. Remain positive.

Be completive to the pay that is offered at schools outside of NHA.

The only way to advance at an NHA school is to become a dean, and that job is not desired by everyone especially since the dean role has shifted from a teacher support role to a behavioral support role. Our school is in need of facilitators or instructional coaches who can dedicate their time to help teachers specifically new teachers OR new to NHA teachers. Teachers need support with learning the NHA curriculum, understanding the assessments and how to manage them, as well as being guided with effective management strategies which will in turn help with behaviors that are taking place inside of classrooms. With lack of support due to the deans being pulled constantly for behaviors and IEP meetings, teachers have no middle man to help them in the classroom. As a teachers with over ten years of experience, I would love to advance my career and do that with NHA; however, there is no option for me to do that, which will result in having to leave to look for advancement opportunities.

I would love to see more Autistic and special needs PD information to help with all of our students. We had a short PD on Autism and it was fascinating and I wanted more.

More resources need to be dedicated to Middle School students who need extra support.

The expectations don't align with the amount of time provided to meet them.  This is an education problem, not an NHA problem. However, due to the nature of being a school without busses, teachers have students from 7:30 to 3:30.    Again, I know this is an education problem but I believe teachers need to express the need for additional time to prepare and prep for lessons, analyze data, grade, prepare student feedback etc.    To do our jobs well,  8-10 additional hours, beyond the regular school day, must be taken from personal time - time wth family, other interests etc.  on a weekly basis.   We have to choose the possibility of burnout or what part of the job we just won't do.  Both are tough on mental health.

Researching and comparing salaries to other districts such as Utica School District and DPS to have more of a competitive and increasing pay scale that's fair to the years of experience, education background, and aligned with the constant increase of household prices and rental/property taxes. Also increasing the low hourly pay scale for tutoring and summer school along with increase of bonuses and bonuses being available to more than just the teachers. There are people in other roles outside of the admin team.

I recommend fixing the grammatical errors in ELA, streamlining the curriclulum, and adding Patriotic reading so the students can appreciate the United States and its Founding Fathers. I also recommend cursive writing to be added to the curriculum. The Social Studies for North Carolina needs a lot of work too.  I do love how I can use Lexia hard copies to coincide with lessons that are being taught and for tutoring.

I feel like it would be helpful for us to review as a part of every staff meeting and wing meeting our social contract(s) to help us hold ourselves accountable for following them.

Stop trying to hold on to students that are drain to the overall program of the school. Why are we holding on to theses families? They are unsure of their reason for attending. They are late, they don't participate in positive growth for the school, they constantly cut corners such as, arguing about grades, arguing about disciple, etc. When students are violent and the coping mechanisms are not working, do we really have the budget for a one on one for 3-4 kids on the same grade level? If you are going to spend money like that they why not put a positive spend on it and reduce class sizes, K-3. K-2 with 1 helper interventionist and 20 kids in each k class and 22 in 1st and 2nd. Also an interevntionist/helper. with smaller class sizes teachers will be better equiped to manage behaviors and academic growth.

Gate City ELA/MATH curriculums are not designed for the scholars we teach. I recommend a American Reading Company for ELA and Eureka for Math.  I also recommend that teachers be given more autonomy over when these subjects are taught in k-4. Having either of these subjects after recess or late in the day is not effective for students who are tired by this point.

At one point in time there was autonomy but this school year has been a micromanagement issue like none other before. It is like we are being punished for inclement weather. Adults are being treated more like children than the children are treated like children. I feel like if there is someone (or people) who are not cutting the mustard at their job, lay it on thick with them and back off of those people who do their jobs over and beyond.

With NHA's emphasis on Moral Focus Virtues and the core values of its Strategic Vision, it is not only disappointing, inconvenient, and contradictory to its stated values but also unconscionable and shockingly at odds with those virtues and values that NHA does not provide paid family leave for baby bonding time. It betrays an inconsistency between true core values that extend to its own staff and their children and those stated in regard to the students it serves. If actions speak louder than words, the lack of paid parental leave is deafening in volume.

I think it is great that different grades have their own additional incentive programs or programs.  For example, during March (Reading month), the school had great opportunities for participation, however, they weren't all shared with the "Reading Month" group so the group had to navigate around some of the programs.  In other words, transparency is ideal for a smoother reading month.

N/A

Increase pay for teachers and staff. Including bonuses for having higher education or excellent performance.

Acknowledging those that put in the hard work and effort by compensating for it by the end of the year and not just sticking with the standard raise rate.

make sure that people that are hired to be a dean have actual experience in that area, leadership training in communicating with others without talking down and manipulating them, training in how to acknowledge and collaborate with others that may know more or have prior knowledge in an area, training in how to be consistent and hold students accountable especially when they punch and hit each other.  I say all this knowing there will be retaliation and push back.

Lower class sizes would not only benefit students, but also benefit behavior, learning outcomes, and teacher retention. A twenty eight to one ratio (and sometimes higher) is absurd in the k-2 wing. It is causing us to lose good families and teachers AND causing students to fall through the cracks.

The Leadership Team should communicate as a whole. There are so many situations where you get different responses from the leaders because everyone is not on the same page. There is a lot of miscommunication of tasks that should be carried out. There isn’t always clarity on expectations for staff. People aren’t even kept in the loop when sudden changes occur in the area that they work in. The miscommunication leads to more people having misunderstandings on how to perform well on their job performance and it’s honestly very frustrating at this point.

There should be enough Chromebooks for all students throughout the year. At least enough in each classroom based off of grade size.

Hourly employees should get paid for calamity days. Its really not fair that some of us get paid to sit at home, and some don't. Either everyone should get paid for calamity days, or no one should. Also we should all get raises.

ELA curriculum needs to be developmentally appropriate for our younger learners and we need to incorporate more science of reading curriculum with proper teacher training.  ELA assessments should align better with the curriculum and allow for appropriate pacing.

Better communication between the company and the school employees. Being told 1st day of school that you no longer have a classroom to teach in, then being told you are coteaching, and then an interventionist, but never being told that you are a TIR and can be moved schools at any moment was the worst experience I've had. I picked the school I worked at because I like working with that demographic and then I was forced to move. Being picked to move from a school without any input from the employee. Having freshly hired TIRs get positions in the same school and an employee that has been there for a year already gets bumped out... Doesn't make much sense. So better communication and actually listening to employee concerns and feedback would be very helpful. And some compensation for the stress and random changes due to lack of communication and clarification.

Pay-We need big jumps in pay. We work so hard and do so many things, and work all the time. Our pay should reflect how much and how hard we work. Incoming employees should not be making close to what employees who have been working for years make.  Curriculum-FSA’s need to be fixed and changed. Reading Mastery is outdated. A new curriculum needs to be added.  Read Aloud books need to be changed. There are so many better choices for the skill being taught. Same with Moral Focus books. Comp Quizzes need to be fixed and changed. Math Bridges Workplaces - too detailed and confusing and too many steps. The students need simple steps that work on the skills needed. Having curriculum located in different areas on the computer is confusing and unorganized. Everything should be in one location and easily accessible.  School Grounds-we need a better space for the students to play outside, a better playground and field area. Make our school presentable and desirable for families to attend.

More student free planning days built into the calendar. Have worksheets put in a workbook so there is less printing. For example, the writing curriculum and constructed responses can go into a workbook.

I wish my dean was able to coach me and look at my data and respond.  I have not been coached and that is disappointing.  I am an experienced teacher and pushing me has not been a priority.  03s are frequently interrupted for discipline or are skipped. My dean’s attendance is an obstacle to our relational equity. We set a goal and never followed up on it.   I wish my dean took more of an interest and care in me as a person. It is frustrating that I am asked to coach up my manager instead of being poured into. I have felt that I am carrying tasks that are not a part of my role.

We need a stronger leadership team that has strengths in coaching, motivating, and encouraging. We need someone who is organized and can coach effective teaching strategies.

Less and less doctors are taking our insurance and it seems like there are more and more exclusionary medications

I believe communication in special education could be improved. I feel that increasingly, admin is solely making decisions regarding students that should be an IEP team decision, and/or not taking into consideration team member's very valid concerns.

Some people go above and beyond and others do barely what they need and we all get equal treatment. More money seems necessary with how much we spend on classroom materials from destructive children and getting incentives for the positives for PBIS

Please address the ongoing behavior problems in the classrooms.

Complete a wage study for all employees.

Bridges math does not prepare scholars for state testing, also there is way to many components to that curriculum there is not enough time to get through it all.  There is also a lot of testing for 5th math, why can't  we have optional tests like the ELA schedule. For math it is required to take a unit screener, 3 quizzes per unit, and the unit test. On top of the 3 interim tests, MSTEPs, and NWEA.

Either raises that truly reflect the recent cost of living increases., or the bonuses that were grant funded; those were nice to receive.

Finding new and better ways to improve teaching, learning, operations, and school culture. We are already moving forward — how can we continue this momentum?

Allow both PTO and medical to be separate.

Make paraprofessionals salaried! Pay them more! Considering our paras are now required to be TA certified and they are not receiving any additional compensation, it's insulting. We have gone an entire school year unable to fill either of our 2 open paraprofessional spots. This is only hurting our students. Our current paras feel undervalued and it is very likely that if we lose them, we will have additional open positions we cannot fill! This is detrimental to our students who need interventions from our paras! Additionally, it's demoralizing for paras to not be paid during mandatory breaks (winter break, mid-winter break, spring break) and it is financially difficult only receiving half paychecks during these breaks. Many times our paras are forced to find second jobs. NHA needs to show our paras that their hard work is actually valued by paying them during breaks and making them salaried. At the very least, they deserve significantly more pay.

For it to be possible for days to roll over to the next year, or to be compensated for the days you did not use.

In my opinion, there are gaps in communication, regarding technology specifically, between corporate and school tech leaders. I also do not quite understand why LTS/TTCs do not have more access to things. I will gladly sign an NDA if it means I can quickly access certain tech things and not have to bother the team at TSC.

Paraprofessionals are not paid enough for the amount of work that is done.

Respond to emails.

Have a sent person at the door when visitors enter

Compensation should match/be commensurate with local public schools.

Pay your teachers more. I could get a higher salary working for a public school, but I choose to stay every year because of the people and students here. However, with the current economy and housing market I am increasingly tempted to look at other schools for employment. I know I am not alone in this.

Giving more time during the day to complete the strenuous tasks that are asked above and beyond teaching a class

Retirement, Pension opportunities to match the public schools in our area.

The majority of negative, disruptive, and/or violent student behaviors have gone mostly unaddressed by leadership throughout the year. The lack of support and discipline in the school has resulted in an overall poor culture, where students are unafraid of and do not respond to consequences and engage in inappropriate behaviors impudently. This has removed authority and power from the teachers, resulting in substantially disrupted classes throughout the school daily. There is a lack of trust in leadership, especially in regards to behavior management and communication. Many attempts to address and resolve concerns have not been answered and/or have been turned on the teachers to handle behaviors that warrant more than a classroom consequence. This has resulted in an unsafe school and work environment for both students and staff. Past concerns have been met with responses that have resulted in staff members no longer reporting safety and academic concerns in fear of retaliation.

I have noticed that many of my students frequently come to class without their Chromebook chargers, either because they have forgotten them at home or misplaced them. As a result, they are often unable to fully participate in technology-based lessons and activities. To help ensure all students can consistently access digital learning tools, I would like to inquire about the possibility of obtaining a classroom set of Chromebook chargers to keep in my room.

There is not enough time given to plan effective and quality education to 28 scholars. We need less students, more help or more time!

One area I would really like to see improvement in is the support for science instruction, particularly with the new standards and it being a tested subject. It has been challenging to plan effectively without consistent lessons, assessments, or resources, and having more structured support in this area would make a big difference for both teachers and students. This is a NHA concern not a GA concern.

Improving teacher compensation is important regardless, as teachers are underpaid and overworked, however, in this economy, a reflection of NHA caring about employees well being and humanity would be to give raises to keep up with the inflation/economy we are all experiencing. We are barely scraping by and barely making a living wage.

This year keeping up with the FSAs and one on one assessments has been very difficult. It would be helpful if the amount of assessments required from the curriculum/NHA was reduced.

PrepNet is already offering substantial work/life balance. This is more of a personal feeling as I have a newborn at home and I feel overwhelmed at times to complete my responsibilities and take care of my family. I don't believe, other than some paid maternity/paternity leave, that NHA or PVA could do something to help with this situation directly.

This year, there seems to be a problem with communication, as a whole. Whether it was in my wing, or whole building information, it felt as if we were always missing something. I understand that losing a dean took a huge impact on the building, but some of this was happening even before then. As a teacher, I feel most successful when I am up to date and know everything that I need to know. I think more staff meetings about the building as a whole (expectations/procedures/who to go to for what) would have helped A LOT. There were times that I wasn't even sure who to contact about something and then times that I had to reach out for a follow-up, because I did not get one. Communication coming from some admin and support staff has felt off and rude in the last few weeks, like us teachers are a burden for coming to them or asking questions. There have been times this year that I have been ignored, which I find very unprofessional.It is April 29th and I have not had an O3 to go over my FLO

More opportunities for raises and non taxed bonuses.

Sometimes I feel as though I have zero creativity as an NHA teacher. While I do appreciate the provided lessons and endless resources, there are times where I just want to do my own thing. I want the kids to have fun learning in different ways and I know there is no room for that. I often times also find it difficult to make the read aloud & shared reading lessons incredibly engaging.

Continue with bonuses

Can we ensure that the bathrooms are fully stocked in the morning prior to students entering the building. Garbage cans should not be stacked in front of bulletin boards. This is not a good look for parents as they enter into the building. Also, students can't feel proud of the work if its hidden by a garbage can. When entering into the building there is trash and garbage cans in the corners. Can we ensure that as parents enter the building that those areas a clean and not used to house clutter.

Increase payrate to reflect the cost of living

more clear responsibilities for roles given instead of new tasks being placed on teachers throughout the year, less of teachers completing tasks that are not normally their responsibility not just once but often, and more deans completing tasks instead of asking teachers to do them on their behalf

Hourly employees receiving bonus for subbing. We have to pay for a temp sub license  and do more work pulled in many different directions and spend time to redo our own lesson plans in addition for no additional benefits or compensation. Additional opportunities to earn during long breaks or year long work.

Busy/unmeaningful work for teachers is ridiculous. For example, data charts (the students don't look at them, they use the student portal via Clever. And besides, most intervention kids are embarrassed by their scores most time. Achievement boards! Same as data charts. Nobody looks; the most that happens is students lean on boards during transition and destroy them.

I would like to think that NHA has done their research into the specific compensation packages offered to certified teachers in our area, and will keep our salaries comparable to those schools around us. Since there is a teacher shortage, and many schools are avidly looking for qualified, veteran teachers, I'd like to assume NHA is realizing that supply/demand in an economy should make a difference in wages.

Less forced ice breakers and groups and more time to get to know the people on our own teams/halls in real ways

Na

Explore other curriculums for test based subjects.

pay  employees more

Continue to keep the building clean, and being more action oriented with resources needed to do our job successfully. Also provide hourly staff with better compensation.

Pay teachers with 5+ years of experience and MA what surrounding districts pay so we stop losing teachers. Teachers who leave are getting 10-20,000 more annually. Provide PTO that matches surrounding districts (they all get over 10 days compared to our 6, and they can roll). Even Chandler and Cross Creek (both within Doug’s responsibility area) get 8 days.

 We do not have enough planning time to get all of the redundant logging and essential parts of our job done. Its not an hour long and we at best only get the time 3 days a week. Most of the time 10 minutes of that is lost because we do not transition in a timely manner. I am supposed to plan, grade 60 kids worth of assignments or all subjects if its 30, log behaviors, log behaviors into another log, call parents, log that into another log, make copies, support teammates, backwards plan, respond to data, and any other extra task that is thrown at us. We used to do some of this at our team meetings on Fridays. I am working at home to keep up almost every other day. This is causing burnout across the building and very low moral.   My recommendation is to extend our planning or regularly have the extended planning times, without waiting till glint or the last months of school to do it.

Moral focus is so important to the core of NHA, yet we only get 15 minutes a day to teach it. Moral focus time should be extended for a longer period of time, but less frequently throughout the week. For example, instead of 15 minutes Monday-Friday, it should be 30 minutes Monday, Wednesday, Friday. OR, Moral Focus should be a completely separate special. This 5th special would help weekly schedules as well since there would be a different special each day. Then the time can be split between the Moral Focus teacher and classroom teacher.

During my unpaid maternity leave I was contacted multiple times by corporate telling me I needed to fill out paperwork for leave. I was told by my principal before leave that it wasn't necessary and the first time I had a child I didn't do it either so there was no need. Since HR contacted me 5-6 weeks into my leave I was very busy caring for my family and trying to enjoy my leave that I didn't have a second or a way to fill out the paperwork anymore until I returned to work. I felt that it was very disrespectful for them to keeping emailing during this time. I did not think it was necessary and it needed to be handled better by HR.

Better benefits for teachers.

My true area of concern is compensation, but everyone picks it. So, I'm writing about curriculum. When you design a curriculum, you should have real teachers on the team OR at least, consult them ON EVERY ASPECT OF THE CURRICULUM. You should also trial the curriculum and assessments in EACH GRADE LEVEL THEY ARE INTENDED FOR. We have run into so many problems with the FSAs, that could have been avoided if you had consulted teachers AND trialed them for a year in EVERY GRADE LEVEL. This seems like common sense, but clearly, it is not. Please trust your teachers. We know what we are doing.

There are many positives this year, along with a few areas for growth. It would be helpful if all staff could enter behaviors in ABSS and have access to GoGuardian to better support students. The retention bonus is truly appreciated—thank you! While professional development has value, five days at the start of the year feels like a lot; it might be worth reducing that number or removing regional days altogether. It would also be great to welcome more outside PD opportunities, even if they aren't NHA-specific. Better communication from the service center, especially around major changes like staffing or leadership, would make transitions smoother. Consistent expectations for all staff, a clearer sub system with rotating paras, and more balanced duties would boost morale. Including teammates in hiring decisions for shared positions would also strengthen collaboration. Lastly, extending the time or space for feedback in surveys would allow staff voices to be heard more fully.

The curriculum is very rushed when it comes to writing and math. The NHA designed writing units are too fast paced for students to keep up with. Students can hardly get a paragraph done in one day, let alone a detailed story about something. The curriculum  has students writing new stories almost every day, The papers that are supposed to help them organize their thoughts are not as helpful as they could be. Also in this day and age, there should be some sort of online assignments available for teachers to use. In the past for virtual school, NHA had created ClassKick assignments. I believe these would be very helpful if some of the writing assignments were set up with a ClassKick option.

Having a feedback suggestion box

We have ans amzing cleanin team. I think you just need better cleaning supplies.

MAKING SURE ALL PARTIES INVOLVED ARE INVOLVED, FOR EXAMPLE, IF THERE IS A CHANGE IN THE SCHEDULE, EVERYONE IN THE SCHOOLS SHOULD KNOW

We need more half days throughout the year for planning and prep.

I use my PTO to fill  in for  days such as Spring Break and Winter Break . There  is nothing left for sick days or the other days when school is out... My recommendation is  to pay even 50% during the summer months when we are not paid at all or let it be 10 days for PTO in addition to 5 days for sick days.

We need to quit wasting money on programs put together by NHA people and leave it to the professionals who provide meaningful reading programs.  Bridges is a terrific math program and we should follow suit with reading and wriiting.  The school should provide Raz Kids and other reading programs so teachers can supplement their reading for small groups.

I would recommend promoting a better work-life balance for staff. It would be helpful to receive more support in minimizing micromanagement and reducing the amount of work that must be completed outside of regular working hours.

The pay doesn't match the compensation I believe I should receive for the job duties I perform.

Compensation should include higher raises to inflate with the economy, rather than the previous bonuses.

More bonuses and higher pay

.

More opportunities in and outside the school/class for those that would like to excel their careers and advance their skills as leaders.

More people in the building; more communication; follow through; consistency

Increase in pay and/or incentives to return.

I fell like I should be compensated for the work that I do. I go above what is expected of me here at MSCS. Stipends are appreciated, however I would prefer a competitive raise.

To improve student performance and academic, I strongly recommend that the curriculum is adjusted to help meet our students where they are especially the lower grade students. The students expectations and requirements seem to be extremely challenging for most our students and unmeasurable without a solution. My opinion is that students in the lower grades such as Kindergarten should have books that have sounds while reading instead of giving students books that they cannot read, more picture-text art, learning the foundation to reading, building sentences, writing their names, identifying letters, letter sounds, and much more that is their level based. A lot of our students come in with no academic foundation or structure including poor behavior. I think a lot of my ideas would help improve behavior, testing scores, and help parents support our goal towards a brighter future.

While there are multiple pressing issues with working for NHA, the most urgent concern I must raise in this limited-response survey is the appalling state of compensation. At Cross Creek specifically, we are on the brink of a mass exodus of experienced teachers and support staff due to a lack of competitive and equitable pay. There is no meaningful incentive for longevity, and it is deeply disheartening to see new hires with significantly less experience being brought in at higher salary rates than long-standing, dedicated employees. This imbalance is not only unfair but unsustainable. Without immediate action to correct these disparities and properly value veteran staff, Cross Creek—and NHA as a whole—will face severe staffing and morale challenges.

Just a little more relax release moment.

Keep the PTO in addition to accrued sick leave because without it, it really hurts hourly employees in compensating for the breaks and snow days.  Adjust all the wages according to the rise in minimum wage and cost of living.  Pay us for snow days .

As classroom teachers we spend our own money which is not a lot to help our students.  We give of ourselves in and out of the building and should receive bonuses and a nice annual raise that will assist us in our lives.

Less micro managing

Improving compensation at our workplace is essential to retaining and motivating high-performing teachers. In previous years, bonuses were distributed uniformly, without a data-driven system to distinguish between performance levels. As a result, teachers who consistently excelled, demonstrated measurable student growth, and took on leadership roles were compensated the same as those still developing or even on improvement plans. This approach fails to recognize the dedication, impact, and professional advancement of our strongest educators. By implementing a more transparent and performance-based compensation model, we can fairly reward excellence, encourage continuous growth, and foster a culture where hard work is acknowledged and incentivized.

All communication from top to bottom should be clear and concise.

No recommendations. Culture in the workplace makes the environment conducive to working. Greetings, team work , greater involvement on each employee significant role.

The Paraprofessional/ Intervention position should be a salary position and or receive a significant increase in hourly pay rate.

Continue to work on staffing. Have candidates shadow/observe the day of their interview so they can see a day in the life of a (teacher/sub/para).  That way they can decide if it's a good fit instead of getting hired in and then leaving weeks later.

Higher compensation for specialized positions.

Dear NHA- Administrator's  I am writing to formally express my belief that the work I contribute to our school community merits consideration for full-time salaried compensation with benefits.  As the Office Assistant (OA), I have taken on many responsibilities beyond my original job description. I serve as a consistent support system for students, staff, and administrators alike. Students come to me when they are sick, overwhelmed, or need someone to talk to. I offer guidance and a safe space they can rely on. Teachers seek my help when they need direction or support throughout their day, and I regularly contribute ideas that help administrators navigate challenges within the school.  The role I play has a significant impact on the day-to-day operations of the school, and I approach all of my responsibilities with a positive attitude, dedication, and professionalism. I consistently arrive early, stay late, and do the work that the entire school depends on — not just what is listed in my job description.  Cur

ELA curriculum is outdated and needs to be updated in the sense of things not matching up. Readings should also be cross-curricular where we can use them for Science, Social Studies or Math.  Bridges is trash and does not help the scholars learn to help them towards taking the EOG at the end.

Apply for additional grants or rearrange the way people are paid within NHA. I feel that people within NHA's service center are paid at a much higher rate than the people who work within the schools that are directly working with families and students. Compensation should be equal to the dangers that are required of certain jobs within the schools.

Better compensation matching the inflation.

We should be able to feel the recognition and appreciation more often for work place motivation

Increased pay for teachers and support staff. NHA is a very profitable business and could afford to spread that profit to its teachers and support staff- especially in high performing schools

This year was extremely rough. I believe if we had more resources and more funds it would help improve our turnover rates with Teachers and students. We need a after school program, in school suspension, more Paraprofessionals for K-3, and more recognition for our teachers to help feel more appreciated.

This is my 3rd school year with TP and I was always paid for snow days until this school year…Position switching from hourly to salary!

Recognizing teachers who have worked for many years , growing students, and maintaining high classroom management.

I see that there has been a lot of improvement I just feel we can continue to grow.

The night staff needs to actually clean.

Students must be held accountable by admin for disruptive, dangerous, or destructive behavior. Currently l, admin and NHA as a whole, is too concerned with not upsetting the parents of these students to have any meaningful consequences. Because of this, we are loosing more and more well behaved, capable students every year. Even though the behaviors are not handled by admin and often teachers are actually blamed for these behaviors, there is no lowering of testing expectations on teachers. NHA's policies have chased out many passing students and then blame teachers for falling test scores. The overall lack of awareness is insulting to staff who already work more with less time than a teacher in any other school system.

Just giving our leadership team more ability to deal with the problem students that spoil some of our good kids. Overall I enjoy teaching here just on occasion feel handcuffed to deal with difficult students who then at times ruin the learning environment for the group your teaching at that time.

I love it here.

I believe that the principal should be more present and involved all throughout the school. Some students do not even know that she is our principal because they don't see her as often as they see the other deans. The principal is not good with communication in a timely manner when emailed directly about a question. I think that some of the decisions about our students or classes that aren't the best decisions, and she makes those decisions because she doesn't understand what is actually happening in the classrooms and how it impacts the students and teachers. She doesn't take our opinions into consideration even though we are with the students all day, every day. I think she should be out of her office more than she is in it and when she is out, she should be upstairs more often.

Students are allowed 18 missed days per year while staff members are only allowed 7. PTO should be increased for all staff members or an accrual system should be used. An increase in PTO or school holidays (October/February/April breaks) would greatly improve mental health and prevent staff burnout.

The work load is not sustainable. Prep periods are taken so often and there is no time to get anything completed at school. We are told we can never sit and work on things we are required to do, even if students are testing. Some deans have told teachers that they should take work home to complete it. Some deans have ridiculed staff for sitting, esp. those pregnant and unable to do so w/o a doctor's note, however, now a dean is pregnant, they are always sitting and allowing other pregnant people to as well. Some deans/principal do not bother to even make eye contact with you unless you are in their academy. We are not treated as if we matter. We are just employees. Our judgement isn't valued. We aren't involved in matters that affect our classrooms. Behaviors aren't being dealt with. We have to take our stress home and it affects our families. We are made to feel guilty if we use our well-earned PTO days, even though it is a use it or lose it system. Things could be so much better.

Better priced options

Set the same expectations and standards for all employees.

Offering pay through the summer for Paras. However, I do see this year, summer learning begins right after school ends, so that's a good thing. We will not miss a pay period!

With the absence of work life balance, coupled with the extreme negative repeated student behavior; Compensation needs to be increased to satisfy additional stressors in the work place.

The NHA standardized tests for each grade seem to be off. They are too difficult and sometimes even difficult for teachers giving the tests. They do not accurately reflect what students know. The way they are worded confuses people. Every grade level complains about the tests and how they are not helpful and too hard for students. Its almost as if the tests for each grade level should be for younger grades. This is just an opinion. I think we should do away with those or have those tests changed to be a more appropriate fit.

I think it would be easier to have a clear picture of how raises work.   If you do ABCD you get %  If you do ABC you get this % ect.   As of right now raises have been very unpredictable. Most companies and schools have a system where their employees know how and what types of raises they can get. Inflation should also be taken into consideration for end of the year raises.

we just need to be a little more involved with communication. Its not bad. we just as a whole building need to come together in doing this. when there is a change being made. its needs to be addressed so people can know things when it happens.

The pay for paras is deplorable. We are expected to run 8-10 kid groups and make under 25000 a year at full time due to wage lost from summer and breaks and snow days. That is equivalate to 12.50 an hour or less. We have worked completely under staffed for years because of this.

Teachers should at least 10 personal/sick days per year. Seven personal days are not enough for teachers. Some teachers go through surgeries and sickness which does not allow enough days. Also professional development days in August should not be counted against us or as personal days. Technically school does not begin in August. We should be given some leniency before the school starts. Some teachers may still be on vacation or attending to personal matter. Please take this into consideration. Thank you.

More consistent cleaning in the building - some days it looks great, other days it looks like some areas haven't been touched! However, there have been a lot of improvements from previous years!

I recommend adding Smartboards to classrooms to enhance instruction. They enable teachers to present information more clearly for students who need visual support and make lessons more dynamic and engaging.

Professional Development geared toward exactly/specifically what and how to teach would be beneficial. More HONEST and OPEN group/team conversations about what really works and what does not (e.g. trying to skip steps in Reading Mastery does not work - having 2nd graders in kindergarten reading mastery in May does not work - it is not setting those students up for success - here is what you should do instead and provide resources and demonstrate strategies.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback. I appreciate the increase in PTO days from 5 to 8 per year; however, I believe that additional days would greatly benefit teachers' well-being and work-life balance. Eight days still feel insufficient and somewhat unfair given the demands of our roles. I recommend that we receive more PTO days annually to better support our health and personal needs. Furthermore, I strongly suggest that sick days be kept separate from personal days. This distinction is important so teachers can properly take time off when ill without exhausting their personal days or facing unnecessary complications. Another critical area for improvement is the lack of a dedicated lunch break. Currently, our "lunch" period is often spent with students, which is not a true break and can lead to burnout. Teachers need a genuine, uninterrupted lunch break to recharge during the school day. Additionally, our planning periods are often shortened or taken up by numerous meetings—many of which seem

Make it a regular practice to thank and recognize staff for their contributions/successes, both formally and informally.

More opportunities for Special Education Teachers & Staff to attend conferences and potentially do workshops on information gathered that would benefit all staff/faculty as well as students and families.

The culture could be improved by management by them creating a welcome work environment and implementing trainings for the staff to nice and friendlier to all people who work here.

Having a qualified manager that communicates better and does not talk down to those under her supervision. Also, I have not had a single meeting with my dean the entire school year to give me any feedback. These meetings are supposed to be weekly and she has not made any attempt to meet with me. I am very confidant in my abilities to do my job. Communication throughout the entire school is lacking and many things are last minute and staff is not well informed in time to adjust appropriately.

Consistency with discipline. Middle school has actionable consequences based on behavior while Elementary does not. The Elementary school behaviors are completely out of hand and a lot of us teachers do not feel supported because students who are asked to be sent out with a dean are coming back moments later and still are showing the same behavior. Consequences are not given. We are collecting all of the data in the behavior app and many students are recorded needing some type of behavior intervention and nothing is being addressed. PBIS is only rewarding the students who are already doing well but not holding the students who do poorly accountable. This year has been very taxing on a lot of us because it seems like we are not prioritizing the students who want to learn but instead the ones that are consistently interrupting instruction and acting out. Our school will continue to have a low letter grade if we don't take action and have the ability to teach effectively.

Prioritizing  clear, open lines of communication and strengthen the connection between departments and school teams. Actively seek out and listen to the insights of those in the roles most affected by decisions and processes being put in place.  By diving into their ideas and experiences, we can foster a more collaborative environment and make smarter, more impactful choices together. Too many conversations happen in secret. Creating a safe space for team members to brainstorm without repercussions and having an inclusive manager.

Benefits: Our insurance is not to the level that it should be in an educational setting. Most districts our size in the area have much higher insurance benefits and coverage. This can be a huge issue for people who are going through more difficult heath issues like infertility or sickness.  Pay: Compared to other districts near us and similar to us, we are one of the lowest paying districts which has caused a lot of turn over causing more issues with our ability to provide high quality academic instruction. I also believe we need to adjust our pay scale better so that new staff are not making more than veteran staff and that teachers are not making more than deans, etc. Paid Time Off: Once again, when comparing districts in our area, we provide by far the least amount of paid time off! We do not have separated sick and personal business days which is an issue for staff who are parents as they have to use all of their time off on their kids.

The curriculum could be improved to meet students where they are at and less testing. They don't have time to master skills before they are assessed on it.

There are a lot of tech-related issues that impact our daily work. Changes in software, policies, support issues, losing data, blocked websites for teachers (Brisk is an example), and websites for older students needed to complete NHA-assigned tasks in the curriculum. and overall reliability.

behavior - receive understanding from the top on why it's more challenging to send students who causes too many behavioral problems to another school

I would like for us to be able to hold each student and parent accountable for the Commitment to Excellence so that the families that aren't aligning with the expected culture can be weeded out to make room for the families that want to come in and be part of a great culture goal.

I will forever be grateful for the opportunities that have been provided for me to adavance at Advantage

Teachers need more PTO. We catch colds, germs, and lord knows what else. We need to be confident that we can take time off and be ok when we cannot come in. When teachers come in while sick, we get our coworkers and students sick. We need to rest up so we can recover fully, especially if we catch covid. We also have life issues that pop up and we should not be worried about what to do when we have an important doctor's appointment but can't take off because we unexpectedly caught the super flu and needed to use up our days. We also need to search for and recruit substitute teachers.

Discipline needs to be taken more seriously. No student or staff member deserves to deal with violence and aggressive behavior. Parents need to be inconvenienced by their own children, not peers, not staff. Safety in the classroom has to be the main priority. When we allow violent behavior and threats within the classroom, we are furthering the trauma our students are enduring. It hinders their learning and the moral of staff and students. Producing a school within a school would help benefit these students who are struggling greatly, while maintain excellence and safety within the General classroom. I think that our admins have worked very hard in supporting us within our classrooms and we are so blessed to have them present in our daily lives. It is a blessing to be a part of a team where we can work together for all students.

As a for profit company, staff should receive competitive pay across all departments and exceed the cost of living that's unique to each school's location.

Pay is not keeping up with cost of living.  High performance should be compensated at a higher level.  Seems everyone receives similar increases.  Need opportunities to earn bonuses due to performance and dependability, customer service, etc.  Also, biligual skills are not compensated even though used daily to service customers.

In order to be an effective teacher, you have to work with effective people. As a culture, we are more preoccupied with everything else except effective collaboration, managing our own classrooms, and radiating positive energy. It simply needs to improve. It starts with us as individuals and taking accountability for our own mishaps and attempt to improve those mishaps.

Improve employee compensation packages to increase satisfaction and rentention.

I selected compensation as an area needing attention because the increasing responsibilities, expectations, and impact of the Admissions Representative role are not fully reflected in the current pay structure.

New teachers need more training and support.

I feel that students need something that they can relate to. The Year Long essential questions are great, but the books that are provided does not line up with students' interests and makes it hard to interest instructors. While it is understood that is the instructor's job to make the material engaging, I also feel the curriculum could be more related to children's youth compared to the books being used for ELA. Research needs to be done for the ELA Unit, so having an application that is an open library for the research area of the unit would be helpful. Students are not able to freely do research on the internet to do any research papers very easily when everything is blocked.   Management needs improvement with communication and encouraging co-workers. Events happened where trust was lost, and with the stress, when success was accomplished the acknowledgement of the accomplishment was not acknowledged that the teacher accomplished what was asked of them.

Leadership must move from reactive to proactive. We need systems that anticipate issues, build contingency plans, and communicate with facts, not emotions. This year’s theme was accountability, but consistent modeling has been absent. Sustainable change starts at the top, with leadership living the values they expect from staff. Culture must shift. The open-door policy is preached, but is often met with indifference. Staff must be free to offer feedback or decline roles without fear of retaliation. True morale is built through equity, not personal alignment. Leadership visibility MUST rise. Daily check-ins build trust and approachability. Small actions such as covering a lunch duty, offering a break shows true investment.  Also, having an inviting demeanor in the face of staff goes a long way. Finally, follow-through on expectations like 03’s must be non-negotiable. Regular monitoring throughout the year, not just early on, ensures strong performance and consistent success.

Full awareness and accountability need to be held for those who don’t follow the rules. Favoritism should not be allowed in the school. We all are one so we should be treated as such

The culture of the building as a whole has decreased. It does not feel like there is a lot of investment of staff that is already in the building. We continue to bring in new people to help lighten the load but there doesnt seem to be an investment into those that are already being thrown into different roles every day. We continue to hear that we are here for the kids and the kids are the number one priority but if staff are not poured into in positive ways, then how can they pour positively into the students? With this, there are many staff that are not being held accountable in a direct manner. It seems that there are a lot of group call outs where an entire team of staff get a talk about something only relevant to a couple of people that are breaking the rules within that team. If we want quality people in our building we need to make sure these issues are addressed directly with the person that there is an issue with rather than sending a mass message to the entire group.

I feel that at times there is an expectation for teachers to continue after work-hours. I believe that we should be encouraging breaks for teachers as well as students because we need them as they do. For example;  It is often announced to not send homework over breaks, but there is an expectation for teachers to be available to their emails during breaks.

I feel the Gen Ed teachers need more support when students are doing unwise or inappropriate actions or behaviors that they need to be held accountable for.

This is something that has been brought up a lot and nothing is ever changed

I think a cap of 20 PTO days is low. I think the cap could be closer to 40 days (for non managerial staff).

We need to ensure that we are holding scholars and teachers accountable.   When teachers habitually report the same scholars to the admin of level 2 or higher incidents and the like, they should be reprimanded as it does impact the classes at large.   Breaks built within the schedule for scholars to commune without academics being involved (SEL initiative)  Longer planning periods  More virtual meetings  Additionally, we would like to see administration in the hallways more often to assist with smooth transitions, back up--if needed and to in general be another set of eyes. "Floating desk" (where admin randomly works in the hallways to be visible to scholar and teachers). This could decrease possible skipping, PDA, horseplaying etc.

As one of the Paraprofessionals I feel that we are not recognize when they recognize the teacher in the class room, I feel it takes the whole team to improve the scores.

I do not have confidence in the safety office. She is very unprofessional, sometimes rude to teachers, and an absolutely horrible communicator. Her behavior management is not effective and she is rude to teachers in her main job as ABSS so I have no confidence in her ability to maintain safety regulations.

20 unpaid days off during the year with only 5 days to use to cover these days or a sickness day.

I love my co-workers and my job, but I am contemplating applying at my local district.  I know that I would be making $7,000 more there this year.  I would also work fewer days and have a smaller class.  The raise that I received this year just covers the increased cost of insurance this year.

Southside is a great choice for students and school overall. I believe Southside can recruit and retain better students with a better extracurricular program: Sports, arts science music etc.

More time for planning.

I have a higher caseload/ workload at PVA compared to other school districts. I'd love to see NHA be more competitive with their salary/ PTO/ benefits.   I love my job at PVA and intend to stay. But I would feel more valued if NHA would continue to increase pay/ be more competitive with wages. As a masters level professional I'd like to see my role have a higher wage. (I do understand this is an issue statewide/ across the US).

Team building and holding people accountable

With the new wake county compensation plan, they will very quickly outpace our compensation, and as of now we are being paid as a low level job, with no retirement options. Having no opportunity to participate in the NC retirement plan makes us extremely low paid 401K employees.

Multiple areas need to be addressed in the SPED department.    -with the new behavioral SPED room, behaviors have only increased and new behaviors not addressed appropriately.  Cartoons, coloring pages, and candy is what Gen works on during her time with them according to students she sees. Work from Gen for Branson and Henry are not at current academic levels  -changing schedules for Paras with zero input from Paras    -progress reports from Gen are falsified for two of her 3rd grade students -Gen is consistently not providing services in the classrooms during her scheduled time -Gen is the ONLY case manager who consistently asks Paras and Subs to cover her required time with specific students -Gen dictates changes in SPED that seem only beneficial to her.  Other case managers should have the opportunity to use a para to help their case load.  We have had 3 para meetings this year.  Admin was only at ONE.  Paras need One on Ones (have not had one all year) Paras should get paid more

Several policies and procedures need improvement, starting with discipline. A number of students are effectively "running the school." Their behavior is rewarded rather than addressed, which reinforces disruption and adds to the chaos. Safety is also a major concern—parents and former BDCS students have entered classrooms unannounced.  School culture has been low, largely due to a chronic lack of staff and substitute teachers. Many staff members have been stretched too thin, leading to high stress. Leadership often acts as if all is well, even when serious issues arise. Staff would value more transparency and collaboration; leadership should work with—not against—the team to improve the school.  Additional concerns: A full-time security guard should be added. PTO should increase to 10 days to align with DOE standards.

Tutoring program should start earlier during the year and maybe be four days a week for those that are under achieving  grade level.

Pay increase that reflects both the cost of living increase and the amount of time various grades spend in planning

While some of our professional development is very helpful. It also gets VERY repetitive. It seems like we are always discussing the same things. I'd love to have more collaborative professional development or like a q & a with curriculum and instruction to understand a little bit more of how the curriculum is designed and expectations around it. If also love some different professional development for teachers who have been teaching for over 3 years vs teachers who are new or under 3 years in NHA.

I believe a lot of the issues taking place are a result of the “ASD” program. There are students on IEPs that are not being effectively taught, especially and solely the behavior students. It’s also frustrating seeing a specific case manager get a lot of time off, leaving early a day each week, etc. when all other teachers get allotted a certain amount and are held to that standard. This affects students on caseloads and teachers not having proper support throughout the day.  These issues taking place are a result of the relationship between Dean and teacher.   My direct supervisor, 3-5 dean, has been a wonderful coach, mentor, and leader. She has encouraged growth, been a useful resource, and gone above and beyond for her teachers to best serve the students. I am forever grateful for the experience she has given me.

The involvement of the board in releasing employees from their position at MVA needs attention. In order for this school to move forward it needs admin stability.

Metlife communicates horribly and is inconsistent with the information that is given to me.

Cleaning tiled areas more than is currently done.

I wish the insurance covered my things then it does, such as GLP-1s.

Veteran teachers are not making enough compared to neighboring schools/districts. If I left this year, going into my 13th year of teaching, I could get a $20,000 salary increase plus a $15,000 signing bonus. That's a $35,000 deficit. And yes, I took into account the highest retention bonus NHA offers so those numbers are including that. Also, we could be paid for the PTO time we didn't use to encourage attendance. Our benefits could also be improved, doctor bills are outrageous with our insurance, even the gold package, and this is another deficit to overall income. Family/maternity leave is also not good. It's short term disability instead of leave and therefore we don't get full pay (and then none at all after 6/8 weeks). These are all factors that create a financial deficit when working at NHA compared to other districts.

We need a metal detector. I can't say it enough. These middle schoolers are extremely street savvy. All it will take is a overcrowded classroom...28 to 30 kids or more....then the teacher just won't be able to detect as much as he or she could if there were less kids....then a quiet child who feels bullied......or flat out enraged as they may have a sad home life and then some how they aren't being helped at school.....and then they get that gun and place in pocket etc...THATS ALL IT WOULD TAKE....AND THEN NHA WOULD BE ALL OVER THE NEWS  IN ADDITION TO A CHILD OR MORE BEING SHOT.....PARENTS HAVE ASKED....AND NO DETECTOR....TEACHERS HAVE ASKED.....GRAND RAPIDS AND BOARD OF DETROIT MERIT...WOULD YOU PLEASE GET US A METAL DETECTOR....PLEASE....

I think that compensation could be improved by making sure the current employees are getting paid as fairly as the new employees. I have been working at MVA for multiple years and there was a kindergarten job opening with a pay that was almost $9,000 more a year than I make (I am also a classroom teacher). I think this is unfair to current employees.

More professional development opportunities outside of NHA lead PD's.

I think NHA can take a deeper look into the Science Curriculum for graded and non graded subjects. :)

Being told you you do something and have it in writing and the change it later.

We are responsible, without additional compensation, for children longer than teachers at nearby schools. Instead of a 20 minute dismissal, we entertain students for 45 minutes after school. The onus of monitoring breakfast is put on teachers. Teachers get 15 minutes to eat as they monitor their students getting lunch. The paras get a longer duty-free lunch. NHA as a business makes Quite Enough profit that they could hire recess and lunch monitors so that teachers could have a true duty-free lunch and not be responsible for breakfast time as well.   Successful students become assistants instead of furthering their own education.   We don’t fix behaviors . We’ll go through 3 or 4 BSPs, and nothing will change. If the point is to find a solution, you build on last year's BSP. If the point is just to keep kids in school no matter what effect their behavior is having on the learning environment, it sure does make sense to make it practically impossible for BSPs to have any consequences.

Reading Curriculum/structure of reading blocks does not match what research says is the best way to build strong readers/writers. @ NHA level PD should develop teachers around the science of reading, provide resources and curriculum to support best practices (including phonics and then morphology above grade 2, vocab instruction at all grades, etc). At the South Arbor level, this can look like deans providing support for teachers during workshop around SOR best practices and activities, tracking data (beyond just Aims) around where students have a true deficit (common assessment data truly doesn't give information about where students are lacking. FSA are better but we still need to dig deeper). Teachers should be SUPPORTED & then HELD ACCOUNTABLE for student reading success. We are already a high performing school- how much better could our students be doing if we were doing everything we can to build a community of strong readers? ALSO- NHA cost of living pay adjustment please!!!

Innovation team is ruining the culture of the company and causing tension. Executives should start making informed decisions instead of playing corporate politics. The NHA App will lose families in our schools if it continues to belong in the hands of the innovation team

Communication needs to improve

Either give all teachers keys to their rooms/offices, and restrooms or change the locks to coded combination locks. I feel that my room is sometimes insecure and I cannot get into the locked restrooms when I need to because the single key is missing.

I really wish there was coverage for teachers on indoor recess days. Personally, when I don't get my full lunch break I am super upset & irritated the rest of the day. I wish there was a better system where the teachers don't get screwed with just a 15 minute break.

I think culture would improve if the leadership team was more present in the hallways and worked on their relationships with the students. The leadership team could have posts in the hall throughout the day as they complete their own work,  they could conduct assemblies, they could participate in rewarding students (parties, award ceremonies, book clubs etc), so the students feel like they know them and respect them. I think this would also help prevent behavior issues and improve behavior management.

Bonus or Raises based on performance and efforts made throughout the year. I am often the "go-to" person but rarely am I recognized for my efforts.

There are a lot of different hats that we as teachers wear here at DMA. I recommend we are compensated more. We have a teachers salary yet we are teachers, motivators, crossing guards, committee members, party planners and so much more. We do love our students and want the best for them, however the best considers a lot of non paid time. This extra time takes away from our families and adds additional stress and activities that eliminates our work life balance.

N/A

Pay increase would be wonderful!

Don't put multiple students with emotional issues into an ICT class of 30 students. This jeopardizes student safety and learning. Collapsing classes saves money in the short term, but the increased behavior issues in an overcrowded classroom leads to parents withdrawing their students as they become increasingly frustrated with their children being hurt by other students.

Teachers Pay Teachers has great resources for teachers and should be allowed in classrooms.

More time to collaborate and having creative autonomy in working with students to meet their individual needs.  Less micromanaging

More resources for ELA test prep/ exit tickets/ etc.

We need PTO time and Sick time also we need MORE DAYS

Different pay scales

At the end of last year the staff in the building had a pretty good culture. Unfortunately the admin staff came in this year looking to change everything and most changes were not good ones. The idea of an open door was given but the staff members that spoke up were belittled, or put on blast in front everyone. The culture quickly became "us vs. Them". Teacher's were pulled with more work and tasks than they could do while admin constantly told them what they were doing wrong or blaming them for things out of their control. When admin what clearly in the wrong if they admitted the wrong doing they never actually apologized for the way they acted. To be successful at leading this school admin needs to come to the table ready to listen and build on the years of knowledge the staff has. Take the criticism when it is given and wait a day or two before reacting rather than yelling at a staff member defensively in the heat of the moment.

More money for school supplies

There are many of us in the Finance Dept. working extreme overtime. My managers often work till midnight and on weekends. I too, work a great deal of overtime. As Jason, Nick, Bob, and the eteam implement good and needed controls, the workload has increased dramatically. It feels like no one acknowledges / cares about our workload at the top. Again, the new processes are very good, but our work life balance is in the toilet. We need more staff. I feel like our team is a "house of cards". I'm afraid we will lose quality people unless changes are made.

Clear cut curriculum across all grade levels. That follows a clear path so all student can be successful. A curriculum that builds upon itself across all grades.

I would like to see more appreciation for teachers who actually care and are here to do their job. Teachers who work hard to improve students progress and to grow children's test scores. So many teachers are recognized for not doing anything. My job is not to provide treats and gifts. My job is to make sure my job is done and students are successful. Teachers deserve recognition for hard work.

I love the academic programs and scripted lessons that are utilized in the general education classrooms. I wish, as special education teachers, we were provided with more special education curriculum tools to address student deficits in reading and math. I have utilized some general education curriculum pieces in the past (often off grade level) to address the deficits on my students.  I understand my role as defined by my manager. However, I am sometimes asked to support in areas with students that are not on my caseload when their providers are available and could be supporting. I am all for full hands in, full hands out, but I wish that was reciprocated by all members of my team.

As a dedicated Special Education Teacher, I bring commitment, expertise, and compassion to one of the most demanding and essential roles in education. Despite the critical responsibilities I manage daily—including individualized instruction, compliance with federal and state regulations, and intensive student support—I am not being adequately compensated for the scope and impact of my work. This lack of fair compensation not only undervalues my professional contributions but also reflects a broader need to recognize and invest in those who serve our most vulnerable student populations.

I cannot appropriately retire working at an NHA school.

I recognize that giving raises out to everyone is difficult as the cost of benefits continue to rise.   However, it has been communicated that NHA is doing very well financially this year, so possibly find ways to give bonuses to the Service Center staff as a first step.  Maybe staff could earn an extra step, in addition to the cost of living raise, after every three years of employment?  This might be a nice way to help incentivize staff with staying at NHA.

There needs to be more accountability for the action of the students.  There's no one holding them responsible for dress code violations, there's no sense of community or the building of the moral focuses we are to be instilling in our students. This survey doesn't allow for anyone to explain how they feel in all areas.  We lack leadership and we truly lack integrity in paying our employees fairly.  The system to pay new hires way more than long standing employees is a huge lack of INTEGRITY on your part!!!   Another issue is the ridiculous lack of pay for recess/lunch duty pay.  The other concern would be keeping a janitor that spends more time talking to students than he does actually doing his job.  Not sure how I can be the lowest paid employee in the building and I am setting up lunch tables and sweeping the floor for breakfast and lunch while he visits...and at a much lower pay than my other 7 hours of work. Make it make sense!

Less pay and less benefits then starting teaching with no experience.

To have a better culture,  I feel like we need higher expectations for staff. If people can't meet those expectations then they shouldn't work at Walton. We need more teamwork and less cliques.

Individualize raises based on student performance, staff attendance, etc.

We need policies and protocols in place for behaviors at Knapp. Black and white lines drawn to create a new culture that supports a safe and predictable learning environment for all students and staff.

N/A

I understand that collaboration is important however spending up to 3 planning times (Sometimes more) meeting with 03s, dean meeting, team planning it is overwhelming.   Sometimes when we are busy with other things it would be nice to have less meetings.   Or focus on only meeting when important things are comming up such as M-step.  I understand the importance of 03s to make connections with the dean and help us to take care of ourselves but this could be once per month?  Our curriculum is overwhelming and the amount of prep and paper we use is daunting.  Grade level planning is the most valuable to make planning easier.  Some weeks it would be nice to have 2 teacher meetings rather than 1 teacher meeting and 1 dean meeting.

Pay teachers the same as a teacher in our neighboring district who's taught the same number of years.

This year, I have had a lot of behaviors and haven't gotten a lot of support from admin or SpEd, even when asked. I have received a lot of advice to solve the problems and have acted on the advice. When the advice does not work, there is no support afterward. There has been a lack of consistency for support for my students receiving SpEd services and I have received little communication regarding changes and the lack of consistency. There are also times when I ask for support to come to my room to assist with students and people who are designated to support these students are unavailable and no one responds. It makes it incredibly difficult to manage a class and teach lessons when behaviors are disrupting everyone else in the environment and I am unable to get support. This has consistently been a problem this year and when I ask for more support, it seems to be pushed to the side and it makes me feel like my managers and the case managers do not see it as the issue that it is.

Less PD's abut the same issues that we are not able to fix. More to appreciate teachers. Its not that we/they are not teaching, its the children who are suppose to receive the info are not able to. A lot of this is out of our hands and in the hands of the parents.

If time is not used to come up with an incentive that is worth not taking the days off. Awarding $ for those extra days then giving me more days off that aren't use to begin with.

Increase pay for tutoring, summer school and hourly employees

Pay commensurate with Holland/ West Ottawa pay schedule.  Transparency in compensation.

None at this time

Better compensation for all staff.

My teenage daughter makes more than me working at Chipotle. Value my education and experience.

Job responsibilities were placed heavily on one classroom teacher, where other classrooms split the responsibilities between two teachers. It makes for a stressful environment and resentment to others.

Most other schools are offering starting salaries that are 5k more than what experienced teachers are making at NHA. Also, more experienced teachers are making only 1k-2k more than first year new hires. I know that this is an issue for NHA as a whole, but I’ve seen a lot of really great teachers and support staff leave because of this reason

I continue to lose excellent co workers to higher paying jobs that are less stressful in their scheduling and nothing is being done to retain talent from NHA Leadership.

Hiring further custodial staff members, if possible

I would like to see better benefits, health insurance is very expensive for what we get, a pension would be amazing, also it would be nice to have a budget for classroom materials, PD that is more relevant to specific roles would be very helpful and educational, not a waste of time, lastly I would LOVE to see a change in aimsweb monitoring and reading intervention, some things seem ineffective or like we could be using a better, more informative, program.

I need more money.

We need more classrooms. Paras are teaching in the hallway, which causes a lot of distractions. The Spanish room is always taken, there isn't enough room for small-group testing, and we're using spaces where students are crowded. The OT space is very crowded. I believe this building was built when the needs were different; we have grown, but the spaces remain the same. We have adjusted to the new needs to the best of our ability, but we've reached a point where we need more! We need more rooms to accommodate the above needs.

I checked the box for job security and my recommendation for improvement in that area is to align staff's skills and goals to available positions by opening up new positions to accommodate employees' goals and skillset.

General Education teachers need significant PD on classroom management. The basics. Not building relationships, but the importance of being consistent and following school policies. They also need the PD that Special Education teachers get on how to provide accommodations in the classroom, understanding the strengths and limitations of disability areas and teaching strategies for a variety of students. As a whole, we need to follow the behavior policy that is in place with clearly defined roles and responsibilities. Admin is not consistent with who gets consequences and what for, Teachers are not clear on the role of ABSS and when to call or how to be consistent with documenting behaviors. They have also gotten mixed messages about documenting too many behaviors. Learning is lost based on a few outliers and when staff/students are not properly supported that impacts whole classrooms and sometimes whole hallways.

NHA pays paras for only 7 PTO days instead of the 10 promised, then forces us to use them just to get paid during school closures—leaving no real time off due to the inability to have time to rest and recoup. We are forced to work after school and in the summer in order to get paid. If not, you are forced to go unpaid July–Sept. This isn't just unfair—it's exploitation. NHA's systemic underpayment and mistreatment of paraprofessionals must end. We are told we are essential, not disposable but we are shown that we are not.

Give employees more opportunities to grow in their skills or understanding by offering trainings and/or ability to attend conferences.

I don't know at this moment. However, I do believe that only the same people get recognized over and over again for long periods of time even throughout the whole year. This doesn't encourage others that are working just as hard and sometimes go beyond their duties to help out as well. I believe recognition should be more balanced among all staff.

Compensation has not kept up with the huge increase in cost of living.

More copy machines

N/A

Better and more communication between teams and departments.

We need more team building opportunities across the building so that there is a better sense of cohesion and collaboration.  Everyone is stressed out at times, but we need to feel that we are there for each other more often.

I would love to see more collaboration between Registrars with other Registrars and OAs with OAs. Yammer isn't enough.

There is a need for a School Social Work Supervisor (who holds a Social Work degree and a School Social Work licensure) in the state of North Carolina, or at the very least within NHA. It would go a long way to have someone who understands the work we (School Social Workers) do and advocates for us so we can focus on being the most effective at our jobs. 

Reading street common core ELA was a great tool that engaged students in a way that made reading fun as well as visuals that helped emphasize the importance of learning all of the key elements in ELA.  Why take away something that worked and was engaging for students?  Reading Street helped foster the foundation in order for students to feel confident as well as excel in reading.  Reading comprehension, writing and spelling all go hand and hand, and the way the curriculum is set up now,  it's not benefiting the students in all the areas needed in order for students to be fluent readers who understand the content in it's entirety .  Since the implementation of Shared Reading text, students reading scores have dramatically dropped.  In my opinion that speaks volumes about the implementation of shared reading and the removal of what was working (READING STREET).  Bring back common sense teaching/learning tools for students.

Being more concise and communicative.  Don't leave us hanging, just communicate if something can or can't be done.  Make decisions more quickly, don't be afraid to be the boss.

The spread sheets and  communications after school hours. If it could be one area of communication. The weeks and weekends seem to be doing work outside of school. More prep time.

Better pay!

new management has meant new communication style - overload of information and numerous almost-immediate protocol changes, without warning, has led to a very difficult year

Clear communication in advance. We do not have robo calls this year but they were helpful to pass information to families and staff.  Clear communication in advance for anything that is out of a normal routine. Such as pep rallies, performances, assemblies, tests, etc.  Communication of when it is acceptable to leave and/or expectations for parent teacher conferences,  half days, teacher events, dress downs. Some times information is passed to wings differently so teachers are on different pages and some teachers are left in the dark.

#NAME?

I'm not impressed with they way that NHA compensates their staff financially.  The pay is significantly lower that other schools, and there isn't room for raises or growth.  It makes this a discouraging place to work.  For an organization that is said to value morals and people, they are not demonstrating that to their staff who I would argue works harder and goes the extra mile more than many teachers from public schools and even some charter schools.  It's disappointing that NHA can not get up to speed with the rest of the world on pay.  Teachers still are getting the worst pay, and to have that at a Charter school that claims to value its staff- well it isn't showing.  NHA should in the least keep up with the economy and cost of living.   I find it ridiculous that new teachers with no teaching or even interning experience are starting out at a HIGHER pay than experienced teachers.  This sends the message that teachers here are not valued.

Clear communication of available opportunities.

We keep getting tugged around about what next year will look like. It’s been like this the past few years. It would be nice to have answers in advance.

Maintenance staff could be more productive in the handling of our classroom and restroom sanitation. This includes making sure soap dispensers are properly working and operating to reduce health concerns. Paper towel should be properly installed and replaced when needed. Classroom floors  should be consistently cleaned and managed daily.

More pay.

The area I chose is compensation because of a few reasons. Let's begin with the fact that several people I know, myself included truly enjoy working here - we come everyday to make a difference in the lives of the children we serve. However, I noticed that although several co-workers expressed happiness in the work environment, they mentioned that they were leaving or have left, because they needed to make a fair wage, or more specifically they needed to have a significant increase in wages to maintain their families. Second, because our roles are not always clearly defined, additional responsibilities are added to us regularly. These additional responsibilities, when done correctly, often impede upon our work/ life balance as they require time outside traditional work hours, and  increase the work load  which some people tell me is discouraging especially in their eyes, the only thing not increasing  is compensation. Truly, in 2025, there shouldn't be teachers making under $70,000

There is no push or opportunities for professional development or advancement opportunities.

Treat all students equally. There are too many favored and/or supported due to relations and/or disabilities. This isn't fair to the others, and I feel like those who get forgiven feel like they can keep doing it since they don't get disciplined any other time. This puts more pressure on the teacher in the classroom because we have to handle that repetitive behavior that they bring to the classroom. This is a huge disruption to the class, and results in us not finishing the work expected for the day.

I feel as if administration has lost their touch in compassion and understanding of others especially when communication with professionals in our schools. Approachability is key to a positive and respectful relationship between administrators and their colleagues. We as a school need to hear teachers out who have been educators for many years to be able to share their ideas and collaborate. Giving appropriate feedback when observing lessons.

Competitive inflation adjusted raises

The Google recommendation of a livable wage in this area is not accurate. I am unable to sustain a household on the income offered.

At NHA, our culture has always centered around serving our schools—and rightfully so. But I believe in our dedication to that mission, we may have lost sight of something equally important: serving one another with kindness, clarity, and grace. In our efforts to complete tasks and meet expectations, it can sometimes feel like we forget that the Service Center is a team—one made up of many moving parts, each with a critical role. We are all here to do our jobs, and it's disheartening when interactions among colleagues become rude, dismissive, or combative. I understand we can’t change people, but we can establish a culture that sets the tone for respectful communication and collaboration. It starts with how we treat each other, how we listen, and how we respond—even in moments of stress or urgency

Current level of rigor on tests seems to be misaligned with the ability of what the majority of the students are capable of independently. Many of the students are intelligent, creative, and capable but sometimes they are expected to work on developmentally inappropriate assessments which hurts their self-confidence.

annual raises

NHA needs to provide small group materials for their classroom teachers. There should be a C&I position that focuses on that. If that is the most important aspect of targeting students' accademic needs then it should be given more attention and structure. A former or current NHA classroom teacher could know exactly what to develop and how to implement it. An outsider would not be as effective.

I feel lately the cleanliness has been slacking a little bit with bathrooms and trash not being picked up. But, overall I think Pembroke is doing a great job identifying improvements that need to be addressed.

Local schools are paying 10-20 percent more per hour for support staff. Teachers are also making more elsewhere across the board which significantly impacts our retention rate. We constantly have to replace staff because they seek higher paying jobs within a few years. This will keep happening if NHA doesn't close that gap. Life has gotten exponentially more expensive and our pay does not reflect this. Snow days should not have to be covered by PTO, and with the new Michigan law for earned sick time, hourly staff may be impacted in unknown ways.

Often, in our attempt to provide clarity and "fool proof" practices and resources, we just create more...more places to go to find stuff, more links to click on to find more supporting documents, more. I know we are aware of and working on this in some spaces, but wanted to just further stamp the need to assess processes and streamline for efficiency, especially for things that do not directly impact learning. Compliance requirements (infinite list and a clunky process), training platforms (where do I go, what do we even have), C&I/SLD (creating more documents, links to other documents; knowing/remembering that resources exist and how to quickly access them is a miracle sometimes). Can we assess the platform used for school compliance? Is there something better? Can different training platforms somehow roll up into one location/tile? Can we explore the root cause of needing infinite docs and links? NHA Learn might be taking us in the right direction.

I think that Professional Development should apply to everyday procedures and practices that don't seem to be explicitly spelled out for the teachers.  For example: grading assignments.  How do we know when we have created an assignment that would qualify for a 4.0?  How do we handle emergencies at odd times like driveline, morning assemblies, etc?  How do we handle angry parents?  What is the PTO budget used for - classroom supplies or field trip transportation?  PD seems to be a blanket over all the NHA schools but doesn't address specific needs for us.  Hope this makes any sense.

As always, I think the biggest disadvantage and detriment to working for NHA is compensation. Every year, the best and the brightest, those teachers with the most experience to contribute to the school and to train up newer teachers, leave due to poor compensation and better offers elsewhere. Despite expressing this every year on this survey, nothing changes and it is pushed under the rug. This is the reason that we feel we are not listened or cared for. I wanted to pick collaboration as well, since our regional professional developments together with other schools has been discontinued. This was one of the perks of working for NHA, a time where teachers of the same subject and grade level could all come together to compare notes and collaborate. For these reasons, I could not full heartedly recommend NHA schools and might dissuade teachers from starting here.

more money

Better raises for Employees and More Bonuses for Employees

I would like to see higher teacher salaries, but that is nothing against our school. I have loved my time here, but recently a new Dean (Santos) was hired and she is completely condescending and rude to staff. She is unkind, and sends emails that are completely unhinged, resulting in a broken school culture. She also inappropriately behaves in IEP meetings, even getting up and excusing herself from the meeting even though she was the LEA.  I do not want this survey reflected poorly on anyone else, as I am happy with our admin team aside from Dean Santos.

More directly recognizing teachers/staff other than teachers that work with general education population.

Holding individuals accountable for their role .

The recommendations I would make are the ability to integrate more AI into the classroom. The classroom can be a bit bland with the current technology we utilize to improve academic outcomes for learners. AI can be utilized to understand data and provide academic interventions based on those data points. The old world of humans following data and creating interventions is slow and time-consuming. Even simple programs like Khan Academy.com can improve NWEA scores more efficiently than the programs we currently utilize in the classroom. I just don't see the progress in dreambox since we have been using the program.

Interventionists deserve raises based on skills and observations

The amount of work that is put on teachers is unbelievable. If you added up the amount paperwork, lesson plans, spreadsheets, data trackers, etc that are required weekly there is not even enough time during prep times to get it all done - not to mention the weekly meetings and non stop observations that you also need to be prepared for. We spend so much time doing busy work we don't even have enough time to prep for our actual teaching. Teachers continuously are required to give up their lunches and preps due to meetings, CSE, field trips, testing etc. You have no choice at all but to take work home or stay and work late. You aren't trusted as a teacher in this building.

Teachers need to be shown that they are valued before Teacher Appreciation Month

Students need to be held accountable for their academic achievement and/or lack thereof. We allow too much leeway for students to do the bare minimum and still get good grades

N/A

I would like to see the OA that work 52 week have 4 weeks of PTO instead of 3 week.

Scholars bathrooms

More significant salary raise

Considering the community we work in, the curriculum needs to better reflect the needs of our students. With students arriving to high school with more significant deficits in reading and math, the curriculum needs to be paced to allow for repeated practice and additional scaffolding of skills. Instead what we have is "packaged" curriculum that is at a break neck pace with no additional resources or support or time to allow for us to address the needs of a majority of our student population. This in term reflects in low grades overall but no time to address it. The curriculum issues also do not allow for meaningful feedback for students which our population desperately need.

The admin needs to be better at communicating between each other it seems, and then still needs to work on getting relevant information to the staff as well.

increase teacher salary to meet the demand of the working environment. Be more competitive with other school districts around the area, make it so teachers want to stay here and give them a reason to stay! The wages here a far less than other districts around us and when a teacher turns in notice there is no try to keep them here. This affects our students negatively every year.

I feel that NHA needs to strongly evaluate the curriculum they are pushing out and how it is impacting learning. It seems that NHA is not aware of what is fit for high school education. They have made some positive changes in regards to meeting the needs of high schools, but I do think they are a ways away from truly servicing high school students well. Holding students accountable for soft skills is important - and by holding accountable, I mean having it reflect in their grade. We need to meet our kids where they are at and not rely on theory. Many of these students are not intrinsically motivated, so we need to hold them accountable with some external motivation. We are sending kids off to college without the concept of homework and deadlines. This should be a priority for NHA to address.

While collaboration at my immediate school is strong, there is a significant disconnect between the NHA Curriculum teams and the Special Education department. Many platforms that provide critical tools and curriculum for resource room teachers are being blocked by NHA, limiting our ability to differentiate instruction (moby max, readtheory, Teachers pay teachers, MTTN transition skills program) Additionally, EDsite assessments, particularly in History, continue to have accessibility issues, such as the inability to fully function with read-aloud features on PDF images and the lack of editing options to create accommodated assessments. When these challenges arise, there is no open dialogue between Special Education teams and the Curriculum department to explain decisions or problem-solve collaboratively. This leaves teachers without the necessary support to meet students’ needs.

NHA should focus on developing a more sustainable approach to their high schools. Quite simply, there is nothing offered here (apart from our basketball program perhaps) that isn't done at other schools in the area (and better). This is especially true in Washtenaw County, where families can choose to send their students to Ann Arbor Public Schools (where they have tennis and theater, for example) or WTMC or EMC if they want their kids in an early middle college program. Simply acting as an alternative to Ypsi High or Lincoln is not enough to attract students long term. I would like to see NHA invest and refine what sets them apart (and its not moral focus). I.e, offering a four day week would set us apart. Currently there is a lack of vision and not enough funding or support to attract and keep teaching talent. NHA should focus on these things, as well as building positive community relations. One way might be to close the school on voting day and make APHS a polling location.

The number of times I heard important information about my job this year as an "off hand" comment from a coworker is absolutely unacceptable. Putting information on the master calendar and never mentioning it formally to staff or sending out expectations about said event does not count as communication. Making important decisions in meetings and then never following up to see if that communication was spread out to everyone else creates weird dynamics among the staff. No one wants to feel left out or caught off guard. Teachers are planners-- we have to be planned out at least a few weeks in advance for our classes to be meeting our kids needs effectively. Anyone in charge of communicating things to the staff should be thinking weeks ahead as well. Also, if important information is shared at a staff meeting, someone really needs to follow up and make sure those who were out for PD/Illness/PTO still hear that important information. Ask yourself often- who wouldn't know this info already?

There have been many instances where schedule changes were communicated shortly before, which left people scrambling to make adjustments.

Pay us more. Stop cutting programs at NHA high schools because you "can't find a teacher" because your pay is so low. This is not about Arbor Prep, this is about NHA.

One area that needs improvement is staffing for extracurricular activities. Our school needs more sports and clubs, and we need responsible adults to coach the sports and lead the clubs.  Over the years, students have shown interest in drama club, debate club, baseball, cheer, lacrosse, and even boys volleyball, but none of those extracurricular activities currently exist at our school.  Depending on teachers and administration to coach and lead everything isn't working.  We need the to recruit skilled, responsible adults to coach and lead extra curricular activities.  I am not sure how people go about getting coaches and leaders for clubs, but I do know that student involvement in extra curricular activities has a positive effect on retention and academic achievement.  It's something our school desperately needs.

Consistency (or a double check system) around what information is communicated to staff and where. The master calendar is kind of a mess and not the most efficient place for communication, and not everyone has social media accounts. The Weekly Update would be the ideal place for all information to be communicated to staff (to the extent that's possible. I know things come up.)

NHA needs to consider how to make the pay, benefits, and pto more comparable to public schools to help retain and recruit effective teachers.

Because of changes in leadership team this year, it's made the teacher's job more difficult. When there is a leadership team that has shown that they struggle working as a united team, it impacts the teachers ability to do their job effectively. There has been a major lack of communication from leadership for a multitude of things, ranging from last-minute policy changes, schedule changes, school events, etc. I think the most recent changes to the leadership team has been good, and 2nd semester has been better compared to 1st, but overall, we need to see more improvement in order to feel confident going into the next school year.

Compensation will always be the highest priority for improvement for me. Particularly the discrepancy between those in the market-based salary (new teachers) versus those in the performance-based salary (veteran teachers). This policy prioritizes teachers in their first few years of teaching, instead of valuing teachers who stay at their school, ultimately losing out on the expertise that veteran teachers have from their years of experience. I just think the long-term gains (financial and otherwise) are so much more substantial when you prioritize financial incentives to teachers who stay at the school and perform well over attracting new hires.   I know that this issue is not specific to my school, but I do not have any other major areas that I could identify that are school-specific. There are small tweaks that could be made to continue improving in most/all areas, but I feel good overall about the other categories.

At a real school, teachers/departments are given a budget to buy certain item for their classes. This would be nice to know how much each teacher is given to spend for classroom supplies, experiments, equipment, etc.  It would be great to have similar resources to the districts that surround us. There is money in NHA, y'all are just choosing to not use it to benefit kids, y'all are lining your pockets with huge profits. Please don't use these kids to make money. Actually use some of that money to benefit our students.

Pay compression can and will push teachers out of the building which will result is spending more money on training new teachers. All staff deserve to feel valued and appropriately compensated for their work.

NHA needs to adjust for 9-12th grade. The gradebook is unmotivating to students, the computer blocks do not allow for true college prep research. NHA needs to put things in place to keep good teachers. Turn over is the worst, and new/untrained teachers are often very messy, but there is nothing done to try to keep quality teachers. My positive comments are aimed at Arbor Prep in general, which is a wonderful work site. My issues are with things outside of our immediate control. This include compensation, time off, autonomy.

Our high school curriculums and assessments need to be looked at and adjusted using feedback from teachers. There seems to be a disconnect between quizzes, assessments, and state tests in student results.

Keep up the communication

This year, the Deans and Coaches have made a big deal out of how important it is to show students how much we care for them, and how much we care about them as people. We've talked about how it feels awful to be at school and feel invisible. MGCs were proposed as an answer. I wonder how often deans, coaches, and administrators are having similar conversations with staff. I wonder how many people feel unnoticed or unseen. I find that deans and coaches mostly talk to me when they need something or they have something that they want me to fix. These conversations are important, but it seems strange to hear the coaches and leadership team talk for multiple PD sessions about how much it matters that students feel valued at the same time that I see people sad and feeling underappreciated. I wonder if it wouldn't make sense for each dean and coach to pick people to talk to-similar to what we do for the kids. It wouldn't have to be much. Even just a "hi" or basic pleasantries could help people

There are several employees at my school whose decisions affect the school culture negatively. I do not trust them to act with integrity or in the school's best interests. I hope that one day they find new careers where they can be fulfilled and experience joy similar to what I have cultivated in my own classroom space. I also hope to receive a wage increase that accounts for the annual inflation rate and recognizes the hard work that I perform. Thanks!

I've mentioned this before on this survey, but the 7/8 electives need specific curriculum written for these courses instead of trying to fit other NHA school 7/8 curriculum that doesn't apply to us.

We need to hire staff who are willing to follow rules/policies/instructions.  Too many staff are outright refusing to do what is asked of them, from cell-phone policies to actually teaching the advisory curriculum. As a whole, we've become a staff who complains, gossips, and throws tantrums at the slightest change.  These behaviors are seen more in the experienced staff who have been in the building for years, who are then coaching the younger staff to follow suit.

A salary more in line or commensurate with similar jobs in the market (with respect to education and experience).

Our raises need to be higher than the rate of inflation in order to be true raises. I am essentially taking a a pay cut every year for being loyal to this company. NHA is simply asking for people to look for better pay jobs elsewhere when they as a company do not care for us teachers, who are essential to them running their business. If we are truly in the business of bettering the future, NHA needs to better the future of their employees not just in the various gifts that are made, but in true raises in a world where inflation is on the rise.

Competitve pay in all roles

Communication from the Admin team / Instructional Coaches team has been minimal to non-existent this year. The October email about Coaching Vision of and providing "frequent and consistent personalized coaching," did not come to fruition. The Spanish department had zero meetings where our department as a whole or our course-level teaching pairs met with a coach or admin for the purposes of doing anything to improve our instructional practices as a team. Zero times. We haven't had any clear communication of anything that might have been helpful, inspirational or directive coming from the Instructional Coaches meetings. We have already discussed switching deans, but furthermore, I propose having someone nominated in the Instructional Coaches meetings to ensure the un-represented departments receive clear, timely and consistent communication. We are on top of our emails, like to come prepared to meetings and  have found things out haphazardly a few times and that has caused frustration.

I would like to see our academic program more in line with AP by integrating pre-AP and other college readiness curricula. Our selling points are AP and college readiness; we should not be shying away from more academically rigorous programs. I would love to see opportunities to pilot or spearhead these types of programs.

More paid time off/ and the opportunity that at the end of the year the days not used could be cash out or carry over to the next school year. Thank you

Our admin team is the best there is. They are all amazing!  Things that could be improved that are somewhat outside of their control is tutoring and curriculum. Tutoring is seen by students as a place to wait for their ride or practice to start. By the end of the day everyone is tired so not much productive learning occurs. A solution is to have students remain in the commons after school no later than 3:50 and lock the side doors to classrooms/lockers. You could pay a few teachers to supervise. This would especially help with those waiting around for after school sports to start and you would know exactly where to look for students called out.  NHA curriculum is watered down, content light, and ineffective in preparing students for future high school classes and college. PD days have been geared toward "new teachers" recently and maybe we could have new teachers attend those trainings but veteran teachers use those days to develop curriculum.

Our PTO is far less than other school districts as well as compensation. I do think it's being slowly addressed, but it's still not where it should be.

Too many times by the time projects get to me, it is a fire drill. People have very hard time making decisions that support a reasonable time table, and then everyone on down the line must get work done quickly. That is not a great recipe for quality work. Or work gets to us in a reasonable time, and then the project keeps changing. I do understand that making changes to improve the quality of the product is necessary at times, but it seems to happen every single time. But one would think that we would have learnen this lesson by now.

I would like to see professional development tailored to the teacher' s subject area, experience, and needs. I would also like to see PD that supports struggling teachers like a "new teacher summit" that meets regularly.

To be fair, our school specifically HAS taken strides in this in the last year (reducing duty expectations, for one), but I know for sure we are still doing a LOT more than other schools. I think if we could find a way to streamline some things and focus on the most important and impactful things, more people would have more energy and time to give to the most important things. I also think it is a crucial time to put more energy into staff morale/recognition specifically from our leadership team.

Although the benefits and compensation are the thing that sometimes on my hard days tempt me  to leave so that I could better provide for my family, I understand that you have very little control over that.  It is difficult when the raise I got the last two years is completely wiped out by the raising of the health care costs and with some medically complex issues in my family, I have paid 10,000 dollars in medical costs both of the last two years.  Even with that,  there are many more important reasons to me for why I stay.  I appreciate the culture, sense of belonging and how the leadership cares about their teachers.  So I suppose my recommendation is to just remember why people stay, even when sometimes it doesn't make sense, and to value that.

Listen to your staff, stop punishing staff like they are students. Give some praise some recognition. You have people telling on each other to get out of being in trouble. People are scared of doing anything and this is not a safe space for people who do not agree with the way things are going. The students are miserable, and we had a meeting about glint the week before it came out what would be the reasoning behind that it felt like a you need to answer or else situation.

Culture has taken a sharp blow in recent months, as significant changes have either been implemented or discussed that impact the ability of schools and teams to do the best work for students.

I am proud to work at Walton!

I think there are opportunities to improve our collaboration (that is done with the same amount of intensity on both sides of the collaboration) between our high schools and our K-8 schools.  We are a K-12 organization, and the more push we can have to make sure our actions are in line with that, the better.

1. Establish a consistent cleaning and maintenance schedule that includes daily trash removal from all offices and classrooms, as well as regular vacuuming and sweeping of carpets and floors—especially in shared spaces like the gym. 2. Increase staffing or improve custodial response times for urgent cleaning needs, such as accidents or bodily fluid cleanups, to ensure health and safety standards are met promptly. 3. Implement a regular outdoor maintenance plan to address trash pickup and landscaping so that the school grounds reflect the pride we take in our campus. 4. Ensure restrooms are stocked and checked multiple times per day to maintain hygiene and accessibility for students and staff. 5. Assess and replace heavily worn or stained carpets in offices and classrooms to create a cleaner, more welcoming environment.

I would like to see curriculum more focused towards students with disabilities or students who are academically underperforming to help them close their achievement gap, and students who are identified as ENL. I would also like to see a differentiation in books in our ELA curriculum to be more relatable to our specific students lives.

Employees who have been working for NHA more than a year should be able to bank their PTO days so that they do not get penalized in a year where they have more absences if they had previously had stellar attendance.

Separate sick and personal time. Allow time to roll over or pay us out of unused PTO. Remove the policy of forcing teachers to take unpaid PTO if they take off more than two consecutive days.

If PTO is not being used or has a remaining balance, it should roll over yearly until the employee is no longer employed with the company.

I have some concerns about the amount of tests that has to be done in lower elementary. Particulary the FSA. It is very challenging to find time to do this test without taking away time to work with small groups. If we are keeping FSAs can we do them once a month instead of every two weeks. I feel very strongly that I would like to use my time to work with my students in small groups and independently. FSA's take time away from them.

Pay us more. It is ridiculous that you do not pay out sick days. How can someone be so high up on the totem poll but not have common sense. You are literally forcing us to use them. If we don't, we literally lose out on time and money. With todays economy it is hard enough, of course they will be used. If you want teachers to not use their days, pay us out. Give an incentive.  SHOW YOU CARE ABOUT OUR WELL BEING! NHA is so hypocritical when it comes to that. You pretend to care but do things like this. The curriculum needs to be fixed. Way too many spelling errors in the ENGLISH CURRICULUM! Makes me believe that the higher up you get on the totem poll, the more out of touch with reality you are. I do this for the kids and I do this because it is my calling. I just wish the ones above us had the same passion. Matthews is the best place I have ever worked. Leadership team is understanding and does their best. I just believe the ones above them show no support and it has a domino effect.

*Increase in pay yearly…more money please!! Bonuses, etc…more PTO (able to take days around breaks if need be or for travel) *Less standardized tests/quizzes (meet students more where they are at and go from there) *Even distribution of duties and behaviors amongst all deans…all should be hands on deck! *More direction/guidance from Manager or have the SPeD Dean position be divided up amongst staff members- run it by those staff members involved (and know how the SPED program works) *less PD time before coming back to school *classroom close to rooms being serviced by SpEd providers

I feel that non-fiction books for read aloud in the lower grades are way to complicated to understand. I spend more explaining the book than I do reading the book and because of that I am not able to finish the lessons or I have rush through the lesson. I also don't understand the point of making an anchor chart for children who can't read in the beginning of the year.

We need to offer additional classes next year to avoid students being placed in classes because "there's no where else to put them". I have had several students this year placed in the beginning section of my class, after successfully completing the advanced version in previous years. This logistical issue took precedence over those student's learning.

consistent and effective behavior procedures and consequences

Students who have an extreme amount of color changes need to be on a behavior plan.

My room is not clean everyday. The floor doesn't always get swept or mopped so I have to end up doing it.

I just feel we can have more trust to be making the best decisions for what is best for our own classes.

To help my scholars achieve greatness, I must have more autonomy with lesson planning, curriculum, and instruction.  We are trying to teach our scholars to be critical thinkers; therefore, we, as teachers, must have the autonomy to do the same with our lesson planning and instruction.    Also, for the work I do and the time outside of work that I put into the job, I am grossly underpaid.

points based grading

Improving FMLA and Maternity Leave Policies to Support Families Facing Unforeseen Medical and Birth-Related Events: Current federal leave policies, particularly the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), provide essential protections for eligible employees requiring time off for medical and family-related needs. However, these policies fall short in addressing the complex, urgent, and often unpredictable nature of labor, delivery, and related medical emergencies, particularly during emergencies such as preterm labor, high-risk deliveries, or NICU stays. There needs to be additional support for time off (paid or unpaid) beyond the 12 weeks provided with FMLA

Increase the classroom and specials budgets for supplies, furniture items, book, hands-on learning materials, etc.

With NHA evidently still performing well nationally and continuing to profit according to Bob Owens, it is frustrating and confounding that wages remain non-competitive with comparable roles, and stagnant in our schools and in the service center. The compensation remains beneath the reality of the remarkably high cost of living, that has been accelerating since January. Additionally, NHA employees are capped at a 5% wage increase maximum when transitioning to higher responsibility roles, regardless of longevity of employment. The stunted environment of compensation creates a workplace predicated on predictable payroll and mitigated cost expenses, instead of motivating worker growth and supporting loyal employees in a hostile for consumer economy.

Recognizing the work employees do, and understanding that we have personal lives .We need a raise and more days off things happen.

An increase in compensation would make me want to stay long term

Paraprofessional staff should get compensated for winter, midwinter and spring breaks.  It is hard for them to pay their bills during that time.  If school is close for snow days they should also get paid.   If  they are filling in for a teacher they should also get compensation.

It would be nice to have them only at your school and to have a focus on classroom management.

Coordination with other academic sources and opportunities for teaching credentials.  Possibly, training in preparation for Praxis or other testing for licensure.

better benefits that isn't so costly

Provide paid sick days and also personal time off. I believe there should be two different categories and a specific amount of days off for each.

Increase pay rate, bonuses

Leadership team validating concerns or suggestions from employees and working together to find ways to improve instead of getting defensive, dismissive, or angry and blaming employees for any concerns they may have.

Metlife isn't my favorite after trying to deal with a serious health issue.

There has been a lot of growth at NHA in the time that I have been here, especially within the last year. That being said, I don't think that the growth has been focused on all of the right areas and completed in a way that results in a constructive work environment. Growth within teams has been something that has not only been ignored but also refused to be discussed until this point. Now, it has been discussed only because it is being seen within other teams in the department. The existing roles that we have are so unclear, and the hierarchy that we are following causes a lot of problems between team members that could just be avoided if it were clearer where responsibilities lie. There is more to growing within a company than just changing titles around. It does not seem as though team members are treated fairly, and that is apparent when looking at the growing expectations and the compensation that we receive, along with the feedback that we get consistently.

clearly define policies that apply to all service center areas and do not allow individual directors to determine their departments requirements.

I recommend that the role of that teachers play in growing and developing the lives of young children TRULY need to be evaluated and assessed, in addition to the value that these roles have in the shaping of the future of the children.  While I do my job for the love of the children and my passion for making a difference in each of their lives, I do believe that this is the ONE area that you will to be the reason why most teachers leave this field that they love so much.  Life has changed, the economy has changed, the behaviors of children have DRASTICALLY changed, the support from parents/staff has changed, and therefore I do beleive that the demonstration of how much your teachers are valued should also change.  The biggest impact will be in their compensation.

I would recommend adding additional PTO time. There are many times that we stay at school hours after our shifts end  to complete tasks that we were not allowed to complete since our planning period was cancelled. If we need to leave early for an appointment we have to take a half day. If we only have 7 days and we have to take half days for doctor appointments that creates issues with time and attendance. There are some medical offices that you can only attend Monday-Friday during work hours. Many specialists operate during these hours. Having at least 10 days and a few mental health days would provide a positive impact in various areas. This would be a great tool to assist with work life balance.

Teachers and school staff throughout the nation are notoriously underpaid.  It's a systemic problem, not specific to only NHA.

The employees who actually care enough to point out the issues here are the ones who are constantly told that their attitude is a problem and that we are not "team players," rather than being heard. Since when did teaching become strictly data-driven with unattainable goals and a constant push to the next level? What happened to putting relationships first and leading with compassion? Test scores don't change climate and culture, climates and culture changes test scores. The downfall of WCA has become so obvious and apparent, that even the kids are noticing it.

I have no recommendations to give

Feel our department is under paid in relation to the other NHA departments.

For first grade, the writing curriculum expects way too much of them starting at the beginning of the year. If our writing curriculum could be more developmentally appropriate, our students would benefit. For example, the craft study and planning days are well paced and excellent; however, the drafting days expect them to write the entire story (three to five sentences) in one day, which is too much for most students, especially at the beginning of the school year (more appropriate towards the end of the school year). Also, our grammar curriculum is not logically organized. The skills are first grade appropriate, but we do not teach them in a logical way. For example, we teach 'matching nouns and verbs' (subject verb agreement) before we teach verbs. Also, we teach simple sentences after we teach how to expand simple sentences with conjunctions and adjectives.

We need to have our floors cleaned (mopped and vacuumed) on a daily basis with 30 young children eating and peeing on them! Or provide teachers with supplies for clean-up!

Pay us more. This is a hard job.

Compensation is below average according to market value. A deeper research is needed to meet compensation needs. NHA continues to lose loyal employees to better paying jobs.

Raises for teachers and admin who are going above and beyond the role.

NHA highly needs to reconsider their ELA curriculum. There are many times where teachers have to supplement their own materials because the curriculum is not meeting students where they are, especially for read aloud and shared reading. In addition, the ELA weekly common assessments need to be at grade level. You cannot assess reading comprehension when the text is two grade levels above their reading level.

I appreciate my coworkers. We have a great culture here at Pembroke.

Self-explanatory. It be what it be sometimes.

An increase in pay will attract better teachers and make all of the work feel more worth it. Should not have to have two jobs with all of the resources available to NHA.

I would love to explore education in all avenues. I have been in my position for years and would like to utilize what I know in other positions at my school. This would allow me to continue to learn and grow and help and support our students.

Kindergartners having the Chromebook instead of iPads

Be here bonus would be cool. After so many days/months if teacher attendance is there then extra bonus would be cool.

Brooklyn Dreams Charter School faces several challenges, but the most urgent stem from leadership's failure to uphold NHA Core Values, affecting culture, enrollment, and student success. This year, the leadership team has been distant, making staff and students feel unheard. Many teachers feel targeted, with decisions driven by favoritism. Leadership often says, “We’re unsure what to do,” showing a lack of ownership over student outcomes. There's minimal coaching or development, leaving staff unsupported. Their isolation leaves hallways unsupervised and unsafe. Integrity and care are lacking, and their commitment to NHA values feels performative—especially when visitors are in the building. On those days, leadership becomes more visible, but otherwise, they are unresponsive to staff and families. Avoidance best describes their approach. Sadly, NHA has placed leaders who lack the training and readiness needed to support our school.

Behavioral support

Increased pay and supplements

I believe with careful consideration Paras should receive wages during both the winter and spring breaks.  Its during these breaks without a salary that causes finical hardships for those that depend on this salary to maintain their finical obligations.  Without an income during these breaks it will most likely negatively affect their livelihood for up to 60 days.

-I am put on the back burner when it comes to O3 cycles. Observations and meetings often happen at the last minute.  - When I am being observed, my admin is looking for things that are bad rather than good. During our meetings after observations, I often hear a general "It was good," and then a number of specific bad things that happened.  - I believe that the rating on the observation rubrics are not consistent. First semester I got really great ratings and comments, then second semester I feel that I was rated really toughly. I was told that even though I had students 100% engaged, there were students who were working slowly, so I got developing.  - During my observation, my admin was doing behavior management in my room. After the admin left, even students felt that it was weird. One behavior incident: A student swore and then apologized to me. I said we would talk about it later. The admin went over to the student and threatened to kick them out of class.

The gen. ed. curriculum is so rigid that it is not meeting the needs of our students.  The emphasis on rigor makes no sense when the students we're working with haven't yet mastered the basics.  The content we're teaching and the way we're delivering it is miles above their heads so behavior issues erupt and the student body at large is disenfranchised and not engaged.  The strong emphasis on and pressure around testing produces great anxiety school-wide.  If students had more opportunities for hands-on learning, creative projects, and we built up their foundational skills, we would not need to take a month of the school year to do practice tests to enhance state test scores.  The scores may organically increase because the students will be able to reason and would actually remember content, rather than become adept at testing procedures.

 This year has been the most challenging I’ve experienced, and I have often felt isolated and unsupported. I work with some of the most challenging students, and I feel many behavioral concerns have been overlooked. The high number of students with IEPs and 504s in my class, combined with a lack of SPED training or compensation, has been difficult to manage. I feel overwhelmed and burned out. Communication around deadlines and key information often feels disorganized and untimely, and certain leadership expectations are not being consistently upheld.  Moving forward, I respectfully request increased support with behavior management, clearer communication regarding expectations and deadlines, and consideration for SPED-related responsibilities in both training and compensation. I am committed to my role but hope these concerns can be addressed so I can continue to thrive and contribute meaningfully at EA.

It would be very beneficial to have time to plan, grade, and complete other work tasks during work hours. We currently have a thirty five minute planning time. Some days, our thirty five minutes of planning time is taken up with meetings. Our schedule is packed with curriculum, so it is also difficult to complete work tasks during classroom time.  It would be greatly beneficial to give teachers more planning time during school hours, to help promote a work life balance.

Most of the current Moral Focus curriculum is only for in-person so it takes a bit to convert to what will work well virtually / what applies virtually.  I also find that the topics tend to jump around with continuity.  I would like to see a table of contents on the Advisory curriculum (moral focus) instead of having to scroll all the way down every time.  Content specific examples and mini-lessons would be appreciated too.

A new math curriculum that fits the needs of our scholars.

It would be nice if paras would get paid on snow days.

I think that the deans and principals should trust the teachers' words more. This would help by having more open communication from admin about particular students, and getting the teacher's opinion/insight into the situation, rather than accepting the event from a 12 year old.

More raises based on work load instead of general raises each year based on performance

While NHA is making progress in this area, it’s important to ensure that decisions aren’t made in isolation. Stakeholders should be involved at the start of projects, rather than midway, to avoid adding unplanned tasks to their workloads.

This year has felt off — the atmosphere is exhausting. While we all get along, it feels like we’re on autopilot. We’re working hard, pushing students just for scores. 3 interims are too many; it takes away students’ autonomy and burns them out before state testing. The S&S should align more closely with state tests, or we should have more flexibility . It doesn’t make sense to have flex weeks for earlier interims but not for the most important assessments.  I heard bonuses are ending. Given the extra unpaid hours we work (conferences 3 times a year for 25+ students), I’m curious how we’ll be compensated.  Additionally, while I know enrollment is out of our control, having 25+ students in a classroom without a second teacher (despite advertising otherwise) makes it hard to meet student needs.  Finally, I wish there were more opportunities for growth — chances to change grade levels, move into new roles, or receive leadership and curriculum training would help many of us stay and thrive.

The school should hire its own dedicated janitors instead of relying on an outside contract for janitors.  We have dedicated janitors, but we need to hire more people and for them to have regular morning hours.  The school is always dirty.

Create a deeper variety of activities for the students. Have them do activities that give them autonomy and allow them to be create, such as project-based learning. Incorporate ways for students to relate to the content, so that they can have a more meaningful learning experience. Research says that activities like these improves academic performance. Also, I think the curriculum would benefit from a social skills program or curriculum, so that students learn social skills beyond what moral focus teaches them. This could incorporate role-playing with scripts for example. Research says that students with good social skills perform better academically.

The special education (sped) department requires additional resources to effectively support students with their individual needs. Enhanced resources would enable staff to better assist these students, ensuring that their unique educational requirements are met more comprehensively.

Walker is a wonderful place to work. I wish NHA showed more compassion and understanding for their employees. I feel very under valued by NHA. They wont compete in salary or other compensation areas. Also, if C&I could take LESS TIME AWAY from teacher's preps, that would be helpful. While they mean to benefit teachers, it mostly feels like wasted time that could have been sent in an email and time used to benefit my students.

Find a different health care provider.

When I first started, there were more opportunities for team-building events and activities. The increased emphasis on cost-cutting, while important, has severely curtailed these opportunities. Allowing a bit more freedom (and funding) in this area would be beneficial.

I believe that we need more curriculum to specifically work with kids online. I do think some things are not just something that can be done virtually. This doesn't help with large class sizes.

Our benefits have been changing each year, and I believe we should have more plan options available to us. Additionally, the reduction in the HSA contribution has had a negative impact on employees.  I would also like to raise concerns about the quality of our cleaning services. I have experienced issues such as ants in my room, trash being left behind, and being told that if something cannot be picked up with a vacuum, it will not be cleaned. The building frequently has an unpleasant odor as well.  I suggest that conferences be changed to three nights so that it can allow parents to meet with the specific teachers they would like to speak to. In my experience, parents often have questions about other subject areas that I am unable to answer. Giving parents the opportunity to connect directly with the appropriate teacher would likely improve their overall satisfaction.

I feel students need to be held more accountable for their actions. It has been an issue every year I have worked here. Some students here make some awful choices, like threatening others and/or hurting others, yet they either get sent home for the day or are suspended for one day. It gives these students a mentality that they do whatever they want and get away with it. I feel as if more action needs to be taken toward these students. If a student has to be expelled, so be it. We apparently have plenty of students on a waiting list that would gladly take their spot.

I would like to see a math curriculum that is slightly more direct in teaching. It does not align very well with the numeracies we are testing kids on. I feel like the expectations are completely different. Even the assessments in  Bridges test kids on skills in a format that they are not used to seeing and it can be extremely frustrating.

When Colorado schools were prepping for CMAS teachers (three weeks before testing) were told to scrap the curriculum and only focus on CMAS prep packet work. These instructions were told from our DSQ Elly Campbell. We were told that starting next year we will be changing a lot of curriculum expectations in the beginning of the school year to start prep early. So many teachers work her because of the curriculum it is easy to teach and effective for students but I'm going to assume there will be big changes and that is not the NHA way that I have always been told.

My recommendation would be for the Leadership Team to ask managers how the directives and demands will impact their small teams and to communicate clearly (in months notice) deadlines for work. The C&I team is a small team supporting over 100 schools. The number of schools keeps increasing; however, the number of C&I team memembers is not. The team is being stretched very thin and clear communication and revisiting expectations in light of this will promote greater communication and work/life balance.

Quit trying to micro-manage everyone.

Professional development is lacking. I feel like the summer PD could be more focused on things in the classroom that we all need growth/support in, management and behaviors!

Please bring back regionals! Meeting with other music teachers in person during regionals has been necessary for us to share ideas and strategies for the classroom. Music teachers are often the only ones teaching that subject in their schools so it can feel very isolating sometimes. Regional PD's help us immensely!

The more support on the high school level would possibly mean more eyes on students to ensure that they are engaging in the proper behaviors for a school setting.

Compensation is a form of appreciation.  Feeling under valued for the work we do is disheartening.  I noticed in the last summary of our Glint survey results, the CEO did not address compensation...and it was the #1 area of dissatisfaction as exhibited in the pie chart shown! Instead, he talked about the things during our work day that scored lowest, which I believe was dealing with disciplines.  Not addressing and assuming responsibility for the financial security of your employees is disappointing. When I first started working here NHA contributed $600 per quarter to my FSA. It is down to $400 now with a higher monthly premium.  My current pay scale is 10% less than teachers in my county.  The state of NC currently has a bill on the floor to increase teacher wages. If this passes, NHA should be prepared to offer a competitive salary.  This would mean a large raise for your employees. When you know better, do better.  NHA knows better. Its time to do better.

behavior support

I feel like the quality of life at the school has gone down. There is no hot/cold water supply for teachers anymore, the coffee machine is not maintained, and the water fountains barely work. There is rarely lunch provided and the joy factor is not very high. The school behaviors are awful and it can feel miserable to be all alone in the classroom without support and no body picking up the phone when I call for support.

 I genuinely believe that we have fostered a positive culture at our workplace, and I would love for my colleagues to share in this recognition. This year has been one of our best culturally at Inspire, and I think we can enhance our appreciation of it further together. The leadership team has made commendable efforts to create an inclusive environment for all employees. While there’s always room for improvement, the progress we've made this year is noteworthy. Let’s continue to build on this momentum and strive for an even more inclusive atmosphere moving forward.

There needs to be a focus on recruiting more experienced and certified staff members.  It's very hard to support students behaviorally and academically when there aren't enough qualified people to support.

I would like to see more collaboration between all the different departments to address student needs and behaviors.

I'm not a fan of the writing, social studies, or science curriculum. The science curriculum is outdated. The social studies curriculum could be more hands on and use primary sources, even in elementary. The writing curriculum could use more fun prompts and be more developmentally appropriate.

Resources for everyone, not just me.  Resources that I think would be helpful are having memberships to various study sites like quizizz, gimkit, EdPuzzle, things like that.  These are resources that teachers use frequently and the students enjoy. By having this be a resource available for the teachers so they do not have to use their own money.

Hire more janitors to do deep cleans

Less micro managing

pay raises

I think it would be nice if there were more opportunities for cross-wing interaction/planning/fun.

I appreciate the support, skills, and professional expertise of Mrs. Laster-Bey with helping me get acclimated to Westfield Academy School.  Her guidance made a huge difference with my transitioning  to a new location in the middle of the school year.  Thank you Mrs. Laster-Bey for all your support!

I feel like employees that have worked for NHA don’t get a significant raise compared to newer employees.

I think NHA does the best they can with this area and I have no recommendations.

Dean Smith has done an exceptional job this school year managing the newly added third-grade team. She's been incredibly supportive since the start, always putting her team first, and I really appreciate everything she does for us. I always know she has my back..   Furthermore, increasing the number of ABSS for the upcoming academic year would enhance effective student behavior management and academic development, and provide teachers with more robust support.

The workload is a lot when all is going well in our department and when we lose a staff person, the managers and co-workers end up filling the need even when they don't have capacity. I understand this is what needs to be done, but it promotes burnout which in turn causes people to leave. Losing staff that have been here longer than two years is a strain on the company in that we're losing people who understand the purpose, mission and job responsibilities. Training new staff is a year-long process and is a drain on resources that could be used elsewhere. Our Oracle system has come a long way in 3 years; however focusing on efficiencies that still need to be built/added to the system would help make everyday tasks more simple, help with the workload and allow staff to focus on more complex analysis and tasks.

Consistent, clear rollout of projects/updates that feel well thought out and not sprung on teams at the last minute expecting them to deliver at all costs. Especially allowing projects to be completed with fidelity before being ushered to start a new suddenly more pressing one. Also meaningful change to large events and some rationale as to why would be helpful. Often a lot of work feels like reinventing the wheel year after year rather than refining and it creates the feeling of a hamster on a wheel where we're draining ourselves but not really getting anywhere new. Clear communication with policy changes would also be helpful as well as reminders as we adjust to new ways of doing things. i.e. even simple things such as putting full school names in every single item on an expense report. This feels important and like something that would have been helpful to be told proactively rather than find out reactively via multiple rejected reports. Little things like this add up to exhaustion.

More competitive pay for longevity

I think the culture needs to be addressed. PJ worked hard to build a good culture, and it is already beginning to fall. Additionally, I think we need to provide more opportunities for the higher kids. They should not just be used as helpers because they finish their work early. Yes that is important to provide leadership, but they need more advanced opportunities to have those students continue to progress and prepare.

Understanding that the job we do here at the school is extremely stressful and that there needs to a balance to madness. This work life balance includes increasing PTO and compensation I feel those are key motivators in employee morale.

More available working hours and days.

Having enough time within the work day to complete various tasks given

More of a focus on an increased salary percentage for the staff that have seniority and shown loyalty over the years including support staff. My lowest percentage increase came upon entering over 4 years working at my particular school while brand new staff received a higher percentage when it should be the complete opposite. Retention bonuses should remain for staff including support staff that have been in their position with a higher amount for the ones that have been at the location for a longer time since they have proven themselves over a long time period.

I think there should be higher pay and insurance should include vision with more coverage on dental as well. I am making just above half what I was making in public school teaching, truth be told.

Making sure the consequences for students are consistent and taking into account the amount of behaviors that have been documented and other items which have been shared about attempts to redirect and try different methods to get that student back on track.

More effective ways to block distracting apps for the scholars.

I think many people would say this but an increase in pay would always be helpful with the rising cost of living that we are currently in.

I do not like the new printing network called Papercut.  At times, when a person send a document to print. The request to release document to print get lost in the cloud or print hours later. Not having sufficient amounts of paper to print. My subject requires a lot handouts and prints.

If we are to remain competitive, we need to pay employees competitive wages. We are losing excellent instructors to local public school districts.

we would like more support and help when it comes to students behaviors and consequences.

#NAME?

Greater flexibility in lesson planning beyond the scripted curriculum would enhance my autonomy. Many of these programs limit opportunities for student choice and ownership of their learning. Additionally, the questioning often doesn't align closely with state assessments, which leads to a rushed effort during test prep to supplement with other resources and instructional strategies not included in the provided curriculum.

There needs to be improved communication and collaboration between teams. Sometimes teachers do not receive the necessary support due to inaction and indifference from the leadership team. There have been too many instances of bullying in the school that were not properly addressed, which is one of the reasons why students choose to leave.

Our administration, ABSS, and support staff are severely over-worked. We need a third dean, two or three more ABSS staff members, and more support for our Paraprofessionals. If our administration and support staff are able to do their jobs with a lighter work load, they'll be able to support us further in our classrooms and curriculum.

Teacher salaries should be much higher and comparable to local public school districts. A veteran teacher should not make the same amount of money as a new teacher.

Cap classroom sizes. 30+ kids works with some populations but we have a lot of children who demand more attention.

Increase annual raise for teachers/paras/support staff so we can afford to pay bills with the constantly rising cost of living.

Just better overall communication about events. Things should be planned out more in advance then the day-of.

We need more Phonic programs to help student become better readers.

It's hard to fill this out given the situation with my dean. Yes, that situation was remedied, but it impacted things for most of the school year. The staff incidents and turnover for the past two years have eroded the culture, trust, and relationships. I feel very isolated. I may appreciate and thrive on autonomy in the classroom, but feedback or interaction with more experienced teachers would have been appreciated. Leadership has shown itself more responsive to feedback this year and made many excellent changes. Compensation has not kept up with cost of living changes though. I made less money this year than last year, so it's hard to feel any security. The students we accept do not align with our mission statement as a college prep school, and that gap leads to many of our school's struggles. If that misalignment is addressed, many of my concerns would be resolved.

The pacing of academic blocks. The selected curriculum is too rigorous for most students. Could use a spiral review throughout the school year.

I would like to receive information in a timely manner, so I can time manage properly.

I would suggest paying staff along the same lines as local public districts in the same county the school is in. I would also take into consideration how the staff members' performance has been in their current position all to be include in how much they are paid.

Curriculum that aligns with testing goals.

I feel if your going to recognize staff you should recognize all staff not just mostly the Teachers. They are very important and should be recognized but so are so many other staff that help as well.

Paid out for unused PTO

Streamline the driveline and lunchtime, so students don't need to have lunch and wait for the driveline in the classroom.

I think professional development should encompass making sure all employees are well-versed in policy, procedure, and the finer points of the curriculum.

I feel that NHA is top heavy with all the deans, behavior staff, and family liaison's. I have worked in several private and public schools throughout the years and have never seen so many in other schools. It makes me wonder if this is the reason that paraprofessionals are paid so poorly. Just a wondering...

Teachers need to be more involved in decision making for day to day routines, procedures and scheduling. Very often, something is thrown out to staff last minute and there is no time to prepare or provide feedback from classroom teacher specifically. This goes along with communication. For big things there isn’t usually a problem. For smaller things, it’s rarely communicated in an effective way.

Finding ways to allow us to implement and changes things around to better suit our scholars. This can be done through various things.

Let teachers have more input in lesson creation, especially with activities and supporting resources for Do Nows and Exit Tickets.

Give staff training for their role and hire people who are actually qualified to do the job they have been given. There are far too many people in roles at our school that have had little to no training for the position that they are currently in which has led to inconsistencies and for behaviors to escalate. The sense of professionalism and working as a team has gone to the wayside which is not only impacting the students and their well-being, but also the educators in the building. There are some glaringly obvious things that have been swept under the rug because we need a warm body. The largest problem I see this year is unqualified individuals harming students and colleagues by their words and actions with little to no consequence which in turn frustrates people who do their jobs and do it well to want to leave and then we are left with people who's work ethic and care for children is nonexistent which makes it so much harder for those who want our school and students to do well.

Often we are asked/told to do many items that are not time friendly and do not have a true impact on a student's academic or emotional growth.  Example: Positive Behavior Reports even though we do Cougar Caught Ya's.

if opportunities for advancement are available that are a good fit, it would be nice to be asked whether i am interested.

It would be appreciated if hourly employees (e.g., paras) could be paid for unplanned school cancellations (such as snow days) since we cannot plan ahead for them.  (We can use PTO, but since we don't know they are coming, it is hard to plan to save PTO for that purpose.)

The science and social studies curriculum is not rigorous, interesting or developed as well as Math and Reading. There are no common assessments and curriculum is presented in a boring format. There is not a lot of time dedicated to making it a priority and it could be made cross-curricular very easily if we incorporated it with our Math and Reading curriculum. This is an area that needs more work.

Use input from our managers to evaluate satisfaction with compensation and ensure fairness based on their feedback and employee performance.

Have designated cleaning schedule to be followed. There is often times the heating and AC systems are on at the incorrect times, it would benefit us to have this fixed and reset over summer break to allow us to have it set for next year

More positive recognition/incentives; leave early once a week, monthly lunches, team bonding events

Having the autonomy to build on foundations skills when I notice students are struggling.

Having consistency for our behavior policies and holding all students accountable for their actions according to the commitment to excellence form that everyone must sign at the beginning of the year.

This year teachers were required to take a half day off when only leaving 30 minutes early. This resulted in many teachers reaching their 8 days of PTO far more earlier than normal thus having to take non paid days. I don’t think it’s fair to get docked for a half day of PTO if you’re not leaving at that time. I understand the principle behind it, but in the long run it’s going to hurt more than help. Teachers will start leaving at a half day if that’s what they’re being docked versus simply leaving at the time request that is less than a half day.   Curriculum is another topic in which I believe we need to improve on. Shared reading is not appropriate for all learners in the grade level and we are not provided with curriculum for struggling students.

I am currently happy in all areas of my job at GOA.

Better pay

I would like a manager who is present and competant in early childhood education. I would like a manager ready to lead and meet with individuals, grade levels and the whole wing. I would like a manager to bring ideas to me for ways I can improve, meet student goals, communicate with families, and find behavior solutions. A manager who is solution minded and ready to take action.

One mental health day should be given per quarter.

Unfortunately, everything is getting more expensive.  The benefits package needs to meet the increase .

Having only seven days for both personal and sick days is hard for when you get injured and need time to go and take care of yourself with appointments.

We have less sick days than we previously did and I’d like the health insurance to be like it was before now. We’d love more PTO

Na.

  Urgent Need for Support with Student Behavior and Teacher Compensation  There is serious concerns regarding the current lack of support for managing student behavior in our school. Many students repeatedly display disrespectful and disruptive behavior toward staff and peers, with some accumulating over 30 documented write-ups without any meaningful consequences or interventions. This ongoing issue not only creates a challenging learning environment but also contributes to teacher burnout and low morale.  Additionally, teachers are being asked to manage increasingly difficult classroom dynamics without appropriate compensation. A salary increase would reflect the level of dedication, emotional labor, and professionalism educators bring to their work every day.  I respectfully urge leadership to:  Enforce consistent consequences for students with repeated behavioral infractions.  Provide more behavioral support resources and personnel.  Prioritize a salary increase

Staff should be compensated accordingly based on their level of training/certification. Compensation should be equivalent to local public schools.

Stricter consequences for student behaviors. Return to logging behaviors in the system meant for logging behaviors. Officially suspend students who are supposed to be suspended. Stop trying to "lower" suspensions if it means letting student behaviors slide. It is incredibly stressful to try to control some students when they know they will not get a real consequence. If a student is suspended it inconveniences the parents and forces them to acknowledge their child's behavior.

Compensation and placing value of opinions of employees

Having a better understanding that Staff have a life outside of the work place. As much as we are needed and want to be in the building life happens and we shouldnt get punished for that.

It would be wonderful if teachers could provide input on what kind of professional development sessions they would like.  I feel like they can be repetitive and this would avoid that.  Also, a very basic, informative session may be helpful for new staff that includes navigation of apps like Gradebook and Oracle, along with information on retirement and health benefits/options.

I think PaperCut is a good idea and I would love to make less copies but currently the curriculum demands teachers make several worksheets and print out lesson plans. PaperCut is counterproductive and wastes a lot of teacher time, mostly because it has caused the copy machines to malfunction on a regular basis.

Increase compensation or give time off

4 day work weeks

There are many times I feel as if my opinion is not validated in many decisions involving my work.

Be considerate with the best practice methods. Everything does not work for everyone the same. Allow staff to be able to explore and utilize the methods and strategies that work best for them. Especially after they have already attempted the best practice.

I would like to address an important area for improvement regarding our driveline process. Currently, the same group of teachers is stationed outside for approximately 25 minutes each day, while others are able to use this time for preparation. To promote fairness and efficiency, I propose implementing a rotation system where teachers will be assigned to drive line duty every other two weeks (or whatever fits Metro)  This schedule will allow all teachers to share the responsibility evenly while ensuring that everyone still has regular access to valuable prep time. By rotating assignments, we can better support each other, maintain consistency for our students and families, and create a more balanced workload for the entire team.

There are several areas where the school culture could be improved, particularly in how teachers are valued. One potential change is to reconsider the structure of parent-teacher conferences. It would be beneficial if these could either take place on a half day or be scheduled after work hours with the following day off, as many of us are feeling overworked. It also seems unfair to place the responsibility of parents attending on the teachers.  The end-of-year record-keeping is another area that could be reexamined. In my experience, this is the only school where teachers are expected to complete these records, and it feels like an additional task that further stretches our capacity. Overall, there is a growing sense that more and more is being expected of teachers, often without sufficient support. This can lead to feelings of discouragement, as it seems as though no matter how hard we work, it is never quite enough.

More professional development for non-teaching roles.

Publish a compensation scale so employees can see what they can expect to make based on degree and years of service. Provide a higher percentage for the 401K match.  Pay employees a competitive salary/wage based on the market. Compensate with vacation/personal days in addition to the required government sick leave time.

Paraprofessionals should make salary.

janitorial staff

I can not name only one recommendation as improvements should all be working at the same time.

More appreciation and praise to teachers. Let us know individually when we're doing a good job. We never hear this enough.

I don't understand how any one person can be expected to have work-life balance when doing what is essentially a job and a half.  I am the only music teacher in our region that is expected to teach elementary general music, band, marching band, and choir.  In order to rehearse the entire marching band, or the entire beginning band, I have to stay after school.  I am not compensated for this necessary after school student-facing time.  I cannot engage in the kinds of professional development that will have a meaningful positive impact on my students; All of my time and energy is required to fulfill the base requirements of teaching multiple musical disciplines.  I love teaching at EC;  if I leave, it will be because the workload is not sustainable for any one person long-term.  I realize that adding a part time music position will require a complete rework of the master schedule.  I know that I am asking for a lot at a time of declining enrollment. The results will be worth it.

The culture of the school is a direct representation of the student body. The student body consists of students who have chosen to come to Canton Prep for the wrong reasons. I do not see where Canton Prep has an admissions criteria, so the students not attending for academic purpose make teaching to the other students much more difficult.   I feel that a vetting process, that clearly defines the mission of the school and evaluates the students ability or willingness to accept the mission and responsibilities, is lacking in its admissions process. The lack of a vetting process invites trouble where trouble not need be. As a result, teachers end up micromanaging these troubled students to the detriment of those who chose this school for the right reasons. Now we are in danger of losing the better students due to the out-of-control behavior of the troubled students - all due to a lack of a vetting process and clarity of the mission of the school. This is a pathway that is unsustainable.

Math book should relate more with state and national objectives. Book does not always align with Check-in and EOG objectives.

Feel my workload has increased without extra compensation.

I would like to see more science of reading at shared reading time.

The curriculum is too fast paced for the average/lower students to actually grasp and retain the concepts being taught. More time needs to be spent on each concept and time for more practice needs to be given.

Arbor Prep has many exemplary teachers that would be highly sought after by other schools and businesses. They need to be compensated well to keep them at Arbor Prep and continue to build the culture and climate of the school.

If there's a way to make pay and benefits more competitive, it would make NHA stand out even more as a great place to work.

I think that hourly employees should get more than 40 hours of PTO, and have the same amount as teachers. Throughout the school year, I frequently have got strep throat, pink eye, and the flu and it is hard to only take off 5 days in a whole school year and start facing discipline. I think a couple extra days would really help take the pressure off. But as far as the program, children need a summer school. We don’t have summer school this year and this hurts the hourly employees for summer pay and the children who need to fill in that learning gap.

N/A

More proactive communications

Provide more opportunities for advancement

Minimum 15 days PTO for everyone and an additional 10 days for workers who are in the office full-time. Paternity leave increase to 2 weeks per child, maternity leave increase to 6 months.

Would like to see the possibility of advancing in the salary range for a position as new skills are learned and more work is taken on

I would like the camera policy to be a requirement not an expectatation.

More clarity on what students are being assessed on in ELA. The assessment questions are often confusingly worded and do not seem to be focused on actually assessing the listed standards.

N/A

More time given to plan to teach. Less meetings.

Most businesses offer more PTO.  I negotiated for an additional week.  I previously had 5 weeks of vacation.  I had to give up 2 weeks.

Wellspring is a small school that needs more help than it is currently receiving. There has been increased oversight from NHA, however the results of that oversight have yet to be seen or communicated to staff. Standardized test scores are a common metric for most schools across the nation, however Wellspring does not perform well on those tests due to multiple systemic factors (attendance, socio-economic pressures, lack of parent support). These issues and many others have not been able to be addressed by the admin team due to lack of teachers, support staff, and lack of options for extracurriculars. Students need varied way to express themselves outside of assessments and classwork.  To help our students have positive outcomes we need to focus on retention, student options, and parent support. The test scores will hopefully follow as student develop better skills with internal motivation. Also, a school wide ban on phones would probably be the best first step.

The compensation should be compatible with other schools and districts to keep the teachers at NHA. I love working at CLPA, but would love to see a increase in salary especially the yearly increases.

I understand that only so much can be done and my manger and abss do their best, but I feel that we can be better supported if they weren't placed everywhere and taken away from our wing. The help that we do have are stretched thin and placed many places.

I would like more resources for my EL students, such as curriculum scaffolds or programs for translation.

Make sure staff is familiar with culture from Aug so it is re-enforced thru the entire school year.

n/a

The hourly pay needs to be revised with how things are going in the country

2 weeks of PTO

The culture in the building has been really off this year, with staff losing loved ones and staff engagement. One coworkers are hurting it is important for us to be supported by each other. If its nothing but sending a  flower or card to show that we're being supported can go along way. More positive feedback from administration to build the culture and make staff feel appreciated.  The lack of empathy and compassion is something that saddens me in the work place. Communication only through email and newsletters is very impersonal. Resources such as paper, highlighters, chart paper markers, sticky notes are not available on a regular basis. I think we should always have Good Friday as well as Easter Monday off. More fun staff engagement events to build the culture! Overall Metro is a great place to work!

More money for seasoned employees, certification, and performance reviews.

Our safety needs to be taken into more of a consideration and issues with students that we know have access to weapons need to be taken more seriously. I think NHA should also provide us with a metal detector as Mount Clemens is growing in a lot of gang activity, which some of our scholars are involved in or witness too, and also an on campus officer. Safety plans need to be taken more seriously and be our utmost priority.

Educators shape the future by nurturing young minds, but inadequate compensation remains a challenge. Current salaries often fail to cover living expenses, and teaching demands—long hours, emotional energy, and responsibilities—leave little room for a second job. Improving pay would reduce financial stress, enabling educators to focus on delivering quality education for students’ benefit.  Additionally, educational resources need urgent updates. The current social studies curriculum lacks depth and engagement, hindering students' critical thinking and understanding. A diverse, interactive program would better prepare them for societal challenges. Similarly, science materials should reflect modern advancements, sparking curiosity and connecting lessons to real-world applications to boost student engagement.

Pinnacle academy has been a huge part of my life and my child's life. The admin are super supportive in everything. I feel like I'm at home with my family while at work.

Autonomy is essential.  Teachers interact with their students daily and have better access to their academic sufficenices and deficiencies.  On the surface, I appreciate the NHA's curriculum and understand its mission.  However, teaching is not a one-size-fits-all. NHA seemingly does not understand that at a grassroots level.  Teachers cannot support students as needed when they are constantly micromanaged, and instruction must always be scripted. When teachers are free to make decisions about their teaching practice, it can lead to greater job satisfaction, innovation, and student engagement.  Finally, autonomy may eradicate burnout and empower teachers to grow their skills.

More compensation for all the work that is done.

For all of us, one 40 min plan a day is difficult. To plan, prep, grade, analyze etc.  PLUS make parent phone calls, use the restroom and fill out paperwork. At least one plan a week is also taken up with PLC time. It's a lot of out of class work with not a lot of time to do it. I try to show up early and I stay late and STILL take work home. I know part of this is my own organization but it's just not a lot of time during the "work"day to be effectively great as a teacher.

There have been several times that my classroom was not vacuumed. There is often trash on the left behind on the floor behind the trash can after they remove the trash and change the bag. The restrooms are disgusting and often smell like urine.

I had to choose one to move forward. The Drama program needs a few resources and the Young Fives need a few more supplies, but I haven't asked specifically for any. I'm sure it can be taken care of for next year.

Compensation

While the curriculum supports critical thinking, it often lacks hands-on, project-based, or tactile learning opportunities many students need to fully engage&apply these higher-order skills. Consider incorporating more project-based learning (PBL) &experiential activities across grade levels&subjects. For example: science experiments, engineering challenges, or math-in-action projects to challenge the students further but in a relatable way. Classroom debates, &simulations in social studies&ELA. Artistic interpretations or kinesthetic movement in learning grammar, vocabulary, or history. Provide professional development for teachers to help them translate abstract critical thinking concepts into meaningful classroom activities. Consider collaborative learning centers/monthly tactile-based projects that support unit goals &allow students to actively engage with content. In regard to strengthening moral focus implementation and accountability I have more ideas but no space left to type.

When changes are made to your work hours or benefits you should be notified. I feel like the hourly staff should get more benefits. We do as much and sometimes more work as salaried employees and don’t receive half of what they get.

Having gen ed attend PDs that are geared toward special educators, but would also benefit gen ed to implement in their classrooms to increase access

8 PTO days is not a lot especially for doctors appointments or sick children. Even 10 days would be better

N/A

More open communication for teachers.

To improve the area that I identified above I would recommend consistency. In order for teachers and staff to be consistent, the administration team must also be consistent as a whole. The entire school moves based on what the administration team presents. In order for the school's culture and morale to shift into a positive direction, consistency must be in place. Consistency can branch out into various categories, such as communication and policies. Creating a consistent school environment will build trust and motivate teachers, staff, and students to positively progress.

Having PDs that help the teachers and instructors that put care into their sessions.  PDs that discuss real issues in the classroom, such as "Managing ADHD Students In the Classroom" vs looking over data that we do bi-weekly during PLC meetings.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A_-UUP0u5tN1ABniIwkxDtFF1c5066FU9IaY7fSWRYY/edit?usp=sharing

More pay; especially with the inflation.   More PTO time for staff especially the front office because we are more susceptible to illness being first point of contact.

Curriculum needs to slow down and allow for reteach lessons. It is at such a fast pace some students can barely understand the concept and are trying to memorize it. It needs to allow autonomy for the learning as long as weekly quizzes are up held. Many students do not understand based on the lessons during the week because the curriculum did not fully cover what is on the weekly quiz but expect students to pass them and the interims months later.

Don't insanely increase our health care costs then complain as a company how expensive employees are

Would like to be offered the Gold Tier that was discontinued in the benefits; Looking for more in the benefits package.  Also, consider paying out teachers for sick days that they do not use during the school year.

Competitive salaries, retention bonuses, and equitable pay adjustments would not only recognize the hard work and commitment of our team but also help attract and retain talented educators and support staff. Investing in those who invest daily in our students is essential for sustaining a thriving, high-performing school.

More incentives to get students to understand the importance of education and why we strive for excellence. The students keep the school running its very essential that they feel supported and motivated to want to be at this school.

I think all policies and procedures should be reviewed several times a year. Staff should be given extensive training on these items until they understand and are clear on all aspects of these areas.

I feel that safety is a number one priority, when we go outside to our vehicles there are homeless people walking in the parking lot I don't feel safe.

To be able to receive payment for more snow days, extra holidays such as President's Day, and school building problems

Pay staff more. Some staff do multiple jobs and don't get paid accordingly. Some teachers have been here forever and new hires are making the same amount as them.

I hold 2 jobs. Last year everything seemed fine, mgr was ok with me, most people were / are thankful when I'm able to help out in the classrooms. This year has been completely different. Seems like I get in trouble every time I try to do my job. I've been threatened to not have my hours approved for taking some work home. I was trying to catch up. I've been constantly pressured like I'm doing the wrong thing every time I try to find an opportunity to get stuff done. Because my hours were cut, I've had to work another couple of jobs to make up the difference so I now can't just do everything at NHA's beck and call like I used to. Quite honestly I feel like the dean now has a vendetta and I don't know what I did to make it this way. It didn't used to be this way. I've loved working here in the past. It feels like the dean is trying to get rid of me, and I wouldn't be surprised if I was retaliated against after writing this, but this is the truth. Principal helped. I still miss how it was

n/a

Since the last Glint survey, there has only been one internal PD opportunity to attend. I would love to have additional opportunities to learn and grow as someone who works at the service center.

Sooner communication; there are definitely areas where communication could come sooner to make the work load more balanced. Improvements often seem like additions to the work load vs making the work load easier or lighter; often seems repetitive.  Our school is also big enough to consider having a copy person. Teachers could be assigned a day that all copies for the week need to be handed in by whatever time the evening before or morning of. A small sheet with what teacher needs can be clipped to each request; such as number of copies, back-to-back, stapled, hole punched etc. This would be a huge time saver for teachers, keep teachers from waiting in line, and help to keep the copy machines working properly.

Tiffany has done a great job being a manager. Higher up shows little to no appreciation for staff. Parents get appreciated more than the people that actually work here. High turn over rate. Parents are constantly upset at the number of teachers leaving/ and lack of communication they receive when their child's teacher is leaving. It is concerning because no one seems to care about how the teachers feel. Communication is very last minute and is sometimes passive aggressive. Rules are constantly changing. The consequences for unproductive behavior is poor as well. ABSS does all they can, but it feels like it is putting more work on the teachers. When would a teacher have time to stop and jot down every unproductive thing a child does? Paraprofessionals and specialist are constantly moved out of their positions to step into classrooms to sub which is hurting the students who actually need the help and making the paras/specialists unhappy.

Keep the curriculum, however, tone it down with the timing. Ensure we teach every component, but not on a schedule, maybe rotate days where certain lessons are taught. Trust the teachers more and maybe take away annotating or not so much reading from a script. allow teachers to create a creative learning environment using NHA tools.

Above everything else, I believe job descriptions should be established for each position. Additionally, communication regarding system changes, programs, schedule adjustments, etc... should be sent out at least a week in advance, depending on the severity of the change. Communication has improved remarkably since the 23-24 school year, but I would appreciate continual growth and less information being circulated last minute.

Having a separate sick bank and vacation days - working in close proximity to children who are often sick is a unique challenge to working in a school, it would be beneficial for the attendance policy to reflect the reality of school employee's frequency of illness.

Not adding more tasks, that are not necessary to complete the job at hand, to an already long list of things that need to be done. The time spent outside of work to complete work related to-dos is constantly and consistently growing. If there was a change, to do it more efficiently, that would be better than adding on.

Acknowledge that employees exist and don’t blatantly ignore them or act as though they are beneath you.

Having a meeting on upcoming changes and how to stay in your position and advance.

I was not observed or given feedback on how i can support students better all year. I have never been recognized by them at all. Not spoken to or checked in on, which feel as if my dean lacks interest and care in me.  I don't feel appreciated for seeing a need and filling a need. My deans attendance is a obstacle to our relational equity. They do not follow through with things they claim will be done.

Compensation- Pay more for highly qualified staff.

I think we should be able to leave at 3:30pm again. I find myself having nothing to do for the last 15mins I am required to stay in the building for.

As a reading interventionist I see a clear need for a separate reading program for our lowest, struggling readers. Reading Mastery may work with children who have the ability to process phoneme/grapheme connections and who develop their reading skills in a typical pattern. But our lower readings, those with dyslexia or other learning challenges do not respond well to Reading Mastery. They require a much more structured, explicit and sequential program - such has Orton Gillingham. I feel that there are many people who are skilled at using Reading Mastery but there is no one who is trained or experienced in directly working with a dyslexic child using other types of programs. I've seen children use the Reading Mastery program for 3-4 consecutive years with little progress- we need to offer them a different program. Until NHA is willing to do this, many of our lowest readers will fail.

Too many mandatory "extra" things. Committees, after school functions, weekly meetings on our time and not contract hours. It should be a volunteer basis and volunteers should get some incentive for their time.

I selected Acknowledgement/Appreciation not because it's not being done.  We do acknowledge/and appreciate staff throughout the year for many things, (ie. acknowledging staff members that exemplify our Moral Focus values).  However, I think we miss other opportunities that are equally important to help facilitate a strong, healthy work culture.  For example, I believe it is important for the school to acknowledge/appreciate staff members who have taught or served at Roseville for years and feel it necessary for them to move on.  Showing gratitude and appreciation for talents shared, work done, and sacrifices made during their time with the school is essential to fostering a healthy and loving community.  It allows for a more peaceful transition experience, for those who then are selected to take their space.  It also quiets disruptive and often times destructive murmuring that can arise during these times.

I think that as teachers who already don't have very high salaries, it is unfortunate that our benefit options are not the most affordable. It is ridiculous how much I have to pay for doctor's visits and therapy simply because of having to pay down my high deductible. As someone who already has to tightly budget, I would rather not have to spend my money on healthcare to maintain my sense of wellness, physically, mentally, and all around. I don't know what could be done to make our healthcare more affordable, but I definitely feel like this is an important matter that should be discussed and struggled through until a viable solution is reached.

I feel that we need to be more consistent with our policies and procedures throughout. This year is WAY better than the past however, I believe we still have room for growth. Teachers are talking and say one dean will be consistent and suspend and or make a BSP but the other dean almost never suspends. It's hard for the students and I understand their frusteration sometimes becasue depending on the hallway the rules and expectations are held to a different standard.

Please have a clear career path and plan for advancement put in place.

Please update professional rate of pay.

In the past six months, there has been a greater emphasis on collaboration in the Marketing team, which I truly appreciate! I look forward to this growing and expanding, so that each team at the Service Center can "be on the same page" with our company's values, goals, and responsibilities. Whenever I interact with different teams, I feel like each person has a different feel for the goals and values represented by NHA. I know there are likely many reasons for this, but I think NHA's values could be more strongly represented in our daily "why" statements.

Behaviors are not taken seriously. Kids are physically assaulting teachers and other students and rarely anything is done about it. Kids will throw objects such as desks and chairs at other students and teachers, and instead of giving a consequence, kids are given a "break" in the office with snacks and toys and then sent back to the same classroom they just destroyed. Teachers feel very unsupported here. This only instills the bad behavior because they are essentially being rewarded. Many teachers are unhappy here because of the lack of consequences given to the students in K-4. This is not a problem in the middle school wing because the 5-8 Dean deals with these behaviors immediately and gives the proper consequences. K-4 students are sent to other classes as a punishment, this just puts more on the teachers.  Teachers will start to quit if this situation does not get better and Admin (Principal & K-4 Dean) steps in to support their teachers instead of trying to please the parents.

To find and retain optimal hourly staff pay needs to increase. There are many schools nearby hiring for similar positions and pay needs to be competitive.

To improve retention at NHA schools—especially Vanguard—we must offer salaries higher than nearby districts. We are losing strong teachers simply because others pay more.  To help fund this, we should reduce curriculum planning roles, particularly in ELA. The current curriculum has spelling errors, lacks engagement, and does not reflect teacher feedback, making these roles less effective.  We should also provide bonuses to teachers who mentor student teachers. This supports leadership and creates a pipeline of future hires already familiar with NHA.  Improving pay, streamlining curriculum staff, and rewarding mentorship will make NHA more competitive and attractive to educators.

Host a parent meeting , and let your parents know what more they can do for their scholar. Advertise the meeting weeks ahead

Find out what the department lacks as a whole.  Please do not assume that everyone knows what they NEED TO KNOW just because they have to do it.  For Lexia, DreamBox, NWEA, and so on.  What are the steps to activate these programs?

I would like to see more communication across the board with staff. I would like if support staff could be included in weekly newsletters for hallways they work with because often times it feels like we are out of the loop. Also, with things like testing, it would be helpful to know what days we are helping more in advance, it makes it difficult to plan out the week for both the teachers and support staff.

I do not feel that we are competitive with the local schools in regards to pay.  Observations and evaluations should also reflect in teacher's compensation.

I think that hiring people that understand teamwork and all roles in the building would help keep a healthier culture at MVA.

N/A at this time.

As an AR, I feel that strategy seems to be implemented in broad strokes rather than considering the differences and needs of each respective school and AR.

I believe that NHA needs to realize that all need to be compensated for what they do more. This means all the way down and it needs to be from experience, feedback from their immediate supervisor, and education not just one of the above or just a flat rate for a certain position.

Better Maternity leave 6-8 weeks isn't long enough to heal and bond with a new baby

Compensation should be increased.  Doesn't even compete with jobs requiring no education or experience

Ensure the black/mold around water fountains are cleaned. Classroom floors should be mopped more often. Job security is the buzz around the hallways. It's a very uneasy feeling seeing teachers come and go or the possibility of your position being let go. Smart boards are a great technological tool and more effective than a projector.

The curriculum does not align with our EOGs and Check-ins. I think if you give us autonomy to move curriculum around and work to better meet our scholar needs, our scores will go up exponentially. We sit in regional trainings twice a year that are, respectfully, a waste of time and repeat the exact same things we learn year after year and are producing the exact same results. Please let us work to meet our individual scholar needs based on our campus and our scholars. Treat us like we are professionals with degrees and in most cases advanced degrees who want to see our scholars be successful.

Better pay all around, and to keep good support roles like paras, they need to be salary instead of hourly. Too much turnover in that area.

It would be appreciated if NHA would give adequate cost of living raises, stop reducing the amount they contribute in HSA funds, on top of the price of insurance increasing every year more than my raise increases. This isn't an issue with Paramount, this is an issue with the corporation of NHA.   Outside of that, I love working at Paramount. Since becoming principal Cramer has made tremendous strides in improving the culture, addressing behaviors, and holding people accountable while leading with integrity and compassion. Paramount is truly blessed to have a leader such as Krista Cramer!

Just to have higher pay - I make less than a sub, but I have to do lesson plans for three grades. Even though I am a para,  I have a Bachelor's Degree in the subject that I teach.

Provide more opportunities for all staff to receive education on neurodiversity and inclusion in the classroom. How to support high needs students.

None. I love Keystone so much!

Achievement Behavior Support Specialist need a raise. The work that's being done is NOT reflected when it comes to compensation

I feel like most of the issues with our school culture comes from the mindset of the staff members and their personal feelings towards one another. I'm not sure how to improve that area.

As a veteran teacher with years of experience, a masters, and several licensure areas I feel that my experience and expertise should be compensated more compared to the many teachers in the building who have not even completed their licensure nor have a degree in teaching. Additionally, I feel that I often have to do more than my job title because non-licensed teachers are not fully doing their job. In addition, NHA is doing many things to recruit  new teachers (even those non licensed) but I do not see a lot (in regards to compensation) being done to recruit and/ or ensure veteran teachers stay.

Some aspects of Common Core math are robbing teachers and students of valuable instructional time. Instead of focusing on learning basic concepts and efficiently applying rules, teachers and students now spend 30 seconds to a minute solving problems that traditionally took just 3 to 5 seconds. This increase is due to the emphasis on longer, theory-based methods. As a result, teachers are forced to rush through material or take shortcuts, leaving many students behind. Parents often step in to teach the traditional methods at home, but when students return to school, they lose points on tests because they fail to show the lengthy theoretical process required under Common Core standards.

I feel like conversations around compensation are not encouraged or transparent. A default response I've heard in the past considering compensation is, “That’s up to NHA.” While it’s true that the negotiation and determination of pay begins with NHA, discussions around raises, bonuses, and benefits should not be off the table at the building level.  Staff should feel empowered to ask questions and seek clarity, and admin play a big role in helping to navigate those conversations. When the only communication around compensation comes in the form of an end-of-year letter with no opportunity for discussion, it can feel impersonal and discouraging. Some ways to improve this could be encouraging open conversations around performance and compensation expectations, advocating on behalf of staff when compensation-related concerns come up, and bridge communication between NHA and employees.

I feel that we are doing an amazing job of purging the weeds from the garden, however, what about feeding the seedlings??? I really feel getting things like the DECA program (Financial Literacy), vo-tech, and a student council in the building can really help boost the morale of the students and encourage some to change their behaviors/ viewpoints. I also love that we are having more parent involvement and would love to see more interaction with parent volunteers in the building.

Thank you for finally taking out Reading Mastery for the teachers as they do not teach it.  However, us testing the children on Reading Mastery (once again we do not teach and the Reading Mastery teachers do not go back and reteach) it's not helpful.  Also, the SEL PD is redundant  and isn't providing actual tools for classroom use.

I have felt a growing resentment among teachers and students without having a strong presence of leadership. No one is holding anyone accountable so then, in turn, everyone holds everyone accountable. I think it's all easily avoided by people knowing their particular roles.

Offer market increases for Service Center employees if you want to curb turnover.

Communication could be more streamlined and efficient.  Often we are told conflicting information or given important information too late.

Being at a school where everyone works hard and pitches in is very different to this school which has so many teachers who never go above and beyond. Being able to step up and jump in where needed should be from most teachers and not the few.

Less responsibilities placed on teachers or more time and space to accomplish them.

I wish we had a writing curriculum for special education!

This is my recommendation for NHA, not my building. It would be nice if NHA can have a better way to enlighten employees across the US about 401k contribution. Many do not know that being automotacally enrolled in ONLY 3% of 401k contribution have resulted in them missing 1.5% free match from NHA. Everybody can get the total of 3% match if contributing 6% or more. It's the 1.5% free money they have missed every paycheck.    NHA may also hold a short PD about how to choose the right funds for 401k and IRA(s). Some employees do not have fundamental knowledge about bonds, money markets, total market, S&P 500, NASDAQ 100, etc. Some do not know the difference between traditional and Roth for tax benefits.  Many have not contribuited to IRA(s), causing them out of track for retirement. Retirement accounts of those who know about these things have perform about 5% better annually than those who do not. The gap will only be bigger and the difference would be 5 times by the retirement age.

I would have to say more pay. With the cost of benefits going up, that's less take home money for my household. This is something that makes me heavily reconsider working at PVA. Not because I don't like it here. But because the cost of living is getting to high to stay.

I don't like the bridges curriculum we use for math. The intervention curriculum does not align with what the classroom teacher is teaching and it is hard to fill in the gaps in students' knowledge while also meeting the requirements of my job.

I would like to more focus on students moral focus and let that drive reward systems. Students are not responsible to drive themselves to school and often miss out on things because of their parents choices. If we focus positively on their moral compass and reward that I believe we will see a greater shift.

n/a

Working at Prevail is such a great experience. The leadership team does a great job at supporting staff and communicating. The only thing I would change is the way they do parent teacher conferences as they are very long and grueling days. Most of the staff have children and it is very difficult to work an 11 hour day when you have children at home. I would recommend doing half days as the other schools do. Principal Laney does a great job and building morale and making Prevail a great place to work. I truly enjoy being part of the Prevail family!

I think teachers should have the leeway to choose which lessons to work on with the students to better prepare. I also think spelling should be incorporated back into the curriculum for 3rd-8th grade.

No email over the weekend or after school hours  Late start days for mental health and balance. Teaching these students can be a lot every single day and there are days where it would be nice to look forward to something in the middle of the week. Maybe Wednesdays are late start days and teachers have the chance to get things done and not be swamped with planning over the weekends and using their weekends as a prep. We have prep but it is always interrupted by meetings and gives us 2-3 preps a week.   I have noticed many schools are implementing late starts so that teachers can catch a break and finish their work during the week and have the weekends to TRULY reset and rest and not worry about opening their computers.

Work takes more time in home.

students Behavior

larger variety of classes for high school, more choices for high schoolers, purchase a real curriculum instead of using material made by NHA.

The ELA curriculum needs to be updated. There are several errors within the shared reading books, along with many missed opportunities to imbed online reading comprehension practice to replace several of the shared reading texts. The writing section of the curriculum has a great opportunity to become a cross curricular lesson within the science/social studies standards. Slideshows to go along with the read aloud, shared reading, and writing curriculum would save teachers several hours of their planning along with allowing scholars to hear and see the teachers words which will help those visual learners!

Pay us more!!!

Please stop being so excessively frugal. Last year, the school generated $6.3 million in revenue while only incurring $4.2 million in expenses, leaving a surplus of $2.1 million — funds that could have been reinvested into the school community. Your employees deserve a meaningful raise for the years of physical, mental, and emotional strain they endure, particularly in an environment where children face little to no meaningful discipline beyond being removed from the classroom. Implementing actual consequences — such as writing assignments, genuine suspensions, or any real form of discipline — would be a significant improvement over the ineffective policies currently dictated by corporate mandates. I remain here only because I genuinely care about the children and refuse to leave, when so many others have left for greener pastures. In summation, I hope this message reaches someone willing to recognize that many of us are simply tired of staying silent about the conditions we face.

Hold more people accountable for their actions. People sometimes get away with things that are clearly addressed in the beginning of the year of what is unacceptable. This applies to both co-workers, parents, and students in the building.

It seems that NHA puts a large focus (and budget) into administration and behavioral specialists. Very few schools operate with so many Principals and Deans. As a result, it could be concluded that due to the high cost of those many admin positions, money is not available to accurately compensate the individuals working in the trenches with students on a daily basis. We continue to see a high turnover in the paraprofessional role especially, due to the fact that the hourly pay rate is not competitive with other job opportunities.  Show you value these people in these positions by increasing the hourly rate!

I feel that teachers should have 8 paid days off instead of 6, like in other NHA schools and other DPS schools.

The curriculum moves way to fast for students to completely comprehend.  The curriculum should always have spelling words and text for the students to know how to spell each word they have to read.  Walton should do away with the reading wpm as part of the students grade as many students and adults read at their own pace.  ABSS should be given a master key to the classrooms as the ABSS staffs are the first staff teachers walkie for assist with student or students.  Why should ABSS have to wait for a student or staff to open the door, because if an emergency occur and the teacher is unable to get to the door, that situation would become a major concerns.

Not being out of the loop of everything going on. Communication. I think sense of belonging goes hand in hand with support because if you don’t get that communication, how can we get support?

I selected other. I would like to see more offering avaliable to students/families which I think would allow us to look more desirable when families are deciding where to send their child to school. It would be great to see band/choir come back, expansion of our arts department as well as more AP course offerings along with fun electives.

I would appreciate that my comments aren't shared with my department. Can you please confirm by email that my comments weren't shared with my department.  When I read the results in email they seem skewed to show that Glint survey's painted a collective positive for NHA. I am not sure that Glint surveys do a good job of improving individual challenges. Nobody is reading my individual scores on Glint and helping me with my individual challenges. Can Glint flag low scores survey and have an outside consultant meet with those individuals and talk through their challenges?

The ladies bathroom is often out of toilet paper and paper towels. I am not sure that this falls under cleanliness but wanted to mention it.

This is for lower elementary...more hands on curriculum and less pencil/paper.

N/a

Cost for health insurance deductible is very high. I can choose the lower deductible plan but the cost vs my salary makes it unaffordable.

More time to be ready.

I think there should be more room for growth and advancement, teachers need more instructional leadership and in classroom supports for new teachers, collaboration between teachers (teamwork), communication before final decisions are made is always good.

I believe there is an opportunity for improvement in attention to detail and communication. Sometimes important details are missed or not clearly communicated which can cause confusion.

I marked 'work life balance' as good previously in this survey. My manager is very good at making sure we get time back if we work outside of usual hours. This critique is mainly for the net ops team. It is my understanding that we are expected to be available at (just about) all times, and be ready to emergency travel at any given moment for outages, down equipment, etc. It would be nice to fully have that flexibility given back to us as well and let us work from wherever we want whenever we want (within reason of course). I personally am always in office when I need to be. I will change my WFH day if it means I will attend an important meeting in person, so this really isnt the issue here.

Offer bonuses or quarterly incentives with the rewards program.  When pay across the board increases due to cost of living, compensate teachers with years of experience and/or higher levels of education accordingly.  A seasoned teachers' salary should not match that of a first year teacher, and people love to talk so we are aware of it when it happens.

I feel that there is little to no collaboration between the upper and lower cz. More communication between the two about money or things happening at the school can make all our life’s easier.

Limiting the compensation on internal moves limits advancement of an employee. Hiring and outside person at a higher compensation for a position disincentivizes growth of a current employee.

Provide more incentive to go the extra mile. When people do go above and beyond, it doesn't seem to matter.

Let us roll over used PTO into the next school year

I feel like it's the same people who get recognized all the time. A lot of us feel like we do a great job and we never get recognized at all.

na

My health has been a big impact this year, so working on that needs to be improved but having more support would help especially when one is going through a diagnose phase. excepting doctor notes would be helpful also.

This survey is too vague.  Manager and principal should not be one category. As our principal is freaking amazing and is the glue to Flagship. Their are too many students with violent behaviors that are allowed to continue to stay where it makes it hard to teach. While the Curriculum is great our schedule is cut short and not allowed the correct amount of time to teach on top of constantly redirecting behaviors with no behavior support. Having to be the interventionists and the teacher makes it hard to truly make sure students the students get what they need academically.

I would like the company to consider the Paras to get paid salary like the teachers and to get paid yearly. We don't get paid over the summer and we have to find work so our bills wont go behind. We have to pick up the slack when the teachers don't come to work and cover the class.

SE TEACHERS DOES NOT HAVE RESOURCES OTHER TEACHERS HAVE.

Better employer match towards retirement saving/403 program (3% is very low in comparison to many other companies) Also, compensation for the increasing rates of health insurance does not match the need. For example, I bring home less this year in comparison to last year simply due to paying more for health insurance and yet the benefits are still so much out of pocket. Definitely a real struggle for many.

N/A

Being able to use music production software such as Reason Studios And Logic Pro to teach students the different elements of music such as Music Theory,Recording,Mixing ,Mastering,  and sound design that will help students express themselves through the creative process of making music

Smaller class sizes or more support help and a more cohesive school.  Often feels like 3 separate schools in one vs one cohesive school. Also, less micromanagement

Hybrid model in the month of July.

As staffs, we should all feel supported by our leadership when it comes down to managing classroom behaviors. Sometimes with the disruptive behaviors being ignored or downplayed, it can make a teacher feel powerless, disrespected or unsupported. Having a strong teacher/administrator relationship encourages collaborative problem solving.

When I started, there were posting each month regarding the moral focus of that month.  I have not seen than in two years.  The moral focus is not promoted at the SC.  Seeing the moral focus program at the SC would help connect the SC to the schools in a meaningful way.

First, I love SPS!!!!! I love supporting my team! I love being a teacher! I’ve been surprised and disappointed by how some coworkers interact with children ( and other teachers) and handle accountability. It’s concerning to see instances where dishonesty is used to avoid responsibility, especially in a field that demands high integrity and care. That said, I truly appreciate the leadership team’s commitment to fostering a safe, supportive, and productive environment. Their efforts make a big difference for educators who are genuinely working to build meaningful connections and contribute to a positive school culture. Teaching is a deeply meaningful to me. If someone no longer feels aligned with the values and mission of the SPS community, it's okay to step away. Our students and colleagues deserve a team that is fully committed and engaged.

Please pay teachers more. We make significantly less ($10,000-$25,000 less than teachers in surrounding districts with the same years of experience and qualifications). NHA is for profit. The CEO makes significantly more than any other superintendent in the state. Teachers work hard. Good teachers leave NHA for the pay they deserve. Families notice that NHA schools are heavily staffed by new teachers. Please pay us what we are worth.

Finding a way for salaries to keep up with inflation.

For everyone to be on the same page.

Take into consideration the years of experience prior to starting at NHA.

Each time a survey is distributed, it feels as though overall morale at the Service Center has continued to decline. While our team does a good job overall of maintaining a positive environment within our group, the broader culture at the Service Center often feels tense—like we're walking on pins and needles.  I recognize that new leadership is focused on making strategic cutbacks, but implementing many of those changes all at once has had a noticeable impact on employee morale. Since higher leadership has transitioned across the company, there's been a significant shift in the overall atmosphere. That said, I’m hopeful that leadership is aware of these challenges and is working to introduce financially responsible solutions that also support a healthier, more positive culture at the Service Center.

I understand that the Admin team is really busy, but having regularly scheduled O3 meetings like we had last school year are extremely helpful for both experienced and new teachers. Even if it is once a month, occasional meetings to discuss things we are struggling with or being able to bounce ideas off of others is beneficial to us and our students.

Teachers and Office staff need to be better compensated for the amount of work we all do.  Staff turnover is very high. The county schools pay teachers more and they do not have the volume of paperwork that NHA requires.

With the price of living going up. We need to have more paid days off and a higher pay.

The academic curriculum is good, however in this demographic, many of the students struggle. Some of these struggling students come from environments that do not put education first. Some have parents who can not read and/or do math either. I see too many students who cant read and/or do math. Is there a possibly for a secondary curriculum to get these students on track and on target for the current curriculum?

Hoping the parents  respect the drive line rules to help us make a safe transition getting the kids in & out of the cars so that they arrive & leave safely.

The curriculum is too difficult for a lot of our kids, it is also boring. It isn't engaging or developmentally appropriate. I also think that teachers should be able to develop their own lesson plans or have the freedom to modify NHA lesson plans if need be.

While I understand that much of this is beyond the control of my direct leadership, I do believe this is an area where we have an opportunity to improve. Not receiving the hiring season bonus last year was a significant financial impact. I truly appreciate the creative efforts made to introduce alternative perks and encourage continued thinking around additional benefits — it truly makes a meaningful difference!

Just being noticed and maybe some rewards.

Had to choose one :) Increasing teacher pay (including at-risk teachers) could reduce turnover and improve teacher quality- leading to improved student performance. Overall, I have seen and noticed a lot of improvements that have been made as a result of previous surveys and informal feedback (both as teacher and parent)- keep it up! Thanks for making SA such a great place to work.

N/A

This year, leadership has repeatedly dismissed staff concerns while praising their own performance, claiming an "open door policy" yet belittling those who speak up. This has damaged trust and morale.   Set Clear Communication Timelines: Share information proactively via tools like Google Calendar, not just newsletters, to reduce confusion. Do not belittle staff or parents for asking clarifying questions—making someone cry for seeking clarification is unacceptable.  Hold Consistent Check-Ins: Schedule regular updates and ensure deans are present or communicate absences. Some deans haven’t held O3s in months, and when staff raised this, they became defensive, blaming staff despite no prior communication about their own absences.  Promote Respectful Communication: Train leaders to speak respectfully and non-defensively. Hold them accountable for tone and behavior, as ongoing dismissiveness and favoritism have created a culture of fear, driving staff away and eroding trust.

we need more than 8 sick days, days should roll over from previous year and we should 'earn' days every semester to take off due to parents of sick kids or being physically unable to get to school themselves

Remove students who attack others, bring in a resource officer, and only allow clear bags for students so that we can see what they bring in. Do background checks on new students to see why they were removed from their old school, and no longer accept students who were kicked out of our school or our sister schools.

Providing more resources, such as updated intervention materials or behavior management tools, would strengthen our ability to support student learning and meet diverse needs

It would be nice if we could be closer to the public school teacher salary in our area.

I feel that our school is extremely dirty.  We come back from breaks without restrooms restocked with soap or paper towels.  Our classroom floors are very rarely mopped.  You can find stains on walls and messes on the floor.  You can see trash on the floor, and it will be there for days or to more than a week.  (I have purposefully watched food on the ground not move for more than a week.)  Also, we as staff do not help to the halls look nice.  There are torn and trash on the floor with everyone just walking by.   We need new cleaning service, not just new people.

Extending coverage to meds for pre/diabetes, such as GLP1s. Better dental and vision to where you do not have to pay up front.

I'm not sure if this is support or role clarity, but there are a lot of things that you don't know and have to dig for. There are a lot of things you are not shown and have to ask many questions of people to find out etc. It would be nice if there were more direction on certain areas when you're new

I feel like unused days should either roll over, or we should be able to be reimbursed for them.

Having support for teachers when dealing with parents. I think a teacher should be protected and be taking in consideration when dealing with a parent who has strong and unmanageable needs.   I think if a parent is over stepping boundaries that the teacher should be protected and the parent should be reminded of the boundaries set by teacher/school.   Students are Landmark are not receiving clear expectations and receiving discipline when they have unsafe behaviors.  Landmark needs to focus more on disciplining students who are unsafe rather than worrying about upsetting a parent.   All students’ and staffs’ safety is important. All students’ having the right to learn. If a student is preventing those from happening then serious action needs to take place.

There is very little planning time. My planning time is cut short every day and this causes me to work at home most evening or stay late at work or even work weekends. Without working home in the evenings, I would not be able to get grading accomplished or respond to emails. We need time. They are constantly telling us to go home, but also saying we need to fix bulletin board, or data boards, make sure grading is completed, making sure we keep up with the EC data information, newsletters, responding to parents, planning by Friday...if we are not given proper time during the day, we have no other choice than to work outside of school hours. Again, I say, but then they are telling us go home.

A posted pay scale based on years of service and certificate level. Transparent range for cost of living/annual increase (if based on performance). Listed pay increase options for additional teaching certificates/high needs area/education.

Teachers should get 14 personal days, like public schools in Ingham county. Most teachers are females, meaning they are mensurating, caring for children and/or elders or are going through menopause. We also get sick, have court, have car issues or other emergencies.  Most of us work on our days-off, as is.

I believe there should be more opportunities for growth in becoming content leaders. Additionally, I think there should be greater access to meaningful professional development for educators.

More opportunities for hourly staff to earn income during summer break. I applied for summer school twice for both school years and didn't get selected. Also more opportunities for non teaching jobs in education. Also think that PD should have gen ed teachers meet with special educators to learn more about how to accomedate for their SpEd students.

To improve work-life balance, I recommend that when meetings are scheduled during preparation time, coverage be provided the next day during enrichment to make up for the lost prep. It would also help if NHA provided pre-made exit tickets and clearly communicated which assignments need to be graded, so teachers can prioritize instruction and feedback. Additionally, setting aside a designated day or block of time for employees to focus on important tasks without meetings, increasing preparation hours, and limiting non-essential tasks would help manage workload, reduce after-hours work, and support a healthier work-life balance.

It seems like every year we have more procedures/expectations/work put on us.  We already have a lot expected of us, and a lot of it is having to be completed on our time at home instead of during our paid working hours.

Two bonuses

Ensure that administration is trained and  prepared to take on the leadership roles they are assigned.  Have admin listen to the requests of teachers, what is needed, and prepare admin to take on roles.

A lot of the ELA and Math curriculum that we teach our students is not relatable to our demographics. Also, some of the ELA and Math content does not align with what the North Carolina Course of Study requires for students to be proficient on state aligned assessments.

I think culture is central to all of the other areas. There are those that are favorited, and they get advantages and praise that others do not. It can feel irrevelant to talk to the leadership team as what you bring up is not followed up/acted on or you are told to do something that doesn't put you or your family first. Too many times this year have things been changed last minute or what was decided as a whole is ignored.

I believe the most pressing concern across the building has been the mismanagement and misuse of resources, time and accommodation for Ms. Hamilton (G.H). Our shared manager, Mrs. D, has overcompensated time, paraprofessional resources, schedule changes to help in aiding the professional workload for G.H. While this seems to be a good thing, it has negatively affected the Special Education Department and the building as a whole. Students moved to G.H's caseload have regressed socially, emotionally and academically. G.H has maintained she is overwhelmed so instead, she gets more para support in place of her own legal minutes of instruction. I believe her misuse of time and misunderstanding of her role is the root cause of this regression seen in her students. She has been falsifying her minutes as she is inconsistently meeting with students, or choosing not to meet with them at all. Because of this, students have been underserviced.

Cost of living keeps going up and now we are paying more for our insurance this year as well. An actual pay scale to show how much you will be making in years to come.

I see my leadership team making an effort to communicate changes, but I am often still blindsided by information that others seem to already know. This comes in both information related to our work, as well as team/service center changes. The biggest example that comes to mind is finding out that our team was gaining a new member via an email to all of the People Services department. This did not give the team ample time to take in the information before it was being discussed across PSD. This lack of communication regarding things that directly impact our team is a continuous struggle that causes stress and distrust, and leaves a constant on edge feeling of what could be coming next. This is an issue that I feel needs to be addressed at all levels of the Service Center to ensure that every team receives communication equally.

I feel those who have made improvemnts in the classroom as well as in certification should have a differnet raise scales then those who havent. I feel putting eveyone in the whole school on the same raise scale dosent work well and does not show reconition for self improvments and advances

NHA is no longer competitive with its salary offerings. In order to retain experienced, higher-caliber veteran talent in the classroom, pay needs to be dramatically increased at this point. A salary scale based on education level attained and years of certified teaching experience, like any other school district uses to determine compensation, is a necessity to meet this challenge.

I wish that the PTO we had left at the end of the year rolled over into the next school year.   Other, the interventionist deserve to be paid salary. They do so much in supporting the scholars and head teachers and play an important role in the everyday structure of the school.

Team morale and productivity are impacted by a number of structural problems, chief among them being a deficiency in clear and consistent communication that results in egregious inefficiencies.  Planning effectively and maintaining a sustainable workload are difficult when strategic planning is lacking and committee meetings are skipped.  Instruction is hampered by inconsistent leadership styles and decision-making procedures.  It is challenging to function at your best when you don't have planning and a healthy work-life balance.  I have also observed situations when there appears to be a lack of open and truthful communication from the leadership.  A perception of lost time and productivity is also exacerbated by unsuccessful meetings.  A sense of justice and accountability is weakened when workplace norms are applied inconsistently to students and staff.  In the end, I find that my workplace is unsustainable and like many of my colleagues are searching for work elsewhere.

Move to a 4-day work week.

Pay increases to be competitive with the increase of the cost of living

There is frequent discussion about flexibility; however, our team is the only one consistently held to a time standard, which doesn’t reflect the quality of work. This feels misaligned with the idea of true performance and teamwork across People Services as a whole. When any type of flexibility is needed, support and understanding don’t always feel consistent for everyone.

Communication between my manager and our team is great! The issue I do have with communication is building wide, for example one dean telling someone one thing and the principal saying another when it comes to expectations for students, staff, or just general questions. Its fairly uncommon, but every once in awhile as a staff member you can ask a question and receive different responses from different members of leadership and that is something that should be consistent to avoid confusion.

Administration tends to show favoritism, constantly. It is a very excluding feeling, and it happens to a lot of us. Unless you're in their preferred group, there isn't respect or recognition given. I think they need to stop doing that, and recognize every single teacher. The amount of put-downs from Admin, specifically Dean Eusanio, are excessive. I, personally, have literally had Dean Eusanio snap her fingers in my face, embarrassing me in front of 10 other adults. I have been bombarded with work emails and texts whilst out on maternity leave, telling me I need to do things for inside the building. It is a very belittling and embarrassing feeling being treated this way. It's a shame that my direct Dean is my biggest cause of anxiety.

Consistency. Treating each staff member and student equally. Having a base of where to start so that it does not seem like consequences, discipline, or redirects are just thought of on the spot depending on a variable for the student or staff member. Having the ability to have a tough conversation and not feeling the need to sugar coat everything to make it easier. Having the trust in your teachers to do what is best for children, even if that does not look exactly like we thought it would.

Both teachers and interventionists are important to our school and the work we do. The pay should be reflected as that

Number corner is way too much to prep and do, there is not enough time to go over everything and we have to find ways to fill in since some things on the numeracy test is only from number corner.

More opportunities to own projects and talk about growth in O3's.

Make benefits more affordable to employees that are labeled part time. A couple of hours or less a pay period shouldn't mean that the employee has to pay several hundreds of dollars more to get the same coverage as those labeled full time.

The public schools in the area have a much higher pay for teachers than NHA.

Adjust compensation to reflect inflation and increases in work volume year over year disproportionate to FTE increases. Prioritize investing in existing talent to decrease turnover, keeping recruitment costs lower and candidate quality higher. School quality over quantity. If the budget is that tight, extra remote days cost $0 and go a long way for employee satisfaction and burnout prevention.

In my previous role at a public school, we earned time off based on hours worked. Now, working in the Virtual Teacher program at NHA and frequently switching between schools, I have noticed a lack of consistency regarding time-off policies. It would be beneficial if virtual teachers could earn time off in a similar, structured way as public school teachers. Establishing a consistent policy across the program would help support teacher well-being and recognize the effort we put into our work.

Teachers need more flexibility and support for the technologies that we can and need to use.

More student-led events could create a sense of purpose/belonging for scholars, as well as teachers.

Provide resources in advanced for state testing.

I feel that there needs to be more systems in place to make sure all teachers are doing what is best for kids and best practices.  This helps ensure each grade level is successful and prepares them for the next.  I also think that ensuring that we are a place with less staff turnover will help make a stronger staff that does what is best for students.

Security Guard

To improve compensation, I recommend increasing pay to be competitive with techs at other non NHA high schools. The recent cut to 20–25 hours a week is contributing to high turnover, which forces us to spend more time onboarding than supporting staff and students. Additionally, the lack of a clear advancement path and the removal of key privileges (like admin rights) are making the role less sustainable and harder to perform effectively.

Well I dont think my manager is a good fit for NHA however, if you feel you need to keep her then she needs to shadow Deans that have grate ratings. She needs to be required to do observations in all classrooms on her team not just hang out with the teachers she likes or the ones that have her personal children in them. She needs to work on problem solving instead of ignoring the team when we are asking questions about NHA curriculum. She has no interest in investing in her team to improve them and she doesn't utilize the strong team members she has to help others grow.

We really need institutional access to high school age appropriate research databases and libraries.

Help people understand where their growth trajectory is and be more transparent. Many of us are not young professionals; we are solidified in our careers and want to understand where our career path is heading. Ensure we are not doing reactionary retainment of good staff, but rather making adjustments to keep them, will cost less in the long run. Hiring and onboarding staff isn't cheap, especially at the leadership level.

More PTO per school year to allow staff to be able to take days off as necessary and not feel guilty when they have to miss school for different circumstances. Also, allowing new employees to be able to have options like FMLA and Short term disability if they run out of PTO would be helpful without worrying that their job may be in jeopardy.

More celebratory opportunities for both students and staff.

As a Experienced  full time hourly based employee  I am not  satisfied with their hourly wages and yearly increments in pay rates. I experienced ,  As an old employee pay rates are below market and even less than the new joining in NHA at same job profile. NHA needs to  be consider this issue for the well being of the employees.

The pay for staff is in no way representative of job responsibility, seniority, education, or based on evals/ work. Nha is focused on getting new teachers that they neglect deans, long term staff, and staff that are required to have higher education than B.A./B.S. I feel that sadly we will reach a point where we will not be able to keep seasoned staff due to the discrepancy in pay. I am aware that this section of the glint is often overlooked and pushed aside because it is not in our control or the service center is not in alignment of our views. I love my job and would love to stay long enough to see the change in this area.

Many teachers have to work second jobs to support themselves and their families.  If we have to work second jobs to pay the bills than or whole focus is not on educating our students.  College is getting more and more expensive and people will not afford to be teachers after school because of the debt that they have accumulated in college.

More paid time off, or opportunity to roll time to next year.

Regarding any unused personal or sick time, providing the option to roll it over to the following year or giving any unused time as paid back to the employee. Another option would be to donate unused sick days to a sick bank, allowing other teachers to access them when needed.   Provide some days within the year to be used as mental health days.

Teachers should be able to step outside NHA curriculum to do what is best for their students.  It's frustrating to not be trusted to teach.  We should be able  to be more creative in our teaching to keep our students more engaged in their  learning.  This is the single most frustrating thing about working at BUCS.  It is robbing the joy from learning and teaching. We are micromanaged so much that it is demeaning.

Certain employees are favored and praised over others.  Opportunities are very limited at JCA and typically only given to the select favorite employees.  The leadership team repeatedly praises a handful of people and do not allow others the same opportunities.  It has created a climate of negative competition, rather than collaboration and communication.  Administration is very closed-off and impersonal to most of the staff, except for the select favorites who they openly joke with and seem extremely close with.

Admin & BST negatively talk about students by name in the hallway when others are around. W/ admin doing this, others think it's ok, and now staff talk about students publicly. Inconsistent behavior treatment, some students receive X while one receives Y based on who it is (IEP and 504 for neither student). There are obvious staff favorites from admin. Our department is last for many things (meetings, O3s, observations, info, etc). Our evaluating admin often leaves us out of communication. He won’t respond to messages until days later, and we’re usually the last to know of something. My coach has never met with me, but I have heard the negative things about me & my teaching that others have overheard. My admin needs more teaching experience to help properly. His advice & next steps are always for 'ideal worlds'. I need REAL world next steps. I‘ll never live in an ideal world. When asked for more realistic next steps, I was asked if it was impossible. I want to grow, but I feel stuck.

Relevancy to my position

I feel like sometimes communication is not consistent. I am told by my dean one piece of information then told another from the principal. I really want to see consistent and better communication.

PTO for hourly employees to cover the 4+ weeks of unpaid time off during the year.

The starting salary is getting higher and higher, yet teachers who have been here for years are not being equally compensated. Give the money to good teachers who are invested and rooted in Excel. There is no regularity to the scale at which teachers are being paid.

Curriculum - It feels like there is a huge disconnect between the subjects and that with a bit more planning and consideration there could be so much more cohesion.

This year I was just a bit concerned with lack of resources for students with special needs that require an IS to be working with them.

I recommend reevaluating the use of the Reading Mastery program in kindergarten and first grade. While it offers structure, I find it to be too rigid, repetitive, and lacking in meaningful engagement for young learners. It often doesn't allow room for creative thinking or differentiated instruction based on student needs. A more balanced literacy approach, one that includes phonics but also integrates rich read-aloud, guided reading, and opportunities for student choice, would better support early literacy development and foster a love of reading.

I do not see areas to improve.

Teachers need better support when it comes to students who have behaviors. Removing students from a classroom is a temporary solution. Teachers who have behaviors in their classroom need better support by having the Dean and ABS pull small groups to those students and those students on BSP's so that they can learn social/emotional skills and receive the extra hands-on support. Students are only being pulled or addressed when they are "in trouble".

Departments meet once-twice a week to stay consistent and exchange ideas.

Teachers need to be paid more. We work way more than 40 hours every two weeks and cannot get overtime because we are salaried but the salary does not match the day to day tasks that consistently need to be done; lack of a work life balance. It is heartbreaking to see teachers leave the field simply because they are not being fairly compensated.

New behavior system

I would like to learn more and grow.  Possibly learn more about applications, curriculum, using technology more.   For communication-More advance notice for things that are happening to role changes, curriculum, would like to learn about different techniques/teaching ideas from teachers-what works online.  Also when tests are due and more things added to the calendar to keep organized and aware.

Cleaning products

The curriculum I use for the subject I teach I personally find to be disorganized, choppy, and filled with too much content while also expecting students to have a large amount of pre-knowledge that they do not have coming into the class. The curriculum assumes a lot about the students that is not true. I also have a slight issue with the assessments that I have to give out, for I do not always believe they are an accurate representation of what a unit has taught. The assessments are also formatted poorly, which causes confusion among students, and leads to errors that could be avoided given a better format. I personally wish we were allowed to modify or create our own assessments, but I understand that is a huge ask with some pretty big implications.

Identify and recognize the student who we want at Westfield Prep. Develop and consistently implement a positive rewards system. Recognize and reward the behaviors we want. STOP USING OS SUSPENSIONS AS A PUNISHMENT FOR EVERYTHING students see it as a reward. Instead implement an in-school suspension. Build relationships with our behavioral "bubble kids." Stop letting in students who don't want to go here. Drop students who don't have a certain threshold of attendance. Develop a system for transporting students to school. Perhaps through partnership with a local taxi service?

I have none at the moment.

Positive communication without belittling staff members for asking questions. Timely communication with realistic deadlines. Regular check-ins and feedback. O3s are not happening for a lot of staff members, observations rarely result in actionable feedback. I do not comfortable communicating with leadership as my concerns are often minimized and I am belittled for asking clarifying questions or sharing my professional perspective.

Salaries similar to those at other schools or districts

hire people who model the moral values RTCA endorses instead of just expecting kids to do as one says instead of as one does

I want to raise concerns about ongoing mismanagement of time, support, and staffing surrounding Ms. Hamilton (GH), which has negatively affected the special education team and student outcomes. Our supervisor, Mrs. D (KD), has adjusted schedules and reassigned para support to assist GH. While likely well-intentioned, this pattern has placed unsustainable demands on other sped staff. Despite extra support, GH often misses required instructional minutes and works with students outside her caseload, missing out on time with her caseload. A pattern of favoritism from KD toward GH has become evident to many staff, contributing to frustration and inequity. KD’s inconsistent communication and dismissal of behavioral concerns have led staff to manage discipline independently, further eroding trust and collaboration. These issues have lowered staff morale and hindered student progress. I hope this feedback leads to fairer practices, clearer expectations, and lasting improvements.

I was wondering if there could be a pay stipend for Senior Class Advisors? I also feel that my yearly salary should be more based on my level of education and years of experience.

During lessons, time is always very restrictive and adding a note on where to speed up the lesson (Beside the questions that can be skipped). More of a main idea approach!

Discipline needs to be apply to the students making them really accountable for their actions.

Come and talk to me in person Sheryl Leach

There wasn't anything I felt needed improving on.

I am not sure but I feel like my salary could be a little more competitive

Due to the collapse of class periods due to enrollment, I do not feel secure in my job especially given that we are losing students and students have the tendency to lie on their reenrollment forms. Also our higher end AP courses and Honors courses for next year are not anywhere near full and are on the brink of being collapsed. As a teacher, these are the courses that truly bring joy to teaching because these are students who truly want to learn. When those are removed, it is hard to want to continue.

I love the Behave with Care system. But when students accumulate enough write ups for a BSP it does not alert admin. Teachers are having to be the alert system and it gets muddy and messy.

My Dean communicates excellently with me and my colleagues that report to her. Sometimes I feel as if my Dean's superior(s) do not communicate to her/us as efficiently or as timely as possible. It feels often as if a decision is made from 'up above' without consideration to the domino effect it may have on the people 'below,' and then those of us affected by the decision have to scramble to figure out a new plan... all while trying our best to be respectful of the higher-ups who have made said decision.  In reference to #23 above... Phoenix needs to become more academically rigorous. Until then, I'm not comfortable recommending this school to other parents.

I was disappointed in the follow through with behavior tracking and consequences. It was heavily emphasized the need to properly document all incidents so appropriate actions could be taken. 20 + blue levels incidents in a month period of time to be suspended is going too easy on them. I do not believe parents will help change their students behavior when they are not having to deal with the consequences of their behavior e.g. having to get out of work or find child care for their student. I had several students this year who easily picked up on the fact that when I said I was writing them up this threat had no teeth. They love a trip to Mr. Jump because they get out of class. I do believe the ABSS position is valuable, however it was very abused by students who knew they could use it to get out of class. I am on board with giving students incentives, but (for lack of a better term) we need to go "old school" on these kids and enforce proper punishments. We need an ISS room.

Students are not receiving their EC services.  EC teacher does not show up to pull students most days.  EC teacher brings back students early and they are not given their full time.  Time is not being made up.  This has been talked to with the EC Dean and nothing changes.  There is no communication between the EC department and the classroom teachers and IEPs are not being served.  The department needs to be overhauled and students need to be served according to their IEPs.

We need a stronger EC department. EC students are rarely receiving services. The EC department at Phoenix is a joke and this needs to be addressed.

We don't do anything to celebrate each other anymore or spend time with each other.  For example, when someone has a baby or is getting married, we used to celebrate as a school.  There are teachers in my building that I know knowing about and I couldn't even tell you their name. I feel like we are separated.  We used to have a committee that supported these type things and it was really nice.  Also, it took care of things when a loved one passed away or someone had surgery.  We should show that we care as a school.

Find a new cleaning service.  Rooms are not being cleaned.  The students bathrooms smell.   This is one reason we have so much sickness going around the schools.

The classrooms are small.  It can be difficult to walk around the room especially with the big blue chairs and the way the legs stick out.  It would be great to have another playground. Also, I would love to have all specials out of the classroom becuase I feel the children benefit from moving to different spaces.

More time for planning.

More consistent/regular O3's; specific feedback within a reasonable timeframe (so far,  haven't met to discuss feedback or opportunity for improvement); presence in our building; visibility when in our building (this has improved recently); follow thru (great ideas at the beginning of the year but not continued or not consistently done - example: online notes regarding O3 discussions, communication updates to parents; Better follow through on student incentives - Students were excited about some of the incentive programs and worked hard initially. However, that momentum dropped off significantly when prizes were not immediately distributed (weeks later) and sometimes not distributed at all.; Moral focus program - student recognition/assemblies need to be on the calendar at BOY . Assemblies and recognition seemed very haphazard and more of a check it off the list. One child from each class should be recognized, parent notified in advance so they can attend. One grade per assembly.

I think that our leadership team should meet on a different day other than Fridays. That is when we usually have the most behavior issues. Fridays are dress down days, which already make students act different, we usually have more subs in the building, since teachers take off, so subs are asking for support in the classroom and there is no one in the building to help.  I think the school needs to work on using our behavior system more and showing the students we are using it. I know I am bad at giving out purples, but when I threaten a blue, some students do not care. I also know that I personally need a specific time to teach moral focus. I know it says we do it first thing in the morning, but most of my students do not come in until the end of carline, and the other time to do it is during their lunch where they need to socialize and they will not participate, because they just want to get through it to go back to talking.

I think we have made a lot of improvement already in messaging about behavior/expectations.  I think we still have some work to do.  I get that some people may not feel the same but if it is a school rule then everyone needs to enforce it consistently, regardless of their personal feelings on the subject (in particular I'm talking about uniform and cell phones)  I think a huge step would be banning all hoodies and much stricter enforcement on removal of cell phones and simple messaging to parents. Removing the grey areas.  Right now it's so complicated that there is a lot of room for argument/negotiation which gives a reason for people to get frustrated.  Day 1 - if we see the cell phone it is confiscated, turned in to designated person and returned to parent (not student) when they come in and sign for it.

Managing and dealing with unproductive/disruptive children. The academic terrorist need to be removed more.

Make NHA competitive with the county schools around us.

For everyone to follow policies and procedures, not cherry pick who has to follow and who doesn't. Parents, children and staff alike.

It is becoming very difficult and draining to make ends meet with the cost of living going up! Teachers shouldn't have to be getting 2nd, 3rd jobs to help ends meet especially if they are mindful spenders...

I think it's really important to keep the lines of communication open between deans and teachers. I will appreciate it if my dean and the leadership team would acknowledge the messages sent to them, even if it's just with a thumbs up or a thank you. Some do a great job responding but others never respond to any of the messages sent to them. If there's no response then it makes me feel that my questions or concerns are not going to be addressed because they're not even acknowledged.

I am happy working at Phoenix Academy and I do not have any issues or anything to address here.

We are expected to stay after hours and receive no compensation. The lesson planning with the new curriculum is a lot more involved than it has been in the past and the pay is not increasing. A lot of teachers have left for county this year because it is higher pay. They have all been very happy in their new positions. I love being at Phoenix but am afraid that the salary will not be enough in the coming years to stay.

Begin by having people get introduced to new staff.   Adults speak to each other and acknowledge their presence.  Information get told to us before last minute,

We, as teachers, are expected to stay after for meetings, at least two days a week. As a kindergarten teacher, we are expected to stay after for multiple extra events, that other grade-level teachers are not required to attend. Although we are aware that is considered to be, "an aspect of our job", there is no compensation or incentive for the extra time we put in, out of contract hours. If possible, these events should be open to all teachers, in terms of volunteering, and some sort of small incentive set in place, (duty-free lunch/recess, late start/early release, unpaid dress down week).

There are times when team members feel that their concerns are not being acknowledged and are dismissed. This can give the impression that the leadership team is not fully attuned to the needs and emotions of staff. While it’s understood that leadership carries significant responsibilities and pressures, staff members also face challenges. Feeling as though their voices and perspectives are overlooked can be discouraging. Greater compassion, empathy, and humility from leadership would go a long way in fostering a more supportive and inclusive environment.

For hourly employee's, some sort of way to provide more opportunity to work from home during snow days, spring and winter breaks so we can get paid

EL Curriculum/EC curriculum/Curriculum that is responsive to all learners

increase

Medical leave and PTO should be separate entities.

I recommend doing away with the list of vetted books and only allowing teachers to pick summer reading books from that list. I feel that this establishes a sense of distrust in teachers and their abilities, as well as causes stress and resentment. Many staff members feel that book bans will be next, which will lead to resignations. I worry that NHA cares more about appearances and pleasing a minority of parents than creating learning opportunities for teachers and students.

just wouldn't mind a good job or any appreciation for my efforts and the support I give.

Reading opportunities built into the school day are essential for skills transfer, but our students aren’t getting enough time to apply decoding and comprehension strategies meaningfully.  Writing strengthens critical thinking, organization, and self-expression—skills that go beyond test responses. Students need real opportunities to develop their voice and structure their ideas.  They also need to engage with a variety of texts—including books, articles, and infographics—as much of today’s content is delivered in visual, condensed formats that many students aren’t yet equipped to interpret.  Effective Small Group Instruction helps close these gaps by targeting specific needs, building confidence, and supporting deeper learning beyond what whole-group instruction can offer.

I don't always feel that I am compensated for all of my time that I put in at work. It is frustrating seeing that pay is starting to be lowered for extra activities. For example, we are no longer getting bonuses. Summer school and tutoring pay has gone down by $10 an hour. Also, West Ottawa our partnering district just now raised salaries for their employees by $10,000. A new teacher is now making $55,000 which is $10,000 above what new teachers at our school are making. I would also love to see more compensation for having a teaching degree and a higher degree such as a masters degree. There are several teachers at our school who don't have teaching degrees and are making the same amount as the teachers who do have teaching degrees. I think that this should all be taken into consideration when considering teacher raises and salaries. I also think that this would really help with the turnover rate at our school as we have lost so many teachers in the past few years due to compensation.

Many of our staff work directly with the service center on a regular basis. We should be afforded the opportuniy to provide feedback on our experiences with the service center similar to our opportunities to provide feedback on our leadership.

When moving to certain positions, the rate of pay should remain competitive. The current 3-5% is not necessarily competitive, depending on the role that someone is moving from, and should be adjusted in order to retain good workers. Or, positions should have a "floor" that is the base rate one would get when moving into the role, with higher values being negotible.

Work-life balance- It would be great to see PD to include how teachers can be more efficient in all areas of work like prioritizing, organizing, avoiding multi-tasking, saying no when already overloaded, working in self-care daily, using A.I. responsibly to reduce hours of work on simple tasks it can do, peer reviewing of work as it is not only best-practice but reduces amount of grading/checking.   Cleanliness:  I think there are advancement with the recent additions of Don and Erica doing a great job shoring up the inconsistencies and problem areas. Otherwise, just staff having care enough to keep bathrooms acceptably clean, with soap and toilet paper and functional items. If the restrooms could have a mid-day check for acceptable cleanliness (tolerability) it would be very very helpful and appreciated!

A more qualified person who is aware of own biases and implications of race and social justice on student educational outcomes

I need to not hesitate and be concerned about "bothering" Mingle, my manager when I need clarity or have a question.

The professional development this year was a waste of time. The book we read was terrible and it did not change anything I did differently in my classroom. All it did was add more "work" for me to do. I was extremely frustrated to have to read the Will to Learn in my spare time outside of school. This enforced that my managers do not care about my work-life balance. This also told me that my managers do not trust us in our own classrooms. This felt like busy work with the purpose of micromanaging everything we did. The professional development meets we had enforced this even more. Our administration does not have trust in its staff. This was very upsetting and made me no longer want to be apart of the community or workspace of GRP. There are so many other things that I think we need to work on to improve GRP (communication, understanding our roles, etc.). But the professional development needs to be a top priority because it was a waste of my time and energy.

Not enough PTO especially when we get sick and still have to work from home

A better balance of curriculum assessments.  It is very difficult to assess, analyze data and reteach needed areas before another assessment is required.

Bonus increase for AR's that surpass their first day and count day goals.

I believe gate city should hold all parties accountable for their actions. there are many times when certain people aren't chastised like others, who are not as close with them. i believe the deans should also be held accountable for being unprofessional and being the root cause of everyones problems

I love the Moral Focus curriculum!  Unfortunately it is not used as it should or could be in most classrooms. It would be amazing if it was an extra special, with a moral focus teacher. It wouldn't be as long as other specials, but it would bring more focus to it and more likely to be covered more efficiently.

Honestly, all teachers deserve better pay. I find it extremely frustrating that my partner makes twice what I do with the same level of education and experience. I know PVA has very little control over this.  I mainly chose compensation because I really love PVA and my role here. Everything else is great! Or already on its way to greatness.

More of these types of surveys

There is no student run things or events for the students. Every thing that key club have planned failed, we have little to no spirit week or comradery for students. We can't plan fun things they don't need to cost money just random fun dress days or class competition for free dress or something based on tardies, write ups or grades.

I feel student behaviors need to be handled more appropriately no they don’t need to always be suspended but maybe ISS needs to be more consistent and taken seriously and discipline overall needs to be addressed for untolerated behaviors from students as well as parents

Excel has too many students and adults for the current space. It is crowded and loud. Staff and students regularly work in the hallways, which is a fire hazard and not best practice for optimal learning. The classrooms have too much stimulation, causing students (and staff) to have to -re-regulate more often than in a less congested classroom.

Feel as though many teachers do not know how to handle behaviors and tend to negatively scold or give an unfair consequence to students before even doing any type of conversation to find the underlying issue at hand. I feel as though the student teacher relationship is so low that it puts EC at a disadvantage & gives many parents/students the feeling to leave or pursue their education somewhere else.

Holding staff members/students accountable for unproductive behaviors and dealing with them without bias and favoritism. Holding every single person to the same standard.

Provide training in what different ways of collaboration can look like.

For NHA I think it would be great if we could bank unused PTO days that would carry over to the next year.  Unforeseen health issues arise and people on maternity/paternity leave could use their banked PTO days to cover some of that time off.  At a previous school we could bank them or get paid for the unused PTO days we had left over each year.  One of those options seems better than just losing that time.  For River City specifically, I think that we need to improve communication.  Often it seems like not everyone is on the same page.  From admin to C & I to staff, it feels like something is missing or we are getting different information from different people and it is not always cohesive. Some examples would be expectations, curriculum, interventions, schedule changes, and behavior consequences.  It also feels like sometimes when we do get a very clear directive or reminder, some staff just don't care enough to implement/follow through and it's hard on the other teammates.

Get rid of the pink bobcat bucks

More AP program opportunities for the students who show strong in academics.

I think it would be really helpful if PTO could roll-over into the next school year and/or be paid out for unused PTO. I find myself trying to use it because if I do not it is gone, I feel this could help with excessive staff absences.   Having a 30 minute lunch would also be really appreciated.

There are a lot of expectations that are placed on teachers, that are always changing. Sometimes the expectations aren't very clear. We are observed and "graded" frequently without and direct or meaningful feedback from the admin team.

NHA needs to provide updated curriculum binders to all schools. Many of your educators would love to have the material in classroom rather than online. As well, I suggest that we implement a K-1 shared reading constructed response workbook to save teachers from printing so much paper throughout the year. I love my school and think these small items would benefit our staff here at PCS. Let's continue to strive for excellence in meeting students needs.

We have worked without a dean and with changing leadership for most of the school year. One result of this lack of leadership are the frequent resignations and reassignments of new teachers in our department. The struggle of carrying on and striving to meet the needs of our students, families, and co-workers on a daily basis and without leadership has resulted in staff fatigue and low morale.

I believe many staff are underpaid.  We lose good staff sometimes because they have a hard time making ends meet financially.

As a Para, I would like to see us have more paid time off to help us financially during the time off for Easter and Christmas breaks.  When Paras got Esser bonuses 2x/year that helped with this, but those are no longer available.

Prioritizing tasks and school workload

Compensation: Current compensation doesn't seem to value/align with the importance of the work we do to ensure the success of NHA. Our team is directly influencing full school buildings by interacting with our direct customer, students' families, and we are instrumental in the initial success of the school/parent relationship. Emily: She has been a great additional to our team. I appreciate her willingness to jump in to help if needed. Emily is the type of leader our team needs, making sure to meet our personal needs as well as the needs of the team/NHA. She has improved the culture of our team and helps to facilitate more teamwork, relationship building, and collaboration. It is nice to have a leader with a wide knowledge base who is able to teach and uplift. Megan/Emily team: Clear communication needs improvement. Megan remains seemingly mostly unavailable to team and her understanding of our daily experiences has not improved. Megan remains focused on data alone, not team culture.

Increase Pay

There are some areas in the curriculum that could really use updates or revisions. Some of the current read-aloud books don’t seem to be the best fit for the grade level or the specific skill being taught, and could be replaced with texts that are more engaging and showcase the target skill more clearly. Additionally, some lesson explanations and assessment questions—both in the lesson plans and especially on edCite—could be reworded for clarity and better alignment with what students have been practicing.  The writing curriculum would also benefit from more flexibility and differentiation. Students enter the classroom with a wide range of reading and writing abilities, and many struggle to keep pace with the current, rigid structure. It’s often challenging to ensure all students are progressing effectively when the pacing doesn’t allow enough room for individualized support.

I am not sure if it is due to there being too many scholars enrolled at Forsyth Academy, but our bathrooms are almost always quite disgusting. Our maintenance staff works on the bathrooms multiple times a day and the amount of kids that uses each bathroom reverses everything the staff has done.

Siloed work. Limited collaboration and lack of interest in collaboration.

First off, I absolutely enjoying working for NHA, specifically serving the families of PEMBROKE ACADEMY, the only Blue Ribbon School within the city of Detroit.  Many of our team members here embody the necessary attributes to be on a winning team.    This is inclusive of having GRIT to move forward, a tenacious spirit of PERSEVERANCE, the DETERMINATION to continue to be on top, willingness to intentionally COLLABORATE bringing out the very best in each other and the HEART to push yourself to new limits.  We are well aware of our opportunities for continued growth.  This comes from open, honest, healthy and transparent dialogue with one another in a professional manner immediately following any concerns that could potentially compromise our attention to results. In doing so, we grow personally and professionally as an individual, team and ultimately as a school.  As it relates to a recommendation for improvement, with the unfortunate rise in health care benefits, perhaps there should be other HMO plans outsid

Students are negatively impacted by the amount of the internet they cannot access while on NHA laptops. I understand the need for caution there and don't know how it could this lack could be addressed, but it seems like there should be a way to make the blocking of sites not so far reaching.

I think we should review pay rates as well as do bonuses and raises

Less fluff throughout the year. With having 28 students, no assistance, expectations from parents, management, and students, it is unrealistic to think all work can be done at school only. I often have to take home student work to grade and finish lessons, nightly and over the weekend. I think things like making DIBELS calenders, monthly bulletin boards, small group activities (should be done by teacher; not have to be shared) should not be added on top of everything else we have.

Bridges math curriculum is not sufficient to teach the standards, the curriculum covers too many topics too quickly, there's not enough time to circle back, your we have pre-teach and pause days but this curriculum is not sufficient for 1st grade classroom, the workplaces and some of the lessons fell like timer fillers.

Consistent enforcement of policies. Hold ALL teachers accountable for their actions. Deal with those who do not enforce the rules or follow their curriculum. Continue to work on consistently managing misbehaving students.

As a for profit institution, it is absolutely absurd that we did not receive retention bonuses. The absolute least that an organization which capitalizes on children's need for education can do is provide its workers financial security, an incentive which was taken away from us.

Teachers want to attend more PDs to help them grow instructional. I am going to look into more opportunities for them next year.

Increase pay for hourly employees and incentives for salaried staff.

Increase in pay annually according to inflation.

Better internet and our intercom to work and not always be cutting out.

Student behaviors.

outside needs to be cleaned

Compensation should be competitive with local public school districts and comparable charter networks to attract and retain high-quality educators. Teachers often leave charter schools for higher-paying public school jobs. Regular salary benchmarking and adjustments would help close this gap and reduce turnover.  Teachers with years of experience and/or advanced degrees bring added value to students and the school community. To honor this investment in professional growth, NHA should increase pay differentials for Master's degrees, specialized certifications, and longevity. Also, provide teachers who actually have their full certificate with the correct compensation.   Annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) should be guaranteed to keep pace with inflation. This helps teachers maintain financial stability and signals that their contributions are valued long-term.  Also, reduce pay for those in higher offices so that teachers can get paid more. Fewer workers in Grand Rapids.

NHA could allot more PTO days

We do not make enough money and our health benefits are atrocious. It is not possible to live on our salaries.

allow others to have the opportunity to try out different roles to understand NHA as a whole school environment and not just confined to one position.

Communication as a whole needs to be addressed. I feel that there are a lot of things that are not communicated from leadership that needs to be addressed versus waiting until the situation is over to say anything if anything at all. My manager communicates the best that she can and does a great job but leadership needs to be better.

Increase salary to reflect perceived worth.

PD - please proved behavior based development for practical strategies to implement when student has behavior issues   Curriculum- we should have more freedoms to adjust what and how we teach

I would like to have LEAP prep workbooks for Social Studies and Science

Sick days should not be included in the amount of personal days given. I am getting a write up for missing more than my allotted days off, however 5 of those days were due to COVID and then 1 day later, one day for a stomach bug. I feel as though if a teacher has a doctor's note forcing them to be off work for a certain amount of days, and they have diligently proved and communicated this, they should not be penalized by this.

More space on each campus.  We have NO room for flexibility with scheduling for small groups, meetings/trainings needing to happen in empty spaces on any campus.  Frustrating to all involved when the needed space isn't available.

Find a cleaning company who does their job well.  Find a different math curriculum than Bridges that has opportunities for more practice with the skills.

Allow more opportunities for students to build a more positive culture amongst themselves outside of the classroom. More school-wide initiative to build community amongst students.

Planning and communication in advance from leadership/management to give teachers adequate time to prepare, plan, and execute the things being asked

better benefits

We pay a lot of money for our health insurance. I would like to see lower deductibles as well as an increase in pay. It's tough when there are several entry level jobs making the same amount as teachers. Most teachers have schooling and student loans they need to pay and frankly we don't make enough to pay for it all.

Clear, concise, consistent, communication with consistency. To all staff regarding pep rallies,assemblies, etc. Recognition to special teachers and respect from all staff.

I would to comment on two things:  1. I initially clicked on curriculum, but considering that our ELA curriculum is getting a overhaul I switched that choice. Moving forward, I just hope that our curriculum can meet the needs of all students so that the education and experience we provide is equitable for all levels of learners.   2. Support: Our students who are struggling need more help. They need more small group time, and more support coming their way to help bridge the gap.

Curriculum that meets the needs of our specific students (differentiated activities/assessments). Curriculum that is relevant to our students and allows them to make connections to their own lives.

My salary is not comparable to that of teachers in surrounding districts with the same level of experience. More clarity needs to be provided on how salary and raises are decided.

The cleaning crew has gotten better, but the room bathrooms , especially the floors, are often sticky and dirty.

There is a need for more sports programs to help keep students engaged in school and away from negative influences.

Accountability. There are different standards for different employees. I would like to see consistency with expecations. Some employees work very hard while others are not doing their job with no consequences.

Pay increases for employee's to meet where the other employee's are at. I was told pay is based on Market Value but yet I've been there longer and that should count for advancement. As for Service Center being clean, our area is always dirty, dusty, and garbage is full and smells. My team dusts and clorox wipes things frequently but it still is dirty.

I would like to see more appreciation being given to teachers that teach Specials, I would love to see more support for us and more communication being given to us as a team. I do not feel like I am fully supported in my role I do not feel seen or heard sometimes I feel seen when there is an error or a situation.

Just making sure that the impact is there when it comes to educating the student.

The computers for teachers need to be updated.

8 days off per year is not enough with the viruses we encounter. I got sick twice and lost 5 days with each virus. I'm also a single mother of 2 and that also requires me to take time off from time to time. I think that with the post-covid viruses that are stronger than ever before, we need more sick days. Also, NHA requires its teachers to constantly be putting on special days and plan for events and holidays in addition to all the work we do. That added stress wears on us and it's better to be able to take a much-needed mental health day than snap at students or coworkers.

I would like more opportunities for vertical planning and collaborating with other grade levels in order to help bridge some of the gaps in skills being taught so that students have more opportunities for success.

More development with SEL for teachers

Clear process of discipline and consequences: # of write ups = detention/suspension. # of suspensions = expulsion. Clear process of positive incentives for test scores/attendance/good behavior outlined at the beginning of school year and followed through on with dedication.

 I wanted to take a moment to express some ongoing concerns regarding the expectations placed on our ABSS staff. It’s becoming increasingly clear that they are being asked to manage a significant amount — from responding to challenging behaviors, attending meetings, and supporting teachers, to now managing a growing load of documentation and paperwork.  ABSS are constantly being pulled in multiple directions every day, and it’s evident that their role has expanded far beyond what they were originally tasked with. Despite their dedication and the essential nature of the work they do, I don’t feel they are being adequately compensated or supported for the level of responsibility and emotional labor being required of them.  I believe it’s important we open a dialogue around how we can better support our ABSS — whether that’s through workload management, clearer role boundaries, additional training support, or advocating for fair compensation.

find a way to compensate  hourly employees during holiday breaks

I love the opportunities to learn more about my role.

There should be policies in place for ALL behaviors, appropriate consequences for said behavior, and parents need to be held accountable for their scholar's behavior.

I would love to see more collaboration within the Marketing Team as a whole!

More accountability and follow through on holding all staff members to the same standards and expectations.  More focus on addressing and improving the culture of the staff across the wings.

Overall, the school isn't bad; however, bathrooms could be cleaner.

My manager is approachable and open to feedback, which makes both myself and my team feel comfortable and supported. As our team has grown, it’s become increasingly important to have clearer structure and communication. I believe my manager genuinely cares about our success, but due to organizational gaps and the demands of their workload, it can feel like our team isn’t always a top priority. This sometimes leaves us without the information we need to make decisions confidently, and role clarity has become more challenging. It would be helpful if expectations and responsibilities were more clearly defined and communicated. Doing so would reduce confusion, improve alignment, and enhance our overall team performance.

More Interdisciplinary activities

The health care benefits could be better. it is such a high deductible that I am in debt from visiting my doctors, which should not be a thing, given I have private insurance

Would've chosen compensation, but no change will happen. NHA is losing lots of veteran teachers due to this.  Curriculum should allow for TEACHER INPUT even AFTER rolling out ALL assessments-not brush off input and take no change. New assessments should be rolled out in ALL GRADES to have effective input for other schools. Teachers should be on the assessment team to give opinions about ALL assessments and its value. Trust teachers as they are in the trenches and value the time in the classroom.

support for behaviors in my classroom, support when I have tried everything that I know of to help a scholar and that scholar refuses for years now, support when my own child needs help and asks for it, support on staying in my current position watching my scholars continue to grow and improve while I continue to work on obtaining my licensure while I am working to receive my masters degree. Support in listening to me when I have ideas for my scholars needs, and accommodations.

Too many cliques and unprofessional behavior towards others.  I'm all for having work friends but we need to model those same moral focus virtues we tell our scholars to focus on in school and in life.

The addition of a School Social Work Supervisor — an individual holding both a degree in Social Work and a current license in School Social Work — would meaningfully strengthen the support and leadership available in this area. At present, this role is unfilled. Establishing a qualified Supervisor would not only enhance the professional growth and effectiveness of North Carolina (NC) School Social Workers, but would also directly benefit the students, families, and staff we serve. Having a Supervisor who fully understands the unique responsibilities and challenges of School Social Work would ensure appropriate advocacy within NHA, ultimately allowing NC School Social Workers to maximize their impact and better align with organizational goals.

I think there should be a consistent teaching space for EL teachers.

A clear behavior plan needs to be developed with teacher input. It needs to be followed by EVERYONE in the building. Staff should not be giving out treats or fun time to students who are disruptive in the classroom. There needs to be restorative conversations, parent communication, high expectations, and consistency in consequences.

I believe that we should be at the current rate of pay for all other NHA schools across the country. We are doing the same work as other teachers in other states so why should we be getting paid less than other states. I understand that we are close to NC teachers but why should we settle for that when our counter parts are making more in other states for the same work. In the elementary building our contract hours are from 7:30-3:30 but we often are not able to leave until 3:40-3:45. When that time is broken down over the school year that is an extra 30 hours that we are not getting paid. Are other schools having to stay this late as well?    We are then expected to make phone calls and handle all discipline issues in the classroom, but when do we have time to make phone calls and how do we have time while still trying to teach class. I think more standardized expectations would go along way as each teacher has their own rules and this creates confusion for the students as they are going from class to class

Offer educators more autonomy in creating lessons or activities for students.

Providing information about what will be going on in the school that would consist of using the gym and my health classroom so things are not done last minute.

We ALL need to make more money working here. Even with the raises I have received in the past, I can barely make ends meet for my family. With the pay I am given, this is not a long term job that I want to keep because I do not make enough money. Insurance should be better as well.

communication needs to be improved and collaboration implemented regarding sped and intervention supports, and testing schedules.

 I'd recommend increasing classroom support to assist teachers in managing student behavior, assessment responsibilities, content mastery, and overall workload. Both novice and experienced educators can become overwhelmed, particularly in high-activity classrooms where responsibilities are often unequally distributed. The current process for addressing disruptive behavior lacks efficiency, placing the full burden of documentation on the teacher and yielding minimal immediate resolution. This results in excessive administrative tasks and delayed disciplinary action. Implementing a more streamlined procedure, supported by proactive administrative involvement and shared accountability, would improve behavior management, support teacher well-being, and contribute to a more effective and positive learning environment for all stakeholders.

Many of the lessons take much longer than the time allows for. I don't mind the content of the lessons, but the time the lessons say things will take is often unrealistic. I understand that they are over planned so we can use discretion, but sometimes in shared reading we can't even read the story we are supposed to in the amount of time even without stopping and talking or charting. The math lessons also take an unrealistic amount of time especially the expectations for math stories.

Leave a bigger impact!

Increased 401K matching. Salary comparable to not for profit public schools.

Just trying to learn how to balance my career while attending school everything else is going well.

Better Health Care Coverage,

Let leaders learn their roles prior to giving them full control/free reign.  NHA has a unique way of running things that takes some acclimating.

Na

Pay people a livable wage.

Have an accrual based system for PTO. In previous positions I earned so many hours of PTO per pay period. Each year you work with the company you are entitled to an additional hour of PTO per pay period. This encourages staff to stay in the same job for the PTO and would help make staff feel valued knowing that they are able to take off when ill. Working in a school it is a frequent occurrence that staff will become ill from a workplace exposure. I have frequently been put in a position where I have been sick and came to work because I didn't have the PTO to take off. Which would further spread illness to students and staff.  Other comments: Leadership pledging to take action on an issue in the moment; however, it is not followed through with. Often times, staff is not informed of the change when action is no longer planned to be taken.  Leadership not holding all staff accountable to the same extent. Some staff members frequently (and rightfully) have issues addressed, however others get away with most every

A better merit increases that will reflects on the cost of living along with medical that continues to go up every year.  There is a great need for an SSW Supervisor who holds a SW degree and an SSW license in the state of North Carolina, or at least one within NHA. Someone who understands the work we do and advocate for us as well.

I just want the compensation to better match the years of experience.

Increase opportunities to provide feedback regarding areas that are not consistently working well. Example: facilities management, or curriculum and development.

The recommendations I have it creating newer and improved ways to help with students from all types of backgrounds not just adjust to the NHA way but also adjusting the programs and activities to the students who live in this new age.

I believe managers and deans should receive higher pay considering we are asked to train alternative certified teachers, which requires intensive training in various areas.

Work life balance is impossible when NHA doesn't allow donation of PTO for a major medical emergency or death of a family member. Often somone loses a spouse/parent/child and requires more time off. Or perhaps they receive a devastating diagnosis such as cancer.  It is sad that NHA doesn't allow staff to donate days off to someone in need that they care about.  Also, tuition reimbursement has been denied to myself and a colleague and it could easily have been handled better.  The last benefit complaint is that I was an internal transfer and BOTH of my schools received quite large bonuses.  I was left out at both schools, eventhough I didn't leave NHA,.  I felt it was earned and should have been paid and I am sure money could have been moved around to make it happen to help out an employee.  Staff should be prioritized over silly snacks and prizes that were purchased just to spend money that needed spent.

I think it's safe to say majority of people are struggling with inflation, wanting to become a first time home buyer, the cost of food, gas, car maintenance, insurance costs increasing every year which only equals out any annual salary increase received.   At a minimum, the additional remote day could be given back to us to save on gas, food, and car repairs. In addition, my team no longer sits next to the rest of our department so the culture has declined and I think we all feel a little disconnected from one another. The office can be very busy on Mondays & Tuesdays making it very difficult to find a conference room that is open, a parking spot, and a quiet place to work. This could be a win win situation!

I believe that we should either receive more PTO hours or if we have a doctor's note, that should not count against us. The amount of stress that I have heard and seen people go through is ridiculous. I understand the importance of being at school, but there should be more leniency.

Interventionist should have a yearly salary. The position would have less turnover and students would thrive with a more stable system of Tier 3 support in place. If not a salary, then at least $22.00/hr.

Salary based pay for paras. Higher pay raises.

Make sure all staff know of changes throughout the week. I feel sometimes if though our manager assumes we can let are team know of changes when we don't even know ourselves. When people ask questions in my grade band I feel as if they are not answered. It's a lot of " I'll get back with you" but then never does and we have to figure it out ourselves. I feel like rules and polices have been changing within my time at GRA. I think we should have a PD talking about certain things to help new staff and old staff. We can't just assume when things change. I have noticed the way certain communicate with others is very unprofessional. For instance, the office staff can be extremely rude and make it uncomfortable for staff to ask questions or get anything out of the office. I have also seen this between admin and how they talk to certain teachers. Everyone should be held accountable for their actions even admin not just teachers.

Openly communicating changes .

Sometimes we are not told that paras are supposed to attend a meeting as well as the classroom teachers, a couple of us found out from another dean the day of, in one case.

Maybe allowing a fund for teachers to purchase the resources that they need to be more successful in the classroom. If this is an option, teachers should be allowed to communicate their needs to their dean or team lead, who, in turn, would be responsible for ordering the products and distributing them. Each teacher should have a "cap" on how much they could spend from the fund per academic school year.

To continue progressing and bringing new ideas

I love how GA builds relationships with families and works to meet their needs at school. However, this year, there was an average of 2-3 weekly meetings (in person, virtual, some for school, some for families) or assemblies to attend (during planning time) that impacted afterschool hours or planning during the day. Some of these are unavoidable or required, but when they last until 5:00 or later more than once a week, or there is a school assembly the same week as an O3/grade level meeting it then impacts the time at home both on that day as well as weekends, because of missed planning time during school hours. This can be especially frustrating when it is for the same families. Perhaps a solution could be to have coverage during driveline so that teachers that had late meeting could leave as driveline starts.

Able to talk to my manager on my 03 more.

I feel other districts are better compensated

None. That's not my job. I'm already here late answering this survey because all of my time is sucked up during the work day. You get paid to problem solve this, not me. The generals don't run out to the soldiers on the front line and ask THEM to problem solve, they're a little busy fighting for their lives to be doing that. And, as I said before, that's not their job to do.  But if you really want hint, here's one: run spell check on the ELA lesson plans before you make them official. Just a thought.

Work-life balance is not just a word. It is an intentional action. I have seen a variety of models that support mental health. For example, what words are being used—in daily and weekly emails—that may have a negative impact on employees? Assuming that everyone receives messages the same way can harm how individuals proceed through their daily work task. For example, I would encourage using words that do not provoke anxiety, stress, or feeling overwhelmed in email communications which can influence a sense of anxiety. The overuse of some words can have a negative effect which is counterproductive to the overall perception of what the email messages are “trying” to convey. There are more work-life examples that can be researched to promote the mental health of staff.

Our workplace is facing several challenges. First and foremost, staff are not being compensated adequately for their work. Hopefully Knapp plans on providing retention bonuses so we have staff who want to return next year. Additionally, we have an excessive number of extra duties that go beyond our job descriptions, contributing to burnout (some have 3 duties extra and some have none, we need to make this more consistent and fair) Some employees are allowed to arrive late or leave early while others are expected to maintain strict schedules, leading to frustration and a sense of inequity. All salaried employees should have the same times. Lets focus on SUBS. Certain individuals are frequently pulled to substitute in other classrooms which leads to students missing LEGAL service hours (create a rotation?) Our school hours are significantly longer than those in surrounding districts. Knapp should really take a look at this and adjust times. Why is there a limit to how much we can say?

Allow staff to gain some through perfect attendance

That all staff members are held to the same standard.

Dean Williams has been a pillar in this school, but I can say whole heartedly her in the principle was a job well done way to connect with families and staff on a personal level

More pay

Matthews should not have to enroll children with an excessive amount of behavior issues. It's hard to teach and discipline. If they continue to accept these children a strict discipline policy should be in place and followed. Staff do not come to work to be cussed out, hit upon and disrespected. There should be a limit for behaviors. The student should have less than 10 behaviors  from the previous school year to be enrolled at Matthews. If the student gets more than 10 behavior write ups within 3 months a meeting should be held with the parents, dean and teacher and come up with a plan to help this student succeed. If more write ups continue they should be asked to withdraw.

Our paid days off was changed from 10 days per year down to 8. This was because some staff took advantage of it the year prior. Those staff members are no longer here so why are we being punished for their actions?  Lunch: time has been shaved off of the teachers lunches to sit in the lunch line and watch.  We are basically told..."oh well".   If we make a mistake, you're not given grace. You are made to feel like you are incompetent and then admin makes a new rule for your whole grade level to follow because you make 1 mistake.

A new custodial staff.  The cleanliness is borderline negligent abuse.   The custodial staff replaced the liquid soap in the boys room with water because "they play too much and don't deserve it."   Bathrooms are not cleaned twice a day as mandated. They are not even cleaned once a week, nor over the weekend.  Paper towels and TP are often empty.   Rooms are not cleaned properly over extended breaks. Carpet stains remain for extended periods of time.  Damage in classrooms is rarely fixed.

Compensation for excessive time work over scheduled hours.

Simply pay a salary that is commensurate with the amount of skill, hard work, collaboration, expertise, and time that is required for this job.  Inflation and cost of living increases must also be considered - a raise is only a raise if it outpaces those two factors.

School culture feels like it is in a dire state. I'm not quite sure how it can be addressed, but students outwardly talk about how much they hate this school. I feel like there is an overwhelming negative miasma that needs to be addressed to turn over a more positive leaf completely, and it starts with culture. Students need more reason to enjoy the school, or there needs to be something here that really draws them. It feels like they are overly apathetic, and it leads to low enrollment in clubs and other after school activities. Even during Spirit Weeks, the students have a hard time investing into the actual spirit days. I see very little school spirit. I think if I had to pick a place to start improving, it would be there.

More resources for special education teachers. I would love to provide social emotional learning to our students!

Children should have a separate place to eat during breakfast and at lunch instead of eating in the classroom.

Give raises that compensate for inflation and an increase for merit.

I don't have any recommendations ,,,

more medication coverage.

Giving staff the opportunity to grow within the company. Making resources available and easy to navigate when they want to further their education.

To pay us more to keep up with inflation and other school districts.

Health benefits overall are pretty good, I would appreciate some form of paternity leave in the future especially with other companies in the area starting to offer it.

Fairly compensate hardworking staff members for their dedication. It’s disheartening to see some receive two bonuses while others get none, or just one.  Ultimately, we're burnt out and underpaid.

We need to have less meetings and more planning and development time.

Compensation Opportunities for Advancement  Changes in the curriculum- help students at all levels  Support staff to help meet the needs of each student

While I feel compensation overall is fair, the reality is there are positions that require and are expected to show professionalism, but do not make enough money to live independently.  It can be extremely frustrating for those who work in positions that are a lower salary, or hourly that have the similar professional requirements (maybe not education) as teachers but get paid significantly less and cannot afford to live on their own or even begin a family.  It would be nice if paras, co teachers were salary and other salary positions were raised to what the average salary is to make an ok living alone.  I would also advocate that co teachers/interventionists become salary positions, as they often are subbing, or helping manage the classroom and making sure students needs are being met to become more successful.  The success of the students would not be as high without co teachers and interventionist, it is unfortunate it is not salary position with their knowledge.

One way to help improve my experience is not so many mandatory after school events. Another is if managers or leaders show more compassion and empathy and not be so harsh.

Being told you did a good job, we appreciate you work, of doing the job of two people. I understand you are doing your best.

Admin should hold students accountable through suspension or expulsion.  If they did so, it would reinforce consequences and help prepare them for real-world expectations. It would send a clear message that actions have results, encouraging responsibility and growth. While these disciplinary actions should be paired with opportunities for reflection and rehabilitation, they are sometimes the only effective way to force changes in students' behavior.

I feel strongly that NHA strings along families that are not suited for the school. There is a promise that no matter the disability, our school is able to accommodate for them. This is not able to happen because there is not enough trained staff or a specific place for these students to go. 1 students behavior disrupts 27 others and their teachers and risks safety when outbursts happen. Students are not getting the education that is promised and families need to be in the know of that coming in instead of being strung along.

N/A

Eliminate the cliques it's been to the point of it being uncomfortable coming to work

I think that the ELA curriculum should go along with what is being taught in other subjects. For example, we read a lot about the Revolutionary War in both ELA and Social Studies but at different times. I think it would be beneficial if we taught both consecutively so that it makes more sense to the kids. There are a few other examples of this in the curriculum that I think would make the learning better for the kids.

Obviously, money doesn't come out of thin air. Find areas to cut so that teachers and support staff can be paid a fair wage for the excellent job they do.

Teachers should be paid more for the work that they do day in and day out.

More funds allocated to the teaching/ para positions.  Probably restrain from the bigger leadership and NTS events and allocate toward salaries.

Excessive paperwork and planning spilling into weekends and evenings and too many meetings.

Increase pay with increased cost of living. Continue with bonuses and look to outside sources for teacher recognition (recommending for grants, local honors, etc.). Provide funds for paid Professional Development opportunities (specifically non-NHA provided PDs).

Communication is very unclear at times. Mixed messages are often represented and we as educators are left to put the pieces together to decipher what is truly being asked/told. Information gets misconstrued as some teachers hear one thing and others hear something else. At times, this misstep affects the relationships between the staff. Communication is crucial for the continued improvement here at BUCS in both student success and teacher retention.

The school is disgusting. Aramark does a horrible job maintaining the property. Floors are never mopped and desks are never wiped down. When teachers offer to clean their own classrooms because we're tired of them being so gross, Aramark tells us they don't have enough cleaning supplies for that because NHA only provides a budget for half of what we need. I've been sick continually this school year because of the poor hygiene of the school. It's a cesspool of germs and Aramark is not getting the job done.

NHA needs to at least match local public school teacher pay. We have very high expectations placed upon us; we should be compensated accordingly.  We are losing our good teachers because we pay less than public and private schools.

So many areas that are dusty/full of cobwebs, etc that need to be cleaned.

the positive impact of my presence on my student is not recognized. though this is his best year since being at this school.

The frozen day policy could use some adjustment.

As the only Spanish teacher and just 1 of about 5 Spanish teachers I feel like there are no PD opportunities that are specific to what I teach.

The teachers restrooms need cleaning daily!

Advantage Charter Academy is a great place to work. However, I do believe there should be more funding towards items(Calculators and headphones)that are needed in the sped department.

Having enough staff to actually support teachers with student behaviors and having immediate (or almost immediate) follow-through on consistent disruptive behaviors that are stopping the ability for the teacher to teach and students to learn in the classroom to maintain a high expectation for classrooms to be safe learning spaces and stress the importance of respect and focus in the classroom.

Allowing teachers to utilize their rooms during prep time (for at least 2 trimesters) would be beneficial to balancing work-life.

The leadership team at Warrendale needs to be re-evaluated. There have been several inquiries from students, parents, and staff about what exactly the "principal" does.   The following categories are what I believe the Dean of 6-8 needs to work on: Commitment: Doesn’t follow through with her commitments to students and staff, including O3s, disciplinary actions, etc.; very poor attendance, in general (school days, events, tardiness). Responsibility: job tasks are pushed off on other people, teachers or support staff; It feels like she is not a part of that team; students have expressed their concerns with her lack of effort. Accountability: Does not hold herself to the same standards as staff; expressed out loud that she "does not care" about the results of this survey.  Professionalism: talked negatively about staff members to other staff; regularly highlights areas for improvement for staff members (often rudely) without a follow-up or check-in for improvement

An actual separation between PTO days and sick days. Addtionally, I believe teachers should be afforded the opportunity to decide if they want their paycheck of 10 months paid within the 10 months of the school year or have it spread out over 12 months.

The ability to work within the structured schedule. Teachers are working with students but the school day does not provide pause to those students. Sometimes its overwhelming for the students.

Having more than one chromebook helps with being prepared and less things to bring to and from work.  Having enough tissue for the sick months and paper towel.  Basic things scholars and teachers need on a daily basis always stocked.

Better Compensation  Work life balance

lower deductible; better vision coverage

Pay comparable to employees in surrounding districts

A lot of times others do not understand my job and I do get pushback from other teachers.

Aides for Specials Teachers. Higher compensation when interventionists have to sub. More staff so interventionists do not have to sub (more building subs). PTO that carries over to the next school year. Paid snow days for hourly employees. Teacher tables for ALL interventionists so that we feel as though we have our own personal space for our materials and have a sense of belonging in a classroom. Tables will also allow for more effective and efficient teaching and behavior management. More permanent and consistent intervention placement. Place to write comments after each questions so we can write qualifying statements when necessary on survey. Hourly time off for teaching staff--not just full and/or half days.

Paraprofessionals do a lot, but do not get paid for it. I would like to see a pay increase for paras, especially when we deal with higher behaved students, we attend PD regionals, we go above and beyond to help our students, etc. I don't feel valued for the work that I do. I would suggest having paras be salary if we have been here a certain amount of time like 3-5 years, more PTO time, something to help keep people staying to do their jobs. A lot of teachers quit each year because of the changes and the lack of money.

Hire a dean who not only has leadership experience but also real classroom experience as a general education teacher. They need to communicate professionally, help create a safe and respectful environment be consistent with their expectations students and staff and take ownership of their actions. Right now, the dean doesn’t sit at the table during most IEP meetings—he hangs back and leaves without saying anything. On top of that, the caseloads this year are all over the place, especially for those supporting alternate curriculum students.  There's a serious lack of support, and some people are carrying way too much which is negatively impacting student sucess. I know saying this willt lead to pushback or even retaliation, but it still needs to be said.

Recent policy changes/attempts at cost cutting have been detrimental to a sense of belonging at NHA. Some examples include: altering mileage accrual to benefit the company, removing the ability for remote employees to attend Service Center/NHA events and meetings due to the cost of paying out mileage or to cover a hotel stay, removing the ability for remote workers to meet with team members/managers locally for lunch/coffee to discuss work. The cost to a company like NHA for the very few employees this effects is minimal, but the effect of instilling these is substantial in terms of a sense of inclusion/belonging/camaraderie.

more cleaning in the bathroom area

I would appreciate more timely communication when things change throughout the day.  I have also noticed that there seems to be favoritism from deans/principal towards teachers.  This has resulted in disrespectful tones in communication from the principal to the teachers.  Feedback is also met with defensiveness that results in me not feeling that I can approach my principal with issues.  I have experienced this on more than one occasion both privately and in front of a group. I recommend we receive training on communication styles and how to give and receive feedback.  I think improving this would improve culture throughout the school because right now it feels like we are on different teams.

Education continues to be one of the lowest paying career fields in the United States and educators continue to leave the field at alarming rates. Income and safety are some of the top causes for the turnover. NHA has a goldmine opportunity with online learning to entice staff to stay, offering both safety (most of the school operates virtually) and with a livable wage. According to the National Employment Law Project, a single adult in the United States, even in the most affordable state, needs at least $15 an hour to survive.  Many staff members barely make over the $15 and several are seeking employment elsewhere only due to needing the income, not because their lack of passion for their roles or their happiness at NHA. The raises do not offset the insurance increases or the economy.

Better communications between content areas. Sometimes specials teachers feel like we are on the outside. Additionally, better and more stern consequences for student behaviors when students become verbally and physically aggressive. This will help teachers feel safe and can teach content more effectively. Maybe more paras could help with this.

I feel as though specific jobs need to follow the proper procedures and stay focused on the goals and achievements we have for students and ourselves.

I think students and staff can benefit from faster internet and updated/modern technology in the classroom.

We need more space to support all staff. True desk/areas for people to work. So many staff members so little room. We need a better space for IEP students to go to avoid distractions from the general population. Maybe just a set space for them to go to maintain behaviors and distractions.

The new PTO system isn't one that our staff was favorable about. Bring back the current system of PTO.

I always appreciate opportunities to learn from other teachers who do similar work to me.

The above was not the choice I was intending to chose. My choice was academics and curriculum. The recommendation would be for teachers to be held accountable for teaching ALL students assigned to them even if it means to collaborate with the interventionist or special ed team to help the students succeed.

I would love opportunities to help NHA as a whole such as an NHA AR social media team, a NHA AR council, a NHA Ambassador team for huge events in Grand Rapids (such as the Michigan PreK Fair) or something else innovative to give ARs a monthly opportunity to expand their range. These can be small bonus based depending on the task at hand and it could even be used for hiring/training new ARs, increasing engagement for NHA's brand online or television, increasing engagement for certain NHA territory schools (ex. Colorado schools, Metro Detroit schools, Ohio schools, etc.).

,

Advance notice of more than a couple days of changes needed.  Most of time things have been updated once and we are having to go back and adjust/add/etc.  Sometimes we are touching things more than three times when it could have been once.

Hire more staff so teachers can concentrate more on teaching.

There are a few things that I feel can be improved at Oakside. When it comes to the cleanliness of the building, especially the bathrooms, this needs vast improvement. More times than not, I am able to go into the bathroom and see the same stains in the toilet from WEEKS prior. The floor is NEVER swept, mopped, or clean mirrors. I understand that we are all adults but why do we have a cleaning company if the bathrooms/staff lounge consistently look partially cleaned? I would like to see something put into place that makes sure that new employees are provided a physical copy of the staff handbook before starting in their respective roles, while also having someone on the leadership team be able to provide clarity regarding the policies and procedures at Oakside.

Paraprofessionals salary should be more

The material feels very advanced and we often don't have enough time to fully teach and reinforce each skill before moving on. It would be beneficial if we could spend at least two weeks on each skill. Some of the worksheets provided are not developmentally appropriate for kindergarteners. It would also be helpful to review and correct typos found in quizzes, worksheets, and other materials.  For writing, the curriculum currently introduces too many concepts at once. Many of my students come in without basic skills, such as writing their names, and it can be overwhelming to move straight into writing prompts. A more appropriate progression would be to focus first on the handwriting book, then build a strong foundation in grammar before moving into more complex writing activities like prompts. This structure would better support our students’ development and confidence in their writing abilities.

I believe support staff are just as important as classroom teachers. They lay the foundation for honing students' skills which shows optimal results. Support staff should be able to enjoy the benefits of more compensation for our hard work.

Increase compensation that reflects the inflation rate and and that of a DOE teacher

I think that more flexibility needs to be built into the scope and sequence to better support academics. We have quite a few students being promoted that are not retaining grade level skills. In addition, adding more elements of Direct Instruction and possibly combined classrooms/ vertical grouping for grades 2 through 5 would better support learning.

Accountability

simplify lesson plans so less time consuming, more time for preparing materials, less meetings during prep times

Holding all staff and students accountable for their actions to the policies, rules, and regulations that are put in place. Making things fair across the board for all employees, admin included. Being more professional, employees being more of a team player, mutual respect amongst ALL staff members. More support for the building and security to ensure everyone's safety. Hiring people who have a background in education or working with children and actually want to be here. People doing their jobs and not being lazy or putting work off on others. Not avoiding the problems in the building or sweeping them under the rug.

I believe needs significant improvement is the establishment and enforcement of consistent, school-wide expectations for student behavior and the consequences for not meeting them. Currently, handling of behavior issues leads to inconsistencies that students quickly notice and often exploit it leading.   Additionally, there needs to be stronger communication from administration regarding changes to the school day or logistics that directly impact classroom instruction. Too often, decisions are made without consideration of how they affect the flow of teaching and student learning.  I believe our school must strengthen its support systems in ways that also hold families accountable. We strive to be the best choice for our community, that partnership must be mutual. The school must hold parents responsible for supporting appropriate student behavior, meeting academic expectations, and reinforcing the responsibilities students have at school: accountability must be shared!

please see my comments here https://docs.google.com/document/d/1curoojQOG0vzZhTL4MIYk4zyOOPXkL1YQnT-mJg80vo/edit

Communication has improved since last year but the front staff and teachers are at times getting told different information.

intervention should get paid more, and be compensated during breaks and holidays.

As an hourly employee, it is hard to manage my work-life balance due to having to use paid time off for winter and spring break, as well as any other days we have off.

Endeavor Employees are paid significantly less per year than surrounding public schools. I believe this needs to be changed to reflect teh hard work we put in and to make endeavor more competitive in keeping qualified teachers.

Better & More thorough warnings in communication for changes that impact teacher's scheduling. More suspensions for students who are "completely unruly & disrespectful".

Curriculum is good but I feel like teachers should be able to have their own voice and not be held to a script. We should be able to use NHAs curriculum as a blueprint but be able to use our own worksheets if it fits the standards. Have a little more freedom in that area.

Middle school scholars being assigned their individual Chromebook.

I feel that the school can be cleaner, especially the bathrooms.

Paid holidays for all staff!

sick days in addition to PTO

WE ARE UNDER PAID , NO ONE CAN MAKE A LIVING OFF $15 AN HOUR.

Nothing to improve

Medical benefits ( Insurance )

We need more communication before coming to a conclusion on situations. Our staff should be more aligned and have a team first mentality, where we work together. We need ways to be able to improve and advance positions.

Paras should have the same amount of paid time off as teachers. We all have to report the same amount of days during the school year and we all have to balance life and work.

Paras and interventionists are critically undervalued. Our school runs smoothly because of their presence. When a teacher is absent, we manage without major disruption. However, when even one para or interventionist is unavailable, the entire day is significantly impacted. Teachers, administrators, and staff rely heavily on them, yet we fail to recognize or compensate them appropriately. We risk losing the hardworking, student-focused talent that makes ACA exceptional. Our paras and interventionists are indispensable, and it's time we treat them as such.

Voting and surveys can have more transparency.

Competitive salary with other schools in the area so we can keep teachers at our school

There needs to be more consistent cleaning in several area of the school.  Regular cleaning in the office, where there is a constant flow of traffic (students, parents and staff) should be happening daily.

Would like to see more Professional Development on how to incorporate Sped Students in a classroom setting with their accommodation and behavior.  Professional Development on ELA Curriculum with Writing/Grammar. Need a more robust ELA writing program with children samples. Professional Development on Test taking strategies or incorporate in curriculum daily. Incorporate do nows in curriculum.

There are so many expectations to fit everything in, and not enough time in the school day to do everything well.   More training on embedding skills together from different subject areas to really drill the skill and ensure the students are getting the foundational skills they need and the most out of their education.

Providing the appropriate amount of additional compensation for the level of work that is done.

The teachers and all the staff working at this school should be better paid because the work a teacher does is crucial for the students .

I think people should be paid what they deserve. When being asked to work in different areas that are not apart of their original job title, they should be compensated properly.

would love a pay increase

Communication needs work. Most people have no clue who to talk to or what their job requirements are.  Mr. Middleditch is not around enough to see all his people and meet their needs. This also creates a lack of communication. Most people are thrown into coverages and not give the proper amount of time to know what they are doing. There is also not enough PTO, or pay. Para's that DO their job do not get the compensation they deserves.

There should written out and clear consequences for student behaviors in the building. For example 1 write up = lunch detention, 2= after school detention..etc.. There are many students with dozens of write ups but they face no consequences which encourages bad behavior and takes learning opportunities away from other students

Let's keep looking into things like the covid grant that gave bonuses.

Paras do not get paid enough. We wear so many hats and get paid so little. It's discouraging. I have looked up the definition of a Para and it doesn't align with the work that I am expected to do. If you ask me to explain my job here at DMA, you would think I'm an Interventionist. I understand that I am not a head teacher but the requirements and responsibilities I have is not any different from any other staff member. My pay should match my work ethic. We are not salaried so we have to find jobs EVERY summer. It's not fair that we don't get paid during breaks, building issues, or snow days. Those days are out of our control but we are responsible for finding extra money to pay bills whenever we are out of school. I genuinely love my students but it's hard to stay at NHA when I'm not being compensated fairly.

More activities to boost the morale of the staff.

None

I would like to see us having better (more of a variety/affordable) healthcare options that doesn't require such a high out of pocket expense. I don't want to feel like I have to hesitate to get care for myself and my child due to how big the expense could be. Please make a change for your teachers and NHA staff.

If sick days could go back to being sick days and not have to use PTO for sick days. Also if paraprofessionals could get at least half pay during extended breaks (Spring Break, Summer).

I've stated on previous surveys that I signed up for one job and have been asked to do others. And there is no option on whether I can take on another responsibility or not. If I choose not to take on another role while already taking on my own, I risk getting sent home. Emerson and/or NHA needs to take the necessary steps to have to the proper staff and enough staff for days when they are understaffed. I do not believe it is fair for paras and other support staff to have to sub especially without a sub license and without being properly compensated.

I beleive that administration as well as everyone works really hard and deserves to be compensated for all of the hard work that they are doing with all that is required of them.

You could do high five points weekly, an extra 3 days of PTO for hourly people, and dollar raises instead of cents for hourly people.

We spend a lot of time driving to and being at professional development days only to learn maybe one or two new things each day, most of which could be taught in a well-made video. Creating a variety of topics/courses for teachers to choose from and then letting them pick their own PD schedule in terms of which presentations to attend seems more productive for us and would probably lead to more engaging attendance. Teachers with enough experience do not need to keep attending the same PD on number corner, for example.

To improve the area identified above, my recommendation would be to purchase new Chromebooks for teachers.

If the paras could get paid snow days.

More access to technology and curriculum for additional lessons that I need for lessons.

I believe that the work-life balance needs improvement here at CLPA! I understand that leadership says, "work life balance", but there hasn't been a true realistic form of work-life balance implemented. A true work-life balance is work completely ending at 3:30PM and I have all of my preps to myself. To further elaborate PLCs should be sent via email per wing or per team. Monday preps are essential to setting the tone for the week; such as printing, preparing homework, creating SchoolConnect posts, etc. Wednesday meetings should be optional (it appears that it is optional for HighSchool employees as many of them are rarely at the meetings). I know a few schools in our cohort that does not meet for PLCs or Wednesday meetings every week which leads me to believe that it is possible for us as well.

I am unsure at this time

Repeat offenders are not dealt effectively.  It’s just a revolving door to the office and back.  Things are put in place for one or two kids who are the biggest problem. It’s like we are always bending over backwards to serve kids that we are Not equipped to serve.  It’s taking away from the kids who are here to learn.  We have EC teachers who are not certified to do what they are being paid to do.

I feel the roles vary so much between salary and hourly. And the days we have off, I wish we didn't have to use so much PTO time to fill in the pay gaps.

A bolder, more frequent emphasis on the  "cleaner than you found it" mentality at the school. School sponsored clean ups, clean-up school detentions, something like a "cleaner than you found it" week, with a focus on adopting eastern cleaning cultures at the school, ect. Maybe even invite the custodial staff to come in and speak on their experience cleaning at RTCA, and how students can help us make their jobs easier, and in the end, keep them working here. Biggest problems tend to be litter outside, and the state of the bathrooms.

Accountability across the board, everyone has the same level of accountability.

none

We need more communication from administration

The recommendation I have to improve the Purpose/Positive Impact on students, is to create or provide a  group or individual mentorship for them.  Also, there should be a balance of spiritual growth included with the physical growth.

easier to record and use

Getting help with some things I still don't understand for my role

new management new foundation new leadership

I would like moving forward for Gate to continue working on holding parents and students accountable to the commitment of excellence document. I would also ask NHA to take a deep dive into curriculum and the pacing of different topics. We are also testing a lot and not given time to analyze the data and use it to reteach scholars. Taking time to look into curriculum (Social Studies and Bridges) The curriculum doesn't flow with what students are learning or give enough time for scholars to understand concepts. More awareness for opportunities to grow in schools and within the organization. Teachers work very hard and should be recognized throughout the year not towards the end. Quality Professional Developments - made to grade level (Regionals and in schools) More time in our rooms to plan

I believe our students could greatly benefit from more assemblies to discuss the importance of moral foci, have guest speakers to talk to students about opportunities that would be of interest to them, such as employment opportunities, internships/externships, scholarships and grants for college or trade school, and programs that they could participate in during the summer months outside of summer school. The state of Michigan has an allotment of so many federal dollars that are to be spent on educational endeavors for students up to age 19, possibly age 25.

Pay competitive to local school systems would help employees stay.

Fair compensation.

Would like to be a part of NYS retirement. Driving factor for looking elsewhere.   Principal presence in the school and communication is lacking. Many students do not know who the principal is. If I need anything I know I can count on my manager to help out.   Student bathroom are constantly dirty and need to be cleaned more often.

Teaching math curriculum in a way that students understand.

Safety can be a concern here at Warrendale (some times). I know the "security guard" is suppose to patrol the entire perimeter of the school. Sitting in the car all day and ignoring the altercation that have happened in our staff lot does not make me feel 100% safe. I can't say everyday is an safety concern here because that is not the case. I'm saying when dangerous situations happen, our security guard takes zero action to stop the situation, but instead watches from his car....

Fairly compensate the office staff the same as each other, pay everyone year round, get rid of hourly positions and salary everyone.

Increase compensation

Health Benefit out of pocket cost is very expensive.

Review of custodial/maintenance onboarding and training process to ensure they meet contractual obligations.

Pay me at least as much as the people that are new hires. I do not feel valued in my compensation because this is my third school year and people that are new hires are compensated better than myself and other colleagues that have been here for more than a year. Give us compensation for snow days and other days we have to take off, but are not compensated for. I love my job, I love the kids I work with, and I have amazing colleagues, but this is not  sustainable for hourly employees.

Clear communication between departments regarding responsibilities to the schools and understanding of the importance of goals and tasks outside of regular responsibilities.

Just feel out of place and I don't think there is anything that you can do to change that unfortunately.

Everything needs to improvement. The favoritism towards certain staff, admin being more compassionate about the teachers when they are having issues in the classroom, supporting the teachers when behaviors arise and not just taking students out on a fun break for a few minutes, not being racially divided, classrooms are not cleaned properly, when problems are addressed to admin they need to be handled properly and not talked about with other co-workers that creates drama.

Could they take a course to ensure they know how to clean correctly? I know they are men, and their idea of cleanliness can be different from that of women.

That all levels of staff be more personable .

My suggestion on how to improve our company benefits is to eliminate employee out of pocket cost and increase employer covered cost.

NHA gives everyone a job description

The children come is sick and pass it on to the teachers which causes many teachers to come in ill so that they do not use all of their pto because a negative balance can get them fired.

Smaller class sizes, better accountability on families for student absences, better support for students with emotional needs that prevent them from being successful in the classroom and also prevent quality instruction from taking place because teachers have to dedicate so much precious time to addressing defiant behaviors and tantrums. I would love an option for students- counselor/social worker/ someone who can take some time with these kids struggling emotionally BEFORE it results in a discipline referral. Would love to have 5 prep periods a week and move team meetings and O3 meetings to before school or 1 working lunch period. Dedicated support staff member in every classroom all day. Gymnasium for gym classes. Library for library/tech classes. Cafeteria for lunchtime.

We need more support staff.  Class sizes are much too big for teachers to meet the ever-growing needs and challenges of all our students.  Teachers need dedicated teacher assistants, ideally one for each classroom (K-4) or at least one teacher assistant per grade.  Unrelated to this question - the questions re: manager were a bit difficult to answer as there has been a bit of change/transition in that role this year.  I have had my current manager for only a few months.

It feels like discussions and proactive behavior management in 3-5 could be better. We have a handful of kiddos in outer school that struggle to emotionally regulate, and would benefit from more regular random check ins. Mr Josh does a great job working with Mrs Thompson to do rounds in their hall to check in on students in k-2, and I think 3-5 would benefit from similar check ins (especially at the beginning of the day). It could prevent a few kids who've come in with problems outside of school from ruining their education and the leaning of their class mates.

Clear pathways into management and leadership positions based on time employed and annual reviews.

We have policies in place, but they are often not followed. For example, we have a system in place for giving students detention and even a list of common things that will result in detention, but students often don't go, and aren't receiving any discipline for their behavior. Also, we claim to be a college prep school, but we are not preparing our students for college. They are held to abysmal standards and allowed to pass classes with a 25% grade. Why would they bother to study or do homework if they can pass a quiz with only 2 correct answers? On top of this, students that do not pass a class are still sent on to the next class. Not only are they not expected to retake that failed class, but they are moved on to a more difficult class that they aren't ready for(at least in the math department). We are just setting our students up for failure. I realize this is more an NHA problem, and not a Taylor Prep problem, but it bothers me that we are failing our students in this way.

More paid time off during holiday breaks.

I feel as though not everyone is treated equally and there are some being held to a higher standard then others. If everyone was held to the same high standards then I would love working here more. I also don't think a lot of the teachers in my wing truly care about these scholars and want to see them grow and support them. They are capable of so much more and a lot of teachers either don't believe in them or don't care to put in the effort to meet them where they are at. I don't see a lot of differentiation going on in classrooms, especially when I know a lot of children learn in very different ways one of those being hands on learning. The two ways I think this can be improved is more professional development on what differentiation is and should look like in the classroom, and holding everyone to the same expectations for teaching and professionalism.

I think more people are needed to keep the building clean. Those that are here do the best they can, however much more is needed to keep the building clean on a consistent basis.

Enough with illusion of consequences because nothing actually happens students think they can run wild. They don’t care to be written up, some don’t care about call homes. There needs to be consequences that are upheld for poor behavior. It’s ridiculous that a student can run around the hallways all day causing an absolute disturbance and show back up to school the next day. A student who spends their time cursing at students and teachers alike and is still allowed to show up the next day to do it again. How long can this behavior be tolerated before a serious consequence and future preventative measures are put in place. This the culture that Brooklyn Dreams is selling right now. Ridiculous behaviors amongst students in every grade and zero consequences and accountability for scholars.

Given the school year with being sick and breaks, being hourly is hard with breaks being a week or more it is hard. In this ecomony a week without pay is extremely hard. There are holidays in that but that is 2 or less days out of whole break. If we could get paid for breaks it would help out so much.

Wireless projectors in each class

Discipline is not consistent. We should consider holding students accountable for their actions more often. For example, sometimes a teacher calls for support for student behavior and it is addressed with a walk or a chance for a student to calm down, which might be necessary, but then they get sent back to the classroom without any consequences. Sometimes kids with challenging behaviors need a walk or a break, but please ask the teacher what the situation is before just sending them back without any follow through on consequences. When students do not have consistent consequences, this really creates bad habits as they start to figure out acting out = I get a walk and can avoid doing work.

kids are really messy and the floors could be mopped more often, especially in middle school classrooms.

The curriculum needs to be updated. It's outdated and/or not workable for helping many of the kids that NHA educates.  The curriculum is boring and often too advanced for the kids that NHA services.  There should also be differentiated assessments.  The assessments are geared towards students who are at grade level, but so many of the students aren't at grade level so we're pretty much giving them an assessment they are going to fail at.

Finding ways to compensate for the hard work put in by intervention team to fill learning gaps to the school as a whole.

Things should be planned and communicated well in advance with all staff. Communication seems to lack within leadership team which makes miscommunications more frequent. In addition to communication, management of student behaviors is very dysfunctional and inconsistent within administration and behavior team. PBIS is relied on way too heavily. There are way too many reward systems built in- it creates confusion and makes rewards lose their value. I think the school would be much better off by cutting back on programs like this and focusing on one impactful reward. Instead, our classroom management should be more focused on addressing student needs in order to build intrinsic motivation rather than relying on prizes. Policies should be much more clear and change less often. There have been multiple times in which I was enforcing a previously communicated policy but it was undermined by a member of administration because they are not familiar and or they are choosing to not enforce it.

Meaningful financial support for schooling.

I believe that there needs to be a stronger emphasis on the Moral Focus program, not just for the students, but also for the school culture as a whole, which has also been negatively impacted by the involvement/presence of leadership throughout the school. While academics is very important, progress cannot be made without morals actually being a focus for all staff, students, teachers, and professionals. Moral Focus needs to not only be longer than 15 minutes, but it should also be the basis for the school culture.

To be really noticed for my accomplishments with my students.  I feel that the school has too many clicks or favorites who seem to get all the praise and attention-over and over-year after year.   Communication is also a concern here. I feel like some people get more communication than others for some reason.  Favoritism is the main issue I have about working at Southside.  Some people are certainly not being treated equally and some people are actually being treated unfairly due to the favoritism.  This is just my observation and opinion.  Besides this, I love working at Southside.

More cleaning staff or better training. Needs assessment on ways to help improve the cleanliness of the building from maintenance perspective.

More systematic/transparent approach to student behaviors, especially in third places (like the cafeteria, hallways, etc.)

Th market is competitive and NHA is not currently competing with other similar roles.

Please compensate appropriately who help keep this school and classrooms afloat. Also, reward those same employees for following and upholding NHA rules. procedures (coming to work on time, good attendance, holding scholars accountable)

parapro off days ( snow days )ets

I feel like a lot if put on the teachers and staff with little time to complete tasks, taking away from family time. It is a difficult job and when one comes in early, stays late and still takes work home, it is difficult to not get burnt out.

NA

I wanted to share some thoughts regarding our current curriculum development process. As it stands, the volume of curriculum we are expected to produce daily makes it challenging to maintain the level of quality we strive for. Additionally, frequent adjustments are often necessary, which adds to the workload and affects consistency.  I believe it would be beneficial to reassess our approach to ensure the curriculum is not only manageable to develop and maintain but also more closely aligned with state standards. A more strategic and sustainable plan could improve both instructional quality and student outcomes.

Leadership team communicate and work well together so that the rest of our team can work well/feel supported.

The ability to provide all students with a chromebook in grades that take common assessments

None

Continued focus on achieving organizational performance metrics (grow the top line, manage costs, etc.) through innovation and fidelity.

Provide better opportunities for employees to receive a promotion and/or move into a different role once they have demonstrated that they are competent in their role and are ready for more of a challenge.

Moving forward

more classes for special needs children

I feel the bathrooms could be kept up a little more and the filters in the air conditions, and more disinfecting during the cold and flu season. There should be something in place for limiting infections spreading from scholar to scholar.

While PTO is appreciated, a minimum of 1 day per month should be provided.  Additonally, clear procedures for abasences beyond 10 days (for sickness and/or bareavement) should be discussed and made available to staff.

Though it comes more into focus each year, I think the facets of being an "NHA" principal could somehow be communicated more clearly. Double bottom line makes sense, but what encompasses having success with this is a STEEP learning curve. NPA (both years) were great for that, but I would recommend the mentoring through or a specific connection with an executive principal mentor - maybe I just didn't take enough of the opportunities I had to reach out on my own not knowing what I didn't know.

Communication from administration has been lacking over the course of the year.

I sent several emails this year that were not answered and I don't know why. I always make a point to respond to messages I receive and wish that I would get a response even if the answer is just "I'll look into it." or "I'm not sure, I'll get back to you when I can give you an answer.

Growth opportunities

Things are what they seen to be

Maybe offer attendance bonus for the staff who is always at work and on time. Much like we are trying with the students.

Less meetings. Making the few we have more productive. Quality information over quantity

The curriculum for Math has gaps from 2nd to 3rd grade. The curriculum is suppose to build on the previous year. Second grade teachers say, some of the skills we ask about students skill when they get to 3rd, say the secon grade curriculum did not have that skill.   ELA is boring to our scholars. They have a hard time connecting with the text and how the curriculum is written. Gate is 98% African American. We need to incorporate text and passages students can relate to as well as Hispanic passages.

I would recommend not to undervalue the things that some of the hourly employees do here. When doing a lot of work out of the scope of your job, can be a bit disheartening. Some might feel that they are being taking advantage of.

Best practices to support scholars who are not having a positive experience at BDCS to find a setting that better provides them with what they need.

Recognition for both students and staff seem impersonal. For SOTM and Dean's/Principal's list, it seems more for efficiency rather than actual, meaningful recognition for students.   If they truly wanted to make it feel like an accomplishment, particularly with Dean's and Principal's - standing in a line Student's have expressed that their parents don't come to the ceremonies where these recognitions take place because they don't think it's truly highlighting them at all.   As for SOTM, personally feel like a raffle for a casual dress coupon is a little cheap and every student that has earned the title of student of the month should be able to receive one... The gift card for grade bands understandably should be raffled for budget purposes.

More consistent ways to positively recognize specific teachers and "what looks/functions great", publicly within SCA with staff and also with parents and students.

We need custodians earlier in the morning, sometimes they do not arrive until 9am, but I have had students vomit earlier than that and no one is able to clean it up. On the playground I have found trash, broken glass, and broken rusted metal chair legs. I have had ant piles in my classroom that take weeks to be sprayed. The bottoms of trash cans do not get cleaned until they are moldy and full of flies. The staff bathroom is almost always dirty.

Managing students behavior.

I believe our team deserves another base salary raise to reflect our efforts, especially given current economic conditions. If additional compensation isn't possible, increasing PTO or adding another remote day allowed each week could quickly boost work satisfaction. I also wanted to add that while NHA emphasizes investing in people, the delay in implementing changes can be frustrating. We often receive approvals just days or weeks before implementation. Communication with direct managers is excellent, but decisions from executives come too late, adding uncertainty and stress surrounding advancements and proposals. More lead time for changes and decisions would greatly improve employee morale and project satisfaction. The annual wait until June for definitive answers on staffing doesn't facilitate effective planning for employees.

A sense of genuineness and less nonsense

I want to Highlight Dean Smith as an awesome Leader. She leads by example and is always fair. I appreciate the work-life balance and support that she gives her team, the constructive feedback, and the overall encouragement. As the school year comes to a close, I am appreciative to have been under her leadership, and I have grown so much with her being my Dean.  Recommendations: Lunch Menu   My students have been complaining about how the lunch food taste and the food selections. My students have not been eating lunch because of this and are less engaged in the afternoon because they are hungry. Hopefully this issue can be resolved because it is impacting learning in the afternoon

I have none. Everything is great!

I would love to have a smaller teacher to student ratio or a teacher assistant in the classroom. I believe that will help with the work load and cut down on behaviors.

Consistency in responding to student behaviors

I would like to see either more time available to work and prepare or higher compensation for the work we do.

#NAME?

Provide students with Math TEXTBOOKS

I love Arbor Prep

The majority of classrooms in our school currently lack a full set of Chromebooks. Many devices are either awaiting repair or are still in the process of being serviced. Some students have been without a functioning device since January. At present, the condition of our devices is poor—many are worn down and outdated, falling short in comparison to the technology available in neighboring schools. The lifespan of our current devices is nearing its end, which significantly hinders teachers' ability to support students in developing essential digital literacy and fluency skills.

I am getting paid the same amount of money I was paid 20 years ago (it was a different job different field) so perhaps the company should pay people what they're worth. The current economy does not support the pay being offered right now.

we are so underpaid. i know my position is vital to keep the classroom safe and to allow my student to succeed but im paid less than a mcdonalds worker to be here. its horrid for my mental health i almost killed myself this winter due to burn out.

The Behave with Care handbook directly shows that any physical act that endangers or causes harm to others i.e. pushing, shoving, kicking, hitting, spitting, fighting, throwing objects in a manner that endangers others and biting are all qualified as level 5 behaviors that are the required responsibility of the dean, assistant principal or principal. It is stated that a conference with a parent/guardian and a dean or principal is a required consequence of such an offense. Leadership contacting families only after further communication is deemed necessary by a parent and teachers having been made to institute a consequence (rather than a dean or principal) is in violation of NHA's own policy.  There is very little response to student behaviors whatsoever. It is disappointing that leadership is known to "hide" from parents, student behaviors and teachers looking for support and clearly a massive safety issue.

Paid inclement weather days.

I feel like when we are going to community activities and events, we shouldn't have to use the schools location especially when its nights and weekends and have sometimes already driven to the school and home once. I also think we should get compensated for the amount of things we have to keep at our home or in our car because of events and needing certain things last minute or always needing to be prepared.

When entering in a classroom, leave a note of some sort or follow up email. Teacher/staff shout outs again!

I feel that as an educator, teaching one grade level would make a huge difference on making more of an impact on my students. At times I feel stretched thin and overwhelmed teaching multiple grades. Also, smaller classes would allow more freedom to actually use more engaging activities to ensure students are learning the material.

More direct discussion around what goals, and areas of improvement I could strive for to see advancement in pay and role.

We have a lot of outdated furniture lingering around in all the rooms. Molded furniture. A lack of furniture. Junk that has been around since the school opened. Old pictures and other stuff. We need to get rid of the clothes that the students have left behind. Have PTO be in charge. During the back-to-school or during Munch and Mingle, have the clothes displayed in the gym where parents can see. Or during a teacher-parent conference. Anything water bottles, eye glasses kids leave so much behind.

I wish it was like it was before. Just PTO no sick time.

There's a lot but for one , addressing the real issues and acting like everything is good when there is a constant turn over of good people leaving.  Working harder to keep the good ones! Better forms of discipline because at this point the kids are running the show. Better opportunities for the children that are at grade level or higher. So much time goes into the behavioral students. More support for the teachers and paras.  More positive because we are dealing with a lot and sometimes just need a brain break.

Full time work

Front office is often trying to catch up with parents aware of changes happening at school.  Attempts are made to communicate with us, but we often have to ask for information for questions that parents are asking.  I feel it gets better every year, but always an area of wished improvement.

First and foremost is to clean the building more then once a day, which is usually done at the end of the day. The student restrooms are always filthy and smells awful. Students are told to sit on floors will have not been cleaned and all sorts of things have been tracked on from the restrooms and the playground. This practice is unsafe as well as unhealthy.

hire better cleaning staff raise wages

Curriculum: The curriculum needs to be adjusted to better meet the developmental needs of students. It currently moves too fast, causing much of the material to go over students’ heads. In math, the focus on numeracy alone does not adequately prepare students, as it leaves out key areas like problem-solving, operations, and critical thinking. In ELA, there is little to no emphasis on foundational skills such as phonics, spelling, cursive writing, and true reading comprehension. Instead, the priority is placed solely on reading speed, which does not build strong, well-rounded readers.  Behavior and Discipline: Behavior is a major issue due to inconsistent discipline and lack of accountability. Stronger systems with clear expectations, consistent follow-through, and parent accountability are essential for real improvement.

Moral focus classes

Prior to PD days it would be great if our building took a survey to choose the areas that we would like training on and based on the responses whatever more suggestions we have then those will be the areas of training we will have.

I am asked to do work outside of my role.  I have brought this to the attention of my leadership.  No change has happened in changing the role with compensation or removing the other tasks outside of my role.  A decision needs to be made.  Pay me for what I am being asked to do or have me perform in the role I have.

Technology training and  utilizing AI to personalize learning especially  for students with disabilities

Clearly define each team’s responsibilities during collaboration, establish communicate expectations (timelines), and identify appropriate communication channels (TDX, slack, or etc).   It appears that training opportunities within the department are repeatedly assigned to the same individual while I often find myself having to answer questions from new team members—even though I was not formally tasked with this responsibility. While I’m happy to support the team, this is adding unexpected workload and time pressure that I was not prepared for. I am also having to relearn incorrect information I received in my trainings. Causing stress and frustrations.   In the future, it could be beneficial to have multiple people on projects that affect the whole team. For example, while building CRM for leaves and workers’ compensation part of the team was missing. If the whole team met before launching to review the project, this could had stopped gaps of information from being missed.

I would love for better insurance options that did not cost so much.  I appreciate the money the NHA puts in my HSA but I would it doesn't go as far as I need.

SPORTS , I coach f or NHA sports are huge part of bringing more students into the building that have no choice but to focus on academics being that they are student athletes. Gives them an outlet as well.  Sports budgeting & Coaching compensation.

The social studies unit is not on grade level for first grade. The topics go over their heads because they are so advanced. I believe the social studies unit should be more interactive, but also provide lessons that the students can actually relate to and find of interest. My students are not interested in the social studies lessons nor can they relate to them very well.

The role revisited as it relates to paras, also PDs that can strengthen and align with the curriculum or their role

Post the jobs  in our teacher lounge so we can see what is available.

Interventionists should be included in meetings on student progress, as their direct work provides valuable insights for improving strategies. Teacher input is crucial, as those closest to students understand their academic and emotional needs. Professional development should be subject-specific and occur at the start of the year to help teachers plan and prepare effectively. A foundational skills period is necessary to equip students for long-term success. Communication must be clear and timely, as last-minute changes create stress. Leadership must be more engaged—teachers and staff should never feel unsupported. Effective leadership steps in, provides support, and ensures staff are valued and prepared. A possible solution is to establish regular, structured check-ins for interventionists and staff to share feedback and collaborate on strategies, ensuring timely support and clear communication.

If a compensation is above the sub rate, the sub rate should be increased so there is more of an incentive to sub, instead of matching the hourly rate.

I think that we could use some help in regards to behavior management. We should not become lenient on NHA moral focus values and follow through in regards to behaviors that should not be tolerated for the sake of an enrollment number. From classroom behaviors and dress code to teacher disrespect and hallway behaviors, we have a lot to work on and correct. We should not be a school that is run by the parents or children.

I think we as a whole should take more pride in the disciplinary action when it comes to the kids discipline other then that pinnacle is a great school and some things just gets overlooked

Better pay in general, especially for support staff who seem to be overlooked when raises come up. No monetary incentive

Classrooms and bathrooms should be cleaned more frequently.

I would like to recommend for full time support staff to be present to assist with the students need during instruction and also to minimize the level of distraction in class.

None, due to lack of support and leadership to  follow through with in any positive actions. Recommendations are always given to staff, but no action are ever taken.  Leadership have compassion for staff. Learn how to build Morale as a leader. Don't tear people down. Build people up, because every adult goes through something everyday.

work half day once a week.

The new idle behavior policy is great in theory. In practice, it's tedious and takes too much time and attention away from teaching our students and putting planning time into lessons and materials. I don't think the people not doing it realize that it can take 5-10 minutes to complete all of the steps for just one student. When some periods have 4-6 students to contact, that's up to an hour of our time per period. Even with an OLM - which not all teacher have - it's unrealistic and unsustainable. It would be great to have an updated behavior program that allowed us to have a one stop place to log GG calls, reach out to parents, log behavior reports, and auto generate the communication logs. This would also expedite other behavior reports and Attendance Champion duties.

I would like if the Paraprofessionals and Support staff be paid for Snow Days and throughout the summer as well.

It is hard to pick just one area. The compensation is 10k lower compared to what I would make at a local public school. NHA likes to say that it balances out due to the retention bonus, but half that goes to taxes, and NHA writes that off anyway. The health insurance has extremely high deductibles and makes me feel like I cannot use it; it has no mental health benefits, which is absurd with all that teachers have to deal with. I have also felt very uncomfortable and unappreciated by my admin this year. I have had the fact that we do not have contracts held over me as a way to say I need to work outside of work, which does not create a good life/work balance. I have not had 03s since December, my manager has ignored me for weeks at times, and has not told me things that directly relate to my caseload. I have been lied to about caseloads and receiving a stipend when my caseload goes over. Sketchy things have been done with caseloads to make them appear within the legal limits.

Daily curriculum, too much is expected of the scholars with where they are.

To improve the culture, I would want to see the rebuilding of a sense of connection, appreciation, and shared investment between the company and its employees. Over time, many things that contributed to a positive work environment, such as informal perks and a feeling of being valued, have gradually been reduced or removed. For example, the discontinuation of service center summer Fridays (a free to the company perk provided to employees) and the rise in the cost of benefits, combined with increasing workload expectations, create a sense that employees are being asked to give more while receiving less appreciation in return. Reintroducing small but meaningful incentives and finding ways to show appreciation beyond compensation go a long way in restoring morale and strengthening the overall culture.

Our team handles complex, often high-stakes work that is essential to the organization’s overall success. We continuously adapt to new challenges, going above and beyond to provide comprehensive support and solutions for our schools. While leadership frequently highlights the company’s financial success, it can feel at odds with the cost-cutting measures being implemented at the service center level. As our school count grows and responsibilities expand, but compensation or support doesn’t align, it becomes difficult to feel fully valued. This feedback is not a reflection of my direct manager or team, who are incredibly supportive and transparent. However, a clearer and more consistent approach to evaluating the scope, impact, and compensation of high-responsibility support roles would improve job satisfaction and reinforce that our work is genuinely appreciated.

Bring back coverage of weightloss medications please

Fundraising that is directed at staff pay increases

Alliance’s leaders need significant training in being constructive rather than cruel.

As a Para I make .30 less than i do as a long term sub. This isn't the end of the world because I genuinely enjoy my job and the challenge. But next year after my raise i fear I will be making less to sub that I will to be a para. Subbing is significantly more work and responsibility.

Being intentional with making sure the bathrooms are in a much better condition than what they have been all year. No soap, some days no paper towel, it's quite filthy

Create Professional development days for paras as well

edits/ improvement to math curriculum, more non word problems to introduce new content, improve accessibility, for low readers as well.

Simply raise pay across the board. My team is underpaid compared to peers in the same job position with other schools. Rising prices of food and common goods, along with recent hour cuts aren't helping either.

Just a comment that is a common feeling anywhere: It is increasingly worrisome that the cost of living is rising rapidly and compensation does not.

Just more clarity on how raises and what not works

Re-write the World History and US History curriculum to have more of a variety of activities. Less 3-close reads, also more emphasis on learning the details of history not just textual analysis of sources.

A single teacher would not be able to live alone off of the salary earned.

I recommend ensuring that all staff that is affected by various events should be notified of changes or schedules and not just homeroom teachers. It is important for planning ahead and staying on top of the curriculum; this is especially true for testing season.

More outside present from law enforcement

I would like to see more training programs for my job role.

Would like more lesson options to teach from the curriculum.

Sense of Belonging — More supportive professional staff to help during lunchtime, recess, and in the classroom when student behavior becomes challenging.

Clear defined policies need to be set and the policy should be followed instead of making exceptions

Simple constructive feedback of ensuring all staff are aware of common policies and procedures and how they impact the employee.

We are increasingly being asked to take on additional responsibilities, and during our planning hour we are consistently assigned activities such as IEP meetings, PLCs, and other meetings, leaving us without dedicated time for actual planning. Additionally, we are required to stay after carpool for meetings. Our workload is significantly higher compared to other schools, and despite this, we are not given time during our workday to complete planning, which forces us to work on weekends. This negatively impacts our personal time with our families and contributes to burnout.

I would like to see the leadership team collaborate with the different grade level teams, This will allow the grade levels to have some autonomy of their activities and roles as a grade level since they are the teachers that are dealing with any and all things that go on within the grade level.

We have done a great job changing our culture so far.  I think the area of improvement is to be firmer with how we carry out the consequences of bad student behavior.

More days for teachers.

Support, in regards to students who are not good. Meet with teachers and do more brainstorming when dealing with a challenging student

The culture at BDCS could improve greatly. This year has been challenging for teachers with many changes. Teachers are stretched thin with low staff. It feels like there are not many adults present in the building for the amount of students we have. Class sizes have increased greatly, due to low staff. Low staff impacts spaces like the cafeteria, which is chaotic and unorganized. Student behaviors are not dealt with in a normed way. Many scholars act like they run the school, and they are not given support or consequences to match their behaviors. Unruly student behaviors are a safety concern to all. We do not have a security guard, which would allow for safety of our staff/students. The change in leadership has also been challenging for our staff. It doesn't feel like we are all on the same team working toward a common goal. It often seems like an "Us vs. Them," which is not healthy. Our 7 PTO days also impact our culture, because the DOE (and other NHA schools) receive 10 days.

Christmas bonus would be very much appreciated.

As a part timer - I would like to be paid during school holidays.

 It is important to acknowledge that the challenges we are currently facing at Winterfield are not due to a lack of effort or commitment from our principals, deans, teachers, or students. Rather, they stem from decisions made at the highest levels of management that have created instability within our school community. We believe in accountability, but it must be paired with empathy and realistic expectations. Our students are not statistics—they are human beings, many of whom come to us with complex needs, histories of academic struggles, and emotional trauma. These students require consistent support, not just high expectations without the tools to meet them. Unfortunately, our school continues to be under-resourced in critical areas such as behavioral and academic support, counseling, and mental health services. It is disheartening when frequent visits by upper management seem to focus more on highlighting deficiencies than on offering tangible support.

Pay equivalent to local districts.

Allow teachers to advocate for their own individual compensation. Other schools in the area have much higher pay scales. I could be earning as much as $20,000 more somewhere else and I have no voice to negotiate my pay.

Communication with staff regarding current events or situations are not always sharing for the safety of staff and students.

Alliance Academy has NO positive culture and a lack of professional communication. This is across the board with staff members and members of the admin team. There is a very "us against them" mentality when it comes to how admin treats staff. There is a major  lack of support, lack of consistency, and overall lack of feeling any sense of security in job or choices we can make as teachers. In my time here, I have seen a near constant turn-over of teachers. Some veterans and some fresh and ready to experience the world of education. It is so disheartening to see time and time again teachers be unable to stay due to lack of ADMIN support. I have watched teachers have mental breakdowns over how many times admin has changed their schedules or asked more of them then they can bare. I myself have broken down many times this year due to stress alone. I was told if my test scores did not go up I would be removed from my classroom. I could go on for 1000 more words but I have reached my limit.

No recommendations! I love working at Laurus and grateful to be apart of a staff that really cares for the population we serve. School leadership is transparent and amazing. Lori Rowden, Silva Rogers, Angels Wheeler, Monique Schofield, and Carolyn Bullard are some of the best leaders NHA has to offer.

I wish I had known to manage my PTO better because it was eaten up by illness and unforeseen circumstances.

Just to have better communication.

Making the curriculum age appropriate and interesting to keep students engaged, especially in ELA.

I feel more differentiation will provide students with more support in the classroom. The curriculum is mostly teacher led, and I would like to see more student led, engaging activities and less work sheets.

A wider variety of intervention curriculum that will help address smaller areas of root cause.

There is a lack of communication from my manager. When the C&I team comes to observe, we often are left in the dark and my manager has not let us know until either the evening before or as late as the morning of the visit. Communication is key to helping teachers feel comfortable about others coming into our classrooms.

N/a

Sometimes they feel as if they are the same and I would love to see new content! I liked the new info about FSA's that gave at the last one.

We have opportunities for efficiencies and automation in our tech. I would love to see more tech team staff to help make these improvements.

Simple. Increase the pay to compete with the surrounding school districts.

If we can organize similar content in a more sequential way, it would help improve learning. Currently, the Science curriculum tends to jump from one topic to another. For example, in the first trimester, I teach cells, but in the second trimester, the focus shifts to a completely different concept. By the third trimester, we circle back to topics related to the first trimester. This disjointed sequence makes it difficult for students to build mastery, as there isn’t enough continuity or reinforcement of prior learning.

More money for paraprofessionals.

The summer office hours and being open late one night a week and open 40 hours to the public feels unnecessary. I only share this because the amount of visitors I had come in last summer totaled maybe 15 people for the entire summer. I wish we could be open to appointment only.   Also, with the new systems in place for Registrars, it would be great to have the flexibility to work from home during the summer (even just 1-2 days out of the week).

The curriculum in my subject area (social studies) is not challenging enough and is unengaging for students. The SBG grading scale is also far too lenient. Students score around 50% and get a 2.5/B grade. That is not asking enough of our students and is not showing them if they are truly college-ready.

Increase pay for employees.

It would be nice to have a small budget to purchase resources for my groups. As of now I use my own money to buy one set of books every year.

There is a lot of last minute communication here. It has improved greatly from last year but there is still room to grow in this area. For example, contracts for next year are not yet available and there are only 18 days of work left. This creates a stressful situation for employees who need to plan ahead, especially under new federal leadership and education budget cuts.   My corporate manager actually over communicates. We have weekly meetings and it feels that most of the time the meetings are not really necessary. I feel these could be monthly or biweekly.

General education teachers should not be expected or in charge of providing monetary gifts or appreciation to office workers, lunch and/or custodian workers. This should be the responsibility of the school. These workers do not do any of this for general education teachers or ever show any appreciation to us. It was made a responsibility for teachers to do this and I will not be doing this if it is goin to be required. We should be able to do this if we want to.

More experience or professional development on educational leadership and/or interpersonal skills may be needed.

hand sanitation stations, students in charge of keeping their classrooms and hallways clean (assign different students each day to pick up trash on floor)

I feel as though we don’t have much of a work-life balance at all. We are expected to stay after school for countless meetings, events, and screenings with no compensation or even recognition. The most frustrating part is that not everyone is held to the same standards. Some grade levels are expected to do more than others and some individuals have no consequences when they miss a meeting or event. I think we should all be held to the same standards and those of us who aren’t doing our job should be addressed accordingly.

We just need more more than 8 days. The demands of being a teacher have changed. The 8 days that we get are enough to cover emergencies, but what about mental health and reset days. I feel that we should have 10-12 days of PTO built in.

When teachers are required to meet as a grade level and to design the lists of the students who belong in the different classrooms together, it is important to believe them and trust their judgment. They see the interactions of the students and can vouch for what students need in order to be successful. They are the one's who see first hand what students need and which students needed to be divided. All classes should have been divided equally.

Allow for flexibility while teaching curriculum, especially because students experience more academic fatigue than ever before.

Whole staff explanation of general roles within the building

Since we are giving up PERA to work here, I feel the benefits should be better/less expensive for the employees.

I respectfully recommend that teachers be granted greater autonomy in structuring their daily instructional schedules to best support student learning. Specifically, teachers should have the flexibility to adjust the order and timing of academic subjects—for example, teaching mathematics in the morning and English Language Arts in the afternoon if deemed more effective. Additionally, the integration of technology should be at the teacher’s discretion based on the skill being taught. Given that student needs may shift from year to year, teachers should be afforded the professional trust and opportunity to revise their academic schedules accordingly.

Real time pop ins when there is information that needs to be shared during the day. In-depth explanations right off the bat (in messages) so there is less confusion and wait time to fully understand what is being communicated.

Overall, Just a better cleanliness routine amongst the janitors. Something’s are halfway cleaned. It has been mentioned and discussed. However, I do believe that there should be a gentle reminder of that.

I understand that it is said "compensation is adjusted each year for inflation." Despite this, the pay does not seem to allow oneself to be financially stress free. For a job that asks so much of it's employees: teaching, assessing, responding to data, intervention planning, delivery of intervention, differentiated learning approaches, IEP adherence, clear record keeping of student data and progress, behavior management, weekly communications, building student and parent relationships, assessing online supplemental tools, assigning lessons on those tools based on individual student performance, communicating online performance to parents, checking for fidelity and resetting levels based on student performance, engaging in out-of-work hours school cultural events and so much more, the pay does not add up. It seems that the "raises" are the adjustment to inflation instead of actual raises. Though I know there is only so much that can be done concerning compensation, it is frustrating.

I wish pto would roll over or pay out in the summer, if this was the case I wouldn't feel pressured to use mine.

Ongoing research into community resources that complement the services we already provide to our families.

A greater focus on future pacing parents and students on appropriate behaviors and consequences that are made clear up front and upheld by teachers and ABSS so that all students have the stability they need to succeed and parents have clear cut expectations of what behaviors and attitudes their scholar must be equipped with when attending Westfield, and a behavior program that holds everyone accountable with adequate consequences that facilitate outcomes that support a healthy and engaging culture scholars who come to learn can thrive in while allowing teachers the space and opportunity to focus on teaching and much less on consistent undesirable behaviors.

I would love for middle schoolers to be able to pick their own electives.  I signed up to teach students a passion for music, not force them to have one.  Some middle schoolers do not like music and that is OKAY.  It is really hard to stay positive sometimes when dealing with some of these absolutely ridiculous middle school behaviors.  It really wares me down at times.  If middle schoolers choose their electives, I think it would make my job so much more pleasant as well as make their academic experience way more enriching.

It seems like there has been an increasing workload as the growth/government relations team remains small with open positions. It would be nice to have that additional work on top of regular job duties be reflected in pay of more than the small percent increase each year. Especially after the financial viability presentation we had at the last huddle.

Each year, staff consistently raise concerns about NHA compensation, but unfortunately, there doesn't seem to been any meaningful progress, leaving some feeling discouraged and undervalued. Maternity leave needs to be significantly improved, not just in terms of length, but also in pay. Paternity leave should be offered as well—supporting families means supporting all parents. Current salaries are not keeping pace with the cost of living. Many staff are finding it difficult to meet basic needs for their families. Annual raises of 3% barely keep up with inflation, let alone reflect the value and commitment that employees bring to their roles. In addition, access to better financial support for pursuing advanced degrees, like a master’s, would go a long way in helping staff grow professionally and stay invested in their careers. These are some of my thoughts on compensation improvement.

Overall, I appreciate the opportunity to work at National Heritage Academies. While I enjoy the positive school culture, supportive leadership, and strong sense of community, I do feel that there is room for growth regarding compensation.  Given the high expectations placed on staff and the significant responsibilities involved in meeting the diverse needs of students, I believe that increasing salary levels would better reflect the hard work, dedication, and professionalism of the teaching and support staff. Competitive compensation would also help attract and retain talented educators, contributing to continued student success across all NHA schools.  I am hopeful that future considerations will include adjustments to compensation packages that recognize the value and impact of the work we do every day.

Hire someone to clean as an NHA employee.

Offer cheaper rate of insurance for PPO health insurance.  At my last job they offered 20% cheaper rate if we completed a full  health screening.   Offer sick and personal days.7 days are enough

I would like to have more resources

None. I really like it here.

I believe our school needs more resources for students outside of the classroom. Some students need extra meals, and they also need more extra-curricular activities to improve student behavior.

There are built in social clicks amongst some of the staff. Don't know how to stop that efficiently. It's just an observation. People have preferences and that's ok.

Under 60K is lower middle class.

Since PTO does not roll over at the end of the year everyone tries to use up their time. Which leads to support having to sub and not being able to give intervention. If there was an incentive for not using a certain amount of hours at the end of the year. There wouldn’t be as many subs needed.

Na

Teachers stay in jobs where they feel trusted and in control. NHA often does not value teacher autonomy or treat us like professionals.

I would like more money. Slusser is Great dean and I glad I have her as a support system.

Pictures on ID badges.

I feel that the cleaning from Aramark has gotten a tad bit better but it can still improve and the curriculum should be improved so that the kids specifically the ELA curriculum.

Change to allow appropriate pacing; introduce an improved writing curriculum to allow skills to be demonstrated; and an engaging reading selection for comprehension

Addressing the issues rather than "writing them off." It feels that employee feedback given regarding issues and feelings are ignored. When it is addressed, it seems that excuses/reasons why the issues can't be resolved are given, instead of what can be done.

N/a

The lesson plan requirements and preperation for the lesson plans often take all prep periods througthout the week. Additional time to work after school is often disrupted due to after school students being in the classroom until almost 2:20 pm on most days. This often leaves additional tasks such as grading or standards trackers to have to be completed at home or by staying  after contract hours.

When there is information regarding others in the building that the changes or information is communicated more promptly instead of pushing it off and having it be communicated too late.

I do not believe I was ever given a bonus I was promised last year.

There is nothing that updates me on new positions based on my want for advancement.

I recommend increasing transparency and consistency in communication to improve leadership effectiveness and overall team functionality. The Dean is new to the role, practices such as documenting key decisions, providing written follow-ups, and creating space for open dialogue would help address current gaps in clarity and trust. It’s also important to acknowledge feedback without defensiveness, particularly when reminders or clarifications are needed, as this builds credibility and psychological safety among staff.  Also there appears to be an imbalance in workload and responsibilities with rapidly changing procedures and limited time to adapt. For example, the implementation of the new idle behaviors policy has unintentionally disrupted direct instruction, impacting students who are engaged in following expectations. Allowing more time for staff input and thoughtful rollout of policy changes would support both educators and students in maintaining an effective learning environment.

I believe information given should be on one accord at all times.

It would be wonderful if new hires were introduced and welcomed.  I feel that we could do better making our school community more welcoming.

Many educators, including myself, are feeling increasingly overwhelmed and undervalued due to limited resources, inadequate planning time, and inconsistent support. Delays in approvals and a lack of basic supplies like paper and sticky notes make it difficult to do our jobs effectively. Morale is low, and many teachers feel unseen and unappreciated—especially outside of Teacher Appreciation Week. Communication from administration is often unclear or incomplete, which adds to the frustration and confusion. If expectations are high for us, we ask that the same standard be applied to leadership—especially with timely and accurate communication. Teachers at Metro work hard every day. We simply want to feel supported, heard, and respected—not just during observations, but in the day-to-day reality of our work.

I would like to see coworkers who do more than one titled job get compensated for that extra work.  Example, coverage for subbing if they are a para. Essentially those who do more than what there title is consider giving them a extra token of appreciation. (Kroger gift card) something to show thanks for doing the extra work.  Paras who stay after school for extra events should be paid that time slot as well.  The pink bob cat bucks used for teachers too much for a soda. If there could be smaller cost for those items because the pink bob cat bucks rarley get passed out unless its for P.Ds

SPend less on items not needed that is bought for the classrooms and put money towards teachers.

I recommend fostering a positive school culture- it starts at the top! Admin should not be making comments about staff in front of staff. Admin should be more positive and encouraging! They should be smiling and checking in with staff in the hallway- regardless of whether they fall directly under their supervision or not. Admin sets the tone- they should not just walk by you and not acknowledge you. Admin should be more visible to students and staff-daily check ins! I truly feel this would help cut down on behavior.

Look into better options for health insurance where services can be covered with copays instead of going towards the insurance deductible.

More engagement between staff members. Everyone pretty much keeps to themselves or has a "click" that they associate with most of the time. If you're new, no one is really super inviting or tries to maintain conversations or prolong a connection with you outside of hellos and how are You's in the hallway. Personally, I feel sometimes judged by others just because it can be a hostile environment due to the students and the type of day the teacher is having. There's no true feeling that I "belong" here. I'm kind of just here and speak to people when I'm spoken to or just talk to the people in my wing.

The culture in the building has changed a lot throughout the year. As we continue to invest in students, it's important that we invest in the students/families that bring light to our building instead of those that don't. We continue to let students who disrupt the learning environment and create an unsafe environment stay/come back and there is not a true consequence. We also don't invest in the staff we have. We try to bring in new people to help but staff who have been here feel undervalued and are grasping for support. Everything is kept behind closed doors and there is a lack of honesty and clear communication about what is truly happening in our building. If we want to have a solid culture and have students and staff coming back each year, we have to invest in who we have, hold everyone to the same standards, and address issues head on, instead of having a double standard for both students and staff and addressing issues through all staff meeting or mass emails.

The amount of work being required of leadership compared to the compensation we receive, both in salary and in leave time, is ridiculous. We are not competitive with the county schools in how we pay our teachers and our admin, and we aren’t able to compensate our teachers as well as other NHA schools in our area. It sets us up for failure and to recruit bottom of the barrel teachers.

I've had 5 or less O3's this year. I don't feel like supportive feedback has been given. I don't think communication is effective or given when needed or without prompting and many times when given, it's in a disrespectful, condescending tone. Leadership is inconsistent.

I believe that safety is a big concern at Prevail. Our safety team does not meet regularly to address safety, updates, etc. I believe that there are many scholars who have physical or mental health concerns where safety plans need to be implemented and communicated to all but have not. Furthermore, I believe there is an inconsistency with middle school consequences. Consequences for the same incident seem to differ based off of student's relationship with dean.

Student behavior, insuring we have the proper resources to manage students of all needs.

Our current PTO policy is really limited - only 4 days, no sick leave, no roll over days to the next year, and no payout for unused time. Plus, the process to request time off isn't user-friendly digitally, especially with requesting a leave of absence for bereavement etc. Improving these areas would really boost morale and make the system more fair and efficient.

Special education needs a stronger, multi-sensory, SOR, research-based curriculum.  We need a stronger, effective program to provide consistent support across the years and multiple case managers.

Consider implementing a scheduled mid-day break/recess for middle school students to help them recharge, improve focus, and enhance their overall well-being, leading to better engagement throughout the day.

Perhaps searching for new curriculum for Science and Social Studies.  If that is not feasible, allowing a little more creative freedom in both of those subject areas.  Also, for Upper Elementary, giving the students more opportunities to learn about the state of Michigan.

I would love to be updated about scholars more regularly regarding In school suspension, out of school suspension, dropped from roster so I can plan better.

To improve the support at Walton, I recommend being more intentional in conversations and decisions that impact people’s schedules and responsibilities. For example, checking in with others to see if they are available before assigning tasks—rather than simply telling them what to do—can go a long way. Everyone wants to be considered.  Additionally, I recommend learning how staff members prefer to be addressed—whether by first name, last name, or a specific title—especially in front of students and colleagues. Using preferred names and pronouncing them correctly is a sign of respect and helps individuals feel seen and supported.  Lastly, I believe Walton would benefit from having more support staff instead of relying on individuals to manage multiple roles. For example, having lunch aides, a full-time McKinney-Vento Liaison, an additional social worker, etc., would provide more consistent support—for both students and staff—and allow people to focus on what they were hired for.

A compensation plan that rewards retention and growth/experience in each position. Benefits to support

The biggest issue with the policies and procedures is that they are inconsistent. Students are constantly adjusting to new policies. Start the year with clear expectations for driveline, lunch, phones, dress code.   Also please train employees on timecard entry and be responsive to issues. We have bills to pay. Phoenix's full-time teachers were suddenly required to submit timecards without a single training video. We got an email with instructions to follow, and if we messed it up, we didn't get paid on time. Train us. Tell us the most common mistakes BEFORE we make them.

I appreciate the feedback to correct things. However, as many have stated we also need feedback of encouragement. Not just from our direct manager all leadership. I have felt defeated this year. Yes I made mistakes however, I have not been told I'm doing anything correct.

Make sure curriculum is age appropriate

When changes are presented, staff is given more than a 24hr notice and feedback is received and welcomed.

For k-2 especially, I feel our writing curriculum is not able to be taught efficiently and effectively due to time constraints and the amount that the curriculum is wanting during that time frame. It has also been hard to keep them interested as some of the material is rather dry for them.

If there is a system in place for PTO and allotted days, then it needs to be actually followed. Having staff that has taken off 20 days of the school year and have not had a direct consequence doesn't seem fair. If there are steps laid out at the beginning of the year about the expectations and consequences it needs to be followed, or it becomes irrelevant.   There are other areas I think that need improvement as well. I feel supported by my direct manager, however I am unhappy with the way I have been treated by a particular member of the administrative team. I often feel as though they are focused on finding faults rather than recognizing the efforts and successes of my team and me. The feedback received has been consistently negative, and I have not experienced any acknowledgment of the positive contributions we make. This has impacted morale and made the work environment feel unnecessarily critical.

Dismissal from inside an everyday occurrence

Would like to incorporate specific curricula to help special education students with reading fluency and math comprehension.

There is so much gossip and high school jealousy / pettiness that circulates around the school on a daily.  Teachers are often kept in the dark about many things that affect them until the last minute, which is very stressful.  The "Smile in your face and talk behind your back" is very real here.  You never know who to trust and believe.  It makes the job harder than it already is, unfortunately.

Bathrooms and classrooms need to be cleaned way better.

As a teacher who truly cares about my students and being present for them, I’ve found it challenging to maintain a healthy balance with our current PTO and sick leave policy. Because both are combined, I often come to work sick to save days in case of future illness or mental health needs. This not only slows recovery but also risks spreading illness. I respectfully suggest adding a few dedicated sick days only to each year. It would support our well-being, ease the teacher guilt of being absent, and help us stay healthy and effective for our students.

Make sure things are communicated to all and not some.

I would like more classroom support! I am unable to give my students the individualized time they need especially students with special needs. Having support staff in the classroom at all times makes a huge difference to the learning experience and should be prioritized, simply saying we are short staff just isn't a good enough excuse. Find ways to outsource or pay more if you have to because our students deserve the help, and quite honestly so do we.

It feels that the k6, high school, and middle school are divided. They are "different" but as one school body there does not feel like a sense of community. Most of the time middle school is left out or forgotten about where k6 and high school are the top priority. This year middle school has experienced very challenging behaviors, and they were overlooked when teachers were begging for support and help. The middle school dean did the best he could, however he has been pulled in every direction to support and take over a number of jobs, again leaving the middle school with little support. Along with this, every grade has had an activity this year, except for the middle school. If middle school was included, it was a last minute and felt like an obligation to include middle school instead of being intentional. These events were very poorly communicated with the middle school team. If it weren't for the manager and teachers there would not be intentional events planned for students.

I would like the manager to have a clearer vision and more training before they take on a new role. It was apparent that most, if not all, of the new managers did not know what they were doing and continued to struggle with seemingly basic tasks. They do not know the curriculum for every grade level, they are unaware of disgruntled employees, and they struggle to find the correct way to support their employees. The managers also do not seem to care about the employees. Every concern brought to them is met with combativeness and denial. They have a way they want things to be perceived and are either unaware or refuse to accept any differing perspective.

I would like to discuss my current benefits and compensation package. I've encountered ongoing challenges navigating the health insurance plan, specifically with identifying in-network providers. The high deductible also presents a significant barrier to accessing timely healthcare due to upfront costs.  Furthermore, I believe a review of my current compensation is warranted. Considering the scope of my responsibilities, the consistent level of effort I dedicate to my role, and the demands I manage, I believe a reclassification to a salaried position with commensurate compensation would more accurately reflect the value I bring to the organization.

More Paid-Time Off and extra sick days. I believe those two should be different when counting absences. I believe 7 days is not enough time off for an employee due to sicknesses, emergencies, doctor's appointments, funerals, etc.

I feel the upper management needs to take the time to personally recognize others and teaching staff within the school on what we do well. I feel now we are constantly being told what we could do better or what we are doing wrong and never given recognition for the good we are doing in class. If we ever do receive renegotiation it's as a whole school and never feels personalized.

I would not count sick days with PTO.

The role of Curriculum Specialist covers a variety of people in the network, yet the level of support and skillsets of each are vastly different. A structure that identifies strong candidates and allows them to use their skillsets and leadership would go along way. Not only would it allow people to feel appreciated for the level of commitment to the job that serve, but they could be used as model examples of what Curriculum Specialists should look like.

the civics stuff is garbage.

One of my issues is absenteeism. What can be done about scholars missing so much of class?

More teacher workdays.

I feel at times I was not being herd and not always understood. Feel like I was not given the fairness of my efforts  deserved

Culture can become more impactful for our students and staff when everyone is on the same page. Understand our roles in more definition.

The cubbies on the walls of our rooms are showing their age. Our rooms are not cleaned consistently. Some days, it is clear that the floor is not cleaned. Also, for those of us with rugs in our rooms, it would be nice to have a vacuum available in the hallway for us to clean them, since the overnight crew only does it a few times a year.

The biggest area for improvement that I notice is the bathrooms. Students often make comments that the bathrooms smell bad and I have heard a few comments from parents and vistors in the building that the bathrooms smell unsanitary. The staff bathrooms also need more attention. Many spaces go weeks without being touched and this contributes to the overall cleanliness of the bathroom.    In the fall we were given a weekly cleaning schedule that laid out the expectations for when our rooms would be cleaned. This does not happen consistently and I am often doing this cleaning myself. The only cleaning that happens consistently in my room is the trash being changed. Vacuuming and light cleaning are very rare.   The cleanliness of our building is a reflection on our professionalism and I feel this is one area we can improve to demonstrate excellence at Vanguard.

The current Algebra and geometry books has mistakes and some homework problems are not addressed in the lesson.

I would like to see the carpets tiles replaced more often and the air condition system to obtain a deep clean

Security guards who constantly walk through the halls

I think there should be a school substitute. This will help to ensure paras stay in classrooms.  Identify students behavior and have a behavioral for students with behavior problems that are not being medicated. A class to teach emotional regulation for whole class. (One a month)  Assemblies to motivate students and their learning.

Pay based on years of experience - not just what you managed to negotiate.

I wish there was a much more nuanced approach to educating the students. For example, the mandatory Interim, NWEA, and OST tests combined takes away a lot of teaching time and I would argue impedes learning. Maybe considering doing only Interim or only NWEA and alternate so teaching time increases. Also requiring teachers to fill out data charts based on the excessive testing seems like an inefficient use of teachers time. Teachers should know how their students do on tests to inform future teaching, however, less testing would still do this and less data to enter giving teachers more time to prepare with data that is already available. So much time is put into testing yet even during PLC administrators rarely chime in, so it feels like an overbearing chore without yielding good results. Data driven is good, but data can come from work performance. Maximum teaching time, data analysis based on teacher performance and style would serve students better than a blanket testing mandate.

Hiring security

I did not feel that my manager supported me or provided information if I had a question.  Their was a lack of involvement and a lack of passion in the role.  I typically had to go search for information by asking other teachers or managers.

I would recommend hiring security personnel or adding more support staff to assist with keeping the halls safe and clear. Additionally, better protocols are needed for students who repeatedly display violent behaviors, are rude and disrespectful to peers and adults (unprovoked), and consistently disrupt class time.

Finding ways to split the work load between teams

We continue to hear that compensation is not something admins can control, but that message is becoming increasingly frustrating. Many of us have advanced degrees and yet are still forced to work multiple jobs to support ourselves. Even if you cannot directly raise salaries, we deserve to know what concrete actions, if any, are being taken to advocate for fair compensation and address these very real and ongoing concerns. Silence or dismissal on this issue only deepens staff discouragement.

The students have a hard time relating to the novel choices in the middle school grades - the background knowledge required to relate to the stories is lacking and needs to be directly taught.  Further, the students would benefit greatly if the curriculum is slowed down - they struggle to keep up with all of the required facets.

The 1st grade curriculum for math requires too much testing without enough time to instruct. Reducing the number of assessments would allow more instruction time.  The FSAs also do not help access well. FSAs are designed to assess reading mastery instruction which is provided my the interventionist. The teacher is required to test and reteach the content, which doesn’t make sense since the teacher never gives reading mastery instruction.

It would be great to have multiple text sets (6-7 books per set) for reading EB groups throughout the year.

The curriculum does not match the student's needs at all. Then the classes are mixed so some students understand it very well but others do not.

We should be paid for sick days that we don't take.

I believe my experience at NHA could be improved through more consistent and transparent communication from my manager, specifically ensuring that all admin are on the same page and relaying the same information instead of various responses from each person. Additionally, I’ve experienced a sense of disconnectedness between administration and the teaching staff. At times, decisions seem to be made without fully consulting or informing those directly involved, which can lead to confusion and frustration. I also feel that disciplinary issues are not always handled appropriately, with a stronger focus on pleasing parents rather than supporting teachers and reinforcing clear, consistent expectations.

Have to take a look at the math curriculum and make sure that its meeting the student needs, and giving them the opportunity to have at bats, instead of just testing them on reading comprehension in math problems.

Having a set response to all behaviors and following through with them for all kids.

I believe that bonuses for staff, particularly around the Christmas break would be great!  In addition, I believe that NHA's salaries should be on par with those of the public school system.  I fully understand the economics at play, but I also believe that a focus group can come up with some innovative ways to help.

The curriculum does not align from one grade to the next . There are a lot of gaps in the curriculum moving from one grade to the next. There are also lots of supplies that have to be printed out daily and sometimes we do not even have the recorded needed to complete task. Workbooks also do not have all pages that need to be completed which is additional printing, where we already do not get unlimited paper.

There's no clear communication about next steps. No one ever says what other opportunities are available.

I would like more opportunities for professional development independently and as a team.

Hire more janitors or people who know how to clean.

More pay for teachers!

sweep, mop and wipe down classrooms and student service rooms

Student behaviors

More support for behaviors and students who are academically struggling. Some extreme behaviors make it very difficult for other students to learn and be successful.  Most radio calls, no one will come and assist and if there is support, the teachers are often questioned for calling for support.

I appreciate the opportunity to share feedback. I want to start by acknowledging that my direct manager has been phenomenal this year. She has provided unwavering support and has exemplified servant leadership, especially during a challenging first year without a dean. Her efforts have greatly benefited our team, and I am grateful for her leadership.  However, I do have concerns about the broader culture within our administrative team. There have been instances where a member of leadership has spread misinformation about our team, which has led to a feeling of being targeted unfairly. Additionally, the feedback we receive often focuses on negatives without balancing it with recognition of our hard work and successes. Despite our team's significant contributions and the consistent efforts to support our scholars — including their regular incentives — the lack of acknowledgment towards staff has been disheartening and has impacted morale.  Further, the scheduling of meetings during our planning times and the fr

The attendance policy at JCA is one of my biggest issues. Not enough days, the process and no non paid leave.

Provide a clear path for employees to use NHA funding to continue their education process that is outside of the normal schooling.  Certifications / Conferences / Tech courses

Not every teacher is held to the same standard at NHA. Unfortunately, that leaves other teachers with the responsibility of picking up their slack because they are not held accountable.

More PTO days

Hourly restroom checks

I was really hopeful when the lionheart experience came and when their curriculum was being used. Kids do need a sense of connection and belonging to form trust ans then thrive in school. Many teachers and staff still approach "bad behaviors" with a punishment mindset instead of restorative. This breaks the connection and trust with kids. More time should be devoted to things like lionheart, SEL, and moral focus. This will create a healthier student body and help retain teachers. Right now, many are reaching burnout and are not making wise choices in the heat of the moment (teachers and students)

With the students eating in the classrooms, I believe that the floors throughout the schools should be cleaned daily.

Cleaning student bathrooms so they don't smell like urine on Monday mornings, cleaning vents and such to prevent mold from getting in the air, cleaning classrooms floors and hallways daily.

NHA should provide more boost morale, bonuses and PTO time.

We need more space. We have several intervention staff holding groups in the hallways. Specials teachers get moved out of their rooms regularly to accommodate meetings and other groups. Small group testing is really hard to do because there is so limited quiet spaces to host them.

Less costly for employees

Compensation could see improvements. Enrollment gets paid quite a bit lower than other teams in the service center and without the enrollment team you would have no customers and no need for teachers, curriculum, buildings, ect. There are also no bonuses given in enrollment for working hard and reaching successful seasons such as first days, count day, end of open enrollment, lotteries, re-enrollment, and end of the year from the service center. We do not even get Christmas bonuses. We are not even give time for team outings anymore. We used to have more team building events and PREMA engagement outings as well a few times a year and last year there was one right after count day. It would be nice to see more of these again.   #20 sometimes it is all about the numbers with enrollment and NHA as the service center doesn’t always look at the 1 child.

It is important to look at the needs of students enrolling into our school. What is a least restrictive environment differs on the child. If a student is thriving at another school in a self contained classroom and the parent want to see if they can move them to another placement. I would love to see us attempt to provide the student with a placement that is close to their current placement. In this example, provide a one on one. Currently, we are not placing them in this manner. Instead we just put them into the full general education with no one on one assistance or para in the classroom and assume the student will thrive, they don't. I understand finding workers is the challenge, is there a way to receive this type of support from NHA?

Behaviors from numerous students; for example a student hitting and kicking a teacher, tossing desks, ransacking a class, screaming consistently in class. The teacher does as the dean directs (give the appropriate write up, documentation and call home/give a proper consequence) but the student is not held accountable by the dean/school administration. There should be no reason why a student can physically harm a teacher multiple times, risking the safety of other students, and that student still be enrolled. There needs to be additional procedures than just a BSP. The rules need to be more strict on mandatory parent shadows. The dean also uses favoritism for certain teachers. Some can get off the hook with doing things that other teachers can't. Like following the schedule, attending meetings, following curriculum, class behavior, accountability. Also the dean not taking accountability for their actions and blaming the teacher instead so they wont get in trouble. Lastly, micromanaging.

There are so many dense and thorough academic elements offered. However, it almost seems as if we are trying to put too many things on students plates, that we don't allow time to respect their learning. We also continuously build on concepts in a shallow manner, that the result seems to be depth without width. They don't really have the opportunity to apply what they have learned or even for productive struggle, to concrete the learning before we have to move onto the next subject. While student reflection, discourse and collaboration has to be intentionally intertwined into any subject or lesson, again there is just too much to cover in a limited amount of time. While simultaneously; the school day seems to be too long for younger students to maintain stamina and older students to have extracurricular activities while still maintaining a healthy family bond and sleep habits. Maybe eliminating some things would allow for greater quality over quantity in the curriculum.

New carpets- or no carpets at all. The carpets are gross, hold smell and are not properly cleaned.

Cleaner restrooms and facility

The bathrooms at the school need to be cleaned more and stocked with toilet paper, soap and paper towels. The classrooms are not well maintained. My cabinet has been broken for 2 years and reported multiple times with no effort to fix it.

at least making it to where breaks and such are paid would be extremely helpful. we are told to use pro but we are only given i believe, 6 days for the year which we are expected to use for sick days, emergencies that come up, breaks, snow days, extra holidays we have off, etc. it just doesn’t come close to balancing. what we do is fulfilling and it’s something i would genuinely want to do for a long time but it’s hard to want to when every couple months we take a hit to our pay and have to worry about how we are going to pay our bills

I think we need to have some more events that increase parent involvement and allows us teachers to collaborate with each other and our students' families.

It is a problem everywhere but some people do more than others all the time, some just do the bear minimum and it effects the team as a whole

I'm not sure

I wish that Knapp was still a 3 dean school. Due to behaviors and other high expectations of our dean being over Y5-5th it makes it hard to be able to effectively check in. Our dean has to much on their plate.

If we had a dean for the lower elementary(K-3 wing), we could provide quality support to teachers, which would improve academic growth and ensure behaviors are managed promptly and effectively. There is no clear guidance or leadership and I didn’t have a single 03 meeting with my dean this school year.

I’m not sure how it can fit in the budget but it would be appreciated if interventionists can get some form of pay during the weeks off instead of having to use PTO time during our days off to make it a decent check.

Deep cleaning of carpets, bathrooms, dusting, trash outside, Sanitize more

Receiving recognition via verbal or written throughout the year from manager.  Not just high fives but making sure staff feel appreciated for each of their roles within the school.

The message from the big bosses is very clear. Anything is on the table to be sacrificed in the name of test scores; I was told to "triage" students by the C&I team because they wanted a larger percentage of the class as a whole to reach proficiency. I can't help but see that as anything other than a disconnect between what actually goes on in a classroom and the goals of data-driven administrators. That is, it might be beneficial in terms of metrics to "triage" kids, but is abandoning them not causing invariable harm down the line? Is it even morally acceptable? When this was asked of me it came with a rejoinder of how "gross" it feels to even ask. The kids also did not like being told that I was asked to triage: they felt betrayed, I think. Good news? They did learn what the word triage means. Bad news? I wasn't able to follow through with the triage plan; felt too much like "as long as the shareholders are happy we'll do what we have to do!

Communication with all teams

It's not PreEminent, it's the state that we work in.

I feel the principal doesn't exist in the school, she is rarely seen nor heard from. When I first started at Phoenix I did not feel welcomed, & still to this day I feel that way from many. It's hard to feel appreciated & valued when people walk past you in the hallway & don't speak to you. There is a lack of community or oneness through out the entire school. Personally, my team feels very frustrated that they are not being heard from our direct dean and that things are not being worked on to improve. I feel like this is due largely to the leadership at the school, & has a trickle down effect on everyone! I do not feel like there is a since of community or belonging at the individual school buildings, let alone as a whole at Phoenix Academy! There is a lot of need for improvement in communication, recognition, value, & team mentality. There is also a feeling that changes will not be made. It seems the leadership team at Phoenix is more reactive than proactive, & this NEEDS to be fixed!

I recommend improvement in the area of safety. There need to be safety and threat assessment training for groups of individuals. Those individuals can train others in the school(s) to be proficient and effective against certain acts of violence and threats. I can comment more in person.

We have a rubric to clearly define roles and advancement 1,2,SR, etc. which is awesome, but it doesn't seem like that actually means anything. They're not followed. This job feels like a dead end job. There is little to no advancement opportunities at NHA. Leadership is also afraid to ask the E team for proper compensation. We're considerably underpaid, and seeing the new Innovation team get paid so much more than us is salt in the wound. It often feels like our leadership views us as very replaceable and not valuable. I would really like to see this change. It would drastically improve life working at NHA.

If you are going to recognize staff, recognize ALL staff. Some people work hard and go above and beyond for teachers, students, and deans, but aren't recognized. And not put on the appreciation rotation, but we are expected to buy gifts for others.

n/a

I would love for concerns about curriculum to be taken into consideration before there is a random change in it. 1st grade team complained about giving comprehension quizzes and not effectively teaching the skill long before they wanted to change the curriculum and nothing was done to help. We felt as though we were setting our students up for poor grades when giving quizzes on a topic not being thoroughly taught. The curriculum team either didn't seem to care or didn't mention that they were changing curriculum due to said complaint (would've been nice to know).

There is a real disconnect between leadership and the teachers. The leadership team needs to find a balance to be more attentive to their teachers, aside from O3s. They need more support when dealing with the behaviors of some students.

I understand that Louisiana requires Tier 1 Curricula, but sometimes those curricula are not as effective as they think. I know that we cannot change the requirements, but I would like to have more autonomy to bring in outside resources to get our scholars where they need to be.

Be Clear and Direct Use simple, specific language so the employee understands exactly what you're talking about. Specific classroom happenings that could use improvement or are doing well.  Offer Suggestions, Not Just Criticism Help them improve by suggesting what to do differently. Be Timely (as timely as our job allows us to be)  Give feedback as soon as possible after the event so it's fresh and useful. Praise Good Work Publicly When someone does a great job, say it in team meetings or emails so others see their good work. Ask for Input (my dean does this but it is nice to get it from all deans as a way to collaborate with other wings)  Let staff respond or share their perspective. This builds trust and two-way communication.

I do not feel 8 days is sufficient PTO for staff. Working with a population that is constantly bringing illness into our work place, I feel there should be 10 days of PTO (theoretically 1 per teaching month). Many teachers are coming to school sick when they shouldn't need to and it only causes more illness to spread.  I also don't like that this survey only lets you pick one area of improvement versus as many positives as it likes.  Finally, teachers still don't know who is getting a contract yet for next year and that is unacceptable.

Compensation increases are always something that can be improved.

More opportunities for pay increases. More opportunities to earn pay for extra jobs that are taken on by teachers.

Additional expectations of building cleaning.  All areas need additional attention from custodial staff, during the school day and especially after hours.

Pay increase opportunities etc.

Compensation should be offered when subbing. Para's sub more than they are able to do their work. Some co-workers make you feel unappreciated and take advantage.

It would be nice to receive positive feedback along with all of the criticism we get. I understand that constructive criticism is important and encourages us to push ourselves to be the best, but there is rarely any recognition for what we are doing well. The way it's done now is very discouraging.

I feel the Bayou Bridges Social Studies program could use a workbook with skills and hands on activities to enhance the learning of our scholars.

N/A

Include more classes.

Specific step by step process for student behavior that is followed religiously. Also to eliminate the "gray area" for all students (even those with IEP's and 504's). (Many of our repetitive/ daily significant behaviors are from students who fall into this area.... but ABSS is responding to these each time with no support/ end in sight). It is difficult, if not impossible, to do well by our caseload students and/or support our teachers due to this.   Parent collaboration and effort REQUIRED for student behavior. It's not acceptable to leave their student at school all day without answering the phone when there are significant issues (more than one occasion with more than one parent), we are left to babysit with students not in a place to learn.  Stop targeting the "bubble students". If we are claiming to push for all of our student's academic successes, how does this not prove just the opposite. We are showing these students that we have given up on them.

Some teachers will go all out to prepare for an afterschool program for the scholars, and by the end of it there is little recognition for their hard work or no recognition at all. I also feel like there are not many consequences put in place when it comes to behavior. Scholars are let back into the classroom as if nothing happened only to continue the behavior.

Communication efforts are noticed with plenty of the right intentions, however I personally have been affected by some lapses in communication.  I would recommend support channels should be reiterated well in advance of deadlines for data requests to have things run more smoothly and less stressful.

Team communication is week at our school. Not everyone feels included in activities and updates for staff. Lack of communication between leadership and staff as far as individual improvement is concerned.

Pay better

Better budgeting for more qualified interventionist/specialist positions versus nonqualified paraprofessional positions to provide intensive interventions for students.

The cleanliness of our school could use some improvement.  The bathrooms (staff and student) specifically. We could definitely use more Kleenex for our school. We usually have a week where there is not any Kleenex in the building.

I am not a fan of the scripted curriculum, It moves too fast and it take away my creativity as a teacher.

Adapting the curriculum to the students learning to help them better understand what they are learning about and retain the information given to them.

Provided professional development that shows you how to implement technology, small groups and how to utilize data in the classroom. Also, to actually have teachers observe another teacher who in doing it efficiently in their classroom.

We need more than 5 paid day off. We need sick days as well as vacation days that are more than 5 days to have a work/life balance in my opinion.

I do not feel that the money I am paid is worth the job and the student behaviors I have to deal with on a daily basis.

Role clarity: role responsibilities should be shared immediately (and explicitly) upon hiring any new staff member, and remain accessible throughout employment so staff can appropriately gauge their progress and seek support from supervisors as needed.

Allow for students to possibly support in helping clean the school so that it's not as messy when janitors come to clean.

Recommendations: ask for feedback (I see lack of it), listen actively, foster a supportive work environments (teachers are not supported and often  blamed on), let us have our prep hour instead of meetings during that hour (right now we have 3-4 meetings per week during our prep time), demonstrate ethics, professional behavior, language and tone.

I would like for there to be accountability for students who frequently do nothing in class. Also for students that put others in danger to have more serious consequences.

Some times the given lesson does not connect with the students well when it comes to overall comprehension and interest. However, changing the lesson to fit the student's interest makes it more engaging faults me for not following instructions.

Recognize everyone that is doing their job not just the ones that are the loudest and require more attention.

more PTO time

I feel that hourly employees need more paid time off or some sick leave,  it's just not realistic to think that 5 days is enough to cover snow days, unpaid holidays, spring break and ect.. which we do not get paid for.

n/a

keep everything consistent dont show favoritism when it comes to others  pretends like everything is ok and then give a write up when concerns have not been addressed  don't tell teachers to ask for help with behaviors and then criticize or punish them when they do  There should never be three teachers in one classroom and the reason being is because they cant handle the classroom behaviors and dynamics. Then when another teacher needs coverage you tell them there isn't any. Prior to that situation you  applaud them for working out a coverage situation when its convenient but when the same school they work at needed to have a behavior meeting for their child it was put in a write up that it was a problem that coverage was found. The coverage that was found didnt disrupt any learning or instruction either.   Was told for friendship week that we could go and give the friendship heart to a coworker in the building to boost work morale and it was during my lunch but got a write up

I've already discussed my ideas with my dean and school, and they are working to get them into place next year.

When it come to accommodations and meeting these children needs academically. Here at Legacy Character it was communicated to me that we don't have a SPED team originally. I advocated for one of my students foe speech and at the time there were no services available. Once we did get some services for this student there were no communication with the parent, teachers, and sped team for accommodations and paperwork.

Clean up staff cleaning all room not just homeroom classrooms. The classroom I work in is never cleaned up after and even the rooms that are, all they do is vacuum which most times you cannot even tell it has been vacuumed. Desks are not sanitized or anything and I feel they should after a school day. There is a roach problem at this school and though it is not present in all classrooms, I know it has been an issue for some classrooms and I feel if better sanitation practices is put into place then roaches will not be an issue. I should not be concerned about bringing home a roach from work.

Giving information at O3,s and staff meetings

I am a travel teacher and I move around to a variety of schools.  I don't know/feel that the moral focus presented is used, or is enough to enhance, or improve the culture deficits within various schools.  There are some schools that need a more structured program to help students manage negative behaviors that negatively affect everyone around them.  There is a program that I feel can impact student's negative behaviors and create change is called, How to Make Good Choices, which is a children's version of, The Way to Happiness for young adults.  This program is a non-religious moral code which is proven to help students use a common sense approach to making a better choice in their young lives.

Better compensation for Paraprofessionals/Title one Teachers. Making sure the support staff gets compensation for Winter Break and Spring Break.

In house certification. I paid a lot for the certification program I am in.  When I tried for reimbursement it was too difficult and I let it pass.

 Better pay

More flex days and opportunities to do activities outside of the curriculum. Not feeling like we're doing something wrong if we supplement materials while still teaching what we're supposed to. There are not a lot of opportunities for "fun" learning activities, and I wish we had more autonomy to do fun things.

I have had an incredibly tough year and I feel NHA doesn't support the release of dangerous and unproductive students.

There is no support for student behaviors but an increase in teacher expectations. There needs to be a CONSISTENT  system where students AND parents are held accountable. This will give teachers more confidence in their job and leadership team.

We are told we cannot take days off leading up to a holiday or we don't get paid for the holiday. My kid's school schedule isn't the same as ours! I shouldn't be penalized for having children with a different schedule

A standard 4 dean model across all schools- EC and intervention need a dean devoted to them, but that shouldn't take away from K-8 Smaller class sizes or more support (paras or TAs) especially in grades K-2 Curriculum that is more manageable for teachers

Students need to be held more accountable for their behaviors. Student behaviors need to begin being handled at the beginning of the year.

The Specials Team is left out of certain PD's because it doesn't apply to us. NHA needs to provide PD specific to Specials Teams, just like they have for Core-Content areas.

I believe there should be an equal amount of PTO and sick time as well as a separation of paid time off and sick time.

NHA's curriculum often feels out of touch with students' true learning needs.

After any verbal meeting, it is important to document everything thoroughly, including instances when employees miss a day or leave early. Ensure there is enough time allowed for proper preparation.

I do not feel my manager is learning as quickly in her role as we need. She pushes questions off on others or does not help find solutions. Situations do not feel adequately resolved. She is out of the building frequently and inappropriately having team leads or her Dean shadow performing her duties.

Teachers should be compensated for their experience, education, performance and ability to grow students/reach proficiency.

Can aramark clean the classrooms daily? We all want more money!

Increased collaboration vertically within subjects. We have occasional meetings, but they are rarely used for discussing alignment of goals to prepare scholars for the next year.

I would love a centralized calendar which includes all of the assemblies, field trips, etc. that affect scheduling that is accurate and up-to-date for the whole school to access.

The compensation is acceptable for me, but taking into account all the taxes, I would ask you to improve for us. thank you

Better systems for disciplining students, training on restorative justice practices

It's not clear to me that our families have bought in to the value-add offered by NHA. I think we need greater parent buy-in to the cultural ambition of high expectations & performance. One simple way to address this might be to require parent volunteer hours.

Trust your NEW staff more and believe that they are here for the students learning and progress just as much as the senior staff. New staff should be able to share their opinions and be heard without a senior teaching coming in and changing things "just because.

Eight days is not enough for most people I've spoken to. We need more days, or at least a system where we can take unpaid leave if we are past our time

Don't feel it is necessary to meet every week

I would like to address student accountability and discipline procedures. There is a lot of push to create positive behavior documentation here at Linden. I agree that is it important to identify and praise those students who are doing the right thing, but I fully disagree that the expectation should be for teachers to log those positive behaviors in a system. The NHA behavior system should be for negative behaviors only. Everything else is unimportant to actually document.   Also, regarding negative behaviors, there are repeat offenders in every class. They consistently de-rail lessons and cause others to engage in disruptive behavior. I have had to personally pull students week after week after week for the same situations over and over, while the rest of the class understands what is expected. Whatever discipline procedures that are taking place are not working.

Longer lunch time

There is a lot of work I do that does not seem to benefit the education of the students.

This year Technology has been a struggle with having an IT person here only twice a week, and having to email an IT department to solve issues. At points I felt like giving up on getting issues fixed. It was also a struggle to keep student Chromebooks fixed. Finally, I had my laptop taken due to regular maintenance, and was given a different laptop that did not work as well. It also had power cords and HDMI cords on the opposite side of my original laptop, causing me to have to change up my classroom 2/3s of the way through the year. This lead to me tripping over the HDMI cable making it unusable and having to go without one for almost a month.

Make students accountable for their bad behavior and being Disrespectful. Some come to school to Disrespect and do no work. We have been in school over a 100 days and students students haven't improve in grades, because of their Disrespectful Behavior.

Compensation-Teachers need to be paid such that they are more closely aligned with the Public School systems.  Some teachers with many years of experience barely make more than newer teachers here, even with a little as 3 years experience.  With my credentials, I would be at nearly $70k in the Public school sector, but I'm currently about $9k less.    Technology-PLEASE GET RID OF THE AWFUL DELL LAPTOPS FOR TEACHERS!!!!!!!!   HP offers devices that are FAR better than DELL.

Students are not held accountable to the next steps. When a repeat offender students are written up, there are few consequences for a write up. Students are aware of this fact and continue to do things that they are not supposed to.

The Deans are poor leaders who go on power trips instead of learning how to work with staff. They do not handle behavior properly, and students are suspended based on how the Dean feels that day, not based on conduct. Behavior is out of control, teachers don’t feel safe, and many want to quit. Morale has been low all year, and the lack of bonuses made it worse. Nobody respects the Deans because they focus on everything except actually doing their jobs. Instead of focusing on leadership and discipline, they focus on controlling staff and pushing personal agendas. This is a major issue that directly impacts staff retention, school culture, and overall safety at our school.

The culture is healthy at NHA for the most part. I feel as if our salary does not match the amount of work and effort we put into our school time.

Compensation needs to be increased based on experience, especially in light of rising inflation and the increasing cost of living.

Trust employees and allow autonomy to foster innovation and solutions.  Provide perks such as workcations.

Technology should be upgraded to include newer computers for the staff.

Walton deserves a principal who will lead with integrity, not indifference. We need someone who addresses discipline seriously and appropriately instead of overlooking disruptive behavior just to keep attendance numbers up for funding. That approach may protect dollars, but it drains the true heroes of our school: the teachers. It's time for leadership that’s present, engaged, and supportive not passive-aggressive or detached. Our students, staff, and school community need a principal who is ready to step up, not just show up.

Teachers at NHA are not paid appropriately or competitively. Other schools in the vicinity offer higher pay and better/affordable benefits. Many teachers are leaving Excel due to lack of compensation and the lack of raises/promotions/bonuses. NHA treats schools as a corporation rather than a learning environment at times and if they want to keep on great teachers, then they need to start showing value to those individuals through compensation.

We need clear systems that everyone is both taught and held accountable for to ensure that each team member is aware of how to utilize one another.  I think this can be done through professional development along with providing a clear org chart. I believe our org chart should include everything from how ordered materials are tracked and delivered to academic and behavioral procedures.  We should also have plans put in place to communicate with parents.  We also need to think through how we will work through infractions to our systems.

The pay is not competitive.  Para's who have been here years don't make squat for an hourly wage.  Incoming people with less experience, make more than those who have been here awhile with more experience.

This needs to be multifaceted.  One, the curriculum needs to drive scholars without ignoring their current abilities and encapsulating a teacher's capacity to assist in scholar success. Two, the lack of communication creates an insecure environment that lacks equity, shared progression, and the acknowledgement of individual strengthens and weaknesses.  Last, there is a lack of support when it comes to scholar responsibility and accountability.  Scholars are permitted to be aggressive, disrespectful, defiant, and create an inhospitable environment for others with little to no penalty.

I would like to see communication happen between teams more frequently.  Potentially more opportunities to collaborate as mixed teams (ex: not just hallway teams, ABSS, sped teams, etc.)  I know this is most likely a struggle to get all parties to participate openly.  However, we work with our teams regularly, but we don't make the time to collaborate with other teams and I feel that we have opportunities to share and collaborate at all levels.   Also, I wish communication would come in advance.  I know planning sometimes has to happen last minute, but I wish we were more prepared with planning and sharing communication in advance rather than last minute.

Teacher Aides (Paras) should be paid like substitute teachers due to we have to cover classes when teachers are absent.  Substitute teachers are call in to cover classes and do not no students or what is being taught in the class.

Taylor the curriculum a bit to our student's needs. a lot of our students are behind/enroll academically below grade level and the curriculum does not help to teach them where they are.

N/A

Communicate more openly and freely with all grade levels.  Do more activities together with all grade levels.

PD that is more specific to the needs of my job and my schools needs.

Benefits training or advising during open enrollment would be helpful for me

I feel like the teachers here are often stressed and some even have high blood pressure from stress. The expectations are very high on the teachers and the work-life balance isn't good. I, along with others I know, take the mental stress from working here home, as well. My recommendations would be to change the professional atmosphere where teachers were happy to walk through the door, had smiles on their faces because they loved working here, and didn't often "walk on eggshells." The atmosphere frequently feels negative and stressful. I'm being more transparent than I usually would be in the hopes that my thoughts make a difference.

Use a real ELA curriculum, not the hodgepodge of ELA parts that it currently is

Better technology

Class sizes are too large. We are testing more than teaching. The curriculum is not age appropriate.

Choose another cleaning service and this was not an option but the food service I trash. I complained about this last year prisoners eat better. Please change the cleaning and food service for better quality food. That carpet in the K1 hallway needs to be replaced not cleaned anymore.

Simplify the curriculum.  Less is more. 'A' level students don't catch on nearly as quickly.  They need a little more practice time before testing.  Less is more!  If they actually came to school on a regular basis would help as well.....here's hoping! lol

we need more clean ups in the restroom because alot of the student been making them messes in there

BP team turnover remains high, and the shift of responsibilities to ER is concerning given the summer workload and our history of poor change management. NHA-Wide: Compensation messaging feels hollow when the CFO says these are the best financial years, yet market teachers face pay decreases and Para pay/compression issues are ignored. It’s hard to reassure schools questioning our financial health.  Disappointed by efforts to tamp down protected concerted activities around pay/bonuses.  PS leadership would benefit from better explaining the “why” behind decisions; dismissing concerns responses erode trust and likely contribute to turnover, which is concerning when entire teams resign.

The technology needs to improve along with the different apps the students can use to enhance their academic growth.

Our special education dean is amazing, but she doesn't have any background in special education. This year was especially difficult, and it would have been helpful to have a dean who could offer specific advice. Her role was new this year, and it didn't seem like there was a plan for spreading the responsibilities evenly among the deans. She was placed in charge of the PSAT, despite having no prior experience and not being in charge of middle school students. That added a lot of stress to the PSAT.   There was also a lot of stress regarding the alternate curriculum at the beginning of the year. Despite knowing that we would have students on it, getting log-in information and training was difficult. It was also hard to get questions answered, because no one seemed to have specific answers. If NHA is utilizing and paying for a program, NHA should also make sure that teachers are set up for success with it. Students on an alternate curriculum are a vulnerable population and deserve more.

There is more than one area in need of improvement. I believe the following areas require attention: appreciation and recognition, workplace culture, paid time off (PTO), coworker relationships, sense of belonging, support, and role clarity. I have unfortunately experienced highly unprofessional and inappropriate comments, and it often feels as though NHA condones this behavior through inaction. I also lack clarity regarding my role, despite asking multiple times, not even my supervisor has been able to clearly define my responsibilities. I was previously informed that we do not offer PTO, so discovering that we actually do was surprising. I’ve personally raised thousands of dollars, furnished homes for families, and facilitated numerous donations, and only been mention 2-3 times or not at all. There is a noticeable lack of support when issues arise; instead of being addressed, they are often ignored. Communication across the team is poor, leading to frustration and confusion.

Compensation could be higher/more closely aligned with public schools.  I would have chosen benefits as well if I could have chosen two.  Compensation does not align with the high cost of health insurance.

In regards to compensation I believe that we should acquire higher competitive wages in the administration roles because office admins are only paid hourly. This affects us when school is closed and on holidays as well. If admins pay were higher we can compensate more for the time admins aren't working.

I think Benefits is a pretty wide breadth of topic areas. Providing more affordable health care through partnership with corewell health. I am not well versed in health insurance policies, but the high deductibles are hard to envision being worth it. PTO is also a pretty low benefit. As a father of two I use all of my "sick days" on my sick kids. It would be helpful just to have some form of roll over from year to year, or have separate sick days, and personal days. At the end of the day, there has to be some sort of positive to working for NHA. Whether it is a strong benefits package, or higher pay than average, I believe there should be a strength in one of those categories.

N/a

electronic materials for students.

Having an extra printer would benefit many of the staff members considering that Warrendale is a k-8 institution and the main printers are in the lounge where other grade level teams may have to meet during another team's prep or O3. We also need more updated manipulatives and resources for the class rooms to make learning more engaging and fun, especially for science where a lot of virtual manipulatives are provided.  A new class room white board can be beneficial for classrooms that have to use white tape to tape the board down for teaching. It would also help to have a gate surrrounding he play scape to avoid the potential of dogs and cars jumping the curb and potentially harming a scholar or staff member.

I truly appreciate and align with the values that Vista and NHA promotes, and am proud to be aprat of the community. However, looking ahead, I may eventaully need to explore other opprtunities as the current compensation is not competitive with surrounding schools. I could make far more working for GRPS. We also need more than 6 PTO days this is not enough time for sickness, appointments, and an occasional personal day.

Encourage or require teachers to enhance the curriculum given to them. It is a good barebones curriculum, but needs a teachers touch in making it helpful for the students.

There needs to be better communication and support from admin in addressing disruptive behavors. More specifically there needs to be better and consistant communication with teachers on how admin is going to deal with a disruptive student. There also needs to be better communication with teachers and staff about incentives for those disruptive students. If those supports and incentives for admin can not be consistent enough, it not help disruptive behaviors better. Strengthening communication and consistency in addressing student behaviors will help with staff feel like they are a valued member of a team rather then on a side of an us vs them battle. On top of that, the expectation for new staff,  is unrealistic. Especially if they are not provided with effective support and training. These expectations make it hard for new teachers and staff to find a work life balance that works for them. This is made harder we are expected to be part of committees and hour long staff meetings.

Opportunities for raises and bonuses

I believe that personal days should be added to our time, there will be times when we will need to see about our own personal care and it should not count against our PTO.

I feel that compensation should be reevaluated and updated appropriately from a market analysis to properly pay employees based on the recent economic changes. Having to provide paid resources from our own money is getting very costly when everything else is going up in price but wages stay the same or barely increase.

1. I know that NHA offers bonuses for performance, I would like to see a list of things that I would qualify for based on my work performance.  2. I've noticed that our school hires a lot of people who are uncertified at the time of hire (even if they are in the process of certification), I would like it if there were incentives for veteran teachers who choose to stay with NHA.   3. I don't like that we work for longer than eight hours each day, (even though I do appreciate the admin team for trying to make improvements) stipends or overtime pay would make me feel better about this situation.

There is no time to squeeze writing into the day and the way it is structured makes no sense, simple things like complete sentences and spelling are not a focus. Instead, students are writing complete essays when they can't even write a complete sentence.

Salary increases due to the stress associated with behavior problems that do not improve throughout the school year. Also, the class sizes are too large considering the amount of behavior issues presented daily in the classroom, often from the same students. Although, the culture is pleasant and its rewarding to teach youth, teaching is minimized when instruction is interrupted or delayed due to ongoing behavior issues in the classroom. The students who are frequently off task and disrupting learning need more support. Therefore, more support staff would likely improve this issue , the dean manages the best she can but she is often too busy to address issues immediately. Considering everything stated, teachers should see an increase in compensation so the behaviors don't run them away.

I would appreciate the implementation of a salary increase following each performance evaluation, based on the outcomes and individual contributions.

Provide more intense intervention for students who are far below grade level with less hope to succeed as they are passed from grade to grade.

Scores do not reflect feelings regarding leadership at Warrendale Charter Academy. The following applies to 6-8 Dean- Lacks communication, commitment, and a sense of responsibility. Disrespects her staff to their fellow teachers. Does not follow through with any commitments to the students and/or staff Does not allow herself to be accessible for staff members.  Allows students to walk freely into her office, without her present. Does not hold any student accountable regarding discipline, procedures, and expectations.  Does not hold herself to the same standards as she holds staff to; often skipping required events and/or showing up late/leaving early.  Has no sense of preparedness. Example: not having MSTEP testing materials available until after test was supposed to start and not being present. Daily other teachers are forced to complete her task and responsibilities.  More concerned with LEXIA than curriculum.  Multiple staff members do not wish to return under her leadership.

I felt like I was on my own a lot this year in terms of team collaboration. I planned a lot on my own and was not sure what I was supposed to be doing in the subjects I did not plan. Oftentimes, those subjects had no plans and copies printed for me until the day it was supposed to be taught. We were constantly working on different things. This may have had to do with outside circumstances, but I felt so out of the loop. I did not feel comfortable planning with or discussing things with my team. Sometimes it felt like a competition I wanted no part of- who did better or who has the worst behaviors, etc.

This one is hard to say, other than increased compensation which I know comes with lots of politics/red tape etc.

Transparency in how and why decisions made based on best use of resources.

Teachers that go on trips should be compensated for their time since they have to stay over night for many days at a time, outside of the normal work day.  This is very hard with kids and pets to try and coordinate.

I do not think that employee are failry compensated for their work. It make them feel undervalued

Class sizes. It is frustrating to have the expectation of getting high testing scores with 30+ students in a classroom especially when there are so many behaviors as part of those 30+ students. Managing a classroom with that many students is a tall task to ask of teachers.

In my classroom it would be wonderful if I could have bulletin boards to display srtudent work.

prioritize mental health and build programs that include diversity and inclusion

If not being paid better, having more chances to be praised with "points

I would like half days for our "time back" instead of early release days. The early release days seem to go by very quickly and sometimes we have meetings during those times. I do appreciate the "time back" as it is now, but a little more time would be great!

Principal and Administration,  One of the most important improvements needed at NHA is addressing the high turnover of staff, particularly teachers, and creating a more supportive, professional work environment. Many teachers feel that their feedback is not genuinely heard by administration. When feedback is offered, it is often met with retaliation instead of collaborative problem-solving, with unnecessary write-ups being issued rather than constructive, solution-focused conversations. For example, Principal has been perceived by many staff as lacking empathy, professionalism, and approachability. Rather than cultivating a welcoming and supportive culture, there have been concerns about gossip among team leaders and pressure placed on admin to carry out punitive actions. Teachers feel punished for minor infractions, such as briefly leaving the classroom to make a copy or for instructional disagreements, without professional dialogue or support. The admin does not effectively listen to or advocate for employe

NEEDS DAILY CLEANING!

I think we have lost some of the fun and family dynamic in the service center and it feels like each dept is an island

Salaries to reflect cost of living increase(groceries, gas, child care needs, ect.)

As a sped para professional we do not have enough PTO time, snow days take up most of them, days we don't get paid like teacher and sick days. By the end of the year we have no PTO time or unpaid time.

Curriculum is not aligned. There's a lack of coherence between learning objectives, instructional methods, and assessments. There are gaps in student learning, confusion for students. There is often not enough time to teach full lessons.   It is hard for teachers to effectively deliver instruction with limited time and small groups that are sometimes the size of a full classroom.  Student work books for ELA curriculum would be nice.

I would like to see security walking around the school and inside the building.  It should be more than one security during dismissal visual.

Two more PTO days would be helpful.

Allowing more time on Teacher Work Days to plan/prepare/grade, rather than use all the time for PD or for quarterly records.

The upper Ele kids and can be handled (behavior wise) and disciplined the same as the lower Ele kids. There needs to be a firmer hand in handing out discipline early in the year. This may result in having to do fewer discipline issues later in the year, both as a whole grade, and with individual/specific students. The dress code policy needs to be completely overhauled on the Elementary side. There are too many loopholes and work arounds that the parents and kids take advantage of. I would structure it more as this is what's NOT allowed (hoodies, leggings, t-shirts, long sleeve shirts, etc) vs. this is what you SHOULD wear (chino pants, collar shirts, etc). Also, when confronting uniform issues, a grade wide tracking sheet that documents each time a student gets a uniform policy strike. I know during the uniform reset, it was 1st strike, phone call home; 2nd write up and call home; 3rd strike; to the dean for possible suspension. I think if that was yr round, we'd have less issues.

No D block and 2 hour classes. Hall moniters. At least bi monthly CLPA only PD days.

I would love it if we were able to have at least one day off every month.

The academics are on a different area with different issues. We need academics for the area of children. Having teacher being able to adjust then lesson could also help the teachers better reach the student.

I consider the community here a large chunk of my compensation. However, if NHA doesn't pay employees what they are worth than I am afraid we will lose good people who no longer can afford to work here.

It would be nice to recieve a bonus or an reasonable increase in pay every year.

More than just a yearly raise of a few cents per hour.

I believe departments need to improve communication and foster a better understanding of each other’s roles and responsibilities. Strengthening collaboration and ensuring clearer information sharing would help avoid misunderstandings and make our work more efficient.

More frequent check ins, actually saying thank you when staff step-up and take on an additional student or task. Multiple staff members haven taken in students from other classes but never were checked in on or told thank you for the hard work they put in to build relationships/manage a new challenging behavior. Other than a team o3, I barely speak to admin- specifically Joe. I understand that he is extremely busy, but it makes staff feel as if he doesn't care because he does not speak to them or ask them how they are. Both Joe and Kim also wear their emotions on their sleeve. If they are upset, everyone knows it as it affects the way the react/respond to even simple questions.

We need more flexibility to provide content that meets our student needs. The insistance of using aspects of the curriculum when our students don't have the materials necessary to complete the activities takes away from teaching and learning. There are multiple activities in our curriculum that require use of a chromebook to complete effectively, but implementing student chromebooks at our school has been difficult. Also, making sure that we have the materials, support and PROCEDURES (not just policies) to facilitate teaching and learning and hold students accountable for their own learning willbe key to making sure that teachers can teach and students can learn.

I feel that it needs some updating.

Allowing teachers input about blocking/unblocking certain technology programs. Train teachers about the security concerns with such programs/apps and that it can still be closely monitored during school. Only accessible from 7-4pm from student accounts?

I would like a more broader and up to date curriculum.

We need to get more money for the pep rallies (for the microphone) because you cannot hear the person talking, we also need do more things the kids actually WANT to do to give them the best experience as possible.

Compensation should be given more fairly.

n/a

Paraprofessionals should be salaried and offered higher pay, COMPARABLE to what is being paid in the LOCALITY....which is $4-$6/hr more than what NHA pays.

50 cent raises are more of a slap in the face than an acknowledgement of employees  dedication, work ethic, and morale. When compensation doesn't reflect the hard work that goes into the job title, that lowers an employees overall morale of the company and can lead to high turnover rates. Pay reasonably is my recommendation.

It would be helpful for admin and teachers to work as a team when resolving behaviors. When admin steps in to handle a behavior, it is often not communicated back to the teachers what steps are being taken. As a result there is an inconsistency in how behaviors are dealt with. This causes confusion for everyone. Teachers spend the most time with students, and their opinions and ideas should be valued. In addition, teachers at this school deserve more respect. It should not matter what position you hold at the school, everyone deserves to be heard. Brand new staff needs better training for their position at the school. Not PD, actual training for specific roles or observing other teachers before diving in.  Work-life balance could improve if our time was respected. New teachers are not capable of doing EVERYTHING correctly their first year. Give grace and support when needed. Actually care about getting to know your staff and not just the select few that you are close with.

Full awareness and accountability of policies and procedures.

There needs to be a ZERO tolerance policy for threats made of any kind towards both students and staff members by students, lighters, and the possession of drugs on the premises.

The days that we are off Paras don't get paid and its really hard with a short pay .

More staff outings that are not segregated.

Higher pay for teachers

There needs to be a more defined way of communicating between teachers, admin, faculty, parents, and students. This including all forms of communication and every conversation that needs to be had including behavior, academics, socially and making sure all parties involved have a clear understanding of what our responsibilities are. The goal at the end of the day is to make sure the students receive a great education in a safe environment and I believe we all can achieve this if communication is clear and concise from the head of leadership down to the students.

Better internet connection, smart boards, bigger classroom space.

Upgrades for projector technology in the classroom

Less money delegated to the people in the highest positions who have never taught. Funnel that money to the lesser appreciated jobs like paraprofessionals and lunch help etc.  More paid time off would be helpful!!

I don't have a suggestion

The leaning into healthy conflict for staff was a beneficial start to communication with colleagues. I think that there needs to be disciplinary actions if a staff member spreads false/personal information to other colleagues. I also think there needs to be a meeting with all staff about spreading information that is given to them or the disciplinary actions that will take place if it is discovered other staff has shared false/personal information

I'm not sure at this time.

The pay and bonus structure for Admissions needs to be reevaluated to better compensate the amount of work Admissions does for NHA and the schools

There are times I still don't understand the process of another department - that I work directly with - and feel that I am not able to ask direct questions to resolve the issue.  I am put in a position of having to finish/approve a transaction that may not be as accurate because it will take too much time to go thru all the channels of finding out what I need to know.  One example is working with the AP dept.  Several AP accountants perform their process steps differently, which causes confusion.  To keep up, you have to adapt to each accountant.  In summary, I feel that it is discouraged to reach out and ask questions right when you need an answer, or the answer is different depending on whom you talk to.   I am not sure how to improve this:  the training in that dept might not be as thorough, or, it might be part of the culture.  The culture would have to change in this area.

As an EC Para, I sometime don't learn how to do something, or that I am supposed to do something, until the very last minute. I understand that this comes with the territory, but it often leaves me and other paras out of the loop.

I think it might make sense to have slightly larger merit increases in salary each year.

Provide consistent updates regarding upcoming events in the building. This year I felt like I was learning about events the day of which caused confusion with classroom routines and parent - teacher communication.  Provide consistent meetings-- There are times were my 03 was canceled or was either taken up by addressing student behavior which would take up the allotted time given for 03. This impacted my opportunity to receive feedback from my observations or get updates regarding upcoming events.

Staff shout outs, positive notes or encouragement.  Compliment boards for classrooms/teachers.  Highlight the positive instead of constantly talking about the negative. Keep staff morale positive.

More hours

Review pay for comparable work at other organizations.

Finding the FSA's on the NHA website is very difficult. Relabeling them on the NHA website/gradebook would very very helpful

I feel that we should have more PTO to account for we have staff that have kids and I feel like appoints for our kids at least shouldn’t count towards absences

Career path discussions as a part of the 03s.

Getting more people, that do their job.

More security during dismissal! Clear bookbag policy for all students. Code words instead of announcing "soft lockdown" and "hard lockdown" over the intercom.

Wish I would know what my job would be before leaving for the summer or if I still have a job to come back to in the fall

Provide more PTO to employees than the minimum compensation required by the state of Michigan.

Everyone be on the same page.

I feel we should have more paid holidays, spring break, summer break

While I have received some job appreciation, it does sometimes feel like it goes unnoticed. I wear A LOT of hats, and love my job, but it would be nice to feel a bit more appreciated sometimes.

We need less activities that exclude people because they require money to be spent like potlucks, gift exchanges over $5, etc. Also less randomly chosen winners for things as it seems mostly the same people get picked. Activities should be all inclusive if they're to promote a sense of belonging and camaraderie. Days we get to dress down should also include everyone, it doesn't promote a uniform environment if we don't allow everyone the same opportunities. In short, we need more activities that openly include all staff in participation and any exclusion comes from a personal choice to not participate; not from the choice being made for them.

I feel that there needs to be more collaboration between NHA and our schools before new policies and procedures are rolled out.

Would like higher wage than what we get. I have 29 on my caseload and do not get paid more

I feel that more consequences should be made to the students that have multiple offenses over and over and over. The behavior is out of control. The pay is extremely low for the amount of responsibilities and roles for a para. I absolutely LOVE my manager!

Programs that help all staff come together more often.

Everyone needs to be paid more if retention is the goal. In comparison to other educational institutions, NHA is not compensating its employees in the way that it should be. The turnover rate will continue to increase if this matter is not addressed.

The people i work with are some of the most helpful coworkers i have ever worked with, however, i feel as though there could be more communication from the company side of work. Sometimes they implement and change things that effect us and we don't know about it until the last second.

I feel like all paraprofessionals or assistant should get paid for the work they do. Some of the para or assistant are going beyond their job. Compensation should cover enough for cost of living. Especially when you have staff member who passionate and love what they do.

I really wish there was more college reimbursement. Since its the one thing that is stopping me from going back to school and becoming a teacher, it would be nice if there was more of an opportunity to go back.   I realize that with each child comes different responsibilities and needs. However with the older children who requires a paraprofessional, a good basic outline for what the expectations of each major assignment given ahead of time from the teacher, to the special education paraprofessional would be greatly helpful. It would give me time to prepare for big assignments and how to best help my student. This would be giving them more time to focus on their work, rather then me trying to first figure out the assignment and it's expectations. I could go right into explaining the assignment, giving the student more time. This is only for larger projects, that take many days to complete.   I see several safety concerns. The open doors in the morning for middle school is one.

n/a no issues at all.

I think we need to look at the "late work" policy and the "50" policy. The "50" policy is good but needs to end after the 2nd or 3rd quarter. There are too many "safety nets" and students feel like deadlines do not matter with the late work policy.

I would love to see positive behavior rewarded for kids and adults. I would love to see more welcoming and smiling faces. I would like to see positive interactions between teachers and children and not just frustration and shouting. The focus on control versus connection is very upsetting.

The balance of providing a para professional's financial stability.  Concerning payment for so many days off during the school year; for instance so many holidays.

There is literal poop on the bathroom wall in my classroom that has been there for weeks and I've told the custodians about it and they keep saying they will take care of it but it's still there... Weeks later...

Additional funding for more janitorial employees would be helpful

Increasing student individual motivation towards school

I feel that it could be helpful to talk to other teachers of the same subject to bounce ideas off of and spark inspiration to grow as a teacher and benefit the scholars.

Additional services regarding mental health

N/A

At this time, I cannot think of any specific areas that need improvement except in the area of communication between specific departments. For example, the health & nutrition department is affected by areas within facilities & construction. I would like to seed smoother communication channels between the two departments.

In the time that I have been here there has been more and more that has been added to the workload of the teachers and being asked of the teachers but the compensation has not increased at the same rate.

everything is wonderful!

Consider everything that is done throughout the week every week that above and beyond expectations.

I feel interventionists work very hard here and I think the pay is pretty good when we are in school but for breaks like spring break for example, missing an entire week of pay is pretty rough, I wish NHA could pay a couple days on spring break like they do for Christmas break.

Sometimes lack of resources (like paraprofessionals) make it stressful for students to learn and staff to teach.

not missing a day though out the school year getting compensated a bonus

Providing PTO on top of ESTA would be better than just ESTA, having a job with benefits but no PTO is very strange.

As part of our efforts to support positive behavior and maximize student engagement, maybe implementing a system where high school students leave their phones and airpods at the entrance of each classroom. This system may support to reduce distractions, encourage active participation, and help maintain a focused learning environment.

I think we should have more involvement in doing things together. Make it feel like a family.

Portions of the curriculum are unnecessarily dull for students. I feel a wider variety of texts should be selected that would be more interesting to students as even I find some of them to be utterly pointless. For example, one book was a guide on how to build a skateboard which was neither intriguing nor beneficial on an educational level. The students were bored to tears and it was very difficult to find a way to make it meaningful and interesting.

I checked other because as a para I already don’t get paid enough for what I have to deal with. I’ve been here almost 2 years and new hires are getting paid more. I also would like to get paid for snow days so I don’t have to use my PTO time. When you talk about work/life balance it’s hard on sped paras to find that we deal with the highest most difficult children and can’t take a paid day off because we use them for snow days or other days they have to close. You should take better care of your people so we feel like we matter. There is also not a lot of praise I go above and beyond and nothing ever gets noticed. Overall pay is a huge factor maybe pay us more an hour if you don’t want to pay us for school closures.

Positive feedback would be greatly appreciated

Better support with student behaviors

We need to take better care of our restroom facilities for the staff.

With my daughter factored in, I make right at the national poverty level yearly salary. It's very hard to survive in today's society and then you have to take inflation into consideration.

Hold students more accountable for their actions

Training and in person modeling on how to effectively clean a school not just videos.

Better benefit packages that isn’t so expensive

Trying to start better student/parent/teacher relationships in order to keep all parties on the same page and to make sure that our scholars get the help and support they need outside of school to succeed

Higher pay scale.

I believe that improved staff retention and competitive compensation could serve as strong incentives for people to stay with NHS.

We need to make sure we are making the best use of time in the building. Our constant changes to schedule, delayed meeting times, last minute cancelled activities and collaboration meetings, sometimes staying until 7pm, never following through on new ideas, using our abnormally small prep times to address busy work or student behaviors, and redundant PDs that teach us outdated practices on how to be a better teacher is not okay. We waste so much time on irrelevant information and frustrations that could be used more positively with a well created and innovative schedule. Students' time is also wasted every day-- lessons that could be 40 minutes drag on for over an hour with schedule changes and distractions.

The food program has improved a lot, but there is still room for improvement. This year there were slimy carrots and severely damaged fruit (bruised bananas and apples) served to students with both breakfast and lunch.  We could also still improve the overall quality of meals by eliminating processed sugary foods, which just contribute to hyper students who aren’t able to focus in class.

at times it is not clear communication between staff.

More PTO  and care to personal needs, more help with children who have trouble with behavior , less drama around the school, more safety training for the kids.

I wish that I had more PTO. But I really appreciate adding 1 day per year. I am a new hire with many years of experience and going back down to two weeks was hard. I wonder if for the type of job I have - 3 weeks could be the typical PTO amount offered with the benefits package.

we need janitors who care about the cleanliness of the environment & the students .

It would amazing to be able to retain our eight graders through high school. With our numbers increasing because of our success, culture, and leadership we may need more room for more students. We are already the best school in Baker, but I know that through small investments through our school we can continue to make more atomic changes for our students and our community. Not only can we reach and retain an A grade, we can sustain it for numerous years with the guidance of our leadership. Our facilities must continually upgraded to retain our students and recruit more scholars who deserve a school like ACA. I believe in the people we have in the building currently. Upgrades to our facilities are vital so that we can invite the community to events without the current occupancy restrictions. Our students deserve upgrades to the gym, playgraounds, football fields, soccer fields, and etc. We are on the brink of being the best school in the state of Louisiana. But we need to invest within.

I think there should be some kind of pto opportunity for Paras because we don't get paid during crucial times of the years such as Spring break, some holidays that are National Holidays, and the couple of days we get for Winter break.

more compensation

Cleanliness, pay and communication

We have had high turnover this year, including in our admin, with 2 currently here only temporarily. As a result, we don't really HAVE a culture or identity yet. We also went from having a rather rigid, micromanaging principal, to a very laid-back "it is what it is" style principal, so there has been a big change in leadership styles & as a school team, we have not figured out how to make that switch - & are hesitant to do so, as we know it's just temporary anyway & someone new will be coming. Other concerns: I have been trying to work with MetLife for FMLA. The process has been extremely difficult. There has been little communication to me about the status & many delays have come up as a result. I feel there needs to be a great deal of improvement in that process. Also, a greater presence by NHA in the schools would be beneficial. I feel there is little communication between NHA as parent company & MVA, & there needs to be a greater presence & communication from NHA as our leadership.

Intentional opportunities to connect for the purpose of identifying barriers on-going and follow up with parent concerns.

I feel like communication is a big issue. Getting responses to emails has consistently been an issue. I have had multiple times when I have emailed administration on scholar based issues and not gotten a response. I also feel like the approach to discipline is ineffective. The other teachers call for "opportunities" regularly and then the students are removed to talk to a dean. From what I have seen this creates an environment where the students do not respect the teacher and the behaviors continue.

When I was in school, teachers were allowed to give detention to students if they were redirected three times or late three times. That would be nice.

Clear, consistent communication in a timely manner (it feels like information is often given at the last minute). Make sure everyone is on the same page. A set onboarding process locally so that teachers starting in the middle of the year are given clear expectations and know the programs, platforms, etc.

Communication is good, just needs to come out faster than a one day notice if possible.

As a newer teacher, it helps to have more examples set for me when I can improve in a certain area

I don’t like the difference in culture when it comes to elementary vs middle school. I feel like they need to be approached with positivity and then they may elude more positive behaviors. Sometimes they are already viewed as “bad” and it may make them feel small.

Teachers should receive compensation based on Merrit and reaching goals set by leadership. Although it is nice that grants are given for things such as ipad's, teachers deserve a higher wage.

Senior Leadership allows an environment of chaos to exist in the academic environment to which it responds with conscious disregard.  It also fails to comply with its obligations to students, including those with special needs, and again responds with knowing disregard of those obligations.

Make sure that information is shared in a timely manner.  This may assist with staff developing their own ideas and opinions which can hinder school culture.

I have some concerns regarding the ELA and Math curricula currently being used. Based on my experience here and at other schools, I feel that the curriculum does not align closely with the state standards and is not as effective as programs I have worked with elsewhere. Additionally, I believe there is too strong an emphasis on strictly following the curriculum, which limits our ability to reteach concepts that students have not yet mastered. I feel that prioritizing student understanding and mastery should come before rigid adherence to the curriculum.

higher percentage

Higher wages for support staff

I would like to see more technological incorporation in the lessons

Special teachers have paras/interventionists

I feel that if you are going to be a sub for a long period of time that you should have better compensation. I have been basically working the Job on para and teacher for the past 3 months and with little compensation for doing both roles.

The staff follows the Moral Focus values. I have the feeling that half of the students do not adhere to those values and do not care about them at all, and that half has a serious negative impact in the behavior of the classroom as a whole and in the opportunities to learn. It is really a pity.

I believe there needs to be more flexibility within the curriculum for teachers to assess the needs of their individual class and make adjustments accordingly.  Research has also shown how important recess is.  These children need more time outside to play and learn conflict resolution and just have time to move and reset before returning to the classroom and learning.

I think it would be a nice benefit to co-teacher and paras if we were offered to be compensated on a yearly basis versus just the school year. It would also make it easier to pay the insurance costs throughout the year.

Build meaningful connections.

With a school as large as Phoenix, it can be difficult for me to not work every single day, 7 days a week. I find it difficult to be just one person sometimes!

More flexibility to teach according to the student's needs, rather than always having to meet the clock.

No one gives out high five points or what ever the new system is. Paras rarely get recognized for their hard work especially as one of the hardest jobs in the school. I have noticed middle school gets a lot of different staff lunches for appreciation, it would be cool to see elementary get lunches like pizza or something too.

Increase PTO, either overall or as part of the hiring season bonus. Our PTO is already limited and the PTO bonus decreased from last years hiring bonus from 3 days to 2 days. Boosting PTO would enhance retention, morale, and overall employee satisfaction at a relatively low cost.

Student behaviors are getting out of hand.  I understand taking a break for those that truly need it. The  consistent clear disrespect and rude behavior needs to addressed, by removal and parent contact.  Parents behaviors need to addressed as well, being disrespectful to office staff should not be tolerated.

For science courses I would love to find other ways to implement labs.

Making sure there’s actually follow through on policies. Staff is held accountable when they don’t follow them and parents and students are also help accountable. Sometimes I feel like there’s a “it’s not a big deal” attitude towards some policies and if we relax on one then we come off as willing to relax on others.

I would like to be able to work with the admin team. We didn't get to do that much this year and really not at all. Bring part of a leadership team is crucial to be able to assist one another in areas of leadership growth and in our daily roles as an admin team.

To look at  and compare what other school systems pay their support technicians and why we are paid much less.

The cleanliness of our building needs to be a priority. the bathrooms can be cleaned better and the air filters in classrooms can be changed consistently. When we have a clean school i believe it helps our scholars perform better and less sicknesses spread through the atmosphere.

We need two big changes in Kindergarten to set these scholars up for success in their future learning and raise both student and teacher retention rates. First, we NEED teachers aides for the 1st 8-12 weeks of school. That would allow teachers to get the behaviors under control while still teaching instead of being overwhelmed, burnt out, disgusted, and leaving for a better situation as soon as possible.  It would lessen stress the entire K-2 team if we had assistants to help mediate the problems. We also definitely need to be a bit more realistic about our curriculum scheduling. Every minute of every day is packed with teaching. This is Kindergarten. While they are for the most part completely able to learn everything we are teaching, they are quickly overwhelmed and exhausted from a schedule that obviously did not have them in mind. They need a schedule catered to K. K should have 2 recesses (1am & 1pm), specials in between, math in the morning, ELA in the afternoon.

The space needs improvement. There are too many students in small classrooms. Less students in classrooms would help work to individual needs and schools scores

Better health insurance that’s not so expensive and limited to where you can go.

The manager could offer me more support.

When those who are new come to work for NHA, there must be a clear system In order to train those in their specific department. What happens is if it is a role that is anything other than a teacher, those staff get lost in the culture of whatever school they are working for. Training is vitally important in order to do the job with excellence and feel apart of the team. Another thing is making sure there are things in place to ensure every staff member in a role feels apart of the team and doesn't have to speculate if their job is taken seriously.

What other resources can be utilized to help struggling students.  I know that skills workshop is in place to help students struggling with reading and math, however, I was wondering is a separate classroom can be made for struggling students to help them get back on track.  There are some students that honestly need a year-round curriculum that helps them build and get to grade level.

I am just the type of person that needs recognition or I feel I am not doing a great job. It's just my own securities

Better pay.

Increase compensation.

I do not feel adequately supported in my role.

Open up a position with assessments for students to learn school resource material better.

There is a lack of communication at this school that really hinders productivity. There is such an emphasis on high test scores that it breeds teachers who are willing to cheat on the assessments and interims to meet the required proficient levels. Teachers in most grades read the Reading Interim to the students, proudly claiming that the students don't have the patience or ability to read it on their own. I've heard deans tell teachers not to allow the students to read the books and instead suggest the teachers read to the students because it will take to long to finish the lesson. Teachers view the live progress tool during assessments and tell students to go back to questions that they have wrong. Several teachers openly admitted to telling students that 1 of the 4 multiple choice questions isn't right to improve the students chances of getting the answer right. Several teachers have stated that after the last glint survey, during their next 03 their responses were read to them.

I would like to keep kids safe, be a good role model and listen to them.

The administrative team at Peak is absolutely unqualified and incompetent. My direct manager, Connie Eastmann, is rude, condescending, and uninformed on anything going on in the building. She does not care about her role, does not want to learn, and is borderline abusive to her staff. She has little to no knowledge of anything regarding the students in her department and refuses to take any responsibility or accountability; often, she intentionally gaslights her employees and explicitly tells them not to ask for her help with any situations in which they may feel unsafe or unprepared. I am embarrassed to work for Eastmann and NHA needs to take more oversight and responsibility for training and managing their staff.

Earning PTO hours over time in addition to 64 PTO hours.

There are several communication platforms- Dean & principal newsletters, email, word-of-mouth, Teams, speaker-system, text & phone, Google Docs, in-person meetings.  You don't know where to find info and it is often contradictory. Why is the agenda to the weekly meeting sent after the meeting?  Updates and changes to routine are very poorly communicated.  I think it's because they themselves are winging it and they put the burden on teachers to be ultra flexible.  Our roles and responsibilities for special events are not well-explained, let alone practiced.  They assume we will just figure it out, but it ends up teachers asking each other and the same people who always step up have to figure it out or do it themselves.

I believe the students should have more of a variety for elective classes and we should have a real moral focus teacher.

My team doesn't have a clear curriculum, and teachers in other departments are often dissatisfied with the strictness of adherence to the NHA model.  (Example: not being allowed to use other sources such as Bridges to teach subjects with strict curriculums from NHA)

It would be amazing to be paid what the surrounding county is paying their teachers with the same amount of work experience. Although I am extremely happy in my position, I would be better able to support my family and feel less stress with matched compensation.

Communication to Service Center teams about how their compensation compares to market data. This would include showing the market data and comparable companies used in the analysis. I feel there is frustration around compensation/benefits because it isn't talked about. I understand there may be limitations on what action can be done, but I think transparency around the topic would go a long way.

Students who have behavioral issues are often not given proper consequences, nor adequate learning opportunities. I do feel students who have had recurring behavior in my class have for the most part been disciplined appropriately by deans/principal. However, some, and many students from different classes/grades, are allowed to behave in other classes and around the school in ways that extremely unsafe and disruptive to learning. For example, students screaming and throwing fits are simply allowed to walk around all day, and I see many students with IEPs walking around and playing with paras and other staff, which to me shows they are missing out on equitable opportunities to learn. Rather than tolerating unfair behavior, I think that SPED support needs to be improved, and students who are disruptive and unsafe should be sent home when their behavior is not improving rather than being allowed to just walk around and have fun.

In terms of work-life balance, what I am focusing on is the scoring of my accountabilities when it comes to exemplary versus effective. To be considered an exemplary teacher, it would be someone who attends and/or participates in events after school hours. I am all for coming to a few after school events to support my students, but I should not have to come after school hours to be considered an exemplary candidate when I do go above and beyond in other ways. The work-life balance needs to be balanced, and I should not have to have a lower score on my performance because I respect that. In terms of other work-life balance though, it is respected.

Children behavior: teacher are leaving because the children are stopping them from teaching. I have heard children screaming in a room for 30 plus minutes and no one sending children home or helping. Teachers have to do it all without support, or a break or planning time. We need to put more into the teachers to be able to keep them.

none

Notifications of possible higher level opportunities for staff to apply

The new idle policy is unsustainable. You are asking teachers without OLMs to give up their prep hours just to communicate idles and then have to log the calls, AND write up the idles, AND track the idles somewhere so they know when they're supposed to get a mandatory power hour, AND run the mandatory power hour, all while trying to keep up with everything else on GoGuardian and teaching. Even for teachers WITH OLMs it's frustrating, especially because sometimes the OLMs just say they "don't have time" and don't want to do it because there isn't enough role clarity for OLMs. You also expect us to host the mandatory power hours -- what about the kids that actually are at power hour to get help and WANT to be there? I would rather focus on them than the kids that are probably just going to go idle during the mandatory power hour anyway and start the cycle all over again. If you want to give kids detention, give someone a stipend for hosting detention, or have deans do it.

I think that our team has remind small and tight knit. We support each other across departments and have picked up the slack of supporting each other as team members have left and positions have remained unfilled. I believe our efforts have increased productivity beyond the traditional 3% and that should be reflected in a larger pay increase of the traditional 3% raise that we have previously received. I believe a larger raise would increase morale to continue working at a high level to support teammates across our broader departments.

IT often makes decisions that are not best for my team. for example, we have 3 different types of laptops, that all act differently. Some are setup for cloud auth, some are setup in hybrid mode, and some are neither.  Also, they often get our permissions wrong.  Instead of copying them from someone else on our team, where we know they belong, they get Radom permission groups and its difficult to onboard.

I would recommend having more events that require and hold parents accountable for being involved in their students education. This way we can implement our core values with not just students but parents too.

Compartmentalizing 5th grade would be beneficial to staff and students . It would create an environment that is more effective and help with work life balance. Also would begin to train students to become better at transitioning into the expectations of middle school.

Teachers should have the flexibility to arrange the sequence of math topics in a way that makes instructional sense. The current order of topics does not always follow a logical progression, and allowing teachers to adjust it could better support student understanding.

All teachers are teachers, specials teachers are not babysitters. Teachers should not have lunch or recess duty, or drive line duty. We also just need more support staff for behaviors.

I didn't mean to hit role clarity and it won't  let me go back to change it.  While I think the overall curriculum is great,  there is a need for more resources for workshops in both reading and math.  There should be supplemental material available to us (by skill). It would also be nice to have materials to differentiate the skills for our students.   The reading content is very heavy.  It would be nice to have a variety of content for the students.   It is heavily focused on African Americans and their history.  This does not match our demographic.   Most of the books are sad as well.   I think it would be nice to have some reading that is more cheerful and upbeat.

Thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts. :)

It's not as clean as it could be due to staff and students not picking up after themselves. we could definitely have more accountability here.

Where to improve and how to improve ability to promote.

more accountability on student's part to be in class, stay in class, and stay on task and not disrupt class so learning can happen for all.

Allow teachers to make more decisions with the curriculum and schedule throughout the day

Having no control over the curriculum makes me feel very trapped and it becomes very hard to differentiate in the upper grades when the books become more complex but the students are not able to keep up or understand them. The curriculum at times is confused and not always the best approach to the standard, or the units are way too long to keep students interested that already have a limited attention span. It would nice to just be given guidelines, but make it work for the group of kids we have. There's really no flexibility in the schedule either to account for half days and holidays or state testing.

While my peers and the students have all been very welcoming, my concern is sense of belonging within NHA at an institutional level.

It’s difficult to choose a single area as the most important—both the school level and compensation plan need improvements. One of these weighs on me personally, the other morally. School: My interactions with TSC staff are typically supportive and kind, the culture within my school is starkly different. It feels distant, untrusting, & minimally collaborative. Few staff are willing to go beyond the bare minimum to enhance the experience for our scholars and families. This is especially troubling given my role in selling the school. Also, the cleanliness of the building is consistently poor and reflects negatively on our reputation. Comp: Admissions Representatives are not compensated in a way that reflects the volume and complexity of their workload. ARs are given tasks not included in the official expectations -- to include liaising between TSC and the school teams, assisting principals in implementing their visions, and more. Mngmt: My manager is fantastic. I am so grateful for her!

Make Paras salary or pay us for snow days/unscheduled days off/breaks. Even half the hours on these days would make it better.

Giving more PTO that gives wiggle room for sick days or personal emergencies.

More opportunities to earn Bonuses and a higher wage once certified .

Curriculum needs realignment between middle and high school, stronger focus on building foundational knowledge, and removal of non-existent standards. Behavior support is stretched thin, forcing administrators to do mass behavior management, hallway sweeps instead of leading; hiring 1–2 dedicated support staff would fix this. New teachers, especially in special education (speaking for myself), are getting almost no support; a real mentorship and onboarding plan is urgently needed.

more people to actually collaborate with with my specific area.

It would be beneficial to make office staff salary or give in addition to PTO sick leave as well.

Regarding taking days off without it impacting raises.

More Parent Accountability

Recognition goes a long way when it comes to staff appreciation, staff perfomance and most importantly retention. I understand that feedback is necessary for growth, but it doesn't feel good to only receive feedback all the time and no recognitiom for even the smallest things. Being recognized can be with tangible items or not cost anything at all. Either way, when a person feels valued and appreciated it positively reinforces them to continue to show up at their best and give their best efforts.   Outside of that, I love being a part of the NDSD Staff.

While I know we are transitioning to the new earned PTO system, this is a little concerning for the beginning of the year as we will start with very little. Having at least 1 or 2 days guaranteed to start the year would be helpful. A way to track our earned time would be helpful as well.

It would be nice if paraprofessional got paid for days when the school is closed, like salary teacher. I have worked in   school for 22 years. I always got paid I LOVE MY JOB AND THE PEOPLE THAT I WORK WITH, but the weeks that the school is close can make it hard to pay bills.

Healthcare benefits could be so much better

The relationships I have built has been great here at Quest. I would like to see more collaboration between the SPED teachers and General Education teachers, better communication within the building, and improved behavior management in the classrooms.

The compensation rate is below state average.

I feel that we need to add more then 8 personal days off.

I have PTO incentive used in other schools, where days not used were paid out at $50 per day or allowed to roll over.

Wow I just have been so dissatisfied in NHA. it’s been really hard with you guys keeping the bad eggs just to get money…. It puts a stronger negative pressure on the teachers. Makes us feel like you don’t care.

Thorougly clean the floors, bathrooms, carpets such as regular vacumming, dusting.  We often have to ask for vacumming the classroom.  I am allregic to dust and it makes is challenging to work with the carpeted classooms. It would be best to have no carpets present.

Teacher pay needs to be more competitive with surrounding districts

compensation!!! and not wasting money on dumb school apparel

For the students who have gaps in their education (whether for personal reasons or things such as COVID), there should be more opportunities for them to bridge those gaps and be more on par with their grade level peers.

I recommend adjusting compensation to better reflect inflation and the rising cost of living, ensuring that salaries remain fair and competitive. For paid time off, I recommend creating a more supportive approach where employees are trusted to use their allotted days without feeling guilt or pressure. As long as time is used responsibly and within policy limits, staff should feel respected and supported in taking care of their personal needs.

Public school employees receive 10 paid days off per school year AND accrue personal time off. 8 days off per year is not enough when we are dealing with illnesses that require 48hrs to stay at home (covid). Being able to make doctor's appointments have enough time to deal with illnesses is important to an employee's success.   Another area that is important is work/life balance. We are required to stay outside of contract hours weekly to be involved in staff meetings. If these were once per month, that time commitment would make sense. However, we have to stay an extra half day of work per month without any additional pay. These could be recorded, digital meetings to look at on our own and in person once per month for the most important details. On top of these, we have to stay after school for other department meetings at least twice per month. By the end of the month, we are working nearly a full extra days hours without pay. Items should be addressed in the work day  before 4 pm.

None

More access to professional development to expand our learning and knowledge

I don’t think this situation is entirely Scott’s fault; it seems like he has a lot on his plate right now, and unfortunately, our team often ends up on the backburner. I’m not sure why his previous role in People Services hasn’t been backfilled yet, but the lack of support is beginning to impact every member of our team. It’s not fair to Scott to be expected to juggle two full-time roles, and it’s also not fair to our team to have a manager who is stretched thin. I really value Scott as a manager, he’s someone I enjoy working with and respect. However, the weight of his additional responsibilities is starting to limit his ability to fully manage our team. Without consistent leadership, I worry about our team’s ability succeed. Scott is being pulled in too many directions, and although I appreciate the trust he places in us, it often leaves us feeling somewhat overlooked. Something needs to shift in order for both Scott and the team to thrive.

Students need more strict consequences . Teachers need more PTO. I suggest mental health days.

The cost of living and the cost of everything continues to rise. The current economic situation is making it harder and harder to maintain quality of life without an increase in compensation. What that looks like and where that comes from I am unfortunately unsure of.

N/A

Being paid for extra work, ex, covering classes, helping other classes, daily arrival and dismissal duties, etc..

I do not have any recommendations. I enjoy working for NHA as well as working alongside my Endeavor team to create the best opportunities/environment for our students.

There is often a rift between deans in communication. Being in special education, I work with more than one dean and sometimes they give conflicting directions.

Cleanliness - Clean classrooms better. Support for teachers dealing with students with special needs while maintaining high expectations for these students as well.

Curriculum should be adjusted to the needs of the students who are struggling with NHA's standard curriculum. Curriculum should also be adjusted based on Proficient, Novice and Basic level classes.

Receive better pay and benefits, we are receiving less than in other schools in the district. Receiving better pay and benefits is an incentive to continue with NHA.

With behavior kids they need different supports before it escalates and it can’t be free time when they already are not doing instruction - when they are struggling academically they need to close incentives while the rewards continue for those that earned it.   Better communication that outlines what is coming and follows up with weekly expectations of what it looks like

I think we should have more PTO. I believe 40 hours of PTO would be nice if we had  vacation time added to our PTO.

Let me make decisions for my classroom. I am the one who knows them best and knows the content best. I feel like I have no ability to deviate what so ever. I use NHA curriculum but if it isn't exactly like the 'skipped' there is always an accusation of not using NHA curriculum. I follow the rule. You can't give the same question to students 10 times. So, I make similar almost identical problems to help them. Appreciate that I know my students and that my classroom management has gotten better. The recognition seams to go to those who are not following expectations. I don't need affirmations daily but more than just at the end of the year would be nice. When informal observations happen leave a note of what was great. I hate being left with nothing.

Based on the time that I have been here I have noticed some discrepancies in the curriculum. While the curriculum has a steady pace and it great to unpack, it can be a lot for some students. It is my understanding that all classrooms are inclusion which at times without a special education teacher in the room at the same time can make the teaching experience difficult.  It is recommended that since we are going to "2" classrooms per grade level that the extra space be used as isolated classrooms for students who need a calmer setting or those on IEP's. The SPED teachers can be in that space with their case loads ( a classroom of 12 with teachers and paras) . They can be included in areas like "specials", lunch. I have seen this model and it works. I believe that it will cut down on "staff rotation" . It will add support that will allow educators to focus and teach the curriculum with clearer expectations. Just a thought.

I have no complaints about Phoenix Academy. I like all the people I work with and the administration has been supportive and is always willing to listen and help improve processes within my role.  They have consistently taken the time to build a professional working relationship, always answering questions and supporting my role here.   The only challenge this year has been the impact of snow days, where hourly staff must use PTO to get paid. The time off here is generous, and I don't need extra PTO, but it would help to have enough to cover longer breaks. Without it, it's hard to get a full paycheck. It’s not about needing more time off — just being able to stay close to 80 hours of pay.

I feel that I was never given a clear description or expectation of my role when starting the year. I do duties that a dean does but am often looked at as a para. I was told to pull kids and work with them in the hall, but then told to move into the classroom. I believe that interventionists need rooms and deans do not. We are the only teachers that consistently work with students at their current level, so it is imperative that we have consistent and quiet spaces to educate these students. Interventionists are looked at as the least important teachers at this school and that needs to change, especially with ACT 20!

Since there are so few resources available and most of us put a lot of our own money towards the ones we have, raising compensation would go a long way to ameliorate those expenses.

It would be appreciated to receive hourly pay or half a day’s pay on snow days and other school days that we are closed, such as President’s Day and spring break. I was very grateful for receiving some pay over the two weeks of winter vacation. Also, could  P.T.O. hours from one school year be “banked” or carried over to future school years? Another possible option might  be to take a payout for unused P.T.O. hours and receive that payment in late June or early July. Thank you for this opportunity to provide feedback.

Hire a new cleaning company. My classroom is never completely vacuumed. Students & teacher items have been unnecessarily thrown away by janitors.

I believe it is crucial to address multiple areas simultaneously rather than focusing on just one. Firstly, the curriculum appears to be too advanced for the majority of our students, considering their varying levels of intelligence. It would be beneficial to reassess and adjust the curriculum to better match their capabilities.  Secondly, the current disciplinary procedures for write-ups and suspensions require reorganization. Implementing a more flexible, case-by-case approach would be more effective than the existing policy of automatic suspension after 10 write-ups within 20 days. Suspending students for minor infractions such as talking or not completing work seems excessive.  Additionally, I recommend establishing a mentorship program for new teachers. Regular weekly check-ins by mentors would provide essential support, guidance, and learning opportunities. Both mentors and new teachers should document these interactions to ensure accountability and progress.  Lastly, teachers should have the autonomy t

The cost of the insurance/benefits plus the deductible(s), and the fact that prescriptions are included and go towards the deductible instead of having just a small copay like other companies, makes it impossible to contribute to my 401(k) and impossible to get ahead.  It honestly makes me want to work at a public school for better benefits. I can't even qualify for public service loan forgiveness for my student loans because NHA is for-profit, even though that doesn't affect me. Very frustrating. Just another reason to not work at a charter school.

By focusing on specific behaviors, offering actionable steps, creating a supportive environment, and avoiding negative language, you can provide constructive feedback that empowers first-year teachers to grow and thrive in their passion

floors in stairwells and cafeteria are very dirty

Teachers should be able to supplement as long as they use the framework, not take away the teachers identity

competitive pay as well as pay for days off

I was once a student at Walton Charter Academy and I just feel as if the curriculum has changed a lot and I personally loved the curriculum we received when i was attending this school

Im just so overwhelmed by student behavior I don't know what to do. I feel so defeated, like my voice and my work doesn't matter to the students.

The writing curriculum needs to be completely scrapped.

Make exceptions for extended illnesses such as COVID, mono, or other week or longer illnesses that can't be predicted but are not safe for the sick person to be attending school, regardless of previous absences or PTO days.

I would like to have a full time tech person in our building for technical issues.

Just a little more recognition would be nice. I know the High Five system is getting updated soon so I am looking forward to seeing what changes that brings.

Add an extra dean or office staff to carry some of the workload. I'm not ususally made aware when someone is absent until the moment they pull me elsewhere and it affects my whole schedule.

We need to have a more clear cut curriculum for science and social studies that align with NC standards. Bridges also needs to be a bit more NC-based as some of the lessons are inconsistent. It also has a dense teacher guide and it would be nice to have everything in one place and not have to look through several notebooks or several places online. The ELA curriculum is pretty consistent and straight-forward. The read aloud and shared reading are very enjoyable.

I feel that the cleaning company does not care what the school actually looks like. There is dust everywhere, bathrooms and gross with buildup everywhere, filth all over the floors. I am not happy with how they "take care of" the school.

More opportunities for subject area teachers to collaborate across NHA schools especially as we have common assessments.

A parent was able to attack me in my classroom she was let into the building unknowingly no one from front office made anyone aware parent was extremely irate and I felt and still feel unsafe

No comprehension quizzes for kindergarten.

There needs to be more forms of behavior consequences within the school. There are no forms of Level 1,2, 3 or 4 type consequences. I have seen things that are completely inappropriate behavior from students, and it is either looked over or not handled accordingly.

Increase compensation for support staff

none

I would value more collaboration between colleagues and schools.

I would like classroom management specific professional development. I would like Kindergarten specific as well--being grouped with even first grade doesn't make sense as we are establishing foundations, 1st-8th is building on that foundation. I feel that deserves its own specific PD and specific kindergarten examples in that PD.

I have had a horrible experience dealing with HR, I recently became sick and needed ADA accommodations, and leave. The whole process has been horrible and left me feeling very isolated, and cast aside. When actively at my school I felt the great energy and happiness, but now I feel hurt. Additionally, I had a very bad experience with a coworker calling a meeting to berate me in front of all the deans and the grade level team. I was invited to this meeting but had no clue what it was in regards to. The stress from that incident made my medical issues become exasperated, and now I am out of work for the remainder of the year, battling my illness.

More presence and vocal congratulations for little things. Teacher appreciation week is great. How can that positive reinforcement be practiced more often?

The price of co-pay to decrease for part time employees

Managers are very clicky with certain staff members. if you are not apart of that group you get treated differently. I have experienced this personally and others have shared similar experiences with me.  There is a total shift in attitude when talking in person versus emails.  I don’t feel comfortable to go to my higher ups when faced with an issue and they usually find a way to dissolve themselves of responsibility especially in terms of offering support for new teachers. This attitude is carried throughout certain staff members bc it is normalized from the top down.  The students notice this as well and it impacts their ability to learn proper deescalation methods and take responsibility for their own actions. This issue is most prominent with middle schoolers.  These are the main reasons im considering leaving Laurus.  It makes for an uncomfortable work environment which is a shame because at the end of the day the kids are getting the short end of the stick

We need to include on Moral Focus in every part of our school, from lessons to discipline to interactions. It needs to become part of the expectations and our policies and rules need to reinforce them.

We need to do a better job of recognizing and rewarding positive behaviors. Moral focus awards are not enough, and rewards offered by our ABSS specialist are not consistent. We also need more support for low level negative behaviors.

more open communication, notice the positive not just the negative

My Manager holds too tight of a grip and is not good at communication. Good leaders need an open mind and the ability to see beyond their own opinion. For the good of the students, we must be able to listen to each other and make a plan based on collective knowledge that benefits the students BEST interest.

There are numerous errors and inconsistencies with NHA Curriculum. There are lots of places where the curriculum does not align well or materials are not chosen well to fit standards/skills (especially for ELA) For example, in 3rd grade ELA curriculum, the reading excerpts to teach Onomatopoeia aren't actual examples...makes it confusing for students.

Honesty with management, and equal treatment for all positions.

I do not have an exact remedy or recommendation. However, several teachers got COVID and had to stay home, which ate into their (my) PTO, and now, towards the end of the year, time is out. There should be a way for teachers to check the system to see exactly how much time they have left, instead of bombarding our amazing Registrar or Principal. Also sick days that can be documented (like a covid, flu, pneumonia) should not be taken from PTO, this is just my opinion and I understand some may abuse the privilege, however for those of us who are honest and upfront about our days/time missed it makes us have to decide if we stay home or come in sick!

The amount of work that goes into making sure the curriculum is adapted to each section I teach is a lot of work. The data gathering, evaluating, and implementing is a lot of time on top of grading, communicating with families daily, lesson planning, and everything else. I spent the first 8 months of this school year working every weekend and on breaks because I want what is best for my students. However, in the long run it is not something I can maintain and if I'm going to be expected to work this hard to benefit the students, an increase in compensation would be necessary.

steps to advancement

More content focused professional development for your specific demographic not the entirety of the NHA network.

I would like more clarity on to handle disruptive behaviors.

Bridges is for students on grade level most students in Title 1 schools are not on grade level.

NA

Benefits are very expensive especially when we are paid lower than the surrounding school districts

I would like to know the specific procedures related to behavior support. I would like to know that if I call for help for a student that is potentially unsafe in the room, that help will arrive in a timely manner. I would also like to see behavioral education provided for students that struggle to understand behavioral expectations on an on-going basis.

The art program (particularly the middle school art program) needs some direction. I appreciate having the freedom to make the class look however I want, but I was provided with no curriculum at all, so some sort of guidelines would be helpful.

Partner with the community

As for Kindergarten, I believe that the curriculum too structured and touches on subject but not others that are also important when teaching ELA and Math. Or some of the subjects or topics it does touch on are too advanced for kindergarten. We need to keep in mind that some of these students are doing their first year of school with us in K for the first time and have not been taught some of the basics and knowing basics is important for them to grow throughout the year.

Student consequences. Removing problem students to be able to teach without interruptions.

Overall I am very happy at Foundations.  However I do feel that they are a few areas where the ball has been dropped.   My Dean and my team mate both went on maternity leave around the same time. I don’t feel like things were well in place prior to then going on leave. Lesson plans weren’t prepped and there wasn’t a sub in place for my team mate prior to her leaving. This added a lot of extra stress for me being a new teacher this year. I don’t mind helping however I felt like I was drowning because I am still trying to find my feet myself.   Also, I don’t feel like proper support was given to those of us whose dean was on maternity leave. We were told that a certain dean had taken I we our grade level but at times I felt like we were passed around.  I also had multiple O3s canceled during the year due to various applications or other meetings.   I feel like several teachers are having similar behavior issues and we aren’t getting proper admin support.

Having a scale to work towards

Students don't care about the color flips there should be something when students get so many blues that there is a bigger consequence I don't think they are working students continue to get blues and thats it nothing else so they continue with the same behavior.

I feel that there is a high turnover across the board because of the wages that NHA offers its employees and I've seen that similar jobs in other places have higher compensation and more benefits. I understand that this isn't something that can easily be fixed, but I do feel that the Service Center has been tightening its belt while NHA is also growing and increasing its revenue. I fear that the compensation offered isn't keeping up with the higher cost of living and employees are stressed about their finances, but they stay because they believe in the mission of NHA. Ultimately, though, this can lead to employees feeling burnt out as they may not have much of an expendable income to do the things they want to do outside of work in order to regain their energy and feel the sense of having a strong work-life balance.

I think that it is hard that we can't speak to our direct managers about compensation. They are the ones who see the work we do every day, yet they have very little sway in getting better compensation.

The most important areas that I would like addressed are a combination between communication and support. I, as well as my co-workers, don't receive info/details about things until right before they happen. Due to this, we don't have enough time to add our input. Also, I feel that, when our class calls for support from wing leadership, we are often ignored.

When changes are made related to student behavior/bsp/classroom management, it would be helpful to let everyone involved in the process know what changes have been made.

Overall, I feel as though Eagle Crest does what they can with the funds, but I feel like money and time by NHA as a corporation is not well spent. Why did we spend so much money and time revamping the websites when there are several schools that serve primarily low-income students that could use that time and money? Teachers want to be able to buy new glue sticks halfway through the year, not have a fancy website that uses basically all the same resources, just has new buttons clicks.

While I think generally I'm kept apprised of things that relate to me, I still find myself finding out after I'm already in the midst of something, what expectations are on me. I start out in the dark--especially as a new teacher, and midway through the year--I find out specifics. Example: driveline duty. I was just thrown out there at the beginning of the year with no specific instructions. Midway through the year I get an email saying we're not doing what we're supposed to be doing (with pics) and specific instructions (please stand at the front of the line close to cars, etc. etc.) It may be helpful to have an email describing those instructions at the beginning of the year instead of midway.  There are many expectations in this job. Key is just patience as we new teachers learn all of the ins and outs. As long as admin is patient and understanding as we learn, it's doable.

The provided lessons do not go deep into the content itself. Students are asked to read this, answer that, read this answer that, but they don't cover much of the content being questioned; it is all interpretation-based, even the quizzes. I constantly have to add content and information to the lessons to help draw a better picture in the minds of my students, or else they lose interest and do not learn from the actual readings. They need more interesting activities. Having a lesson before the quiz that is about the same content as the quiz would also better support student success.

The school needs a shared calendar or something for all staff to see what goes on at school (meetings, events etc).

I appreciate the curriculum that is given for math but at the same time unless permission is given from higher up there is no room for autonomy as far as combining lessons or swapping them out for Project Based Learning, I've done that this year because my dean gave me permission to and my students flourished with the PBLs because they were able to apply what they were learning to the real world and add meaning to it. My student's data around PBLs also prove that PBLs should be implemented more.

Show appreciation and recognition to employees so that they feel appreciated.

clarify on PTO rules / increase in PTO

I would like to see more academic resources made available. For example may more curriculum materials to use for intervention.

One of my teammates has caused unfair friction this school year. She often times does not pull her weight and does not take accountability. My other teammate and I have vocalized this many times to her to try to seek change, and she has not changed. Along with this, she often talks negatively about us and factors of our school to others.

There are too many tasks placed on teachers. Some tasks should be moved to administrative employees whether hiring another office assistant, re-evaluating managing current tasks, or removing redundant or truly unnecessary tasks. I have heard: "it is easier to have teachers do it" this is concerning for culture and feeling supportive. Shared TAs would be most helpful with this area as well. Teacher's feel stressed knowing how many tasks there are outside of them focusing on teaching and being prepared to teach well. I have also heard teachers say these surveys are not anonymous, and that they do not answer truthfully because of this.

There are many times where I have not received emails or information that was about me or my group of students and I had to discover by asking my colleagues, and many emails has nothing to do with me that becomes noise too much noise getting in the way of important emails that get lost on the sauce.

The kids need designated areas to learn. Library for readers. Computer lab for technology. Gym for gym class. SPACE!

Give more days , I would be happy with 10 instead of 8, because my children go to a different school and it is hard to plan for things/activities when I have no extra days to attend their school functions, especially when their functions are not planned from the beginning of the school year

All schools should have a funding stream for student field trips and other resources as needed, such as equipment for the athletic teams. You want Southside to feel like any other school, and athletics and field trips are important pieces to this.

N/A

There are a great many programs available for Social Studies, with online resources and activities for assessment.  With each student using a Chromebook, we should be tapped into a Savvas-type curriculum.  Also, all ELA resources should be digital and audiobook versions available.  I do enjoy the structure of the ELA reading programs, though the spelling and grammar errors in the lessons drive me nuts.  Math needs instructive resources, allowing student to work at home with examples in support of class work.  Perhaps it is prescribed lessons in Khan Academy, or some other resource.  These are opportunities to explore what is available.

There just isn't a lot of resources for Physical Education and Health

No comment

Being more flexible with PTO days. Overall, ACA is a GREAT school for the students as well as the teachers. This was my first year here and Dean George has made this experience impeccable for me. She's a great leader and mentor for the students and teachers.  She goes above and beyond for her teams and others outside of her teams. I just love her.

Special ed teachers should to have access to same resources as general ed teachers (for example a bridges log in)

Being able to understand the curriculum to the best ability I can. With being a first year teacher and jumping into a new curriculum, it can be difficult but I have had a lot of support and help from others. Now that I have been teaching it since September, next year I will have a better understanding of it.

stop rewarding bad behavior. More staff events.

Some ideas for the leadership team: assume the best, treat teachers like professionals... How?  Correct teacher actions directly/on an individual basis (not through mass emails). That is frustrating and confusing. Find better incentives than jean passes (this is gendered and a little patronizing). Avoid begging for gifts from parents on behalf of the staff i.e. teacher appreciation--this is uncomfortable.

Differentiate sick days VS PTO, be competitive with other public schools about benefits, rolling the days off over to the next year as a motivation to not use them in the same year.

There needs to be consequences for students behavior when they are acting out. There needs to be an anti bullying program for the school do help prevent futures events. There needs to be more communication between upper admin and staff. The pay for paras needs to be improved and there needs to be evals  for staff that are not teachers so they are aware of what they need to improve on. There should be away that the older students get more food for lunch portion size compared to the kinders. When there have been records of students behavior even if they are on an IEP there needs to be the same punishments for those students as well as any other student. The dress code should be enforced better. There shouldn't be a pay difference if you have recess duty or lunch duty it should be the same for all the staff that support.  The paras should be able to take the training so in case they need to they can put hands on. The teachers and staff could benefit from moral events.

Make sure that areas are actually be cleaning such as classrooms on days we are told be have detail cleaning, the restroom being cleaned and sanitized and allow student to cut germs down having the essentials they need in the restroom (soap, toilet paper, hand sanitizer) in the classroom (hand sanitizer, tissues)

The number of students in a class and the amount of prep time that I have each day are my biggest concerns and why I consider moving schools. My job would be much more effective for 23 or fewer students than it is with 30. The large class numbers strongly and negatively affect my success in working with students, including my ability to work with small groups, design and implement differentiated instruction, and return graded feedback quickly. Though 40 minutes is the scheduled amount of time for teacher planning, I find that I usually only get 30 or fewer of those minutes to plan (because I'm waiting for the next teacher to arrive, checking in with students in the hallways, following up on discipline needs, etc) and at least once a week I am meeting with my dean. On average, I feel like I am able to use about 2.5 hours a week to plan during the school day. The rest of my planning (at least 2.5 additional hours but usually 5 additional) must be after school.

Consider pay to follow surrounding public schools and environments as well as expectations put on position in the midst of giving students and families a good experience. Families choose our school because we stand apart from the school district they live in, but often staff is underpaid comparatively.

It's important to let staff know of information to make changes to our schedules for the day and so forth. Getting told 15 minutes to do something is hard. I encourage letting staff know of changes as soon as Admin knows about it.

I know our SPED and emotional support team is spread thin but, going forward, it would be great to have more support in these areas.

This is an issue across the board in education, but I feel that we need more time for play and exploration with academic content.  Our younger students especially are pushed so hard from such a young age, and the opportunities for social emotional learning, use of imagination, and problem solving skills among others are lacking because of it.

I feel the compensation and PTO could improve for the hourly employees. We do not get a lot of the benefits that salary employees enjoy.  Yet we have a lot of responsibilities, and our compensation/PTO is low compared to previous schools I have worked at.

I wasn't paid for maternity leave and only got 6 weeks. I think that is ridiculous. How can I be expected to come back to work after only 6 weeks? My baby is so small and needs me and now I have to watch other peoples kids instead of my own? It also feels like they keep changing benefits and removing things just to make it cheaper for the school, even if it has a negative effect for the staff.

When I was hired in the policy was to be able to work from home twice per week.  Two weeks after I started that was dropped to once and mandatory only Wednesday's.  I would like to see the twice per week restored even if it is mandatory Tuesday/Thursday or Tuesday/Wednesday.

I believe that the compensation for this role could be more closely aligned with the level of responsibility, workload, and impact that it entails. Adjusting the pay to better reflect these factors would be supportive, and would help with high performances.

I would like more clarity about the nature of my job security. What is the escalation process for write ups in terms of performance. I also have no information about the evaluation process or salary/raise and how that process works.

We need like 50% more days off, and also we shouldn't HAVE to earn days off.  We should start with some, then have the ability to earn more.  I've come to work sick multiple times in case I need to use PTO for something serious, like covid or an injury, and I would prefer not to feel like I need to come to work sick.

consistent meetings with leadership

I would love more time in the schedule to properly dive into the moral focus program

Manager needs to communicate schedule changes, test data, and other information with ALL team members. She regularly leaves one or more of the core teachers off emails, has errors in schedules sent out (recently resulting in students missing specials time), and does not hold her wing teachers to the same standards.

I believe it would greatly benefit the students, staff, and family if we had a mental health partnership that connected families with a mental health case manager to get them truly connected with/follow through on mental health support outside of school.  With our kids being all over the state, I believe this is the best and most effective way to help our families get mental health services outside of school.

metal detector wands would be very helpful especially when children bring weapons to school such as tasers and guns. I have seen a situation where both of those items were found on students

Better health insurance plans that is also affordable.

Suggestions not related to compensation: Equity of plan time (some teachers get 2 plan times and some do not have to give up plans for meetings)  Plan time is taken at the end of the year when we really need it. End of year tasks keep piling up and plan decreases.

Better communication to all staff, not just teachers

Professional Developments should be half days and involve some kind of interactive learning.

Students at the 3-5 grade level have a large amount of weekly testing which helps inform assessment. However ,students are very burnt out during testing season when they have to take multiple quizzes and unit assessments in between. As a result the students scores don’t truly reflect their efforts. Maybe we could reduce/ remove assessments at this time . Students would like more opportunities for fun with the rigorous curriculum we have. The schedule we have doesn’t allow for more than one break a day. As a teacher we even struggle to fit snack in without working through it.

Address the huge lack of education/services provided for our special needs students who do NOT have access to specials, or recess and are expected to sit in a classroom all day doing work that aren't helping them address their specific needs.

A shift toward strength-based feedback, inclusive decision-making, and trust-centered leadership could significantly improve the overall work environment at North Dayton.

More stable technology for students.  Our ipads are becoming useless and not working with lexia and dreambox.  For my class I have about 4 working ipads.

Positive feedback would be helpful and professional attitudes and support from other teachers and managers.

I love working at Pembroke and I don't think there is really anything that I would change at this time.  This is such a nice place to work and I am so proud to be a Pembroke Academy Pioneer! I love NHA.

I would like to have more opportunities to sign up for CEU courses.

I have noticed a lot of unprofessional conversations with staff and students. There was a staff that was talking to a student about another student telling them that the other student is terrible and they need to be kicked out. That conversation should not be had with a student. Another time is when a staff was allowing students to say the n**** word and the staff member said 'oh they are allowed to use it b/c they are half black'. The relationships with students and staff do need to be worked on.

At Knapp we all support one another which is amazing, but role obligations can get messy in this. I feel Knapp needs to reestablish what everyone's role is to reduce burnout, help with communication, and improve the school culture.

There needs to be a curriculum for every subject and every grade, high school history does not have one which makes it difficult to teach without it.

Longer planning time for teachers. There need to be more time to complete work at work.

Benefits costs for the employees have increased they need to reflect the paid compensation we receive. Salary pay need to be increased to be in line with the increased cost of living. Its great to enjoy your job but it would also be wonderful and help with productivity if our pay covered the cost of our living.

Crack down on misbehaviors earlier in the year like we have in the latter part of the year

Having a more defined expectation of curriculum resources that people are wanting to see used in learning.

Friday meeting to address all things that would be sent out on Sunday through texts.

Clarity on pay raises and changes to PTO.

Student books and teacher manuals. They need references and hard copies of materials to be successful. Expecting students to create their own learning portfolios is not realistic. Students are using technology for learning way too much. They need to disconnect from electronic devices and interact in other ways. Teachers are expected to access and print too much.

I feel as though our cleaning company doesn't do their job. They rush when cleaning classrooms, only vacuuming and sweeping, never mopping (even when the floor is sticky) or cleaning the tables, to help avoid sickness. When we have to call for them, they rarely respond and other staff members end up cleaning things they shouldn't be (bodily fluids.)

  My recommendations is to stay calm, remain professional, deal with the situation in the best kind manner possible. Because in the end, we are here for the children. We all need to communicate effectively and be on one accord and stay positive.  We are the role models.

N/A

There are eight days of paid time off provided for the year. While this amount should definitely cover planned absences, it can be difficult to manage unexpected illness or emergencies within this limit. Additionally, unused days are not rolled over, which removes a potential incentive to conserve time off for when it's truly needed. Allowing unused paid time off to roll over to the following year would be a huge improvement. It would offer employees greater flexibility and security and also encourage responsible use of employees' time off.

I dislike all of the gossiping that occurs in the school. I feel it is toxic to the workplace.  I don't know how to solve this problem.

8 days is not enough. Especially if you have kids.

Taking the state exam into consideration, I believe improving the curriculum to focus on strategies and assignments that look similar to how they will be assessed would be beneficial. As well as, changing the classtime structure ( Read Aloud, Shared Reading, etc.). This is a good framework in theory; however, I do not believe it is practical.   Also, this survey asks me to list several things that I 'like' about working here, but only allows me to select one thing I dislike (or would like to improve); that's odd.

Support with providing and maintaining an adequate amount of Chromebooks for each grade level/classroom.

Use actual cleaning products. Mop and Scrub floors. Dust.

I think we could have this improved by having plans communicated in advance before something happens with a plan.

I wish NHA provided specific resources to use for SEL lessons or to use in working with students individually or in small groups specially in the area of Social Skills and Emotional Regulation.

Releasing information in a more timely manner and to those who are involved rather thn letting the information trickle down.

There should be more opportunities for team-building activities.

The way the schedule is set up can lend to a difficult work-life balance, as teachers only have 45 minutes of planning a day, when classes are 90 minutes long. I would appreciate a planning time more proportional to class time (longer planning with classes kept the same, or planning kept the same with shorter classes).

Not many resources provided for social studies

Just want to add a different spin to certain areas of the curriculum to get the students to understand it better or to get them to wanting to learn more about a subject. More creativity in the classroom is what I'm trying to say. Maybe theme's or units would be nice

Let PTO roll over. When it doesn't people use them at the end of the year which makes it tough because everybody is out.

Allow more PTO

Leadership team needs to be respectful to staff during meetings, and regarding emails.

lower the out of pocket minimum for medical insurance  Pay is too low...for the amount of teaching I do every day....much more is required of a teacher at North Saginaw than other schools and we are not properly compensated.  3 90 minute classes.  30 of MF (also teaching) 60 minutes for intervention.  With passing, pickups, 03's and meetings....too much is expected everyday without proper compensation

Create more merit based pay programs and opportunities to earn pay through: Saturday programming, After-School Programming, Virtual Sessions, and End of Year Incentive bonus.

Teachers getting more support in their content area/s.

The new system is a little wonky with numbers of hours for people with split hours between multiple positions on timecards.

There is no support. The dean always acts like she knows the students better then I do, even though I spend everyday with them. When a behavior happens Mr. Goddard never responds. It is very frustrating when you then find him in the hallway and he is sitting watching YouTube or looking up cars for sale. It is also frustrating when you text Mr. Goddard and Ms. Baker for support and you get a text back explaining what you should have done. Every time there is a behavior problem it is always the teachers fault and the teacher gets lectured for the students behavior. It is also very hard when you are in the middle of class and a dean walks in to criticize you in front of the students. The work the k-2 teacher do is never acknowledged. All of the time after contract hours and all we get is criticism for how/why something is done that way (that was never clarified). I worry everyday there is something else I did wrong.

Principal, at times, treats us as if we do not know how to do our job OR that she doesn’t trust us to do our jobs. If she has an issue with a particular grade or teacher address it to them and not the entire school. Everyone should not have to pay for the sins of others.

The healthcare plan is horrendous for newer employees; not the ones grandfathered in.....NOT FAIR!  I gladly took a pay cut to come here, but then with the high deductible medical coverage I literally HAVE to consider leaving because I am drowning in medical bills, which is like taking an even further pay cut, due to my insurance provided by NHA. The amount of PTO is also incredibly low at 8 days and I find it insulting that any time at the end of the year doesn't rollover. We might get "breaks," but I cannot schedule illnesses or surgeries for myself and/or my family.

I would suggest better clarification for leadership as to what a school social worker does, and how leadership/manager can support but also understand we are advocates for students and families.   There is a need for an SSW Supervisor (who holds a SW degree and an SSW license) in the state of North Carolina, or at the very least within NHA. It would go a long way to have someone who understands the work we do and advocates for us so we can focus on being the most effective at our jobs.   Also, it would be great to be acknowledge throughout school social worker month/specific day. During the month of March - I recognized myself and made it known to others around the school.

More opportunity for faculty to enhance learning experience.  Financial resources, claiming mileage for travel on field trips and athletic programs, better recognition to pay out more incentives to instructors.

With my team in school be able to work more together to find common ground that can create a better chemistry between those we work with.

Provide more flexibility for teachers with balancing work and life and more time off

Innovation in terms of being able to address different groups of capable and non-proficient scholars.

I have chronic illness, so sometimes I feel like the amount of days is not enough, and sometimes makes me not want to be a teacher because I feel as though I am not healthy enough to do this line of work.

I feel like the curriculum is too fast paced for the students we have. I feel like for Shared Reading and Read Aloud it would be more beneficial for students to focus on one mentor text per week per skill. This way they can get more familiar with the skills and spend less time learning new texts.

Increase janitorial pay or janitorial work force

The curriculum that I teach could use some updating/tweaking. Most of the scholars could not relate to the material and lost interest very easily. The material seems to have a one size fits all approach, especially in the way the questions are phrased. Most of the questions have to be scaffolded due to the way they are structured, which interferes with pacing.

The curriculum moves too fast and does not give enough time on one topic.  The class is also so large I cannot help my students individually on any given day (due to the pacing), so reduced class size would be awesome in that respect.  The times on the daily schedule are unrealistic, and should be allowed input from current teachers.

None at this time . Dean Solite is amazing !

There is a strong opportunity for the school to enhance its professional development offerings by ensuring they are more consistent, relevant, and tailored our needs. Professional development sessions often feel disconnected from our responsibilities, and there is limited follow-through to help us apply what we’ve learned in practice.  Creating space for teachers and support staff to share ideas, reflect together, and work toward common instructional goals would significantly strengthen our professional culture.  I would recommend: Establishing a clear and ongoing PD plan built around staff feedback and instructional priorities. Incorporating time for collaboration, peer learning, and team-based problem solving. Offering differentiated options to meet the diverse needs of all roles and experience levels.  With more intentional planning and a focus on both relevance and connection, professional development can become a much more valuable and motivating experience for everyone.

The curriculum is unengaging and they need more than one week to gaps the information we are throwing at them.  We shouldn't have test every week on a skill that we basically just learned, Their isn't enough time to master the skill. The curriculum is too fast paced as well. WE also need a gym so we teachers can have our classroom for lunch time.

Allow payout or rollover for up to 4 days, reward staff members and educators who have been here for multiple years with more days for the PTO, 3 years is an extra day, 5 years is an extra 2 days or similar to that. With the way PTO is set up now I feel inclined to take it, as there is nothing rewarding if I do NOT take it. I WOULD have only took 2 days off all year, if that, but instead I will be using every second of my PTO or else it just disappears.

Behavior

Dean Solite does an absolutely amazing job at supporting our team in every way possible. New technology would help push us to the next level.

I see a lot of inconsistency in how we respond to different student's behaviors. The students notice that some behaviors are ok for some but not for others. I feel like we would see improved behaviors with more consistency in consequences.

See, publicly recognize the at-risk and intervention teachers for their hard work with so many students.

None

Compensation is very low for the work done by the OA considering we don't have an on-site nurse, so every injury & illness get taken care of by OA.

To make sure everyone is involved and communicated with regarding activities, behaviors, meetings, etc. It can be frustrated when not being communicated by my team and/or manager regarding these things.

metal detector or scanner for bookbags

Adaptive curriculum guide/sequence for special education students, including moral focus curriculum. More training for teachers and administration regarding special education services. Quickly hire special education teachers when there are vacancies available.

N/A

The pay here feels very low for all that we do. I feel like I'm giving so much for what I am getting. For now my salary is fine, but the salary makes it hard for me to see myself at this school for a long time. It is definitely a significant drawback. No one goes into teaching for the money, but a little more would be nice.  I also believe we should be compensated for any extra things we have to do. It seems like there is a lot of extra things people are doing here that gets unrecognized.

Opportunities to have classes or conferences about student behaviors, engagement, and differentiation strategies

Curriculum and assessments should fully each state expectations and standards.

Find material, texts, novels that the students would enjoy diving into.

I think that there needs to be more professional development on having general education learning values within special education

I would like to see a structured, predictable salary growth plan. Teachers/staff still having to meet certain criteria, but seeing a set schedule to see where our salary can grow would be even more motivating.

Implemented mental health days throughout the school year. Behaviors are incredibly challenging and difficult at this school. More un-interrupted prep time, or built in time in the beginning of the school day. 7:35-8:10. This can give time to prep small groups for Forward/MAP testing or other tasks like grading or report card comments that shouldn't have to be done outside of work hours.

 PTO should never be eight days only in an either school year, being the only school in NHA to work on Good Friday was not thought out. most of us have children all schools/ daycares were closed while we were in. in a healthy and supportive system PTO should have a different banks . 1. sick leave  2.personal leave  3.Emergency leave 4. Maternity6-8 weeks paid having been off for six weeks unpaid then to come back to wait a month to be paid and only have 133.00 check seemed to be unreal as a salary teacher.   5. mental health days .. i feel this needs to recognized you wont have so many teachers quitting

Bathrooms and taking down the covid era stickers on the doors/halls.

Perhaps a better list of subs?

I don't feel like we have much Autonomy

Computer Carts and Smart Boards would be great.  I could hook up my IPAD and move better about the room while instructing

I really like working here!

I often feel that important concerns—such as lack of recognition, insufficient support for effective teaching practices, poor curriculum structure and timing, limited communication, and few opportunities for advancement—are overlooked. These decisions are typically made by management without genuinely involving or supporting teachers like me in these areas.

provide more opportunity for paras to obtain teaching certificate

There should be a more unified front when dealing with student behaviors. Student disciplinary actions should be consistent and handled the same across the board to avoid manipulation of policies. Disruptive students negatively impact classroom learning and consequences are not consistently assigned nor implemented when necessary. Students appear to not fear consequences which contribute to ongoing disrespect and disregard to policies.

There is limited resources available for teachers and students with disabilities or disorders and limited opportunities to scaffold curriculum to accommodate the needs of students that need education assistance. More paraprofessionals are needed to meet the demands of students that require one-to-one support systems for education accommodations. Educator and staff should receive additional training on how to educate and work with student with disabilities or disorders.

More freedom to make choices in our classrooms. Not feeling like we are going to get "in trouble

A more definite answer to which population of students should I be working with at the beginning of the school year.

Compensation is a great incentive to retain and attract talented educators.

Compensation is not consistent with cost of living increases.

Following through behavior and punishment.

I believe that as I better understand the curriculum I will improve in my teaching of it. This was a first for me and I am still learning how everything works.

As a new teacher, I anticipated receiving support, guidance, and advice. I believed I would have a mentor to model effective teaching practices. However, my experience has been quite different. Instead of the support I expected, I often feel isolated and overwhelmed by the challenges of the classroom.  It's unfair to be blamed for student behavior, especially when I am still learning and trying to implement effective strategies. Constructive feedback and collaboration would be far more beneficial in helping me grow as an educator. I am committed to improving and making a positive impact on my students, but I need the right support and resources to do so. Additionally, I often feel overworked and underappreciated. The demands of teaching are immense, and without adequate support, it becomes even more challenging. The leader of the school also micromanages a lot that teachers do.

There needs to be consistent consequences for student's behaviors and actions across the board for all grade levels. While there needs to be more intentional efforts to recognize the positive behaviors for students.

Dont tell staff to call for help if they arent going to actually be helped. Stop listening to parent demands and support your staff instead.

Student's with behavioral issues should be required to take a behavioral course of some kind before being put into a classroom. These particular students need to be taught proper manners. Without these proper manners, teaching becomes almost impossible for not just these particular students, but for most (if not the entire) class. Doing so would probably further reinforce the Moral Focus lessons and books.

I feel that rather than 18 dollars an hour, interventionists ought to be paid closer to 25 dollars an hour

Bonus opportunities or achievement bonus opportunites

I have none.

Consistent follow through with student behavior, positive feedback to staff, and more timely communication.

I feel that staff is in need of professional development in Math.  The Bridges program is vast with several components.

I think there needs to be clearer communication all around. I often feel left in the dark when things are happening or coming up and find myself scrambling to adjust and accommodate. There also needs to be clear communication of mandates before the deadline is approaching - especially for teachers who are new to NHA.

I feel that the lack of communication in our building needs some improvement. To be good educators and a member of the staff here at Quest there needs to be adequate communication between administration and teachers and staff at all times.

I would love to see higher pay… I know we get the summers off, but I do a LOT of work outside of contract hours as it is and would benefit greatly from a monetary increase to reflect that work.

We really value clear communication and support, but we’ve noticed that we are often given very detailed step-by-step instructions even after we have demonstrated the ability to manage tasks independently. We feel that more autonomy would help us work more efficiently and also build greater trust. Micromanaging builds stress.

I believe communication at our school could be improved. Often, I hear important information from students rather than from my supervisors, which makes me feel out of the loop and disconnected from the team. It can be challenging to adjust to plans that were made without my input or awareness. I would appreciate clearer, more direct communication from leadership to help me stay informed and better support the school's goals.  Additionally, I feel that the tone in some emails can sometimes come across as emotionally charged or lacking compassion, which is concerning given our emphasis on moral focus values. I recommend that before sending communications, individuals consider the purpose of the message (what outcomes are intended) and the audience (how different team members best receive information). Building stronger relationships with staff and understanding individual communication styles could help promote more effective and positive communication while reducing unnecessary tension.

I think the Math and Science curriculum needs improvement.   The Science curriculum could improve by making sure that we get the proper training and all of the materials for lessons. On the other hand, I do like the technology that can be used for Science (i.e. the videos). The kids are interested.   The Math curriculum is too dense. It is overwhelming. There are folders and binders everywhere. Some of the expected materials were not provided in order to have a successful Math lesson. For instance, I did not have a Geoboard. I do not what to suggest.

Dismissal should not take 40 minutes. At most, it should be 15 minutes. Additionally, teachers shouldn't have to stand in the hallway for 10 minutes during arrival and 40 minutes during dismissal. We can use this time to stay inside the classroom and grade papers instead or prep materials. A lot of prep time is used for meetings. This requires teachers to stay after school to prepare. Lunch time should be 45 minutes to one hour instead of 30 minutes. Since teachers have to drop off students and pick them up, lunch feels like 20 minutes.

Urgency is important-- clarity, compassion and peace of mind are more important.  I feel like a lot of the communication is happening in a passive aggressive, panicked way in order to comply with benchmarks and standards instead of effectively supporting the students or staff.  Every day we are reminded to teach with urgency... but "everyday urgency" seems to be translating to constant anxiety in an environment that is already stressful.   Many days I leave feeling defeated, under appreciated and under pressure to abandon my own professional sensibilities, intuitions and natural ability to engage with the students in an attempt to adopt and display the strategies that are being promoted for all teachers in the school.  It feels like a game of whack-a-mole instead of a genuine rich educational experience.  After a 10 min observation, the feedback usually consists of what we didn't do.  Class sizes are also way too big- we are set up to fail.  The kids need more individualized attention.

Train teachers to become fluent in teaching basic reading and writing in a structured literacy approach.

Consider offering more than 8 days a year for PTO as well as allowing FMLA for new employees.

Suggestions:  START OF YEAR: Beginning of Year open house, so parents can be aware of expectations earlier and that connection can be established sooner. More without students/meeting days. Given class list sooner.  DAY-TO-DAY: More autonomy. We have some, but sometimes it feels like teaching is two days of checking "must-dos" off a list than it is actually using the time to best support learning (e.g. test, writing project, test, needing to complete a read aloud when the students would benefit more from that lesson being on how to identify a complete sentence, test). I love the new math intervention schedule (please keep it!), but it would be nice to also have more free time that could be used to support the mid and low math groups, as they don't have supplemental for the actual lessons like the high group does because that is at the same time as their intervention group learning.  CURRICULUM: Please make Kindergarten more challenging. They need to know more upon entering 1st grade.

I really like Moral focus but when things get busy moral focus is the first things to go. I also think that it would be good to give them chances to do things like preparing kits of school supplies to other students or kits that can be taken to the homeless shelters so that they can see how the efforts to be good members of society to pay off. The books are great and the activities are nice but I don't think it helps them to connect as much and its frustrating sometime when there isn't time to finish the books.

Different ways to do observations or give feedback. Observations are VERY inauthentic.

Show more concern about workers personal life

Being new to a Leadership Role in NHA, I have found recognition to be lacking for the amount of work I do behind the scenes. As an employee this year, I was only recognized once with high five points at the corporate level and not at all at the manager side. My own team of direct reports did a ton to recognize me for Leadership Appreciation Week.

Smaller class size so teachers don’t get over stressed and can manage classes better.

Education should be taken into consideration. For example, if someone has a master's degree why would they come work for Oakside if they will be severely underpaid? If you want to keep good, educated people; pay them better.

Everyone (especially leadership) showing accountability and a willingness to effectively communicate can greatly improve the culture at Milwaukee Scholars.

Johnston is a phenomenal place to work at, and I honestly can say, not only do I wake up every day excited to come to work, but also the admin team here as literally kept my life together this year. Never have I seen an admin team so well synced, and supportive of their staff members, in every measure possible. However, I strongly believe that an educator who not only continues to show state testing scores surpassing the baseline, but with 11-12 years of experience as well, should be compensated accordingly. At least within the pay grade of $60,000 plus with area for annual growth. Great educators are so hard to come by, and its unfortunately no secret that the ones that do come by, are forced to leave due to compensation.

Compared to working at a public school with curriculum books, it can be hard to find things. I always have a million different tabs open. It could be me just getting used to it. Also, I feel like students are quizzed too much. I struggle to keep up with giving all the required quizzes, so I don't feel like I have much time to respond to the data. Students have a quiz every week and sometimes two.

Have better communication in general. We do well to use our walkies, but it's still a hit-or-miss concept. Also, we need to do better about communicating about events, trips, and resources. For example, with the 8th grade trip, the communication is unclear and all over the place among those going on the trip.

Time off increases as years of service increases

An attractive pay/benefits package is essential to attract and keep good quality educators.

With the lower achieving classes I think it would be more beneficial to have additional adult support so help curb a lot of the behavior problems that come from lazy or underachieving students that further make it difficult for learning to take place.

Lower deductible on health insurance

N/A

Reflect on this school year and the difficult transitions in leadership. What could be done differently?

I would like to see the teachers make a salary close to the public school in town

I'm not entirely sure. I picked "resources" just as an umbrella term. Communication has been approving a lot since I started which is awesome same as role clarity and other things. There are a lot of recourses too for when I'm subbing and need help other staff members have been great for that. I know I do struggle a lot when I am subbing whether classroom management or teaching the material that I know nothing about is a struggle. Perhaps more resources for when people sub in general?

I believe the 8 days of PTO should strongly be reconsidered. Maybe 8 days per semester totaling 16 days a year or a way to accrue days with each paycheck. Trying to balance only 8 days for a 9 month school year is almost impossible especially when working with children who bring illnesses to school, and trying to juggle personal life as well.

I would the opportunity for ideas to be given how to have a life outside of work. I have time off from work in a normal week but I feel that I could benefit from having other ideas given to me that I might be able to implement so I have a better work life balance

I would like to hear more from experienced staff on what they have learned from first hand experience. What has worked for them? What hasn't? How did they handle a "failing situation"? What systems have they put in place that have been effective for their teaching? I am still new, so I feel like a lot of our trainings are fast and try to cover a lot in a little amount of time. Maybe I just appreciate digging in more.

Communication is such a big category to give feedback on.  I do think that getting communication about any new initiative through email only is not the way to roll anything new out.  That has happened a few times.  I also think the new things or changes to anything impacting schools should be rolled directly to DSQs and then we can go to our EDSQs for questions.  When it goes through the EDSQs first or just through emails first, the message gets lost and the why gets lost.  That all makes the change even harder to make and even harder to get buy in on.

I believe that more needs to be done in relation to differentiated instruction and incorporating more interactive and fun learning activities.

I feel there needs to be more communication in regards to things happening within the school to make easier flow of school days so that people aren't confused by any last minute changes or things that may be happening in other parts of the school so everyone is on the same page. I think there should be an email sent out of who is absent for the day so that we can see what needs coverage or where a need should be met if coverage is not easily accessible. Also there should be better communication in regards to events and meetings so more people can be involved/have more notice of things.

Increase in pay that coordinates with reviews.

Not eating in classroom with carpet floors.

I have just had issues because every time I have taken off it has been because I am genuinely sick (meaning above 99 degree fever or recent vomiting), which has left me with no PTO for appointments I may have, any other emergencies, or personal days. In terms of recommendations, I wish that there was a separate, additional amount of PTO designated for Professional Development/Doctor's Appointments so that these things wouldn't affect my PTO amount.

Increased pay

The HSA cards are nice but the deductibles are so high. Once your HSA card balance is gone you pay a lot out of pocket. It would also be nice to have more PTO days as well.

More planning time within scheduled work hours

I believe we need to improve on communication . One way is by being proactive when events happen to give clear instructions not waiting

we need more compensation as Our job is high risk as we enter students homes unknown what we are walking into we also are one of the few positions that are boost on the ground .

I believe we should implement more mental health resources at this school for our students as well as staff. I believe even adults have mental health concerns that are often left unaddressed and if we had access to more resources, it could help us with tools to navigate our life outside of work that takes a mental tax on us so that we can show up the best we can for our students.

I would appreciate an increase in pay for the upcoming school year that is more in line with the demands of my role and takes into consideration my education and experience.

to make sure staff members feel important and valued and to let them know they are appreciated,,

Instructional specialists/behavior to support our spicy students.

I think following through and consistent standards / expectations on student's behavior. The kids need to learn accountability with their words and actions.

n/a

I think it would be helpful if the lessons included guidance on which moral focus to include. I also think some lessons are either way to short, way too long, or are not easily adaptable to the online format. I do think most are good, but one I looked at today was about 8 pages long. Another from last week was 1 page and took the kids 15 min. To have built in

Academics should be adjusted to students actual grade level. Support and/or Para should be available at all times to help in classrooms where students are struggling or failing. Teachers should be given autonomy over their classrooms and receive guidance from managers. Over micromanaging takes away the teacher/student connection.

As an older individual, the high deductible insurance plan does not fit my needs.

Retention Bonus

While it may seem far-fetched, I would love to see a separation between sick days, personal/vacation days, and mental health days. I understand that, as an educator, daily attendance is crucial; however, it would be wonderful to have these types of days acknowledged separately rather than being combined within the standard 8-day (64-hour) limit.

No recommendations at this time

Salary is not equal to what I was getting paid at other district schools in the area, which would lead to people leaving due to their experience and skills not being financially appropriately valued.

More new teacher training with behave with care and specific curriculum training.

More opportunities for raises.

I think positive reinforcement towards students is a high priority at Sky Ranch. What I’ve noticed is behaviors have not changed significantly due to positive feedback/rewards and some consequences for student behavior don’t improve the root of the problem either. The reward systems and positive feedback can also be draining for teachers as they feel they have to praise good behavior constantly without much effectiveness. I would love for the school to work together on ideas for how to make lessons more engaging for students and be tuned in to specific needs of students. Parties and rewards are still great, but I don’t think making those the main focus is helping our students value learning.

More professionalism from the "higher ups" in our building. I believe this would cut down on the pettiness, or picking with certain staff. As well as receiving more support (i.e. set expectation, resources to achieve expectations etc). Perhaps new "higher ups" that have a better mindset, that are kind, not nasty. That are professional and mean well towards ALL staff, not just their "favorites."  More approachable, a lot the higher ups don't come off as approachable when you're in need of support or kindness in general.  Less back-biting, some of the higher ups do it and allow "certain staff" to act in the same manner. It's quite exhausting working in an environment that allows these things, when we have bigger issues to deal with, like the kids!

More opportunities for Professional Development and appropriate PD sessions.

Continued professional development oppportunities for all positions with a focus on a variety of areas including content, classroom management, social-emotional learning, etc...

I like that there are rules to keep students in order but i feel the consequences dont fit the crimes. To often students are returned to class to continue to disrupt the class.

**Teachers Need Time, Support, and Understanding**  Teachers are often expected to work on weekends, during school breaks, or even during personal family emergencies or events. It can feel like there’s no regard for our time or personal lives. This lack of boundaries makes it hard to find balance and support in both our professional and personal lives. We're often asked to complete tasks in extremely short timeframes and make quick adjustments with little notice. When we can’t meet these expectations, the response is often negative—offering little support or opportunities for professional growth.We understand that things need to be done in a timely manner. We're committed to our responsibilities. But just as all students learn and grow at different rates, the same should be true for us. Patience, flexibility, and empathy should be part of how we support educator because we’re human too.

Communication, not always but a few times this year things don't get properly communicated out to the people that are needed and involved.

Shorter meetings

Please pay teachers more! We deserve to be compensated comparable to the public schools around us.  Parents choose us over those schools so we should be compensated just as much, if not more than the teachers at those schools.

I'm new this year, I am unsure of any recommendations just yet.

I am unsure.

Reduce the number of mandatory meetings.

Not sure that you have much control over this.

Offer bonuses and retention pay.

NA

I am still learning how to use the C.O.C. ULs curriculum and I think there might be a better guided curriculum to fit all the needs of the students I support.

Academic dishonesty is pretty rampant among students.  I would advise addressing ways to improve academic integrity among students in light of AI.

No recommendations to be added. All areas mentioned above are well improved.

More freedom to work outside of the curriculum or just improvement in the curriculum itself. Math specifically is very rigid.

More health insurance choices that offer affordable decutables/co pays. Especially since I have health problems that require several scans multiple times a year and has become very expensive to manage.

work on it more .

The curriculum is very rigid and the way that it is checked in on leaves very little room for making the content more engaging for my students.

N/A

Just everyone helping each other like we been doing.

I, like everyone else, would like higher pay.  Also, lower deductible options for health benefits.

My dean has been an excellent resource this year, being that I am new to the company and the curriculum. He and the instructional coach do a great job at providing support and making sure I have everything I need to be successful. However, I believe we will further grow our students with better technology, such as promethean boards.

I just think the teachers here at vista deserve more pay?(as well as all teachers everywhere!)

I, myself, have a hard time keeping up with all the grading of assessments on the computer. This generally cuts into my time at home because I can't take time away from instruction to get it done. I'm not sure yet how to fix this problem.  I do have a recommendation for others, though. We have a lot of sports & activities at our school. While these are wonderful opportunities for students, they cause strain for our staff. Most of the time, our teachers/staff are the ones who end up hosting & supporting these events. I would like to suggest offering duty-free lunch/recess for those teachers on the days they have events to allow them more time to plan for the classroom since they are busy after hours. Or, an offer of 1/2 day planning once a month with a sub taking over that time. I think this would allow those teachers to feel appreciated and valued for their efforts so they will want to volunteer to provide these opportunities for our students.

More time off for personal time

Opportunities to provide feedback

Share information as it is obtained.  For example, when there are schedule changes and we don't find out until a hour before class starts.  It leaves no time to be prepared for the change.

Improvement recommendations: -Bathrooms -Lunchrooms -Air purifiers  -More cleaning during flu season -When some type of infection is going around the school and/or classroom, there should be protocol in place to limit the unavailability of teachers and attendance of students due to being infected.

Pay teachers more and reduce class size.

The one thing that is constant in times of stress are a breakdown in communication. I would like to see a plan put in place to help keep that communication from breaking down and this will also allow everyone involved to feel heard and supported.

regular daily Classroom paras should be salary and be at least $20 hr.

Investment in remodeling the restrooms and updating gymnasium.

I think that more students should either not be allowed to attend alliance Academy due to their behavior, or should only be allowed back with supervision. I have seen very unruly behavior from some students on a daily basis without much of a consequence. Students at alliance Academy feel like they can get away with anything. I have heard students say that they don’t care if they get a write up. If students are not given the proper consequences, or even support, this unruly behavior will only get worse. I think that there should be more of an ABSS team. We definitely do not have enough staff at Alliance Academy to handle the behavior we deal with every day. The worst consequence of all of it is that it takes away from learning.

A schedule block where teachers are free to create projects and activities that are not in the curriculum but meet common core standards.

Providing clear training before placing long term subs and new staff. This way they don’t feel fed to the wolves. It is hard to know all the expectations without even being shown where to find learning materials and resources.

Increase yearly salary, Bonus at Christmas, Recognition bonuses

Higher salaries. NHA teachers work an extra 40 minutes a day as compared to local public schools. We also have to pay for benefits, unlike public schools. Salaries should reflect that.

I would like to get more information.

The leadership team should make teacher priorities very clear.  What is the order of importance of: enforcing phone, airpods, dress code, student behaviors, compared to teaching the curriculum, helping students who are lacking pre-requisite skills, and MGC conversations

School should be more welcoming to children and a safe place to be.

Proper trainging on special education progress monitoring tools- aimsweb, goal book, accommodations and how the impact the general education classrooms- more tranining on the gen ed curriculum

I like working at PVA would not change much. I feel like I belong, and with this being my first year, I was welcomed with open arms and have recommended many people to send their kids to PVA as I also have my children attended. Pay could be a little higher for OLMs but I am happy with the work I do at PVA.

I just feel there are certain resources that we have that I could be using better or have a deeper knowledge of (ex. Sora).

N/a

NA

The teachers at Vista are very underpaid compared to most of the other schools around the area. A teacher with 14 years experience should not be making equal or less than a first year teacher at other school.

I think it would be beneficial to have additional time off under mental health to help prevent burn out

My classroom has never been "deep cleaned" or fully swept. Under my desk has never been swept this school year except by me. In between the student tables food and dirt collects under the base and it is also never swept unless I do it. The day after a scheduled deep clean, when we had PT conferences, I had to sweep mounds of dirt. When my garbage bag is changed, it is attached by a rubber band, but the bag is never fully in the can. If I don't fix it every morning, the kids' breakfast garbage will overflow and milk and cereal will spill over. Unfortunately, I don't have any recommendations because I have been told this has been a problem in previous years, but it sure doesn't look solved to me.

There should be a clear set of standards for our policies and procedures; no one should have a different set of standards and they should be enforced the same for everyone. For example, if a scholar does infractions ‘X, Y, and Z,’ then they should receive one set consequence. If another scholar only does infraction ‘Y,’ however, they should not receive the same consequence. Similarly, some scholars should not be given a reward for doing a behavior that another scholar would be punished for. We should also be using the data from our online behavior collection system more diligently to ensure each scholar is given fair treatment. Along the same lines, staff should have a clear set of standards with similar consequences. To ensure a more unified, smoother running school environment, staff should be treated equally when receiving consequences as well.

I truly feel that a lot of us do not get proper compensation for the amount of work we put into this school and our students. Furthermore, some of the given wages are not enough to live off of.

Provide teachers with Apple devices- laptops and iPads!

It would be great if we had better insurance and more day off.

Make sure those who are cleaning the buildings are taken care of and appreciated as well. I do feel this makes employees want to come to work and do their best work. Making sure teachers are not leaving big messes for the cleaning team to clean up because that makes them have to stay overtime. I know what it is like to clean a building and it’s a lot of work. If teachers could make it a little easier on the cleaning crew then I can see the classrooms being better cleaned.

Need meaningful steps to be taken to help staff when struggling

I think curriculum should be more updated, accessible, and collaborative.

na

Feel a good way to always stay updated on things that are moved

Middle school students would greatly benefit from enhanced tutoring programs that offer structured support and discipline, allowing them to apply themselves more effectively in their studies.

Routines are often changed and communicated to teachers right before the change is needed to be seen.

Clear rules and expectations need to be laid out in a staff handbook for us to reference at any time

Compensation need to be more competitive in the market place and/or inflation increases. OR be move incentive based on personal performance in compensation (not high five points).

A more robust prescription medication coverage option.

I think NHA should focus less on having cookie cutter teachers and more on allowing teachers to adjust lessons to the needs of their students. Kids are not all the same, so a lesson will not look the same from room to room. Allow teachers to have autonomy in what they teach their students, as long as it is skill focused.

I feel like there isn't a lot of support for nonclassroom teachers and their voices and needs go unnoticed and they're never really recognized or appreciated

I believe the improvements that could be done in our school would be support from Admin, communication from Admin/Leadership, and for Leadership to do their job fully. Gen Hamilton specifically lacks in communication, minutes with designated children, being present to work, etc. Gen Hamilton has passed on minutes for paraprofessionals to complete (which are her minutes to complete with a child) and never completes those minutes missed herself. That action alone takes away from the children that need that support. Every child Hamilton has taken on with behaviors (started that program in October 2024) have regressed significantly in behaviors as well as learning. Hamilton provides her children, that do not require modified work, with work below the students ability. This behavior from Gen Hamilton has been supported and allowed by supervisor Karsten Dommermuth constantly. I believe students and co-workers are not heard nor cared for the way they should by leadership/admin.

When it comes to staff and student support, Knapp needs more then 3 ABSS workers to be successful. I feel that behaviors can be more controlled if the students can see/talk to someone that they trust.

Our room has only been cleaned 1 time this whole year and it was because we asked to have it cleaned.

There should be a full time tech person at the school to support the teacher and students. Providing charging carts for all classrooms.

There seems to be an opportunity to strengthen the sense of belonging within the company. Some employees may feel excluded at times, and there appears to be a culture where negative talk about colleagues is not uncommon. Focusing on building a more supportive, respectful, and inclusive environment could have a very positive impact on team morale and collaboration.

In other districts, they provide 10 days of PTO and we only get 7. It can be stressful at times especially as a single mother as those may go quickly.

There are a lot of added and uncompensated responsibilities on the teachers- breakfast duty, lunch duty, driveline duty (both outside and holding students in classrooms) that could be improved. Either compensate your teachers for doing it, get parent/staff volunteers, or hire someone to do it. We have enough on our plates already!

Making sure everyone is on the same page and identifying potential problems and schedule changes.

The current curriculum structure limits opportunities for creative engagement with the audience. Additionally, it does not provide sufficient practice for students, nor does it allocate time for reviewing homework and exams. While pause days are built into the schedule, they are often used to catch up rather than reinforce learning, particularly when students fall behind and instruction needs to slow down to meet their needs.

The schedule changes seem to have no regard for which paras would be best suited for which students. There is zero input from paras who are with students 99% of the day. It seems the only input is from behavioral case manager Gen Hamilton. While the manager is Miss D, she seems to want to conform to whatever Gen would like without communicating with the entire SPED team. Miss Hamilton is the only case manager that consistently asks paras to cover her minutes with students. This often causes others’ schedules to have to be shifted. A lot of these concerns have been brought up in the limited amount of para meetings we’ve had(which admin does not attend) and admin appears to only listen to Gen Hamilton and frankly seem to walk on eggshells around her as they are concerned about how she will react as she tends to take any suggestion personally.  It feels counter productive to continue to change paras schedules instead of addressing the individual students’ behaviors.

The restrooms needs to be more detailed cleaned out.

Provide more relevant training to student support staff instead of copy and past generic training that we receive at professional development days. For my role as a Title I paraprofessional, I would like more in depth training in the science of reading for the grade levels I work with and training in delivering the reading curriculum at my school that is more up to date and realistic. I would also like detailed training in the AimsWeb software that I use for benchmarking and progress monitoring. I want to also suggest that staff are offered at least one training a year that they can choose based on their own professional development interests. For instance, I am interested in working with EL students and it would be great if NHA offered a workshop or access to an online resource in this subject.

I appreciate the research showing that the curriculum can benefit students and help them meet expected standards. However, it's important to recognize that results from one subpopulation may not reflect the experiences of all students. In my experience, the curriculum often does not meet the needs of our students. I've observed the best outcomes when I've made adjustments to the curriculum, but I feel constrained to adhere strictly to the lesson plan. This often leads to a decline in students' grades and self-efficacy. There needs to be more flexibility in the curriculum to better address the unique educational needs of our students.

PTO needs to be more organized and fair. PTO should not be expected to be used for emergency use only. Everyone has lives outside of work and sometimes things are happening outside of scheduled breaks. Teachers have some of the most stressful jobs in the world and because we utilize school breaks, personal time (weekends, after work) to grade, plan, and do other necessary things for our jobs to be run efficiently (without extra pay), it should not be frowned upon if we decide to take a day or two. We should be given more time. Also, sick time and vacation time should be separated. We should receive more than 8 days for a school year and accruals should be front loaded if this is going to be the new PTO process for next year. Aside from PTO I do feel across NHA schools retention bonuses should be prioritized.

Role hierarchy and different title for Intervention teachers

I think it would be beneficial for everyone to completely understand their roles and receive appropriate training in the support staff rolls. Allowing the support staff to have an opportunity to share what their students need would also be helpful.

The behavior at the school is 9 time out of 10 not dealt with appropriately, and we are push overs when it comes to letting kids get away with stuff. Also adding new kids super late into the year. No behavior support is offered really and there is not enough staff to deal with things.

I feel like there are so many resources but not much training on how to use it and find information

Hold effective O3s that actually happen, communicate well in advance what is coming up for any school events, tests, and help make sure we are best prepared. Communicate with parents when important things that affect their children are happening such as a teacher leaving, a new teacher coming in, etc.

A new gym

I need to really think on a solution as to how to secure Job Security... Job security is not really a thing anymore. Although, it is very important to me!!!

Very high premium amount, especially for part time staff. Even "benefits" like YMCA membership discount, or something to that effect, would be nice!

some of the resources we are given do not align with the curriculum or we are not given proper resources in order to teach said curriculum

School could be a lot cleaner.

I believe that there should be grade level collaboration opportunities across campuses and teams. It is strange that there isn't a google classroom or resource bank of some kind across grade level teams with such an expansive and  talented team of teachers who are all teaching the same thing.

Special Education/General Education teachers working in a co-teaching model.

Wake Forest has work to do in supporting new teachers who are just starting out. As a first-year, I felt completely lost in my first couple of months because I felt that there were so many little things I had to figure out for myself. Even things as simple as "What supplies should each student have for the first day of school?" Having more clarity from the start (I also had no idea what to do with a big group of textbooks that were in my room... they're still in there and haven't been touched all year) would have made things a lot easier. Also, it would be helpful to find some way to relieve teachers of lunch/recess duty. Having that time be a true break and rest time would be absolutely game-changing.

If we can have some break time during the school for preparation would be appreciated. I hardly get 1 hour break for the whole week. Our energy goes more on managing the behavior of the kids rather than teaching the content especially for the middle school students. I expect more compensation for the work which I do.

Keep a class set of computers for middle school. Whatever number is your attendance number is your computer number. So when you come into class the computer should be in that slot in the charger. If it isn’t it goes to the person who had it in the previous hour who is assigned to it. But some having them and then others don’t. Not enough for the entire class makes it hard to do “do now’s”  and exit tickets in google classroom as a google form.  This year was very hard for technology.

Communication could be clearer and more concise.

Better communication and a feel for clarity. kids behaviors are chaotic and more consistancy for children to meet academic expectations for their grade level.

The pay rates are absolutely dismal

Since we're in the middle of trying to improve our procedures/policies with spreadsheets, I don't have anything newly specific.

While I appreciate the 10 days off, it’s difficult to maintain work-life balance when they’re used for sick days, leaving no time for personal life. It’d be nice if we had a 4-day school week like during COVID. Teachers work 5 days but get 1 day without students to plan. There’s no time during the day for planning except during specials, but those are filled with meetings. We need more planning time that isn’t after work or on our own time. Behaviors need addressing, but filling out behavior charts for each student per period creates more work. With 5+ students needing charts, it’s time-consuming, and write-ups often don’t happen due to lack of time and too many disruptions. We need a better work-life balance and a separation of sick and PTO. We should be allowed one mental health day a month that doesn’t impact PTO, so we can schedule appointments, etc., on those days.

Move money from the executive salaries into the pockets of those who have boots on the ground and in the front lines.

I feel the system of compensation for extra work could use improvement. I have been told that staff may or may not receive compensation in the form of a stipend for extra work. I don't think it is fair to ask teachers to work above and beyond and simply hope for compensation for that work. I feel that there should be set (paid) roles for certain leadership and work outside of contract hours as not to take advantage of staff willingness to go above and beyond without compensation. If PVA strives to be better at work-life-balance and fair compensation for work time, then they should not take advantage of teachers/school staff's willingness to work unpaid hours. Education is one of the one professions that people are expected to work for free. PVA would really stand out if they worked to combat that!

Having more roles available for staff - reading intervention, math intervention, behavior intervention

Paid Trainings and conferences for the ABSS role

I think teachers are asked to do a lot of extra things. We already spend lots of time before school and after school as unpaid hours and then are asked to do lots of more things that add up to lots of time which start effecting teachers work life balance.

higher pay for teachers would help take life stressors off of our shoulders and will also make teachers feel more appreciated.

Not applicable

The curriculum seems to be over the level of the students and many students struggle with the amount of content expected to be covered. For planning purposes, the curriculum is not easily accessible, there are lots of different places of where to find the curriculum. It would be more easily found if it was organized by week, all subjects together in one location. Math stories organized with the the math curriculum. Some items are in C&I drive and some things in the curriculum, things are all over the place.

We cannot role PTO to the next school year and only have 5 days. Yes we can use short term disability if need be but that doesn't help us be a parent to our children.

Smart boards. Eg. Promethian

Less ways to communicate but more efficient on 1-2 ways of communicating

I feel like the curriculum can be improved on. Rather than having the students work in small groups and going over the work together, have the teachers provide examples and have them teach their own methods of problem solving when it comes to the work. I also think some of the methods that are used in the curriculum are not effective and will not better prepare students for when they go to high school. I would say provide methods that can assist them for high school and beyond.

NHA and Peak have unrealistic expectations regarding curriculum implementation.

Allow newer employees the opportunity to advance in their roles or change roles and work during summer school.

Microsystems: for example, Level I, 2 & 3 behaviors; teacher documentation and protocols

There is no flexibility with NHA. When the children have 1/2 days we have to stay the full day. We don't get as much time off as other schools.  There is no work/life balance.

child care support

Training on some roles like para pros, recess supervision.

Having a more comprehensive set of guidelines for student behaviors and stricter consequences for students who don't follow the guidelines.

Everyone being open about themselves or whats going on.

When teachers are paid what they are worth, they are happier and more willing to put in the extra effort. Cost of living continues to rise, yet we do not get yearly raises to make up for this.

I feel areas are working fine for me!

That all new incoming staff will be trained on the programs that they will be required to teach and work with the kids for the year. Clear understanding.

A curriculum that goes back to teaching children the basics without rushing them along. 3-8 switching classes per subject.

More paid sick days/ mental health days

We could always use more resources to help the children in the class and around the school, especially sensory resources.

Classroom and bathroom floors should be cleaned more often not just mopped with a dry mop

More freedom to create and teach, rather than facilitating scripted lessons.

Giving teachers better notice of when things are going on in the school days in advance instead of minutes.

A hard and in depth look at all parts related to curriculum needs to be had. Not enough time to get through lessons with fidelity. Ex: 20 minutes for R/A read 3 chapters, chart, TT, ask questions, await response. Number Corner, Math Stories and Bridges do not align with one another. Doing so would help students get consistent vocab and strategies, reinforcing their understanding. Because they don’t it leads to gaps in understanding. Students are tested via aimsweb yet the curriculum is not set up for all students to receive actual intervention to build reading skills. RA/SR is not a reading curriculum. It does not strengthen students in phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary or fluency. Each science lesson in the curriculum requires teachers to purchase items. That is unacceptable and unfair to assume anyone is in a position to purchase items and wait to be reimbursed.  These items should be pre purchased, boxed and delivered to classrooms prior to lesson. Technology is an issue too.

Hourly workers not paid for days the school is closed.  We take a "big hit" over unpaid holidays.  Hourly wage is similar to store clerk, yet most of us have advanced degrees and certifications.

I feel like we should be on the same schedule as DPS for holidays like Good Friday so that we are able to make count

Offer paid snow days to hourly employees, at least 3.    Offer more than 5 sick days.  Offer time worked to accrue for sick time.

Professional Development to help with our students with special needs would be helpful!

More recess for students.

nothing!

Work Life Balance improving the number of days that allow teachers to take that includes PTO.

The needs of the EL program at PCA are somewhat unique compared to other NHA schools. I am enthusiastic that this is being recognized per notes recently shared from the leadership team/principal. The program and its students will benefit from more collaborative, push in / co-teaching services rather than a focus on intensive pull out services. I look forward to futher exploring this and feel confident in the leadership team’s desire to make this happen. Everyday I witness teachers and admin doing amazing work to help our students and families. I'm honored to be part of it.

Have people in higher roles who are receptive to questions and kind when you need clarification or to ask questions. We should be able to feel like we can always ask questions if we need help, instead of feeling like an inconvenience or an annoyance for not knowing the answer in the first place.

More options for health insurance would be great

None

When there are drills, let the staff know in advance. That way the staff can be aware and foreshadow the information to some children who may need it

Sometimes things are communicated to me last minute or not at all about students.  Other times when I communicate with some staff there is no response back to me.  Sometimes with students that I teach and work with behavioral incidents occur and I am not told about certain ones that effect my teaching whether it be the student is in ISS for the day or the student has a behavioral plan or something similar.  Sometimes the communication is not a united front between all involved.

In all previous jobs I have had we received at least 3-4 weeks of PTO, I only get two here I think my morale and confidence in this job would be greater with extra PTO. The extra PTO will provide me and others with the ability to take mental days and other days off and can improve mental health at work.

I love every aspect of my job, and really enjoy the work that we do here at Willow for our scholars. The only improvement I would suggest, is that the curriculum for our scholars be taken into consideration as the curriculum and testing do not match up.

bathrooms and hallways could be cleaner, classroom seem to get looked over at times. over all cleaning

Peak's expectations for teachers are high. It would make the teachers feel more appreciated if Peak would give bonuses to teachers .   It could be given annually.  The teachers at Peak work really hard and times are hard to make ends meet.  Teachers are working part-time jobs and are tired and still have an abundance of work to do here.  There is so much testing and paperwork to keep up, it would be nice to be able to concentrate on one job and feel secure with it and not have to work other jobs and feel tired and worn out.

More autonomy for teachers to choose the best way to teach students according to the standards.

I feel that the role as an interventionist is belittled and made to seem less important although we help to close the gaps and provide one on one support teachers are not able to provide. We also need a quiet space to work in to provide the best services to students for small groups and progress monitoring.

I would like to see more support from those that have more experience. it seems more often than not, that you are thrown into something with limited guidance sometimes.

I feel the communication could be better here at North Saginaw; I also think the benefits and pay should be improved. I don't feel my compensation does not reflect all of the work that I do. PTO could also be better, I feel that I should not have to use my PTO for breaks that we receive during the school year or for snow days.

It seems like the role of ETC is still a little uncertain from NHA's viewpoint and the training/documentation is a little sparce. A lot of improvements have been made this year already, and I know the role is different at each school, but it does lack a little clarity at times.

none

Rules or policies that protect the teacher. Students are undoubtedly our main priority but students can be aggressive or violent and verbal de-escalation or calling on the walkie doesn't compare to the speed of a child whose actively being or showing physical aggression rather its knowingly or unknowingly.

I believe I would benefit greatly as a teacher who is brand new to the NHA curriculum if I had 1-2 opportunities a year to observe my more-experienced peers regardless of their subject area. This sort of peer observation not only helps me as a newer NHA employee, but it also helps to build and strengthen bonds between coworkers, which generally correlates with better work performance. I wondered if there also recordings of long-time ELA teachers available through NHA that provide exemplary demonstrations of proper pacing and time management in terms of splitting class periods between the literature seminar/writing/EXCELerate.   Overall, I just want to say I absolutely love working at Canton Charter Academy. I never thought I would find a school that is this welcoming. It's truly changed the way I get up in the morning-- I am excited to come to work.

Please ensure proper cleanliness is maintained by deep cleaning every class once a month, especially in kindergarten.

Higher pay.

I only selected this one because I'm new to this position. I have yet to see if my methods have affected families, and there is still is much to do to impact the school. I truly enjoy this school, so the Sense Of Belonging comes with time! Garza does a fantastic job at making me feel at home. It is up to experience to show me that I can make a change and impact this school.

N/A

follow through with discipline and color changes.

I am required work in the Service Center 4 days a week, but other specialists with similar roles to me who live in the Grand Rapids area are not required to work in the Service Center and are allowed to work from home. Most of my meetings are virtual meetings, and I rarely need to collaborate with others at the Service Center. The policy of requiring me to be at the Service Center seems inequitable and does not benefit my day-to-day work. It feels as though others are being rewarded by having the opportunity to work from home.

I would recommend better compensation and increased PTO for Paras.

My leadership team (all of the deans and principal) are very helpful. However, my direct supervisor is terrible. She talks about all of her team members and is not capable of doing her job. She puts all of the work onto other people, she does not acknowledge student behavior, and shows up late every single day. SHe shows favoritism and does not communicate whatsoever. The only reason why I am still here is due to the possible chance that I can work under someone else later on. There is so mcuh more I could complain about...

Working as a Para, I sometimes feel we don't have the resources to properly benefit some of the kids. One of the students I am working with can go through method after method and it will work sometimes but other times not. It is like a rollercoaster that I have to keep trying to figure out. I feel if there could be more resources to work with him that would help.

Continuous feedback on how we are doing in our job; there are times throughout this year I felt like I was drowning. I had no idea what I was doing and I never received any feedback as to how I could improve my teaching. Trying to figure out the work life balance is a lot. A little more guidance would be appreciated as well.

n/a

My manager is disorganized and I often am left feeling the same as a result. This is extremely evident in the testing season where I do not know the schedule of what classes I will have for how long until the end of the school day the day before. This leads to a lot of last minute planning that could be prevented and an imbalance between the classes of the same grade (where I may have 4 hours with one class than I never have with another). I often feel like there are contradictions being made by my manager where she will say one thing and I follow it only to be reprimanded because they "never said that".

I feel the role of a paraprofessional is just as important as a teacher, and not being salaried is hard on us financially. Having 1 week PTO provided at the beginning of the school year doesn't really cover all hours that are missed. Many other school districts pay their paraprofessional employees salaries.

I am an educator !  I have the highest degree in this school, My name is Dr. Sharon Coleman.  I entered into this job as a second grade teacher.  I was demoted within two weeks, I couldn't believe what had transpired in a few weeks, I have 30 years of educational experience this has been a nightmare!  I feel totally disrespected, belittled, and treated very unfairly discriminated against because I'm not in the clique!  No one should have to report such negative behavior to the Lord God Almighty telling Him that his child is being mistreated.  To be demoted for a teacher to a para pro is just heart breaking not to mention the heart attack in my salary as if I am a convicted felon.  I owe student student loan $200,000.00 .  By being a para it removed me from the status of being a teacher not allowing me to be considered for loan forgiveness.  I do not bless Laurus Academy !  I asking God to judge between me and thee. I've held all this in because I am a Pastor and I don't Gossip!  When ever someone wrong me I r

I feel like I have no say in what I teach my students. The students that I teach as Wellspring are not all on the same level as student at Grand River, or as students at any NHA high school on the east side. The demographic at Wellspring is different, and the lack of autonomy I have as a teacher is a hinderance to my students. Me not being able to choose what specific materials I teach to my students, who's needs and level of understanding I know most, is putting them at a disadvantage. If I had a choice in picking materials (short stories, book club books, supporting articles, etc.), I feel like I could increase the level of engagement I have in the classroom.

I think teachers should have more say in making decisions about students since we also know them well and can help with their needs. Also, it would be helpful to get more support with handling behavior problems in the classroom. Having extra help or ideas would make it easier for teachers to manage and keep a positive environment for all students.

Continue to provide an atmosphere in which employees are comfortable communicating with management.. The opportunity to speak openly and honestly with management is very importance.

All good

The current cleaning staff doesn’t clean ANYTHING!!!

Enforce consistent standards for behaviors so that they do not escalate towards the end of the year.

I would like for us to improve on our communication skills and emotional intelligence when handling constructive criticism.

Competitive salary based on degree and experience.

Significantly lower compensation package offered in comparison to othe schools.

It took a really stressful situation for me to be given clarity on my job. I was not even given the paraprofessional handbook till after I got written up for doing something no one told I should or should not do.

I feel that leadership should engage with their staff and not just a few staff. I feel that some of the leadership team can be condensing when they speak to other staff members.

I believe everyone should be treated as an adult, I’ve experienced a multitude of issues with communication with my peer and we have had mediation as well as meeting with your higher up’s and still we are having this issue.

There needs to be some kind of secondary option for students who are not supported at home and must encourage themselves in school. I think we hit on the head with the a synch program that is being rolled out. Students must be able to get the work done, even if they can't sit in class for 8 hours. I have multiple kids in my class who are so intelligent and know how to do the work yet get bad grades because they aren't able to sit in front of the screen. Whether its mental capacity to do so, or they are watching siblings, or they don't have stable internet for streaming. It's an unfortunate occurrence and I've seen how trying to get an unsupportive parent involved doesn't change much. And that's not to say the parent is neglectful, but if there aren't able to consistently check in or even give a nudge when they are clearly off task and ignoring the teacher, it translates as non-support.

I would like to see better professional development from the NHA team. I would like the PD to be more relevant. Furthermore, the lack of citing references when resources are presented appears to be a common theme. I would also like more opportunities to get professional development in writing IEPs. I have found a curriculum that I would like to follow, however it does cost about 1K.

I believe that the school calander schedule did not allow for more mental health days, especially during conferences. It would help to have at least 10 days of PTO, or to at least have separate sick days for health reasons.

I think that there is great communication going on in the school but I also think that there could be a little more.

I do not feel supported in my role at this school. If it was not for my quad and mentor I would be even worse off than I already am. There are many teachers in this building who have great ideas and they are not taken seriously so I do not feel like I want to speak up only to be shut down. There is an overall lack of strategic planning and meetings so I usually do not know what is going on until the last minute for things such as testing, events, and after school activities. I am like my other coworkers and seeking other employment.

Must have curriculum that can be more engaging and allow children to study outside of the box. Give each classroom a great set of tools and materials enough for all the students. Allow for creative arts to be on the curriculum, and finally, less testing.

We have had in interim principal since the holidays.  She has been amazing.  She has also been my manager.  I haven't felt like I have truly had someone who has gotten to know me as a person as well as a teacher, at least not on the level that I think a manager should be.  I would like to see someone fill this new principal role who allows us to keep what we have that is good, but also really work to improve on what needs work.  This includes building strong relationships with staff members.

I would love the oppurtunity to be full time in my position.

Great School, glad to be here.

As far as support, that could go for me and my 1-on-1 student and it could go for students and staff, I feel like we could all use some more support. Teamwork can really go a long way if done right. We need support keeping students on track, teachers need support with the classroom and students need support with staying focused and doing the right thing.

I would like to have an opportunity to move from Para position to Teaching level in Art and Technology or Administration.

I would like the opportunity to be CPI trained and better trained to handle crisis and prevention responses. I have asked about this, and told Linden does not offer this. I would feel safer and more prepared in my role if opportunities like this training was offered.

N/A

More hours

There are time where I have been expected to pay money for appreciation weeks, staff meetings, open houses, etc. without being asked or given an option.

Adjusting the math curriculum to allow for more practicing foundations of math that builds off each other.

I just would like to know what is fully expected from me upfront.

I would like to see more programs that will provide the students with a sense of pride and belonging which brings on a positive mindset. I have seen that the students lack that extra help and support that they may lack at home.  Maybe a Big Brother's and Big Sister's program, or a Drum Line or even an after-school Expedition Drill Team to teach discipline and structure which is a form of J.R.O.T.C (Junior Officer Training Core). Learning how to work with call and response drill, juggling rifles marching, gaining confidence, changing their mindset of how they see themselves or how they see their lifestyle. Providing the students with the sense of pride that is needed sometimes to keep pushing past painful moments. These are some things that has helped me become the person that I am today, and I really feel these types of programs would be very beneficial to our students. Have a great day!

Security Guards or hall monitors.

Make sure all employees feel recognized and appreciated, not just the same ones.

The pay is not on par with cost of living.

Better communication on what job role is, support on how to handle situations with students who consistently have trouble, and acknowledgement of a person as an individual and their impact with the students.

More cohesive with all grade level educators and Sped with gen ed

My projector and document camera never fully work all the time, also my wall hdmi port. The cord gets bumped and the screen disconnects.

Look to promote from within. Show that you truly value current staff

The communication between my manager and the leadership team to the rest of the school is terrible. Information that pertains to myself or other staff is not relayed in a timely manner or even at all. We have to rely on other staff to say something or we hear it from students. There are several areas that need to be improved, but this area of communication has to be the biggest for me.

The only thing I would say needs improvement is making sure to provide all staff with sensitivity training. I have heard certain inappropriate commentary from a staff member that could have caused potential mental or emotional damage if a scholar had heard. Thankfully the leadership team addressed the situation after talking together, but with the demographic we work with, there are some people who need to really work on their sensitivity and compassion.

More days paid off for example, paid between Christmas and New Year. Mid winter break. These are days the school is closed.  Also, There should be more then just one of these topics to choose from :)

Being a paraprofessional I feel that we have to do a lot more task than we are compensated for. I feel that the pay should increase or we should receive salary

More chances to prove I can handle a classroom

Opportunity for the new joiners must increase and it would be wonderful if everyone works as Team. Right Recognition and appreciation would increase the confidence and will increase the urge to give our best.

I believe young 5’s would be more successful with a full time para. It is impossible to handle behaviors in the classroom and teach at the same time.

I feel that my work is important and that I devote myself to making sure I am improving the lives of my student(s). As a dedicated and essential part of the team, I would like to be making a wage that reflects that.

As a paraprofessional, coming into this position and not receiving proper training led to me struggling when I first began this position. It was more “learn as you go,” which I’m not used to at all. So, moving forward, it would be amazing if all paraprofessionals receive the proper training before working in the classroom. Overall, this would make a big difference and would’ve helped me significantly when I first began.

I'm willing to take less in take home pay if healthcare is better and less expensive.

More time off would be great.

Provide competitive compensation for high-needs, consistently vacant roles.

Be realistic with expectations on students with different needs. Understand that Oakside does not really normally recruit students who are really interested in or at the appropriate level to go to college after high school (even as a college prep academy), and tailor the curriculum accordingly. Perhaps providing literacy classes beyond simply ELA classes for students that need a little extra support in the area of reading comprehension. Also, fostering an environment where teachers are supported and encourage teachers to never "give up" on students. (That last bit is less about curriculum and more about culture.) Have clear expectations for substitute teachers and actual lesson plans for them to follow instead of just doing worksheets that aren't really teaching the students anything. No word searches for subs please! Word searches take too much time away from learning content. Better focus on learning and less busywork. Foster a positive attitude in teachers that supports students.

Sign on bonus, retention bonus

Working for Victoria Fuller has proved to be the most miserable professional experience I have ever encountered. She lacks the necessary skills to lead people and is a constant negative presence. It was disheartening to spend the majority of this school year with someone who openly brags about not familiarizing herself with the curriculum and takes any opportunity to avoid work. She is quick to blame others for her own shortcomings, and it is little wonder that the staff turnover in her hallway was historically high. Fortunately for NHA, the other leaders at Winterfield picked up her slack, and I am confident in the leadership moving forward.

Offer more pto days that could be seperate from sick time that should be earned not just given six days for a whole year.

Resources for part time teachers to add an endorsement so they can become full time teacher.

The front office team has to consistently ask for information regarding Field Trips, Sports, and Activities in order to assist parents who call or present themselves at school. It would be very helpful to have this information beforehand and without asking.

Slower curriculum for more developmentally appropriate learning.

I would like to have more opportunities to interact and collaborate with other teams and departments. I don't want to feel siloed or confined to my area. I also want to be aware of avenues for career advancement across the entire company, not just in my team.

The pay should increase.

Clearer procedures and policies in place with detailed instructions on who supports who and where you access it.

More PTO days as well as mental health days.

I sincerely believe that WCA could greatly improve by:  Being more receptive to feedback from teachers, students, and parents, and actively implementing meaningful changes.  Prioritizing decisions based on the collective good rather than protecting internal cliques or addressing personal interests.  Addressing concerns around transparency to reduce perceptions of manipulation or inconsistency.  Establishing an employee recognition program that includes monetary bonuses and flexible days off to promote morale and prevent burnout.  Creating a culture where teachers can provide honest feedback without fear of retaliation.  With these improvements, WCA could better align with NHA’s mission and become a stronger, more unified school community for everyone.  Alignment of WCA & NHA core values and moral focus agendas.

Pay a more “Living Wage” so that teachers can afford to pay for their basic life necessitates/bills at least. Also make your “benefits” packages at least somewhat affordable. SMALLER more reasonable Premiums, AND SMALLER more reasonable deductibles and co-pays.

I am very happy at Endeavor.

It would be nice to have regular check-ins with supervisor/dean.   I have met with my dean 2 times since October.  I'm new and I often have questions.  It would also be nice to feel appreciated when I have ideas or when I offer help in areas in which I might have expertise.

Teachers and subs need to be offered more money.

I know the Admin is working hard. I've recently seen the custodians cleaning off my desk which I appreciate. Some rooms the floors need mopped. The restrooms need to be spot checked more often. I'm not sure if the vacuum or sweep. I've seen an improvement but I think it could be better.

None.

We should be given a few sick days not just pto.

The principal is absolutely Amazing, listens and cares

To improve safety here at DEA, I feel the unescorted adult presence in the building during arrival and dismissal should be limited to zero.

Identify more sponsorship opportunities or grant allocation of funds to purchase (ex. 30 laptops upgrades) per home to reduce shortages.

Students need more time to practice, but the curriculum is overly packed and rigid, with too many strategies—especially in Math—which often overwhelm students with lower learning capacities.

Role Clarity....There should be some kind of training for paraprofessionals. Not real clear on the expectations, they change regularly depending upon the day. Different teachers require or have different needs....so if your paired with that teacher give pointers or expectations according to that teachers needs. Maybe it's running copies, or handing out assignments, being prepared for teachers absence or making parental calls.

Too many meetings-- we have meetings about emails that have been sent. This week we had a huddle, we have a grade level meeting, grade level PLC, O3, Pit Crew, and IEPs. It's too much to balance the workload during our 8 hour day.

Better healthcare benefits. It doesn't cover alot compared to other districts.

I have a masters plus 30 credits, I would like to see NHA honor the compensate for those additional credits.

There are some things that needs attention around here and a lot of the Staff are scared to express their opinions. Create an open platform for ALL staff, you'll be surprised what they have to say!

Training or stipend that could be used to aid professional development of our people.

The elementary math curriculum for Bridges is too complex for the time allotted in the day, and the classroom supplies available do not account for the activities.

The core values are something that I believe to be positive and important to teach children. However, I don't believe that the teaching is followed with actions necessary to reinforce the lessons. I don't believe that the way we do not hold children accountable for disruptive, concerning, or dangerous behavior is conducive to illustrating the importance of the morals and the ways in which those morals are meant to make everyone feel safe, cared for and welcome. Accountability does not have to be punitive, but it does need to be consistent and in line with the morals and actual expectations. Becoming a quality leader is also about learning how to keep people safe. If we can not teach and convey that to our troubled or struggling students, we will also not convey it to the students who are not struggling.

Have options and set criteria for employees to show their capabilities. Especially because we have no union or tenure, Teachers here should have a say in who observes them and evaluates their ability to remain here. The way it is currently set up, if one human doesn't like you, your job is lost. It is very futile and daunting to be at the mercy of one human.  Implementing a three criteria system gives a better picture of a teachers' capabilities. Give an opinion survey to students, parents and co-teachers to assess the teachers overall effectiveness in multiple areas, while also evaluating us on time and attendance, observations, classroom management and clerical deadlines. A self reflection performance survey would also be useful. Gathering all these different perspectives through varied data would give a more complete and complex account of every teachers’ capability and value to NHA.

Some recommendations I have to improve our school culture: I recommend providing ongoing professional development in classroom management and establishing clear, consistently enforced behavior expectations. The implementation of Positive Behavior Intervention System needs to be done with fidelity. Everyone from Principal to custodians should be able to participate in it. Perhaps developing staff and student focus groups which meet quarterly to gauge whether or not interventions are working. I would also suggest having a morning student assembly led by the Principal and staff. It could promote unity and a sense of belonging, reinforce positive values and behaviors, motivate and recognize students, set a positive tone and focus for the day, give students an opportunity to participate and lead parts of the assembly, and promote teamwork among students and staff.

School-Social Workers are underpaid for the amount of work that we do. It is the same in district schools and other charter networks. In my role, I am expected to serve EC students, General Ed, McKinney-Vento/Foster Care students and soon, I will be monitoring attendance. I think that there should be an increase in salary.

When there is something that you need to do your job more efficiently or things that are absolutely necessary to be comfortable those needs within reason should be met abruptly.  Needs such as heating needs, proper chairs etc.

A few short team building exercises (with some sort of prize to get people involved). Principle Hook has tried some GREAT team building exercises (dice game, beads at the Holidays), but not everyone participates.

I would love to get the same pay as everyone else and for the whole day rather than broken up for lunch duty. Recently found out several of my other make more than me.

Professional development should focus on supporting novice teachers in helping them to develop their skills in teaching by the following: Mentorship and Coaching  Ongoing, Job-Embedded Training PD should be integrated into daily teaching, such as co-planning lessons, peer observations, and collaborative teaching. Offer professional learning communities (PLCs) where teachers meet to reflect on and improve practice.. Practical, Classroom-Relevant Content Focus PD on strategies novice teachers can use immediately, such as classroom management, differentiation, and formative assessment. Include real examples, simulations, or case studies.  Gradual Release of Responsibility Provide scaffolded opportunities to lead instruction, try new methods, and take on leadership roles as they grow in confidence and competence.  Reflective Practice  Feedback Loops  Supportive School Culture

Anything besides Illustrative Math. This current curriculum does not fit the needs for all learners.

Procedures and academic probations should be in place to better assist students and not derail their academic journey

I have worked in other schools where it is typical to have 10 days off sick and PTO combined. Being in a school, sickness is commonly spread and it is tough when you are penalized for a day or two over.

As educators we have to realize where the students are and what they are capable of. Their minds are still developing and we have some student who are just frustrated because they don't understand what being taught and/or asked of them and so they may act out in frustration; teachers need to know how to alter assignment in a way that can reach the student. Lets not just say this is a bad child, but look for ways we can actually make a difference in that students life. We have to be patient with them and appreciate the fact that these a children in a tough environment. Lets be the children's breath of fresh air when they come to DPA.

opportunities for bonus or increase in pay grade for meeting certain accomplishments/observation ratings

There should be a certain amount of money that goes toward teacher ideas/ projects to improve the school … for example OUTDOOR CLASSROOM… benches and tables outside for us to go learn and change the environment

Increase pto or days off allowed. Families need support and I can’t always support my personal life or needs without this pto. I feel like even allowing for another day or 2 of pto is reasonable. Alternatively, sick days would be greatly appreciated because entering the school system means for a lot more sicknesses.

Exit interviews, Exiting employee surveys, and comparison of departing employee and replacement cost/opportunities of new employee

Clear communication and expectations

I really didn't have anything that I feel like I need to change or get improvements on. So I just picked something because I had to.

I only chose technology to be addressed because I had to choose something, but I feel that I have noticed that problems related to Chromebooks being charged, chargers being lost or needing to be borrowed, and student power struggles over the phone garage are some of the only incidents that consistently disrupt learning. Phone garages struggles may be addressed on an individual level by creating uniform and consistent enforcement of the expectation throughout the school. The Chromebooks and chargers may need a solution that is more administrative.

Our health insurance is very costly and our plan has a high deductible. This is not beneficial health coverage

More disciplinary measures and ABSS staff.  We also need to be more transparent with parents about the realities of their kids schooling at Quest e.g. behavior, disciplinary measures, curriculum, et cetera.  The present culture at Quest needs to be change, with students taking more responsibility for what they are learning.

more opportunities to observe seasoned teachers in content area. More hands on learning with behavior with modeling with actual students.

Give employees grace when selecting benefits instead of having an employee go without benefits.

It is incredibly important to be responsive and collaborative with every team member, regardless if we have a relationship with every team member or not. Currently, our culture seems to behave in a way where team members will not communicate or collaborate with others unless they have built long and meaningful relationships first, and it impacts our ability to successfully run projects and keep our commitments to students and staff at the schools.

I'm not really certain as I know that this is out of the control of my managers.  I understand that there is a difference in pay for teaching in person vs virtually, it has been somewhat difficult financially to have a lower salary than in my previous teaching experience.  As a new teacher, I am not sure if my pay will increase each year. I really enjoy working for PrepNet Virtual Academy and feel it has a wonderful school culture that I'm proud to be a part of.

enough PTO to cover winter/spring break and inclement school closure times

Teachers are given only short planning times.  Those planning times are usually interrupted by meetings of some sort.  Teachers are encouraged to work long hours and are required to check many mandatory boxes.

Timing of the school and the curriculum seem to take up majority of daily life causing a stress on my work-life balance. I am not given enough time for my planning period and feel that its hindering my overall well-being.

Everyone should be aware of what duties each professional has to complete. This will help avoid confusion between staff members. I was able to learn with time, but it would be easier if this was discussed before beginning. Example: As a paraprofessional your main task is testing, and providing tier 3 time for children that need more help. You will also monitor in the morning and afternoon during dismissal, and cover lunches in your classroom and other classrooms as needed.

Focus/spotlight on different cultures/holidays/recognition months such as National Hispanic Month, Black History Month, Asian & Pacific Heritage Month, etc... In my opinion, this is one reason as to why I don't feel a full sense of belonging within NHA as no other cultures are recognized and honestly, NHA does not have a lot of diversity within the Service Center.

Starting in the middle of the year was not the best decision. Not much of my role was clear and not much support. There is not one person that I can call on who knows my role fully and what expected. There is no one who can make sure I am fully trained in the practices that are expected for this role with Summit Creek. Having a SSW Supervisor would help a ton.

At least 2 days wfh on a regular basis

Properly managing and disciplining poor student/teacher behaviors and choices.

In my option we lack in innovation; we need new and creative ideas to reach our students. Developing a round robin for teens to discuss issues and concerns. (as an after-school program). The pledge in the morning should be followed by a 5-minute motivation session in the classroom. A chant, as an example, I am ready to cease the day, I will do my best, I will achieve everything I set out to do today.... To get the students ready to start the day with positive energy. It may also assist students that are depressed or feels of worthlessness.  In addition, we should consider our school scheduled days off to include the Monday after Easter and Superbowl Monday. I am finding attendance is low following these two days. Students are coming to tired or not coming at all.

Keeping me aware of things that effect my job, as well as, the school as a whole

I would like an opportunity to make more money.

I would love release time for myself to view other math teachers and vice versa.    We can all learn from each other, as well as C&I team walk thrus, and Deans/Principal walk thrus.

I would just love if in NHA new letters they pointed out more relevant programs to my state that could advance my education to advance my career and opportunities to help students.

 There to be a consideration regarding two preps for the week perhaps provide two days of the schedule with double prep to give the time to do more data driven lesson planning individually for the class.

I wish the pay was more competitive to surrounding public schools.

in the Spanish class, The students are placed at random , mixing middle schoolers with highschoolers, without taking a placement test for the level they must take in the course. Performance in this multilevel situation in each class makes very difficult to engage the Latino students evenly with the black American students. The gap is huge and leads to multiple problems. The culture of acquiring a second language is no other than mandatory which is not helping to develop a joy for learning skills. I dont have any kind of resources in the classroom like flash cards, textbook, games, or chrome books. We are depending only on the projector and my own design of the weekly packet for the students. I would like to have a variety of teaching materials if possible. They are essential specially for classes in which I have 5 or more students with special accommodation .needs.

Curriculums aimed at the learning problems created by the education gap presented by Covid

I think it would be so awesome to see community projects like a school garden and mentoring programs for younger and older students.  Responsibility and compassion are things that all students would benefit from

Pay more like the state does

I think there needs to be improvement to the lunch procedure. Sometimes the lunch line is so big that the students loose most of their lunch time in line trying to get their lunch and teachers sometimes loose 10-15 minutes of their own well deserved lunch break waiting in line with their students. Many times the lunch staff is not ready to serve the amount of kids coming through the line and the lunch process is very slow. It would be very helpful if students could have extra time added to their lunch to account for the time they are waiting in line and if there can be supervision for the lunch line so that teachers can start their lunch break on time.

While our school has established communication channels, there is an opportunity to strengthen the culture by making administration more consistently available, in line with the open-door policy. Greater accessibility would help staff feel more supported when issues arise. Additionally, holding students more accountable for their actions and ensuring that appropriate consequences are consistently applied would make a significant difference. Currently, the behavior levels and discipline chart do not seem to be used effectively, which negatively impacts teachers and contributes to a lack of control among students. By reinforcing clear expectations and consistent discipline, we can create a more positive, supportive environment where both staff and students can thrive.

There is no system for students to have responsibility for their own computers. Either computers need to be assigned and attached to individual students so they are responsible for damages, or they need to be classroom specific. We have too many issue of computers breaking, being lost, left in halls and other classes, and there are no consequences.

Nothing. I feel everything has been a great experience thus far.

More time needs to be given, 4 days for an entire school year is insane.

The Special Education program lacks a qualified and interested teacher.

There is a lack of consequences for students who feel as though they do not need to comply with the rules and expectations established by the school. They go beyond the limits. They act disrespectful to peers and/or adults. One student misbehaving can affect the learning performance of the whole class. If the same student has experienced the maximum level of consequences (10 or more days of OSS), this student should be expel. It is clearly explained in the Code of Conduct, that excessive fighting, horseplaying, and bullying are not acceptable behaviors. The frequent distractions and disturbances interrupt the wellbeing of the majority of the children. These types of student affect the academic success of the majority.

Communication between deans, and between deans and staff feels like a very bad game of telephone. It is hard to be productive when everything has to be filtered through leadership.

My transition to Phoenix has been a mix of highs and lows. The person I report to directly is truly incredible her energy, encouragement, and commitment to both staff and students make coming to work something I look forward to. She leads with heart, and it shows. Unfortunately, the overall environment needs work. Other administrators come across as distant and unwelcoming, often not acknowledging you in passing. I’ve noticed that many of my coworkers seem to follow that same tone. The idea of being a supportive, unified team a school family, is more of a slogan than a reality. I genuinely hope the leadership culture shifts toward valuing every staff member equally and creating a space where everyone feels seen and appreciated. As a future Phoenix parent myself, it’s hard to imagine placing my children in a setting where staff are made to feel dispensable. A healthy, respectful work environment should reflect the values we aim to instill in our students.

I think having some more clarity around the new PTO policies for hourly employees would be beneficial - It's hard to find clear information about how much rolls over vs what gets reset after June.

higher wages for support staff

Make sure that all teachers are able to have a computer. Not a Chromebook.

My role does not feel very clear and I do think that will get resolved over time but it feels like they just added video to marketing and added my position with no plan or procedures or structure. I feel as though my expectations, deadlines, and everything are not clear. I appreciate the creative freedom, but in my role and my level on the hierarchy, I feel as though there should be more guidelines. The whole idea of video at NHA seems very undefined.

The kindergarten assessments are not accurately assessing student ability and where they should be at certain periods of time in the school year.

Paid more with be good on me ! Thank you

Our manager is not approachable and tends to lead through control rather than collaboration. She often reprimands teachers in front of students, which is belittling and unprofessional. There are clear disparities in how both students and teachers of color are treated—discipline is harsher, and communication is often less respectful compared to others. This unequal treatment is damaging and fosters a culture of bias and exclusion. Additionally, she does not lead by example, and this lack of supportive leadership negatively affects morale, trust, and the overall school environment.

Love the Vision and Dental but the medical benefits are a bit confusing and I feel like I don't really have or get to use medical insurance. I sadly do not think I am eligible to say how to solve this problem with out doing the proper research I would ask to look into it to see if there are better opportunities for prescription and medical visitations if possible.

Communication can be improved by requiring meetings about altering the work environment between multiple parties to involve all parties. It can be confusing when there isn't an initial meeting, involving all parties, and everyone is given a different piece of the puzzle. If there can be an initial meeting that includes all parties involved, explaining what to expect and how to adjust to the changes, smoother transitions can take place.

Maybe once a year having a big event with all your coworkers to get to know them better. It’s hard to do that at school when you’re teaching.

I feel for my level of education and my masters degree compared to other charters near my house the pay at Foundations is very low. I would get between 72000 and 88000 near my house. I love this school but just knowing that I can make more closer to home.

having a bigger budget for special education to  supply classes and teachers with the things they may need to help the  students be able to learn more hands on with things such as learning games etc.

I feel that the pay should be increased for paraprofessionals to at least $20. Although we are not teachers, we still work with behavior issues, assist with the same curriculum that the teachers teach on and we keep the students with behavior issues calms so that the classrooms can continue to run smoothly.

More RTIs so when some get pulled to other places or testing, there are others to take their place in classrooms. Classroom behavior gets worse when students see that the classroom is understaffed.

Sometimes being more clear on what we are supposed to do, if certain things just happen to change last minute and also communicate with everyone that would be involved not just 1 person.

None, this is a wonderful place to work for

allowing time outside of one on one evaluations to not only openly discuss barriers & uncertainty, but also allowing the space to brain storm solutions that are reasonable for staff and students to adhere to.   allowing space for educators to work WITH admin to create sustainable redirections for undesired behavior in students instead of putting effort toward implementing generic strategies that enable said behaviors.  ensure that communication is consistent & open no matter what level of staff you are (from admin all the way down to paraprofessionals). especially in regards to role expectations & support.

Professional development opportunities for paraprofessionals is not the greatest. I would appreciate if the pd was more paraprofessional centered,

The intervention program I feel should be done a little different to push children to the next level in reading. I feel that all the children are on same level in each room doesn't push the children enough. They need other students on different levels around to push them.

The amount of disruptive behaviors that go on day to day throughout the building not only holds the students back from learning but also the teacher from properly teaching, majority of the day is correcting behaviors and not engagement and learning.

NHA has a fast paced curriculum that special education students cannot keep up with, specifically in regards to testing. I spend a majority of my week giving tests with accommodations versus actually teaching and filling in gaps for IEP goals. The curriculum timeline is too fast for all teachers and students and the testing is far too much. If it was every two weeks for a quiz and once every month for a unit test, that would be better, but I am getting tests, several a week, from each class and grade.

Compensation is the most important area I would like addressed to improve my experience at NHA. While I value the mission and the work environment, ensuring that compensation reflects the level of responsibility, performance, and industry standards would significantly enhance both motivation and retention.

paid time off for part time employee

It seems to take a long time to earn time off; two winter breaks were unpaid and I expect most of summer break to also be unpaid. However, this may be because I began working halfway through the school year.

I would like to say NHA is amazing the atmosphere is welcoming and always teaching me new things everyday!

Some of my co-workers feel they are underpaid/unable to grow professionally, and their attitude affects how they show up to work sometimes. I personally feel happy with my pay right now, but it feels discouraging to have people on my team bringing the mood down.

Types of curriculum used

Kids need more options for programs to keep them engaged in their learning as they get bored doing the same 1 program every single day for each subject

It would be helpful as a new person to know what the expectation for PD is and how is it made available to us.  Will there be choices and how do we earn our needed CEU's to turn into the state in order to keep our license active.

Better pay

I would recommend that some of the students be tested in a different way to pass to the next grade. It seems some of the students need a different test, or they aren't prepared for the test. Maybe there is another way to find out if students are actually proficient, on-level, and novice. This would make for a better way to mix the students up and not have the level classrooms. It may cut down on behaviors as well.

More competitive pay.

Offer better coverage that covers mental health care

I used to get so much appreciation when I I started, but not so much anymore.

More planning time and consistency with addressing behaviors of students.  Students are allowed to walk out and are quite disrespectful and disruptive to class instruction.  There needs to be more consistency with ISS procedures and making students accountable for their actions.  There is too much required of teachers without allowing time to plan or really do what is being asked simply better.  I started late January and was not allowed any time to onboard.  I stayed overwhelmed until recently.  There are far too many meetings for us to be able to implement everything being thrown at us as teachers.  I do understand now why there has been so much turnover in the school and especially with the 7th grade class.

If possible kindly give access on the chrome books (students) only to  recommended sites but not to any other sites which might distract the learning path.

There needs to be more behavior supports in place. As a teacher I can only take away so much and they still do not care. When referrals are given I believe detentions or saturday schools need to be given.

not misusing role status or acting inferior to others

As a new employee I just need some assistance with using my laptop.  Not worried about it--just haven't had a chance to ask!

NHA needs to align teacher/staff work hours/days with that of public schools.  There has to be a way to eliminate the extra week of PD at the beginning of the school year. This would allow teachers to spend more time with family before the start of the school year.

PPO option. It is expensive to visit the doctor without copays.

It is recommended that the market rate pay for each position be analyzed and compared annually, making necessary adjustments in conjunction with their annual review.

To provide laptops to all the employee instead of Chrome. Thank you

Better training and understanding for Paraprofessionals

Orion has strong potential for growth and increased earnings, provided that its current weaknesses are identified and addressed promptly. To maximize profitability and enhance operational efficiency, it is essential to implement structured improvement systems. Adopting methodologies such as Lean or Six Sigma can be highly effective in driving this transformation. Six Sigma, in particular, offers a data-driven approach that enables organizations to identify issues, validate assumptions, develop targeted solutions, and implement changes while minimizing unintended consequences. By embedding Six Sigma principles into leadership practices, process management, and continuous improvement initiatives, Orion can significantly elevate its performance and impact its sigma level positively.

A more effective ABSS model and ENFORCED behavior procedures.

N/A staff keeps the school looking decent the students are the ones who don't clean after themselves.

While I appreciate the regular updates and information shared via email, I believe communication could be strengthened, especially for new staff members transitioning into unfamiliar roles. Having more intentional, fact-to-face or small-group- check-ins--beyond email,--would help ensure that new hires fully understand protocols, expectations, and the school culture.  A formal mentorship or "buddy" system, where new employees are paired with experienced staff for the first several weeks, would make it easier to ask questions and get guidance without hesitation.  This kind of structured support could foster confidence, make onboarding smoother, and ultimately help ne team members contribute more effectively right from the start.  Clear, open, and supportive communication is essential for everyone, but especially for those coming for outside the field, so continuing to build on what's already in place will help everyone feel more connected and successful.

I would like to review the curriculum at a more detailed rate in order for me to understand the levels that are being worked on and how to move forward with building upon each level

The curriculum needs more focus on critical thinking.

Start the year off with 35 hours of PTO time

primary teachers should collab with special education teachers/interventionalists more.

I would like to see more specific PDs instead of a general session. Everyone needs to be CPI trained. Support staff needs curriculum training if they are required to provide a seamless transition when the teacher is out or attending meetings. The overall student and teacher level of respect is appalling. Students are speaking to and treating staff disrespectfully without consequence or very little consequence. The disciplinary actions happening for severe student's choices/actions are not lining up with the policies and procedures that should generally be taking place.

I feel that Gate City is great. As long as the communication continues to be strong and needs/concerns are met/solved, Gate City will continue to be great. I love it here!

I would suggest getting a curriculum that pushes students to critically think about math as that will help students tackle comprehension of math problem. We need curriculums that push critical thinking.

I I recommend creating a more joyful culture schoolwide.   Elementary students seem stressed and some  classrooms are loud, disorganized and chaotic . Allow students more outdoor/ collaborative play. Create calming corners (provide teachers the information and resources to create) and  include mindfulness techniques and training for each classroom for students that have maladaptive behaviors. Also teach students coping techniques such as deep breathing and yoga, etc. to alleviate stress and to regulate their emotional systems and to decrease behaviors and interruptions to learning and teacher productivity. Incorporate trauma responsive training for teachers to help teachers to create classrooms that support students struggling with trauma.

The math curriculum works great. However, the ELA curriculum is not always ideal. Specifically, there is not enough phonics/spelling instruction. It is hard to work with students on their reading/writing when they do not have phonemic awareness and there are no opportunities beyond reading mastery lessons to improve on it.

Communication can always be improved in any profession. I think it would be beneficial to have Paraprofessional meetings where all of us get together to discuss methods of helping our kiddos.

Higher pay

teachers could work on being more friendly to one another. A smile and a good morning can make a lot of difference. Being polite is also inviting.

I have no complaints , Winterfield has done a amazing job in all areas.

How to address and help students of different levels.

A clear ladder of achievements and steps necessary to progress further professionally

I would recommend for the first point above to have the administration team do their due diligence in staying accountable to the students and parents. There should be a letterhead that goes out that breaks down the standards and expectations of this NHA school and ask for a signature for acknowledgement to keep them accountable to the school. This should be done at registration/before the first day of school. Follow up, complete the process, and administration should also do their part in supporting and consistently reaching out to parents who are just pushing their student through the system. As a charter school, I would think that we would have better quality education and standards to be met to make our institution fair and accountable. For my second point, the curriculum team needs to find a premade published book or publish a curriculum book that meets the state standards and expectations of NHA for kindergarten.

Communication and training courses!

As part of the instructional team, we continue to support one another in the efforts of moving students forward academically and socially. Legacy is a wonderful school to work for under the Principal T as leader. He supports the staff, students, and families within the community fully.

N/A

While urban areas come with challenges regarding students, there should be a more clear path for those students who show CONSTANT disrespect towards teachers and other students and students who are a CONSTANT disruption to themselves and others.  Specifically referring to those students who are at afterschool detention on a regular basis as well as those students who have 20+ write ups, or those who have been suspended multiple times.  There are students in classrooms who want to learn and cannot because the students who are constantly disruptive take time away from the teacher, the students, the classroom, and eventually the learning.   I also feel very strongly about teacher turnover and how it is affecting students progress and growth.

I’m just confused about my benefits for the remainder of the year, how many I have, and how to use them

We have to stand strict on our consequences with our scholars and actually go through with write ups/ suspensions and documentation. DMA would be a tight ship if we get on board as a team with that. I also do not like how our middle school students run to the table and hang out with the dean. It's a distraction and not a good consequence for our students. vs the reset lab is.

Teacher get togethers and staff building

Be at the forefront of offering better pay so that you can attract better talent and keep retention high.

Have a sit down with someone in the role who's schedule mimicks the one I have to be able to get a sense of what is expected. It would also be nice to have a meeting with the teachers that I would be working with to understand more what support is needed and run down of how the class is typically ran. This way their is no gray area and to ensure everyone is on one accord.

I have only been here a couple months so no feedback as of now .

Power points or similar walk throughs to explain the proper use of technology for staff. Many things are new and difficult for some people like me, and having a walk-through for getting verifired and how to do the pay process would help.

The staff and students have many ideas, but we often face challenges such as a lack of space, insufficient staff, or transportation issues. Securing additional funding would be extremely helpful, or it would be beneficial to have someone reach out for more community support.

I think if there was a clearer idea about ways to move up throughout the school, whether there was links on a website or a list showing who to talk to.

The curriculum makes assumptions of students' prior knowledge. The basics need to be taught.

Clarity on PTO policy.

The salary could be more competitive.

Better communication, and effective partnership that would show students we stand together.

Teacher’s need to be consistent in enforcing rules and regulations from day one. If they stick to the rules and regulations from the start then it sets the tone for what students can expect for the entire year. We can’t ask them to rise to the standards we set if we don’t enforce the standards. From a behavior standpoint as well as an academic standpoint.

Understanding the cost to gain the qualifications utilized in your staff in correlation to their pay

clarifications, be open to questions.

I don't have any recommendations.

I would appreciate more training on managing behavior in the classroom.

Work life balance

More training videos/opportunities to clearly explain every part of the position

More opportunity for targeted learning for students who have fallen behind either 1:1 or in small groups

I just wish I knew more about the school policies, how things worked, I have just been tossed into the pit, and it seems like it's a lot of disciplinary actions which makes me feel a little uneasy as I'm here to educate and not train behaviors.

Although I am appreciative that we make a little more than I would currently working for Guilford County schools, as a Summit Creek Academy employee, I'll be making less than I would for the local public schools system in the next couple years. Summit Creek should also use a pay scale and increase the salary for employees by $5,000 a year for each year of service at the school.

Hourly workers do not get paid for snow days. That is something that should be changed.

I don't like that homework, and especially worksheets are assigned to children k-2nd grade (except reading).  I don't see much benefit; it can be difficult for parents to get their kids to stay on task, so it feels like homework for parents.  Older kids have too much homework (i think total homework should be no more than one hour total per night, or none).  its not fair that adults only need to work 8 hours a day, yet kids are expected to work all day at school, then come home and do more work, sometimes resulting in a 9-10 hour work day. Id rather they be playing outside or riding bikes.  I also think it is absolutely terrible that any child gets their normally scheduled recess taken away. Getting breaks during the day should be a mandatory right.  Adults are entitled to a certain number of breaks during the day, regardless of their work performance.  We shouldn't be holding kids at a higher standard than we do adults.

Better pay and less students in the classroom

I have no recommendations, I honestly am very happy with the experience I have had so far. I picked this just to pick an option.

My student left the school and no one told me

Weekly meetings with my fellow team members. Them taking accountability for suggestions given and me seeing these put into action.

It would be great to have an outdoor area to eat lunch or sit in the shade and read a book.

Much like some schools in the public sector, charter and private, our school can be on the crowded side. I think smaller class sizes can benefit students with less distractions. I had the benefit of being in a small class of 8th Graders this term and they have grown in ways that I'm not sure would have been seen if they had been in a larger class.  Furthermore, some schools outgrow their facilities. Our school seems to be one of those locations. Our student population could use the advantage of a larger building with a more separated grade level floor plan and a separate gym and cafeteria. I believe our students would thrive even more, if these changes were applied.

Open to suggestions, the economy is high and this was the question I could answer.

There needs to be open dialogue around equitable work practices, social identity of students and teachers, race and how the school lives into the ethics it claims to values.

The most important recommendation I would say is to not allow breaks as often as allowed. I feel the whole "break" thing is sometime a form of discipline, yet the students look at this time as rewarding and or a way to get out of class. Room 16 would be more efficient If children were held accountable for their actions. For instance room 16 should be equipped with desk for students to continue their work from the class they were sent from. Students should still remain focused and made aware that we're still in school during this break time.

More clinical/MH staff assigned to students providing weekly therapy  Please install a plastic curtain/partition in the kindergarten bathroom shared by 2 classroom s with 20+ students in each classro

Find a better system for the care and maintenance of the computers!

I'm fairly new to Atlanta Heights.

None

Focus more on learning then test taking.

ensuring there are enough items for each student to have their own for individual development and to decrease pressure students feel from their peers

From excessive movement in hallways, to teacher-to-teacher communication, to teacher-student interactions, I feel there is just a lot of room for growth. Actively eliciting feedback from the people that these day-to-day issues most affect would be helpful. It feels like nothing is being done sometimes, and the role of certain coworkers is not understood.

Better pay would be better. I enjoy working here and love helping with kids but I also want to be able to survive paying my monthly bills.

staff outings

This is all an individuals choice and right to choose but I would love more Team Building. Team development if anything I’d love to connect more with the Team create the safe space to show that we’re all one inside and outside of the school walls

It would be nice to have Smarboards in classrooms

For the amount of work that is required for any staff that are not teachers, the pay is not comparable. There needs to be a huge pay increase in order to hire and maintain valuable staff that will stay and provide the best care and education for students. The benefits are too expensive for an hourly employee to afford and the insurance plan is not good. A living wage is not provided in order for staff to live in this society. The amount of work that is required for some staff is unreal for the pay that they earn.

It's always good to reassess our processes to ensure we are being responsible with our decisions, and I embrace that to support acting with discipline. However, feedback from the C-Suite can take a long time to receive, thus slowing down our ability to take action. It would also be helpful to understand the rationale behind decisions as sometimes it feels as though we are not "doing the right thing always".

There can be many frustrations when a large school system is run by a company and where it seems to be a "one size fits all" mentality.  I would love to see each individual school be able to make budget and curricular decisions based on their students' needs and their teachers' experience.  There are many times when I feel frustrated by having to follow what NHA deems the best way to do something, and what I feel would be a better way for my students.

Communication seems to vary across teams.  On things that should have a cascading message, it seems like it would help if we all receive the same information.

Realize that with dismissal monitoring, all salaried staff are working 2-2.5 more hours per week. Compensation should be considered and/or ideas to allow for some creative way to offset this extra time.  Prep periods are often utilized for meetings, so after school time is valuable for prepping, planning, grading, and/or work/life balance.  Needing to stay beyond the extra 25-30 minutes daily may impact level of preparation, completion of tasks, and morale.

Improve health insurance and 401K match.

I recommend higher pay and lower insurance costs to help with the cost of living expenses.

It would be very helpful if NHA would support/make financially rewarding the role of custodian, allowing for more personnel, so that rooms can be cleaned appropriately each night. It is difficult to retain or attract people who do a good job, for little $, when the scope of the job is too large for few people, and they can get paid better for other work.   Also, it would show exceptional support if NHA could make substitute teaching in our schools, rewarding financially, and a respected and valuable position in and of itself.  This would attract and reward qualified substitute teachers who will be encouraged to work in our school often, building relationships with students and staff.  Possibly he or she could work between 2-3 schools.  Creating benefits unique to the role of a regular building sub would be a valuable. benefit of working at NHA, and allow those regular staff members who step in to help, the ability to focus solely on their jobs in in making our school the best choice.

Bridges math and our made-up ELA curriculum do not meet the needs of anyone. Surely we can do better!

none

As a whole, NHA has not been an inclusive, diverse environment. While there are small pockets within Service Center teams or within some of the schools, overall, it does not feel like staff or students that are outside the typical box are welcomed or celebrated as part of the NHA community. There is a need for training and initiatives that help people understand, accept and celebrate these differences. NHA staff and students need to feel safe and included while at work and school.

Over the past few years we have lost a large number of veteran teachers due to not being compensated within a close margin to the surrounding districts.  West Michigan is highly competitive with their pay scales.  If we want teachers to stay in our schools then NHA needs to start looking at the districts around our schools and start competing with similar pay.  Also when families see veteran teachers who they love switch to a nearby district they also start to question NHA and many have left our school as well.

Pay teachers what the surrounding school districts pay for years of service and excellent reviews. There is a HUGE discrepancy.

A one size fits all curriculum with mandates to follow certain things no matter does not leave enough room for creativity to best educate students. There needs to be more flexibility with assessments by having less mandated assessments, and allowing for more time for exit tickets and re-teaches for students based on their expertise and data gathering.

I can't recommend CW to anyone anymore for a career or for their children to attend. This is based on large class sizes, 2 classes in the gym- too many students at one time, crazy daily/weekly schedules, not enough planning time unless you teach Y5-5th grade, chaotic lunch in the gym (not enough time between classes), lack of encouragement from admin, unrealistic expectations for staff with no work/life balance consideration, lack of sympathy for staff or family illness/needing a sub, lack of behavior management, support, and consequences from admin, lack of compensation since health care costs increase more than our salary increases...

I feel that NHA teacher salaries have long lagged behind traditional public schools. When I was hired, I was told the lower pay was a trade off for smaller class sizes capped at 24. However, that is no longer the case as my classes have 29 and 30. More is thus expected of us--not to mention crossing duty, meetings during our planning time, etc.--but still our compensation has not kept up with area schools. As a result, we have lost good teachers that are making much more but asked much less of them. Our love our leaders and know there hands are somewhat tied, but feel NHA should do more to allow veteran teachers to see raises comparable to new teachers in our organization.

I am a veteran teacher and the new hires are not far off from my pay. The pay is being raised for incoming teachers to get them in but the tried and true teachers are not getting much compensation.

Great teachers are leaving NHA for better compensation.  A 2nd grade NHA teacher is leaving this week to teach 2nd grade in public schools.  Her class size is only 20!  She is also getting a much higher pay raise at this public school and great benefits. Why does NHA just continue to ignore this issue? High five points or small prizes are great, but not what is needed to thank your teachers for the excellent job that they do.

We need an all school sub because too many teachers are being pulled from their positions.

bigger salary increases for performing teachers that continue to stay with NHA.  Otherwise, why stay?  Many teachers are leaving for the public schools because the salaries are higher.  NHA is a stepping stone for many teachers.  Get a few years of experience and then leave.  All of the time and energy put into training these teachers has been wasted if they don't stay long term.  We have to start over with a new teacher and progress is either lost or not made.  Why doesn't NHA invest in their teachers?  NHA spends their money on everything  expect paying teachers a competitive salary.

Not sure what they can do to make this better in our economy right now.

The service center: 1) Instead of reward flyers and banners, give the $ to the school or staff members.   2) Get input from the schools on what works and what doesn't work.  Often times we are moving along nicely, and things are great, then the SC decides to change things up with rules or policies that doesn't make sense or creates additional work. 3)  The SC staff are very friendly and helpful but often times hard to reach by phone.  Most are "offline". Thanks for all you do.  Our admin team at Great Oaks is the best. Thank you.

I don't feel the care for employees that this organization appeared to possess not long ago.  We seem laser focused on business goals and controlling costs to the detriment of investing in building great teams - preferring this to happen organically, if at all.

The deans and the principal need to be more helpful, nicer and friendly.   I believe they bring the morale of the school down.  Greensboro Academy has been a top school in our area, with a Blue-Ribbon award, and an "A" score.  We do not need to be micromanaged.  I would like to feel trusted and feel like they listen to me.

It should be expected that our core values will have conflict at times... what feels like do the right thing to one person may not feel like being fiscally responsible to another. I think we can all understand This past year's financial oversight/adjustments were likely much needed. I would ask that the policies continue to be reviewed for those employees who travel extensively for the company. Are these policies creating an environment that actually make it more challenging, stressful and frustrating to just do your job....

Bringing back the balance between 'Healthy' versus 'Smart'.  The pendulum has swung quite drastically over the last few years to be nothing but 'Smart'.  Bringing the 'Healthy' back into balance will provide our teams a better sense of success and overall joy and fulfillment.  I am afraid that if we don't bring this balance back to our overall culture, we will continue to see pivotal people leave the organization.

Pay our deans and teachers more.

The turnover in teacher positions is great at NHA schools because teachers are paid much lower than the neighboring districts and are asked to do so much more without extra compensation for extra programs they have for students, clubs, musicals, extra band rehearsals etc. after school hours.

Salaries at NHA are not comparable to other schools in our area.  The starting salaries are substandard, but the real problem is that excellent employees who have worked here for more than five years are not getting large enough raises to stay in step with other districts.  This needs to change to retain employees at NHA.

Despite the end of COVID funds, I hope retention bonuses continue.  We lose a lot of good teachers because they can make more money and have a better work/life balance elsewhere.  No amount of scripted curriculum or common assessments can solve this widespread NHA problem.  It takes a few years to get good at this job and figure out how to make what NHA asks of us actually work.  Every time you replace a teacher, you start over again, and the students suffer.  It's also sad for the kids to look down the hall and see no one left who taught them.

I believe that all staff should always know what is going on in the building, even if it doesn't pertain to a particular wing.  That way, if a question is asked, the answer is know and can be communicated.  Many times, things are found out through the grapevine.

Fewer quizzes and tests on Edcite and overall.  Please explain (give research) how giving so many assessments is "best practice."  It will help with teacher morale and buy in.   The questions that ask if I feel like my opinion matters or if I feel empowered to make decisions are low because I don't think it matters to NHA and there is no choice on assessments because of Edcite.  There isn't much teacher autonomy or creativity encouraged and it's stifling.

We are losing great teachers because we are not paying them enough, and they are leaving for public schools for better pay. Compensation is an issue every year and I don't believe NHA has ever addressed this issue.

People at the service center need to research local school district compensation and adjust our income accordingly.

In a conference I attended, one thing that was addressed is it isn't always about data. The Curricular tools are good, but it is so controlling and the focus is just data, the fun of school is taken away and therefore students are not always engaged because they are tired of always the boring piece of learning.

* Based on the last two years of the co-teaching model,  there needs to be time carved out before school starts to set expectations for co-teachers and teachers (roles, arrival time, departure time on late start days and PD days as well as regular school days)  In the classroom who should be the main disciplinarian and follow through with consequences good and bad. * Time o collaborate with other co-teachers in the building once a month or so to bounce ideas off each other for strategies to use to get students learning in bridges/CR/RM etc... *  Need a better hiring process to weed out teachers (or those that do not yet have their teaching certificate) Look for red flags as an admin team.  They may look good on paper, but cannot teach! Bring in a class of kids for day to teach at least 1 lesson in ELA and 1 in math. So far we have had to reassign 3 new "teachers" this year  and I am not so sure they are actually helping students learn, because they don't know how to teach!

The school is looking a lot cleaner. The gap between new teachers salary and veteran teachers is minimal and that is so discouraging.  We have lost many good teachers due to salaries and that has changed the culture of our school, sadly. It's too bad that NHA doesn't realize that the success of the school is greatly influenced by teachers and if they would just put together a pay scale I believe more people would stay...

Go to a step system of honoring good teachers with fair and equitable increases that value loyalty (years).  Teachers are not kept if they are unproductive so there is no worry of keeping ineffective teachers on the payroll.  Steps should be in line with area schools performing at the same academic achievement level.

Support for the new teachers. Having someone model for them in their own room and also having someone available for the new teacher to visit another classroom to see balanced literacy, math work places and behavior management in action.

The cost of living and cost of benefits have increased significantly, and teachers are really struggling to make ends meet financially.  We must come up with a way to compensate them so they can remain in our schools.  We are struggling to find teachers to replace and it's impacting every aspect of our success as an organization.

More money.

Be more competitive with the pay rate compared to other schools in pay rate.

Find a way to get more funds to increase the poverty level pay for your teachers.

I wish I could have chosen several. There are so many! The workload keeps increasing but the raises are pathetic. Nobody seems to care about the level of stress involved. No job should cost you your physical and mental health. They will work you to death and nobody cares. You’ll be replaced in a week. I’m sure they can’t wait for me to leave so they can hire someone at a lower salary. What happened to our 25 year veteran kindergarten teacher last year was completely unacceptable. We all feel like we have a target on our back, unless you’re a favorite! Our entire young fives-2nd grade wing has turned over. We have lost some amazing teachers and everyone knows it’s because of the dean but nobody cares. We have no support and never feel appreciated. I used to rave about Chandler Woods and now I tell people to avoid it. It’s very very sad how much it has changed. But nothing will change because of this survey. It never does. They will just try to figure out who wrote this & that’s it

More PD on differentiated instruction.    Consider a more "back to basics" approach to the curricular tools. More literacy appreciation - novel studies and student book clubs.  Having students start doing book reports with oral presentations.  Unfortunately, with the current curricular time on task requirements, there is little time left over for students to do Project based learning!

The cost of benefits does not come close to other school districts for comparable insurance.  When insurance goes up 50% but wages only 3%, everything extra you make goes to paying for benefits.  I believe we need to be more comparable with other school districts.

Provide for periodic PTO increases after 15 years.

We need safety at front of the school and the doors at each wing.  Children can come in and out of the side doors if they had a mind to.  When the ladies in the front ring one person in several could come in, as in the past.  This needs to be addressed.  The school is too crowded and there is not enough room for everyone.  Stuff is lying around in the classroom that could be a hazard.

More substantial raises for longevity.

Reward loyalty through better compensation and benefits for those with years of service.

Having a stronger retirement benefit plan, that you could pay into while employed would help retain staff and offer a plan for retirees.

It feels like yearly increase in new hire salary is higher than the increase in salary offered to more veteran teachers. NHA claims merit pay, but many teachers with very good evaluations get middle-level raises. I believe this is because the school is given a lump sum to distribute for raises, but this punishes good teachers who get to work in buildings that have many good teachers. If we want to retain talent, we need to consider this. Teachers of equal experience get a much higher salary in the local public schools.

A new curriculum that does both discovery and actually teaching.  A curriculum that has a back to the basics approach in the younger grades.

Compare salaries to places around my location based on work experience, cost of living, raises in minimum wage, and inflation rates.  Realize that working for NHA keeps my family just barely above the lower income levels, but not enough to be secure.  Consider the extra amount of time spent outside of class for school activities and for work that needs to be done, but goes unrecognized, how much planning time actually gets used for other things creating the need to do work outside of school. Other jobs get overtime, with teachers, it is just expected.  Then you say have a work-life balance which usually means we are adding more things for you to do but still complete all the other work you are expected to do.    Please recognize that your teachers and staff are dedicated and want to be compensated reasonably for the work they do.

Math

Salary increases should reflect years at NHA.  If you have been with NHA 10, 20, or over, that should speak volumes as to our commitment.  What's the point of performing exemplary, if a 5% raise is not given.  Culture does not feel authentic.    Way too many "just one more thing."  Yard sale and clean out your kid's room "gifts"- who wants to get something your kid no longer wants- just give a casual day.

Sometimes, I do not see students showing respect for others,  including staff and other students, as well  as not following and showing respect for our school's equipment .  Perhaps helping the student's understand and make sure that they know and understand the importance of following expected procedures.

For non-salaried staff, it would be nice to have unforeseen school closures (ie: snow days) covered financially.

Loyalty should be rewarded the way that new teachers are compensated with area districts.

As starting salaries are increased to stay competative with the surrounding districts, it would be nice if NHA raised others' salaries a certain percentage as well.  It is not unusual that teachers who have only worked at NHA for a few years are making more than those who have dedicated years to the organization.

The cleaning has improved, however the improvement is marginal improvement.  It does not appear that accountability is high in this area; it is especially important to me, in that, enrollment is one of my priorities.  When I bring new families into a dirty building it is so, embarrassing to have to attempt to explain it away.

NA

I feel like NHA doesn't respect us as teachers.  NHA keeps adding things  for teachers to do and we are working 7 days a week, and evenings,  and still can't get caught up.  The annotated lesson plans are a waste of time and paper. It comes across that NHA doesn't trust us as teachers to teach.  We are being micromanaged.  It is only October and we are burned out with all the demands put on us. Also, we have too many special education students that keep pulling our scores down.  I feel like NHA is all about money, not what's best for our students and staff.  I feel that teachers should have a say in what curriculum we are teaching and how to teach it.

...

Benefits are expensive with high deductibles (dental and vision are good but health care could be improved)

bonuses are nice, but overall salary could improve

The cost of Health Care has gone up substantially.

Meaningful team meetings.

For paras who are constantly being asked to sub- they deserve high five points or compensation. They are being pulled from their jobs to teach classrooms, and that's not what they were hired for. When a specials teacher is gone, pay the classroom teacher $25 in high five points if they're willing to keep their kids for that time period. A lot of us would cover so that paras and interventionists aren't pulled if we know we're being compensated.

I believe that working for NHA for a certain number of years there should be an early retired package.

There is so much that I really love about working at Greensboro Academy and having the support of NHA. I appreciate our Admin team here and know they are always working to make this the best place for students and staff.  I totally understand cutting costs but the impact of several NHA decisions have caused a decline in services in some areas. Of note, Copier company - wasted so much time and service has been sub optimal, Lifetouch - lost income from sales and our perks for staff and volunteers, plus communication has been messy, Aramark standards for cleaning, staffing and equipment are vastly lowers than 10 years ago and the cost saving measures for our AC system has created much havoc. I hate to complain but these are notable. Educating children (creatively), communicating with such a variety of cultures and increasing behavior issues, coupled with decreasing volunteers, make Education a difficult career. There need to more incentive and encouragement from NHA to keep quality staff.

The compensation needs to be much higher.   When an evaluation is Exemplary and a staff member still only gets the standard 3% increase why is there any motivation to achieve that level on the evaluation?    The positions need to be given increases across the board.    There are many ways to show appreciation for jobs well done, but the most valued  really is more compensation.

I love our moral focus curriculum. However, it’s not used/taught because teachers don’t feel they have the time to fit it in with all the other stuff they have to teach. It’s not a priority. While NHA has improved their compensation to market pay for younger teachers, it still does not support veteran teachers. NHA also requires a lot of extra duties that staff does not get compensated for. I would love to have time off days roll over or banked for the following years, or get paid for not using them. I’m curious what will happen to bonuses now that ESSER funds are gone.

I feel like our team is understaffed, we the amount of work we do in a short amount of time with the people we have is too much.  Our workload just continues to grow, but our resources are not.

Invest in digital communications around programs and initiatives to our SC and to our different school audiences.  Our current communication channels are limited to certain user groups and the telephone game is used to distribute information down to teachers. We need a way for the SC to publish knowledge and context around programs, initiatives and professional development and allow stakeholders to find that information when they're in need. If we're attempting to put our foot out into the sustainable learning models then we need a portal with a proper information architecture, content publishing model, etc... I hear the complain from teachers all the time. They're doing things differently than what C&I has instructed. They don't know why we use a particular way of instruction vs. another way. I think a lot is missed when we leave it up to our school leadership to transmit our messages.

The behavior policies/practices/implementation are not effective.

Employees that have worked with the company for over 20 years FTE be changed to 1.0 if they are a paraprofessional.

We need to update the bathrooms  in QG.

We are competitive with our newer employees salaries, but as a teacher becomes really good (5+ years in) we are no longer as competitive with salaries with our traditional public-school counterparts which is causing us to lose some great veteran teachers. A great veteran with over 10 years' experience left this year for DPSCD because of the pension and much higher pay. We had another great veteran with 6 years leave to DPSCD as well to a magnet school and was only going to have 15-20 students with a significant pay increase.   We NEED a gym!

There remains work to be done within the communication within individual departments.

I say this every year but our fabulous teachers are leaving NHA for public school districts that are paying way more than what we are here. The teachers who have been here for years seem to get no recognition or pay bump to account for inflation or a bump from what new hires are receiving. This is discouraging and makes the morale of the school tank because those faithful few are not being shown that they are valued or cared for. The retention bonuses are great but they are taxed heavily and we don't have that increase in salary which would be more beneficial.

We lose teachers due to better benefit options in public districts (i.e. no co-pays, no deductibles, etc).  Our building is clean on a daily basis but needs some major improvements ASAP (walls redone, exterior issues that let rodents in, etc) that keep getting put off.

Bring back Dean bonuses Deans have a major influence on meeting all building wide goals and should be compensated when those goals are met.

It would be great if we were closer to the pay rate of our local public schools.

For NHA's overall budget to consider people/staff salaries as the top priority in fund allocation choices

Focus resources on rewarding loyalty for those of us who have stuck with NHA for decades. I think it would go a long way to make long-term (and high-performing) NHA employees feel valued, and the most impactful way to do that is with compensation.  I also hope that NHA never forgets that even at a school like Cross Creek, they are serving a diverse population and that should be at the forefront of every decision surrounding curriculum, books, parent partnership, etc.

metal detectors that do not look like metal detectors at all entrances that the students enter the building (morning drive line, bus drop off, and the main office) that in addition to the locked office doors, and having ids scanned

The direction that NHA as a whole company seems focused only on the new teachers, teachers with Alt Cert's or un-certified people.  The staff that have been with us for a while (or since pre-covid) are feeling burnt out with all of the mandates and micromanaging the seems to be trickling down from the service center.

Please have administration communicate the expectations.  Please do not assume that we can read minds and are thinking what everyone else is thinking.  Overcommunication is a good thing.

Can the kitchens be better stocked with bowls, plates, silverware, etc?  and can we have a clearly communicated dish washing policy to make sure there are clean dishes and everyone does their part?

I work in the Social Studies department, and I would like to see more opportunities to be involved in the C&I section of the company.  I think that this area could use more support as compared to other areas and also to address the needs for teachers that I present to as a content leader.

We need an approved, multisensory, science of reading phonemic/phonics and reading program

More comparable to surrounding districts.

Higher pay

Support" also impacts "work-life balance" because when we feel supported, we have better balance.  Too many things are added to our plates directly as tasks so much that our plates are overflowing.  When we ask for support, we are given the 'responsibility' to solve it ourselves instead of actual support.  I think the school overall is at a loss for what to do with some students and their behavior, and this equates to us not feeling supported because we have to just deal with the abusive comments and actions from students all year, and if we want a meaningful impact/change, we have to do it ourselves in addition to the million other things on our overflowing plates.

To have everyone on the same page when it comes to what needs to be done and when things are expected to be completed.

A couple years ago, NHA was looking into providing Health Benefits in retirement for veteran staff.  I believe this would be a huge motivating factor for teacher/leader retention. I would like an update on the progress NHA is making in that area.

I recognize that tightening up the budget is important and that there was likely wasteful spending occurring.  While I think that many of the changes implemented make sense, there is an evident lack of care for people involved, especially those who travel frequently for their job.  One of the great things about NHA, compared to other high performing charter networks is it's care for people, and that is becoming more and more difficult to see.  There are nuanced situations that deserve a little more thought and I'd like that to be considered before we lose highly effective employees for restrictive travel policies.

The school needs more resources in offering more elective courses within our course offerings.  The school needs more funding to run quality fine arts programs and athletics.

Adherence to the NHA benefits program for director PTO.

I feel like the long-term employees get lost in the shuffle, I have been here a long time, and I barely make a livable wage. My responsibilities have grown but my pay has not grown compared to my responsibilities.

I chose other, because I believe that accountability is an area of improvement.  Our team works extremely hard to adhere to and establish processes to promote accurate data, improve efficiencies and impact the customer experience.  However, there are varying degrees of accountability for those who are responsible for carrying out the process, particularly at the school level.  Our processes are often viewed as "best practices" and many times, ignored.  It's deflating as an employee to spend so much energy and time to build trainings, resources/tools, and communications for them to be overlooked or not valued.

Increase teacher pay.

The phonics program seems to really be working well. I also think that the RA, SR, and Grammar are good but are often above our scholars. They do not really get prepared for the assessments at the end of the week.  Bridges is not working well for our population of scholars. They continue to be behind and they do not follow or understand the curriculum.

Recognize all NHA schools are not the same.  A two person office staff should not be the model for all schools.  It is difficult to create a meanignful work-life balance while trying to meet the expectations NHA requires of their Registrar's in fully enrolled and high performing schools.

Hire more qualified building cleaners

I don't have any specific recommendations.

I believe communication can be improved by:   1. Bringing Concerns Early - It would helpful if issues are brought sooner rather than waiting for escalation.  2. Prioritizing Discussions - I suggest having focused conversations for important topics. This can prevent misunderstandings and ensure clarity.  I feel like sometimes there have been judgements made before having a chance to discuss questions or concerns.

Eliminate strict dress code, especially for our high schools, to attract more students.

I wish to know what topics I am and am not allowed to discuss with my co-workers.

I believe we need to have a greater focus on inclusion, diversity & equity, maybe a workshop opportunity.

 comparable wages to other public schools.   Respect time and expertise.  I feel that NHA is trying to make everything the same across all of its schools, that we are being micromanaged.  The work we are having to do this year to "be compliant" is not necessary, feels like we are not trusted to be professionals (annotated lessons outside our classroom, limited amounts of paper, scripted lessons, board configurations exactly the same)  What used to be a "try something innovative and do what is right for kids" is now "do everything exactly the same" it isn't what is best for kids in my classroom.  I understand if we have some low performing teachers that may need that support, but for those of us who are successful teachers year to year it's too much. It makes me rethink my options for next year-not a building issue, more of an NHA issue, since my building leadership is doing what they are told to do. I'm afraid for the future of Timberland as good teachers are leaving because of this.

Recommendations would be:   * Keep the restrooms fully stocked with the required toilet paper, paper towels, and soap.  * Thoroughly clean/mop all restrooms including both kindergarten ones.  * Wipe down the walls (food/milk splattered). * Vacuum the offices monthly if it's too much to do it weekly/bi-weekly. * Remove trash daily and replace with a bag.   * When a child does not make it to the trashcan in time to vomit, then clean it up when the call is received and     without scolding the child.   * Stay off your phone when on the clock.  * Though I know it's probably easier said than done, get the custodial team fully staffed and well-trained.

Compensation needs to better align with competing districts to maintain good people.

I feel that our time should be the same as surrounding areas.  Or it should be able to be accrued over time if not used.

One thing that I have always admired about NHA is the support and commitment to professional growth for all employees across the organization. The C&I team has nuances that are complex and different from other teams, but I have always felt valued. However, I am worried that as time goes on, it feels like those nuances are being less valued. This makes it harder for us as leaders to grow our team as coaches. There are PD opportunities for all other staff members (Leadership Summit, Regionals, NTS), but we are the ones leading those, so it is difficult to try to develop our team at the same time. We try to do what we can to grow our individual teams, but this leads to inconsistencies across our teams. I would love to have more opportunities to truly develop our team on a high level and then focus on further breaking it down within our individual teams like we used to. I think that this would have a direct impact on schools and would help our team feel valued.

 Teachers and school staff should be compensated properly or have higher pay rates. Hourly workers should  be paid on days when schools are closed and not just a selected few days.

Days off should increase with the amount of time spent with NHA. (Reward dedication.)

If we continue to enroll students who require a resource room for the majority of the day, we need resources to provide for staff who are licensed for that, a space that is not also an office for other teachers and training for all who work with the students.

#NAME?

My insurance premium increased more than my raise,  that makes it hard with inflation already high.

benefits that are affordable on a PPO plan / Traditional plan.  Given the price increases in the health insurance market in the recent years the large and small corporations, in this area still have been able to negotiate affordable pricing for PPO plans / traditional plans.

Pay everyone more, not just the new teachers. Reward those who have been an NHA employee for much longer.

Behaviors addressed and these children helped or the parents made accountable for their behavior in school.

Compensation continues to be an issue.  I recommend that market studies be done to determine comparisons between pay rate at the SC and pay rate at other companies for similar positions.  Then, if appropriate, pay increases be given to employees with gaps between SC pay and the pay for similar positions in the market.

Veteran teachers are not paid appropriately based on overall experience and overall years with NHA. NHA has spent too much time "bringing up the bottom" and compensating less experienced teachers or teachers with less experience at NHA. Taking care of those who have been around for many years shows appreciation the dedicated some teachers have shown to NHA throughout the years.

Offering training in this area.

Need more time off. You stress mental health, yet we have 6 days. If you are sick or have family issues, that leaves no time for days for mental health.

improve culture

I feel that I would be happier at work if there were some changes in approach from our leadership team.  It seems to me that our leadership team is often reacting to situations (playing defense) rather than being forward-looking (playing offense).  Decisions often feel last minute and made in haste. When bringing an issue to the attention of my leadership team, I often feel that I am met with a tone of frustration.  In order for me to have more trust and confidence in my leaders, I would prefer to be met with a positive tone, a smile, and a sense of optimism.  I would also like quicker responses to issues that I ask for their help with.

NHA has been touted as an organization who "doesn't do DEI." The organization has also consistently ignored the importance (and work of several employees) in culturally responsive teaching and social emotional learning. Our school leaders need development and support in how to be responsive versus reactive, leading in ways that are empathetic and empowering. Our teachers deserve development and support in how to reach and teach their students, teaching kids about themselves and learning new ways of thinking. In my mind, NHA still teaches curriculum, but my goal has always been to teach kids.

Increased pay rate to compete with surrounding schools.

salary to be brought up to what the local districts are making.

Teachers are taken out of any decision making by people that have not taught in a classroom for years.

Continue to communicate about safety to staff, students and parents.  I do not think safety is taken seriously at Apex   Continue having drills maybe have some roll play and active roll play come in to really address safety concerns and show how serious it is.

To improve the area I selected, I recommend allowing more teaching time and less testing. The rigorous pacing curriculum for math and some other subjects, doesn't account for testing like the NWEA, sick time or reteach time.  I love teaching Bridges, Number Corners and Math Stories, but feel that I always don't have enough time!  Therefore, my time spills into other subjects.  I don't believe that I should give a student a test simply because the schedule says, knowing that they're not prepared to take the test. I understand that there are timeframes to adhere to, but it needs to be less stringent.    Oftentimes, I feel that my pay doesn't reflect the amount of work and responsibilities that's required of me from NHA! I am trying to get to work early or stay late (most nights) to keep up with the workload.  This year, I said that I was going to focus on a healthier work-life balance and take more time out for myself, family and other things that I like to do.

I am extremely satisfied with the leadership in my building.  They are supportive, professional, and always want to do what is best for students.  Unfortunately, I do not feel trusted or respected by much of the leadership from the NHA corporate offices.  Compensation is far below comparable districts, while teachers are being increasingly micromanaged to the point where it is causing great teachers to want to work elsewhere.

Screening process of students enrolling at Emerson

more student readers to match a curriculum and link to teaching sight words more kid friendly books that are age appropriate and interesting to read to young children

Getting the parents more involved with their own kids Schooling.  There needs to be an accountability for many of these kids and we can only do so much. Find a way to get the parents involved with their kids schooling and lives. The kids need to know it’s they are important and schools is too.

our cleaning staff just need more help.

More cleaning supplies/tools given to classrooms.

NHA has lost its heart and its soul. People don’t matter and relationships don’t matter. Work harder with less is the new mantra.

Trust the teachers.  We know our students and what impact they are having in the classroom.  Students may or may not be removed for behavior but to the students that time appears to be a reward.  Some students want to be removed because they get candy or a sticker if their behavior improves with the person they go with.  We are overwhelmed with the disrespect and bad behaviors.  Please give real help or at least don't give the students candy or stickers when they are pulled for their behaviors.

We started out well at the beginning of the year and over the last month floors are not being cleaned only trash is taken out nightly in most rooms.

We need to either migrate away from the minimalist mentality or over communicate to reassure staff that NHA is not in financial jeopardy. Feeling that the culture at NHA has suffered over the past year or more, due to the minimalist approach to most all decisions, the amount of justification that needs to be made for most every decision, purchase, or hiring situation I can't help but feel like many of my employees do that NHA is suffering financially.  This causes fear, concerns over job security, and thoughts of potential layoffs.  I am finding it more and more challenging to lead in this current leadership environment where I question if I actually can reassure my team members that everything is OK and stable.  We seem to have moved away from an academic focus for our students and families and are now more so financially focused.

Add Tuition IO for Administration or Deans.  We have student loans as well.

Consistency with maintaining our building

It would be helpful for teachers and co-teachers to meet prior to the beginning of the school year to clarify extectations of roles. If the team is new, it would be nice to know something about the person you will be working with for the school year. Also having input into how the classroom is arranged is helpful for creating spaces to work with small groups.

There are too many required curricular tools especially for ELA., which results in taeachers struggling to plan, prepare, and teach effectively.

Pay should reflect job duties and roles.

We don't talk much about professional development on our smaller team, or the larger marketing team. We have a great opportunity after count day passes to spend time becoming master's of our craft. We're told we can find professional development opportunities on our own. It would be much easier to do this if our managers identified areas where they would like to see us grow. We need a better balance of autonomy and structure.

- Benefits inequity: employees with families covered through NHA's health insurance receive significantly more non-cash compensation in the form of covered premiums.  Why isn't NHA contributing more towards premiums and/or HSA for employee-only coverage?  Or offering some form of rebate or alternative benefit to employees who decline NHA's health coverage?  While I understand that having a family is expensive, so is being single and supporting yourself on one income. - Bring the 401k match rate up to 4-5% to incentivize more savings toward retirement.   - Offer extra holiday PTO days as flex time instead of mandatory dates off.  Different teams have different busy seasons and coverage needs.  How much value you place upon each holiday and the designated days off is also highly personal.   - Consider a sabbatical program for long-term employees.  If we can find a way to cover the workload during FMLA leaves, we should be able to cover the workload during a sabbatical.

I think NHA should have a plan to pay teachers who do not use all of their PTO time at the end of the year to encourage staff to be present as much as possible. Pay the teachers for unused PTO time. The current way encourages teachers to use their PTO time before it disappears.

Give more sick days and personal days.

I acknowledge the current challenges within the economy, and I appreciate the efforts made to provide raises. However, the increase doesn't align with the rising costs of living due to inflation. Given the hard work I put into my role, this raise feels inadequate and may suggest that my contributions are not fully valued by NHA.

Increase compensation for yearly awards that Pembroke accomplishes ie.  “Blue Ribbon Award “

There are too many non-teaching duties which take up so much time that teaching get relegated to last place.

Our raises do not keep up with the cost of living increases. Therefore we're actually making less money each year. If you are meeting your performance expectations you should get the cost of living. If you go above and beyond an extra 1%-3% should be awarded.

Academic Programs and Curriculum: First, I think the NHA team needs to take a long look at the math curriculum. Teachers here feel frustrated. It is not an easy-to-learn curriculum for new teachers, and with the turnover we currently experience, students are suffering. Parents are frustrated, too, as their kids don't seem to be learning what they need to learn. Second, I would like clarification on the purpose of common assessments for ELA, how they benefit students, and whether or not teachers have the autonomy to prepare students for the state test in different ways.  Class Size: When you put more students in a class, you take away time that teachers can give to each student. Anxiety is growing; depression is growing; more students are being diagnosed with autism. We need SMALLER class sizes to address these changes well, and we need NHA's support to do that. It can't be all about money. I know that NHA can find different ways to save money instead of adding more kids to our classes.

More competitive pay scale, especially because as a charter school teacher we have less planning time and more work- meetings etc- than most public schools. Consistent cost of living at least.

More competitive wage increases that are comparable to public school districts, increase compensation for employees who have been with the company numerous years, retention bonuses

Need appropriate testing...Interims are too advanced.

Bonus money for hitting goals as in the past - enrollment, proficiency, teacher retention, etc

Autonomy is the ability to decide for oneself and pursue a course of action. I have observed and experienced that when an employee chooses a course of action, management informs what would be a better choice or course of action if it does not end in an immediate change. This results in employees being left to question their judgment.

I'm off ten days during the winter break  . I get paid for four days . It would be nice to get paid for all ten . We are off quite a few days that I don' t  get paid for ( breaks and snow days ) . Being off so many days causes a financial hardship .

More opportunities for advancement and more opportunities for company loyal employees to be recognized with more PTO beyond the capped current of service.

Expand PTO so that it is at least comparable to neighboring districts Zeeland, West Ottawa, Grand Haven, Holland Public. The reality is there are parents that sometimes need care, sometimes our children are sick, sometimes we are sick, and sometimes family members pass away. When all of these things happen in the course of the same year, you are no longer considered dependable and loyal according to the observation form. It seems to be a harsh statement for life events that are beyond our control.

I would love more opportunities for bonuses. It seems like we used to be given bonuses in the past based on performance, but I don't think that happens any longer.

No improvement recommendations at this time.

I would like to see more service center employees spending time in our schools to better understand the customers they serve.

pay scale like public schools do it

no rubber door stoppers at the door entrances,

Increase pay based on schools in the area. Continue with bonuses even though ESSR money is gone.

Align pay with other schools in the area.

Increase amount of salary for Vet teachers - incoming teachers are getting higher salary due to factors such as increase minimum wage, increased cost of living, etc. but Vet teachers pay continues to remain at a constant increase, not consistent with increases in the economy or surrounding district pay. In addition to salary increase to reflect economy and surrounding district pay, compensation within each building could be considered. This could look like classroom or grade level paraprofessionals to support workshop/small group learning. This could be additional teachers to support special education and intervention teams to allow for smaller group sizes and appropriate planning, etc. Consider other ways to add building level support that will allow for more effective and efficient learning for students.

Ensure that veterans staff receive comparable income to other districts.  It is imperative that if you have solid veteran teachers that we keep them, they make a huge impact on student learning.  I also think that adminstrators work extremely hard and do not reep some of the benefits that teachers receive, when it compares to stipends or bonuses.

Pay according to years worked (higher pay for teachers/staff who have worked for NHA for 15+ years, and add more time off (personal days) for teachers/staff who have taught 15+ years/

I'm concerned about safety. We have made many updates recently, but there are still changes to be made. We need to have the ID scanner for guests returned to the office so it is usable. We also need a refresh of room air conditioners--some have been in use for 10 years and are ineffective. We also need consistent monitoring of the front and rear doors during drop off and dismissal (make this someone's job, not just having rotating teaching staff). Hire security for afterhours events such as sporting events or even for outside group rentals. Replace the outside gym double door--it does not latch securely and should be armed so that students are not using it to sneak back in after school is over--not to mention it is not air/water tight, causing damage to our gym floor. Replace outside windows with bullet-proof glass like our feeder schools have. Provide classroom barricade locks to prevent intruders from entering. Reduce number of students to increase hallway safety or expand school.

I feel like when I have gone to administration about issues I am simply pushed aside. I am left to feel like I am the problem, and I am the one that needs to shift my thinking. I would appreciate it if my feelings and concerns were validated and that action was taken.

It would be great if you can compensate teachers who have been here a long time.  We need to keep teachers

We had a significant increase in the HSA premium and little warning about it.  In fact, I had no time to choose between my spouse's plan and our plan because the information was not given to us with enough time to choose.  As long as I've been an employee with NHA our benefits were far superior in cost and coverage than the local schools or even my spouse's plan.  That is no longer the case and NHA coverage is more expensive, considerably more.

More support from the curriculum and instruction team.  More training on how to access and best utilize intervention materials.

Honestly, I do not know how we can improve in this category because our leadership team already makes their best effort in trying to make this happen.

Having smaller class capacities in K-2 is still a priority to better meet the needs of students.  Better access to special education programs and supports for students who need more than a resource room.

I often find myself questioning alot of the mandates from above that add to my already full plate.  The curriculum that I use is scripted and a pacing guide is provided.  I do not understand the reason for needing to annotate my lesson plans other than to be micromanaged. Also, having to plan for Intervention every day is another addition that adds to my plate.  I now need to be able to find work to meet the needs of my students in all three classes and work to make sure that I rotate through the groups.  In the meantime, we also have to plan our response to data sheets and pull students to reteach.  While I agree with these concepts and methods, there just isn't enough time in the limited prep time that we have each week (we lose two preps a week for O3's and PLC's).  This is the reason that work-life balance doesn't exsist.  Not to mention the multitude of accommodation logs that we have as a grade level and the requirement to complete achievement boards.  There is not enough time!

Meet or beat our competitors

Compensation should be comparable to equivalent positions and experience at neighboring districts. The discrepancy between the salary of new hires and veterans is too great, especially when some new hires are not certified teachers. Why do I spend hundreds of dollars to keep up with my cert. if my colleagues are not certified, have many years less experience, and make similar wages to me?

Medical benefits paid for by HNA for employees that retire between the ages of 60-64, prior to being eligible for Medicare at 65 years of age.

Provide monthly stipends to help cover student loans and/or increase wage to help with the raising inflation.

Oakside has very different needs from other schools, due to our high enrollment, vast range of ages and developmental needs, and our unique location. This creates high needs in some areas: leadership structure, intervention, arrival, dismissal, food service and custodial needs. Differentiation by NHA is needed. Continuously grouping Oakside systems, structure and leadership as other schools with 1/3-1/2 of our enrollment is challenging.

Since I work virtually, I do my best to keep up with what is going on at the school through the staff updates, phone messages and weekly e-mails. It would be nice to be cc'd on the grade level weekly plans or classroom newsletters so I know what's going on when it comes to things like field trips, etc. that affect when I can work with students. I would love to have someone connect with me via e-mail every once in awhile just to hear how things are going and ask if I have any questions.

We shouldn't have to travel to different schools for regional PD -Utilize technology and use it to the fullest in delivering specific PD to specific groups using Google Meets, Zoom...The drive is often too far. We have to sit in chairs meant for students and it's very uncomfortable. So many people coughing and being squeezed together in rooms, again meant for students. Insufficient parking. I have health issues and the sitting/exposure to groups during the beginning/peak of cold, flu, covid...is unreasonable in this day of great technology options. I feel like this is micromanaging.

Spend less on DSQ and other positions that really have no impact on student learning and pay teachers more.

While I strongly agree with systems in place for us to be cohesive as a network of schools; however, if something is working successfully please consider refraining from making changes that could potentially veer things away from that very success.

better communication and guidance

I would love to see a plan for opportunities for principals to grow beyond their position. I know that some principals have an executive principal status but it is undefined on how to achieve that promotion and there isn't a process to work towards that I am aware of.

Increases based on performance not a standard percentage

Continue to look at nearby districts and make necessary changes to keep up with the pay scale of other districts.

Pay paras what they deserve.

There are many required videos for professional development that also have directions available via On Base.  Although these are 4-6 minutes each, is it really necessary if the directions are available?  There are other videos that seem like they are important but with everything on our plates, the only way to complete them is to spend hours outside of the workplace to complete them.   When providing feedback to specific departments at the Service I've received responses that make me feel they are not receptive to feedback.  This is unfortunate, because we should be able to work together to raise our level of effectiveness and partnership.  Technology Tickets are cumbersome.  The back and forth emailing aren't ideal.  Despite the information we provide in the ticket, the responses sometimes seem like they are not reading the descriptions of the issues.  There are building issues which take way too much time to get resolved.  It's getting much better now though.

I feel like our culture is changing.  Admin seems more hands off and not as involved with students specifically.  We are catering too much to the higher needs kids and ignoring the needs of the gen ed students.  I really don't like when my planning time is taken for meetings, because that takes time away from my family.  PD is lacking (with the exception of Dr. Grant!).  I am always going to put compensation.  We do more work for less money than our peers that do the same jobs for other districts.  And we need teacher's unions to have our voices heard.  This survey doesn't give us the means to speak up.  We also assess too much.  Teacher morale is low.  We are overworked and underappreciated and underpaid and managed too much by the service center.  I also think we need to work on our diversity among staff.  Our staff doesn't match our students.  We lack empathy and inclusion for students and families of different races, religions, and of LGBTQIAS2+.

Increase my hourly wage...

Keeping teams up to date on what is going on with specific students

Communicate expectations and any changes in a manner that allows time to process and put changes in place.

The school staff got tons of bonus' with ESSER funds, but the service center still remained at 3% raises and no bonus' during this time period, even though we also had extra work and a new system and tons of turnover since COVID.  In addition, as part of the full comp package, more vacation/PTO for those that have maxed out at 10 years of employment. I feel something else should be offered for those long-term employees. i.e. $5K bonus every 5 years, a month sabbatical every 5 years, another 1 day of vacation for every 2 years over 10 years, something "more" for sure especially if we don't want the people with all the knowledge to leave

Develop Merit Pay

There is a lot of staff turnover due to the lack of compensation.  I believe it is because teachers are asked to complete a lot of tasks, more than the county schools.  We are asked to stay late multiple times a month, especially during conference times, but are not compensated for the extra time.  We work after hours because we cannot get everything completed within the 40 minutes of planning time that is provided daily (some days meetings are scheduled during this time as well).  If NHA wants quality teachers they MUST compensate accordingly!  I love what I do and will probably never leave, but teacher turnover is affecting my students and the way in which I need to do my job.  HIRE QUALITY TEACHERS.  COMPENSATE THOSE OF US WHO HAVE PROVEN OUR WORTH ACCORDINGLY.

NA I am happy with my workplace.

I haven't had a cost of living increase in several years.  With inflation over the last few years, I'm actually making less now  in adjusted dollars than a few years ago (even with the annual wage increase).

I feel that all individuals should be compensated for the work that they do on daily basis regardless of status. NHA should at least compensate employees with similar cash benefits as neighboring school districts.

Paraprofessionals are absolutely worthy of just as much paid time off as teachers. We work JUST as hard as any teacher and we deserve to be able to take off if we are sick or if anything comes up in our personal lives.

Teachers are extremely underpaid

Compensation is better in the traditional public school system and we lose staff who leave for better pay. How to increase compensation? Not knowing how all of the money is handled, I'm not certain how this would be done, but something needs to change to attract qualified teaching talent.

NYS Retirement

Paramount staff is not properly compensated from NHA. Area schools are staying competive with wages and the increased demands coming from students and families. NHA, a for profit corporation, does not offer the ability to pay off student loans, pays less than area schools for most positions, and will probably not continue with retention bonuses now that the ESSER funds being gone. We will never be able to compete with area schools to keep great staff. We will continue to have a high turnover now that wages and benefits are now open discussion in people's every day lives.  In addition, we need more support staff on the floor. There is a high need for support for those with severe mental illness and special needs. We are a small school, but the needs are HUGE here. We need support.  Ms. Cramer is a valuable asset to Paramount. She is one of the best principal's that we could have. We are lucky to have her as our leader. I cannot imagine a more perfect fit.

My manager takes time to ask me how I am doing which is important. It makes me reflect and try to find some work life balance, even if it is just for the weekend. At the moment I have very little balance. I am hopeful it will get better soon.

The pay for social workers is 30 to 40% below the average for public schools.  I know attempts are being made to address this but this has been going on for 20 years.

It is a challenge to keep staff with current pay for positions such as intervention and special education para and lunch/recess aide.  These are some of the most challenging positions in the building and the lowest paid positions.  There is also a disconnect of understanding of what daily life is like in a building vs expectations coming down from Grand Rapids.

I would like to see a higher value placed on the mental health of the employees. Working with an above average number of students and then being told "maybe" there will be compensation is crazy to me. They look more at the bottom line then what is best overall for the staff and students.

I would like to have fair compensation. The subs in my building make more than I do. How does that make me feel doing my job? I would like to see an increase in my hourly pay to match the inflation.

Nothing at this time  I love North Dayton and my DSQ rocks!! Victoria Simmons

As a certified educational degree employee, it is very frustrating to see individuals hired with no ed degree or ed experience, paid close to what I am making.  My raises barely cover the cost of insurance increases and the high deductables, even using hsa.   My recommendations are to reward those who have been with nha for their loyalty and pay them what they are worth.

Too many valuable educational sites are restricted.

I know little about how the situation with AJB got to the point of separation. That said, losing a school is very serious. Students are losing their school, parents are losing their choice, teachers are losing their jobs, and NHA has now lost the ability to say that we have never been fired. When Rochester lost its charter, NHA made major changes. What are we doing now that our partnership with AJB has dissolved?

Make compensation comparable to the department of education

Pay teachers and admin more, especially those that have been with NHA for a while.

If we paid our teachers more, we’d be more likely to retain the good ones instead of losing them to a nearby district after three years. We should roll over or pay out for PTO so teachers don’t take so much time off during the school year. Pay out less than a sub costs and it’s a net gain! Also, bring back performance bonuses for state test results! That will motivate and make people feel valued.

Pay deans salaries comparable to assistant principals in public schools. Or give them raises with higher percentages like you do teachers that get them there.

Unfortunately I don't have the answers.

Bonuses at least annually

My salary as a Principal is not competitive.  I don't want to leave NHA, but I don't feel respected or appreciated as a Principal with how low I am getting paid for my position.

I appreciate that we have never had a pay freeze and I think that experienced teachers are valued in my school, but I do miss the retention bonus (seems to vary by building; my husband got one this year but I didn't).  Content leader pay is so-so.

Pay us more!  If you want to retain good teachers, you need to pay us a fair wage.

I've said compensation before, but I know that will not happen. So, maintaining small class sizes, having strong communication, keeping deans in place who are competent, keep the staff here that are good and stop turnover. New teachers all the time require so many resources and Knapp doesn't have resources! Bring back a K-2 dean so Holly can focus on 3-5. There are too many teachers and behaviors that she has to be responsible for. It seems like she's trying but it's too much for any single person to do. Keep the staff we have so they learn what they need to do and build on it. There's not enough admin for this school, even though the numbers are small. That's not our fault, it's the clientele.

Class size should not increase above 28. This is not what's best for kids. Teachers can not be effective when more students are added to our classrooms. It feels disrespectful when the focus is on added more students to fulfill a "quota" or have "impressive" enrollment numbers. Teachers are getting burnt out. Adding more to our plates is not allowing us to be successful, and it takes away from the attention we can give to our students.

For 5th grade, change the units around in Reading to align with Social Studies. We talk about the American Revolution and the events that lead up to it in Unit 2, but we don't cover that topic in Social Studies until the end of the year. It would be helpful if they went hand-in-hand.

Allowing only 5 days PTO before it negatively affects your review is bad business. People are constantly coming to work sick. With the building never being sanitized, it just spreads more sickness. A solution would be to raise the amount of days to the average public schools, which start at 11 days. You could offer compensation if those days go unused.

Salary based on what the Flint area teachers are paid, especially the non charter.  Based on my years of experience, I would be earning an extra $8000 when compared to Carmen or Grand Blanc or Kearsley.

A raise to help make the hourly rate one that is a livable wage and comparable to local schools

Teachers deserve to be paid more.  Our increase in salary 1%-3% is no where close to inflation that is occurring! I would also like to add feedback to ? 10 in the survey: "I believe meaningful action will be taken as a result of this survey."  I believe & have seen in the past my dean & my principal take meaningful action as much as they can/in their power, but I do NOT feel NHA takes any responsibility/meaningful action to this survey when it comes to things that our out of my managers' control.  Our building has repeatedly asked for basic needs & things that other NHA schools just take for granted no one responds to our needs/ tickets are even left open.  Examples are broken stall doors in the bathrooms, missing/broken blinds, door handles that do not work, tinted doors so parents& strangers can not peer in, working clocks throughout the building, not enough Kleenex, updated playground & holding Aramark accountable when they are not keeping up on the cleanliness of our building.

None at this time.

Find ways to keep highly skilled teachers through compensation.

There is too much overhead at corporate.

Increase salary for the amount of years I have taught to be competitive with Michigan urban schools. Allow teachers and staff to carry over unused PTO, which in effect is linked with income, as it's taken away if the days are unused.

Lower deductible and/or lower bi-weekly costs.  Change dental carrier that more dentist offices take.

I don't have anything that I feel strongly enough about to mark anything that would impact my satisfaction or commitment to NHA.

I recommend feeding us less, giving us less free shirts, and finding small ways for us to save money annually in the budget of that type thing so we can receive more money in our pay. I could go to a local fast food place to work and make about the same per hour that I make here. I would not be as fulfilled, but please know if it was for money only I would not be here. There are things in life I cannot afford because of working here.

OUR INSURANCE PLAN ABSOLUTELY HAS TO CHANGE!!!!!!! I have already had to start paying up front for my son's dental because a lot of dentist won't use Delta Dental anymore.  I can no longer go to the Well Now Urgent Cares because they dropped their contract with BCBS and now I am going to lose mine and my children's doctor, that we have had our entire lives, because Family Care Medical Group is also ending their contract with BCBS. Clearly BCBS is not the program that New York employees should be using as they will not work with the doctors.  I am paying 100's every month for insurance I basically cannot use anymore, PLEASE ACTUALLY LISTEN AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!!!!!!!

I was shocked by how unprofessional it was to give a job to a family member.  Clearly, other staff members with more experience and expertise were not considered.  The relative disparity of caseloads and the schedule confusion/errors seem to hamper the productivity of the EC department.  Toxic positivity and false claims such as "Best start to the school year!" and "All staff agrees with this decision!" represent the disconnect between administration and staff. Instead of defending bad decisions, it's far better to learn from your mistakes by listening to the teachers who are dealing with the consequences of those decisions.  The team concept has been lost.  Micromanaging and not being consistent with expectations, policies, and work load are other areas which need improvement.

Our custodial staff is not given enough time by Aramark to provide a good cleaning to my room.  All meals are eaten in this classroom and spills or stains are not addressed in a timely fashion.  We have our day of the week where we get a deep clean.  But again I do not believe they are getting enough time to truly do a good deep clean.  I have cleaned certain things myself in the room because it has happened a day or two after our deep clean and I know it will not be cleaned.  I do not believe Aramark knows how long it takes or what is needed to clean our school.

If benefits were not so expensive, then the compensation would not be as much of an issue.  Benefits costs keep going up and the compensation is not going up at the same rate.

NHA can look into another cleaning company other than Aramark. If not, try to make adjustments to their contract so they are able to do more in the building. The Aramark staff should take pride in their work.

Some of the hourly workers can't afford the time when they are not able to come to work from the act of nature from GOD.

Compensation is always the area of growth, especially for our leadership team and staff that have been invested with NHA for a long time.

Negative student behavior is a main reason staff and families leave Paramount. We have the same students that are creating a chaotic environment, year after year. I'm glad that we will be starting after school detention soon. I think we have to hold the parents more accountable for their children's behavior. Perhaps offer parenting classes and offer up ways that parents can be more involved in their child's education.

I appreciate the support and relationship with my colleagues and Manager.

The Broken widoe theory should not only be applied to the classroom but also to the building. For example- the hallway, bathroom etc.  Have student who have detention clean and sweep hallways when in detention. Remodel the staff bathroooms. Get rid of excess materials that are not being used to reduce the clutter.

In my opinion, if feel the reading curriculum for the k-2 should be geared more to phonics and comprehension skills. There are so many children that return to school with major gaps from summer loss and we need to reach them and be able to build from that level to fill in the gaps. Workshop should be longer so those students can master those skills in a smaller setting that were missed. I'm not saying the curriculum is wrong, I feel so bad for the very low students that don't receive the help at home. I love the growth in the students that hit their targets by coming to school ready to learn, because of parent involvment.

Reading Mastery groups are effective, however, the assessment piece is alot of work as far as tracking where each student is, what assessment to print, and where to put it in gradebook (the assessments are not in order). It would be helpful, and save teachers an extreme amount of time if the assessments were given to us. *The reading specialist or an interventionalist perhaps could print them when their group has reached the assessment. Teachers could still give the assessment, but would not have to track the student, and then find the assessment in the unorganized gradebook.

I feel like this is something that is shared every year and there is no change. I don't know how to make specific improvements because I don't know the overall budget. However, when we compare NHA compensation to other neighboring districts they don't even compare. I don't understand how they can be that different.

There are many students who are below grade level in core area.  They are not able to keep pace with the curriculum and need to learn to walk before they can run.  Grades are split into high and low.  It appears that the low group is expected to keep pace with the high group.  The low group classes seem to have more behavior issues and more students that need support.  The behavior is bad and the misbehaving students keep the others from learning.

Please look at pay for similar job(s) at other schools. Compensation is higher. Also, cost of living needs to be considered. All costs are going up...food, gas, rent, utilities, insurance, co-pays for insurance, etc.  Our raises are not enough to even maintain the same standard of living and there are only so many things to cut from the budget and they have already been cut.

Aramark always seems to be short staffed.  I know that they do their best, but there's often something not done. TP or paper towels to stocked in the staff bathroom.  Sink looking dirty.

The writing part of the curriculum is too high for kindergarteners and first graders.

I feel that it would be nice to seperate the PTO days off and the snow days off. Instead of combining all the days off in PTO and Snow days.

Give a performance raise based on their evaluation and reward them for their loyalty to our school and company.

My answer for 27 correlates with my answer to 24.  The janitors need more help and support to keep up with the cleanliness of the building.  They do as much as they can but help is greatly needed.  Also, there have been many building maintenance issues (that the janitors are NOT in charge of fixing) around the building and they continue to pile up.  Either the ticket is taking too long for them to complete or there are tickets that aren't being fixed at all!  Door handles broken, electrical wall plates broken, bathroom stalls broken, etc.

Additional opporotunities for merit based bonuses and specific criteria for determining merit based bonuses if it is not linked to the employee framework.

I would recommend going over more nuts and bolts during PD week. A lot of things weren’t clarified until after the first day. The staff meeting we had at the end of Sept would have been much more helpful in August.

Paid overtime for Registrar and additional vacation time for Registrar.

Offering more advancement opportunities within NHA would benefit both employees and the organization. Clearer paths for professional growth and development can significantly boost engagement and retention. While I understand the budgetary constraints, retaining strong employees outweighs the costs of onboarding new ones and addressing the knowledge loss that comes with turnover. Unfortunately, it feels like the promises of advancement opportunities often come with stipulations that, even when met, seem to result in the finish line being pushed back further.  In addition, the lack of follow-up from the last two Glint surveys has been disappointing. Many of us were hoping for meaningful discussions or actions based on the feedback we provided, but that hasn’t happened. This lack of acknowledgment has created division and apathy within the team. I even considered not completing this survey due to these concerns, but decided it was important to share my input—though it won’t be heard.

Allow access to the Premier plan as an upgrade.

Taking a deep dive into the return on investment Regionals, Leadership Summit and other large expenses. Is the cost and energy put into content creation, travel, venue cost, food/beverages, swag, etc. worth it? Specific to Leadership Summit, how beneficial is this expensive event? Could money spent on these large events be invested into better compensation for exemplary or high preforming employees?

Not only do teachers at NHA make less than area public school teachers, there is also no compensation for the additional tasks we are often expected to do. This includes time spent subbing for co-workers due to the sub shortage. Many schools will pay a stipend or other compensation to employees who must cover other classes.   I also think it would be nice if employees at the Service Center shared the burden the schools feel due to the sub shortage. Service Center members with teaching and other academic credentials, could be added to our sub pool (perhaps committing to one day of service per month). This would help build a bridge between the schools and the Service Center, while also filling the dire need for substitutes.

It's time to add a little more cultural diversity to the ELA Curriculum.

There are too many “high” priorities, which is making it difficult to focus on anything. I feel like I’m caught up but then I find out that I’m behind on something else.

We need more substitute teachers, lunch aids,  and interventionists.  I know the admin is trying, maybe talent services could look into new areas and try new things to find more people.

Provide teachers with a sufficient amount of prep time. Have bi-weekly grade level meetings, so that teachers aren’t using weekends and after school hours to prep for class. The amount of meeting that take place each week during prep is taking away from the time we could use prepping material.

Greensboro Academy has stellar teachers and office staff.  This is the reason I highly recommend GA to other families.  However, teachers are undervalued, unappreciated and micromanaged.  When a teacher is considered exemplary and not compensated for that, what is the point?  We are not your typical NHA school. We have teachers that have spent their entire career at GA.  GA is has already started losing amazing teachers, and more will follow if things do not improve. My direct manager is unqualified for the position and needs to work on management skills as well as delivery of feedback.

We need to remain competitive with compensation.

Benefits have increased in cost both through the premium and the actual cost I pay at the doctor, but the benefits have decreased.  The additional fee to pay for my husband to be on my insurance because we don't take his is continually adding to the cost of our plan.

Address students negative behaviors more effectively.

There is way too much testing. The math tests are neither user-friendly for students, nor easy to grade for teachers. The math questions seem like they are trying to trick the students and involve a lot of reading comprehension.

We seem to discuss the same topic year after year at regional professional development. It would be great to have more choice and more focus on our actual curricular tools.

For regional PD, provide differentiated workshops.  Teachers at different points in their careers need different things, so providing options at regional PD would make them feel more productive.

Service Center does terrible job of being transparent about stipend amounts and when we will be paid. We often have to contact them to remind them of our rightful pay.  NHA NEEDS TO RESTRUCTURE RESOURCES TO ALLOCATE MORE MONEY TO VETERAN TEACHER SALARIES.

None at this time

Provide opportunity to increase PTO as loyalty increases - after 10 years, add on another 2 days of PTO per year - after 15 years, another 3 days of PTO per year - after 20 years, add on another 5 days of PTO per year - after 25 years, add on another 5 days of PTO per year. This can help show appreciation and keeps loyal NHA employees committed to our organization. The investment that these employees have made with their time is shown appreciation by giving time back to them.  This is truly showing that NHA cares about the work-life balance of it's employees.  This is how it's made more explicit and clear while rewarding loyalty.

The need to have competitive wages for our substitutes, so that I can maintain my role and not have to work in an area that I am unfamiliar with.  There is much anxiety when suddenly you are placed in a role that you don't have a plan right away to know what is going on.  The technology know how is not familiar, so that what the plans call for you cannot do because it is not compatible.  When you desire to do your best, it is almost impossible to feel like you had a good productive day.  The work and home balance is disrupted as well.  Sometimes afraid to say no when asked to sub because of the feeling of not contributing, even though it will make for a difficult day all around, work and home.

I would like to see more phonics instruction in grades K-2 with both teachers and co- teachers teaching it.  Also,Phonics tutoring should be available for those struggling students in grades K-2.

Compensation that is competitive with traditional public schools and reflects the amount of years spent with NHA and additional degrees so their is incentive for veteran teachers to stay with NHA.

More autonomy on arrival and dismissal procedures would be nice.

With the increased demands and emotional difficulties involved in teaching, I believe that compensation is okay; however, increase in retention bonus and clarity how pay increases (or not getting increases) are determined would be very helpful to me.

In the past year we have lost valued staff to compensation we just cant compete with. It is difficult trainings teacher to a level where they are effective and supporting students growth just to lose them every few years.

Of course, more money is always useful, as our salaries are not high, especially compared to the current cost of living.

When subbing and your regular payrate is higher than the going payrate it was hard to feel the excitement that the email was meant to relay. Subbing is hard and I feel you should make more money to do this job than what your normal pay is.

I truly love being a part Cross Creek and the team that I am on. However working for NHA continues to be a negative. As a teacher, I feel that what is expected of me is unrealistic and my time and efforts are under compensated. With the rise in health care costs, I barely make more than I started at 12 years ago. This is not ok. Our benefits and PTO do NOT make up for the lack of compensation.  I do not feel trusted as NHA continues to implement policies that make my job harder and less rewarding. I do not feel that my thoughts and time are taken into consideration when new decisions are made at NHA. We do not need copies to be more complicated.,..we do not need submitting reciepts to be more complicated...we do not need constant check ins from the "experts" at corporate... I want to feel like my work is compensated at a rate that values my time and effort. I put in extra and extra to be the best teacher I can be and I hear great compliments from my manager, but then my pay is poor.

Paid holidays.

Culture can be shifted by shifting from micro management to trust autonomy and collaboration.  Micromanagement stifles creativity and reduces employees' confidence in their abilities.  It is okay to set clear expectations, however, give the tools and resources for success and stepping back to allow employees to figure out how to achieve their goals.  This also does not mean not supporting when needed.  Also, use the morning meetings to celebrate success and learn from failures.  Glows and grows.

Seasoned teachers should be pulled into focus groups to discuss the NHA curriculum for it's effectiveness. I think it's a missed opportunity for NHA to not receive feedback from long standing high performing staff members regarding curricular tools and assessments.

Effort.

Hire more cleaning staff in order to not over work one or two people. It affects the building and how we teach when it is not clean.

costs are too high

I would like to see staff members that have been working with the company for a long period of time receive higher pay. New people and uncertified teachers are making as much or almost as much as veteran certified teachers. NHA needs to come up with a plan to retain their veteran teachers because we the market the way that it is, we can leave and make more money in another district.

NHA curriculum is not suited for all types of learners. There are no accommodations, visuals or lesson supports.

It just feels like the leadership of NHA has lost touch with the service center staff, enacting policies only for the good of the company.  I’m very concerned the short sighted policies and practices will drive the strong backbone employees away (and it has done that to some).  Please return to the lessons of The Advantage and remember that humans do the work in our schools and of supporting our schools.

I need it to be a little more affordable

Teacher Retirement Plan

Our pay doesn't reflect cost of living increases.  It isn't even close.  We work so hard, and give so much of our time and energy, and are not paid adequately.  NHA has got to find a way to increase our pay. There has to be a way to stop taking advantage of all the hard working staff at NHA. All we hear is that there is no way to fix this problem, but I think there is.

10 days PTO

What happens to the pay that the Para professionals would have gotten paid on the half days and snow days.  If we can't have higher wages, then we should get compensation for half days and snow days.

C and I seems to have become a machine that hinders teachers rather than helps. There seems to be no room for individuality as to how something can be taught to a class. If you are not following the dictates of C and I, you are counted as a 'not good teacher'. C and I is a great tool, but not every tool is needed for every job. Our teachers have a degree to teach what they teach. Our teachers have many years of experience. Our scores testify to the greatness of our teachers.

I would like to see some improvements/changes to Science & Social studies, to make them more fun for third graders.

Providing, modeling and giving students the tools to be successful in and out of class academically, socially, and emotionally,  This includes conflict resolution, self-advocacy, and the ability to self-correct.

I feel that Fortis gives us as much autonomy as possible to make choices, however, I don't feel that we have any freedom or any say in the materials we teach.  There is no room for meaningful reteaching or addressing gaps within the regular instruction.  Everything doesn't need remediation or intervention, just repetition or review and I feel there is no time or allowance to do that as a whole group.

In the past year, the Social Studies team has been reduced from 5 specialists to 3 specialists while the expectations on the quality and quantity of work expected have increased. In order to provide our schools, leaders, teachers, and students with high-quality resources that support the company's vision of instruction we need more support.

More open communication. When conflicts arise, we should work together to come to a resolution. If someone isn't given the chance to clarify their intent or able to understand what they did, that person needs the opportunity to hear the other's perspectives. Building culture is a two way street.

The Moral focus update this past year with the animals assigned to represent the virtues was great.  However the actual roll out and lack of funds to purchase any animals for classrooms or other resources has made this initiative a bit of a flop at this time.   We say moral focus virtues are a pillar of who we are, yet we aren't willing to invest in making them come alive with the characters and other resources.

Salary Schedule

Asking leaders to spend a week away from their family to attend Leardership Summit is a lot!

NHA needs to find a better solution in providing affordable health care, and that it doesn't impact our compensation.  This may help with our teacher retention because Public has much better health care packages.   I understand that we may be limited, but there can be a better package where we do not have to pay a lot out of pocket to meet our deductible.  With inflation rising, it's becoming more difficult to afford day to day living and medical expenses.

We hear a lot of feedback from staff related to compensation as compared to local districts.  I feel like we may want to relook at our approach to market value analysis and rewarding veteran teachers for their service in order to retain them.   Other than that, I love me some NHA!  My role is well defined, I have the support that I need to learn and grow as a professional, and my supervisor is encouraging, knowledgeable, and consistent.  He mediates my thought and gives me meaningful feedback, which enables me to perform the job the way it needs to be done.

I don't really have much to talk about.  I think things are fine

Pay veteran teachers/staff who remain at GOA what they are worth and compensation for loyalty. There should be a larger pay increase or bonus for 5, 10, 15, 20 years of completed service. Compensation for long term workers is not comparable to staff at other school buildings who have many years of service completed. New staff are hired in at higher salaries with zero education experience which affects moral for veteran staff.

There are many times when things that affect our special ed students are not communicated to the whole team.  Please let us all know when our students are involved in fights/discipline.

Empathy for employees.

Differentiated teaching and assessments for High-Mid-Low classes

After working for Quest for several years, I’m very disappointed in the benefit package offered to us. I have used national Heritage academies insurance my entire teaching career and this year we switched to my husband‘s insurance as our packages continue to increase in price and decrease in options.   It also saddens me we are lacking in technology. Students have chrome books, but not every student has a charger for them. It is also sad to see there are not computers in the media room, which makes it difficult to transition from the classroom to the media room and take everything with us, especially an early elementary.   NHA used to fund schools, and this year we have noticed the things we used to have are no longer. Unfortunately, it sounds like NHA schools are not all funded the same, therefore the schools in more affluent areas are receiving more funding instead of schools in lower income areas, which are the ones who need more funds.

Allow for PTO is accumulate over time (from year to year)

Based on comparable roles with a similar level of responsibility, our base salary should be more competitive in the market. In addition to that fact, while it is very nice to be told that you are doing a good job and that you will receive a retention bonus, waiting a full year for that bonus causes it to lose some of its impact.

A cost of living raise will improve this area. Raises are given to teachers based off market salaries but support staff salaries are never considered. The standard 3% raise every year is not close to covering the increase is household goods and utilities over the past several years. Raises should also be based on loyalty, attendance, performance and experience.

We need to have all staff members on board with urgency, safety, monitoring and providing the best education possible. Students see others not being held to high standards and want that for themselves. It interrupts the learning environment when consistency is not being seen throughout the building especially when it impacts our ability to do what we need to do, whether that is bathroom break or testing. The bathrooms need to be cleaned throughout the day, or at least checked for cleanliness/ soap and what not.

Focus PD on what teacher's need and create a systematic year-long approach with ongoing support in those specified areas.

The bathrooms are old and desperately in need of  a remodel.  They smell bad and are constantly needing repair.

There is a classroom door that does not latch (it is missing that piece). The air and heat have not worked in almost a year in the gum. when it is hot the outside doors are propped open. This is not a good thing especially when a threat was made by a middle school student to do harm. Idle threat or not the doors should not be propped open

Each year my small raise does not cover the rise in cost of insurance therefore although I am getting a raise I am actually making less and less each year. I also feel that if there is a vacancy and someone is covering for the vacancy they should be compensated fairly. If I am doing my job and taking on part of the responsibilities of another job as a dean, I should be compensated in correlation with the job I am doing not just a low blanket stipend of $1,500. For example, if a person is writing all the IEPs and holding all IEPs meetings for a special education vacancy and this accounts for 25% of the job, they should be compensated with 25% of the salary that is not being used. Expecting people to double work creates a problem with work life balance and to not fairly compensate for work done at home or after hours shows that employees are not valued.

Corporate/Service Center micromanages education, blocking access to tools and programs that are helpful and effective with students, and forcing the use of materials that are ineffective.  The curriculums require jumping around to match interim standards which do not make logical sequencing for learning.  The interims should be done away with, or at least rewritten.  NHA advertises Excelerated learning opportunities, but won't support that for our students.

Still confused as to why certain educational sites are blocked but YouTube and games for students are not blocked. All I'm ever told is 'issues', but never any clarity as to what those issues are. It seems to be a copout.

There is very little planning time so teachers use after school and weekend hours to meet the demands of lesson planning and grading, and creating anchor charts, etc. Adding extra demands: bulletin boards, committee work, special event participation adds up. We need stronger community involvement from families to fill in these extra demands so that teachers can spend more time teaching/planning/fostering relationships.

Consider giving staff a raise in place of the retention bonus.  A bonus is good but so many things are tied to it.

Over the past year, there has been a very noticeable shift in culture at the network, especially the service center.  Priority to finance has taken priority over NHA's people. Change is understandable, but intentional management of that is too. There are a lot of truly talented people who do incredibly important work, going above and beyond to make NHA great and to serve our schools (and it's people).  This has left many feeling replaceable and disrespected.  This is an unsettling shift.

I think we need to have a better Work-Life Balance including more preparation time at work and limit communication over the phone on weekends unless its an emergency.

Better locations for small groups; need to add on to building.

Limit the people at the Service Center.  We need more people at the schools.

Getting paid for what I do. Not have NHA staff lie

A minimum of 10 days PTO

Value the veteran teachers so they want to stay!

I would like to feel like I am compensated appropriately for my years and work load. I don't feel like NHA cares about longevity or they would create some type of pension system to be competitive with public school districts.

I would suggest more PDs, discussion or modeling of how/what to prioritize. Often times, it's task after task after task and it's just expected to somehow get them all done effectively and timely. We have teacher tasks, we have tasks assigned from our Deans, we have committee tasks, we have SpED tasks.  Some teachers have a greater work load than others and I don't think this is always considered. I would suggest condensing meetings to mailbox when possible, having shared google docs vs holding in person meetings. Allowing Wednesday meetings to be for action items, for example instead of a dean team meeting maybe we could have a quick house keeping list emailed and have a focused session on something like " planning intervention", "completing accommodation logs" or" updating trackers or updating student work.  Teachers are struggling to find a balance that allows us true freedom from work responsibilities after school and on weekends, which is leading to earlier burn out.

Increases are needed. Cost of living raises are needed.

I would like to see a pay scale and a cap on each classroom at 28.

Using a workload approach rather than a caseload approach.

We need more specialists on our team but there is never enough money.  Our role could be more powerful if we could grow our team, specifically in other states so our Specialists don't have to spend half their time traveling.  Not only this, but we could do so much more with (and for) schools if we had an extra Specialists.

Pay educators more !!

Classroom sizes is a huge issue. It is unrealistic to put 30 (or close to) kids in a room without any help and expect that all kids' needs are met. I have noticed a huge change in needs of kids and parents in the last few years and each year has become more demanding in those areas, with no support being added. I am disappointed that I am not able to get to know each child like I have in the past and continue to feel unsuccessful in meeting all of my kids' academic/social needs. Aside from that, the workload of 30 kids (grading papers, making copies, attempting to do hands on activities) is exhausting. I have expressed this concern and will continue to do so. I do not believe non-educators truly understand the ask when you put this many kiddos (with as many needs) in a classroom.

Teachers and Paras have received fair-market raises within the last 4 years. Administrators carry heavy responsibility and should also receive fair-market value salary raises.

Better consistent information from the service center.

Increase corporate contributions to employee 401k account.

more affordable health insurance

There simply needs to be more staff and they need to be given more time to clean the rooms. Students need to be responsible for their messes though, and classrooms shouldn't be left in disarray.  Bathrooms are always a concern...dirty floors are big problem and ceiling tiles should be replaced-lots of water damage and it looks rough.

PTO limits should increase for those who have been with NHA for more than 10 years (up to possible 6 weeks) or give the week between Christmas and New Years, or 4th of July week off.  4th of July week off for C&I especially would make sense, given the long hours put in for summer events such as NTS, CLC, and Leadership Summit.

Compared to area districts and their pay scale/steps, NHA is far behind the average. This may be an contributing factor to the constant turnover of teaching staff. If NHA paid their teachers a salary that matched district pay people would not be so interested in leaving. If they retained qualified teachers (many of our teachers are not certified) Prevail may have the academic and classroom management outcomes that they try so hard to achieve.

Myself and several other co-workers have noticed that the NHA Voice is gone. The past few years we have also had a People Services rep. That person is now in another position and we have not been informed of her replacement, if there is one. Even on this survey we are only able to provide feedback on the one area we identified.

n/a

I understand that Charter schools do not have the same resources to pay their teachers the same as traditional public schools but I think it would be very beneficial if PVA/NHA could be a bit more competitive in teacher pay. My husband keeps encouraging me to teach for our local district as it pays quite a bit more for my experience and education level. I have worked for NHA for over 14 years. I really like it but as I said getting paid more competitively to traditional public schools would make it exceptional! You would keep your best teachers if you paid them more.

Continuing for NHA to look at market salary for my position.  Rewarded for length of time rather than the small cost of living increase (this this is only $90 per pay check).  Peers at different schools in similar roles are being hired in at similar rate to my current pay for much less experience for being here for over 13 years with more experience.  There is mention of overtime for my position but do not feel that doing my paperwork/evaluations/IEPs outside of school hours (5 - 6 hours a week) would be approved for "over time" rate.

Offer long term incentives for employees to maintain employment with NHA.  Increase the 401k match by 1-2% for emplyees that have been around for 5 years would be a good start.

Increase must also cover any increase to medical. If I get a raise in August and then pay more for benefits in January I didn’t really get a raise.

All staff taking accountability for their part in keeping the building clean.

Seasoned teachers who are capable to help others grow should be compensentated enough to stay so they will continue to make a differnce.

Staff are over worked and significantly underpaid for what they do.  They deserve compensation for the work they do. Our hours are not strictly 7:30 am - 3:30 pm as many of our staff work beyond those hours.

Cultural activities feel forced- allow for class/teacher choices-examples calendar buddies and BOO activity.Pay should reflect the amount of time spent outside the classroom preparing for lessons,grading,and meetings.

I think there needs to be real consequences for parents or students who make staff, other families or scholars feel unsafe.  When a parent breaks through the back door of the school after being told she cannot go, she should be charged with breaking and entering.  We have to show our families that we take safety and respect for rules seriously.   Matthews should have the ability to make strong decisions regarding inappropriate parental behavior.

Employees should be compensated for the work they do outside of their duties that benefit the entire school.

Compensation is always an issue.  It would be nice to have pay raises that are equitable to those received by others in our profession.  Curriculum and autonomy are an issue as well.  NHA micromanages it's teachers.  Every class is different and has different needs.  As an educated professional part of my job should be the ability to adjust to meet the needs of the room, not reading from a script to deliver a one size fits all lesson to check a box.

Pay a competitive wage.  Make it worthwhile for teachers to remain teachers and not forced into admin or some other role to make a decent salary.

Stop accepting students who are not school ready for money. Stop accepting SPED students who require a self contained unit when the school does not have one. Stop sending students back to class after egregious behaviors and expecting the classroom teacher to make it work. Expel students who did not come to work and who come to bully and play.

A salary that coincides with what I do.  By the time I get my paycheck it's not enough to pay my bills.  And the amount of work that is demanded of us and the stress it's not adding up.

Testing, trying to make sure students aren’t required some many test that are required that specific week. Doing what’s best for kids

Invest in the staff that continuously stays and chooses to stay at NHA.

Allocate more money towards staff members.

Use the money that you receive from the state that you get for overenrolling our classrooms to pay your teachers/staff members more. Instead of giving prizes to all the managers of NHA (who get paid much more than we do), use that money to go toward paying teachers fairly. If you are willing to share your spending spreadsheet, I can give you other ideas.

Adding time for the teacher to do activities with students that promote the learning curriculuum, practice fine motor skills, effective speaking with other students, and problem solving using outside ideas other than what NHA provides.

Less: Technology, tests, homework, sitting still, worksheets, listening to a teacher talk  More:  Play based learning, hands-on centers, multi-sensory learning opportunities, movement, crafts and projects that build fine motor and executive function skills,   Start acknowledging child development, stop creating more behavior issues   Fun Fact: It takes approximately 400 repetitions to create a new synapse in the brain, unless it is done in play, in which case it only takes 10 to 20 repetitions. :)

Give teachers the opportunity to choose from a variety of curriculums to meet the needs of the student in their classroom. Scripted lesson plans do not allow for closing learning gaps.

More support with behavior. Students seem to be in charge because they don't have measurable consequences. Write-ups mean nothing and the positive behaviors don't have any rewards

In the past we were able to attend events/seminars to learn about new ideas and network with others within our field. This does not seem to be an opportunity anymore which causes career growth to seem stagnant.

There seems to be a lot of change and movement happening at NHA which can feel unsettling at times. As well as a lot of accusations about employees not working which is false. I would love to have open dialogue and discussion rather than hear trickled down conversations and concerns that are baseless, that result in changes that are not necessary.  I am looking forward to the department moving forward in a positive direction again.

After serving as a director for several years and being told I am adding value to the organization and taking on more responsibility there is no path for growth or advancement, whether that is upward advancement or even a more creative approach to a promotion. At a minimum, it would be nice to be part of annual reviews / discussions.

Hire outside cleaning service and people that TRULY CLEAN!!!  We as a building and our administration and staff do a tremendous amount to keep our school somewhat acceptable; however, we should not have to vacuum out rooms, take out garbage, worry about getting soap, paper towels, bathrooms disgustingly dirty.  Especially when the custodial staff walks around talking to teachers, sitting in chair, on personal telephone calls, making coffee and this school needs cleaned.  It is embarrassing to go to other NHA schools that are spotless but ours hasn't been in years!

Hire more staff.  Contract with a different company.  Hold current staff accountable.  More training for current staff.

NHA continues to place additional demands on their staff without giving ample support - time and help. Ultimately large class sizes require teachers to do more work - more grading, more planning for effective small groups, more data analysis, more communication with parents. The main focus of my job is coaching teachers to instructional excellence to impact student learning in a positive way. But with the large number of direct reports, additional duties this job entails and the day to day work in school there is no way to complete ALL aspects of my job in a reasonable amount of time. I typically spend 10 hours in our school building and still take work home on a nightly basis because there is not enough time to do everything. I have been in a dean role for many years, so this is not me being new to my role. This is the direct result of me being in a role that multiple people should be doing. Every school needs additional staff - 4 deans, teacher assistants and full time janitors.

Our core value of ‘financial viability’ has moved from being balanced to clouding and crowding out the other core values.  It’s now more important to save money than to ensure our well trained, competent and experienced staff are retained.  Our compensation team is making one-sided decisions when it comes to keeping staff.  So they leave.  And we then are left with staff who are alternately certified.  Or contracted and cost more.  Or just brand new - and the impact it has on student growth is evident.  The impact is felt on our leadership teams and in wings.   It feels like our budget is becoming highest priority - over what is best for kids.  And maybe even how we support our people who work for NHA.   I recommend NHA becomes more transparent with funding- to help people understand why decisions are made.

Offer more positions that allow employees to advance to coaching positions.

I think much could be done get everyone on the same page and to unify the wings of the school so that they work together as one unit.    Less hall assemblies, more whole school assemblies - maybe morning announcements over the PA system.  One email with the rundown for the day - what assemblies are there, drills, special events, are there subs assigned for that day, what clubs and sports are running after school, etc.  With events all over and having 3 or more newsletters to read and synthesize, I sometimes miss something.  All events put into the google calendar.  It is frustrating having to check different places to get all of the schedules and extra curriculars and notable events.  If it would all be in one place and everyone had access to it, we would always be in the know.   Unify the whole school by putting them all in the house system and participating in house activities.

 Our hours and time divided by amount of hours we work as administration is not comparable to the amount of expectations and responsibilities, especially with a large amount of student body population and direct reports with our current compensation. It is nearly impossible to get all tasks done on top of other outside meetings and requirements to support our own personal work life balance. My manager does the very best she can with supporting work life balance in order to support everyone's professional and personal obligations to maintain a positive culture.

PTO should be at LEAST 6 days in a calendar year.  It's disappointing when talking with colleagues at other schools and they get upwards of 10.

We need to see a shift out reading program.  Shared Reading needs to have leveled texts so all students can haves access to practicing the skills.   Admin should make more than their direct reports, especially since teachers have the singers of and admin report to work over the summer.

To have school safety officers.

My pay is not equal to public school's compensation

I need more paid time off for hourly workers.

The curriculum we have for ELA needs a lot of work. There are major holes in meaningful vocabulary acquisition and word work. The curriculum is not engaging. Our social studies curriculum (Inquiry Journeys) is a national standards curriculum, but Michigan has state standards, many of which are not well addressed. We also have to split half time between science and social studies. We are teaching a years worth of curriculum for each subject in half the time. Science a social studies can be used to meaningfully extend and enrich our ELA curriculum, but they are deprioritized. We are then held to fire for test scores on subject areas we are not given adequate time to teach.

Differentiated instruction for students with varied intervention needs necessitates having more than one intervention tool as a resource.

NHA should increase pay according to economic inflation. There are many employees living check to check and it's not okay. No one is asking to be rich but we should be able to provide a comfortable life for our families.

To receive training on the writing curriculum and assure that it is grade level appropriate. This way it can be understood not only to the teachers teaching it, but the students that are being taught too.

I have said the same thing on the last 26+ surveys.  My pay has raised an average of 50 cents a year.  Four more raises, and I MAY be able to cover the LAST devastating insurance premium increase.  Totally demoralizing.

When adding things to our plates, please offer to remove something as well. We cannot continue to just add responsibilities and workloads and expect staff to be successful in all areas.

We need to increase safety measures in school. I believe that every school deserves a resource officer. I also feel that teachers that are teaching more than one core content class deserve a pay differential. The school was paying an outside source to teach a separate group of 8th graders math 1. Now that responsibility has been placed on me, but at the same salary. In addition, I was not allowed to get they bonus that came with this position when I moved into it because I was also an employee. That does not communicate that I am seen as valuable; we're willing to pay out bonuses to teachers for positions we're in need of, but won't give those same bonuses to teachers that are remaining and have proven loyal to NHA. I think we need better compensation.

I feel the longer you work here the more PTO you should be given! Also in the winter the handicap spots should  be salted.

Departments and even teams within the same department operate very independently and communication around priorities are not often shared amongst each other.

I would love to see improvements to the 401k match! I know costs are a concern, but NHA does have opportunity to improve benefits with no or little cost to the organization. Implementing some level of paternity leave as well as a sabbatical program would be great and wouldn't necessarily have to increase costs. Having people take an extended period of time off allows the organization to identify any gaps/control risks as well as encourages better cross training. It also allows employees an opportunity to completely disconnect, which many people find hard to do during a short time off.

I do not mind being a work horse, but let's make the priority connect to what matters most-- student outcome. Teachers have the most impact on positive student outcome, so increasing expertise and skills in our teachers is important. It is equally important to compensate them accordingly.

Allocate more money to better compensate the leadership teams at schools who work extremely hard to coach and support the building staff as well as provide a safe and fun learning environment for students.

If we don;t need to change  every year

Employees should have more than 4 PTO days.  Last year we had 6!

Don't forget the little people (i.e. non-classroom teachers) or the quiet ones.

Pay your experienced teachers more.

It's better this year but I'm still one of the last to know about students leaving and new arrivals to our school and it's my job to keep the technology inventory balanced.

An increased match would be appreciated. Traditional public has a larger match and also match funds going toward retirement health care. Furthermore, their general benefits are better, while our benefits continue to climb.

I think they need more help in maintaining this building.

Use funds to retain veteran staff and  not to attract new staff.

NHA needs to increase their pay to reflect the pay scale in the area. We will continue to lose veteran teachers to surrounding districts because those districts are paying more and honoring years of service now. NHA also needs to adjust their calendar. We are getting paid for 180 days with students. That means any other days outside of the 180 days we are working for free. Any days we come in before school are unpaid. Any days we show up for PD is unpaid. I’d like to know another job where people just show up to work and not expect to be paid. NHA needs to start counting PD days as part of those 180 days. At Merit, when you count before the school year and PD days, we are basically working an extra week than our surrounding district which makes our yearly pay that much less competitive to other districts.

To improve my work-life balance, it would be beneficial to receive additional compensation for handling two roles. Additionally, having a dedicated classroom would allow me to complete the numerous tasks more efficiently and better equip students with essential technology skills.

Inspire is not really that fun anymore. In the past, there used to be a solid work/life balance, but the workload has become heavier and we're outgrowing the school when it comes to accepting students. There are too many children in a classroom setting and there's no resolution for it. I would love to see Inspire get back to how it used to be, where we can enjoy our profession and have time to mentally recharge instead of working and prepping on evenings and weekends.

pay the people who deserve it based on test scores and years in cut all ABBS programs and give that money to the teachers

Support staff pay is below the poverty line.  There is no way one would be able to support themself on what they make.  There is also not much of an increase in compensation each year, those who have been at Vanguard for many years make about the same as those just hired.  The starting rate goes up, but pay for those with year of experience doesn’t.

I wouldn't know how to assist in providing us with printers that work with consistency or how to help so that we have phone that work without causing headaches after not allowing us to use them as expected. So, I will state that I do appreciate having the ability to use tech. However our jobs rely so much on them, and that means our jobs come to a pause as the need piles up when tech issues arise.

Professional development for specials teachers to be paid by NHA- in their content areas

Better communication between parents, teachers and admin team to improve overall culture for students.

I would like to see more accountability from our cleaning staff.  More checks and balances have been put in place this year for them (ex- scheduled days for room cleanings), but who is ensuring tasks are completed?    Our gym floor was refinished over the summer, and this space continues to be left dirty with trash on the floor.  Can this space be cleaned regularly to ensure the floor stays as nice as it was over the summer?

Pay more so qualified people want to stay and give more incentives.

Increase compensation for all! We need smaller class sizes, and our scholars (mostly African American) deserve a gym! Would you have your own child out in the freezing cold every day for 40 minutes? I believe we know the answer to that. NHA has the money and the means to make this right. Why haven't you?

We hope to be able to hang on to the custodians we have to have a consistent team. We're also working with staff to assist in keeping our building clean.

This recommendation is geared towards C&I department: The Illustrative Math curriculum books from the past several years were easier to use then the newer versions. The newer versions are now black and white and less engaging to students. Some pages also ask students to look at cubes, for examples, of different colors, but they are unable to view each color unless they look at the teachers book displayed on the board. Also, the pages are so squished together that some students are getting confused on deciphering the difference between the key points section and their practice problems section. Lastly, the pages in the older version were perforated, making it easier for students to tear out practice pages and easier for teachers to grade.

Approve all orders that are necessary to run the school, such as paper and pencils.

It makes me very sad to write this but it would be disingenuous for me not to share this concern:  Communication needs to be more collaborative and at times with an intent to perhaps understand something rather than be directive, bordering on rude to colleagues who work in a different department within the service center when it concerns matters that require interdepartmental coordination.   In addition, the overall culture seems to have shifted to one that is much less friendly and welcoming of the contributions of all members of the greater team.  I fear this is leading to people becoming very siloed in their work which is not productive.   Please know that this is NOT a reflection of my feelings regarding my team or my director.

Increase pay

New teachers and paraprofessionals are getting hired in at a similar payrate or above the amount that experienced staff members who have been at Windemere for years are making. Annual pay increases are less than inflation and market value increases. It's disheartening for many that uncertified teachers or paras with no previous experience are making more than dedicated staff members who have worked at Windemere for 10+ years.

I would recommend allowing teachers with experience, proven successful data, or mastery in grade level/subject area more autonomy over how they teach standards and expectations.

The autonomy to teach our students according to their needs rather than always teaching to a test.  We are overloaded with assessments and we don't have time to enjoy our students or the ability to just teach anymore. Every year, more curriculum, more assessments, more interims, more expectations are added to our plate.  It is unrealistic to expect us to do all that we are forced to do, and do it well. We keep moving away from true meaning of being a teacher and meeting our students where they are. We are not feeling valued as teachers and nurturing students feels impossible because we are given such a high to-do list for NHA.   To be compensated as public schools do.  To have some kind of structure when it comes to raises or salary increase each year. Someone brand new to teaching should not be getting the same increase, or higher, than someone that has been effectively teaching for 10+ years. It feels like the increase is given to newcomers to keep them in education rather than rewarding loyalty and longevi

I do not have any areas of improvement at this moment.

Not sure. We have corporate accountants for that. I just know I have worked for NHA for many years and many 1-5 year teachers in surrounding areas are making the same if not more then I am.

I feel that the responsibilities related to the dean and principal roles continue to INCREASE year after year and nothing is being done to "increase" our salaries. We constantly see teachers get larger percentage raises and we are stuck at 3%. What does that communicate to the "leaders" who carry the school. Often when there is a vacancy, the leadership team is responsible for taking on the responsibilities of that role while maintaining our own. There seems to be no care regarding our work-life balance. This causes the leadership team to feel exhausted and unappreciated.

In my area, it doesn't seem like the various teams have their processes documented, so there are issues when there is turnover or simply training a co-worker.  There seems to be a lot of the same mistakes happening over and over, this causes issues for various reasons.  There should be clear and concise documentation on how processes should be completed. I understand that not all processes are straight forward, but documentation is critical for constancy.  Which leads to following our core values.

Air Quality must be checked.......We see mold

I’m so overwhelmed trying to keep up with everything new that’s being rolled out. I have so many new rollouts to work on that I cannot dedicate the same amount of time to planning and teaching quality lessons that I have done in the past. It seems as if we’ve lost sight of what’s the most important and why we are here.  I have given my entire being to this school for 13 years now, and I’ve always made decisions in the best interest of my students.  Now under the guise of “being held accountable” I am being stripped of the space and respect required for me to make my kids as successful as they can be. I earned the right to be treated as a professional, and that is all I am asking.

It is hard to take time off only on preplanned vacation times due to the cost, it would be nice to have more personal/sick days.

Compensation should be equal/closer to the districts around us.  I feel more needs to be done with unsafe and disruptive behaviors. Students(and their parents) need to have consequences for their actions, especially when it takes learning time away from other students.

Clean the outer entry door glass daily (all entrances)..  Once the kids handprint it up and the sun shines through it the school looks dirty from any view of those doors.

Match our years experience with the pay schedule at districts nearby. There should be no way that new teachers are close in pay to veteran teachers.

The administration places a heavy burden on teachers, often overlooking that we have personal lives outside of work. Our task lists keep growing, but we aren't compensated for the additional time it takes to complete everything. This year, the demands are even higher, and on top of that, the state is requiring some of us to complete an extra 22 hours of coursework.  We're expected to have 100% participation in parent-teacher conferences, yet parents face no accountability when their child creates a dangerous environment, like throwing furniture.  At the start of the year, administration downplays overcrowded classes by saying, "They all won't show up," but here we are with classrooms exceeding 28 students, leading to overwhelming stress. Despite this, we don't have consistent para support or full-time academic specialists. If we're going to continue with these oversized classes, true team teaching must be implemented, and additional staff needs to be hired to support us.

This was brought up at PD in August, but it has been a concern for me for a while. With the layout of our building, we need a way to secure the second floor from an intruder who might enter the atrium and go directly upstairs. An open door at the top of the stairs is best for easy staff and student movement, but it is potentially unsafe. When the door at the top of the stairs is locked, this impedes staff with students who travel to small group areas on the first floor from easily returning upstairs since they need a key. Might we have a card reader installed on the door so that at least students who are accompanied by staff could easily navigate between floors without compromising safety? Or maybe there is an even better idea out there?

I wish that Paras would be considered for attending IEP and any other meetings for a student.

Give staff an increase in salary and allow employees in good standing to receive retention bonuses.

Adjustment according to the cost of living.

I was very upset that I could not sign up for the premiere health benefits package anymore last year.  I was excited to sign up for it again after having the gold for a few years.  I have mental health needs and other medical needs that would have been served better by the premiere option and I was willing to pay more for it. Very sad that NHA chose to allow their long standing loyal employees this option.

It's the recommendation that I have each and every year I have been at South Arbor - acknowledge educators worth through compensation equal to or greater than surrounding school districts.

NHA needs to invest more money in their veteran teachers who have been here 8+ years.  Veteran teachers are the backbone to any school, they help guide and teach the newer teachers NHA's core values and all NHA is about.  NHA has a comparable starting pay with schools around the area, but amazing teachers are leaving NHA to go to public schools which now are matching their years of teaching and pay them more.  There should be a step program or a significant salary increase to help with the increased cost of living.

Recently our team has lost two team members whose positions were not replaced placing an extreme strain on our capacity to produce high-quality work.  I take pride in the ability to provide high-quality curricular resources and development for our teachers to ensure that we are making our schools the best place for students to learn and grow.  The ability to do this has been hampered by the reduced capacity we have without overworking and burning out the members of my team.  We have gotten an increasing number of tasks to complete and requests for support without the appropriate resources available to meet the needs of our schools.

My manager does not trust what we do and micromanages us even though we know what we need to do and how to do it

I would love to see more community and parent collaboration, things added like PTO, I would like to see us more involved with the community that surrounds our school.

More access to a variety of online tools besides Dreambox &Lexia. Middle school students are bored with Dreambox by the time they reach upper elementary. Skills need to be more targeted. Dreambox's "gamification" is confusing and does not effectively help students gain a deeper number sense and understanding of number patterns and mental math awareness. Dreambox should be replaced for something better (IXL & Freckle). ELA: Weekly assessments should directly correlate to their novel studies. There are no assessments provided for the novel studies besides what the teacher finds themselves (Blooket, Quizizz, Quizlet, or other). Math: NHA should provide additional practice on prerequisite skills necessary for a particular unit. The worksheets provided are all from the same source and not kid-friendly (no graphics, not eye catching, boring text). Curriculum pacing is too fast for the average learner. Poor wording on assessments/interims have not been addressed, updated, or changed in YEARS.

none

The health benefits continue to go up in price. They almost doubled for 2024 for a family and then barely anything was covered.  Other public school districts have better health insurance than NHA now.  I recommend looking into other health insurance companies to see if they offer better health plans for employees.

I wish we had more flexibility to work remotely. If you trust your employees to do their job, there should not be an issue with how many/which days they are remote. Deal with those not doing their job individually.

Allowing teachers to actually teach instead of following a "one size fits all" script with "fidelity" might be a good start.

I would appreciate a more welcoming culture at Inspire. The current culture at Inspire favors a certain group of people, usually those favored by leadership. This group of people have fewer responsibilities and more benefits throughout the building. This disrupts the culture of the building because this fact is well known by other staff members and causes a divide amongst us. My desire is that we can all be treated equally with the goal of growing scholars in mind. Teachers work harder in an enviornment in which they actually like working. My recommendation would be team building activities, respect shown throughout the building, all staff being held accountable for their role, and all staff receiving the same benefits.

The current workload means consistent overtime and has become quite overwhelming, and I believe that additional staff would greatly alleviate some of the pressure we are facing.

Continue to provide staff members opportunities to make money in the field they are currently in like tutoring, summer school, etc. Finding ways to provide financial incentives for retention. Financial compensation for staff members who remain with NHA for years.

NHA needs to pay their teachers more to be comparable with the nearby districts. We continue to lose great teachers because of compensation.

My manager should get to know the people that work under her and listen to them prior to demanding new things without communication. My manager should also talk to everyone on her team with respect and not be condescending and aggressive to those that are white. My manager should also not be prejudice against white people and assume that just because they are white they are not able to teach African American students. My manager should support her new teachers on her team instead of hanging out in one teachers room all day because it is her "friend".

Pay everyone on staff more.

qualifying for public servant loan repayment program

This might be more of a parent leadership issue, but it was really nice and a great way to make staff feel appreciated when the teacher's lounge was stocked with snack items. We're lucky if this happens once a quarter now. Lunches were also provided more often which was always something the staff looked forward to. It gives a good, positive vibe and like it brings our teaching community together.

The IM curriculum does a decent job with providing practice problems and spiraling however I feel myself constantly looking for resources to compensate the teaching part. Although we have resources at our disposable such as the Learning Loss resources but I wish we had RIT. We need more tiered instruction.

Taking into consideration the work load and time spent (long hours!). Also studying pay for APs in the district- Deans have a heavy workload that includes WAY more than coaching teachers,

Since SCA was recognized as an A school and recognized by NHA with awards, why are we being told to make changes to be like every other NHA school? Why doesn't NHA come to SCA and see all the great things we were doing well and take the opportunity to learn from us, not try to make us the same as every other NHA school when we clearly have a different demographic and are excelling.

In order to address the compensation gap often found between public schools and charter schools NHA could offer greater opportunities for bonuses and/or increases in pay based on how much of an asset to the school a certain individual might be.  For example, someone that volunteers time out of school, helps coach sports, participates in more committees, has a variety of extra qualifications such as First Aid, CPI, impacts the building in a variety of positive ways, etc... compared with someone that might do a great job in their daily role but does not bring anything extra to the building outside of their specified role.  If compensation opportunities were available to the staff members that go above and beyond around the building it could go a long ways as far as NHA not losing high quality staff members that leave for higher paying opportunities.

-Allow staff to take off 2 hour increments instead of having to commit to a half-day off. -Have a way to incorporate comp-time for times that teachers are required to stay after school (Curriculum Night, Wisdom Walk, etc)

NHA - please create a framework that is more geared toward support staff.   Knapp - please have the same expectations for ALL salaried staff members in the areas of arrival time, dismissal time, subbing, extra duties, and dress code.

More frequent positive and precise praise on work related tasks.

Make sure rodents are handled immediately. The garbage in each room should be removed after students have been dismissed, not while they are still in their rooms.

Cash in lieu should be offered for those who are declining the insurance. We are saving the company thousands are not given anything for it.

It can be difficult as a dean to give out market increases frequently and then to never receive one yourself. I think that NHA should do market increases for Deans (as compared to assistant principals) and offer raises from there.

This is more of a compliment than any. I really like that we have security guards at the school. Their presence makes me feel safe. I hope we keep them.

Not hiring quality people - its exhausting to keep covering for the holes or for the ones that don't pull their weight.  Student behavior is out of control and the parents are allowed to steam-roll the staff.

BOY is stressful and loaded with new things to do and implement. Recently, our admin team and some of our staff experienced last minute changes after planning over the summer. Often, changes that NHA makes are not communicated in a timely manner. They are presented to all of us after we have planned and prepped over the summer. Teacher burnout is real and micromanagement is causing it.  Treat teachers like PROFESSIONALS. Teachers should be involved in conversations when changes are being made. Decisions are made, THEN  FEEDBACK IS ASKED FOR knowing the decision was already made. All schools are not the same, yet it feels like we are being forced to fit a mold. We are asked to differentiate for students DAILY but that same principle is not applied to our schools.  Change is hard and necessary. Change because you want all to fit the mold is NOT OK. If it's not broke, don't fix it.   Length of communication is TOO MUCH! Can monthly/yearly items be sent ONCE a month and not every week?

Duhaime emphasized the need to assume that the admin team has good intentions and isn't micromanaging. This philosophy should extend to staff; admin should trust teachers to make best decisions for their students, including how to teach & assess. Many teachers at GA feel constrained by mandatory scripted teaching. Weekly meetings, particularly on Tuesdays, are excessive; some information could be shared through the 411. Recent staff meetings have included unnecessary activities like "Never Have I Ever" and Gingerbread House Decorating, which should be optional. The increasing expectations for time spent at school, including mandatory workshops and extracurricular commitments, undermine the expressed value of work-life balance. Additionally, admin is losing respect from students, as evidenced by their behavior during assemblies. GA historically upheld high behavioral standards, but recent years have seen a decline in disciplinary action, leading to a lack of accountability for students.

Include all parties involved in decisions that are being made that impact them. No one should hear from others in passing about changes that are made that involve them.

I feel there is a learning gap between the Bridges math curriculum and the Illustrative programs.  Also, I dislike the writing curriculum and grammar for many reasons. I’d say they’re a good start, and there are some good components, but I create slideshows for most lessons and find supplemental resources. The writing material is super boring for fourth graders.

More opportunitied to increase compensation fairly based on certifications, achievements, and extra roles in the company.

NHA needs to recognize that they truly need to increase pay for school positions. At all levels in the school, people could go to the county and make more money. NHA has high expectations that I appreciate; however, it does mean that there is additional work and longer days. The new mindset coming down the pike seems to be however we can save money do it no matter the sacrifice that staff and/or students must make. I do not feel that is the typical NHA way and am very hopeful that things start to turn around.

Staff retention needs to be a higher priority. There should be higher compensation for high special ed caseloads and payment for meetings that we have to attend during our planning times. or we need to be willing to hire and pay for  at LEAST one in house sub so that teachers can be present for important meetings. The school also needs to hire a special education secretary so that special education staff can focus their time on consistent, high quality 1on1 and small group instruction. instead we are having to spend so much of our time on clerical duties (i.e. scheduling meetings, filing, doing transfers, contacting previous schools, etc). Most public schools have this position and it takes so much stress off the sped team and allows them to focus on what's really important.

N/a

Pay us like a public school district does. We would be able to keep our staff of pay was similar.

Our data team is stretched to the limits and constantly having to adjust our start, stop, pause to be able to complete the absolutely necessary tasks, since we are spread so thin, We have been assigned temps, but it proves to be more work than they are worth as it takes a huge time investment to train someone just to lose them soon after. We really need a dedicated full time internal person to continue to provide high quality work consistently without pause. The organization continues to open schools and our team has remained static as the numbers grow. This count is a mess, kids not getting any fte reported due to teacher vacancies, which means lost revenue, but, let's open more schools and create more positions we can't fill. One of my schools will not claim 45 students' ftes in Michigan count due to no staff. Also the work from home schedule and other teams still not having to come in, even locals, creates a horrible culture.

Retirement Plan

Higher pay for hourly staff, more PTO days, paid snow days-we shouldn't have to use PTO to cover the days the building is closed. I feel my answer to this question is the exact same every time we do these surveys and nothing changes.  Very disappointing and frustrating!!!! You say you listen, but I don't see it happening.

NHA needs to do more to retain and hire staff, especially in the area of special education. Staff is leaving NHA to go to local school districts who are paying significantly more for the same position. This is causing special education compliance issues and prevents students from receiving services.

Continue to build in raises for people that deserve it.

It's sometimes difficult to adhere to the 48 hour turn around time for grades to be posted especially when trying to obtain work life balance.

NHA needs to pay Teachers their worth.  Use Public Districts to develop a pay scale based on Experience, and Education.

My manager and principal are great at giving autonomy, but NHA is not. I would love for NHA to be more of a support for teachers and staff instead of forcing schools to do things a certain way or be a certain way. Each school is different and it should be up to the principal and staff to determine how best to serve the school and population we have.

Moving money from NHA management at the service center and sharing it among the staff at the schools.

I need resources that align with North Carolina Math 1. I had Common Core Algebra 1 resources that I had used for the past 3 years that I had learned what needed to be supplemented to fit NC Math 1. At the beginning of the year, the resources were suddenly changed! It it still just CC Algebra 1. Why was I not given actual NC Math 1 resources to use? The NC Math 1 resources are available on Open Up. I need these resources and matching assessments, not Algebra 1 materials that I have to piece together.

I appreciate the effort our dean puts into ensuring our team is successful. However, there are a few areas where I believe improvement could foster a more positive/collaborative environment:  - There have been instances where "calling out" happens in front of teammates (email or group text), which can be discouraging. Constructive feedback in private might encourage more open communication.  - Leadership Style: While it’s important for a leader to guide us, a more collaborative approach could help build a stronger team dynamic. Fostering a sense of partnership would enhance morale/productivity.  - Trust and Monitoring: Looking at our classroom cameras all day creates a sense of mistrust. Coming into our classrooms instead would likely empower teachers and demonstrate confidence in our abilities.  - Often, extra responsibilities are added without addressing our current workload. Providing support to alleviate some of these pressures would enable us to focus more effectively on teaching.

Professional Development Idea:  PD is often geared towards the experienced teachers.  Our last PD was beneficial to me but not to the others in the room.  They needed to focus on classroom management/ keeping butts in seats.  It would be beneficial to have two different layers of PD.  One for the new teachers, and one diving deeper into the teaching craft.

I would like the opportunity to use previous instructional tools the have shown success in the classroom.

Have a better pay system in place like public schools. People with masters degrees and more years of service should not be making less than employees that don't have their masters degree and have less years of service.

N/a

Caring about how we feel after our work day.  Not scheduling too many after hours assignments.

Better compensation. Appreciation with small things like breakfast after a rough week-donuts, muffins, bagels. Coffee. Some of our favorite snacks. Notes of appreciation. Shout outs, etc.

Recognition opportunities for all staff.

Better maternity leave policy.

When a stipend or bonus is given why is medical and other deductions removed?  The deductions are ridiculous.

I feel like our leadership is out of touch with the needs and asks of the staff.  While leadership continues to say how positive the year has started and how great things are, I see all around me unhappiness, negativity and frustration.   I think leadership need to listen more and act versus react with the blanket statement of "energy bus" dialogue.  Also, not shoot down an idea, thought, complaint, etc. without trying to help resolve it.  Always needing to be right is an issue.

There is no collaboration, like at other schools. Leadership or the select few are more the dictators for anything that goes on and teachers have no say in any type of extra curricular or team activities that help improve staff morale.

Bonus returns for every year or increase salary to be what the salary is with the bonus.

Student behaviors are a problem.  The quality of education for students who are willing and able to learn is negatively impacted.  Too much teaching time is spent addressing behaviors instead of teaching.

Make pay more comparable to years teacher has been teaching, do more to keep veteran teachers not just incentives for new hires.  The more turn around we have had, the higher behaviors and teacher burnout.

Pay employees who continue to return along with producing great evaluations. Also, employees who take on extra roles should be getting higher raises.

1. Align Dean/Assistant Principal Compensation with NYS Market Rates Benchmarking Salaries: Assistant Principals in New York State typically earn between $130,000 and $150,000 annually, depending on the school district, experience, and level of responsibility. Regular Salary Reviews: Implementing regular salary reviews for Deans/Assistant Principals, similar to the market value adjustments. 2. Compensation for Additional Education and Advanced Degrees: Similar to the NYS Department of Education, NHA could introduce salary tiers based on the completion of advanced degrees, certifications, or additional educational credits from $3,000.00 for additional Masters to $10,000 for a Doctorate annually based on the degree level. Leadership Certification: Offering stipends for obtaining certifications relevant to school leadership, such as SBL (School Building Leader) or SDL (School District Leader) certification, would incentivize professional growth.

 It is unclear what decisions can be made at the team or leader level and what requires upper management or eteam approval. It is also not clear what teams or leaders are allowed to do for team building type activities given budget constraints.

The custodial staff have not done a very good job on keeping our building clean.  The classrooms are hardly ever vacuumed.  There is a sticker on the door for when they are supposed to be vacuumed, and they do not follow this process.  Often times the restrooms are out of toilet paper, soap, and paper towels and it will be the beginning of the day.  There is no custodial staff here in the morning, so the breakfast trash sits around for hours in the hallway.

NHA must find a way to provide teachers with benefits and compensation that helps us shine amongst our competitors, such as DPSCD.

I would like to see National Hispanic Heritage Month celebrated with more emphasis on leaders and their accomplishments with school wide celebrations and activities. Posters, Hispanic memorabelia around the school and other related programming. I believe that it is important that we empower our students with the knowledge of other cultures that they might gain insight and a legitimate perspective on  how others live and the contributions that they have made to this society.

Health Insurance needs to be changed!!!!!

Clearly communicate and articulate NHA's vision and strategic priorities. What's most important? What is all happening? Ensuring we're not all working in silo.

So many EC students with drastic needs.  Need more specialized training to support behaviors.

We NEED better compensation.  Our jobs are so important to our students in so many ways and the compensation does not reflect that. Also, it would be helpful if the hourly employees were given the option to spread our pay throughout the whole year.

As a district if we truly want to build the capacity of our staff and create a community of continual high quality instruction, we need to make changes to our compensation model. We are losing highly qualified staff and having unfilled positions open for long periods of time as we cannot compete with surrounding districts. A pay scale, ladder system or increasing our pay to be competitive is essential if we want to retain staff as well as bring in new staff to support in continuing to make our school and NHA the best in the area.

I feel we are very underpaid in comparison to the community we are working in.  We lose teachers because they can go to our area public schools and make so much more money.

I believe that parents should play a bigger role at our school.  If parents had to volunteer, I feel like they would feel more a part of the school and would care more about what happens here.  Parents don't always understand what we do and why we do it.  If they could see first hand I feel like they would appreciate what goes on in the building.  Knapp is a great place to be but it should be set apart from public schools.

Allowing schools to purchase what they need with a given budget instead of constant questioning.

I understand the need for financial viability, but it feels like we've shifted from prioritizing people to focusing on the bottom line. Changes to the Visa policy have hurt our culture, and the travel policy adds unnecessary stress. Employees now feel guilty about simple expenses, like meals, even on multi-day trips. Appreciation for team members has declined, leaving many feeling undervalued. We're expected to do more with less, work harder & longer, and use personal resources. Our team’s culture has been struggling for a while. Despite this, we haven’t addressed past Glint results or made meaningful changes. We've resorted to superficial fixes that fail to address root causes. Growth opportunities are limited unless someone leaves. I enjoy working with my team, but these issues make me question whether better opportunities exist elsewhere.

None, There minor issue but they are just that minor. Nowhere is perfect.

Management needs to hear and act on the concerns of which their staff have shared.   Continuously depending on those that management feel confident with, and not utilizing the whole team,  only leads to burnout and others not feeling challenged and rewarded.  Everyone needs to pull their weight, not just those who management relies on.

We do not even get a cost of living increase. If you have an exemplary review you should be getting dollar per hour increases not change. NHA says it is but 2 to 3 % is will not even cover the cost of benefits (priced so high for a family), food and living expenses.

I love the work that I do and I love my co workers, however it is frustrating sometimes knowing that other districts are paying substantially higher than I am currently receiving for the same role.

I feel like the current annual review/ raise process does not encourage employees to do their best work.  When I receive a review with exemplary work, why do I get the same 3% raise as someone who is not performing at that level? In addition, a 3% raise doesn't cover the rising costs of benefits or inflation.  Our employee costs for medical benefits last year went up over 50%, and for many, a 3 percent raise doesn't even cover that.  I understand that NHAs costs went up also, but I believe we were told that those costs went up 7%.

NHA is doing simply amazing!  I think a next step would be to look at "innovative" opportunities to compete with STEM, magnet programs, vocational opportunities (wood shop, cosmetology, child care, automotive, etc.).  Opportunities to look at grants to provide more innovation in urban settings different than Excelerate Programs, etc.  A need to look at other innovative strategies to stay competitive with our families (Performing Arts Magnet or STEM Magnet, etc.)

I feel we have to many kids who think they can just do whatever they want this runs away good kids and teachers alike we need to go to a zero tolerance policy on behavior.

We have parents complain about the curriculum and question the books that are chosen for students to read in older grades. Sometimes assessments don't line up with what's being taught or are way too difficult for our population of scholars who need more support. Often when we reach out to C&I, especially, for reading, they are not super helpful. The curriculum is not fun or interesting to students the majority of the time. It's not interactive or exciting for them and doesn't incorporate things like seasons or current events. The InquirEd curriculum is terrible for a virtual setting and often needs to be supplemented with more interesting activities. Science is ok but definitely needs something for a virtual setting like Generation Genius accounts for teachers to show students more experiments in class and make it more fun and interactive for them. Shoutout to Nicole from math C&I for getting us ILC this year and helping us navigate through it.

More support when it comes to behaviors that interrupts daily learning.

Dont Know

Pay employees APS market pay.

I chose compensation not for myself, but for the number of NHA grown and experienced teachers who have resigned because public schools can offer them more money. We are losing the opportunity for high quality teachers to grow and nurture green teachers to meet and exceed our expectations.

Hourly workers to get additional PTO for school holidays and snow days.

More time to get things done on the clock.

Build more planning time into the schedule to complete job requirements beyond instruction so that teachers aren't working so many hours outside of school. If this isn't possible, then a careful evaluation of the daily tasks expected of teachers, the amount of time these duties realistically take, and determining which tasks can be removed or completed in a more time-effective manner.

Class sizes are too large. Not actually able to get to each child one on one/small group to impact their needs significantly. Doesn't seem safe either with one adult in the room and approx. 30 children. Too many assessments- no room for administering, grading, reviewing data, implementing tailored lessons to needs before giving the next one. Math- every 3-5 days it seems.

Please provide alternatives to Delta Dental on insurance. A number of local dentists have stopped working with them, including a favorite dentist that we have been using for years.

Market value to to surrounding districts. We are loosing phenomenal staff due to lack of appropriate pay with extreme expectations. No one should have to stay at school till 4pm daily when surrounding districts days are done by 3. The mental health of staff is not taken into consideration.

Trained armed officer(s) on/near campus.

I respect that as a company we are working hard to stay fiscally responsible. I also would like to advocate for the ability to make decisions based on individual employee situations and for the ability to show our teams we appreciate and value them by sending team gifts/swag (within reason). Thank you for considering.

Teachers should be continually compensated for their longevity at Keystone.

It has improved over the last year, however the continued leaks and mildew on the walls and ceiling are a concern.

Teachers are being asked to track students down to complete compliance forms, we are being asked to contact parents of students who have 2+ unexcused absences, annotating 50+ pages of lesson plans to put outside our classroom doors EACH week is extremely time consuming and is another way of micromanaging. All of this on top of the other day to day requirements of a teachers is too much! It wouldn't surprise me to see teachers leave NHA. Public schools don't put this kid of pressure and expectations on teachers. Kids are the same, so why not?!?!

Paid for days not used or roll over... cheaper than a sub and more effective

The Aramark team needs to do better at maintaining our building. Often they are on their cell phones and do not have a sense of urgency. The floors in classrooms are hardly ever swept and we are constantly out of soap and paper towels leaving deans to fill these so our scholars can have them. The main office has not been swept hardly at all by them. My office space has not been swept all year (2 months). Our building is not looking clean and welcoming anymore and often teachers feel the need to take it upon themselves to sweep their own classrooms.

Please consider the pay/ compensation for this position in other school districts.  As an Instructional Coach for a K-8 school, the may different curriculums across those grade levels to support and the amount of work and knowledge it takes for a person to be able to do the job well, should be compensated.

In the past we have had opportunities to collaborate as an intervention and help train new Interventionists. Now we are all in different classrooms and lack the opportunity to collaborate and train to help our team be the best it can through those moments. We don't have wing meetings or staff meeting after school like other teams so what I would propose is a monthly or bi-monthly team meeting during the school day to encourage that collaboration.

Classrooms are not being cleaned as needed. One possible recommendation is to supply teachers with supplies to clean tables and floors.

There continue to be significant disparities in compensation, not only in comparison to comparable positions outside of NHA, but also within the organization from school to school, and position to position. Factors such as time worked in the organization, level of education/degree, licenses/certification/unique skill set should all be considered.

Not only take into consideration the state pay rates, but also the local stipends of each county as we are losing teachers because of these - they get more at the county schools than they do at NHA.

Increase pay

There is too much on our plates at all times. It's unmanageable unless 50-60 hours are worked per week. In order to truly be able to provide High Quality School Support, we should have a maximum of 5 schools to support.

Staff restrooms

Continue to keep up with neighboring school districts.

Increase in salary.

Provide working Laptops for all the scholars in the classrooms.

Reading/grammar curriculum needs more independent practice opportunities for students. There should be reading resources like leveled readers for students below, at, and above grade level. Teachers are using multiple sources to supplement our current curriculum. I’ve been with NHA since we had Reading Street. This old curriculum had everything our current curriculum is lacking.

Make salaries for similar job titles comparable to those of public school districts & commensurate with advanced degrees.

It is the new normal for multiple people on the admin team to send emails and daily text messages after contract hours and on the weekends and holidays which really makes work/life balance impossible.  Unless it is an emergency or related to a school closure, schedule messages for school days like 7am or 4pm.    School would be a safer place without all the furniture making hallways impossible to pass thru and blocking exits.  It looks like we take no pride in our school and allowing that image creates staff and students who don't care about our physical space or what happens in it.

We need more regular cleaning of the whole building. My classroom hasn't been vacuumed in weeks, milk is being splashed on my bulletin board in the hallway, and the bathroom floor is always sticky. It's gross and we need a better process for cleaning the building.

Autonomy is an issue in teaching. What other profession is micromanaged like teaching? I am a good teacher, yet because someone else isn't I'm told what I have to do, and it has to be like everyone else. Why am I (and my students) being punished for someone else's shortcomings?

Experienced teachers who have autonomy are able to bring creativity to lessons, enhance student engagement and boost academic proficiency. When teachers have the autonomy to adjust their methods, they can tailor instruction to meet student's individual needs. Experienced teachers are aware of accountability and will continue to strive above mediocrity and towards excellence. These teachers understand the day-to-day realities of their classrooms better than anyone else, they are aware of developmental stages and can make informed decisions. They understand that it is not a one size fits all approach. Asking us to adopt a system that is successful for a higher grade level may not necessarily work for lower grades. The lower grades simply do not have the background knowledge or foundational skills to handle higher grade level work.

Its excessive and the hours should be reduced.

I love working at GA.  It's a fabulous school, I love our hardworking admin, the teachers and staff, the students and how we teach moral focus and expect great things from each other. I love being on the Energy Bus and staying positive.  So it's great if we try extra hard not to be negative... venting is one thing but complaining is counterproductive.   The only thing is that maybe we can have more days to work in our room and catch up and  that when we go to PD, a lot of times, it's already things that we do/use/teach/utilize.  I would get more out of PD if maybe we had more time to just talk to other NHA teachers to see what their best practices are and collaborate with each other.  I am all about learning and growing as a teacher to do my best and  I see the benefit of PD for sure. I just think there are lots of ways to become a better teacher.

The cleanliness of the building needs to be improved. Aramark is not cleaning things that should be cleaned daily. Compensation needs to be looked at especially since the covid money/bonuses are gone. Finding a way to compensate veteran teachers and Deans. The starting salaries for alt certs are very and they need the most support and do not stay. We should reward people who stay for years.

just get in line financially with the other schools in the neighborhood

The professional development is a waste of time.  It is a one size fits all approach whether a teacher is experienced or not.

Employees should be able to earn more PTO (perhaps 4 hrs per year) for every year of employment. I've been here 10 years and have the same PTO as new employees. There's something not right about that...

This survey does not offer balance when we can select as many positives and only one area to work on. Salary is not equal to peers in other private schools or in public schools who teach the same families. Another issue is cleanliness. Staff must dust and take out the trash and sweep every day even though there is a company that supposedly gets paid to do this. Communication is not good and is usually told within 2 days of a deadline. The OOS tells us what to speak and when to think and does not offer any room for creativity in teaching.

I know resources were ordered for us but I would like hard book copies rather than paper copies for students. Reading Mastery and Corrective Reading Teacher manuals (which i think are ordered)  I would like student books as well.  I know they recommend push in for students but it is difficult with some older students when I am teaching skills that they are far behind in.

The cost of living has increased exponentially, yet our wages have not increased to match the cost of living.  A bonus for meeting goals, or a cost of living increase would be helpful.  One other idea is a school I used to work for had a Hug program.  It was a bonus amount giving salaried employees a bonus amount that was essentially a "hug"...it was not a HUGE amount of money, but it usually helped cover some extra expenses a few times a year.  Times are tough right now.

Pay Aramark employees more

Could someone from John Hancock come into the building to discuss best practices with 401k and provide individual support/guidance?

Hourly employees should be paid for days the building is closed unexpectedly. They should not have to use their PTO time for these days, as they do not choose to take the day off, and they should not need to lose their personal days for them.

none.

Higher hourly rate, or include more bonuses.

At this point, I don't even know. I'm spending an exorbitant amount of time dotted line managing Aramark and the building is still not close to being up to standards. My bathrooms are still broken, the carpets are embarrassingly gross, the gym floor only gets cleaned with I ask, and trash continues to be hit or miss, especially outside and in common areas.

Not all employees are recognized, usually the quite employees go unnotice.

I love that NHA provides such a detailed scope and sequence. It definitely helps with keeping educators on track. That being said I think allowing teachers to incorporate some lessons specific to their class. While still following the overall scope and sequences agenda will help provide teachers some autonomy to teach to their kids.

Diverse Administration Team; Inclusion and Diversity training for the Administration team and staff

Hourly employee's don't get paid snow days.

I would like to have the ability to purchase a curriculum that is outside of my classroom budget. Usually these are a year-long subscription that help immensely with the time I take to lesson plan, and the resources I have to teach. They typically cost between $300 and $500 per year.

Unrealistic-We need more space. For the amount of students Pinnacle brings in PLUS a large population of special education students, teachers need more space to accommodate those needs. We have always made things work at Pinnacle because of the relationships we have with one another. The next step; help our students thrive. Are we truly giving our special population every opportunity to learn in the most conducive environment where space is not an issue or where they are not learning in a hallway? Are we talking with C&I and headquarters to see, legally, what modified classes can be added for ELA and math? I think we can always push to be better. I personally have asked these questions and gave proposals that fall on deaf ears (not Pinnacle leadership). We are a great school, with great educators, and great leadership. We can make it THEE school to be at within the NHA company if we address these concerns and change. Thank you for listening to my TED talk. Sincerely,  Zele :)

To be clear, my "1" responses are in regard to the network as a whole, not my team. My team is incredible, and I couldn't ask for better people to work with. I chose policies and procedures because I've noticed a marked change in how decisions are made at the network level. I understand that we are a business and that profit is the most important thing, but I strongly believe that there is a way to balance business with people. It's obvious that the consequences of certain decisions on the people who had to live with those decisions were not considered. If they were, then they were dismissed. I do not think NHA lives up to its core values.

A safety officer would be good here, we have no security if something serious were to happen.

Not a thing...... I love working at Pembroke Academy. We are a family of dedicated professionals and all want what is best for the scholars that we serve. I love coming to work each day!!

The learning expectations and goals don't align well with the level that our students are currently working at. There is a large gap between the work that we are asking the students to do and what they are currently capable of doing. There are few opportunities to close the gap between what we are teaching and how the students learn. The schedule is very tight and there isn't ample time for students to practice and apply what they are learning because of the fast pace of the curriculum. It is disheartening to see the students struggling with this gap. I believe that is the major contributor to our student's high behavior needs.

Allotted days off per year should be increased to allow for proper work-life balance, mental health, physical health, and various appointments that cannot be made outside of school hours, without it affecting our evaluation. Five days per year is not always sufficient, which can lead to additional stress on staff as we feel expected to come to work despite our mental and physical well-being.

Easier time off when needed during the school year.

In my experience over the years, at times there is a group of people who are somewhat toxic that spread gossip and negativity and are constantly talking about everyone else and how "so and so doesn't do their job", etc.  I just put my head down and do my job, but I feel it sometimes and I've definitely heard it.  This group isn't necessarily teachers so it doesn't always get addressed to them and even if it did, I don't see it changing.

Travel policies seem to be written and enforced without considering what the reality of the job looks like for people who are required to frequently travel. Hours of that the day that they are traveling during. Traveling in and out on weekends.   Policies used to look out for the person in the role. It seems like now the sole driving force behind decision making is cost. I agree we can all do better in protecting the budget, but the shift has been extreme and is even leading to us having to stay in some unsafe areas while traveling in order to stay in compliance.   Another example of no longer valueing the person in the role was in the communication around leadership shifts in C&I, it made it seem like they were pushed out and did not seem to value the impact their work has had on this company and the ways they impacted everyone who had the priveledge of working for/with them. The Interim Math Director's name was spelled incorrectly.

Make salary and pay comparable to teachers beyond the 1st-3rd year.  Pay should be comparable and accessed based on the amount of years and experience as well as performance.

The science curriculum is not meeting state standards. The Thursday meetings for science are not helpful. It is not helping us fill in the gaps from Amplify. The ela curriculum does not do enough to support the vocabulary instruction in students, which will help them with reading and writing.

Students and teachers need MORE time implemented into the daily flow to allow for feedback of completed work. The pace is too fast and students often don't get enough clarity on what they need to improve on. REVIEW TIME IS A MUST!!!!

PARAS NEED TO HAVE WAY MORE PAY IN SALARY. WE NEED TO HAVE THE ABILITY TO BE ABLE TO AFFORD TO LIVE IN An INCREASINGLY EXSPENSIVE SOCIETY. WE NEED TO GET PAID THROUGH THE SUMMER ALL OF OUR HOLIDAYS NEED TO BE PAID. MAYBE OUR POSITIONS AND OR TITLES NEED TO BE CHANGED FOR SOME OF US WHO HAVE EXTENSIVE EXPERIENCE AND AN ASSOCIATEES DEGREE PLUS MORE INCLUDING THE MTTC ELEMENTARY TEACHER TEST. SOME OF US HAVE BEEN HERE FOR ALMOST A DECADE OR MORE OF SERVICE WE HAVE HAD EXTENSIVE TRAINING THINGS YOU CAN'T LEARN AT A BRICK AN MORTAR UNIVERSITY. REAL EXPERIENCE ON THE JOB TRAINING. SOME PARAEDUCATORS NEED TO BE MOVED TO A BETTER POSITION THAT MEETS THEIR EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE ALL OF WHICH DOES NOT REQUIRE ONE TO HAVE TO TAKE OUT MORE LOANS TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL AND HAVE MORE DEBT. YOU ARE GOING TO LOSE A LOT OF GREAT EDUCATORS IF THIS KEEPS HAPPENING AND YOU KEEP HOLDING PEOPLE BACK FROM BEING PROMOTED. I HAVE TRAINED CERTIFIED TEACHERS TO DO THE SAME JOB THAT I AM DOING AS A INTERVENTION PARA. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE

I think we could address our staff shortage by increasing compensation and strengthening support systems. New teachers and interventionists are in desperate need of curriculum training, coaching, and behavior support. Our admin team is extremely busy and difficult to find for O3s and PLCs.  As teachers we are constantly being asked to do more, without the support from admin to make it possible. We need to improve our support systems to help lessen the burden on teachers and strengthen our impact on students. For example, we could use more opportunities to grow as a team by having collaborative wing meetings with a focus on instructional practices, routines and procedures, and classroom management. We should also provide more opportunities for new staff to observe veteran staff and receive coaching from deans.

Increase in wages

 White staff  needs education on black culture. Our students are being robbed by not having a gym. Technology is a disgrace, students are not learning anything. Why do we even have someone who pretends to teach technology when she is not teaching the right curriculum. She is setting our students for failure. it is a shame because the principal knows. Inclusive is allowed, but each students need to be evaluated. Is not fair to other students when having a kid who hits, destructive. The coach needs to create new ideas to make students love the gym, students are bored. New playground it is dangerous for our students. Paraprofessionals teaching the curriculum but not being compensated accordingly. Our school is like a facility for kids with mental issues. Ware not trained to work around this environment, not alone compensated for it. Admin need to engage more with the staff rather than meeting for our 03 and evaluations

Our staff should be compensated in comparison to nearby districts, based on years of experience, and the amount of education received as well as performance.

K-8 classroom teachers need to be paid more.

More practice opportunities for the Math Bridges curriculum.

Higher compensation will help with teacher retention.

The amount of random "busy work" that is given to us is almost unmanageable. The most important thing is what happens directly in the classroom. We are so overloaded with busy work and meetings that we cannot even plan for our actual job. Little things like bulletin boards, extra data meetings, weekly positive phone calls, tracking positive behaviors, commitee work, etc. While all of these are with done with good intention, it is taking away for my actual job.

There needs to be more time for new teachers to be observed, observe others, and have coaching taking place. There are a lot of new teachers and I don't feel that they are necessarily getting the complete support that they need. This could be a result of the administration team being new, and the influx of new students, that there just hasn't seemed to be much progress on these specific adults getting the help that they need. Making observations for them as mentees and their mentors to observe each other would be extremely beneficial moving forward. It also does not seem that O3's or PLC's are taking place yet - another way to collaborate and make sure that teams are working together and on the same page.

I would like to have more technology software options or a better understanding of why certain technology websites have been denied besides a form email. Some of the technologies that have been denied would greatly help our students learn the content and process it better. But we can't prove that if the technology is outright denied before being given a chance. Some of the websites that were blocked and we asked that it was unblock, an email was sent saying a list of ones that were nha approved, however those ones cost more than the ones that were asked to be unblocked.

I wish there were a dual choice type of thing for PD.....one for new teachers and one for more experienced teachers or maybe a survey of what the teachers feel like what we need to be developed in.  As a teacher of 29 years, it is hard to sit in PDs designed for brand new teachers when very little is aimed at me or trying to grow me as a teacher.

NHA has GOT to get it together with compensation. It is crazy to me that this is the lowest one EVERY year, yet NOTHING is being done about it. Public schools have really rose to the economy and it's demands while NHA seems 5 years behind. The way they pour into new teachers and leave their experienced teachers in the dust is recipe for disaster. I know that our admin team has their hands tied as far as compensation goes, but NHA needs to hear our concerns.

The class size is insanely overwhelming, having 30+ students in a classroom and being expected to somehow attend to all of their needs is beyond any of us. The lack of support with severe behaviors has become increasingly worse, not taking time to solve the real issues but just being sent back to class after physically hurting someone yet we "dont tolerate" violence and bullying. Feeling the blame when we feel completely overwhelmed by the increasing load that is put on us. Allowing parents to come in and speak to us in meetings without standing up for us as your employees is heartbreaking. The culture has become pretty rough the last few years and has gone downhill tremendously. Working here has become a place with minimal joy as the workload just piles higher and higher and the daily stresses become worse and worse. As teachers here we are not free to make our own decisions, knowing that this curriculum is far beyond out students depth of knowledge. We do not set them up for success.

The curriculum is so heavily focused on rigor and doing work to the point that it isn't even interesting to teach much less to learn. The students need more than just academics. The school doesn't offer anything else notable.

Allowing for people to flex PTO so that those that may be going through a big life event or health issues do not have to worry about whether they will be paid if they miss extra days.

Please stop making Queen's Grant and Matthews people drive to Greensboro for regionals.  Regionals aren't even that impactful to most teachers, stop putting money into them and taking time away from teachers.  Aramark and our custodial staff do a great job keeping Queen's Grant as clean as they can; but I'm convinced this building and my room is making me sick.  These carpets need to be pulled up and replaced with tile/hard floor.  I'm sure in a 20+ year old building there's mold in the floors, walls, pipes, vents and it's affecting my health. I cough and sneeze more while I'm in my room than anywhere else I spend my time, the dust is out of control; and all the remnants from the color powder are not helping.  The fun run should have been scheduled for a half day.  That was a waste of an instructional day since no one could focus on learning.  The PTI did a great job making it happen, but the implementation into the school day and regular schedule was not handled well at all.

my compensation is not keeping up with the cost-of-living increases experienced in the last few years. This is causing struggle to meet the needs of my family and montly bills. a 3% merit increase doesnt help when benefits go up as well as the cost of living. rebanding of positions should be done and NHA should adjust the compensation of their employees accordingly

I think nha is working on this already and is aware there is an issue so just need to continue to invest in people

talking to staff in a friendly demeanor to help us understand one another. Showing the why behind what we are doing. We need to take into consideration all of the new staff who may not understand things 100%. They need grace and time. We need to help each other out by being 1 team.

The exterior doors of the school have had a problem closing immediately since day ONE.  When staff enter/exit the doors remain cracked until someone sees it and closes it.  This is a BIG safety issue.   The grounds are also constantly in need of mowing and maintenance.  This is the 1st thing families (enrolled/new) and staff see each day.  Lawn should be upkept and presentable at all times.  If the lawn crew has too many schools to service, then get a 2nd crew to divide the workload.  One crew attempting to service 10 + schools, is obviously too much!

Give teachers more authority to adjust lessons based on their students. The schedule is too tight, not enough time to get to everything.

Hold students and families accountable for their harsh treatment of staff and fellow students.

We need a GT program at school. One that allows a teacher to meet with students on ALPs on a regular basis to help ensure progress of plans. We need the same support that IEPs or 504s get.

Make us comparable to districts with similar demographics

There have been many changes in the travel policy which has made school support and travel away from my family much harder. School support has always made me feel valued in my job and drives the impact I feel I have with teachers but with the changes I have been very frustrated specifically around car rentals and mileage. I have felt that the feedback from our team has not been accepted, appreciated, or addressed at my level. Our team is having some changes and there is much uneasiness with what will come next. My manager has done their best to ensure that our team is going to continue to act in the same way but with a new C&I director this is a little stressful. The capacity of our team is stretched very thin for the projects that are expected which puts a lot of pressure on our managing our time and deciding each day what is most important--often having to deprioritize school support or being unprepared for meetings to accomplish all the things.  In the last year, I have felt like our companies priorities w

Curricular tools currently in place do not meet the individual need of most students.

If there is a way to pay people more

Have a curriculum that's aligned with Science common assessment.

In order to attract and retain high performing and high quality staff members to meet our students' needs, compensation should improve.  I work in my school because I care about the underserved community and increased compensation is well deserved here.

Clarity and guidelines  as to how to deal with behaviors within the classroom that impacts  time ,teaching and learning

Better paid maternity leave.

I have been here several years. I feel strongly that my bonus as a returner should not look the same as a first year teacher to this school. Our bonuses should reflect the work we put in and our deans should have some say into what happens with the funds for the bonus. In addition, 2-3% yearly 'raise' is not a true raise. That is the reflection of an increase to accompany the standard cost of living. Again this is another area that should receive attention based off individual work performance, dean input, staff dedication, commitment and student growth. There are a lot of dedicated educators in the field and the pay should reflect!

I think it’s great for everyone to continue to learn and grow.

Louisiana follows instructional minutes per year and not days of instruction. This is why successful school systems around us (Ascension, Livingston, West Feliciana) start a week after us, finish the day before us, have the same holidays we do, and even more (they all have 2 days Fall Break). These districts all use more weather days then we do, without having to change school year calendar. Once in 10 years, the 2016 flood caused 2 of the districts to miss 20 days and they simply added minutes to their day (like 30 minutes - 15 minute earlier start and 15 minute later dismissal) I have also had parents ask why we are open half day on election day this year. (I assume since we are charter we don't have to follow BESE bulletin 741/333.C C.

The copy machines  and printers need repairs.

Those at the top trickle down more to those of us who are "below."  If teachers were paid what attorneys earn, they would be respected to a MUCH greater degree.  We educated those attorneys!

I would like to give specific topics that I would want training in. Regionals was helpful, but unrelated to the content or curriculum specifically to what I would have liked. I want more professional development to include my supervisor to be able to support the curriculum, and assessments specific to my topics. There is lack of knowledge with specific content when it comes to leadership, they should be sitting in on the trainings as well.

Bathrooms are always dirty and overflowing water.  Rooms sometimes are not swept and trash emptied

Leadership has a bad tone with employees and that ultimately affects the culture of the school.

I feel that the Para's should have the same amount of PTO as salary employees

The work - life balance seems to be an issue across the board and for several years in the making.  It feels that we have been given MORE workshops or professional development to learn about work - life balance which in reality just adds more time and things to our plates.  It would be helpful if some items were taken off our to - do list.   Teaching is a demanding job that truly can not be done correctly within the hours of a day (7:30 am - 3:45 pm).  We knew what we signed up for being a teacher and expect to do some things at home/weekends etc.  However, It would be nice if it was appreciated and maybe more supported with items being taken off of our plates vs. new things being added.  We are and have been an A school.  These past few months it has felt that we are not being trusted nor allowed to follow what we have been doing.  I am not sure why we are trying to change what works already.  Just want to be supported and given positive feedback more often!

The principal needs to treat students with disabilities as equals.  She is not understanding at all.

Our current school building was originally designed to accommodate grades K-5. With the expansion to K-8, the facility is no longer able to effectively meet the needs of both students and staff. The limited space impacts classroom functionality, extracurricular programs, and overall student engagement. Addressing this issue is essential to ensure that we provide a conducive learning environment and adequate resources for our growing community. We recommend exploring options for expanding the current infrastructure or identifying alternative solutions to accommodate the increased population.

Leadership - Pinnacle is an overall decent place to work as along as you can keep a balance between work. I've worked at Pinnacle for several years and have seen many different principals  in action. Our principal now is great with communication and adhered to just about all  situations with a positive  solution  that is best for our school.  Manger- Giving a teacher a developing for behaviors without one 0'3, with the teacher is insulating.  Not communicating about when new paras starting ahead of time . Notice of new students  , Whole days for paper work , meeting with Sped during data dig , Title having their own Dean , So Shawna can assist Sped (more than just attending meetings) , Explanations of why certain did or won't happen , when teachers are told "this is what goin to happen" , more high five points , Paraprofessionals should be "managed " by  IS - Paras should have clear expectations of what to do and what NOT to do.  -Pinnacle should expand the school is too small

While teachers may have summers off, I often find myself coming in sick because I'm nervous I don't have enough days to cover.  I believe that we should be also be able to roll a certain amount of hours or days, or at least receive a payout for days we don't use.

Experience should match compensation

I love my school and the people I work with. My manager and leadership team are great, they are always there ready to lend a helping hand or be a listening ear. My only struggle has nothing to do with NHA at a school level, but at a company level. We are putting way too many students in our classrooms, especially a higher number of students that receive special services or have higher behavioral needs. Having smaller class sizes used to be something that made us stand out in comparison to public schools around us, but now that is not the case. Our leadership team and ABSS are working extremely hard to meet these needs and have policies in place to help support teachers, but we just have too many kids in our classes.

My recommendation is solely for the Curriculum and Instruction Team.  Every time they come to observe us, it feels like they are trying to do a "gotcha" moment or trying to "catch" us doing the wrong thing.  It is nerve-wracking every single time.  And on top of that, they are always asking us to change/adjust our schedules to fit in their observation times. It gets our kids off track and gets them confused and antsy.  Yet, in our every day schedule/daily school schedule, we aren't even allocated transition time and aren't allowed to be off by more than a few minutes.  I would love if it could be more of a collaborative experience.  I would like to sit down with the C and I team and learn from them and give and receive feedback.  Especially since every class and group is different, it would be helpful to get their ideas or input on how to differentiate for every learner's needs.  I believe open communication and learning together with a growth mindset is key.

Better medical. Blue Cross Blue Shield is being let go by doctor offices in NY. Even convenient care offices will not take it.

I don't think it is fair to get wrote up if we go over our days if we have a doctors note.  I also don't think its enough day.  Especially if people have kids.  Some people don't have extra support from families so they don't have another option if their kid is sick.

Teacher choice when it comes to re-teaching standards

NHA has done a good job with compensation in the past few years however we are still lacking the competitive pay other districts are offering thus losing great teachers to other larger districts. Our veteran teachers have a choice, with the current teacher shortage, to leave and go elsewhere and make the same if not more in compensation. Hiring new teachers, most of whom are not certified, are coming in making very close to our veteran teacher salaries, does not sit well with the veteran teachers. I also feel in a woman driven field our options for maternity leave are not the best. Only being able to make 67% of our pay for 6-8 weeks is not fair when other large companies offer full pay for the same if not more time off (and NHA is run like a company not a school).

Pay competitive wages to reduce high turnover and adjust for inflation and cost of living. Provide more PTO time.

Bring back the good insurance

Updated small group program for paraprofessionals to do with students. Reading mastery is okay but seems outdated. Does Heggerty have a written program? The oral program is really great.   While I understand the need for FSAs and am thankful comprehension quizzes have been lessened, the expectations on the FSAs are paced very quickly. Students barely get a chance to "learn" some of the content before new content is being tested. Sometimes it feels as though some things are created with the assumption all of these kids have parents that work with them or that they come with ANY schooling background. When in reality, half of our population are ELL students, many have not gone to preschool, and many aren't getting much support at home. I feel like I am doing the best that I can to help my students master some of the content but in my opinion they just need some more time before being expected to name half of the alphabet.

N/A

Prep is short and hard to get done what needs to get done (like grading and lesson planning) since it feels that we waste time with other obligations. This creates a need to finish things at home or on the weekends.

I would like to see compensation provided for staff that elect not to take the benefits.

Provide professional development opportunities and reimbursements for support staff (Speech, Social Workers, OT) for CEUs.

Collaboration is important for teachers to be able to meet and plan together. Explore students outings, and behavior plans. Such as, contacting parents as a team other than at parent teacher conferences (PTC). Check-ins on students' needs, how to better deliver interdisciplinary of lessons for example, art and science bringing art into science that could support STEAM program.

More days off considering COVID being a sickness that you may have to work through. I don't think its safe for the school environment.

salaries

Consider the factors outside of NHA. The compensation is not comparable to other local districts in terms of my role as well as other roles such as related service providers and teachers. In addition, I understand that NHA gives increased based on merit, however, there are still significant discrepancies across schools. The feedback that I receive from providers in my buildings is that the workload is too high, especially for the compensation provided and lack of clearly outlined financial increases. In addition, the fact that we are not part of the Public School Pension is a huge deterrent for myself as well as other employees. We get a lot of very solid applicants from other schools who turn down jobs because of this fact alone.

more technology for lower grades

I struggle to find ways to balance my job and the required meetings I need to attend that are required by NHA. These meetings, although I feel are done with well intentions, don't really resonate or stick with me because of the delivery.   I also feel its a misuse of NHA money that we need to travel across the state, put up in a nice hotel, only to attend a meeting that could have easily been done on Google Meet. I would much rather see that money go to teachers.   I get the most out of Professional Development when I am around my West Michigan cohort. I feel I learn more and find it easier to collaborate. I don't dislike the collaboration that happens at the bigger meetings, but I get more out of the professional developments at my school and within my region.

Offer it.

Mrs. Tansel is SOO out of touch with her staff. She sits in her office everyday with the door closed and does not have an approachable manner. She gives the staff days off of work, yet she sends emails telling the staff when or how they should use their PTO days. Her demeanor is she wants you to do what she says, and totally disregards the stress her staff already have, but it's her way or no way. The K-2 dean is so ineffective in the position, she is not knowledgeable on the curriculum or how K-2 even works. She also sit in the office and ask others to do her job. Our meetings consist of filling out surveys and none on how we can become better teachers or even curriculum. The morale of the entire building is down, the staff is tired, overloaded with behavior in the classrooms, yet the administration just sits and gives orders, but are not in the rooms to help or see what is going on. Mrs. Tansel should not have become the entire school principal, she is not pleasant to work for.

My manager does an excellent job with communication and helping to provide a work life balance. Communication has not been great with other administrators. This has led to a lack of communication regarding grade level changes in August which made me feel very unprepared for the school year. I understand why the change had to take place but no one should find out the day before PD that they teach a new grade  Also, we were told in August the parking lot opened at 7:30am. However, almost every day the gates are closed or the gate on Grandville is closed at 7:30 when I arrive. This cuts down the amount of prep time I have in the morning. If someone could actually open the gate at 7:30 or the gate would automatically open.   The cleanliness w flooring need to be addressed. The brand new flooring in classrooms look disgusting because it has not been cleaned appropriately. It needs to be steam cleaned to get the build up of dirty and flooring glue from the bottom of furniture from the tile.

salary increase, bonuses, high five points etc. Keep the workers that want to stay.

Better raises

Increases wages. Give stipends when tasks exceed normal roles.

I'm not sure if my recommendations would even be heard or make a difference.

Teachers total experience and contribution should be factored into the compensation package. Cost of living should also influence this decision.

Class size. Class size. Class size. I cannot stress enough that more than 25 students is too much for one teacher. It's especially difficult when we are required to be the social worker, the therapist, the doctor, the parents, and the teacher. It's even harder when we have children with explosive behaviors that impede the learning and environment of other students. We have got to find a way to lower the class size so that the kids can benefit.

n/a

Not sure how we can get more money, but look for places to reduce cost. Less print outs, be more intentional of the resources especially the more expensive things. (computers, projectors).

Daily vacuuming and vent cleaning. The some classrooms are dirty, dusty and moldy.

NHA as a whole should be compensating teachers and administrators more. Surrounding districts get paid more and we lose amazing co-workers because of that.

Time off on all holidays school related and better wages increases.

I feel we need a well rounded program to meet students at their reading level inorder to get the growth needed in ELA.

I feel like NHA needs to stop putting all schools in a one size fits all box. We are forced to change things frequently and a lot of times it’s too much but the company doesn’t care and doesn’t offer reasoning or compromise as to why so many changes happen.

Giving time to prepare with examples

1) Our pay is terribly low compared to surrounding districts, the fact I spend a lot of my own money for things in my classroom and I work more than 40 hours per week. 2) NHA is very strict about using their curriculum, even when it might not be best of the kids. We should have te freedom to, following the scope and sequence, stray from the written curriculum and teach our students in a way that we know them best.  3) The number of assessment that NHA requires is absurd.  NHA requires at least one assess. each week, which is typically not developmentally approp. for our kids. These assess. are not developmentally approp. in content or length. The passages in the comp quizzes are too hard for a class where 1/3 of students are in reading inter. or SPED. These quizzes tank their grade in gradebook due to difficuluty level. The comp quizzes take my 3rd graders 60min to complete. The math quizzes take the kids 30-60 minutes and the unit tests take them 60-120 minutes.

I wish our PPO had better coverage.  I have to make tough decisions about my health due to out-of-pocket costs.

The cost of living has drastically increased and yet our pay rate increases are not at the same rate.  When you can work at a fast food restaurant making at least $15 an hour this doesn't seem right.  We are making a huge sacrifice of our time that doesn't fit neatly into a 9-5 day.  I believe it is fair that we can compensate our hourly and salary employees more fairly.

We MUST better support teachers (financially and professionally) if we want to retain them.

More creativity and teachers who are fully licensed.

The expected cleaning in the building is often not done. I see admin changing toilet paper and paper towels, teachers vacuuming their own classroom, and the success coach for K-2 changing trash after breakfast. Cleaning is often a part of the scholars community service projects. If Pathway didn't come together as a family to fix what is clearly a problem then I can't imagine what the state of the building would be.

Staff members need to be paid bonuses/raises that match inflation. We are currently not making enough to support our families.

Curriculum that has better allignment to NYS standards

Our insurance prices are insanely high. Normal teacher salary cannot afford a family of five to be on our health insurance. I am worried about it going up this year and our salary increases not accounting for, or covering for that. This is a lot of stress for me this school year. Inflation is rising and it's scary the price of groceries, insurance, etc. Also with that, bringing retention bonus' back for veteran teachers who want to feel more valued as an employee who tries to do a lot for the school. Thank you!

More staff for cleaning or more hours for workers.  Doesn't seem like they have enough man power through the school day.  They are doing their best <3

I feel the math program does not have enough opportunity for reteaching both previous concepts and newly learned concepts.  The scope and sequence push students to try and learn content without enough practice to be successful.

The general benefits offered are great. The problem in the benefit package is retirement. The match up to 6% is very low. The company provides limited ability to work here for an entire career and then try to retire comfortably. This area needs to be reviewed and revisited. This would help with retention of employees who want to stay and retire from this company.

more implementation

I would like to see NHA provide more curriculum for special education.  I would also like to see NHA provide information that is useful to our daily operation at regional trainings.

I think it would be nice to be compensated if a teacher covers a class for another teacher.

The cirriculum is too stiff and not very child friendly for the youngest learners.

While I feel that overall employees at LCA are fairly compensated, with the ESSER retention bonuses ending, it would be nice to receive a larger merit raise at the end of the year, as the raises the last several years have only really kept up with cost of living.

Have more updated technology

There is no incentive for teachers to perform well. Everyone gets the same regardless of experience, certification, or efficacy. That needs to be addressed if teacher retention is a priority.

I feel that people do not talk to each other . Informed all of us.  People that think they are management but they are not giving orders out or stir thing up.

Pay scale that is comparable with other schools in the area. More days included for sick leave. If  a person has a serious illness/surgery, they should NOT be given a punitive letter in their records.

Would like to see pay increases match inflation rates.

Substitutes now make more money then some other staff who work closely with students

I would recommend one virtual day each week to help teachers with additional planning and mental health. Also scheduling conferences and other events that require longer work days on Friday's for teachers to have time to reset before fully focusing on students. Longer prep and/or lunch times for teachers, more mailbox staff meetings. Also more pto since most teachers are parents with students at differing schools. More late start and/or early release days to help teacher morale.

We should get a bonus every year.

A program that focus on the support staff those that work beside the administration and teachers.

Fix our health insurance!

Lesson Plans can be due on Fridays instead of Thursdays. I feel at times, it could be somewhat overwhelming completing three different sets of lesson plans (ELA-Skills, ELA-Knowledge & Math) for kindergarten. And to have three days to complete them when I am assisting with after-school programs

This year, there was a lot of new things added, with new procedures, new curriculum, new PD with outside steps, new training...that added a lot more time taking to get these new procedures, curriculum, testing, issues with oracle (still)...  I think a manager should walk our day with us to see all the extra time consuming tidbits that are happening daily. If we mention how this year does not feel as focused as last year (or years passed) there is an attitude of "oh well, that's how it is this year."  It's made working here unpleasant this year.

There are too many EdCite assessments that are entirely too difficult. Students are currently finishing up Interim 1's which were torture. C&I should have to come in and administer these tests to see that they are not user friendly and how there are ERRORS in the answers which have me questioning if I know what I'm doing. Instead of constantly making sure we are following the curriculum to a T, C&I could come in and help us prep all the materials needed to teach the curriculum. Speaking of the curriculum, Read Aloud & Shared Reading are boring. Shared Reading is just materials that were borrowed from ReadWorks and Common Lit. Read Aloud books seem like they were purchased in bulk and the books chosen were the ones that cost the least amount of money and then C&I just made the books fit certain reading skills. I think NHA made a huge mistake in creating their own curriculum. I haven’t spoken to one teacher that likes NHA created curriculum.

More/accurate training for any new custodians.

New Chromebooks and laptops are desperately needed.

I love our moral focus program and truly believe that it would do wonders for our students if it was more of a priority. I know that we put time on teacher schedules and ecnourage them to embed virtues into their teaching, but I know from personal experience that these things don't always get priortized due to the pressure and focus on ELA and Math proficiency.  If it can't happen in classroom instruction consistently, I would love to find a way to more heavily embed it in our programs and activities.

I feel that the floors in the classrooms could be cleaned more frequently. The bathrooms could be cleaner on the regular too.

Yearly I have earned a raise, however, benefit cost has gone up yearly as well. The rising cost of benefits has been greater than the raise. Last year I went backward in pay, after my raise, with the rise in benefits. It does not equal out for a true cost of living raise. My family hurts because of this imbalance.

Have Aramark un-retire Mr. Jerry Henderson!!!!

Hourly staff treated equally with salary staff rather than receiving fewer PTO days. Lower premiums, it is especially hard for hourly staff.

Teachers should be paid more.  I have friends that make a considerable amount more than me at other schools. I choose to stay at Laurus because of the culture and partially the established curriculum even though the curriculum here can be a bit much.

Holding scholars and families accountable for disruptive/violent behavior and severe lack of attendance.

Our insurance is terrible.  I am paying huge amounts for things that should be covered. Half the time my medication isn't covered and I have to pay astronomical amounts just to get my PRESCRIBED medicine. My pre-existing doctors are not covered and have been my doctors since I was a child. If I want to go to them I have to pay.  It's next to impossible to meet my deductible so that is working against me. We pay a lot for insurance and it is terrible.

Compensate individuals when they go over and above their everyday work expectations and actual job performance. i.e. when an individual goes above and beyond their current job description to support the students, parents and school.

While we have got to better compensate our school staff in alignment with the school systems in which our schools are located, a greater concern for me is the clear shift of NHA from being an organization that focuses on the people who work here, to one that focuses on a) numbers and dashboards, and b) focuses on families, at the expense of the wellness and compensation of the staff who do so. Good people leave NHA and our schools and they often share (in confidence or in person) that is often due to the shift in culture, even if that’s not what is publicly shared. NHA has got to put its own people first, or they will continue to lose them. It’s lime on an airplane. We cant help scholars and families if we don’t put our own oxygen masks on first. So many new NHA directives seem to be to bypass that and to give all of the oxygen to our students and families, at the expense of ourselves. Please put people first again!

There are not enough experienced staff members, and no available subs.  Every time a para is pulled to sub students suffer.  Also, we continue to accept students who are well below where they should be......and often have behavior issues. (like trashing the bathrooms).   Everyone is trying.....but too often what NHA is expecting is just too much considering the student and staffing issues.

Planning Time... we need more! 40 minutes a day is not enough, especially when a fair amount of these planning periods are spent as meetings of some sort. I realize this isn't a Matthews problem specifically, and that it is an NHA problem, but the question specifically asked about *NHA* and not Matthews, so that's how I'm answering. In addition, it is ridiculous for NHA to expect teachers to drive a 3-hour round trip for training in a post-Covid era, when we've learned that everything can be done virtually. It is a waste of valuable time and financial resources that could be put to much better use in many other ways.

A better math program

This was submitted by Chris Mustard 937-260-6671.  There was not enough room to fit comments here so you may go to the link below for my shared assessment.  Thanks.  https://docs.google.com/document/d/19zlRdMVdJDCIPWRRHojuwdqajAOPkBvQlbd_ud8CCUk/edit?usp=sharing

I enjoy working at Willow, the school has improved. I feel very supported and my dean gives clear expectations and treats everyone like a person not just an employee.

I think it would be better to have resource officers instead of security guards on sight, specifically HS. Law enforcement has more powers. If their is a fight between several students, two older security guards cannot do much, but resource officers carry and can make an arrest.

The fact that our bonuses are part of pay is ridiculous as the ESSER funds are running out and we are making less than we did last year (or at least I am). As the cost of living continues to go up my paycheck is NOT reflecting that. The cotinuous micromanging of NHA is difficult too. As the years go by it keeps getting worse and worse. We are adults and know how to do our jobs and should be trusted to do so. It's hard to feel appreciated or encouraged when we are in atmosphere where it feels like we are being monitored by big brother all the time.

In feel having more recognition in newsletters would be beneficial. Also more acknowledgment of Paras are crucial.

I believe we can make PD's even more beneficial by focusing more on our collective needs and interests as educators.  It’s important to consider the time we spend in long meetings (including mandatory staff meetings) that often don’t directly address our specific challenges or goals. Maximizing the effectiveness of our professional development would not only make better use of our time but also ensure that we leave each session feeling empowered and supported in our teaching practices.  By gathering input from all of us on topics we’re passionate about or areas where we seek improvement, we can create more engaging and impactful sessions that truly benefit our work.  Most importantly, we need to take into consideration the critical time teachers require for preparing classrooms, lessons, and supporting our students. Finding a balance between professional development and and our day-to-day responsibilities will ultimately lead to better outcomes for everyone involved.

Providing cones at crosswalk in the morning. Parents will block the walkway to let their scholars out of the car. This could be bad because we have to either walk in front of or behind the car.

Hiring staff that align to NHA and the work of growing scholars - which is time-consuming the first couple of years. Mindset matters.

Being able to collaborate and work with other teachers that are my same subject area more often would be helpful. During this time I would love to be able to collaborate, plan, a discuss students misconceptions, grows, and glows. I don't want it to be a time where I have to fill out another sheet of paper. I would also like a time where I would get to go watch (Shadow) a teacher in my same subject area doing something I feel like I am struggling with.

I wish administration would give teachers more clear and frequent positive feedback.

I feel like people are scared to give feedback because they are worried about repercussions. This is on the NHA level not the school level.

This company constantly makes it difficult to enjoy the work that I do. Every year I find it more and more difficult to return.

Our school is not as clean as our sister schools in our area. There is a discrepancy in the "suburban" vs "urban" schools.

There are a lot of additional events, outside of school time, where staff is asked to volunteer their time. I'm willing to volunteer and support these events for our students and families, but I feel like people should be required to pick up a certain number of shifts.  I feel like there are never enough people to support events and it's always the same people.

It's that time of year when the sun gets bad coming through the top windows on the south side of the building. Are there plans to cover the rest of the windows with tinting like the one small sample near I&A?

I feel like Aramark needs to raise the raise to get more staff and consistent staff in the schools. This should be top priority.

Resources for Louisiana schools to use that are specific to scaffold or supplement the Guidebooks curriculum.  We have the next step guides, and they are wonderful; however, it would be nice to have a specific resource that we can use that uses vetted tools from our specific state.  For example, if a group is low in a certain skill, teachers would have access to this specific resource that is accepted from our state as a tier 1 curricular tool or tier 2 tool that will still be taught to match our state specific format.

If there is a way to keep the retention bonus, I think that would would keep more consistency with educators.

Professional Development is excessive and shouldn't be so long. Every Monday Riverton teachers are expected to be in the building for 10 hours.

When living in a state the cost more to live in our wage should be higher than those who live in a state that cost less to live in. Instead of making all schools have equal amounts you need to take into consideration where you teachers are living and pay them accordingly.

N/A

Employ more individuals to assume responsibilities—leaders model and praise work-life balance and boundary-making with families.

We need to have vape detectors installed to better monitor students as the vaping is getting worse.

NHA operates in many ways as if it is still a small company. Many teams use spreadsheets for example to manage large workloads. NHA needs to continue to streamline work, find efficiencies, and outsource when applicable so we can continue to focus on the students and staff. This includes implementing policies and procedures so everyone is working in the same direction in a similar fashion so all of our schools get the same support and care and we can seamlessly pass tasks off.

Pay teachers a competitive salary for the work they do and the hours they put in.

Role Clarity from NHA- I love my admin team and they are the reason I am still a Dean. The NHA expectation for a Dean is unrealistic. Schools that have only 3 Deans and some of those Deans have 20+ teachers that they are responsible for. These responsibilities are O3's, PLC's, weekly walkthroughs, observations (pre/post conferences), IEP meetings, behaviors, parents concerns, monthly attrition, new family calls, and any crazy things that pops up. These 3 deans still have the same responsibilities as schools with 4 deans. How is that possible?  We should not be responsible for teaching the curriculum (for multiple grade levels and multiple subjects) to our teachers.  This should be taught at NTS and during regionals. Regionals need to differentiated for new/ineffective teachers and then experienced teachers. New teachers should only be focused on learning how to unpack and plan using the curricular tools, especially with all the requirements of back to school PD we have to do.

The pacing of the lessons isn't always ideal for the student growth.

Every school should have a 5 team leadership model. There should be a DOI at every school. NHA should considered the amount of scholars that need intervention supports AND the amount of IEP caseloads at each school. Also take into account the number of EC and intervention staff at each school. That alone shows the need for a 4th dean at schools that do not have one. The new family program is very time consuming. Schools that have met full enrollment and are keeping the families should not be subjected to more compliance tasks of this magnitude.Data should be reviewed to see if families are leaving due to the nature of the school or due to elements outside of the school's control. The one size fits all approach does not work. Every school should have a separate position for a testing coordinator. That is a full time job on its on and extremely time consuming! The amount of assessments that are required in K-2 is overwhelming and time consuming.It also takes away from instructional time.

More days off to deal with sickness and personal matters

I have been with NHA for 7-8 years now. I am only making a few grand more than new hires. Returning staff salaries are not adjusted for inflation, but new hires' salaries have been.

Increase retirement benefits. Increase 401k match.

There is A LOT that is expected of teachers at NHA and in all other schools and no teacher is adequately compensated for everything that they have to do. The raise I got last year was very small and it made me question whether or not I want to stay here because it didn't even match inflation and rising costs of living. The retention bonuses are now at an end so I hope that my raise is more substantial after this school year because I work so hard. Another idea that NHA could do is to pay us back for PTO that we don't take. If days don't roll over, I feel like I have to take all of them but if I know I'll get paid back for days I don't use, then I probably wouldn't use them all.

Have the ability to schedule EC meetings during contracted hours.

There are so many wonderful teachers at GA.  I wish there was a way I could observe and learn more from my co-workers.

raises that are sustainable above bonuses that end with grant funds

Leadership should try to listen more and try to understand common sense ideas based on situations which may take a teacher away from content specific work and preparation.

Although Scholars is a great place, every year should not feel like the first year of teaching considering that there are staff members that have been experienced for years. In addition, teaching is not a one shoe fits all concept. People should feel that they can disagree without feeling like they are rebelling. Accountability should also be stressed on everyone and not just the teachers. It also feels at times that opportunities for growth are only proposed to those that are favored versus those that are experienced. Despite these issues, Scholars is rich in culture and is a great stepping stone to prepare teachers to teach anywhere.

The medical benefits buckle and dime us to death!!! I pay the premium, the copays, the coinsurance, the surprise billing

The overemphasis on core value #5 is creating the perception that it is more important than the other values and has had a direct impact on my position. Things like the restrictive changes to the travel policy, the use of grant funding to pay specialists' salaries, and completing accounting tasks like expense reports and purchase requisitions make it difficult to do my job on a daily basis.  There is an ever growing disconnect between the business side of operations and the education side of operations. My greatest concern is that the excessive focus placed on money over the past year is causing a downward spiral in morale and adding unnecessary stress to those of us working directly with teaching and learning that wasn't there before.

More information on masters programs and dean programs

Providing top tier employees on a team a 2-3% raise when cost of living is increasing more than that, your top employees are losing money each year.  I am unsure all of the financial components, but if NHA has a pot of money to allow school leaderships to provide yearly bonuses to teachers that are performing at a top tier level, why not provide a similar opportunity for Service Center Teams.  Schools provide retention bonuses, performance bonuses, bonuses tied to student achievement.  Why similar opportunities, outside of student achievement as we are not tied directly to a class of students.  If bonuses are not possible, increase the % raise a person can earn.  In the handbook it states we are paid based on performance.  If the top %raise can't even match the cost of living increase, how is this comparable?    It said one, but I think benefits play into this.  Not officering a PPO option for BCBS anymore does not allow adequate option for health care for individuals or families IMO.

Hourly employees getting paid for snow days or school closures due to power outages,etc. (not on calendar) so we don't have to use PTO.

I know it is hard to pay out the bonuses for retention, but that was a motivating factor in staying.  Also, if our school could have 1 to 1 technology for ALL ages, not just the younger ones, that would be very beneficial

There have been several positions within the building that seem to have been created or filled with specific individuals in mind, which has limited opportunities for others who may have been interested. Some roles were created without being posted, preventing potential applicants from even applying. Also, in instances where positions were posted, interviews appeared to be conducted as a formality, with the preferred candidates already chosen. These practices contribute to a sense of division and decreases morale within the building.  A recommendation, if any, would be to post all open positions and create clear selection criteria for all interested candidates to view and respond to accordingly.

With all the requirements of my job, there is just not enough time to complete everything. Although my manager tries to support, their schedule is already filled. First quarter without a full teacher work day to work in my classroom needing complete grades, field trips, create lesson plans or digest provide lesson plans, communicate to parents, send positive notes, build relationships, etc is impossible. And I shouldn't have to complete this on a weekend. Veterans day being the first day off in the quarter after the year rolls out is not a balance of work and life. I feel like I am drowning in work with no time to cross things off. Even when I finally feel like I got ahead, more tasks come down the pipe. I know what I have to do for this job but I am not given the time to do it.

Salary for 12 month pay for paraprofessionals. It makes living almost impossible.

In the past, NHA has organized valuable events such as Whitecaps games, golf outings, and zoo trips, which allowed employees to build connections and engage with colleagues from different departments. Recently, however, these events have become less frequent, likely due to more restrictive spending policies. While we can still gather with coworkers on our own, this shift has reduced the accessibility and frequency of these bonding opportunities.  I believe that investing in a positive culture through these types of events is important. Simply cutting spending on team-building activities may not lead to a net savings in the long run. A happy, engaged workforce is more motivated and committed, which ultimately benefits the organization as a whole. Finding a balanced approach to financial prudence while supporting events that boost employee morale could enhance overall productivity and workplace satisfaction.

Stop micromanaging us when you haven't been in a classroom in years. Trust that we know what we are doing and not goofing off. We literally got licensed and educated to do this.

We do not have enough human resources (staff) to effectively manage or take care the needs of 3 different buildings. It is unrealistic to think that a dean or principal can manage/ provide support or meet the needs of 3 buildings!

Higher hourly rate

Choose a different math curriculum.

After so many years at Pinnacle, you should have the opportunity to be promoted

I recommend having a tracking sheet that can be checked when cleaning is happening. I feel that sometimes the cleaning staff relies on some of the teachers who always have clean rooms that they do not always complete all cleaning tasks. For example, vacuuming should happen daily and garbage cans should be emptied daily. The bathroom stalls should ALL have toilet tissue and paper towel/soap. Often times there is not. Perhaps allowing teachers access to materials so they can be easily accessed if their class is on a bathroom break and not have to wait on someone to come or leave the class line unattended to use the phone to communicate with the office

I would like to be able to feel like I am contributing to my family financially for all the time and work I put into at school. It's really hard when you know you're "stuck" at a market raise. I am very thankful for the bonuses and times that my principal has gone above and beyond to compensate us.

Match the salaries of surrounding public schools. Make it worth while to obtain a masters degree. Additional stipends for class sizes busting at the seems.

Teachers with the credentials that show commitment to the teaching profession should be compensated more than those who don't. It can be a strong incentive to get teachers back into teaching and the teaching profession.

We would greatly appreciate a resource officer to support the building safety. We have had a number of instances where weapons have been brought into the building and it is extremely concerning that teachers are the ones discovering these items in student backpacks.

Since not many NHA schools have nurses, the one's you do have, should be paid well.  We should be able to choose more than one category.  I feel that Aspire should have security. Not just an officer here for arrival and dismissal, but here all day long.

Benefits can be better. I am constantly getting a bill for my dr appts and bloodwork. I feel like it could cover my medical needs and medications better. Delta Dental needs better coverage. It is hard to find an in network dentist.

I would like NHA to be more like other Detroit public and charter schools the offer 5 sick days and 5 personal days. Also most school sick/ personal days rollover into the next year.

Matching the competitive market for Service Center jobs and Teachers. As well as considering the increases on the cost of living on top of our normal merit increase.

Working with People Services on leaves, benefits, and discipline questions has been much harder that it feels like it should be. It takes too long to get an answer, and often the answer does not actually fit the question. I'm glad I work at the Service Center so I can just walk over there, because that's a lot quicker and more informative than using email.

I feel like there is always too much focus on what areas we need to "grow" in. I do agree there is always always room for improvement and growth, but I also feel like there are area's where a lot of us who have been here many years excel and I feel like that is never recognized from the get go. Long term employees should have areas where their mangers/leaders feel they excel in, however it seems each year the demands are getting greater and near impossible to achieve excellence. It can be wearing on us. I can't speak for everyone, but I know I often spend time working much longer than 2:50 PM and spend time on my weekends getting work done. There is always a huge focus on what we haven't turned in or completed, rather than an appreciation for all the great things we are doing. I just feel like in order to ever get a compliment or recognition for hard work, you have to be told all things you need growth on first. It feels like we are in a thankless job at times.

I believe that NHA provides well written and outlined lessons that would be wonderful to implement within the classroom with some modifications. I believe that in using these lesson plans teachers can then take the time to find other resources instead of putting energy into lengthy lesson plans that we do not use. I believe that having worked at Riverton for a long time, we should be able to provide an outline as to what we are teaching instead of full length lesson plans. I also believe that positive feedback would be appreciated during walkthroughs since they happen so consistently. A lot of times we are told what we need to work on or what we aren't doing properly instead of a positive. Just like our students we need positive reinforcement to feel appreciated and what to go to work on a daily basis.

Aramark is not getting the job done on a daily or weekly basis.

Competitive and transparent pay

Cost of living has gone up and every bonus or raise is taxed heavily and in house or more professional development opportunities (outside) that help me grow as an educator

Teachers need to paid what they are worth. I understand this is difficult for NHA to accomplish. It is just difficult with the price of living going up every time you turn around. It is nice that we have been getting bonuses.

My salary plus bonuses has been comfortable for the past 4 years (since COVID). I am concerned that this year was the final year for the generous bonuses that have made this possible. I am worried that my annual income is about to drop by a significant amount without the bonus income I have received in recent years.

NHA does not expand schools on the West side of the state which limits the opportunities inside the organization for teachers and other staff to grow their careers.  I do believe that there is a lot of room for growth in this area, which would allow NHA to keep a lot of the talent they are helping to develop.

I feel that adding more ABSS and other support staff such as social workers are so needed for our students. I do know that more of these staff are being added as of now. Continuing to maintain and build that support for us and our students will be so beneficial.

I rated NHA's interest in my well-being a 1, reflecting a lack of genuine support for staff. I recommend introducing wellness programs and regular check-ins to show a commitment to staff well-being. Don't hyperfocus so much on PTO when we are sick or really going through something.   I rated my work/life balance a 1 due to frequent meetings that hinder my ability to manage responsibilities. To improve this, I suggest limiting meetings and creating dedicated planning time for teachers.  While I feel empowered in my role (rated 4), I rated growth opportunities a 2. Expanding professional development offerings and creating clear advancement pathways would enhance our skills and support professional growth.

Keep the school more clean and friendly.

The compensation has to be improved. We are constantly losing teachers to higher paying districts. What I hear from admin in public schools is how much they love NHA teachers, because we build up great teachers.  So, let’s pay them enough to stay and not only focusing on new hires. We need to also focus on admin, paras, support staff, and veteran teachers.

1.Lower elementary should be treated like kids, not middle/high school. 2. Expectations should be different among grade levels, ex: elementary shouldn't have the same gradebook expectations as middle school. 3. Joy has completely gone & feels more like an out of control military school. 4. We care too much about little things, ex: scholar/staff dress code, champing it out, I can statements, etc. 5. Class sizes are too big. 6. Expecting staff that has it together to pick up the slack of staff that has no clue, return those people back to the community rather than having them mess up another position. 7. Messaging parents 3/5 days a week is outrageous & whichever person from NHA that came up with this idea, must be a former telemarketer. No parent wants 3 messages a week. Especially parents that have more than 1 scholar attending the school. They block the app because we spam their messages. 8. No autonomy. 9. Papercut is horrible & wastes time. 10. Weekly Monday meetings are aggressive.

I would like more direct model, observation and actionable feedback to support me in growing as an educator.

Pay teachers and paraprofessionals more money

Service Center Staffing - our team isn't able to keep up with the incoming tasks and demands as authorizer and state requirements increase in rigor and/or detail. As a result, our team struggles to ensure schools are adequately supported for related tasks and schools become frustrated at the lack of support. Back office support is crucial to ensuring schools can focus on instruction.

Inflation and Cost of Living raise.

Continue to give raises that beat the annual cost of living increases.

Cost of living raise !

higher pay to compensate for all the extra duties that are expected of us.  Such as after school detention, conferences, Parent Learning Events, etc.

Staff should be compensated for additional responsibilities.

I think culture could be improved if admin would stop tolerating rude/mean behavior of staff members towards other staff members.  I don't mean just a one off where someone had a bad day and is grouchy towards others.  I am talking about when the rudeness becomes habitual towards others in the building.

I choose compensation for many reasons. I have been employed for many years and do not feel I am compensated for the work that I do. I feel other employees are compensated  at a better rate then myself.

Make teacher wages competitive to surrounding schools.  Provide more for retention bonuses.

I believe that my compensation is not up to par with the industry standards

Compensation has gotten much better, but I feel we are still behind public schools and that is how we lose staff.

Allowing a less stressful way for teachers/staff to call off or stay home when they are sick or have family members to care for.  There is a culture of show up no matter what.

Our curriculum across the board does not give students the tools to be successful on tests. It does not hit core standards that are tested and mostly just frustrates our students. The reading curriculum is boring and too difficult for many of these students, which escalates many of our behaviors. The math curriculum(Bridges) just confuses students because it does not give them time to master concepts and does not help them to transfer their knowledge into other areas or situations. Math Stories is better at getting students to master concepts but it does not focus on enough standards and is too easy in many of the grades. Our days are way to rigid and do not allow any time for teachers to help students catch up on what they have missed in past grades.We are asked to be flexible when it benefits admin or higher, but when we need to be flexible for our students, we are not able to. When they are unable to understand a concept, we need to just move on because we have to stay on schedule.

If there was any way to roll over days off up to two per year, that would be great! Seven day of PTO including sick days, seems very few within a school. year. Bumping our PTO to 10 days would be great!

Use staff areas of strength to do PDs instead of pulling in organizations from the outside.

The curriculum should be staircase-like. Students in grades 3, 4, 5, and up should know what the other is doing and build on the previous year's knowledge. Especially in science, there is a gap from 5th grade until the seventh grade.

As a team we need to have more intentional time set aside at team meetings to problem solve and collaborate on upcoming meetings, evals etc. for students (efficient team processing), have more communication about what is happening with students (bsp's, removals, parent concerns etc.) for anyone involved on their team, and just overall have a team culture that is professional, collaborative, open minded to all ideas and solution focused.

Hourly employees should not have to use their PTO to cover snow days or other "Acts of God" that happen on calendar school days.

Our schedule is too tight for 1st graders and is almost too constricted for little ones

I feel the area of culture could improve if more emphasis were placed on increasing morale, provide more flexibility, and enhance autonomy for all employees.

I think everyone should get PTO

1) Maternity leave is unfair. I was not paid during Christmas break last year during maternity leave, despite EVERY single other employee was also home with family. Even my husband got full pay when I was the one who had a baby. Don't take the easy way out and just offer short term disability instead of a real maternity leave.  2) With documentation, bereavement should cover miscarriage for x amount of days. My body was going through a gruesome process while I had to walk around like normal. I couldn't take it unpaid because I could not afford to lose out on money, so I had to just hope I didn't end up "embarrassing" myself.   3) Pay should be more competitive along with the local districts (DPS). Not only that, but they get paid for professional development. So we work more put are paid less.   I truly hope all of this will be taken into account in order to make this "company" one that supports women.

Increase paraprofessional pay as expectations increase!  We are expected to do more and more and we are not compensated for it.  In addition, I am also a licensed teacher and am not compensated for my education and licensure.

Teachers are not receiving the same pay as other teachers in the public school districts. You need to increase our pay so we don't lose high-performing teachers.

Increased pay to match the increase of everyday expenses.

Employ, coach, or develop teachers that have the same vision as NHA and Admin have for the betterment of the school.

Compensation would help teachers to focus more on one job. Many teachers have to work other jobs on the side in order to afford the cost of living.

8 days of PTO seems too little for someone who works throughout the year especially since it includes sick days as well.

I would like to have the opportunity to have part of my pay set aside (each pay) to receive a NHA check over the summer months.

Maybe all staff contribute in small ways to help with cleanliness, such as making sure classroom floors are clear of trash, etc at the end of the school day. And possibly tying the small trash bags from the small trash cans.

none

I feel sick time should be given outside of the PTO days. I also feel that rolling over a limited number of days to the following year, should be allowed for those who have not maximized all their PTO time.

a more modern kitchen

It would be nice if our days accrued from year to year.

I feel the pay is below similar schools.  Teachers with experience do not make more than newer teachers.

As processes have continued to change in Oracle and my day to day, I feel like I have taken a step back professionally. I have gone from brainstorming and developing new projects and ideas to checking every single movement that happens at a school (ex: adding a tutor position, split FTE, etc.) Although this is necessary, I feel like the compensation team has taken a step backward. We did agree on the process for this change during development, to which we agreed upon. However, I don't feel like all teams do the same due diligence in checking work/math, dates, or attention to detail which leaves a heavy load for others. This becomes cumbersome and very frustrating, to which very little has been done to help improve this problem. As I continue to pass projects to others or set them aside, and spend my time approving bell notifications, I find myself a little lost in my role and continuing to brainstorm solutions to improve my day to day to like my job again :(

The fact that NHA is a for-profit company does impact the way they provide compensation to their staff. So I guess give less money to the investors and more to the people doing the hard work of educating students in our current culture. It's definitely gotten harder, not easier, since I started teaching, but compensation hasn't adjusted. Also, I could go work at a local public district and have smaller class sizes with more pay. I love Chandler Woods, but this piece about NHA always frustrates me.

Although I believe that my leadership team considers me a master of my craft, I do not believe that NHA feels the same way. I have issued my concerns about the ELA Curriculum and the actual benefits of such a fast paced curriculum numerous times to no avail. I would agree that this fast paced curriculum would work for some of our schools in some of our areas, but truly - it is not benefiting our children at this pace.

I would like to see more curriculum developed to support Special Education students that remain on one standard for an entire year.

Na

Communication should come in a timely fashion

A pension plan.

We often have visitors come in our building and tell us what needs to be done without the opinion of the staff who works in this building day in and day out. Its belittling to say the least.  Teachers and staff are unhappy with the demands and not being trusted to teach children. We have a high turnover rate because of how intense and invasive the company has become...  In my opinion relationships with staff needs to be revisited or we will be left with no one of value.

Appropriate age books k-2 for read aloud and shared reading

I do not feel there are enough opportunities to lead within NHA unless you are selected to be a content leader. I think PD should be offered at regionals so we can hear from others about things they are doing. We should learn from NHA leaders but also fellow teachers. We aren't robots- we can't all do the same thing the same way and it would be nice to hear strategies from peers in the classrooms.

Students desperately need a SOR aligned phonics program.

The opportunity for growth is not equitably distributed among individuals. It appears that while many strive diligently to enhance their prospects, they are often denied the chance to apply their skills effectively.

I don’t know.

Stop opening schools without understanding how it affects every single department at the Service Center. If you won't add more people to teams that are burning out, then increase the pay.

I think the rugs throughout the building need to be replaced and a ceiling cleaning during the break would cut down on the number of illnesses. Take a look at the above the titles in the ceiling the mites that are up there has my room very ill. I think Lysol spray would help tremendously; I spray my room daily. The lavatories shouldn't smell like urine on Monday morning. Parents make comments about the lack of soap and paper towel. We should do a PD for students how to keep our lavatories cleans and build their sense of pride regarding their school.    I would replace the old copier because the cost-of-service calls and unproductive of it not being about to staple adds to my work balance problem. Every time you turn around these needs replacing or emptying. There should be a way for the technician to fix any problems by running a test and recommend upcoming service and follow up to maintain the efficiency. I'm the person that usually fix it when I can.

Implementing a subject-based collaboration day once each quarter can be a great way to enhance interdisciplinary learning and teamwork. This approach fosters a culture of collaboration and helps teachers see the relevance of their teaching across different grade levels.  Teachers can use this as an opportunity to see how different skills are taught in previous and upcoming grade levels.

More opportunities to seek out other ideas that have been successful at other schools for behavior and socio emotional success for kids

to look at part time employees to receive paid time off.

This curriculum has some really great activities, but it does not scaffold well. There isn't enough progression for learning in a unit or practice problems on the simple topics learned in the lesson.   It was VERY frustrating to find out 1 WEEK before school started that my Advanced Algebra curriculum was changed. The only reason I found out was because my box of books was different. Even my curriculum person didn't know. This isn't how NHA usually works...

Having an after school staff meeting every week. Having an after school staff meeting the same week as an after school event. Papercut is a printer dictatorship. Only certain people get dress coded while others get to stay at work for wearing the same thing, if not worse. Parent engagement is down because we are bombarding them with aggressive amounts of communication. The same standards for older kids is NOT fair to be held for younger kids; behavior & academic. If someone is consistently not doing their job we need to learn to let them go instead of keeping them as a body for filling in the cracks. It is a detriment to staff culture & upsets people who actually do their job. PTO should roll over every year. Life happens for people & NHA needs to have more grace for their staff and families. Admission reps need to stop telling new families that we have "small" class sizes because it is outrageously false. NHA will do whatever it takes to jam as many kids in a class just for a check.

School should be deep cleaned on a regular basis.

We need to be paid and have benefits that are comparable to the other schools in the area. Teacher at South Arbor receive lower pay, get less paid time off and pay more for our health insurance (it is not even good insurance) than other schools in the area.  We continue to loose good teacher to the public schools in our area.  South Arbor is a great place to work and unfortunately people are forced to leave because they are not making enough money and don't have good enough benefits.

Create more opportunities to advance within the organization.

Everyone to be held to the SPS standard of excellence.

None at all.

With as much time and energy that goes into our profession, how short staffed schools are and how reluctant there seems to be for compensation to be addressed significantly, the best solution could be decrease the employee contribution to benefit costs. This will have the same effect as increase compensation but in a way that values the treatment their employees get and the costs associated with that treatment. Thus creating a culture that you'd be lucky to be part of NHA as they take care of their own!

10 days of PTO similar to Detroit Merit Academy instead of 7. I usually get sick 6 days out the year. That only leaves me with 1 day for doctors appointments, emergency etc.   This is very important for work life balance .

We need a better way to keep current employees from leaving, and a better system to cover absent teachers.

5% annual raise for those salaried, school employees who have 5+ years tenure and high performance evaluations; this IN ADDITION TO annual retention bonus.  Reward and RETAIN exemplary employees who are doing the daily work in helping NHA meet organizational goals and want to make NHA their long-term employer.

I think that support staff should be paid for snow days instead of having to use pto. Increase in pay for experienced support staff

Their should be more careful attention paid to the resources and tools given to the none superstar subjects namely math and ELA.   Dean Robert is an amazing part of our team. It does me great pride to see how my leader works diligently to grow after she has grown so much. It makes me proud and want to work harder. I am extremely thankful for her and her work.

It would be nice if NHA compensate their support staff with PTO without having to use it for snow days, or any other school closure. 13 weeks we are not being compensated; which makes it difficult. Especially, when you have to use our PTO to cover school closure's.

Higher yearly raises/bonus once a year.

Every classroom is different; behaviors are different, learning styles are different, background knowledge of students is different. Yet every classroom is expected to be doing the same thing at the same time throughout the day. It takes the joy out of teaching because we are told what to teach, when to teach, HOW to teach, instead of us adjusting our lessons for the diversity of our students.    A recommendation I have is to allow grade level teams to meet once a month to discuss standards and learning outcomes, and find innovative ways to present the material that are unique to our classroom and students.     Another recommendation is not to schedule our day right down to the minute. Children are not robots, and they don't follow a minute by minute structure. There are plenty of variables that teachers deal with on a daily basis, and not meeting timed expectations can cause frustration and burn out.

NHA has very competitive wages for new teachers. Once teachers have experience, they can often make more going to a public school district.  Plus, our local district only goes 4 days a week. That will be a pull for experienced teachers.

National Heritage Academies has not changed their product much since opening. Our competitors are changing their product so they are becoming stronger, more viable options for many. This causes NHA to become harder to sell because our competitors are now doing what we do. We don't have many differentiating features to advertise to families to make them choose us.

We have staff that have expressed that they are terrified of dangerous students, and are scared to come to work.  When a student is violent he should be homeschooled or escorted by a parent at all times.  I do not believe staff should work in fear.

Would like to see "acts of God" not impact my pay as an hourly employee. ( hurricanes, snow, etc)

I belive that students behavior needs more attention

Our health insurance benefits don't cover any part of the IVF process.  Could we explore including coverage for IVF egg retrieval/transfer or even covering some parts of the process (medication, labs, etc)?

Consistency with discipline with the students. For example, students w/IEPs need to be suspended every time when they physically aggressive with any staff member. I agree that they need a little more re-direction & warnings than non IEP students. However, when they get physical, they need to be removed as this is not creating a safe working environment. Also, this could potentially cause other staff members not to return because the issue is not being consistently addressed.

The administration often fails to communicate important information clearly and on time, causing confusion and frustration. Their lack of transparency in decision-making creates disconnection with the school community. Additionally, unprofessional behavior, such as poor staff treatment and dismissiveness towards staff concerns and feedback fosters a hostile and unsupportive atmosphere. When administration is called out on these actions they hide their retaliation as holding people accountable. Administration targets specific individuals, often those who have spoken up or challenged authority, under the claim of maintaining accountability.

Ensuring those who need to listen will listen.

Pay competitively based on the region you live and support.

Communication has been great school wide this year. However, there have been changes in the SPED department that have been made and it was not clear on who should communicate this to teachers. This left teachers feeling blindsided and ostracized from the team decisions. The homeroom teacher's role is to advocate for sped students specific needs so their goals could be met. By just alerting homeroom teachers of the decision last minute this was a one sided communication rather than an open line of communication. Communication going forward will most likely be reactionary versus proactive and open. In the future, I would hope communication is a priority and transparent between departments like the staff social contract listed.

Teacher's need to feel like they have some say over how they teach. When theses ideas and vision are taken from them then the fun and joy of teaching is lost.

Need more  programs to use for the scholars

The cleanliness and conditions of the building are deplorable. A more effective company or collaboration with a different   building would drastically improve survey results in several categories including safety and positive impacts on students.

I believe we should have stricter policies in place, not necessarily metal detectors, but more pronounced safeguard systems, maybe even a security guard present.

The bonus needs to be restructured for different scenarios with enrollment.

I love working at NHA. The resources and support are amazing. I love MB, by far the most effective manager I have worked with. Obviously, compensation is a concern for my team and our organization in general. I wish there was more transparency with compensation and also more clarity as to what NHA is doing to improve compensation behind the scenes.

We spend a lot of time dealing with cleanliness issues that should have already been solved.  We spent time clarifying roles and expectations, required cleaning items at night (posted on every door) and essential basic things (bathrooms, garbages) still get missed consistently enough that it's an issue for folks.

As a company NHA should reward the longevity of people staying.

Our interventionists should not be hourly

I feel like there is so much expected of us at all times. It is so difficult to get everything done that we are required to get done. Work-life balance is very important for burnout, but the expectations of us are so high that it is a struggle to meet them.

Get a better writing curriculum.

There has been an influx of requirements for teachers to appease parents. Although I understand that families are our top priority, it seems as though these are things to make management look good causing work-life balance to be less attainable.

Our teachers have a strong drive and desire to succeed, but sometimes their skill doesn't match their will. We would benefit from more practical PD in behavior management and curriculum. We are utilizing the coaching cycle, but teachers would appreciate more in depth information on and practice with curriculum; especially how to effectively differentiate/action plan with the multitude of resources provided.

N/a

more flexibility on lesson plans

Adequate time for planning, grading, and keeping up with paperwork. <2 hours a week is not sufficient to do this well.

This school year has felt more MICROMANAGED than any of the previous 7 years I have worked at NHA/Forsyth. The constant feeling of being watched, checked up on, having walkthroughs to make sure I am "checking the boxes" has been extremely stressful and exhausting in addition to the work that I already do as a teacher. The "one-size-fits-all" approach that we are taking does not allow for teacher autonomy in the way that I am expected to set up my classroom, whiteboard, CHAMPS, lesson planning submission, achievement boards, etc. It feels like there is NO APPRECIATION and/or DIFFERENTIATION for staff members as we are all being treated like beginning teachers despite data demonstrating proficiency, classroom management, experience, and education.

Pay based on years in teaching, education and working in an urban setting.

I believe great things are happening at Willow. The leadership team collaborates to ensure teachers receive the support and development they need. We all share a commitment to our mission of nurturing and developing our scholars and educators. I appreciate Principal Dom for her support of both teachers and students. She is a great manager, and I am grateful for her dedication and encouragement.

Increase salary scales

I know in the past we did the mosaic program, but it was for the most part virtually. One thing that I think really needs to happen, for the staff, is have one large facilitated rumble. To many staff members are carrying negative attitudes, feelings, misconceptions about other hallways, staff members and admin... and for the most part those feelings are misplaced because they are based on assumptions, however, their has been observable behavior that has negatively impacted staff members. These frustrations need to be actually dealt with so the school can move forward as a whole. Presently, we are discombobulated and that impacts our forward progress.

Yearly raises and bonuses

Establish communication and balance among the roles. As C&I, we wear many hats and not only report to our managers but also "report" to our DSQs. We are often used as "yes men" or fillers. Clarity around what the role does and does not do is needed. Due to the size of our teams and the workload, work-life balance is difficult. I do think it would be beneficial to hire more people, or to provide some differentiation within the team so that people are able to specialize and focus in their area instead of having so many full plates it isn't easy to balance and find success in any of the areas.

Working towards changing the way our scope and sequence work for all schools. It makes it hard to follow when we have different days off.

As a SPED teacher, I would like to have more tangible curriculum materials and I wish we didn’t spend so much time preparing for testing specifically regarding ELA…my students need corrective reading, grammar, and more basic writing skills so they are able to write complex essays that the guidebooks require…

Increase base pay to reflect years of experience and education, create a fair step system so that employees know what they should be and will be making each year, increase overall base pay to remain competitive with area schools, continue providing bonuses, provide stipends for after school staff meetings, conferences and other mandatory school events that occur after normal school hours.

Additional training and support for staff on intervention materials

Provide buildings with all job descriptions instead of the snapshot written/posted for advertising.

I think there should be more opportunities for staff to receive bonuses. I do not think this should just apply to management level and up employees. I think this would help the culture especially for the employees that are working hard but are not in a management role.

N/A

Being financially responsible and cost conscious is important, but taking such a harsh turn in policy has negative effects on culture.  Small things like taking an employee out to lunch for service anniversary or small team building events can have a significant impact on employee engagement.  Taking those practices away suddenly sends a negative message and causes unnecessary concern from team members.  Those basics can actually reduce the overall cost of labor because people are less likely to look elsewhere when they have a strong bond to their team.

I understand restrictions due to having to go through a process when the student is special education, however, I don't feel 100% safe when a student who has assulted both other students and adults is allowed to return into the school over and over again. I don't think it takes the safety of teachers or others students into account.

It would be great to align our compensation to our neighboring school districts (APS and Cobb County)

I do not know at this time, although I am constantly trying to think of ways

10 hour work days Monday-Thursday.

I would recommend having multiple building substitute teachers at the school. This way, other staff won't have to fill in.

Pay competitively, especially considering inflation and the housing crisis.

Maybe a monthly survey to see what we think about how things are going around campus

Compensation does not match cost of living. Makes it hard to live comfortably. It also makes it hard to reward students as many educators use their own money to purchase incentives(candy or treats) or items students need.

The Elmo's and the printers are outdated/do not work

Incentives to hire have been offered, as have one time bonuses, but salaries are still not comparable to local districts.  New and veteran staff members still are paid at a rate dramatically less then neighboring community districts.  We just want fair compensation for our education, certification status, and time spent teaching.

NHA is behind in keeping up with pay for their employees.

Vote red?

Recommendation regarding work-life balance: Service center directors/managers over roles such as OA, Registrar, Principal spending a day with these staff members to see what these roles look like at a K-12 building to help support with balancing and the responsibilities of the role and the day-to-day "traffic" of the K-12 building.

Management includes on weekly newsletters that if there are questions or concerns to feel free to reach out, but when I do, there is no response. It's too personal and petty. When concerns arise I have tried to communicate and my concerns are not valuable enough to even get a response.  Communication, Fairness, and Accountability to benefit the students we service. It  should not matter if I am your friend or not. Be fair to/with everyone.   Personal, Personal, Personal

The lack of autonomy to make decisions for the class I serve that is aligned with the NHA scope and sequence. The lack of communication from manager.  Lack of O3's  and support from  manager would help.

NHA needs to pay teachers, interventionists, office staff, paras, etc., more so that we have a fighting chance of keeping good teachers and attracting effective teachers to apply for open spots.

I would eventually like to move forward from the classroom. This is my 8th year at North Dayton and I have not been invited to Dean academy or asked to be a content leader, etc. I have a masters degree, 12 years in education and strong content and curriculum knowledge in science. I understand my limited experience teaching a tested grade may impact my consideration for advancement, but hope that I can advance within NHA, as I am committed to North Dayton and NHA as a whole and have been for nearly a decade.

For years, the primary focus has been on Math and English Language Arts (ELA). However, it’s essential to place greater emphasis on all core subjects. Many students struggle with reading, highlighting the need for a more comprehensive reading program throughout the school.  Additionally, the Math curriculum requires improvement, particularly for the grades that are preparing for standardized tests. There are significant deficiencies in the current Math program that must be addressed to better support our students' success.

More support and coaching from the leadership team.

Recognize the value, expertise, innovation, and track record that people demonstrate rather than putting such a strong emphasis on the number of direct reports.

I was surprised when my laptop had to be returned this year.  It would have been beneficial to me to have a heads up that I would need to purchase a laptop, or not have one this school year.

As of October 1, 2024, the average salary for an assistant principal in Greensboro, North Carolina is $74,073 per year. The majority of assistant principals in Greensboro make between $66,900 and $95,400. My current salary is $64,929.04. I am thankful for all of the stipends/bonuses throughout last year and school year, but those ESSER have run dry, so hopefully retention bonuses will still be provided. #FingersCrossed #WeLoveDrBrown #SheIsTheBest #SheIsTheGOAT

The getaway/meditation room would be awesome if we could get that back for when folks need to take a breath. There was a short time when it was stocked with drinks and candy bars with a mini fridge. I don’t know if there’s space for it or no… but if it were to happen, perhaps PTA would sponsor it. They spoke of providing breakfast sandwiches at one point. Sometimes it’s just the little things like that that give a little balance.

I recommend increasing the specialists' salaries to make them more competitive within the market. Additionally, implementing merit-based bonuses would incentivize high performance, recognizing and rewarding specialists who demonstrate exceptional work and commitment.

I have no improvements what so ever about my job. I love my School??  Dean Solite is like no other. He gives me opportunities to grow as a teacher and even a leader. I love that he pushes me to be more than I see in myself.

The pool for raises was better last year, but I hope that continues into coming years.  It feels like we're always on the edge of losing core people and I worry that if the compensation gap grows too much, the "soft" factors (team, purpose, etc.) will not be enough to keep them.

I suggest reinstating the practice of cleaning the office twice a day, as was done previously. Furthermore, it is important to ensure that outdoor trash is collected daily, and that desks are wiped down and floors are thoroughly cleaned each day, rather than just spot mopped. I also recommend that Aramark take on the responsibility for event setup and breakdown.

After the loss of ESSER funds, we are worried about not getting the "bonus" that we have gotten the past few years in coming years. This will greatly effect my family. Our raises do not match the increase in cost of living.

We need to hire a better cleaning business Or hire more cleaners to truly clean our rooms. We should not have to be scrubbing our own floors and toilets.

We are still not very comparable pay/benefit wise to other area districts, especially for teachers who are actually certified and have years of experience. This is really becoming an issue for those of us that see new, uncertified, unexperienced individuals coming in and being offered jobs at a high pay rate, simply because we're desperate for staff!

ELA curriculum could use some improvement. It's rather boring and not relevant to our children.

different plan that is not so much out of pocket for visits/care

A specific curriculum, or a bought resource for everyone to use. Resources that would benefit all tiers of our students, and that all teachers could use.  Sometimes it's hard to find a good research based resource to use to help some of our struggling students.

Continued retention bonuses would be ideal.

Adjust scope and sequence to account for more flex days - school schedule/testing makes staying on track difficult.

NHA still works adamantly against the support of LGBTQ+ students and staff. This is a matter of mental health. Which is an epidemic in our country. Doing the opposite to support student and staff only fuels this struggle in the wrong direction.   Another side note: I do not have a problem with the important areas in which we are given training. It is however absolutely ridiculous how many different locations we have to access these trainings. It should all be on one platform. Most of us can’t even figure out the unhoused family training.

More competitive wage, and more promotion opportunities.

Student bathrooms need updating and deep cleaning. For example, locks on all doors and working paper towel dispensers.  The stench of the bathrooms seep into the hallway.

The longer you stay with the company the more days you should have off.

Recognize ABSS added roles and dedication down their hallway with hands-on assisting teachers. Can pay be considered to match everyday task......

The stipends have been the same over the years. Due to inflation I believe they should all be increased to some degree.

I feel like we need to be making sure that all wings are being held to the same expectations as the others. We are running into the problem of kids moving from one wing to another and many behavior issues are occurring. Teachers are then having to deal with said behavior issues and aren't able to focus on teaching and therefore are falling behind. We are also dealing with parents then coming to us and saying "well in their other wing this wasn't a expectation.

It'll be nice to get paid during the days when there is no school, like winter breaks and spring break. A pay raise that is meaningful because Paras work just has hard as the teachers, and we are definitely underpaid.

When considering administrative advancements, I feel more attention and involvement should be given to staff that have maintained longevity, dedication, and professionalism.

More emphasis placed on other areas apart from academics.

Increase the percentage of employee raises.

I believe that more efficient use of student per pupil funding would allow for higher salaries for the people who work directly with students on a daily basis. The overhead required to pay the rapidly growing staff at the service center is likely out of proportion to salaries at the schools. Salaries of teachers, paraprofessionals and maintenance staff should increase and cost saving measures should be employed regarding our student information system and curriculum departments.

Teachers are not paid their value, have been told by other districts that we are “grossly underpaid”.  We should have more PTO.  When a teacher loses a spouse and others offer to share PTO it should be allowed.  The class size is WAY too big.

I feel that your teachers that have been here are getting more responsibilities with less pay. We have so many new people and we are expected to show them how everything done; during plan time and after school. If we are doing the work of many, we should be compensated for it.

There is a pressing concern regarding the need for more planning time. The teachers who are responsible for teaching the actual curriculum and working in special education in the middle school are facing an especially challenging workload. Not only do they need to plan and prepare their lessons, but they also have the added responsibilities of copying, printing, grading, and maintaining records in accordance with NHA's expectations.  For the middle school special education teachers, the workload is even more demanding, as they are essentially doing the work of two jobs in the time allotted for one. This level of stress often requires them to work evenings and at home, on top of the already substantial tasks they complete during the school day. More time to plan would be tremendously beneficial. By allocating additional planning time, we can ensure that our educators are better equipped to deliver high-quality instruction and support for all of our students with the data we collect.

Metal detectors.   Move the copy machine out of the parent room if there are going to be so many meetings held in there.

Ability to use outside resources to supplement  the curriculum to address gaps in learning for students.

None

Continued bonuses and increases. Teachers showing growth, showing up everyday, doing the work should be compensated for the efforts.

Drop Read Aloud and Shared Reading and purchase a real curriculum that will service our students better in reading. Math is outpacing Reading, and it is because NHA purchased a real curriculum for math.

To have great benefits at a little less cost. most of the checks seem to go to benefits instead of us.

I selected support to be improved because I think brand new teachers who have not had any previous experience should have more support and mentoring on a very regular basis.  If you hire new teachers then you should have staff to support them with classroom management strategies and check in a daily basis. We do have many great mentors but no one is able to support as much as needed because of their other full time responsibilities.  I also selected BENEFITS because as support staff being asked to substitute regularly, I think we should be paid above our regular pay because we are put into a role that does have a higher pay scale but not able to be paid above what we have earned and accumulated over the several years at NHA.  This may be above for some but for me it is not above my earnings rate.  I would appreciate it if someone who knows my earnings and also knows the sub pay rate could investigate to see how we can change that.

South Canton Scholars should fully commit to either being a K-8 school or a K-5 school. With students being encouraged to go to Canton Prep for 7th/8th grade, there is not a good way to plan and prepare for each upcoming school year. This leads to fluctuations in class sizes and continuous changes in roles for staff. These changes in roles cause teachers to teach unfamiliar content and reduces the teachers’ ability to teach curriculum with fidelity. Moving teachers to unfamiliar content areas does a disservice to both the teachers and the students, which causes South Canton to no longer be “the best choice for parents and students.” With no clear plan on where students will be year to year, there can never be a clear plan stating that teachers will teach the area in which they have been certified. This defeats the point in taking a state test for a specific content area.

To continue with market raises to increase salaries for those with many years of teaching experience and to make salaries comparable to other school districts in the area.

I think a greater investment in materials and technology could boost the productivity of teachers, such as better printers, subscriptions to more online tools, and classroom devices. I also believe there should be a greater budget for after-school extra-carriculars. I know that I would be happy to give my time to moderate a club if I could be fairly compensated, as I believe these types of students group can greatly benefit the social well-being of the scholars.

Reevaluate the compensation to align with all the tasks and duties that we are signed daily.

Teachers get observed and get notes of encouragement/ improvements but in my position(para) we don't get that: no notes, no feedback except once a trimester or once a year with principal.

Compensation in pay that fits the responsibilities, not the title. Teachers receive higher compensation, yet a lot of them (not all) does not take ownership of their classroom and has poor  classroom management

Stronger benefits for members with children on their plan

Manager needs more sensitivity and interpersonal skills training.

Pay the people more who do their job effectively and get rid of the ones who are not doing anything.

We never received information about the extra money NHA received after the pandemic. I Also believe that Teachers should be paid much more than what we are receiving. I would like a revolution in compensation where Teachers pay checks including mines increase dramatically and less deductions from our paycheck. Sometimes it does not add up I receive a increase and the paychecks looks the same. we should receive a 25-30% increase each year.

Compensate employees who are doing extra work above their paid role, ex. Paras who are being pulled to sub especially in long term situations should be compensated for all the extra work that that specific job entails. Any para who is pulled to sub is not just helping out, but also taking over an extremely difficult job and it is very often not what they signed up to do, or ends up being a very difficult day and is worth more than $18.

Compensation for education gained while working at NHA at all levels, looking at the amount of travel employees have and making sure they are not in hardship, and giving compensation and salary increases based on inflation. I feel that NHA made promises to people when they were hired to travel and then changed the policy after a few years in.  This places people in hardship who may have made different choices when considering this job.

There needs to be more clarity as new processes role out, so that we aren't waiting several years to find out that we weren't implementing the material properly.

Please vacuume  our rooms daily because this would cause less allergens in our classrooms.  Please  shampoo when there is a spill  because when left it causes the floor to stink.

Retention Payments

I really liked the NTS Methods to introduce role expectations.  More may be needed as things change.

I think improvement in communication needs to improve. My role at Stambaugh is not all back and white. I am told one think through my dean and another thing totally different from my principal.

Need more support for ABSS and teachers  Communication from management needs to be timely and accurate.  Pulling intervention staff from their role makes it challenging for teachers to successfully teach small groups. Don’t pull from 9-10:30am.  Smaller class sizes.

Instead of adding more tasks find a way to take off tasks or allow more planning time to get things done.

It is not helpful when Chris assists with Cherwell if she is only going to assign tickets. Taking a Cherwell shift should be supporting the coverage and closing out tickets. It is discouraging to have people say our director does not back up our team.

More opportunities to increase salary advancement would be greatly apricated.

NHA doing raises based on performance?

Allow budget for professional development opportunities.

More days off to help care for sick loved ones or have mental health days

Pay increase should be more per education, experience, and education.

Pay employees like public school employees

It needs to be given at different levels of seniority. For example if you have been here 1-5 years get the 7 days off, if you have been here 5-8 years, you get 8 days etc. Another way for teachers to stay with NHA longer and feel like their work is being recognized.

Experienced staff should be compensated at least the same, if not more, than new hires.  Also, this survey needs more specific comment sections to elaborate on ratings.   Since grant funded employees are not included in staff meetings and such, there should be time set aside once a month to collaborate as a team. Growth and learning happen when teams can get together to build culture, relationships, and professional development.  In addition, when leadership and others visit schools for observations, it should not change the entire schedule within a classroom. Consistency is something we strive for. Having to rearrange our entire day for a short observation disrupts behavior for scholars who thrive with routine and in turn affects the learning environment.  Co teachers need time the first days of a new school year to meet, train, develop, organize, and prepare for our roles in the school year. Not having the same summer work days and PD as other staff allows us no time to be prepared.

More Opportunities for teachers to receive bonuses or be compensated for extra work teachers are doing.

Provide PD that will actually be applied in our day to day structure for support staff.

Workload. I wear so many hats that it is difficult to balance everything. I want to do my job well, however, I am getting burnt out already this school year when trying to do everything up to standard. Not having the necessary staff on my team puts more responsibilities on me and my teammates. These added responsibilities did not come with recognition or additional compensation.

Creating more opportunities to show appreciation for teachers in meaningful ways.

clear communication on differences or disagreements. Assuming best intention unless proven otherwise and cutting out highschool gossip and racial profiling of coworkers and parents.

In regards to PTO, I think we should aim to become competitive with the organizations our size around us in the area. I think we could get better candidates and retain more people across the Service Center because work life balance is more important to the younger generations.

I feel that my school acts in the students and teachers best interest most of the time. However, in instances where decisions are made by higher-up leaders that are clearly motivated by money rather than the good of the students' education, I find it hard to see how NHA is living up to its core values. When a students' education is negatively impacted by a decision made by someone who has never set foot in the classroom they are impacting, both the students and teachers suffer. If a teacher communicates a problem, I expect NHA to listen and try to accommodate to the best of their ability.

N/A

My principal does an amazing job empowering the deans to lead their teams and operate in their strengths. She is always willing to provide support when needed, creating an environment where everyone can thrive. She never hesitates to take on any role expected by staff—whether it’s the responsibilities of a principal or helping out like a custodian. Additionally, she is always there to support our scholars, both in school and at all after-school events, including weekends and sporting events.

Compensate employees better, increase wages

I feel that the Service Center doesn't feel as upbeat or positive as it used to, maybe missing a sense of direction. It would be helpful to have more knowledge even at the manager level where NHA is headed in the next 5 years with some details for each department.  My leader has been supportive and shares what they can when they can, which is greatly appreciated.

I feel that instructional coaches should be paid better. I am a manager, and getting paid like a teacher is unfair.

I accidently clicked Advancement Opportunity.  I, Danni Sanders, should have clicked compensation. Unlike previous years I would like to thank Principal Metria Washington for taking strides to address this concern not just with words but with action.  I think that she has put forth great effort to address this concern and make me feel heard. She is doing an amazing job.

Give teachers more time off so they can return to work feeling recharged. Increase pay for subs so that paraprofessionals don't always have to cover teacher absences.

We need to improve the ability to hire and retain highly qualified teachers in every role at Quest, so that the role that you are hired into is the role that get to focus all of your energy and drive and determination on providing the best education environment for students.  Right now, that is not always possible because we are losing so many staff members and there is so much subbing going on.  If this would be achieved through improved compensation, then NHA as a company needs to explore that.

#NAME?

Compensation: Increase pay

More detailed and role specific professional development. Opportunities to attend classes or training outside of NHAs normal training if it can be applied to a job role or duty.

Increase wages.

NHA does not consider those that have been working for the company when they make changes to pay for those that come in new to the building. Teachers coming in make more than most teachers that have been here for years. It works the same way for many position within NHA. There should be an adjustment to those that have been here for years to close the gap of the new hires that ocme in making more.

Consistent cleaning of all common areas. Repairs made in a timely manner, more care taken when repairs are made to not create other damage.

It's disappointing that there is an entire "innovation" development team that is not reporting up through IT leadership and is not held to the same standards and quality as other teams that are actually in the IT department. And because the leader of the "innovation" team reports directly to the company President - not IT, other teams and opinions are not considered or heard - we seemingly just have to buckle up, play nice, and do the [right] work for others. It's exhausting and I feel like there are going to be a lot of regrets from the E-team.

I believe my compensation as part of the ABSS team is under market-value.

Offer a retention bonus for staff that stay with the company. NHA sends out emails offering bonuses to staff that have left to get them to come back, but what about the loyal staff that stay year after year? Or try paying staff that stay a comparable wage. There's new hires hired in making just as much if not more than teachers that have been teaching for 10 plus years.

A good start would be to give all teachers a 20-30% increase.  Teachers have one of the most important jobs and are the most underappreciated.

Communication between departments and teams could be strengthened to improve performance company wide

To be fair and equitable when distributing bonuses and yearly compensation increases.

Get paid for holidays for part time workers.

Please consider abridging writing lessons for kindergarten. The introduction grammar concepts is to early when students should have more focus dedicated to learning how to print letters. Some grammar concepts should be saved for 1st grade

To be fairly paid.  I've been at Windermere for almost 7 years and have only had a little over$2 pay increase.  It hurts to hear people starting new jobs at Krogers, Dollar General,  Taco bell ect. starting at $12 - $16 an hour. Last year I looked up the average pay in Michigan with the same job title . Average starting pay was $14 - $16. I'm not even making $13 after 7 years.  I don't feel valued, appreciated or cared about.  My mom retired from krogers in April and was making almost $17 / hour stocking shelves. Also received bonuses.  To much understanding there are other co-workers of mine that are greatly under paid. One core value is do the right thing always. This should be followed by everyone.

An increase in pay

Higher compensation (A livable wage) and role clarity need improvements. We need a better system for making sure everyone is in the loop and knows which students they are serving on both their case manager caseload and standard caseload. Since more than one case manager helps to service high school students. This is so no students are missed. Or since there are so many high school sped students, we may need to hire another sped teacher if possible. At one point I was servicing 41 students and I knOw other sped teachers that were also servicing similarly high numbers of students.

Diversify hiring to promote a larger diversity amongst employees who work at the Service Center. Having a diverse employee population allows for a variety of experiences and ideas being brought to the table.

I feel as though NHA needs to improve their compensation for their staff members; especially staff that is fully certified. The pay should align with what teachers in the residing county make.   Also, it would be incredibly helpful to the Kindergarten team and all Administration if we could hire a teachers assistant to aid in Kindergarten. This is something that has been asked for years and I have always put this on GLINT surveys. It would be so helpful!  THANK YOU!! :)

This year my manager is new to NHA. My recommendation for improvement would be to have more opportunities for my manager or anyone new to NHA to be trained and introduced to all things NHA. My manager is unsure of how a lot of things operate when it comes to curriculum, schedules, programs we use, etc. I think it would have been better for her to learn these things before hand instead of learning them in the moment.  Another thing I think could use improvement is the appreciation for staff, especially those who have been here a long time and/or have stayed. Our school has had a lot of turnover this year and last year between staff, leadership and students, and I think it would be appreciated by the staff that has stayed and pushed through some tough times if they got compensated for their commitment to BECS.

I just don't feel that my role is being utilized the way that it should due to many factors.

Growing opportunities for our students regarding music, drama, language, engineering, creative writing, etc.

Offer better coverage health insurance plans as a choice. Not so much out of pocket for employees. I know you recently removed the premier plan. Was it not being used? I know you offer an HSA which is great, but it wouldn't take much medical needs to use that up given the high employee payout.

Continue building avenues for classroom intervention blocks.

At times I feel like everyone is on their own wavelength for communication. Some staff rarely communicate or respond to emails. Even outside of emails, documents are placed in mailboxes and staff are not retrieving them. And then ask why they were never notified when they were multiple times about the matter.

Technology training for staff.

More and more is expected of us in regards to planning, resources, preparation, but the time we have for planning is often taken away for meetings, the principal suggested taking away the specials / planning time and told us we'll need to just work through lunch.  Recess is taken away as a behavior consequence, and that only escalates the restlessness of the students, leading to more distractive behavior.

There is on going rodent problem that needs to be address

N/A: There are no areas I feel need to be addressed.

Compensation could improve based on area public schools pay scale

Continue the retention bonus and provide a payscale table, based on experience and student growth.

Teacher work days without agenda or conferences to help teachers catch up so that we do not have to take time out of our lives to do the same.

NHA did a great job at keeping veteran teachers with good raises this past year so I hope that it continues!

My role requires a lot for one person. It is hard to know what the priorities are and how to balance everything. I don't feel that our school is provided all of the support that other NHA schools have because of our lack of grant funding (no school ABA or deans of intervention). There are 3 administrators trying to do the work of many.

Compensation for teachers with class sizes over 30-35. Paraprofessionals in specials classes. Behavior support for teachers

More opportunities for bonuses, stipends, raises...

Compensation more closely tied to performance and professionalism

Additional teacher support/staffing

Increase in pay to account for increased cost of living and inflation for administrators.

Improvements to maintenance and requests getting fulfilled and communicated. We want to showcase the four seasons in our environment.

Clarity about why so many directors and executive directors have quit or retired in the last 6 months. It feels like there has been a mass exodus and it makes me concerned that they 'know something we don't' and are leaving as a result.

Paraprofessionals should be paid a better wage in order to entice them to stay within NHA.

I believe 8 days PTO is not enough. Teachers are stressed to leave a day when not feeling well and feel pressured to stay in case something worse comes along that they need to use a day for. I believe these days should also roll into the next year. When teachers have children, it’s even harder to stay within the 8 day limit for appointments, sickness, etc. I also believe men working with NHA should get some kind of paternity leave and that the mothers should get more, that way they can save FMLA for sick days with their child if they run out of PTO days. I believe that with all the planning that goes into going out for maternity leave, and the added stress while being pregnant, that we should get more than 66% while on leave. It’s very hard to start/have a family within NHA’s time off guidelines. No woman should feel added pressure from their workplace when considering a family.

This year has had a very difficult start. Talking to my leadership team felt like talking to a wall. There were several situations where we were being told what to do without asking us, who are involved and directly affected, for any input. There was no sense of collaboration at all, and when it was attempted, it felt like we were shut out of the conversation.  Also, I genuinely recommend that Gate City hire based on credentials and qualifications. There needs to be more discernment when it comes to who we allow to work in our school. This goes for teachers, substitutes, parents, etc.

I feel the technology turn around for students and teachers has been slower than normal. Some issues I have had from last year still are not resolved with no solution in sight. Sometimes our computers cannot handle the workload that we need in order to be successful and help our students be successful. Lastly, with all of the blocked websites it is impossible for kids to work asynchronously, and often times we have to change a lesson in the middle of it because almost everything kids need is blocked.

Afterschool programming

I would like to have a more specific layout of the process of consequences for those students who are consistently disrupting the classroom and therefore impeding on the teaching and learning of the other students.  I would also like more consistent consequences for those more serious actions.

Offer more days to accommodate things like emergency child care and hospital emergencies.

I'd like to bring to your attention the importance of fulfilling promises to pay employees. I have taken on the role of Dean of Intervention and I am also teaching a self-contained classroom as an Intervention Specialist. I was informed that I would be compensated for taking on the Dean position, but I have not received any payment for it yet. Despite reaching out to my supervisors, I have not been provided with any information regarding the delay in payment, the amount I will receive, or when I can expect to be paid. This situation is unacceptable. I require clear answers and fair compensation for the work I have been doing as a Dean.

Higher pay.

I feel that teacher pay should align with the surrounding county. I also feel that kindergarten teachers should have a para in their class, or at least one to share within the classrooms.

Have EdCite tests be all multiple choice to reflect what kids will see on the EOGs and Check Ins. Also providing textbooks for the students

I believe that a change in the leadership approach would be beneficial. I like to think about the statement, "What would Peg do?". I valued her decisive approach, clear communication, her ability to make hard decisions, and was a confident leader who I trusted.

The increase in pay that has been given each year is appreciated but does not meet the cost-of-living increase that we have seen over the past several years.

Some staff seem to do a very good an thorough job of giving moral focus lessons several times a week, while I have had others who barely touch on it except in a very token way, it seemed.    I also think there needs to be more staff to follow up with behavior issues and outreach to parents with plans to be put in place. More demand of parent involvement. Some are real good, others never hear a word from them no matter what.

Pay increases that keep pace with inflation.

Our PPO is too expensive not enough coverage. Any specialist is $40 a visit and the deductible is a pain to reach. Dental is good though!

The ELA curriculum needs to be adjusted based on the ability of our students. It needs to be differentiated so we can focus on the student and not just the assessments. Although NHA has a rigorous curriculum, it is not possible for some students to score well because students don't have the necessary foundational skills to support them. NHA should create more age-appropriate assessments in which students would be tested on their knowledge of the skill rather than their ability to read the text.

Better work life balance

NHA could bank our unused pto days and use them to assist other staff members when they need extra pto.  What about the extra time we give NHA working from 7:30-3:45? Our school day is longer than other schools in the district and we have a lot of turn over, maybe this and our pay have something to do with this?

To adapt a true curriculum. The students we serve have sever needs and I think it is highly inappropriate to have the same lesson plan for students throughout all the NHA schools when we clearly all service kids of various needs/ backgrounds. Curriculums have names like CKLA, ARC, Lucy and many more but ours is CommonLit passages and ReadWorks passages that are binded together in a "shared" reading book. Constructed responses don't help prepare our kids to take an end of year tests. They are struggling. BRING READING STREET BACK

Full term maternity leave - 12 weeks paid or partial paid.

Find ways to compensate teachers better. We go over and beyond for the students and the school. Maybe putting more money in tutoring program and summer school for teachers.

As teachers we have 5 planning periods per week. Currently we have an O3 & an O9 Meeting each week which leaves us with only 3 Planning Periods. On top of that the majority of IEP & RTI Meetings are scheduled during this period as well so every week we are losing 2-3 of our Planning Periods. I understand that all of these are important, but I'm wondering if there is a way to schedule them while protecting teacher's time.

Insurance is terrible now that a high deductible is the only option

More opportunities during the year to receive a bonus.  Higher pay increases.  There are $8,000 incentives for employees who quit to return - these should be used to retain who is already here instead.

Continue to make sure the building is clean, and continue to give compensation to all staff that matches the amount of work and effort teaching requires!

We need an effective after school problem, an effective way to evaluate scholars to best fit their needs, more support within the classroom, down sizing to only K-5 graders in the building (in order to be more effective to every scholar need as well as downsizing class size and concentrate more on the special needs children we keep accepting every year)!

Salaries do not keep pace with the rising cost of living, which encompasses expenses such as housing, healthcare, and transportation. In addition, high taxation can further diminish disposable income, leaving individuals with less financial flexibility to manage daily expenses. This combination can lead to financial strain, making it challenging for many to maintain a comfortable standard of living while also making savings and investments more difficult.

To pay hourly staff for snow days, spring break, and Christmas break. It is hard financially when the school is closed and there are not enough PTO hours to cover time off.

No complaints here! Overall, NHA is a great organization to work for as well as to educate, inspire, and empower students.

To compensate teachers based on years taught, and final evaluation. New hired teachers should not be making more than 10-year veteran teachers, or staff.

provide funds to send social workers to professional development trainings

Allow for more PD days for teachers

The high five system is pretty much non-existent at Apex.  I may see a teacher or 2 post here and there to each other but almost never admin (except Howell).  I miss the days that admin tried to see who had the most high fives at the end of the month.  A high five here or there really boosts my spirits that I am doing something right.  Even when you go above and beyond you don't get high fives anymore.  That makes me sad.

Attending the staff meeting every Monday should be voluntary, and committee meetings should also be considered voluntary.

Some teams could be a bit more professional in PSD.

Because we do not provide comparable compensation to our staff (teachers, paraprofessionals, leaders), we lose them to neighboring districts.  As a result, we are constantly cycling between band aid approaches for vacancies, and re-teaching our expectations, rather than focusing on improving outcomes for our students. Additionally, I do not feel NHA leadership (outside my team) understands or values the work I do to support students and familites.

I value the work I do and the team I work with at NHA. However, it's easy to feel stuck when it comes to both career advancement and compensation. I feel that the quality of my work is recognized by my direct leadership team, but there is little to no opportunity for them to reward high-performing employees with advancement or higher compensation - a dynamic which has certainly led to turnover and a loss of talent in our department. Especially as our department goes through significant changes, it would be nice to see more opportunities for growth and advancement within NHA, along with greater transparency into how those decisions are made, e.g. pay grades and the criteria for reaching the next one. I recognize the challenges of creating those opportunities within small teams, but that should not be a barrier to employees choose to stay with a company they believe in.

I really can't identify any needed improvements at this time.

I think personal and sick days should be seperate.

Principal is working hard to hold Aramark accountable and it is improving!!

Increase Pay

i have great leadership here.  They are always helping.  At this point I am totally satisfied with everything.

When we get a raise at the end of the year, most if not all of it is then eaten up by the increase in health care premium payments.

Behavior- problems are with state policies not alliance policies.

The ability to leave at the end of the work day without the overwhelming feeling of being behind unless I continue to work at home. A lot of weekly meetings which take planning time away; can be stressful.

#NAME?

Was super excited to see the new moral focus curriculum and then really let down that the stuffed animals and materials were not available to us.  I feel like our school and NHA in general is losing so many good teachers because of the compensation! The company needs to do a better job compensating their employees and making them feel valued.

People should receive more PTO time

None at this time

I think some of the first grade curriculums (writing and grammar in particular) are not developmentally appropriate for first graders and do not provide them the basics and foundation in writing they need. Most of NHA's curriculums are wordy and difficult to follow for teachers. They need to be streamlined for ease of planning and teaching.

Staff were told that we would get paid for having to cover our classes during Learning Labs in 2022-2023 and 20223-2024 and we have NOT been paid. Kindergarten Staff has also NOT been compensated for Kindercamp. Simply pay teachers what they deserve!

The workload for teachers has increased drastically within the past few years. More and more has been added to our plate, from multiple weekly assessments to classroom expectations/documentation and Data collection. New and veteran teachers alike are struggling to keep up with the demanding workload and finding ourselves exhausted, overstressed and underpaid for the workload and expectations. This is having a great impact as more teachers are feeling burned-out and looking for other work opportunities NHA is wiping out their most valuable resources.

Get more copy machines ??

We need to be paid more.

It would be wonderful if the kindergarten had a paraprofessionals to help out.  There are a lot of kindergarteners for one teacher and it is very hard to get everything done that is expected of us. It is very stressful. Also, we need help with all the behaviors also.

Additional PTO would be great, after working with NHA for a certain amount of years, additional PTO would be helpful. When you apply for FMLA it secures your job however, your time off is not paid for.  If you are diagnosed with a Medical disability a percentage of pay would be great. Not 100% of pay however, 65% would be a reasonable percentage. (Due to the cost of living)  I would love to keep my current position instead of having to apply for Social Security Disability.  Thank you.

Give everyone more money. Teachers are needed and without them , our children suffer. we have lost alot of teachers due to the pay and the economy being the way it is they cant afford to live on a teachers salary.

Everything is great so far!

Work - Life balance is a ME problem. I like my job so I probably do way more than I need to and worry way more than I need to.

N/A

Use curriculum that is not designed by NHA. Using curriculums but making up their own assessments doesn't make sense. Doesn't test what is taught.

More research based interventions for reading and math EC students.

Clean move often and clean well

At times it seems some of us lose sight of what our true purpose is here at Prevail, I think if we focus on where and what kind of homelife the majority of our kiddos come from, we may be able to prioritize the need for us to be more than just academic educators.

Pay the OA a salary. This will help with turnover. The OA is hard working and works harder if financially motivated. We can not expect so many hats to be worn by OA and Registrar if pay is not comparable. If we can offer the OA more we will get better results and the registrar will not be as overworked.

7 days for an entire school year is not enough. If I get sick and my child gets sick, that could take all of my days.

Hourly employees should not have to use their personal PTO for calamity days, power outages or any reasons beyond their control should the school not be open however I am able to do my job, but the school is closed. Detroit Premier Academy used to pay hourly employees for these days, but as of 2 years ago, we now have to use our allotted 40 hours of PTO per school year. If we have 3 snow days, I shouldn't have to use over 50% off my PTO in order to keep a full paycheck when the reason I'm not working is out of my control.

I would love to have more resources to provide for students to get additional practice, outside of DreamBox, the practice/homework in the C&I drive and the practice inside of the students book - as I feel like that is not sufficient enough for them to grasp concepts and remember it.

N/A

I just wished my position was a salaried position.

Make sure that each school has the people and materials needed to do our job successfully. Stop overcrowding classes, and get enough support staff, substitutes, books, and class materials in place.   NHA also has to decide if we want to truly be a prep school because we are setting students up for failure when we accept them way below grade levels and then expect them to meet unreasonable expectations like 2 AP classes and getting accepted into a 4 year college. It sets them up for failure and frustration that then impacts their behavior and the entire student body.

More PD for special education teachers.

Pay doesn't take into account inflation. It's disappointing that substitutes make the same amount I make. Doesn't make me feel valued.

Starting with 10 days of PTO isn't enough.

As a leader who's effectively leading a team of teachers with no help from C&I, I should be well compensated, or provided a yearly stipend for the required workload. Considering the fact that all of the Literacy Coaches in Louisiana have moved up to Dean positions, I think you should consider allowing me to lead Louisiana's own ELA C&I so that our schools can continue to meet LDOEs expectations. The current C&I team is fit for other states, but does not benefit Louisiana as we have different standards from the rest of the country.

Bonus compensation per year.

It's unfair to only allow us to pick 1 area of growth & 3 of satisfaction. It should be flipped if you truly care to hear what your employees have to say. Autonomy: I know some issues are reflective of education in general. However, it is very frustrating to see students get passed to the next grade each year who are not equipped to handle the academic content. There is no amount of "differentiation" that will catch up a student that is 2-3 years behind & to expect us to have to figure that out is unfair. Especially since we have no choice but to keep up with the assessment schedule and then have to justify low data to parents who don't understand it. Compensation is always an issue because I am not just a teacher delivering academic content, I am solving conflicts, teaching emotional skills they should already know, etc. Get these parents involved or start sending kids home. Decrease unnecessary busywork that doesn't help me deliver instruction is consistently added on & micromanaged.

Bonuses for returning staff.

Building-wide the communication is great. It is timely and clear. On a hallway level, we do have Friday emails but it still often feels as if some communication is missed or expectations aren't explicit or clear due to how they are conveyed. I understand that things can be missed or forgotten but the reaction to someone making a mistake because of that needs to be tempered on all levels. If it is in writing there is no excuse but word of mouth is not effective communication.

Bringing up employees up to the minimum salary band for their role should be mandatory. The continued negative shift in culture coming from the top is disheartening. Our people and their knowledge and skills are so important and critical to the work NHA does.

More PTO needed

After working for NHA for 6 years, I felt less valued and less worthy when I received a pay cut. It greatly impacted my ability to support my family. I now have to have multiple jobs, which I hope won't impact my ability to do good work at my primary job, NHA.

I feel like I am asked to do a lot outside of my contract hours to be able to complete all that is asked of me.

Comparable rates to surrounding school districts.

Get enough help, so teachers can do there jobs. Each department has a role to play that makes up the success for the students and whole school.

Allow PTO to be accumulated every month instead of a set amount for the entire school year.

Reading mastery seems a bit antiquated

I feel the the almost $4.00 an hour decrease in pay for lunch duties does not make any sense. I don't know why it cannot be the same pay. You are responsible for so many more kids on lunch duty than at any other time, but yet it is less pay!

Possibly consider other roles outside of a dean position. Not everyone wants to stay in the classroom and also be considered a dean. Possible advancement opportunities: academic counselor.

I understand that NHA is always trying to listen and create/change things to support our curriculum.  It often has felt  like we are not trusted to know our students and know what is best for them. I feel like we are given instructions and feedback that does not align with what is best for student learning. I feel like we are putting A LOT of weight into things that Sarah and her team are saying, without them talking to us or trying truly understand our concerns. I feel like they don't think I know how to do my job and that I am not thinking of what is best for my students.

N/A

Hourly employees should be paid on snow days

somethings got Give the paraprofessional 80 hours during the school year since we don't get paid during the summer. Something go to give make it make since. It is a struggle.

Larger pay increases for those who stay and have stayed over the years.

You want to appreciate people pay them more than you do. The turn over for NHA is insane. More work for that 3% raise every year. You can keep it.

The pay is not comparable to public schools in the area and there is no connection to the Michigan Retirement System.

Teachers and support staff need to be compensated better.  The yearly raise isn't comparable to the amount of increased work, expectations and stress that each new year brings.  Raises, stipends and bonuses (that do not need to be paid back) need to be increased.  NHA spends a lot of money on new curriculum before having time to see if the old curriculum is even working.  Spend that money on the employees who teach the children.

I would love to be able to role over any unused PTO days from previous years, to build up time off. Or that we can turn unused PTO days into a days worth of salary.

The biggest concern for any organization should be when their most passionate people become quiet.  Not much to say, it hasn't made a difference in the past.

I do not have any recommendations for improvement at this time.

Having leadership take opinions into consideration before making decisions that effect all staff.

Pay should be competitive with public schools in the area. Many teachers that left in previous years stated they received a significant increase from their position at NHA.

Additional Science and Social Studies positions so that students have increased core minutes for more impactful learning in these areas, which will also serve as a stronger collaboration reinforcer with other core subjects, which data shows is the best way of increasing fluency, content knowledge and critical thinking skills.

staff should clean up after themselves and we also need more custodians

Enrollment: As a team, we have not reviewed or discussed the results of the past two Glint surveys. Uncertainty breeds anxiety. I wish as a team, we addressed these results and were more vocal about our action steps.  Service Center: The culture at the Service Center has changed significantly in the past two years. There is a lot of uncertainty about the company's financial health, and there has been high turnover at the executive and director level. While I understand the need for the company to be financially viable, I believe that some of the budget cuts could have been communicated better. To be transparent, it seems like the current motto is to "do more with less." However, it's worth considering how many new schools we can open without hiring additional staff to prevent employee burnout.

Being more direct and available for help and or guidance

Probably need more help with the custodial crew. Ms. White is getting to old to do her job to the fullest.

Removing the consistent second day of remote work is discourteous to those employees who have more lengthy commutes. It requires that extra time and funds be spent unnecessarily to accomplish the same outcome of work that was already being achieved.

Teachers are not paid enough for all that they have to do. I know that does not fall on Center Line particularly because across the board the pay is not enough.

We get less than 3% of the school year in the form of PTO. Based on the 180 days with students we only have 2.8% of those as PTO days. This doesn't factor in the PD before and during the school year that we also work. In most other jobs people get 6-10% of their working days in PTO. I am not asking for 10%, but we should receive more because it is extremely difficult to avoid being sick in our line of work. Furthermore, other schools in our area give their staff 10+ days off; which means, that we are not even close to the average in the area. More PTO would allow for people to stay home when they are sick and allow for staff to take the time for their children's field trips or take care of necessary things that can not be done outside of working hours such as doctors appointments. This would also allow for staff to take the much needed mental health break because our job is very mentally demanding. So, I believe that we deserve a more realistic expectation with PTO.

NHA High Points are a great tool for recognition. While in the weekly message some teachers get a shout out, it would be nice for others to see it outside the building as well, and for it to be more public. It would also be nice if we focused on the teachers getting the recognition with how often they are recognized. Sometimes the same people are getting the recognition and leaving out others that are also doing great things with their students.

As much as I really enjoy what I do, the culture here needs a huge change.  I feel like everyone is "me me me", looking out for themselves instead of practicing core values that we want to instill in our students.  Examples: there are some staff members that leave their things in my learning area which hinder student performance and safety, but instead of thinking about that those fellow staff members keep their things in our way "because it would be too inconvenient for them to have their things out of the way of student safety" When I politely ask them to move their things so our students can be safe and maximize their performances, I am met with hostility like I am some awful person and/or they ignore my request.    Favoritism: If someone violates my boundaries I am met with "get over it"...but if roles reversed I am met with hostility.  Custodial Crew:  leaving things in my way and refusing to clean my area.    Fellow Staff: trying to take my job and overstepping boundaries.

There is absolutely no work-life balance. We need mental health days. The fact that there was no fall break put into the schedule is absurd. Professional development days DO NOT count when it comes to having an off day. I have to use my personal days to get simple things done like taking my car to the dealership for repairs. We are burned out at the beginning of the school year. Teaching and dealing with 80 different personalities each day is not easy. Please have some consideration.

The building is kept at a freezing cold temperature in order to keep the mold at bay, but the mold is still present. My classroom is currently 61 degrees. We are all getting sick and it is probably from breathing in mold daily,

I do not think that anything needs to improve. I think Pembroke and NHA work great the way they are.

BETTER CAMERAS, SECURITY, REALLY HOLDING PARENTS ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS WHEN I COMES TO SCHOOL POLICIES

Recomending some type of cross-cultural training like I do every year.

More money for all staff members

Create more opportunities for teachers who want to move beyond the classroom but still work for NHA or give teachers more opportunities to attend conferences, trainings etc. that will help them grow in the profession.

Behaviors in middle school really need to better addressed. The year began good but has deteriorated by week 6 now. Teachers aren't walking the kids to/from class, letting them run through the halls, letting them use inappropriate language in front of lower grades, among other issues.

I think that there should be a higher raise each year. The students that we serve have many academic and behavior barriers. This is a severe issue that should be highly compensated. Quarterly bonuses could also be an option depending on the amount of yearly compensation. The increase cost of living does not equal the pay for the essential job we do as Educators.

Para-professional are vital part of the public education process. They work alongside the teachers to ensure that no student is left behind. Their absence would create a void. My concern stem from the lack of PTO benefits for the paras. When the school is close for holidays, snow days and building maintenance teachers are paid. Paras are not, losing a days pay. They are ready and willing to work, too many lost days can result in people having to worry and maybe rethink their choice of profession. Financial stability is something all workers look for. Such an important area of our society needs qualified employees. People need meaningful employment that really cares about work life balance. Providing paid PTO days to Paras would help their employees keep their budgets in tack and eliminate a worry.

Increased pay

This year the building has not been as clean as it has been for the last few years. The floors in the cafeteria should be deep cleaned atlease once a week and the bathrooms for the children could be better kept, the writing of profanity needs to be removed as well. The carpet in the halls needs to be either cleaned or pulled up as well.

The amount of work that teachers do to prepare lessons, create culture, develop students socially and academically, accommodate problematic behaviors, accommodate over subscription of students, communicate with parents and school community, and stand in proxy as parents each day to students is at times overwhelming. Often times we work outside of contract hours and are not fairly compensated for the impact that we have on the school, our students and the families that we serve. Asides from medicine, I believe educators have one of the most important, impactful professions on society, yet many are struggling financially.  It's sad that after all educators do for society, often times teachers have to seek out a second stream of income just to keep their head above water.  I think that teachers should receive a substantial wage increase for all that they do and endure throughout the school year.

N/A

I strongly believe that bonuses, including ESSER bonuses, should be performance-based rather than determined by title or position. Over the past 3.5 years of receiving an ESSER bonus, it was disappointing to discover that some new employees received double the compensation I did. This made me feel undervalued, despite reassurances from my manager about the importance of my work.   Additionally, the process for annual raises is unclear. There is little transparency at the end of the year regarding how the raise amounts are determined or the criteria behind them. I suggest that the administration improve this by conducting performance-based reviews with employees in relationship to compensation. Sitting down to discuss performance on the last day of school, rather than simply handing out a letter, would help provide clarity on both bonus amounts and how to improve in the future. Clear communication around these decisions would go a long way in helping employees feel more motivated.

Clarity on the expectations from my Dean. Leadership training for my Dean.

Maybe financial recognition, stipends, raises.

Opportunities for inclusion in department projects including research/data review, parent support, other communication and/or team needs - etc.

The lack of cleanliness has a direct impact on the well-being of staff and students

I think if a worker is doing more than expected and always willing to help or assist in any task that need to be completed they should receive some type of compensation midyear.

My role does not provide benefits. I fill several roles in the school and since each of them is part time, I do not qualify for  benefits even though I work in the school full time and I work above and beyond for my students, my peers, and the school.

Offer paras to receive pay when off for holidays and days off

I do not feel physically unsafe at Matthews but I feel like in the day and age that we live in we need to have a school resource officer at the school.  I feel like all schools need that due to the climate of the culture we live in.

Honestly there is a lot of effort made every year to improve work life balance, which I greatly appreciate!

It would be appreciated if there were more Professional Development opportunities for my position as a Spanish teacher for K-8, or the opportunity to visit other schools in the area where Spanish is taught to K-8 and participate in their Professional Development opportunities.

Add a young 5s kindergarten classroom.

The compensation for our role continues to lag behind what other companies offer for similar positions. It's frustrating to hear that teams in PSD have salaries close to ours, despite having less demanding work and lower levels of stress. Our team lacks support from leadership, and there's often a disconnect in communication. We frequently learn about new policies, updates, and best practices from each other, often weeks after the fact, when this information should be coming directly from our managers. For instance, we weren’t informed about the changes to the 9-box model until a BP mentioned it in our Slack channel. Additionally, new team members aren’t receiving proper training, which hinders their success and sets them up for failure. Growth opportunities in this role are minimal, with the only path forward being a managerial position. I am hopeful that under Stephanie’s leadership, we will see positive changes and new ideas introduced.

I was very disappointed to learn that maternity leave breaks are unpaid. It doesn't seem fair that everyone else is on their break receiving their full pay for that time while I will go unpaid over my christmas break because of the maternity leave package. I was glad to see that the break doesn't count in my overall 12 weeks off time period but it still doesn't make sense that I will not receive any pay during that time.

Amplify is not a sufficient curriculum for Science, and does not prepare our students for the State Test. There are many gaps between what is taught and what needs to be taught to ensure the best outcome for students. I believe that Amplify may be a good place to start curriculum-wise to help expose students to scientific themes and concepts, but is not comprehensive enough to prepare students fully to engage with their grade-level information or pass the State Test. I have tried to make the C&I Team aware of my concerns in the past; their response was to go through my gradebook and tell my dean that I was not teaching Science correctly. I have used the curriculum for almost two years, but am consistently seeing concepts that are not being addressed that appear on State assessments. Instead of a weekly deep-dive into the Amplify simulations, I wish that the C&I team would partner with teachers who have received good Science scores in the past to fill the gaps in curriculum.

I would like to see my manager model the same expectations given to employees, remains objective and fair regardless of personal relationships, communicates consistently across all areas without having pockets of conversations in different parts of the building, and engages more directly with students and teachers.

Teachers are micromanaged when it involves NHA corporate curriculum experts like Sara Stapelton. They are often less than helpful.

When you take in to account the longer school days and weekly required staff meeting until nearly 5 p.m. it essentially cancelled out our raises for the school year due to the added hours we now spend at work. For example the Forest Hills School down the road has school hours listed on their website as Full Day: 8:45 a.m.-3:45 p.m. A suggestion I have would to have students eat breakfast in the gym. Teachers should not have students until 5 minutes before 8 and should not be responsible for students after 3:15/3:30. The middle school teachers have the least amount of prep and lunch time out of the entire building. Their lunch is 5 minutes shorter and their prep is 5 - 10 minutes shorter depending on how long it takes the specials teachers to come inside and get them. We also need more subs. Having the RTI team sub on a weekly basis is not an effective strategy. Our RTI students need the intervention and heaven forbid the RTI teach is out on top of subbing. Why isn't  EDUSTAFF used?

on snow days the workers that are not on salary should get compensated. or atleast have a few days that we could get paid on snowdays . we shouldn't have to use out PTO just to get paid on snow days

Grade Team Leads should be receiving additional compensation for the additional work that they are required to complete for the team, and Dean Academy should be available through application like it used to be.

Compensation is not in line with the competing schools in our area. There are a high number of expectations from NHA educators, but the pay scale is much less than traditional public schools.

Being flexible with students who are not grasping the material.

Often I feel that experienced and effective teachers are required to complete many tasks that seem redundant or time consuming, tasks to verify every aspect of their teaching. Often over loading the work required in preparing for each week's learning objectives, etc. I understand however, that with so many new teachers each year, there has to be a standard procedure set to show accountability.

More PD specific to my role from NHA or other avenues.

All full time employees should make at least a livable minimum wage for the area in which they work.

Opportunity to add spouses without paying a fee. Bring back the PPO plan....

First year Deans has A LOT of meetings

1. Open Communication: Foster a culture of transparency by encouraging open dialogue. Provide an opportunity for staff to have wing meetings that allows positive discussions regarding wing events, behavioral strategies, etc. We should be on the same page as a team.   2.Team Building Activities: Return to  Organizing  regular team-building events. These can range from fun outings to collaborative projects.  3.Wellness Programs: Implement wellness initiatives, like a wellness room where teachers can take a mental break if needed.   4.Community Engagement: Encourage volunteerism and community service. This can help employees connect with each other and build a sense of purpose.  5.Social Events: Organize more social gatherings, such as happy hours or holiday parties, to allow employees to connect outside of work tasks.  6.Feedback Loops: Regularly solicit feedback on workplace culture and be open to making changes based on employee input.

Burnout is a real thing. We barely have enough planning time in the week, which then causes us to stay after work or work on the weekends. We need our long breaks back in Oct and Feb. Long weekends just don't cut it. We longer to relax and enjoy our time with our family. Or just get away. Get aways are hard to do for just a few days, A week is needed to get the full benefit. The students need a break too. A refreshed teacher is a better teacher.

Stop waiting to tell staff things until the last second and if there is a change (in schedule, child added to class), let the teacher know as far in advance as possible.

Each year, the admin states that there needs to be consistency in addressing dress code, behavior, and attendance. But that is never the case. Some teachers are lax about dress codes, whereas others are more strict. The admin seems to be oblivious. Behavior is another aspect with inconsistencies. Students see that others are not being held accountable, so they make poor choices too. It becomes a cycle of poor decisions with no action taken unless the teacher does it. Attendance also seems to be inconsequential. Delinquency notices are not sent and students miss almost 25% of the school year each year. Even though it is impacting the students' academics, parents are rarely talked to (again unless the teacher does it). All of these need to be consistent and taken seriously instead of being pushed under the rug.

Provide a stipend for those that have outdoor duties so we can purchase clothing we need for those duties (winter coat, gloves, hat, snow pants, boots, rain jacket, etc.). Also provide a stipend for those in charge of committees. I get a stipend for being team lead but I do a lot more work for my committee than I do as a team lead. I believe both roles are deserving of receiving a stipend.

I know that a raise in pay isn't always an option, but more high five points could help improve compensation.  I like to use high five points to buy gift cards that I put toward my holiday gift budget.  On that note, more gift card options for common stores/websites or an option to buy a visa gift card with high five points would be nice.

I WOULD LIKE TO SEE MORE THAN 40 HOURS FOR A WHOLE SCHOOL YEAR. WHEN YOU HAVE TO USE THEM FOR DOCTOR'S VISITS, NON PAID HOLIDAYS AND ETC.

I'm not sure.

As someone who always puts their all into work, it's sad when I'm not compensated for that extra work. I love to go above and beyond but it is not reflected in my paycheck.

I feel like I work so hard only to be told that it's not good enough or that I am doing it wrong even though I am trying to do what is told to me. I receive conflicting information and try my best to work within the boundaries of the conflicting information. I receive suggestions that take hours of my free time from my family. This means I am working 60 hours a week to get everything done to be told that I did it wrong. This is stressful, unhealthy, and overwhelming and makes work very unejoyable so much so that I am having panic attacks. The amount and level of work that is expected at all times is impossible and definitely doesn't allow for work-life balance.

The policies and procedures I'm referring to mostly implies to the way we handle issues with parents and students. I feel way too often Fortis can take the side of the parent in a situation between a teacher/student or teacher/parent and it is hard for teachers to feel supported. For example, when a child gets asked to be moved to a different classroom and we cater to a student's wants versus what's fair to everyone.

Continued upkeep on cleaning classrooms on their specified cleaning day.

A better balance of the classes would help the teachers provide a more positive impact on the students. The size of the classes often makes it hard to balance teaching and behavior management. A few students with big behaviors can make the whole class challenging to teach. So smaller size of classes or more adult support would be beneficial in supporting the teacher's positive impact.

We have great support and resources provided by NHA and the C&I team to be able to help teachers, staff and parents learn to grow. However, in all areas, we are stretched thin (administrators, teachers, paras, office staff and support staff). The workload is so great due to the amount of needs our building has and not enough people support to be able to handle all the needs (coaching conversations, observations, large caseloads of intervention and EC students, assistance with large amount of social emotional needs within the building, holding accountability with teachers, addressing academic deficits and creating action plans for growth, student discipline and parent contacts, etc.). Rolesville is a great place to work and have great things going for us, but with being stretched so thin is a problem because not all areas cannot be addressed as thorough as it should because of the amount everyone is carrying.

Meeting the students where they are at in terms of educational needs.

Giving employees the opportunity to choose from a selection of professional developments instead of assigning them to certain ones.

Allow

We seem to value growth over providing our schools with all the support they need for student achievement. We need more on the ground support in schools, especially for new leadership and teachers.

increase pay

I feel like there are teachers that have been with NHA for a long time and they at least deserve a cost of living raise (more than 40 dollars) and longevity pay. The low pay attracts inexperienced teachers (some with no license) which then leads to classroom disruptions and negative behaviors from students. So many amazing teachers have left Orion because the public schools appropriately compensate them for their work. If NHA doesn’t start offering competitive pay they will be left with a high turn over rate every year.

More opportunities for consecutive plan time (not just numerous small pockets of time) where teachers can dig in and get a decent amount of planning and grading completed. Time management training for PD.

In the past few years I feel as though I had autonomy in my position and was backed in the way that I was getting my work completed. I feel very micromanaged this year and that every aspect of my day is looked at under a microscope even though I feel as though I have done nothing wrong performance wise. This is something that I don't feel is consistent across the board amongst all of my coworkers and some are showed more leniency even though we are all supposed to be held to the same standards.   Trusting in those that you hire to do your job and to do it well.

Not sure how to improve this has been a topic of discussion before

Have more consistent consequences for students who misbehave. Hold in-school suspensions as an option. Support teachers who are getting hit on from students.

More streamlined curriculum to help teachers balance their work

Problems from last year with a coworker have unfortunately carried over into this year as well. This particular person does not contribute much to our team and tends to point fingers at others instead of simply taking responsibility for their mistakes. Luckily I was blessed with a fantastic new teammate this year who has questioned our other coworker and her lack of involvement in our team.

Compensation has not kept up with inflation over the past few years.

Having professional development that is specific to staff needs and areas where they are struggling or need support.

Increase in base pay. Bonuses are great, but now that ESSR funds are gone- how will we continue to do bonuses? I'd rather just do an increase in pay.

Project Based Learning opportunities and exploration that connects with the business/work world to support student career opportunities.

more vacation days

Mid year increases for performance

My dean/manager does not seem to know what she is doing most of the time.

Everyone knows teachers don’t get paid enough to do the jobs they do, and that you don’t want to change that, so make sure they enjoy the work they do or they will undoubtedly stop doing it.

There should be more positions at the school that involve coaching and facilitating and should not rely on FRL numbers. Our school behavioral needs are higher than they have ever been. The dean job no longer meets the needs as coaching and support for teachers. Deans are needed more than ever to handle the amount of behaviors, IEP and 504 meetings. Our BTs need so much support with learning and understanding the curriculum and the "NHA way"  and there is no one that has the time to help coach them and help them become successful. Teachers are in need to see lessons modeled and how small groups are managed and implemented, but there is no facilitator/coach to support them. Classroom teachers are being asked to support other teachers and co teach with them for a day (which is nice) but then a sub is needed to cover a class, sub plans need to be created, etc. Our school lacks so much teacher support. Having a coach(es) would help teachers, deans and BTs to feel supported and successful.

I would like to see full sets of chromebooks for all students to stay at school and more charging ports in the classroom.

Wages should keep pace with inflation.

Higher salary and mid year bonuses for all staff. I'm confused on the salary for NHA because a co worker who has less teacher experience in years than me makes more than me and a former co worker who had my role at another NHA school started making more money than me. The salary was a big issue for me. I took a pay cut coming here but have a masters and bachelors and almost a decade of classroom teaching.

I am a new employee and would love to see more training on the new curriculum. I also chose the number 3 when completing the survey with some of the questions because I don't feel I have been here long enough to answer to the best of my ability. Dean Bovais has been a ray of sunshine and has been very helpful.

NHA has great internal incentives that are not monetary. Comparative to traditional public schools, where there is a pay increase for educational attainment levels, NHA does not have this. The lack of this is a disincentive for me and other experienced educators to come to NHA due to having an advanced degree. This attracts less highly qualified candidates.

Class sizes. From my understanding other neighboring NHA schools have smaller  class sizes K-5. I would like to see k=20, 1st and 2nd=22/23, 3rd-5th=23/24. As we pack more students in classes it looks bad to the parents and it is overwhelming to seasoned as well as new teachers. You can not provide quality teaching when you magnify behaviors and learning needs because you have so many children in a room that was not built to hold 27-31 students. This is frustrating to students, parents , teachers and administartors.

I feel like I have no room to do what I feel best for my students. I am told...adhere strictly to this curriculum. Adhere strictly to this schedule. This curriculum is too hard for these kids post covid.  The math curriculum stinks. The ELA curriculum is not productive overall. It needs to involve more research projects.    I am not a robot. My kids are not robots.      My suggestion: ARC : American Reading Company for ELA and EUREKA for math.    This are used by surrounding county schools and in top school districts.   I recommend that teachers be able to choose how strictly they adhere to the curriculum and be allowed to plan lessons that they know will benefit their scholars.   I recommend that we not all have to keep our white boards laid out exactly the same. I believe we should be able to design our own home work packets individually and not as a grade level.

Cleanliness is an issue but more importantly, this time of year, sanitizing the building would an be an area to improve. We are entering cold and flu season and high points of contact in the building really need to be sanitized. We did this during the pandemic and I think it would be helpful to do so to prevent the spread of cold and flu. This will prevent lots of staff and students from being out sick.

Hybrid work schedule option of three days in office and two days remote

Overall, I think communication is pretty good.  However, with a new dean for k-1, I could tell that many of my cohorts are having challenges and feel unsupported.  I have the strong support of my "adopted" dean, Ms. Mazzola has supported me all along.

Stop giving me so much extra work to be done outside of class.

Increase pay for all staff to compete with ongoing inflation.

Compensation to help reflect the appreciation there is for our positions and sacrifices.

I would feel more appreciated if our bonuses weren't highly taxed and instead added to our yearly salaries

There are far too many students in the classroom in NC schools. In the Michigan schools, the numbers are lower and the teachers get more support. There are more opportunities for students and teachers in the Michigan schools (behavioral specialists, literacy specialists, etc.) We need more support in our schools or less students.

I feel as if any teaching experience should be counted towards compensation.

It would be good if we had more sick days off instead of having to use the personal days when sick days are all used up.

Pay staff more, have bonuses be consistent and not vary so much.

We need more positive & collaborative staff and making sure that the staff we hire is competent enough to handle the job.

I don't like that my role changes daily without communicating why. Doing jobs I did not sign up or get hired to do. Feel like my opinion doesn't matter. Bosses suggest a meeting and then try to schedule them on your days off. and then brush it off like there was never a problem.

I feel that the curriculum is confusing. It does not clearly define concepts. It does not accurately prepare students for later concepts. I also feel that there is too much focus on standardized testing and data. The children have to focus on outcomes rather than the joy of learning. This conflicts with the ideas behind the Growth Mindset.

The curriculum does not meet the needs of the students. The books are not the best choice for some of the curriculum.  The science and ss curriculum is too difficult for the grade level. The new Reading Mastery tests don’t match with what is taught in the classroom and are too difficult (at least the first few that we have given). RM focuses on saying the sounds of the lower case letters. The tests however focus a large portion on the naming of both capital and lowercase letters. The tests that follow the first one should also review the previous material. Many of our students are ELL and they can barely write their name at the beginning of the school year. Some students went to preschool, but for a lot of them this is their first experience in school. Tests should focus on what the students have learned in the classroom, not penalize them. We work hard on the letters and the sounds everyday, but it takes some time to learn something new, especially if it’s in a new language.

During school events provide security. Security should also be present during arrival and dismissal

Adjust compensation closer to the DPS  pay scale.

I recognize that there have been changes in leadership but I feel that in the transition teachers have been handed more responsibilities and the expectations are unclear. The team dynamic has shifted and it is a struggle to remain positive and productive.

We need more staff devoted to social emotional support that can guide students and train teachers. Teachers need models in the classroom of how to care for these kids and kids need more support to manage their emotions and trauma.

There is too much time spent on meetings after school hours that don't help make my job easier. I need to be able to go home and focus on my family, not emails sent after hours and sitting annotating for hours on end. It is exhausting.

Manager communication

We are severely underpaid for the work we due compared to other virtual schools. At the least, our internet should be paid for in our role.

The yearly retention bonuses we were receiving were very helpful

NHA must ensure that the academic curriculum and tools provided are fully aligned with Louisiana state standards at the time of their rollout, not retroactively a year later. Timely alignment is essential to ensure that our students are receiving the most relevant and compliant instruction from day one, enabling teachers to meet academic goals and state benchmarks without unnecessary delays. Delayed alignment undermines instructional effectiveness, student performance, and our ability to meet critical educational objective.  However, Willow Charter Academy is at the forefront of developing innovative instructional strategies that support both teacher and student growth. By staying proactive, we are committed to enhancing our instructional approach to ensure our educators are equipped with the tools and guidance needed to foster academic success in alignment with state standards.

Pay interventionists a livable salary so our school is able to avoid a high turnover rate and retain strong staff. No one wants to work as hard as interventionists do and then not get paid for the summer, winter break, Thanksgiving break, mid winter break, or spring break. It's financially devastating and many interventionists actually have to work second jobs. That is unacceptable. Also, please give us a better insurance company option. Blue Cross Blue Shield is being rejected from not only Well Now Urgent Care, but now many doctors offices will not accept it. It's ridiculous that employees are losing their doctors of 10+ years because of BCBS.

The communication pipeline from corportate down to the schools could be a little better. Our administration and other positions in the schools cannot successfully communicate if they are getting lackluster and/or last minute communication.

$15.00 isn't enough to make ends meet, I'm close to getting a second job to provide for my family. I would love to stay with the company, but the pay should increase to at least $20.00 and hour.

EdCite, while being a useful tool, has lots of issues- formatting is often wrong and student answers that are correct are often marked wrong.   1 week is not enough time for students to become proficient in a skill/standard. There often times where the wording for the questions does not represent the skill that students are being taught during the week or the wording is too difficult for students to understand for the grade level

Match local public school compensation, or at least somewhat comparable.

I’ve noticed a shift in our team dynamics, particularly in terms of autonomy in our roles.  In the past, I felt empowered to make decisions and contribute meaningfully to our projects. However, this year, I’ve observed a more centralized approach to decision-making, where it seems that many choices are being made at the managerial level. While I appreciate the leadership and guidance, I believe that a collaborative approach, where team members are encouraged to take the initiative and share their insights, can lead to more effective outcomes and foster a stronger sense of ownership among the team.

Better health insurance that carries over into retirement. There is not a sense of security when it comes to retiring from NHA making many have the thoughts to leave before retirement age to obtain that security from a public school.

Everything about working at NHA is great. I'm blessed to work for this company that gives me the opportunity  to educate children and provide for my family.  I'm happy to be here.

Treat paraprofessionals like you treat the teachers.

Student need is at its highest-academically, emotionally and behaviorally and having 28+ students in a classroom with one teacher is not working anymore. We need less students or teacher assistants (even for part day or shared among the grade level). The amount of students doesn't just add more while students are in class, but more time preparing, grading, planning, etc. We are being given too many tasks to complete during the school contract hours. Work-life balance doesn't happen if I have to take work home with me or work hours after school every week to complete the required tasks. We need more planning time during school hours and/or more teacher workdays. Our only workdays are at the end of the quarter (only half days) and we are given lists of tasks to complete on those half days so that's not really "our" time. We need workdays that are actually ours to get tasks completed-we don't even have enough time to plan our lessons during our planning time, let alone all the extras.

The culture and morale in our building this year is suffering because teachers are overwhelmed by behaviors and many extra expectations on our plates with no true teacher workdays that are just to work and unneccessary meetings. It feels like teaching is no longer the priority, but instead managing behaviors and extra “stuff” on top of an already tough job and constant assessing that takes time away from meaningful small group instruction. We do not have support in our classrooms and have too many students to one teacher with increasingly difficult behaviors and academic and social emotional needs. The lack of support because we have no assistant teachers or help is detrimental to teachers and most importantly, students. I believe in NHA’s core values but am struggling this year because I am not seeing them lived out day to day. My manager is wonderful and these issues do not stem from her, but from a bigger picture issue of a lack of support, student behaviors and teacher burnout.

We could use more protected planning time to grade, plan for general classroom stuff, plan for intervention, and so forth. Our current 25-30 minute planning time gets eaten quickly by responding to emails, team meetings and other important tasks. We at most have about 45-50 minutes work of actual planning time a week.

While I feel supported by my manager, I feel strongly about needing more support in the kindergarten classrooms. Teaching kindergarten at the beginning of the year is challenging enough. We work hard on rules, procedures, and how to be kind humans. But with the amount of one on one assessments (mClass, Numeracy, etc.) and needs/behaviors that we are continuing to see students come in to school with, my job feels overwhelming and hard. I love teaching, but it is discouraging when I can't seem to teach small groups consistently (especially at the beginning of the year) because I have assessing, progress monitoring, speech interventions, and other things to get done. As the year goes on, I am able to manage. But having an assistant would be SO beneficial. Even if this assistant was shared among the grade level. I can only do so much on my own and having this additional support would truly allow me to do my job better.

We are using a book to outline the weeks of the school year which is handy. The issue really comes from there being demands of outside influences (family, licensing, PD, upkeep) that are hard to manage within the planning period offered. I find myself working many hours outside of school time to ensure my targets are hit, which is not optimal. My direct report/dean is helping me to find smaller tasks I can complete in my planning time, but it will take a while before the benefits are seen. I appreciate their support in moving toward greater work/life satisfaction.

Better raises, and less percentage taken out the bonuses.

I feel like school isn't fun anymore and kids aren't as excited for content/learning. I think that some of the reason for why our kids are misbehaving is because they are bored with the content. It's the same thing every day and can be hard to keep the kids engaged with it. We aren't able to make up our own plans or be super creative when it comes to teaching which is really disappointing. While I do love knowing where I need to be teaching wise each week, I want to be able to teach it in the way that I want. School also seems way too focused on testing and not enough on encouraging students to love learning or getting them to show it in different ways.

Higher pay increases at the end of the year. Minimum of 5% to counter act the cost of living that has significantly gone up. Continue with bonuses

Bathrooms are cleaned more than once a day. Soap is refilled more than once a day, carpets and rugs are cleaned as needed, floors are swept more often.

I sincerely feel that behavior in this school needs to be brought up, spoken about and addressed more in school. There needs to be more productive PDs about behavior situations. Appropriate procedures and protocols need to be brought up and discussed more across the board within the school. Also, safety measures need to be discussed in regard to fire drills. At times, other classrooms get cut off because of others. There should be mapped routes discussed and which exits to specifically go through to safely leave the building.

I feel the training I get from Excel is awesome, but I don't really have much communication from NHA. I feel like most of the trainings and communications are gear towards the AR's and not so much to the SA's

More PTO/sick days, more autonomy from manager, more timely with communications and behaviors put in from manager

More opportunities for hourly employees to receive performance based raises that reflect their work more and not just an end of year review and limited raises that returning employees are seeing that barley match newly hired positions posted starting at wages. Bonuses for: improvement on scholars scores that are on their caseloads; working in Middle school and or subbing where other employees will not; ways to earn Holiday compensation for time off unpaid; reimbursement for damaged or stolen property/vehicles in school parking lot.

way too much micro-management!! There is too much unnecessary busy work for teachers, for example, the data charts! kids don't look at them instead they check their student portal for grades. Silly Tuesday meeting TBT can be part of our planning period

I feel that people should be paid correctly. For instance, if you have credentials and experience it should count for something. Here at NHA that doesn't matter. When you have experience and credentials at NHA you're the lowest paid in your department. I will NEVER EVER understand it. This makes a person feel not valued at all. It's sad that a new employee can start the same position with less or no experience/credentials and make more money then you. I could go on with this issue but I won't.

It would be appreciated if Human resources did some investigationgs into the surrounding area's teaching salaries, including the public schools and other charters, and would match or extend our salaries based on those comparable monies. Teachers at NHA spend endless hours looking at data, organizing and utilizing our data, and planning accordingly to grow our students based on said data. It would behoove NHA to compensate employees in such a way that would allow them to recruit people who are dedicated educators, and  who will stay here at NHA for extended periods of time.

More action taken when staff are not doing there jobs consistently and more recognition when they are.

Pay people what they are worth and people will stay and feel appreciated

Compensation for hourly staff members.

Colleagues who leave are getting +$20,000/year what they were getting at NHA. And many get MESSA healthcare benefits (significantly better). PTO is half what surrounding districts get. NHA  compensation package is very noncompetitive and won’t attract or keep talented teachers. Staff Turnover will continue and make it unbearable for good families and good colleagues.

NHA is continuously adding new tasks to our plate and not providing time to complete them. For example the annotations to an already scripted text. Additionally, the new FSA tests require teachers to pull several resources to support their students which is time consuming in order to be effective and requiring us to make weekly anchor charts for the reading curriculum. A lot of these things are resources that could be uniform and provided by NHA. Our prep times are taken frequently for meetings and we are never compensated for that lost time, forcing teachers to either stay late or take work home. We are also required to participate in after school events and committees which takes up more of our time that we are not compensated for causing severe burn out early on in the year and then we have the worst PTO policy of any school district I have ever seen. Every other school district in our surrounding area gets a minimum of 10 days and either roll over or are bought back at the end.

Realistically run through a lesson with kids to see how much time a lesson REALLY takes. More flex days to respond to data.

Less paperwork and assignments for staff so we can better spend our time on students needs.

More opportunities to have vertical alignment planning. I loved the vertical alignment PD during the summer.

I would appreciate not being left out of important decisions when it comes to my role at Vanderbilt. At the beginning of the year my job was replaced without me knowing about it until a few days before school started. I felt that this was very unprofessional and the whole situation could have been handled much better. Before this year I have always felt a sense of belonging at work/in my role. This year I have felt no sense of belonging.

Support in behaviors is a big issue right now. Teachers put behaviors in the system but any time we need the support in the classroom it is lacking. A student will be taken out of class for a short period of time and then brought right back into the class without any repercussions for their behavior. We need strategies in place to control the behaviors and a consequence for these actions.

PTO time and pay more

A stronger Manager over the building site manager is needed. The cleanliness of Warrendale has not been great for years. We have been through 4 site coordinators over the past year with little to no improvement with the cleanliness of the building. The carpet was removed in the upper hallways and classrooms, but have not been mopped since the start of the school year, despite placing many work orders. There is a foul odor throughout the building. Overall, there needs to be some improvement with the Armark staff that support Warrendale.

HONOR TEACHER FEEDBACK. We have a degree(s), we have experience, and we will give you GOOD feedback that SHOULD be used to adjust assessments to be more developmentally appropriate, more useful.  - Phonics Skills Assessment: the occurence is far too often, the sentences for the sentence fluency portion were determined to be FAR above grade level by our reading specialist, they take too long to administer. If the assessments were MONTHLY, we could administer them AND utilize them well in a small group setting.   - Comprehension Assessments: I feel like I am CONSTANTLY taking my time to provide feedback and NONE of it is being used. We have had the SAME problems for 6+ YEARS, and the assessments are still being used, still have questions that are poorly written, and are NOT developmentally appropriate for our students.   THE BIGGEST feedback is this: TRUST your teachers, do NOT micromanage them by forcing them to give poorly written assessments. You are loosing teachers by doing this.

Reflections After conversations, take a moment to reflect on what went well and what could be improved. Feedback: Provide constructive feedback and be open to receiving it. and trying to find ways or suggestions in ways to improve what is being communicated, and not pushing it aside for later.  Adapting Styles: Different people communicate in different ways. Adjust your style to match your audience when possible.

A reading curriculum versus a reading intervention program would especially be helpful to students in lower elementary.

I feel starting teachers do not get offered a high enough salary and teachers that have been in NHA a while only receive a less than 4% raise each year. They way the economy is currently and that the cost of living continues to grow, NHA is not paying staff enough to make ends meet. There are plenty of people who work a second job in order to make ends meet. That means that they are not able to put 100% of themselves into this school.   The fact that working for NHA(as a for-profit school) exempts teachers from receiving the government funds to support paying back college debt is also not helpful when wages are so low. There are programs that teachers can apply for to help pay off their debt as we work as a public service but because NHA is for-profit we are not able to use these resources.

No improvements at this time

More supplies are needed to keep all areas of the school cleaned. Other than that the school is amazing.

Being paid the same wages as teachers in suburban counties

Overall both the student and staff PD /presentations have been lacking (other than the one at u of m). Seems like a huge missed opportunity and waste of lots of $$. The one specifically for the girls was reportedly really awful and I did not hear one positive response from any of my female students, which was really surprising. The vaping presentation seemed very out of touch and also long winded. I did not appreciate that speaker offering to give our students $200 and then tricking them out out of it with a simple rouse.     Also large class sizes are contributing to MUCH less time per student interaction. One class is 34 students and I only have 40 minutes to teach, very limited engagement at times and this is a shared sentiment around the school.   Also behaviors have been on the rise as we get new students and we do not seem to get any real support for difficult students with any consistency. ABSS staff seem to have time to do all sorts of other stuff around the school and helping people out, but when I a

I believe we need more specific professional development for the things that my role consist of, to improve everyday learning environment.

Contracts that clearly state what our salary is

Putting less on our plates and giving us our prep time.  IEPs should not be taking place during our prep time. The amount of things we are required to do this year does not give me enough time to prepare at school.  Anyone who is trying to live on these wages independently is going to struggle.  A 1,200 salary increase for a year is not enough to even make a dent in the cost of living increases.

Paid Time off I feel should be able to roll over into the following year .  Or add additional

There’s not enough time or emphasis on Kindergartners learning how to write their letters the right way… and how to write in the lines. Teachers expect their students to come in knowing this but they don’t! If they do know their letters, they don’t know how to write them the right way because they’ve never been taught. They’re just copying a picture the best they can. They need to learn this from their teacher. Teachers are required to assess kids in writing responses /feedback to show comprehension and they haven’t even learned all their letters and how to write them. This is backwards.  Kids are writing  letters wrong and it’s hard to undo muscle memory! Knowing how to Identify and write every letter and know it’s sound - and how to identify, write numbers, and count to 100 are some of the biggest things kindergartners are supposed to know before they go to first grade. Kids are writing letters wrong and  don’t know how to write between the lines by the end of kindergarten. Teachers don’t know how to teach

Attendance. We are around children all day and have our own kids as well, so I feel more than 7 days. We had 10 and don't think its fair

a way for employees who don't use their days to receive compensation

NA

there needs to be more communication between the leaders and staff

The recommendation I have towards work and balance is understanding, I say this because we all have a lot going on in our personal lives. When you love doing what your doing but trying to find that balance between work and your personal life can be hard, and even harder when you do not feel your team supports you or understands the load you carry trying to balance work and your personal life. It makes you feel defeated and overwhelmed from the conversations, actions, that people think is not heard, felt, or seen.

Admin seems to be distracted and distant. Staff moral is down as a result.The lunch room is a joke. The flow of classes entering and exiting is chaos. It's unbelievably over stimulating. Earning ice cream parties solves nothing. Compensation is disgustingly low, but don't worry we'll spend funds to come up with moral focus characters. Why in the world would you have staff take this survey during conferences?

Give teachers mental health days (maybe one or two), without consequences.

cost of living raise in addition to merit raise/ or getting paid for snow days and half days

While I understand the importance of the scripted curriculum provided by National Heritage for educators, I believe it should not be overly rigid when teaching our students. Allowing for differentiation is essential. This may involve using external resources or teacher-created materials, as limiting our approach to education is not effective for our scholars.

I truly feel that interventionists should have a total of ten PTO days instead of five. There is no pay for breaks, snow days or during the summer. More can be done with ten days than five.  Another issue is why interventionists don't have a key or badge to get in the building or a key to their classrooms. We are here before the teachers and have to wait for someone to unlock the classroom door. There has been mornings when there has been 10-15 minutes waiting outside and ringing the button for someone to open the door to get in.

We are here for the students. I do not have any suggestions . Everyone should collaberatively put  aside personal feelings and leave problems outside of building. There will not always be good days. However, an uncomfortable environment can result in making someone's day rough when it's already difficult. It cost nothing to greet someone Good Morning,

Salaried Paraprofessional/Intervention positions

We need more support staff in keeping the storage room and printing room clean. It is hard to find anything we need in that bird nest.

none

Compensation to meet cost of living in Grand Rapids.

whating to know how t order the right study books for the school when time is needed.

More recognition for the employees who are going above and beyond but also for those who are doing what they are supposed to. For intense, there are employees who never show up on time for work but never get a consequence for it. While other employees are consistently early and get no recognition for it.

Active support in areas of improvement.

Better policies clearly defining new roles that have been created and better protection while traveling.

Compensation should match with inflation .

More funds to hire support staff in class to help potentially manage behaviors.

Increase pay. DO NOT INCREASE CLASS SIZES. The class sizes are too high already and are leading to teacher burn out rates increasing. Maybe instead of focusing on making millions, NHA can take some of those gross earning and put it into showing appreciation to it's teachers with a more competitive wage.  Also, as there is not another spot to give feedback: Smaller class sizes. With the increase in behaviors and lack of support staff classroom sizes of 28+ are leading to higher rates of teacher burn out. When we have class sizes of 25 or less, our teaching becomes more effective. When our teaching is more effective the students behaviors and academic success  grow positively exponentially. This is true for all grade levels, given how much student behaviors/needs have grown over the last 10+ years. Show you truly care about your teachers by actually helping them. NHA talks about work life balance, but there is no balance when the mental/emotional load is so high with little support.

PD helping for teachers to get on the same page of what expectations from each other.  More active collaboration environment so as to ensure teachers are on the same page and following roadmaps that coincide with each other.  A chance to have active conversations so that teachers can feel part of the growth process of improving the school in the eyes of parents and students.

More PTO days...

Maybe send bullet points of our staff meeting after because it is very hard to hear in the gym.

N/A

Just like 2 more days would be great.

More opportunity for student autonomy. Making sure that students have the opportunity to independently read, etc.

Virtual options should be utilized as much as possible in order to respect staff autonomy. No one wants to sit in a gym or child's desk all day and listen to a presentation.

The culture is not great. Leadership team is not supportive of teachers. They seem to be afraid to help with disciplining students and say it is the teacher’s issue and need to build a better relationship with students. Leadership team micromanages teachers and do not trust any of our professional judgments regardless of whether teachers have proven themselves previously or not. Leadership team does not seem to actually care about staff on a personal level and we are just a number. It is unfortunate because there are some good teachers at the school and more are ready to leave (like so many have done).

Being told one thing and the school does the opposite or changes the guidelines or requirements

Please provide me a pay raise to at least bring me up to the average base salary of others in my position within NHA. Ideally a degree more given my experience, initiative and work ethic.

Better explanation of benefits available- and exact cost

Its hard to feel motivated when yearly pay increases are flat rates instead of being performance based

Teachers should be handed the curriculum and allow them to make their own lessons to prepare the kids since teachers know their kids better than NHA and C&I

Opportunities for growth and training in my new role

If Atlanta Heights would invest in more up to date technology resources for students that will allow them to truly master valuable tech skills.  Skills such a coding, app design, and a deeper dive into computer science. In addition,  provide additional resources to get students above grade level in reading and math skills.  For example more investment in online library materials and extra curricular programs that promote core comprehension skills leading to higher fluency in reading.  Invest in Field trips to give the students exposure to see what they are learning at work in the real world.

Clear and precise ways to help kids with struggling behaviors. Behavior team seems overloaded and it’s hard to know what to do and how to handle difficult behaviors. Going for a break or walk seems more like a reward than a discipline.

higher pay raises %

This year I'm at a loss for what is expected of me. I'm not really sure who my direct manger is. There is zero communication with my team and our superiors. We were sent out to drift at the beginning of the year without an oar. Trying to maximize time  my schedule has more holes than Swiss cheese. All on top of my job responsibilities going up and up and my wage not rising to meet the work load, which I've written for years and not a thing that I write in these thing are ever ever ever ever addressed.

NHA curriculum is not aligned with the NYS standards.

The only area that I still struggle with is some of my co-workers. It is frustrating to see some employees not doing what they are supposed to be doing because it often times effects the students negatively. I feel like not everyone is being held accountable for their actions and that our employee handbook needs to be followed more thoroughly. Some areas that need improvement are dress code, attendance (being on time), meeting deadlines, and professionalism. Nobody is perfect, and I know that I have areas I need to improve on as well, but the accountability for all employees should be consistent and we should all be held to a higher standard. The actions that we take directly effect student success, and it is not something that should be taken lightly. I say this not only for my coworkers, but for myself as well. I want to be held accountable in order to be the best teacher I can be for these students.

Using some of Professional Development time to work on assignments/ planning.

Less wasted money on a team that over promises and under delivers.

Putting teachers in positions they did not apply for.  Also, increase PTO would be helpful.

 Ensure restrooms are checked regularly by  custodial staff to maintain cleanliness and stock up on essentials like soap, paper towels, and toilet paper. Also, high traffic areas should be sanitized and disinfected to reduce the risk/spread of infections. Lastly, classroom should be cleaned including vacuuming regularly.

NHA should consider paying staff what is commensurate to other positions at public schools.

Really Nothing much!

We need more support for our EC and special needs kiddos in our classroom. Behavior has been so tough during specials and we CAN NOT conduct a class smoothly. Some of the classes have 5-10+ kiddos with IEP needs and some of them have behavior issues that I feel are not being addressed. Our EC teachers have massive caseloads and it seems like our high-flying students cannot succeed in the classroom with so many behaviors daily. The support that I am referring to is helping with behavior. When we document all of the behavior in the NHA system will they help us move forward with plans for improvement regarding behavior? Putting in all of the behaviors seems hopeless when they are consistent week after week.

Clear effective accurate communication on a consistent basis in conjunction with collaboration. Fair compensation based on realistic expectations.

6 days for paid time off AND sick leave is not enough time for staff to do what they need outside of work (doctor, dentist, etc.). Teachers are in a position where they get sick more often due to the students getting sick. We need additional time to accommodate for that.

None at this time.

Acknowledge and factor in experience outside of NHA in raises that are based on job performance, not on how to save money each year. What is my incentive to stay or to advance? Do not discriminate against employees that are over 55.

I believe we can collaborate more to give feedback, pointers, and/or ideas within our content. For example, as a PD, we should prepare a 10-15 lesson for our colleagues and they give feedback and/or ideas about how we can improve, what we did good, and give pointers on how to instruct the NHA way.

I feel like we could possibly structure our time better and not try to cram so much into one teaching day. It seems like students are not getting a fair shake and adequate time with material before having to move on to the next topic of the day.

Helping us to pay for our academic adventures. We are not eligible for loan forgiveness for teaching while working here. We could use some assistance or forgiveness for our loans. We make less then teachers around working at public schools, and we are cut from forgiveness for the loans. We do not really benefit from staying with the company.

The SEL team does not get competitive or comparable pay to the DOE. NHA does not value or recognize them because their work does not bring in tangible data/numbers for NHA to see. However, they do the hardest work to improve their social/emotional needs which result in better academic performance. Therefore, proper compensation should be provided. For several years, the SEL team has requested reasonable compensation, and NHA has been unable to provide/follow up. Other recommendations: -NHA needs to adapt to the virtual culture. Regionals and staff PDs should be virtual, or given the option.  -Shorten school hours. Long days are unproductive and causes behaviors to escalate due to scholars' inability to self-regulate. -Unlimited sick days. Staff are prone to getting sick often and are penalized for going over allotted PTO. Becoming sick is an uncontrollable and unforeseeable environmental factor and should not be taken out of PTO. PTO should be for personal/mental health days only.

Compensation to match inflation

Compensation should be based on performance, rewarding your high performers so that they stay.  There should also be a bonus program to reward performance and also compensation to pay for skills such as translation.  I was told NHA rewards high performers when I was hired but I do not see that at all. Everyone seems to get the same raise and retention bonus.  There is no motivation to go above and beyond.

Quite satisfied overall.

It doesn't make sense to not fell fairly compensated in all that we do here. Also, kids we service need way more work than I care to mention. It feels completely unfair.

Raise the pay rate.

I'm not a fan of our current bonus structure. There are many factors outside of my control that still impact whether or not I receive a bonus. It doesn’t feel fair, especially when I put in maximum effort to bring in new families.

I am not sure why we are going to late into the year because it affects our attendance rating with the state.   I would really like to have certificates given to us for our professional development and I would like us to receive our hours of professional development at the end of the year.  I also think leadership has to follow NHA choices in curriculum and I am so glad teachers are not getting trained weekly, and there are some really good parts of Amplify, but many parts do not address Science standards that have been delineated by the state.  I would ask that curriculum really tweak Amplify so it meets state standards.  I think our leadership is great here at BVA and I also feel our Principal and Deans have our back and give us great insight in how to improve,  I think leeway in the curriculum: more movement  in K-2, more repeated practice in 3-6 on Math computation such as division needs to be allowed.

More planning time. There are too many meetings. Some weeks feel like there are meetings almost every day. If there is a way to allow moral focus assemblies to be between once a month or every other month. And O3s on a case to case basis it would let up more time for me to be able to plan.

The current compensation structure does not adequately reflect the level of commitment, effort, and expertise required to meet the needs of the school from my position. Maybe bonuses or stipends should be offered if positions are filled for certain periods. If leadership could open up a dialogue on how compensation can be adjusted to better reflect our contributions and to support us, that would be fair.

We need secured and locked doors, tighter security walking around and compassionate leaders who cares about staff and families.

A clear and concise curriculum that is engaging . The content is wonderful and helpful to the kids we are teaching but there is a large bulk of things that are pushed at a fast  pace that doesn't allow much room for fun activities that peak student's interests in the content.

With all the materials provided, I think our classrooms would benefit from newer technology like smart boards. They would be beneficial for interactive lessons as well as being able to work less at the desk and more around the room.

I have seen my co-workers struggle in the general education environment pertaining to their supports. I have seen the middle school administrator fail to support a teacher when a parent was berating them on the phone during a routine phone call needed when behaviors are needed to be followed up with after being documented. The call happened the same day as the behaviors logged.

Where students are concerned, I believe that teacher suggestions and recommendations should be given more reconsideration.

Raise PTO cap for non-managerial staff to 30 or higher days of PTO. Increase PTO accrual to 2 days PTO/year.

I believe that our curriculum does need to be updated in the sense that there needs to be more supplemental assignments/practice that are in alignment with the skills/concepts discussed in class per lesson in each unit. I believe that the discussion questions are necessary for literature seminar and writtten responses; however, there needs to be practice that they can take home to work on. Additionally, for the writing units, I would like to see there be more focus on skill building for writing (outside of RACES) that will allow the gaps within the classroom to be addressed so as to lead up to the longer assigments.

N/A

Wiping off door handles during the day with antibacterial cleaner. Don't use the same  cleaning cloth to wipe off all cafeteria tables for all three lunch times. Mop the cafeteria floor more often than once a month. Wipe down during the day the drinking water units. Many kids put their lips on the actual metal mouth piece. Bathrooms checked more often to clean and mop floor. The bathrooms run out of paper towels to dry  hands and floor gets wet and slippery. Take the gray rugs in front of each bathroom outside twice a week and wash down with bleach and a hose.

NHA should run as a unit. Some things should not be left up to site leadership. PTO should be consistent across the company. It is not our fault students don't come to school. We are being punished (look at the calendar) because families are not being held accountable to the rules of the handbook.   If RPSA is going to accept or absorb all the scholars that need differentiation, something has to be done about the curriculum; we have too many students not on grade level or nowhere near grade level.

The amount of assessments and required curriculum do not leave teachers any opportunity to use their own knowledge, experience, and creativity to meet the needs of the unique students in their classrooms.

Improve the support and supplies for specials.

For my job, there doesn't seem to be any job to advance to. I like my job but maybe would like to do something different with NHA in the future.

Direct Manager is great, Leadership Manager has taken a great team and turned it into separate teams where only some input matters or is appreciated while others are treated poorly or disregarded. Quality of work has gone down as well, quantity now seems to be higher in importance than quality, it seems more important to pay things quickly than correctly.

I'm genuinely happy being an employee with NHA and PVA. The only thing that could make me happier is if benefits were better (maternity leave) and if salary could increase. However, I have seen improvements in salary/ PTO with my time at NHA so I do believe that things are being done to address these areas.

I believe the leadership team needs to collaborate and have an understanding how teachers feel and what should be improved in the school

Genuine support and understanding.  When a need is presented it shouldn't be a back a fourth conversation. We need help finding solutions and what solutions look like to identify the area of need that are realistic.

I think we, at times, overcommunicate with our parents and with school staff. I'd like to see NHA take a step back and review the communications we send to our parents and school staff and review areas of improvement/consolidation.

Coming from a business background, that does not get calculated in compensation, regularly offers me 100K positions, which cause this job to be the most expensive joy project I have ever taken on. In NC NHA can take part in the state retirement plan, thus giving a TRUE retirement path is frustrating. Long term planning would take significant prescient in keeping staff and in the overall compensation.

Allow FULL TIME Paras to get paid for a 40 hour week.  Pay should match the district for Para pay as well. We deal with children that HIT, SPIT, have bathroom needs, and serious behaviors with inconsistent support. Safety is a huge issue with the students we work with.  The communication and expectations are poorly communicated.  Any help the Paras need seem like an after thought. There is such inconsistency and lack of communication this year.

I am hoping that with the selection of the next principal, the following will improve:  -cleanliness (I.A. Principal Rahman immediately addressed this concern once she began and I am hoping the mice/roach situation improves in the near future) -a more orderly process for dismissal (For example, keeping the gates locked until all classes are outside until pikmykid is in place) -proper materials for fire drills (red/green cards, walkie talkies used for missing students, proper routes out of the building (asked previous principal for this and it was never received), etc. -review of lock down drill procedures for when students are in the multi-purpose room or recess

Learn Zillion is an excellent curriculum, the timing does not reflect the real teaching world for reading on many task. Some of the lessons require reading for homework (sometimes 2 chapters).   The slight change would remove homework reading expectations and adjust the time on task because in the longer run this impacts pacing.

Consult research data in order to reassess the appropriateness of the curriculum/academic rigor and testing with the goal of realigning it to meet the needs of our current student population.

Send us to and have modified regionals and PD. We differenciate for our students why do we not do that for educators as well?

I feel that in the last couple of years, teacher have lost the ability to be creative in their approach to curriculum. Our curriculum is so rigid and we are expected to teach it to a T (i mean there are literally scripts) which may be great for new teachers. We are pushed so hard to use the curriculum and only the curriculum that is provided but there is no variety. Even for the little ones it gets boring for them.

Teachers rarely feel that they can call for support when behaviors become too much to handle. I have rarely called for support in my years at MVA. The times I have called for support, the students rarely receive consequences and parents are rarely contacted. I have heard struggles from other teachers calling for support and their students return with rewards. We are constantly giving positive praise and consequences, but there are no negative consequences for negative behaviors. It is making teachers feel burned out and hopeless. We just want to teach instead of managing behaviors constantly.

I think that what's being expected of us (responding to data, grading in a timely manner, responding to parents in a timely manner, making copies, ensuring planning for the following week, collaborating with teams, etc.) in the time frame of 15 minutes before school and 0 minutes after school (students don't leave my room until 3:45) with a 40 minute prep (sometimes gets taken away with meetings) is extremely unrealistic. If I want to complete all that is being asked of me, I work over an hour each night and 4-5 hours on the weekend. It seems ridiculous. I'm also not being compensated for any of the extra time I'm willing to put in to make sure students are successful. We all want to be successful teachers, but if there's no incentive in going the extra mile, then you won't have that great of an outcome.

The preparation for when staff will resign or not come back after maternity leave.  This would mean having solid plans for the "if" not just waiting for it to happen.

Age appropriate curriculum for young learners.   Focus on foundational skills before writing sentences.

It feels as though there is a disconnect between the expectations in terms of curriculum and all the "extra" things that it does not account for (fun runs, half days, assemblies, meetings, new assessments). There is an expectation that we continue to do everything with fidelity disregarding the fact we do not have the time. Plans have changed frequently, last minute, leaving us to redo a lot of planning. When I have voiced these concerns it has communicated that it's not ideal but it is what it is.

Some rooms are not cleaned as often as they should be or as well as they should be (mainly those with tiled floors).

Thank you for the phonics thought with Reading Mastery. But more is needed. Code-emphasis approaches will not be effective until and unless students have acquired the underlying phonological skills that enable them to decode. Beyond phonics, the importance of teaching all aspects of language structure. It is not emphasis enough students decoding but they must know the rules of why words sound the way they are. If students cannot decode printed English, they can not comprehend it. If we teach students why a word is spelled like it is, and what sounds make what then students shouldn't have to memorize. Students who master phonemic awareness and phonics skills become much more proficient at reading accuracy, fluency, and comprehension.  Side note, reading is not automatic and its hard. Reading Mastery adds another layer of students to have to translate the symbols with the text. And then go read a book and have to have to remember and translate. Especially with students who have learning difficulties. Also, less

Salaries need to be competitive with local schools especially if the hours are longer and professional development days don't count as school days but, they do for other schools. That means more hours + days working for less money. A lot less money.

We need a metal detector. I am not thinking the children here would do something like what we see on the news. I do think others from the outside world might. All parents would want this. I don't understand how we can put all this money into books but not a metal detector. So many elementary schools have them now. It vears the people away that might even think of doing something. The money is worth it. Truly worth it.

We need to focus on positive feedback for teachers and more often. We can support them by helping them with work/life balance- teach practical and realistic ways to balance or get non-negotiable tasks done.

I have selected other because there is not enough accountability for student behavior. It is very important to always start with positive reinforcement. I think positive reinforcement should be tried multiple times as well. However, there is a point where there need to be consequences. This is for the safety of the other students and teachers the same.  I also think there needs to be better communication throughout the administration down to the staff. We had the professional development that asked us to change multiple behavior systems. Some were put into place, but others were completely ignored. Teachers were asked to do Yeti Bucks differently, but never got more information on how to use the new system and were expected to use them the way we were before with no communication. This goes for other things as well, such as the raffle. There was no communication on what procedures were expected. It is very difficult to keep up with expectations when they are unclear.

I feel that there should be more encouragement and a feeling that co-workers and leaders are working to find the best in each other. Having one person in grade level teams appointed as a leader tends to make them a target. If teams were treated as equals, they could equally share the work and work together rather than feeling a division. Deans could communicate what is needed and teams would be free to make it happen by supporting each other.

I would like to have more outside professional development training sessions. Some of my favorite and most productive professional development sessions were the ones that were led by non NHA organizations. Having both NHA and non NHA sessions would benefit staff growth.

I would love to see more push to have Science as a major player in curriculum discussion.

CO-Workers need to talk to one another instead running off and telling Deans or the Principal. We should be able to talk to another about what is bothering us.

Having breakfast in the classrooms is not sustainable. We talk about having work-life balance, but from the moment we reach our classrooms, 30 minutes before the school day even technically begins, we are responsible for children. One example: on my way from the copier last week, I heard two students saying "Let's go scare Ms. Ali!" That takes away from Ms. Ali's work time, and it's Constant. All of our planning and copying time is now "On" time with students all over the school. It's also eroding our chances to talk to other teachers. From the quick "Do you have advice on this student you had last year" to even a simple "How was your weekend?" we can't use those resources or build that community the way we used to because there are Always kids present. Also, driveline is rough enough with one class (and the staticky walkies that make us send out the wrong kids.) Add in half of another teacher's class, and it's so much! Then you ask someone to hand out food boxes.

Behavior support system was re-vamped this summer, but the procedures are not being followed. Too many undocumented behaviors lead to small things turning into big things. Admin needs to hold staff accountable to follow procedures and provide extra support when asked (surrounding student behaviors).

More flexibility to use the NHA curriculum and pacing as a tool rather than the "one all be all".

Define what my daily responsibilities are. Show me what I am expected to do daily and help me manage my limited time so I can accomplish it.

I notice many students that have repeated behavior get away with lots of actions and are sent back to class with a snack or candy instead of consequences, therefore, their behaviors happen again. With this being a choice school we should be able to make the calls and give the students consistent consequences.

I think our school should have a safety officer on site during work hours.

Pay staff more and have better benefits for lower turnover.

The curriculum itself is great. I think we need to find more engaging books to get the kids interested in for ELA.

N/A!

Increase pay.

Smaller class sizes.

The writing could be revised. But other than that I love it here!

More information given to employees on how to grow within the company.

As a data driven school, I feel that it is necessary that the curriculum provide exit tickets for each core subject. It is taking up extra time to try and find exit tickets for reading and an exit ticket with similar rigor should be provided to help teachers measure student achievement and growth for each skill.

We need Sick time and Vacation time a couple of floating Holidays would be Amazing.

More coaching for teachers. Intentional data dives Remediation strategies for scholars

Overtime pay

Teachers and especially para professionals are going elsewhere to work because they can get paid more than at Foundations. Teacher's and paras will never get paid what they are worth, anywhere in the US, but NHA needs to do something to keep the good staff we have.

I am asked to do much for the amount that I am paid. In a school with leveled classrooms and 27+ in the room There is no way to be successful in the time given. I have to work 5+ hours outside of my contract to get even close to accommodating for numerus IEPs/ 504 plans, numerus ELL students, and the majority of the class being one or more grades behind. Not to mention IEP, Behavior, and other meetings all taking from my tiny amount of planning. As a young parent I am being asked to take time from my family for a job that doesn't pay me enough to afford daycare. If you want to keep staff you need to start paying for the work you are asking them to preform. There is too much busy work and shifting admin work onto the teachers. The teachers have too much to do already.

more sharing of EL practices

I don't believe that the e-team fully understands the excessive workload in the finance department, which is truly unfortunate. As you well know, there are still issues with Oracle, payroll, and state budget reporting. These take enormous time and energy to deal with.  Instead of "doing the right thing always" and hire staff to help with these large tasks, it is additional work dumped on middle management. Additionally, due to high turnover with School Finance Controllers (both general and grant), the same excessive workload is present. If we get sick, we work from home (not required from managers, but we feel we must.) Vacations are difficult: people are so busy and reluctantly cover assignments, as well as the returning workload is crushing. Our workload can often exceed 45 hours per week. This can result in financial mistakes and inadequate care of our schools. The work life balance is poor. We need more qualified staff to help carry the burden. When will this ever be addressed?

Opportunities to move up if you have gained a degree.  Make sure everyone have an fair  opportunity if they are equipped with the education.

Achieve is great. NHA is not.  NHA needs to improve its benefits for more experienced teachers. (Pension, higher pay scale for Masters degree, etc.) NHA currently has an unsustainable business model that doesn’t reliably value its more experienced employees, or incentivize  keeping them around.

There needs to be more accountablilty/responsibility for the students.  We say we have a dress code but it is not upheld in every classroom.  Students wander the halls with no accountabilitly.  There needs to be more team building.  Foundations has let their class sizes get to big and we are unable to handle all the disruptions.

No teachers go into education to make money but after multiple years at NHA I can make more as a first-year teacher at Grand Rapids Public, Kentwood Public and Wyoming Public and have better benefits.    At Ridge Park communicating is nonexistent. Principal only cared right before this survey.  Principal does not spend any time with teacher just deans.  No staff meeting. Do not know why student are gone or for how long. New lock dooring installed in office and was not told about it. Not told how to print in color with paper cut.    DSQ has unrealistic expectation on testing gains. We can be better than the state average and still not good enough. This makes teacher feel horrible that not making the gains. Goals are good unless they are unrealistic and unattainable.

Higher pay increases from year to year can help with the compensation.

Increase PTO with years of service tiers.  Pay staff for unused PTO days which would have a positive effect on staff attendance.

The admin team is not all on the same page. They do not communicate well with eachother or teachers. There isn't enough support for teachers with the two deans being stretched thin. Our deans have WAY too much on their plates. They cannot adequately support new teachers and behavior students.

N/A

I am concerned that the NHA is pushing too much curriculum on K and 1 students.  I am happy that Paragon does a good job of balancing it all however I think our expectations for very young children can be overwhelming for parents and students.

Rewarding educators who don't use all their time off days. A little bonus per day not used(like $10 or something) to show those who come to school everyday they are appreciated as well.

Teachers have no autonomy over what or how they teach. Social Studies and Science should at least be up to the teacher, as well as allowing autonomy over some of rotations.

Pay equivalent to Ottawa/Holland public schools-  transparency providing a pay schedule/lanes

Cleaner floors in my classroom and dusting. I come to school every morning and have to sweep and mop my floors

Providing more incentives to bonuses or ways to improve income

10 days pto

Compensating staff for all of the extra time they spend at school activities. Paying coaches more for the time they out into their players and travel time to other locations for games.

More funding needs to be dedicated to the sports program to pay coaches and attract and keep student athletes. This will help build positive culture. Teachers are not compensated enough and class sizes are too large. Having one planning a day is very emotionally and mentally draining. Teachers spend a lot of time investing in students emotionally and have little time in the day to recharge.

Please improve the edcite quizzes.

As we work to strengthen the culture within the school with high expectations, I would like to see the students be allowed to engage in more meaningful opportunities to experience things/events that other peers in similar schools experience. I would like students to be able to have tangible incentives to work for that are within their interest levels.

Sometimes information is passed informally through word of mouth and an email from a supervisor would help clarify the correct thing to do.

We have been told again and again that we need to teach the curriculum with fidelity in order to determine whether or not it is effective. We have been doing this for the past two years, and our students are still struggling to reach proficiency. Teachers need more flexibility in the ways that we address the needs of our classrooms.

Our students need smaller classroom sizes to support this heavy curriculum and more time to teach Social Studies and Science. These subjects are important for a well-rounded education. I suggest hiring two science teachers for lower-elementary and upper elementary. We also need leveled books for small groups, so that we may properly teach kids how to look for skills necessary for comprehension.

Vanguard continued to lose great teachers to surrounding schools because of their superior compensation.  I lost one of my close friends, the gym teacher, because another school would pay her more and she worked only 4 days a week.  We are currently losing our second grade teacher to the Grandville Public school for similar reasons.  If we do not match the competition of surrounding schools, we will continue to lose our most valuable teachers.

I rated work life balance high because leadership is making an effort to improve this area.  Reducing the number of PD Meetings, including mailbox meetings have increased the amount of personal time.  However, leadership needs to take a close look at the assignments employees are given, that require additional effort and time.  Specifically Open Court Unit Plans.  The appropriate office to complete this is Curriculum & Instruction.  During the year, while we are teaching, tutoring, extracurricular activities involvement, as well as routine lesson plan development and instruction, assignment requires too much time and effort.  I rated this area high this time, but if we have to do this in the future, it will not be.

Better health insurance plan, more coverage(massages, braces, fitness centers, physical and emotional benefits), higher 401K and Roth match, provide pensions, more PTO

Hire a new cleaning company!

Hire specific building subs so that paras and support staff are not constantly pulled. Also, for cleanliness, we need a garbage can at the playground.

Support by listening to my needs and taking them serious.

I think there should be a day off for staff in between testing (September-November) added to the district calendar.

To address the concerns raised, I recommend that NHA focus on providing a livable wage for all staff, ensuring compensation aligns with the increased responsibilities employees are taking on. For example, intervention staff are not fairly compensated, and while not teachers, they need a livable wage as recognition and kind words do not pay rent. I also believe there is a need for meaningful training and mentorship opportunities to support staff in advancing within the company. While positions for growth are mentioned, access to training and mentorship can be limited or unclear. With staff support, NHA would benefit from providing more foundational skills workshops for parents. The learning gap between what parents were taught and what is now expected of students creates challenges at home. Offering workshops that model what students are expected to do in the classroom would empower parents to better support their children’s education.

paras, especially special ed paras, should be compensated better for their work with some of the most challenging students in the building.

Meaningful consequences for student misbehavior.

Look for more opportunities to bring employees together and make them feel appreciated.

Newer editions, other programs, more supplemental resources

Cost of living has sky rocketed in comparison to compensation.

Na

N/A

Have crucial conversations with those who need them.

I think that it would be great to get recognition for people who have had very strong attendance and are always on time. Leadership has been great with the clarity on how much time we have available to take off which is great, but a little bit of recognition and compensation (doesn't need to be money!) for good attendance would go a long way. :)

Opportunities for more professional development and team building across the grade bands for individual and team success.  Professional development beyond what NHA has scheduled with the large meetings and summits.  Maybe specific subject area development so that we are presenting new and fresh ideas to our students for their learning opportunities.

I think it would be wise to ask school level employees about their experience with the Service Center.

NHA's current PTO policy is not aligned with those of neighboring school districts. In the public school district, unused PTO rolls over into the next school year. Also, when someone uses PTO, they don't need to provide an explanation (the current practice feels invasive and leaves the impression that if your manager doesn't agree with your reasoning, your PTO could be denied).  NHA needs to move towards allowing unused PTO to roll over into the following year and removing the requirement of justifying why someone wants to use their PTO.

My recommendations are as follows: Smaller class sizes,  a functional library, and a real gym can help promote benefits that allow students to develop various physical skills indoors, like in a typical school building—moving to a building where Intervention can happen in rooms separate from classrooms, which tends to be less distracting and gives students a surrounding that is for the sole purpose of retaining and understanding materials needed due to being below grade level. Create incentives to encourage students to attend school, besides a free dress down.  For example, students with 95% or more attendance, their names could be entered into a raffle for things like an iPad, gift cards, and movie tickets, to name a few.  Implement workshops for students/parents, such as testing strategies and teaching life skills.

Self explanatory.

Clear direction for improving unsafe scholar behaviors on an individual level

The 3-5 dean is awesome. But other leaders are not as sensitive and understanding as she is. I do not feel like my voice, feeling, and well-being is of any importance. There is also a lot of favoritism. The people who work hard and are compassionate about their jobs are often overlooked, those who don't care seem to get promoted and recognized. It is the opposite of a great managerial approach to growth.

Give teachers raises so we don't have to seek alternative incomes.

I think that Charter schools should find a way to be in line with the going rate of pay for teachers compared to Public school.  There is always an excuse why various funding affects this, but with creative leadership, I believe a solution can be and should be found.  Our school has an excellent reputation, is a blue ribbon school and has excellent, dedicated teachers who go above and beyond, yet they are not compensated. This is an embarrassing reflection on our school and what it values. It makes me feel undervalued and used as a teacher - that the leadership is just trying to get as much out of us as they can without the right compensation. With moral and often Christian values represented by leadership and charter schools, this is a poor reflection on those values. Compensation should be equal to the pay of public schools or even above it.

I don't have any. I'm being given a chance to learn, grow and belong to a sound, progressive and warm culture. I only hope I am living up to my part.

Janitorial responsibilities need to be addressed. A clear understanding for what is expected from site coordinator specifically.

Teachers should improve classroom management. Quest needs better trained educators.

Significant pay increases that exceed COLA - meet the rates of the city public schools

Take more action toward students' actions and behaviors. Students do not get the discipline that they need in order to see where they need to learn and grow. If they are making severe enough mistakes, they need to be disciplined in the appropriate manner.

Year after year there is yet another type of paperwork to complete, adding onto the teachers workload as well as the deans workload. Then it makes it more and more difficult to connect with the children and be able to help them grow.

Curriculum that aligns with where most students are/more support for students who are below grade level and are unable to independently complete grade level work.

I think we need more tardy days or at least where the tardy days can restart  monthly, Because I know with winter approaching most staff will be tardy or late, this can easily cause some of us to have disciplinary issues. Also its just the beginning of the school year. Just a thought

Continue to adjust based on feedback that was provided

Don’t tell us to do stuff after our contracted hours. Unpaid labor is not cool.

Snow days should be paid and shouldn't come out of the designated PTO.

The only thing I would say that could use improvement is teachers being more considerate of other teachers. We all have a role to play and follow and when someone is messing that up it doesn't flow well. When its addressed, I feel nothing is done about it.

Still underpaid by about 18% compared to the same position at local schools.

Clarity on taking PTO that includes flexibility to take it when it works for me/my family along with parameters to prevent me from feeling "icky" when taking PTO and instead encouragement and confidence to take time off and be out of the office; also on the distinction between paid holidays and vacations days, it sometimes seems like they are considered one and the same when they are not. That's it, that's all I've got! Thanks for asking/listening. :)

Intervetion staff needs more than a 50 cent raise at end of every school year. I would like to see more Bonuses for staff.

I love working for NHA. I feel like my boss values my input and is confident in my ability to manage my class, and know that I am capable and effective.

I think Special Education teachers get lost in the shuffle. Much of the acknowledgments and incentives are geared to gen ed teacher and students wants/needs. I believe as a whole, general education could become more informed and compassionate towards the efforts of special ed teachers and the accomplishments of special education students.

My own room to work in.

Interventionists should not have to use their pto days to cover when the school closes unexpectedly. We should have a set amount of days set aside to use for unexpected school closures. We also need to be paid a bit more based off work ethics and the amount of work that we do. Other schools do not have teaching interventionists and the pay is more.

High expectations placed on teachers make it difficult to achieve a healthy work-life balance. Responsibilities like field trip planning/communication would be an example of something time consuming that could be taken off of the plate of a classroom teacher.

More recognition, high five points, jeans pass, GOOSE pass, etc.

Start with all new cleaning staff

I would recommend the pay to be better to keep employees at Vanderbilt. I feel that I am worth more that what I am paid and all the roles that I have.

NHA should pay their staff equal or more than what teachers at public schools in the area are making.

More challenging curriculum and going back to the "pass & fail" system. Students aren't applying themselves because there's no risk of failing

There was a move to bring teachers in line with pay scales in the area, the same should be done for administration.

N/A

For OA's who work year around to have 4 weeks PTO of instead of 3 weeks PTO.  This would  allow us to take a vacaction during the summer months and still be able to use the reminder of our PTO for winter break and spring break during the school year.

Increasing salary ranges to rates that are equal/comparable to neighboring districts and reflective of experience, talent, and education for both teachers and adminstrators.

If I do the work I will like to be compensated for my work

Higher annual salary increments, and also instead of bonusses, provide salary increments. I believe teachers deserve more than $28 an hour.

The curriculum provided to the high school level continually excludes the needs or consideration of the special education population at the school. The implementation of "trendy" instructional models do not always address the needs of ALL students and teachers are pressured to stay on pace which doesn't allow for any accommodations or flexibility.  Assessments being standardized and the use of programs like Edcite creates a constant access issues as the programming does not always allow for accommodations OR for the special education teachers to access and preview the assessment.  This exclusion and lack of consideration violates many FEDERALLY MANDATED accommodations and creates a significant amount of work for myself and my co-workers. I spend more time than I should creating, accommodating and adjusting curriculum or teaching practices to ensure that my case load of students have the same opportunity to access the curriculum.

The problem I see is still with some follow through, to no fault of our direct manager who is doing her best with the amount of work she has, there are still some things that are falling through the cracks. I think this can be improved by more support for our middle school dean!

More competitive pay to gain a higher teacher retention rate

Many of the the new curriculums being rolled out have assessments that are a "one size fits all" approach and does not allow for accommodations to be implemented per student IEP's (i.e. Edcite does not allow for one MC choice to be removed, or simplified language). This prohibits access to the general education curriculum for our students with IEP's. The inquiry based math curriculums also seem to serve the brightest students best and miss the needs of the average or below average learner.

My managers are great. All feedback is for NHA corporate. I remain concerned about NHA's supposed commitment to students when all of their business policies and practices suggest otherwise. There are too many to name here (as I see they still restrict the choice and word limit of complaints but not of praise). NHA, while being in favor of choice, actively took away choice from students when they cut courses students had already signed up for. They don't act in the best interest of students when they make average class sizes above 30. They actively harm students by not providing programs, tools and compensation that would allow us to grow programs that would keep students. I love working at APHS. We have the best students in the world. I don't feel the same about NHA. NHA puts profits about progress. It's hilarious there is an emphasis on growing standardized test scores when class sizes are impossibly large. It shows a fundamental lack of care and understanding about how kids learn.

I feel like more PTO days would be more beneficial to most people, or if that's not possible, having an incentive for any days that you still have left at the end of the year (pay, high five points, etc) would also motivate people to not use all of their days

Put us on a salary schedule like the nearby school districts, so we can plan ahead instead of having to guess what kind of raise we'll get.

More sick days would be great as having two kiddos makes it hard to navigate illnesses and work.

We do not have enough staff to effectively support our students. There is no support given to the teachers or the students to help improve on academic achievement. We lost our EL teacher recently, and there's been minimal efforts made by the school to fill that role, which is a disservice to many of our EL students, who make up a large percentage of our student population. Because of lack of staff, many teachers have been pulled from their regular responsibilities to help cover on a regular basis. This is not sustainable if we want to see an increase on academic performance.   Management is all new, and while this is understandable, teachers are concerned about leadership. There has only been a focus on behavior. Although behavior is important, since there are three admin, it seems there could be more of a split of admin responsibilities. There has been no communication regarding teacher evaluations, observations, and/or regular O3s.

Compensation will always be my response for improvement, particularly when it comes to the compensation of veteran employees. It is unfortunate that NHA has failed to see the long-term benefits, financial and otherwise, of dedicating resources to the retention of employees. For example, a system in which a 1st-3rd year teacher gets a higher percentage raise than a 10th year teacher sends the message that new employees are worth investing in but veteran employees are not. Some solutions: develop a compensation model similar to traditional public school "steps", change the model so that veteran teachers receive a comparable or higher raise to that of the 1st-3rd year teacher, have everyone (not just new teachers) in a market-based model.   Some feedback for building: increased communication about student behavior and any consequences, better tracking of repeated behaviors, consolidating info and messaging so teachers get less emails and everyone seems to be on the same page.

We need to have the correct number of staff so people are not doing more than one job and being compensated for doing one. Please allow us to use all of the money that we get from the federal government to run the school instead of filling up your money-grubbing pockets at the expense of the kids.

Listen to and take feedback from teachers regarding the new curriculum (and other things). We are the professionals in the room teaching the curriculum so if there are errors or mistakes or barriers for students that can easily be solved (with feedback from teachers), those changes need to be heard and applied. Not listening to teachers' feedback from curriculum eliminates autonomy for teachers, creates an unsustainable work life balance, and negatively affects student learning. Not being heard and valued is a way to push teachers out.

NHA has long been focused on training new teachers, instead of focusing on keeping quality teachers. The reasons why people leave our school are mainly compensation. Every year I have to have the discussion at home on if I should apply at the local districts for an increase in pay. Every year I feel mad when we have to attend one more PD that was built for elementary programs/new teachers while the local districts are getting a much needed day off. Honor those who are veteran teachers and who are highly effective by not making them go to PDs built for non-certified teachers. Compensate them and honor their time.  Secondly, it is utterly ridiculous that someone in the tech division gets to decide what is appropriate to be unblocked for my high school students instead of me, a highly effective teacher for 18 years, or the experts that have been paid to create the curriculum.  Other topics: C&I needing more training Change the AP requirement or increase FTEs so HS can offer classes

A pay scale for transparency in pay would be helpful. Also, teachers who cover their coworkers should be compensated. Teachers and staff are burning out quickly. This could be relieved by hiring more people, like an additional ABSS and an online facilitator. We would be more desired if we were more comparable to surrounding districts salary wise.

Improve clarity around expectations, evaluations, feedback. Front office, admin, staff aren’t always on the same page.

My biggest frustrations are usually with TSC and our tech support infrastructure. I have become resentful of the ticket-submission process because more often than not, their response is "No." It was wack when I had that stuff happen with my paycheck last year.   Also, it would be awesome if we hired another English teacher so that I could get more experience in other roles. I have a Master's degree in K-12 administration and would like to gain experience that would allow me to build up that part of my resume. I want to do behavior-support/counseling/instructional coach type work someday, but it would need to be built into my schedule because I have very little time/energy to take on extra responsibility past my full-time teaching responsibilities.  I think that Batt knows all this stuff already and does what he can for me. I'm grateful for that. I'm happy to work here and to be a part of a great department.

Finding a way to continue to offer retention bonuses even though ESSER funds have run out.

I think this area needs to be broken down into other pieces, but mostly all staff need to be team players. We have too many staff not following policies and procedures, with and without being addressed by other coworkers and managers, and the students and parents are using this to accuse other staff who are following policies/procedures of being unfair.  This is hurting both our staff and student populations.

When NHA claims on their main website that they offer "above market salaries", they need to stand behind their word; it's hypocritical at best and professional dishonesty at worst. Either do what you say or take that statement off of the NHA careers webpage. I am making 70% of what my contemporaries with my level of education and years of experience are making in districts quite literally down the street from us.

We usually advertise our smaller school/class size. However, this year's class sizes increased due to funding and the reduction of classes has caused students to be lost in the mix. Younger students are more likely to cause issues in large classes and miss instruction to do class disruptions, as I've seen in my classes. I was also given only a 3% raise last year but that was under the inflation rate, which essentially means that I got a pay cut even though I have been here for 6 years.

As NHA continues to build high school within the company, there is support needed frequently that is sometimes not met that I think impacts the highschool level differently than the K-8 level.

Pay according to public school scales.

If financial responsibility is part of the core values, NHA (not GRP) does not exhibit smart allocation of many of the funds it has--primarily the marketing department. Huge costs are spent on items that would be better suited for staff compensation or school safety/maintenance.  If we are going to continue to be leaders in the High Schools, we need to keep ruffling feathers about this and about inequitable pay among the high schools and among new hires in their first 3 years vs. returning staff. UNCERTIFIED, new hires are getting paid the same or just slightly below people who have been at their school for 5+/10+ years

I would like us to continue to provide teachers with the training/opportunities to be experts in their classrooms. This includes experts in lesson design and implementations in addition to content areas.

More incentives as far as monetary bonuses for employees with perfect attendance at the end of each quarter or end of the year. Incentives for employees who goes the extra mile to be more productive and creatives with the things they do.

Administration here is amazing at Canton Prep. A few areas of concern include the amount of time we have to stay later than 3pm due to tutoring or meetings. Cutting down on this would greatly help with maintaining a work/life balance. Students use tutoring as an opportunity to wait for a ride rather than actually getting work done. Perhaps you could pay someone extra to sit in commons and watch students who need picked up until 4pm. Also, many teachers do not have their classrooms at all this year during their prep blocks. This is incredibly draining and forces more work to be taken home or done after school due to lack of productivity. Finally, lack of a resource room is an issue for students with accommodations.

We've been running way too tight of a ship this year, staff-wise. While I recognize there's only so much that the school's admin can do, I do feel that there's much more support that can come from NHA, and potentially better ways for our admin to utilize whatever support is already given. The biggest issue is that we need more people. Parapros, EL support, subs, etc. We've been asking teachers to fill all of these roles in the interim, and it is burning teachers out, making them more likely to want to leave employment here, worsening our staffing problem. It is also making it so that staff are not able to use their time for the intended purposes - college counselors, SPED teachers, academic specialists, instructional coaches, are all being used as subs instead of providing the necessary support they were hired to provide. Until this issue is fixed, the least that can be done is to offer some kind of compensation to people who are taking time out of their actual duties in sub classes.

I would love to see more opportunities for targeted PD utilizing resources like Wayne RESA, state conferences, etc. for specific skills or needs for specific sets of teachers.

More reading the room - focus on one or two initiatives at a time and let us perfect it before adding on the next thing. If we want to explore 3 or 4 at a time, let people choose and be part of focus groups. Perfect and switch up cohorts from time to time. More choice and autonomy in what we're learning about and how we're growing our practice. More time to talk to people we don't normally get to collaborate with and more time to do the difficult, meaningful work we're so good at.

out of all my schools, I have never had only 8 days for PTO. I think this number needs to be raised to meet what others schools offer. I think at a very minimum, 10 should be the low. I've been at schools that were between 11-14 days a year. The problem with NHA and people with kids is that we have to really watch our days because our kids get us sick. I have to really watch if I stay home sick or go to work. If I go to work, I'm not teaching to the level I could if I woudl have stayed home and got better. My overall view of my school and work day is diminished because of that experience. I would strongly suggest it gets increased to at least 10 days. That will be a factor in if I stay with NHA or not next year.

This is a perennial concern from many of us at this stage.  Many of our roles, especially program-critical positions are underpaid, this undervalued by NHA.  We miss opportunities to hire stronger talent due to our limitations on pay.  We lose strong, proven talent to pay disparities in other districts.  We're consistently in an on-boarding/training phase (where we even have staff!), that is proving to be exhausting for those is positions that are tasked with developing these new employees.  Further, this is exacerbating student behavioral issues, as many of our new teachers, both GE and SE, are under-trained and alternatively certified, so classroom management is an issue.   We need to be investing in the value of our talented staff and in the value of our students but continuing to review and revise pay scales for program-critical positions.  We are paying many multiples in contract rates and compensatory education expenditures that would be more wisely spent on the front end.

Organization and communication of what is expected of all of us as a staff. To provide the best time for our students.

I wish NHA as a whole had a better system in place for paid time off and FMLA.

Instructional time is too short for total enrichment. Reevaluate curriculum components and time allotments.

We are at a point where a review of the bonus qualifications and Eagle Award requirements need to be reviewed to determine if they are in fact appropriate for high schools.  We have been a part of the organization for four years now and there have been very few, if any, high schools who have won Eagle Awards and I believe that part of this is that the parameters are set up for K-8 and have not been reviewed to determine if they make sense for high school.  Success at the HS level looks different than success at K-8.  This is not a comment specifically about bonuses and awards but rather the way in which we see success at our different schools.

Better pay.

I would like to see my coworkers held accountable for not doing the basics of their job.

Limiting the number of days people can take off in a row is counterintuitive to what PTO is meant for. If someone is sick, they should be allowed to take more than 2 days off in a row without being forced to take an unpaid day off if they require more time off. If a staff member has saved their PTO and has enough days to take multiple days off for travel, they should be allowed to do it. PTO should only be limited once a staff member has used their allotted 8 days up.

If people feel intimidated by authority/officers and the issue is address it with fellow peers, that person should be remove or not be around anyone's work space making them feel uncomfortable.

I feel that having more subs in the building is really important so teachers who are not classroom teachers can stay consistent pulling their groups. Children are placed in these groups because they have high needs for support but their groups can become inconsistently pulled due to group teacher being pulled to sub elsewhere. I do understand that sometimes there is no choice and flexibility is necessary, but I do have concerns that children in these groups need more consistency.

Stop giving bonuses to new teachers and making the teachers who stay at the location receive nothing. Our turnover rate is awful because of this. Why would a young teacher stay when they can go get a new job and get a 8,000 dollar signing bonus. Its absolutely the most disrespectful thing you can do to an already over worked employee.

I think it’s important to keep offering the retention bonus and a pay increase each year to dedicated staff. The amount of work teachers do and give of themselves each day needs to be reflected in their paycheck. Bonuses and opportunities for higher pay are a must!

I think the discipline at the middle school is very fair but I think the punishment for K-3 is too light. I think they give the students in K-3 too many chances to fix their behavior before something is done.

8 days off for a whole year is absolutely ridiculous. It is impossible to meet all demands without burning out with only 8 days that dont even roll over. Embarrassing for NHA.

Could the hallway tables get cleaned/sanitized at the end of each day?

I would love if all communication went through staff before it went through students and families. Sometimes communication is told to families before it is told to staff members. Often feel out of the loop on things that could of been a quick email or text message. I also feel that admin team needs to help with behavior support more. When students have the same behavior more than three to five times in a row students need to be removed from the classroom until the behavior is changed.

Give teachers more freedom to choose what and how they teach the standards. We are highly educated individuals who work on the ground with our students. We know what is best for them, not an anonymous third party that has either not had experience teaching, or is so far removed from it they do not have reasonable expectations for what our students have the ability to do. We spend too much time testing our students and worried about "rigor" (which is important, and has its place), and not enough time worrying about the whole child we have in front of us. We need more time to let our students be children and the freedom to choose the best way to teach our students thinking about them as a whole.

I would recommend that we do not have to stay after on Wednesdays. The meetings are not beneficial and should just be emails. Our days are long enough already with starting at 7:40 with having students in our room and having students in our room until 3:40.

Sometimes curriculum is way too rigid and I feel that the administration team has to adhere by this and sometimes can't allow for flexibility. Structure is good for students, but sometimes, I feel that there is not a lot of flexibility and our managers have to adhere to that to keep with the NHA way.  Also, teachers need to be paid more. NHA is a very competitive workplace and teachers often have way more tasks and work harder than public schools. We need to be paid for it. We won't be able to keep teachers here if they are not paid well, but worker harder.  Thank you for listening!

Autonomy in implementing a program that has statistically proven to work.  With the current NHA Curriculum, I am forced more to follow the structure provided.

Trusting teacher to work with curriculum using their expertise, rather than relying on highly scripted structures and activities

Continue effort to communicate when changes happen and speak to those who will be impacted/involve those impacted in the conversation before changes happen.

Higher pay and/or more money to pay teachers for after school clubs.

Up are pay as a special Ed paraprofessional we should be betting paid more than 15.95 an hour.Its just as hard on us than it is the teachers.

I don't know

I strongly believe if teachers were paid more, there would be less turn over.

None

More instructional development in the multiple uses of technology.  For instance, details with Google Classroom and how Google docs, etc. are used with applicable programs.

While there has been improvements to the cleanliness of the building there are still major issues. The floors are filthy. More often than not the rooms are not cleaned and trash is left in the classrooms overnight. Proper supplies are not provided to clean and sanitize.  There is no work/life balance here. Staff is expected to stay each week for meetings that more often than not can be shared as an email. It seems that because the staff is contractually obligated to stay that this is forced upon the staff without consideration of the balance that is no necessary to keep employees engaged. Given that this is a woman dominated profession, the staff has to put family to the side and work first.  The partnership program should be offered to anyone that is in a teaching program that aligns with teaching positions within NHA not limited to the subject that the teacher is currently teaching. This would allow teacher to move into their field of study with ease as positions become available.

Better Dental plans

I believe that we need another para in kindergarten to be able to have a para for every 2 classes. We need to extra support with the scholars.

There isn't any recognition from NHA.

I think that due to the large class sizes, compensation should be higher. I think there are ways that technology could be utilized better by teachers and students.

Instead of rating teachers based on constant observations and focusing on what they are doing wrong, give them some space and observe less frequently and then coach, letting them know things they are doing well as well as areas where they could improve. You can see it when you look at staff members; they look tired, anxious, and overwhelmed.   Also, recognizing that staff members are more than just their position here at Holly park; they have families and lives outside of work and should not be belittled because of that. They also do not get paid enough to constantly have to buy new clothes and shoes to meet everchanging standards. First navy blue and white, now burgundy and black.   Several deans do not have a background in what they were hired to do (outside of Mr. Stradley). Ms. Powell is trying her best without a background in Special Education to take on the role of SPED Dean and 4-5th Grade Dean. That is too much to ask of one person.

We need smaller class sizes, meeting the needs and addressing behaviors of 28 students at once is overwhelming and absolutely exhausting both physically/mentally.

7 days PTO does not seem sufficient for most teachers.  I have noticed most of us get sick a little more often than that.

Realistically I'm just very burnt out and wish that we were compensated in a way that reflected that. As employees, we know that there is no way that we will come back from a survey identifying compensation as an area of struggle and expect a pay increase. It's possible to put more actions into place to take the stress off of employees who are not just financial.

Policies should be driven by the Executive team and not by divisional supervisors.  Policies that differ by department leads to us vs them approach.  For example, if I.T. can work from home 4 days a week and other departments are being motivated to come back to the office 5 days a week, it leads to a bad interdepartmental relationships with supervisors.

To improve the area that I identified I suggest having a merit increase 2 times a year.

Give teachers a livable salary so they do not have to work 2 or more jobs.

I feel like so much is being piled on my plate, and the plate isn’t getting any bigger. My family’s functionality is literally at risk because of the amount of work I have to do at home outside of school hours. I’d be surprised if I returned next year.

I have no recommendations

I am new to PVA and the average working hours that were portrayed to me have not been accurate, I routinely put in 9 hours days. It also seems that it is common and necessary for many administrative positions to work on weekends, which was also not communicated to me.

A job description market analysis for salaries and better job descriptions for titles.

I've talked to others at different schools who end at the same time but begin an hour later. What is Nha's policy regarding start and end time?

Increased pay

Our ELA curriculum does not suffice to make sure students are proficient. The curriculum does not give adequate practice with vocabulary & reading comprehension that they will be seeing on state assessments and are not written with an actual classroom in mind. There is not enough support for our MLL students or for our Special Education students when it comes to our Read Aloud and Shared Reading lessons. The lessons are also almost impossible to teach in the allotted time given to teachers and students, even with excellent classroom management and classroom culture. In addition, the ELA reading comprehension quizzes are not always aligned with the standards that we have taught that week, nor with the standards previously taught. We should not be assessing students on a standard that we have not taught.  To remedy the assessments, I recommend that the ELA quizzes be redone with teacher input to make sure that they are at grade level. To remedy the lessons, I recommend a new curriculum.

For a change try security, It will not hurt. Even if its undercover

I appreciate how admin takes our comments in consideration and makes changes as a result.

I strongly believe the value I bring to our wing and our students is not matched in the amount that I am compensated. I believe there are people who are compensated more than me who do not have the same dedication or have the same impact on our students. I wish there was opportunity to ask for raises outside of reaching out to other schools for job offers and hoping for a counter offer. I am not sure what the motivation is to go above and beyond otherwise.

Compensation seems off-average for educators in this area

Raises for all teachers or go to a 4 day work week. 4 day work week would also help with work life balance.

NHA has strong core values that are being utilized and focused on in other schools in other states. However, the NYC schools are not focusing on this core values and it is breaking down each building from within. Over the years, we have now seen low enrollment and high turnover due to this area. NHA should continue to make sure leadership team and teachers/staff within the building they employ are following along with their core values set for the company. If not, certain individuals will continue to break down these building and watch as the school's culture, academics, and overall environment degress.

NHA does not look into the backround of where are kids are at all the time. So many times there are topics covered that our scholars have no background knowledge on. This automatically gives them a disadvantage during testing time. The state test also always includes a fable in ELA and fables are not taught in ELA. There needs to be more collaboration between the cirriculm and what teachers are seeing in the room. It would allow NHA to include better books, stories, test questions, etc that are going to showcase the students academics more.

n/a

Although it is not in Leadership's control here at Quest on my compensation, I believe overall NHA should consider higher compensation for the role as a Paraprofessional. Although I am not the main teacher, there is a lot of collaboration and still a high expectation that I am to help my students excel. This is a role I enjoy and feel impactful, however, I don't believe it is viewed as that important to NHA overall. I do have a Bachelor degree, and I don't believe that was considered when deciding my initial compensation or even annual increase.

- Many times my admin does not follow through with things they say they are going to do in our O3s. There are many missed meetings with sometimes no communication about it being missed. We have a plan for them to come observe something I have implemented as a suggestion by them, and they don't show up. There is no communication about not showing up/ rescheduling.

The scripted curriculum is not effective. It is insulting to teachers and ineffective for students who all learn at a different rate.  Less emphasis on testing, more emphasis on PBL, play-based-learning, inquiry, and collaboration, and the test scores will organically rise.

Our building is gross. It is moldy, rarely vacuumed, never cleaned. Bathrooms are not clean. Many students and teacher have been out due to sickness from an unclean building.  It's October and we still don't have chromebooks. Young 5's and Kindergarten don't have any technology to help teach or do their online learning on Lexia or Dreambox. Chromebooks were ruined over the summer and became moldy, and all the cases were destroyed. It is hindering my teaching ability to meet curriculum standards.

More discussions throughout the year

In order to do ALL of the things required for a succesful online class I feel that our technology is underpowered.  Teachers should have two devices-- an All-in- one touch screen desktop computer (similar to a Dell inspirion 5415) will lots of additional memory.  Running a google meet and other programs like goguardian at the same time eachs up a lot of working memory.  Our HP laptops cannot keep up.  Additionally a tablet or touchscreen laptop for those times when teachers have to travel or work from other locations.  Our teachers are all over the country and sometimes can't work from home but still need to teach.  The essentials here are lots of working memory plus a touchscreen makes life easier for math teachers and grading. Like: Miscosoft Surface book or Asus ZenBook Pro. Other tech Suggestions : mics for better audio (HyperX quadcast), bluetooth ergonomic keyboards, bluetooth ergnomic mouse.

It would be nice to have more interventionists for other grades beside K-3.  I feel if they were offered some kind of salary  more people would accept this position.  I hear alot of feeback about not having income for the summer.  We need them...they provide so much to our school community

There are many things we are required to do that add STRESS but NO value !  Examples:  - If parents wanted to see their child's grade, they can log into Parent Portal. Why add more to do for the teacher w/ Wed. Emails? Data Walls - We should be allowed to track what we want, Interims, NWEA scores, Reading fluency... more value ! Students can look on the student portal ! Why does it have to be on the wall for everyone to see? I do not like when admin posts our class scores, I can't imagine the students feelings when everyone can see the red next to their name !  - I really think we should do TBT on our own. I feel like it should be required to be updated weekly with lesson plans, so it is more intentional. Sped - I do not understand why we are accepting students that we can not service, it takes away from the rest of the students and adds more stress for everyone Some student behavior is uncontrollable and it seems nothing is done until its too far.

When different admin are out of the building and teachers need support, the admin in the building providing support in a timely matter.

I do not want to be made to feel guilty for taking off work or not staying super late because I have a family

There are many responsibilities as a teacher. I don't believe that NHA is doing a poor job of helping with the above; it is simply the nature of the work itself.

The Bridges curriculum leaves much to be desired in terms of mastery.  Students who are already high in math can excel using the Bridges materials and learning path, but a student who falls behind or is weak in numeracy will struggle, become demoralised and give up.

I believe it would be beneficial to have academic teams, such as a literacy team, that works to find research based practices that it can then share with the school. Additionally, I believe there are poorly written questions in the math and comprehension quizzes that need to be adjusted or rewritten.

I feel that K-1 classrooms should all have para's in them.  Having a class with 28 kids, it is difficult to meet each child where they are at.  Coming from a Special Education position I really feel there is a need to be able to work in smaller groups at time throughout the day, we might be able to close the gap between the students.  I love working at South Point and I love everything about South Pointe and what we are doing here.   Principal Garza is an amazing leader, he honestly listens to what I need and does everything that he can do to try and make it happen.

With not meeting public school pay, what is motivating teachers to stay here? With the increase of living and not having a salary to support a family on, teachers are leaving left and right. With NHA filling the classrooms to the max limit without any support or benefit to the teachers, NHA is making more money and leaving the teachers to fend for themselves. Leaves me with the question, what is NHA doing to keep their teachers? I love Walker, but if nothing changes, I see myself leaving within the next year or so.

Being provided with a better benefits plan. Our insurance does not cover much, I always have to pay out of pocket fees, and am unable to have necessary procedures done because they will not be covered. My current doctor is no longer willing to work with our insurance company, so now I have to try and find a doctor who participates with our plan.

Student focused initiatives to keep the building clean. Students need to understand cleanliness is also their responsibility.

Let teachers find their own PD to attend throughout the school year

I don't have much. Sometimes I get worried when important information is delivered in the Gchat and not in emails. I can easily miss Gchats throughout the day, but emails I can easily see and save. My other pick would've been the moral focus program. I believe the moral focus virtues are great. However, the majority of the moral focus curriculum is designed for brick and mortar schools. I would honestly call this "small potatoes" though.

I think there should be more consistency agree grade levels and to have more innovation when it comes to our technology and applications. I feel like too many teachers depend on apps that aren't our main LMS, such as classkick. I think it should be a tool but not the main LMS for students

I would suggest for issues to be addressed immediately and find ways for all teachers to be heard and supported. Since there are so many new people, I think we need more team outings or team building activities at the whole school meetings.

We need more school wide events surrounding moral focus and more time to teach it in the classroom.

We have a handful of students in our building that make classrooms unsafe and teacher's burn out quicker than needed. Would extreme behavior like many people in the building have seen be a reason to uninvite certain students from continuing their education at this school. We have all students and parents sign the commitment to excellence but not all students represent this behavior. How can we as a school hold students and parents accountable for behavior. Teachers should be able to come to work and teach not having to parent other peoples children. I believe continuing letting the certain handful of kids continue their extreme behavior they are demonstrating to their classmates and peers that nothing serious happens if you do what you want at school. How can we fix this?

Our NHA culture has changed over the past 2 years with increasing demands on Service Center employees and School staff. It feels that our culture has become "do more with less." The number of schools are increasing, without the number of C&I specialists to support the schools increasing. Out of 19 schools that I support, there are 11 new teachers that were hired after New Teacher Summit and did not receive the onboarding training. The teachers now have to sacrifice supporting students to complete the late hire modules. If there could be built in time for new teachers at regionals or 1/2 day trainings that would be very helpful.  I lost 3 teachers inn 2 weeks to go to public schools. Deans complete compliance on top of subbing in the classroom to cover these positions. I love the theory of our Deans, but the reality is they are stretched so thin and they are in charge of too many grade levels to coach effectively. They need more instructional coaches to support or more Deans to support.

Pay your employees fairly and competitively based on the county they work in. I am underpaid by 4k.  There is new proposal on the ballot asking for additional tax dollars coming from Guilford County that will be used to hire and retain teachers, as well as increase salaries. NHA needs to watch this election closely and match the financial changes that will be coming to Guilford county.  We will lose experienced teachers to the county and not be able to get new teachers. Please increase our salaries.

I would like to see more opportunities for advancement.  This could be trainings for advanced placement within NHA or South Arbor. Also, programs to assist in getting further degrees like masters and doctorates.

Work-Life Balance; Manager; Behavior  Following through with behavioral procedures, enforcing in school detention (TOR), reasonable deadlines for submitting lesson plans as there is no time to complete during school hours and no one should have to bring work home.

The staff bathrooms and classrooms seems like they don't get mopped. I feel like only the big classrooms get swept.

Perhaps we could use a security guard. There are always students running in the halls and lunch room which is dangerous and i have been pushed before accidently. Kids just seem very unaware of their body and there are many accidents. Perhaps we can incorperate some sort of body awareness curiculum or really enforce no running during lunch. I understand that children need to be active. I think the recess time is way too short and they should be given more opportunities to run and play so they can actually sit down and focus when it comes to class time. Our recess yard is also really unpleasant, it is often dirty and the dirt is not great for students to play in. I think a rennovation to the "playground" would be realy great for the scholars.

N/A

Putting students' and families' needs first is and should be the primary focus of a school. However, this cannot truly be done without fully supporting staff and teachers. I would prefer to be paid less and have fewer expectations that require me to work 60+ hours per week in order to be considered effective. I love teaching, and this causes me to doubt whether its worth the cost to remain a teacher.

Make the PD more appropriate to job expectations and job specific.

Recognize teachers more for the small things that sometimes go unnoticed.

Refrain from adding additional duties to those which already exist. There is not enough time in the school work day to complete everything that is asked. Too many hours after school and on weekends are needed to stay current with work requirements. I feel rushed most of the time or that I am not doing enough. NO WORK LIFE BALANCE.

The GOAT initiative is a great example of recognition that admin has implemented. I think people are just hoping to hear some more of the things going well in the building and that we are succeeding in on an individual/personal basis, as well.

 more reteach days for each subject

I feel like we should get at least 10 PTO days 8 just isnt enough in one school year.

Increase the frequency of mopping and sweeping of the floors. Stains from spilled lunch food is left in the stairwell for days. Please try to clean / mop the stairwell daily.

It would be helpful to know as soon as possible any changes that will impact the staff or that the staff has to do, and in some cases stress the topic ahead of time so that everyone is aware.  This will prevent staff from having to keep making changes to things that have been done and it causes tension between staff and managers because we may already feel stressed and overwhelmed.

When initially hired, it felt as though I was in a place that cared immensely about the well-being of its employees and provided many ways of demonstrating that. Recognition was a staple, opportunities to connect with team members near and far were provided often, and flexibility was given (within reason) to accommodate life's curveballs. As the years have gone on, culture and morale have plummeted as people, including myself, have been reduced to numbers. Any perk that once existed has been cut, more output is expected with less time and resources, roles are drastically shifted at the drop of a hat, and our voices and expertise have felt valued less than ever. My recommendation would be to listen to the employees of the organization by hopefully taking action on the results of this survey to strike a balance between practicality and investing in employees. I fear that otherwise, quality employees will continue to exit the org leading to further feelings of instability and uncertainty.

1. The pay is matching others around us, and we have been a B school for three years we need more.  2. The admin team needs to be cohesive again because their tension is spilling over on the staff. 3. It is distracting when ten people walk in a classroom together. I understand observations are necessary, but it should be split. Max of 3 at a time

Treating each student with Respect and Care. It is difficult to see some Teachers constantly frustrated with Students and treating them as inconveniences instead of taking the opportunity to help them learn and grow. All Children do not show up to Paragon as Scholars: some students have no regard to structure. Some Teachers are wonderful giving students space and direction to grow. Others are lacking Compassion to help Students achieve. Holding all Teachers and Staff members accountable to "Behave with Care", could have a great improvement.

Needs to be a re-evaluation in terms of work completed and need, reflects bonuses.

The annual salary increase has been decreasing with this past year being the lowest I have ever received. Seniority and longevity at a school should have a higher increase percentage even for support staff than a teacher that is just starting or is brand new. Higher Retention bonuses should also be considered for support staff that have longevity at a school compared to staff that is brand new. Our compensation should not be decreasing as our commitment years to the school and company are increasing.

When hiring ensure that the individuals coming aboard are informed and can actually handle the job they are signing up for.

Allow more open work time, as opposed to filling all open time with meetings.

The moral focus curriculum is not designed for on-line learning. The ELA curriculum is not designed for on-line learning with sites and vids blocked even for the teachers and instructions like "turn and talk" and "fill out the attached print-out". NHA needs to have an on-line curriculum for its virtual schools, no? Also, as most of my students are Black and at or below the poverty line, more current texts from more diverse writers would be a good thing. For instance, the ELA8 curriculum has Shirley Jackson, EA Poe, WW Jacobs and Ray Bradbury are the writers in the short story unit. Couldn't we have Louise Erdrich, Tanihisi Coates, Isabelle Allende and Zora Neale Hurston instead? Something like that? My two cents.

Powerschool or similar tools that are not proprietary and are already past their beta testing periods. Improved technology for classroom use including email, online meeting, and other communication tools for students.

When doing committees that require many hours being able to be compensated in some way such as a small stipend or being provided additional planning time when appropriate.

I don't feel like the compensation compensates for the job duties during and off the clock. There is a lot expected of us that mostly happens after school hours and on the weekends.

More autonomy with the teacher's curriculum pacing guide. It is inefficient for scholars with deficiency as result of academic instability, inconsistent academic program with rigor or with reading deficiency below grade level.

I believe in order for Eagle Crest to retain qualified teachers, we must pay them equal to what local public schools are compensating for similar positions. Over the last few years, we have lost many of our most veteran, excellent teachers to local public schools for the sole reason of compensation making that decision for those previous staff members.

We need to actively recruit more teachers without relying on HR. The biggest issue is being understaffed so even people's best efforts aren't enough to truly accomplish our mission.

I'd like to be paid more for the amount of exp[ectations that are placed on me in my role.

Unproductive student behaviors are rarely dealt with or swept under the rug.

Be able to stack our time together!

Smaller classroom sizes would be really helpful to effectively impact student education positively.

*Additional, qualified staff members are needed.  *Stop enrolling students who get kicked out of other NHA schools. Too much time is spent on students with extreme behavior problems. This takes a significant amount of instruction away from students who want to learn. Unqualified staff with large class sizes and a handful of behavior problems is not beneficial to anyone. *Allow for more movement for students--Kindergarten needs more play time.  *Stop taking recess from students.

I feel as though some students are superior here and they get away with a lot more. Those we don't get as much help or answers for. I also feel as though the students put in my room this year are a lot more challenging. I wish that safety was also better here. I have not felt as safe this year from the start, especially with the way students have been acting in my room. I think we could still improve overall with support.

The school has high standards and cumbersome policies for teachers but the school cannot provide corresponding support to teachers. Teachers are often in an "isolated" state because the school cannot serve as a strong backing for them.

If a website is blocked and teachers want it to be unblocked, it would be great to follow the recommended process, submit a ticket, and simply be able to access the website requested within a matter of a day or two. I've followed up many, many times and our IT/Security department simply has not been able to figure it out. A new process, new policy, new program, or new leadership may be necessary.

In speaking to public school teachers, the workload that is expected from us at NHA (Vista in particular) is significantly higher than what they are expected to do. Our compensation should be the same, or higher, than local public school districts, especially for teachers who are effective and have masters degrees.

Provide more than 7 days of PTO/sick leave. People with families that have to take care of sick children have little to no help in this area.

Stop treating the schools like a cash machine. More students doesn't mean better education. We don't have the quantity/quality of staff to educate the kids. We are expected to grow size wise but that's not a good idea when we don't have the staff to teach. We should have limited the number of classes per grade. The pay is not great, our time off doesn't roll from year 2 year, so we will use all the time we have, but we don't have the staff to cover!  We have kids in our classes that shouldn't be. When they are screaming/crying all day and I mean ALL day they are disrupting the whole class. When there is defiance, non conforming behavior, kids who have been expelled from other NHA schools, they shouldn't be allowed to be in any NHA school. We lose so much time across all grades dealing with behaviors that we are not able to be at our best. We are exhausted, frustrated and burnt out. Will you take any of this into consideration...no. Nothing has changed in all the time I've been here.

NHA should not develop their own curriculum. I can't imagine more poorly developed curriculum for the classes I teach. I think any textbook/online resource no matter how inexpensive would be superior.

Meet the students were they are and then bring them up to speed.

Give teachers a break. Quit having meetings every Wednesday. Lighten the load of annotating. Stop taking up multiple plannings a week.

I often do not receive information in a timely manner. This put me behind on work and sometimes makes it confusing when trying to determine my role.

I feel like I'm observing a lack of support for new hires in terms of the training they need to have to perform their jobs adequately. I would like to see improved communication and clarity for expectations that are reinforced consistently. We need stability in order to grow and develop.

If NHA wants to keep special education teachers and general . education teachers, they need to look at local public school districts and have competitive pay wages to avoid such high turnover rates.  I love the school I work at; however, we continue losing people to other districts who pay significantly more.

Continue to simplify: For example it has been so helpful the way that most of the communication and money collection are now in 1 place with Parent Square.  NHA & CC needs to continue to simplify staff to staff comm. (perhaps less email in general).  NHA needs to streamline for staff where to find trainings to 1 place.  ? cut out emails about those altogether - staff could just visit the ONE website and see what learning is due.  I would need a bit more time to think on how CC could simplify communication expectations for staff.  I value communication very highly, but cannot take time from teaching to stay up on SO MANY communications.  It is overwhelming and very taxing.  This is echoed in the expectations that are asked of teachers - sell this, collect this, record this, collect data/enter data on this, hand this out at conferences, speak this at conferences...often people forget how many expectations are ALREADY on teachers. esp w/excellence - the teacher striving for that.

Reduce the number of required communications

Fewer meetings and more help from the parents for after-school events. Free teachers from non-teaching and non-academic related activities. Allocate more prep time.

Smart boards in all the classrooms

It would be nice to at least get $20.00 an hour especially since I have years of experience and the cost of living is so out of control these days. As a para, I feel like we should also get paid for snow days because we have no control of the weather.  I have said this every year and don't understand why it is not considered.

This is an NHA problem, so not really sure what we as an individual school can do about it unfortunately.

I think the curriculum has lots of areas that should be modified to meet the needs of our students without compromising our expectations of the students or our academic rigor.   An idea that I have: Curriculum roundtables:  Over the summer (or maybe during a PD), you take 2 teachers from each grade or wing- the newest teacher & the oldest  teacher (teaching years not age). From there, you talk about what's working with the curriculum and what's not. You get a well rounded  This way, teachers all across the country look forward to the C&I team when they come to observe. It's  giving "I'm here to help, not harm:)

Having desperate questions about the school level versus company level would help with answering questions. I love my school, but there are things the company does that makes it feel like the employees don’t matter. That makes this survey feel lopsided and unfair. Things that have been done at the company level have really put our school in a difficult situation and no one has asked for feedback at a higher up level which feels like a shame. As teachers we are given a lot of feedback but it does not feel like we are able to give the same feedback when our goal should always be elevate the kids needs above our own COMPANY wide not just at the school level. Please give us separate questions that are accurate and not biased. If you don’t want your schools to be revolving doors then ask questions that will give you better feedback.

This year we have changed and added new programs to all new grade levels, however, we have also added items that are timely and not student relatable for kindergarten (portfolio). Older students can understand the concept of picking their favorite work or items they feel are important and want to keep. Younger students do not have the capacity for this yet. Instead of adding more work to our plate I wish that it would be taken into consideration what changes are already occurring with testing, behavior input, as well as all of the other changes that we are dealing with at  the beginning of the school year. If you want to provide your employees with a work life balance, think about the big picture and the time all of the little things take instead of continuing to add more to our plate.

1. Bonuses and/or raised salaries  2. More PTO days / allow PTO days to roll over and collect + be able to cash out  3. Higher investment matching  Other improvement areas:  -lower class sizes

Behavior support- I think there needs to be a clear vision with clear consequences for student behaviors. I know several teachers who feel burnt out on behaviors in the classroom. Defiance is difficult to handle in a class of 29 kids!

My work-life balance as a para is fine. However, many teachers spend large amounts of time after school and on weekends to keep up with the expectations.  It would be nice if more resources were provided (premade anchor charts, catalogued worksheets that they could quickly to pull from for differentiated work, etc.) to save on the extra work outside of contract hours.

I think our staff should get paid more for the work we do. Many of us do more than our job description entails and should be compensated for such.

Our days off have decreased over the years which does not support the work-life balance. For instance, I barely take off work because we do not have reliable substitutes provided for our school, it is more of a stress to take days we need off. Also, our days do not bank and I have an important trip before a holiday and we don't get those days paid off.

I believe advancement opportunities and compensation are interconnected. To be considered for a senior AR position at NHA and per our NHA policy, one generally needs two years of experience as AR and a solid track record, which I possess. However, it’s disheartening and discouraging to see others promoted to senior AR roles without meeting the two-year-requirements and were simply promoted after one year! My hope and wish is that this policy is reassessed, as many of us were initially informed that we needed two full years of experience as AR to even apply for a senior AR role.

I feel that C&I needs to work with individual schools in order to create a better curriculum that fits the student profiles of the school as a whole, instead of a one size fits all approach

Giving teachers/ staff who are not in a leadership role at least 10 PTO days and 5 Sick days as we as staff get sick majority of the time here at work.

As always I feel like paraprofessionals are underpaid. We do just as much work as the teachers. On top of that us not getting paid during the holiday breaks and summer is unfair to me honestly.

There are a few students in each classroom that make it very challenging for teachers do to their job effectively this year. Many teachers are frustrated with the lack of support and limited understand of our position. We are expected to teach and grow scholars minds while other students make that nearly impossible. We are told to keep them in classroom but learning cannot be done when they are in there.

I would like professional and regionals to be at our home school, then extra time and traffic wouldn't be a stressor.

None!

Meet the child on their level.

Gym door has been propped open since the beginning of the school year all day long so we have not had a secure school at all this school year even though we have had threats against us.  Unfounded or not, we should have all doors locked and closed.

Daily wet mopping in rooms where lunch is served.  Provide vacuums or swifter to k and y5s to clean up after lunch. Provide a room for lunch preparation. The hallway to recess is very crowded and messy.

Better maintenance

One area that just rubs me wrong is that we talk about NHA valuing families but when it comes to medical insurance, we have to pay extra to cover our spouse.

I love CCA, but am making less than $16 an hour and have been here for over 3 years. My family is really struggling, and I do love my job. I have to cover 2 hours of lunch shifts, but make even a few dollars less than my normal wage during my lunch/ recess shifts. Those are the reasons why I selected the compensation as an area to possibly improve on. Thank you for your time.

I truly feel every child has a right to a free and good education.  However, there is a fine line between when we can get through to a child and they change because they feel the atmosphere is for them and not against them and they take the ball and run with it as we encourage them.  It is a different story when the same continual offenders are rude, disrespectful and downright abusive in the classroom robbing those that are their to learn and flourish.

Teacher don't feel heard. Leadership (admin) don't provide useful resources to teachers when they need help or feel overwhelmed. Administration tend to talk down to teachers and do not provide them opportunities to further their career and rise in the rankings. There tends to be a racial divided and black teacher are not offered the same opportunities as white teachers.

We need a better system to vet the students we are admitting to our school. When we allow students that have been expelled from other schools due to unsafe behaviors that puts everyone else at risk and overall decreases the culture and value of the education we are trying to provide. I am not sure if you are aware, but Orion is not like the other NHA schools. Our families live in the poorest neighborhoods in Cincinnati, Ohio and are coming in already at a disadvantage. We should be doing what we can to protect our students and families by not allowing certain behaviors to be allowed. We are creating a bad reputation for Orion Academy as a behavior school and we are not that.

Employees should be compensated according to their degrees and qualifications. Compensation should also be equitable to other NHA buildings and local districts.

Have a clearer pay scale & bonuses

I would like to have the opportunity to meet with an NHA representative to discuss benefits in detail, especially in regard to retirement benefits and options.

I don't think we need to drive to Grand Rapids for professional development.  I can learn so much from the people inside my own building.

Promote within. Share open positions with people who have expressed interest in the past

Provide competitive salaries, or if this cannot be done offer vacation /sick days or some type of time off which also needs to be offered to be competitive.  Additional comments:  1)  Students would benefit from more time outdoors than they are given.  There are many reasons why and much evidence to support this, but the bottom line is that I think classroom behavior would improve and off-focus behavior that impacts learning and takes away teaching time would decrease.  This additional time could be a well-being class, movement class or something and not just free-time.  2)  Food /.nutrition /health/ well-being education in some capacity would be extremely beneficial for these students.

Urban and inner city schools deserve the same, if not more, resources as other schools. Other NHA schools have updated classrooms but Oakside does not. Oakside should have more access to paper, both for students and staff, extra copier machines, a staff lounge on both sides supplied with coffee and tea etc. Roof should be repaired, all classrooms should have at least two bulletin boards. Floors should be repaired. Students should have access to HEALTHY school lunches and all staff members and students should receive at least a 30 minute lunch break etc.

We need more off days and personal time.

Other staff actually trying to understand what the SpEd department does and doesn't do.

In order to take better ownership for the success of my students, I believe that it is important to structure my classroom in a way that is effective for the learning of my students. There is a lot focusing on the "best practice", but what if it's not what works best for my classroom's learning environment. I don't have a problem with trying out new practices, but if it doesn't apply to the setting of classroom, I would like the autonomy to implement the practice in a way that is more beneficial to my classroom.

Classrooms, bathrooms, hallways are cleaned more regular and consistent.

Please stop asking so much of teachers. It is October and we are burnt out. The meetings after school, making teachers teach CIPA, bringing new students with NO warning, having to sign in in the morning, the PRINTERS not working, a million and one requirements, there is no autonomy (if I need to reteach a lesson...why do the kids HAVE to take the quiz before they have mastered the standard?), student behavior (same students, no consequences), etc. I could go on but does it really matter? The teachers here feel like there is NO support for US. We are in the classroom, doing the work and how are we rewarded? WITH MORE WORK! It never ends and we do NOT feel appreciated ! Why did nobody from People Services come speak to us this year? Also, we should NOT have to work a FULL day, have parent teacher conferences, AND work a FULL day the following day. Then to put the ownership of having 100% parent participation on the teachers is insane. We cannot be responsible for adults!

Curriculum doesn't seem to align well with assessments.

Create the budget to allow for a more competitive salary/hourly wage for everyone below management. The salaries/wages should be in line with other schools. We should also have more PTO at least 10 days a year, and allow us to roll it over to the next year. Our compensation and PTO lags far behind virtual schools and area schools. Teachers and OLM's are continuously being given more assignments and additional curriculums to implement and track.   I believe it is okay to let go of a curriculum that does not work virtually. OLM's should be supporting the teacher by teaching differentiated lessons based on data digs not teaching different curriculums.

Provide more opportunity for individuality in teaching and differentiating.

There are surrounding schools paying higher wages, it would be nice to stay somewhere that you like working. Instead of leaving to get the higher wage somewhere else, but not liking it as much.

Do a DEEP dive into all subject areas of curriculum and adjust accordingly to academic levels of students in class or overhaul NHA curriculum so that ALL students can be successful with NHA curriculum.

Cut back on O3's.

Create a list of available leadership roles that we can apply for.

When our school opened, my job was literally two separate jobs, one FT and one PT.  Work-life balance is difficult to maintain when I have twelve different preps every week, across three separate disciplines of my subject.  I love working here - the culture, coworkers, and administration are second to none.  I know that our enrollment numbers are down and that there is no chance in the short term of my getting assistance.  I would appreciate it, though, if we could put a PT staff person in my subject on the long term plan.  This would enable us to offer more electives, and would grow our program by virtue of allowing each staff member to focus on one or two disciplines, rather than all three.

Get input from all teachers in the subject/discipline when deciding on a curriculum.

Increase pay for the lowest tier employess

AP has a top notch staff and they are a big reason the culture of this school is so positive. They need to be well compensated to keep them here and not leave for careers that pay better.

I have already shared this feedback with my manager, but as a leadership team, during times of high-stress, big decisions at the school level, and lots of changes, I think it's important for our leadership team to meet more frequently to ensure everyone is in the loop on all the changes that are happening across the school so we can appropriately and accurately respond when staff come to us with questions or concerns.

I think that as a para, we should get the same time off as teachers. We get paid less and often get sick more, need to take off more time for other reasons involving low income situations. We also shouldn’t be disciplined after being out 6 days in a year if teachers can take 10 days without a warning. Even if we aren’t paid off after 40, punishment and write ups shouldn’t start until 10 plus days off. Working with kids gets us sick a lot and we get paid less meaning we may need to take off if our car breaks down or if our kids are sick, etc.

Cleaning staff needs to be more thorough. I did an experiment with a dead worm in my room to see if it ever would get swept up, and it stayed there all year long last school year.

Interactive smart boards more interactive learning and less paper used.  The use of AI tools to develop practice problems.

This building is old and moldy. The carpet is stinky and dirty. The stairs way including the walls is always sticky and dirty. There is food stuck to the walls and smashed into the carpet most days. The bathrooms are not tended to in a timely manner. The floors are always wet and slippery, which is a danger to all who go into the bathroom.   HIre a company who specializes in keeping the school building clean. Hire cleaners that are really going to clean and not hide in the office all day.

I would like more businesses to be included in the perk spot.

Technology: Would like to have us go back to being one on one with chrome books.  Having only a class set makes it harder to do somethings efficiently, especially testing.

Have the ELA curriculum teach students more concrete concepts, have different styles of text/literature throughout the year.

Class-size reduction and more support. Less redundancy in documentation.

In order to plan to teach the students the teachers need to be given time to plan to teach and engage the students. We need time to analyze data on our own to execute a plan to respond to data. At this point in the year, we have not been given time to do this. We have had meetings after meetings after meetings. At those meetings we have been given so many new tasks. Whether small or large tasks they are piling up on a plate that is already full. With a class size this large, our plates are overflowing. I am taking work home every night and every weekend just to barely get by. I want time to make the lessons fun, get my room ready for the lessons, make copies, respond to parent emails, respond to behaviors, make bulletin boards, and so on. The gift of time is always talked about but not actually given. Staff meetings should happen once a month, not every week. I understand it is necessary for certain test trainings or things that need to be said or taught to everyone, but it is unnecessary to meet every week t

This is a year of transition at Wellspring Prep. With that comes a lot of challenges. However, the lack of support for teachers covering multiple classes each day is big problem for morale. Admin is struggling to catch-up on behavior intervention, ABSS is ONE PERSON for a school with high frequency and high magnitude behaviors, and WSP is sorely lacking in an adequate number of staff to provide ample coverage and support for the rest of the staff. If some of the Admin vacancies were known ahead of time, why were they not filled before the beginning of the instructional year? Or why was no one already familiar with NHA's mission and policies asked to fill in at least temporarily to smooth the transition? Wellspring is feeling like a forgotten arm of the NHA body. The school needs staff, teachers, and admin support to be the best choice for students and families to get a quality education. If that is one of the goals of every NHA school, Wellspring needs support to get there.

More days off and support staff that is available as assigned. Most of the time the support person is pulled to address other needs in the building. This leave more work on the teacher they are assigned to and causes work to be taken home.   The most valuable asset is Principal Kisor's positive vibes and transparency that has often got me through days.

More virtual PD's

Police officer to make visits. Get improvements to the champions list thing to get the fun things back. Spirit week, penny wars, the thanksgiving donation thing

With inflation, the hourly staff should be compensated according to that.

The ELA curriculum is not good. This is my fourth year working with it. NHA takes articles from other sources (Commonlit, NewsELA, etc.) and then doesn't even use the multiple choice questions. Charting is not preparing students to answer comprehension questions nor is it setting them up for successful constructed responses. The differentiation is horrible and NHA needs to do a better job of supply the teacher with accommodated resources.

Leadership needs to be better at supporting teachers, COMMUNICATION, and making expectations clear for new hires.

Implementation of a pay scale.

No room for creativity Less focus on script , more focus on teaching skill Shorter lessons . Time allowed is often not enough time based on students level of development.

I think we should get 2 weeks PTO also the paraprofessionals should get paid for snow days along with the teachers.

Metro leaders should have more empathy and compassion for their staff. Metro should also provide the proper resources for staff. Staff need positive feedback that doesn't turn into self reflection of the leader. The culture in Metro has went down tremendously. As a staff member, I don't feel confident in talking to the leaders or staff. Work for me is for the students to grow and become successful adults.

More raises with consistence attendance & positive evaluations.

Given the high cost of living and the extensive hours teachers work, including weekends and evenings, adequate compensation is crucial.  Additionally, the recent policy change preventing teachers from bringing their children to work when schedules differ or when they're unwell is concerning. With only 8 days off and health issues in my family, I'm worried about having enough PTO to cover illness. Enhanced PTO is vital to manage emergencies and maintain our well-being, especially since we work in environments with high exposure to germs.  Thank you for considering these suggestions to better support staff well-being and financial stability.

Be upfront with US as a WHOLE about rooms being shutdown and the reasoning behind them as well.

For certain instances some may not want to do things in front of their peers due to feeling judged, made fun of, etc. Maybe find a way to include those people in the culture building so that everyone is involved

I think we should have multiple curriculum to meet our students where they are in order to get them where they need to be. When we have students who are multiple grade level behind it’s hard for them to play catch up with the grade level content.  There should be multiple ways that the skills and standards can be taught and with multiple curricular tools. Not all schools have the same needs so there should be something for urban schools that is different to meet the needs of urban schools.

It feels like there is too much tension and division among our "team." DSQ, principal, deans. How will we, as the teachers under them feel safe and supported when our leadership is at odds? No one has ever said it out loud, but just observing how our recharting went it appears that the team is not on the same page. Differing ideas are ok, but this feels like more. I respect and appreciate each one of these team members. I just want our staff to feel more in tune and it has to start at the top.

Paragon is always moving forward, looking for better ways to accomplish goals and meet expectations in every area. I don't think any of the above areas need mentioning.

I heard retention bonuses will no longer be offered. If that could be re-evaluated or increase in pay can match what will no longer be received in the retention bonus it would help with compensation/pay at NHA.

What comes next?  How do I go about a Masters?  Compensation?

Managers come in quite often and sstop the lesson we are doing to fix desks, discipline students, question what the teacher is doing, etc. It throws off the lesson and makes teachers constantly be on edge feeling like they are doing something wrong at all times

Inflation has hit our country hard.  An increase in our reimbursement for our classroom purchases would be very helpful.

I'm enjoying learning new policies and procedures this year.  My manager supports me my ideas and gives me space to grow.  I could always use a raise with higher costs of living.

We got delayed days taken and our time keeps getting taken from us but our task keep getting more detailed. Once every three months we get breakfast coverage for a week and the possible half days every once in awhile is all we have as well as maybe 40 minutes if our students can get into specials on time. We need less tedious tasks, less double checking the same things, and more time for teachers lesson planning.

CPI training for classroom teachers to build confidence & safety in crisis responses.    Trauma-informed teaching to build resiliency & confidence in teachers and support them in understanding the trauma that affects classroom behavior and performance.

N/a

As a teacher I feel that 5 PTO days is not enough. We are around sick kids every day, yet I feel that I have to be at work when I am not feeling well because I do not have the days available. Yes, we get several vacations throught the school year, but we can not dictate when we are going to be sick. Schools that are not NHA school usually start with 2  weeks of PTO and add to those days as your time at the establishment increases. You could also consider paying out the teachers that do not use their PTO.  This would deter teachers from using the time as a vacation day.

Math Curriculum needs to be improved which believe that students don't get enough practice on the math skills because its not consist for a week. Each day the math skill is different. I think that our scholars should .ave practice on one skill each week to become proficent on the skill.

Hiring more staff so that Employees can enjoy PTO time efficiently.

Have more face-to-face meetings to share ideas and thoughts on the curriculum. Discuss ways to make the classes a more fruitful experience for educators and students.

Need better security on the campus walking outside on the parking lot and walking around the building to make sure we are safe...Too much be going on in the parking lot and outdoors. I'm sometimes scared to walk out the building to my car...IJS

We have to engage the parents more to help their students grow, more order and discipline in classrooms and  more homework to the students of every grade!

There is very little communication coming from the people in charge about important things going on in the building. I have several emails that have gone without response.

Appreciate teachers more by offering more assistance in the classrooms putting more paras in each classroom as well as acknowledging the little things we do and the big things we do. Everyone should feel appreciated as it is hard enough to teach and to work with students who can be challenging. Even the main office should be nicer to staff whether veteran or new teachers. We also should have our own teachers lounge.

I put other because there are mainly two: Safety and addressing unproductive student behaviors. When kids behave unsafe, I feel like there's no real power to do anything about it. Then they feel like they can act however they want and it continues to get worse, and unfortunately at times, more unsafe. (Two examples: a disrespectful student trying to leave the school, which I stopped before, and a student who intentionally climbs to the highest and most unsafe spot, where the play structure is not intended to be used in that way - on top of the tubes. I believe the spot is about 12 feet high.)   Both students have done this multiple times this year, and I'm concerned for sure the one - even though we've disciplined them, could end up doing this again and wind up getting severely hurt or worse.   Otherwise, the team themselves have been great and I hold no complaint against personnel.

I would actually select more than one option above:  Professional Development: The Service Center used to have PD opportunities (Enrich, Explore, etc.) and those are now gone. I have regular conversations with my leadership team about ways to continue my growth, which is great, but I would like more formalized opportunities within the organization to continue to build my skills and interface with others at the Service Center.  Work-Life Balance/Culture: While my leadership team actively works to protect my time and balance, the overall expectation of "just get the job done" by the overarching Service Center creates a burnout culture. Until my manager told me that I NEEDED to stop working so much, I was working 70-80 hours per week to "get the job done." The job never ends and I watch so many people burnout, work sick, or leave NHA entirely. I think this is a huge problem organizationally.

Emails need to be during work hours only. We receive weekly emails on the weekend and that is family time. Texting outside of work hours as well; unless it is an emergency; not about completing this survey which happened. The amount of meetings outweigh the amount of actual work time we have to complete the already overabundant amount of paperwork that needs to be completed daily. Work load exceeds the amount of time we are given to actually work. Work time outside of school hours should be limited; not more than an hour per day; however, this often is not the case if we ever want to be caught up without feeling guilty and stressed if we take time for ourselves.

Revisit pay scales in surrounding counties.

Grateful for this years increase, however it still feels like a chore to take a day off because of coverage issues or stepping in to cover absences within our team.

i feel that the curriculum is great however  it is hard to stay on task every hour sometimes its almost impossible to finish everything i wish that we were able to go over everything but no given a time limit on what we should be doing every hour of the day and allow teachers to teach the curriculum at the same pace but not so detailed in timing and consider we have slower learners as well as behaviors.

Job descriptions and clear expectations are important to me as an employee!

The recommendations I have to improve the area I identified is a raise. My job title and my duties do not align.

Compensation should adequately reflect personal time and money put into fulfilling job role - additionally, to reflecting level of education/experience and cost of living.

Hiring internal applicants from within the school.

Work on communicating everything with a teacher and what they role should be. Things that might affect them if requirements are not done.

I don't know why leadership insists on sending these surveys, meaningful action has never and will never be taken as a result of my feedback. This is not a complaint against my leadership team. They clearly care deeply about what I have to say. However, the leadership of the company does not care about their employees or improving NHA for the people who work here or even its students, they want to hear what an amazing job they're doing while they make this an absolutely miserable place to work. The way I know that is that on this very survey, you can choose as many things as you want that you like, but only one area for improvement. It does not matter how many people choose a particular area, it will be rudely dismissed or laughed at by an out of touch executive at the next Huddle, who will then tell me how I should vote and that's it. Nothing will change and people of quality will continue to leave while this place is run by a group of petulant children cosplaying as business tycoons.

Longer Paternity Leave.

I want to begin by saying that I absolutely love Rolesville Charter Academy.  We have a group of Administrators, Teachers, Support Staff and students that are second to none.  Our mission is powerful, our core values are inspiring, our moral focus emphasis is necessary and our desire to fulfill our goals is impressive. We are a great school, with the potential to be the best charter school in North Carolina.  I have quite a bit to say, but I'll limit my thoughts to Math Intervention.  While I understand our emphasis on reading and our educational responsibility to combat illiteracy in our state specifically.  Combating innumeracy is just as important, especially if or goal is for students to develop knowledge, skills....they need to succeed in college, work, and life.  Yet, specific training for the Math Interventionist that is assisting students in need of additional support is slim to say the least.  Most of the PD training is geared toward reading.

While I fully agree that the attendance habits of educators are essential to the work that we do, I think with consideration to work/life balance, there should be a little more leeway given in regards to having allotted time for mental health days - especially considering how quickly and how often teachers and people who work with children can become burned out. For the sake of efficiency and convenience, an educator should have the opportunity to take a mental health day or days without having to have a doctor's note. The same way good faith is used when we need to be absent for health-related appointments or physical illness, we should operate the same way when it comes to the times that teachers need time to get their mental health in order. I think this would do well if implemented into the NHA framework for work-life balance.

Being very clear with drills and procedures and such. Many of our new teachers get lost or confused when we glance over rules and procedure because they are not entirely explain for the new staff.

Curriculum Integration Improvement

I sometimes feel like departments aren't on the same page with each other. I wonder if enough is being shared about the initiatives and projects happening in each department and how it affects other departments.

when things change or people are need let staff know ahead of time not feel overwhelmed or like someone is doing more than there co worker

More PTO for hourly employees to help cover unplanned days off, for example weather related days.

We need smaller class sizes in order for students to get the resources and attention they need to succeed. In  a room of 30 students that are performing at drastically varying levels, it is nearly impossible to effectively meet the needs of all students. There should be three classes in a grade to avoid such large class sizes.

I feel like roles have been very unclear. People don't know who to go to for help with curriculum/teacher strategies/concerns.

It would be great to be able to participate in professional development in my areas of responsibility to become more knowledgeable and effective.

Teachers are leaving left and right and are not being paid enough to stay. Yes, comparatively to schools around we might for Wyoming, but not Grandville area. Teachers can easily switch to this school district and get paid more. Payment is a form of recognition so even bonuses and raises.

I do not enjoy teaching bridges as the math curriculum. I understand the idea of wanting to relate math to real world situations however it confuses the students as well as the teachers and some of the materials provided by bridges don’t match up for example second grade Hansel and Gretel lesson…. It says that pebbles represent 10 then on another slide it has pebbles representing one so as a teacher I am taking time to make my own slides for the students.

We are in a community that have vast resources and I feel that because we want to be "better" than the students community and culture we overlook what is readily available for our students. Such as the Pontiac Promise zone if we are a prep academy we should mimic this and really give our scholars this resource. We should tap into many more community networks available to us. AND STOP PUTTING DOWN the community we serve, Our children/student live this daily no need for them to have to hear it from staff.

Deep cleaning of rugs and restroom

Support with students with behaviors.

I started here at PVA in 2021.  I considered turning the job down because the pay seemed low compared to the workload, but the benefits are great, so gave it a chance.  I have loved working here at PVA, the people I work with are fantastic but this year, the workload has increased dramatically and the pay rate has not.  The stress of the job is spilling over into my personal life and is not worth the compensation received anymore.

I do not feel that hourly employees should be penalized when the school makes the decision to close early or completely shut down do to inclement weather.  We are asked to take one of our vacation days or we have to take without pay. This isn't right. We have no control over these things and should not be held accountable. Days that have already been assigned as "unpaid" are already on the calendar. There should be exceptions.

Continually looking at the pay from other schools/districts in the area as well as nationally.

Co-payments can become expensive with visits to specialist.

It feels like NHA is making decisions about PVA without fully understanding the impact that those choices have on teachers at PVA. The sustainability and longevity of the school/teachers is in question as teachers and OLMs are being asked to do more work with no additional support.

I feel like sometimes things are changed and implemented for everyone that would be better addressed with individuals

The only thing I can recommend for a greater compensation is making sure that everyone is paid what they are worth based on their experience and schooling.

Communication between departments sometimes does not seem effective and efficient

The benefits have changed for the worse.

Compensation should be increased to stay competitive with all other opportunities available

Communication comes from a variety of sources and is often contradictory.  This makes carrying out tasks and meeting expectations very difficult  and frustrating when your desire is to do well and grow kids.

It's a toss up right now between compensation because I cannot make enough to support my family and innovation with curriculum and being able to go off script and really respond to the data we see.

Compensation has always been an issue, but especially in the last few years. Yearly raises are not even close to making up the difference in cost of living increases so we are consistently making less money than the year before. This is very disheartening while at the same time hearing from upper management that we are like family and they know we have been working harder than ever. We have lost many employees due to compensation issues, and it is harder to find new talent to replace people when the pay is not always competitive, especially for the amount of work required for the role. I also know of employees struggling to pay for food or rent while working themselves to exhaustion.

It would be nice not to live paycheck to paycheck, sometimes not even that. The large increases in benefit premiums with only a 2% raise including the rising cost of living means most employees are losing money every year they work in an NHA school. NHA makes enough in profit to pay their staff a living wage.

higher pay

Please give Kindergarten a chance to slow down their learning processes.  There is too much pressure on them for what they need to know.

Clarifying boundaries with emails at night and over the weekend. Expected response time.

I understand that compensation is a complex and ongoing issue, and I appreciate the efforts that have been made so far. However, I believe there is always room for improvement in this area. Striving for continuous improvement in our compensation practices is always appreciated.

Making the school feel more accepting of ALL people

I think that a lot of the time there are things that are expected of us that cannot be done in the time we are given. I find myself often having to decide if I want to spend my free time to get things done or not be prepared, which ends up being working at home to meet the expectations.

For the teachers in the building who are licensed with advanced degrees / licensure add ons we often end up doing more than our job description due to having education and/ or experience in teaching. There should be compensation such as pay increases, retention stipends and high performance stipends for these teachers.   Additionally teachers are asked to do duties such as carpool etc that could / should be a paid position (such as a bus driver at other schools). Relieving teachers of these duties or paying for these duties would also help with teacher recruitment and retention.

With the increase in cost of living and inflation, our pay should represent that.

Take a look at the much higher pay rates at local schools

Would like to see the overall security of the building improved.

 To improve advancement opportunities, establish clear career pathways, offer professional development programs, and ensure transparent promotion criteria. For better communication, encourage regular team meetings, use digital tools, and promote open, respectful dialogue with feedback channels for employees.

Better consistency with handling student behaviors.

It would be amazaing if once a month if we could have a day to plan as a hall.  Or even every other month.  We can plan for our classroom, but also, as a hallway.  We could discuss things like celebrating perfect attendance.  Team outings, luncheons and fundraising.

I would really like if teachers had more of a say in what was going on. This year feels very different in that we have been asked to make a lot of changes without a lot of help or input. It is starting to feel like we're on our own, but if we don't do it right then we're in trouble. I also have personally struggled a lot this year and last with people being recognized over other people. I really work hard, but have only heard a lot from my teammates. Rarely am I recognized by my dean or my principal. It is difficult to want to help my teammates that often get praise when I know that they'll receive praise for my efforts in helping them and I will get none. It creates a culture where we all start to look out for ourselves and resent others around us.

We’ve yet to hear if/when a market evaluation for Service Center roles will be done to ensure competitive pay. NHA is known for underpaying, which I believe drives turnover. While the pay philosophy for first-year teachers is well-established, does this extend to Service Center roles? Compensation here seems to follow a similar trend.  Recent caps on department roles/promotions limit financial growth, while bonus payouts and merit increases have decreased over the past two years. What are we doing to ensure that those who support our schools feel equally valued? We give our all to assist leaders for the students’ success, yet schools receive substantial bonuses to retain staff. How are we ensuring similar retention for Service Center employees?

Lower rates on benefits.

More experience should equal higher pay, this should match the local public schools. We continue to lose great teachers and don't get great teachers because of pay. We get new teachers who don't know what they are doing, they struggle, and then they leave too.

Less work placed on the teachers or less students in the classrooms. My classes are huge and it's hard to manage grading, behavior, positive reinforcement, re-teaching, communicating with parents, and staying on the scope and sequence.

I don't have any specific recommendations regarding this. It's challenging because some people take advantage of the PTO, but in the three years I've been here, I've only used ~3/4 PTO days total. Then, this year got my PTO days lowered. It was almost like I had been punished even though I had not taken advantage of the generosity. I'm not quite sure what a solution to this would be. I'm not frustrated by this, however, wondering if there would maybe an alternative route we could take. Possibly looking at days rolling over, but maybe keeping a cap so people are saving up like 20 days and being absent for a whole month. I think that the monthly attendance incentives are great and make me feel so appreciated! Now, when I actually anticipate needing more days that I would've had in years past, I'm won't have them. I completely understand the need for action to be taken on this issue, I'm hopeful an alternative solution could be taken. But, I fully understand your reasoning for the change.

Some educators are overloaded with paperwork, and/or having double caseload. They may need someone to share or minimize their work/responsibilities.

N/A

We need more teachers and support staff! It makes it harder to do our jobs when there are extra responsibilities on our plates and we don't have support. Especially newer teachers need direction and support.

Raise the pay (especially for OLM's)

Remove the carpet!

N/A. I feel that all areas are addressed at Hamtramck and I am comfortable in each category.

The cost of living has skyrocketed. It would be helpful to increase pay and/or give out bonuses. With this economy my family and I'm sure many others are living paycheck to paycheck. A bonus or increase in pay would help alleviate some of the financial stress my family is feeling.

More worksheets/ slides already made for shared reading/ read aloud- work 8 hours but have to constantly stay over or come early to prepare a weeks worth of shared reading materials. Having access to some templates would be helpful and save time; allowing for better work-life balance

benifits

We need more classes offered at the High School level. MANY students in 11th and 12th grade have to repeat classes they already passed. Also, students are often placed in classes that they have not yet passed the prerequisite for. Schedules change weeks into the school year and grades don't transfer. There should be more technology education, and more electives offered over all. Additionally, AP classes are a joke. Students are forced to take AP classes who have no interest or academic ability to be successful in them. The result is that the classes are "AP" in name only. They do not prepare students to actually pass an AP exam.

Having more resources available for the current ELA curriculum. Specifically having a Google Slides attached for each lesson. The majority of my work-life balance comes from creating slides to present during my lessons. Although creating slides are not required by NHA, it is researched that students learn best when they, "see it, and hear it." The slides also benefit the teacher with key talking points and allows for me to present my lesson while circulating around my classroom. Without the slides I would be reading from a script with my head down, and not circulating. Once I make the slides, the following year's work-life balance is extremely manageable and at a satisfactory level. However, switching grades this year has allowed for me to realize how time consuming the prep is for ELA during the first year of teaching a new grade level. I believe that if NHA creates reading and writing slides for their curriculum it would give teachers a better work-life balance.

To be honest, you need to do the following if you truly want to make a significant difference.  #1: stop with this "high and low" class setup. You are only putting a high amount of strain on the teachers who teach the "low class" because most of the students who have behavioral issues end up in that class which is what is resulting in the high numbers of staff members leaving. Yet the "high class" teachers stay because they do not have a high number of issues. The part that confuses me more about the subject is that there is no curricular change between the two grades, which just means that all the students who struggle are in one class. Instead, why don't you just mix the two classes together, so that the "high class" teacher could pick up some of the more behaviorally challenged students and take the weight off of the lower classes  I have more to say, but I don't have enough characters to say them here, reach out at 269-910-1619

The pay doesn't necessarily match the effort/amount of work put in.

Allow schools to request specific PD sessions to meet the needs of specific schools. Mine might need something different than others.

An increase

I feel like there needs to be town hall style meetings. There are so many things that are of importance, but overlooked. The lack of communication is a big thing. We are doing different jobs that we did not apply for. I understand that we are short staffed. Its just stressing a lot of the staff out. The pay is low for me & the response is" why aren't you a teacher?" The answer is lack of support and proper training. There should be more parent involvement, as well as accountability. It's hard to teach when the behaviors are hard to deal with. The expectation of us to raise the children and teach them is insane and overbearing. A lot of my coworkers are already burned out. I hope things get better.

Increasing the hourly wage of Intervention paras and other support staff would lessen the turnover in these positions. It would also prove the importance of these positions and roles in the overall success and growth of the at-risk students at Vanguard.  As mentioned in years passed, NHA should consider paying hourly staff for snow days as those are not taken by choice and out of the control of the employee.  Unrelated to compensation, but still a problem needing to be addressed, is the addition of a building sub at Vanguard. Staff members should not be pulled from their regular salaried jobs in order to cover classrooms or positions they do not get paid to do.

Not get penalized for time off or leave early.  To get paid for time off or snow days without using our pto.

Please, work to welcome and support new teachers.

No areas for improvment

I believe NHA loses many teachers due to compensation and benefits. Fix that and change the culture.

Other places pay more for my role.

NHA is very uncompetitive with pay/salary. I am not saying everyone should be making insane amounts of money. But not getting cost of living raises that are in line (or even close to being in line) with inflation means we take pay cuts every year. I am not sure if many other companies do this, but it would be a great benefit that could make NHA stand out as a company.

Increase our salary.  Don't tax so much on the bonuses.

Genuineness starts with the top and works its way down to the team members. In order to have the culture metro desires, team members have to seen consistent genuineness from the leadership team.

n/a

Hire cleaning staff

Increase in half days and/or extended weekends on next year's school calendar to allow teachers and school staff time to handle business/run errands/life tasks/emergencies, etc. We do our work here during and outside of contract hours, it is not my responsibility if parents/families don't make childcare arrangements outside of school hours/school days

I personally feel that if NHA offered more opportunities, pay, and benefits to our support staff us as teachers would not have take on the extra responsibilities that could be handled by having a para in every room. NHA needs to find a way to make support want to be at NHA financially and supportively as it is not easy task coming from being a support staff in the past.

We need better communication for upcoming changes that would impact our schools so IT department can be get ready to be proactive on upcoming issues that could be the result of the change.

I wish I could get paid more for the work I do. I don’t get paid enough to be spit on.

I wish to have more time to learn about curriculum because I am SPED teacher.

I wish we were able to be compensated for all the work, long hours and preparation time we put into doing our jobs effectively. Also, I wish we were compensated better for our advanced degrees

Higher yearly percentage increase with Cola increase to keep up with rising Heath and daily living expenses.

There are a lot of external factors which can cause some turbulence for NHA, a return to pre-pandemic spending, election season, uncertain economy, and moving populations just to name a few.  The need for what we do, the positive impact on under-served communities, partnering with parents, providing rigorous standards, teaching and demonstrating moral values has never been higher. The external factors can sometime be distractions that pull our focus towards things like marketing, finances, and people management (all important things) but I would love to see us refocus on our core values and make sure we are getting the 'basics' right. This starts with turning each of our core values in to a question and asking what we could be doing, or what we could stop doing to better align with this value.

All staff recognized for their work and data performances.  They should be included in receiving bonueses and extra benefits. ALL STAFF TREATED EQUALLY!

N/A

Class sizes are too large. Doesn’t benefit the staff or children to have classes that are too large to manage.

Teachers often need to print various materials, such as lesson plans, worksheets, student assignments, etc. However, the current lack of accessible printers within the school is causing considerable inconvenience and frustration to myself and others.

Additional PTO hours for working with outside non-profit groups; especially youth non-profit.

Funding: I am not sure how funds are allocate, I would need more insight to answer this question properly.

Compared to other districts in the area, though, we make significantly less at NHA as teachers, and it's hard to have a good quality of life and find good housing on my salary. I qualify for low-income housing based on how much I make. I will never be able to afford a home on my own. I do wish NHA, as a for-profit company, would value us more as educators and pay us more. We deserve that. I feel like that message is spoken a lot but nothing ever is done with it. Good teachers leave NHA because other districts pay them more. Please pay us more!

I would love some positive affirmations either verbally, in an email  or a handwritten note, etc.

health insurance cost

I have been a teacher for over 12 years, but I am paid the salary of  teacher with 2-3 years of experience.

NHA needs to look into BCBS.

There are quite a few teachers that are not enforcing rules such as dress code, phone usage in class, AirPods, etc. It is so much harder to enforce these rules in my own classroom when others are not.   I also wanted to select Autonomy. With the curriculums that are being rolled out each year, much autonomy is being taken from the classroom. While I understand that these can serve a guidelines, having no ability to create quizzes and End of Unit Assessments makes "teaching to the test" inevitable in all of our classrooms. I would love for there to be some flexibility. By using these common assessments, it makes providing scaffolding difficult for students with accommodations. We have to print one copy of the test, add in the scaffolding in the limited space available, and then  make copies. I would love to see editable documents in the future, or have scaffolded assessments already made available.

Before making changes at the school level, Service Center should come to schools and spend a day with the teachers, deans or office staff that may be affected by the change.  What works in on paper or in one school may not work in another.

It's easy for a stranger to be in the school premises. Maybe a fence.

Bonuses certified or not a teacher should be allowed to receive the retention bonus because of the work they perform daily.

There is way too much content to fit in one day.

If we dont have the means to help a SPED student, we should put them on a waiting list until we do and/or refer them to a different school/program that can accomodate them fully. Please stop accepting students who we cant accomodate fully. It henders us in the classroom and has an impact on our instruction and/or caseloads.

Have more thorough interviews and not settle when conducting interviews

we need more than a yearly .03% increase to reflect the work we do, the impact we make, and rising inflation. I seem to have chosen compensation every season I have taken this survey.

Be intentional when scheduling after school events and meetings in the same week.  Likewise, carefully plan Field Day and the Spring Picnic on separate days. Finally, schedule mandatory evening events on different weekdays rather than the same weekday every month.

I love everything about South Arbor and NHA. I have been lucky enough to report to 4 out of the 5 "managers" over the course of my team at SA (due to position change/role changes) and I could not be more impressed by the leadership team here. I have learned so much and always felt supported. I'll always select compensation as the area for improvement because I'll always believe teachers in general deserve a higher pay.

Our school is not clean. It is dirty.   My manager deeply cares about my work-life balance. I appreciate that my manager does her best with the tools she is given to make sure I am okay in and out of work. I would highly recommend my manager to others because, even though sometimes she can move a little too fast, she cares for my needs and will do her best to meet those needs.

I believe that the culture of Emerson could change however, the way to do that may be a change in leadership. If your leader is not having a good time and that who starts your day off for you that doesn't set you up for a great start. Now, there are other examples this was just the first that came to mind.

Changes to the curriculum that makes it more people friendly. Keeping in mind the quantity of children and their strengths and weaknesses to get lessons taught in a given timeframe. The ELA curriculum is great. Math, Science and Social Studies need improvements that allow teachers to be able access curriculum and materials by lesson to be able to deliver it timely.

Train the new deans better. Our dean of intervention pays more attention to interventionists that don’t necessarily need it and reprimand in public spaces - in front of peers and students. I’ve seen her in one room more than others and have heard frustrated teachers requesting more support but receiving none. She also doesn’t seem to know how to do her job - as she’s been heard making comments as such in the hallway by myself and my peers.

There is a lot of expectations put on teachers and other staff this school year. I realize as teachers we have expectations but there is also not a lot of time to complete the expectations. We have 2 or 3 meetings a week during prep, there are meetings once a week (biweekly for whole staff), 3 times a month for new staff (regular pd and new teacher). The whole staff meetings especially when it is for PD feels like another thing thrown on my plate that I will not be able to do.. At the end of the school day I am tired and want to go home to reset. While I understand the purpose of these meetings, a lot of it can be an email or a slide show and having us answering questions really fast. By not having a lot of time to complete things to NHA standard it has caused me to need to come into school early and compensate because at home I have kids, a house and multiple other things to take care of. Most of the k-2 floor feels the same and agree we need more work-life balance. Sam tries her best

remove students who are risk to others and have real consequences for bad behavior

I would like to feel more appreciated and safe at Alliance. I would like to hear sometime "you are doing a lot, and we just want to say thank you." It goes a very long way. I feel that clarity is very important for teachers, including myself. I really would also like for some admin to practice being intentional. I believe everyone can receive information and communicate as adults, but it is all about how you are delivering the message, and we are expected to be mindful when communicating, so I would also expect that from anyone on a leadership team.  Also being respectful of teachers coming to you with problems trying to be resolved, for example; if I come for clarity, I expect a respectful conversation, allowing everyone to be heard. If I am coming to you with issues, a deans job is to coach me and help me through the process.

Quarterly PTO Bonus: Employees who meet specific goals, like perfect attendance or no disciplinary issues, can earn 1-2 extra PTO days every 3 months.  PTO for Going Above and Beyond: Staff who go the extra mile—by staying late, mentoring, or taking on extra work—can be nominated for additional PTO by their supervisors.  PTO for Professional Development: Employees who invest in their growth, like attending workshops or earning certifications, can receive extra PTO as a reward.  Team-Based PTO Rewards: If a team meets or exceeds its quarterly goals, everyone on the team can earn extra PTO days.  Annual Dedication Recognition: At year-end, employees who consistently go above and beyond can receive a bigger PTO bonus as part of a recognition program.

Being one of the top school in the area, I feel we should be paid to reflect that.  We should be matching the districts around our school for payment.

We need to focus on the students who are here to learn.  Students who are highly emotionally disturbed may be high cognitively, but are causing lack of learning to the others in classes.  We do not have an ED program to support them, and they need a school that does.  We continue to support them and cause learning loss for lack of instruction when the ED students run the room.

Curriculum can be overwhelming with the amount that is supposed to fit in one day. The FSA expectations are a bit much for first grade, and doesn't seem to be fair in grading.

Be able to trust teachers that they know what is best for their specific class and student needs. Understand that each teacher has different and unique ways of teaching.

Moral focus needs to be uniformed for all grade levels. I believe there should be Moral Focus workbooks with grade appropriate passages and discussion question.

I really appreciate when we have a clear schedule communicated out before any PD. That happens more frequently recently, but I think we could still improve the consistency. I also appreciate the improvement that has already been made in sending out slides/announcements for advisory more ahead of time. We've come a long way on communication, but I think we still have room to keep improving.

I would like to visit another NHA school that is successfully implementing the Unique Learning Systems curriculum I am using the teach my scholars.

I dont have any recommendations

One of the biggest areas of improvement in my opinion is discipline and the way that major behaviors are handled. There is a lock of follow through and support for some of the biggest behavior issues from students. Some students are not safe with their bodies and therefore make it unsafe for the teachers and the students. While I know that leadership is trying to be supportive, I don't feel that there is enough in place to deal with major behaviors in our school. Class sizes are so big here that it is hard for the classroom teacher to handle the issues on their own. When these behaviors are a major everyday occurrence, it not only affects the learning of every other student in the classroom, but also the effectiveness of the teacher and the overall mood and morale of the classroom. There needs to be more collaboration and discussion about how to manage these behaviors and how to be sure that all students AND teachers are safe in and out of the classroom.

Title 1 Para professionals and sped paras this year have been holding the weight to provide excellent service to all students and improving our data. They deserve extra compensation in terms of benefits or even make them salaried workers because they go beyond in their job!

To improve the cleanliness at PreEmient, I would recommend that the custodial staff do their best effort to attend to the calls on the walkie when children get sick in the classroom or when the bathrooms need attention (both student and staff bathrooms). There have been times when students throw up in the classroom and it just sits there for up to 20 minutes or it has to be cleaned up by the teacher in which we do not have proper sanitation supplies to do that unless it is provided to us.   This was mentioned in another GLINT Survey last year, but to help with student bathroom cleanliness, I think the custodial staff should develop a schedule where they routinely check the bathrooms throughout the day. Checking to make sure feces and urine are not built up on the toilet seat (this prevents students from using the bathroom in a timely manner as well as causing students to miss instruction as they have to wait for a clean stall, etc. Lastly bathrooms need a good scrubbing.

I don't know if I have recommendations, other than holding students accountable. There does seem to be a lack of accountability for students and students are sent back to classrooms after being disrespectful, threatening, or physical with their peers or teachers. Also admin seems to say all the right things and you feel support but then when it happens in the moment there is no support. There is not a good sense of culture because some teachers feel like they should be in charge and undermine their colleagues. It makes coming to work stressful and puts people on edge.  Communication I think ties in with culture and we have so many plan times taken from us for meetings that could be sent in an email. Our time is not valued and it feels like we can barely keep our head afloat.

I think smaller class sizes and longer plan time (60 minutes, instead of 40) would help the most, with immediate change. I also think o3s can be biweekly, or team plans could be on a biweekly basis.

I think it would benefit NHA to take a look at how they phrase questions on the survey in order to get the most use out of the feedback. For example “NHA cares about my well-being”. This question is asking how one feels about whether or not the company cares about one’s well being but then after the survey we are told it actually means how one’s manager/director cares about their employees’ well-being. Why not phrase it that way then? The phrasing would then be similar to some of the other questions. Also allowing people to select multiple areas that they think NHA is doing well in and then only one area that NHA could improve in could skew the data and not reflect as many areas that may need improvement.   I appreciate that there is a survey taken twice a year.

 This survey is only good for earning the staff a dress down month, not for making any changes

too many behaviors and not enough help. we need building subs and more eyes in the hall ways. We have too many kids roaming. Also it seems when I need assistance with behaviors im just left on my own which in turns puts all other kids behind in instruction and keeps them from learning and understanding the material and takes needed time away from me being able to do one one one assistance

I feel that the position i am in is continually getting things added on and the expectation is growing considerably.  I am ok with doing the job but feel that I do not get the compensation for the job I am doing.  I also feel that registrar's should not be in the front line with the OA.  It is a daily struggle to make sure I am getting everything done and remembering to get everything done when I have constant interruptions a lot of days.  Either a part time OA should be here or the attendance liason should be in the office with the day to day things and school nursing duties.  In my opinion the registrar should be in a separate but close office if needed.

Our admin team is trapped in the office all the time in meetings and we need their help in the classroom with behaviors and instruction.  I like our deans and principal and I want their feedback so I can be my best.

I don't need more paid days off, just love those random 1/2 days or random three day weekends and they seem to be fewer and further between this year.

The entire staff not just educators needs to be taken into account when given raises. Some staff members go above and beyond what their pay is and are not fairly compensated for it. I know this is an NHA thing and not specifically Achieve but felt the need to share

I feel like the biggest issue when it comes to the cleanliness of the building is just an inconsistency with the way the building is being cleaned and maintained. There are certain janitors who go above and beyond expectations when it comes to cleaning the classrooms, cafeteria, hallways, etc. and some who do the bare minimum. It happens often that teachers are picking up their rooms the following day or have garbage left in the classroom overnight.

Continue bonuses or increase yearly salary

There needs to be a real sense of community in this building, both among staff and students

Communication effectively. Not making staff feel like asking for help makes more problems for the teacher. Having leadership that is consistent and held accountable with the needs. A staff member should not have to feel like they are in a fight when trying to do what is best for kids. That should be our main goal and focus without being pushed to borderline leaving or pushing far enough a surprise meeting with supervisors is needed.

Any kind of stipend to alleviate the cost-of-living burden (I'd take a pizza party as a consolation prize)

Better health insurance

We should have clear communication within the team about PTO and sick/remote days, including leadership. Quicker communication about things that directly impact us. We should also have agendas for meetings prepared ahead of time by leadership or whoever owns the meeting. With changes to the team and enrollment processes constantly, it is hard to feel content. We did not go over the past two Glint Surveys as a team, so I am hoping that we can go over this one so we can make changes. I also think that we should utilize the High Five app more often as a team to help with the recognition piece.

n/a

Make benefits more affordable to employees that  are labeled part time.

Pay similar to public schools in the area

Everyone is really financially struggling, and paraprofessionals are really REALLY struggling. The compensation for our positions is so underpaid and unsustainable. Also, paraprofessionals should not be penalized for snow days since they have no control over it. These are already budgeted paid days for them and they should be compensated for days they already woke up and got ready to come to school before they knew it was cancelled. Where does that extra money go in the budget if its not going to the people it was planned for? We should not have to use our personal days to cover those because we have so few personal days and use those mostly for appointments or sicknesses (which there are so many illnesses that go around in the school year)!

Perhaps give teachers an allotted amount of money to purchase their own resources/online programs each year to assist in the classroom.

All teachers need to be paid at a level that fits their education and experience.

Fundraising opportunities/parent incentives may increase resources for the school to utilize.

The rigidity of expectation of how the provided curriculum is to be used/delivered does not offer an opportunity to a personal touch or other activities to change up the routine. Need to put the 'fun' back into the fundamentals of learning.   Additionally, the ratio of teacher to student for our school is advertised as being low, like 1 - 24, because that is the best ratio for student learning. Our class size, however, does not match that advertised value; it is 1 to 30 or more, which in some cases can result in a disservice to our students' learning.

I love that most teachers are welcoming and supportive to each other and the students.  This sometimes is not the case as students get older.  I feel that some of the time our focus is on dress code, rules, and regulations instead of getting to know the kids and making sure they have a learning space where they feel welcome.

A raise to get techs closer to the median range for the job and or a increase in working hours up to 40 hours a week. maybe incentives like yearly bonuses if any of the other suggestions aren't reasonable.

Work with Deans who are new to NHA to understand the NHA way and what is expected out of them and what they should expect out of their employees. Pay your employees that work hard more money not everyone should get a raise just because they return the next year. Not everyone should keep their job.

Allowing teachers the autonomy to deviate from the written curriculum in order to best support our students. For example, spending more time reading a text than is provided in lesson plans.

More time to collaborate between general education and special education teachers would be helpful to ensure the success of all students.

I would like to see the grading scale is different for students on IEPs.

Having clear policies & procedures for students and holding them accountable fairly.

some deviations from the academic script.

We need better pay for individuals that are not teachers. Teachers are held at higher levels of importance than other specialized areas.

The test in Edcite are sometimes unfair because we don't cover some of the questions in the curriculum as written.  For example, the mid-interim test for Biology there were questions covering mutations that evolved populations.  However, there is no where in our curriculum that we talk or even mention mutations that lead to a new trait in a population.  I talk with other teachers and they have the same complaints about the Edcite tests.

A larger budget or more resources for the Arts and Humanities.

Our curriculum does not address the needs of our particular students.  It is not engaging.  Students should be reading more novels in ELA and more time should be focused on writing.  Teachers should have more autonomy to teach how they know will best benefits students with a curriculum that is diverse and engaging for our students.

There is no respect this year for work/life balance. The culture has changed significantly where it is extremely dictatorial with little collaboration and teamwork with admin. There is a clear culture of favoritism and special treatment for certain individuals.

NHA has decided to block a vast majority of websites (i.e. YouTube) that no longer let students watch educational videos, however, students can bypass the YouTube ban and access the actual YouTube website and watch music videos, movies, etc., but the educational videos are still blocked. A lot of the educational websites used daily are not accessible to students, however, the games and things that aren't beneficial are still open to them. I understand that this is NOT Grand River Prep's fault, this is with NHA. I will say I do like the loaner system for Chromebooks! I have noticed a significant increase in students remembering their computers. However, some loaner chargers would be nice to keep in the classroom.

We need better health care options

I feel like this year, I am not able to trust some of my co-workers. I also would like to see more team-work. I feel like when I joined SCA everyone in the building had each other's backs and genuinely cared for one another. I feel like this year we are to ourselves and its "everyone for themselves". I want to feel like a family and we are team players.

Parents held accountable for the behavior of their children.

Time to work during specials time and lunch/recess. I often feel like my time is taken up by meetings or duties.

We need full-time support in each room. With 30+ kids and only 1 teacher the majority of the time, chaos is sometimes inevitable. Especially if you are dealing with several highly behaviorally challenged students.

There is not enough wiggle room for teachers to put their own input into what they are teaching. It is very robotic and the curriculum is not strong.

The cleanliness of the school is an issue. A classroom is like a teacher’s second home. The mold in the rooms and the smell from the carpets makes it very difficult (and the mold dangerous) to enjoy spending most of our time here. Removing the carpets would be a huge improvement

I get paid less and do more work then some lead teachers.

I feel as though we're being micromanaged instead of being supported. I understand that there are certain tasks that are expected to be completed by us. However, I feel like often times we're getting checked on what we are/ are not doing instead of getting check on for how things are going and where we need support.

Respecting our time at home and that we have families. If things can not be completed during the work hours, then its not going to get done. Spending all day on Saturday to finish lesson plans and grade is not okay. Neither is messaging staff on Sunday night letting us know things we need have to done by 8am Monday morning. If we are not able to finish lesson planning during the week due to meetings, running around papers to the office or other teachers, there not being any paper in the copy room, other teacher picking their classes up 10 min late from specials, or because there is so much to plan and do, then more time needs to be given to planning. Maybe every teacher gets an extra hour during the week to plan even if it means were not in our rooms. I know it take away from teaching but spending 4 hours planning at home is taking away from family and our mental well being. If we can't fit all the extra stuff and newly added stuff into the week, then it doesn't need to be added.

More one on one interactions to improve this.

We need to be more diligent about holding students and families accountable. We have the compact but there is nothing to make sure families uphold their portion.  When a lot of logistic paperwork is put on us teachers, it makes our job so much harder to keep up with and on top of that we are not received kindly from the office. I almost always feel like a burden when I reach out to them.

Prep time unfortunately does not give me enough time to prepare for the following day; I spend a lot of my own time outside of work preparing lessons and grading papers. I wish there was more time for grading and preparing lessons so that I would not have to constantly take work home.  I also think that small group instruction is extremely difficult without having a second adult in the classroom monitoring the students who should be working on something independently.

There are times where things are said, but not clarified. When a question is asked, an answer is given, but not enough information to be beneficial.

Too much of a workload. Not enough time to get it done.  Feel over worked.  Not appreciated.  Exhausted and burned out. Shouldn’t feel this way when it’s just 6 weeks into school.

I think in certain areas we need a more structured discipline system in place.

There is a lot of lack of clarity in my role and future at AP, and it's hard for me to envision what the next year will look like. The unpredictability is unsustainable for my mental health, as teaching is already stressful enough. I don't want to start from scratch each year. I don't have the time or energy.

I would like the Dean or the Principal to let me know my role, duties, compensation for a particular role.  I have reached out to various people and not many answers.  Would like to know information in a timely matter from who ever is in charge of the change or update.

n/a

Anytime a change or an important announcement needs to happen, it needs to be communicated quickly and effectively, and that announcement needs to stay true and consistent

To give us more PTO days

I would like to see NHA offer competitive compensation which compares to other area schools.

kindergarten students should have more access to play based learning opportunities and not be held to impossible standards

There is an overall sense of unfair treatment of staff members. Overall people are treated well, but some staff get treated extremely well and I don’t think it is recognized. After speaking to other teachers they feel the same way about this. Most teachers also do not feel that their voice is heard in many matters and if they bring up different concerns that they will be reprimanded and it will look poorly upon them for not being a team player. That if we go to our dean’s with recommendations or questions about the previous listed matter or matters involving our classroom that we will be dismissed. It’s hard and frustrating to work in a building where you don’t feel like your voice will be heard. For that reasoning, after talking to teachers in the building, we choose to keep our questions and opinions to ourselves. In order to have a happy school with happy students, you have to start with happy teachers.

This is a long term goal, and by no means is this something that can be accomplished right away. Smart boards are a very unique way to teach and can add more attention holding power to a generation that is so focused on technology. I believe that it would help to expand on learning and make sure students are able to stay on task or to help us teachers to keep information in the know and exciting.

Have the amount of people that is necessary for the big amount of students that we have.

Overall, major behaviors by students aren't being properly addressed and it creates a general feeling of a lack of safety especially this year. This is a large problem because without feeling safe and cared for it is hard to truly give your all. Behaviors have to be addressed in a meaningful and timely manner or it sends a clear message to students and staff that you do not have their best interest at heart.

Fire the Budd Group

The ELA Read Aloud, Shared Reading, and Writing lessons are hard to follow and disorganized on the curriculum web-site and Google Drive.  These items should be printed and bound, then distributed to the schools,  They are also developmentally too long for some age groups and grade levels.  A lesson will state 25 minutes but reality is that the lessons take longer than the time stated.

Too many after school meetings. Limited time to work on assessments and plans during the day. Staff can leave for the day at 3:30. but carline is still in progress and staff can't leave until after.   The atmosphere at the primary building is much more at ease due to the change in manager. Teachers seem to be happier walking down the halls and our new manager answers questions without attitude.

New cleaning staff

I wish I knew!

Unsupported. Invalidated. Disgusted. Singled out. Favoritism. Overwhelmed. These are the emotions I feel when thinking about this year with NHA. Not only am I feeling unsupported but my feelings are being invalidated. I am worn out. I am being gaslit in every corner. Thankfully I have such supportive teammates. My dean can be supportive but it definitely does not feel consistent and that I can't always go to them. I really have to check and see their mood before I go and talk to them about anything. I am walking on eggshells.   The curriculum and the load on teachers is ridiculous. How are you going to throw all of this on teachers with everything else they have, with little to no training, tell us you won't get upset if we aren't on it but turn around and get upset. This is so much on the kids this year. I am not saying that it shouldn't be hard and they shouldn't be working hard but there needs to be balance.   Work life balance....yeah right.....  10/20 on a test is a 50 not at 70!

I feel this year with the new curriculum many people are feeling overwhelmed and this impacts how they are feeling about their job.  It also impacts me when others are not happy.

A reward system for teachers that do not use their full amount of PTO time. I feel like if we don't use it we are missing out on money. Can we roll some of our PTO days to the next year or get paid out for days we do not take?

I enjoy that we have incorporated more pieces of the full NHA curriculum, I would say it can be sometimes difficult to get through everything.

Polices/Procedures meaning dealing with disruptive students. I don't know what the solution is but some of these students who consistently disrupt classes, waste time in the bathrooms, and when we call home the parents aren't supportive and we're stuck in this obnoxious circle of not being able to teach because they just don't care.

I think it is odd that we are very strongly encouraged to reward and recognize students for even the smallest things well done.  Yet, teachers are very rarely given any positive feedback or recognition for small or large accomplishments.  Basically, it all gets lumped into Teacher Appreciation week, but no individually specific positive feedback is given then.  Teachers show up every day and most give the best of themselves to their students.  There must be SOMETHING that can be done or said to encourage us to keep pouring out day in and day out.  I will add that I said something similar about this last year, and nothing was done, which is why I really don't think anything results from our feedback on these surveys.

It probably will not happen this year, but at one point we had planning with our content areas and with high school science that is super important especially when it comes time to do inventory. We just do not have that time anymore where we can collaborate and share what is going on to best improve this department.

Pay that matches inflation.

Where there was once cohesiveness and collaboration it is nonexistent. At the beginning of the year, it was announced that the team lead position was no longer a thing. Team leads had spent countless hours over the summer preparing for this year. Now they are not fairly compensated for their work, and they were not informed until the start of school. That is completely unfair and has severely affected this school year. We started of already with "every man for himself" because no one wants to collaborate and put even more time into something without compensation. We are already spending so much time outside of work doing work related things, it isn't fair that we are not fairly compensated. Work life balance does not exist. We stay every day after our contract hours due to carline ending right at 3:30. Team leads need to return and those who did work over the summer to prepare for their role as the glue that sticks teams together need to be compensated.

Increase compensation to reflect the amount of work and time we dedicate daily.

Communicate and not at the last minute.

That everyone who needs to be included be included. Quick or next day changes are harder to adjust to when you are not prepared. I think the worse is that you are expect to to go with whatever change that occurs because that’s just the way it “is”.

Have a more focused cleaning company on maintaining and daily cleanliness

More transparency on cleaning schedules, who's responsible for what within the custodial team, procedures they want us to follow.

Write staff positive notes for some of the things going well.

More deliberate seating (e.g., not sitting alone, sitting near people you engage with), greater opportunities to connect with folks outside of your team, bringing back professional development days (offsites, bringing in speakers, etc...), acting with greater transparency (the authentic 'why' behind decisions, posting compensation ranges, charting clear promotion pathways, etc...), having stable leadership (e.g., not changing managers every year), building consistency in policy application (e.g., standardizing the RTO/WFH plan for fairness, re-evaulating how exceptions are made). Many of these areas have yet to come to fruition, though efforts have been made previously.

Regional Professional Development could be improved. The sessions do not feel applicable to my role at Cross Creek. I do not feel that I benefit from the content of them, and I would love to see changes made. Perhaps if we were given time to discuss best practices with other teachers, we would gain more from these days.

There have been several instances where team members were not informed about changes. For example, when updates are shared in a group setting, those who are absent on that day may not receive the information. This has led to confusion in the past, particularly regarding team and staffing updates.

Interactions with negative student behaviors need to be more consistently addressed. We talk about setting the bar high and students being able to meet the expectations. I find myself dealing with continued behaviors that far well below the expectations of our students.

Figure out why turn over is so high, whether that is through exit interviews or some other way of asking why individuals leave NHA... and then fix it.

I feel like we put in way more hours than we are compensated for. I also feel like their should be a raise for having a masters degree. A lot of public schools in our area are giving teachers $5000 + raises for having masters degrees and furthering their education. I don't feel as though this is happening at NHA as our raise is only $3500. I wish that they could compensate more. I also feel like if teachers choose to help with math night, literacy night, school dance etc. there should be compensation for that. Some teachers don't help at all with those things and there would be a much better turnout if teachers knew they would be compensated for that.

I would like to be compensated more, as I feel my salary does not match my effort in this role.

We do a survey every year to discuss things at the school, but not to evaluate our experiences with NHA and how policies affect us. There should be easy clear cut ways to give feedback on policies, technology, and experiences.

Student culture would be an area of change that could highly impact academics, behavior, and overall staff and student moral.  I would love to see improvement or change in how students see themselves, others, and address others daily. Many students do not have a culture of respect or positive attitude enough to say good morning, make eye contact, or say thank you automatically.  This takes a huge investment and shift in underlying areas and overall actions students are involved in to make these changes begin to be seen or become a truly positive community culture overall.  Until this is solved, I see the unrest and continued behavior surges seen daily that occupy some of our most needed leadership and support staff. Trying out new ideas and even involving student feedback or ideas of what could or would help them make this culture shift would be part of the solution I believe.

Clarity on what roles are available for people to apply for and not just placing people in roles. There also needs to be clarity on making times mandatory outside of working hours.

I think we should be paid a wage that is equal to what teachers receive in the public schools , especially since we are a school with students that have high needs.

PD has been very disappointing this year. It feels like more is being added to our plates and it is just busy work. I would love to learn skills to improve my teaching, but that is not what we are doing in PD this year. This has been the biggest let down this year since PD last year was great.

Some subjects are double the amount of work as others, but we are paid the same.

a few concerns regarding my recent compensation adjustments and the communication surrounding my bonus. I was surprised to learn about the changes without prior notice, and I believe clearer communication on such matters would help maintain transparency and trust. Moving forward, I would appreciate being informed of any compensation adjustments earlier to allow for better planning. After reflecting on my role’s responsibilities and the expectations tied to it, I feel the current compensation does not fully align with the level of work and commitment required. Given the scope of my duties, I believe this position warrants a higher salary that reflects its demands. Additionally, comparing this role to a teacher's salary may not fully capture the nature and responsibilities involved. I would appreciate the opportunity to discuss these concerns further, as I believe aligning compensation with the expectations of the role would benefit both staff morale and the organization’s success.

Teachers need addition time for planning during the school day so that they can be prepared for the following day.  Having an instructional assistant would help enhance the needs of each student.

Curriculum is not engaging for students. The edcite quizzes do not match up or align with the curriculum.

I am so appreciative of the increase to 7 days. 10 would be preferred. I'm content but yearning for more UNRELATED: I also believe that 2 tracks of learning should be made available, 1 - teacher record lessons and hold short meetings on what to do then students complete work independently or set up meets with peers to work together They are given until a certain deadline to finish (like 8. This would help students with unstable wifi, medical issues, etc. 2- what we have now

Behaviors and the enrolling of students regardless of behavior

There is not culture any more, we don't have a student council. So who will be planning the spirit week and themes for dances. Why does we have classes verse classes competition with advisory. Thing to bring fun to learning

Ensure that all principals and deans are held accountable for supporting staff work-life balance by setting realistic expectations and encouraging disconnection from work-related tasks and technology to reduce stress and maintain mental well-being. Upper management should ensure that schools are following this principle—don't just assume they are!  This requires monitoring workloads, (ensuring tachers have planning time). Deans should refrain from contacting teachers during their days off or when they are out of the building. Expectations for responding to emails, calls, or other work-related communications outside of regular work hours, including weekends, should be minimized unless it's an emergency. Establish and enforce clear policies to maintain communication boundaries.

I feel that Pinnacle Academy needs to have better safety precautions in place for staff and students. Metal detectors or security. I also feel that the students have no structure or disipline, They could literally get into a fight or cause unsafe situations between staff and students and be sent back to class instead of expelled or suspended. Behaviors are a major issue here at pinnacle and I feel they will just continue to get worse if things are not put in place to properly handle behavioral situations. I also feel that all the carpet needs to be pulled, there are odors and mold in certain areas which is a major health concern as well!

I would love a class for word processing, creating worksheets, using/making google slides, setting up google meets, etc. Something that I could do at my own pace to help me boost my confidence with the tech skills frequently used by a classroom teacher.

A lot of the lay offs and staff changes that currently happened make me feel a little uneasy. I am happy that it did not happen to me. However, seeing that their were certain teacher who were in the classroom for so many years getting taken out of the rooms without warning was very concerning. If it can happen to them that means it can happen to me. I also do not like the class sizes at all. One of the appeals to charter is having smaller classroom sizes. Having class sizes of 30, particularly in fifth grade seems counterproductive. We are told we want the state test scores to go up, yet we are being put in a position where it is statistically harder to make that happen

Trainings on co-teaching, refresh previous guest from NYC DOE’s stuff.

When I worked at a public school we had 10 sick days and 3 personal days for the year.  At the end of the year we could either get paid for not taking those days off or we were able to bank unused days for future sick days.  Being able to bank days helped with unexpected sicknesses/emergencies or pregnancy (maternity and paternity leave).  Being able to get paid or bank the unused days promoted less time off per year as opposed to the "use them or lose them" mentality that we currently have at NHA.  I do understand that having many banked days could promote more time off in the future, but they were only able to be sick days.  Many of coworkers and myself benefited since we needed days for the unexpected illness or pregnancy.  There could be a cap of how many days you could bank.  There could be other stipulations of needing documentation so the days aren't being abused.

Maybe a couple more PTO days (10 days a school year?)

I would like to see a program designed for schools to submit for construction/space analysis/design/etc. work that walks the principal through the process, including the internal approvals & communication, outlines the process, educates them on the costs and permitting timelines.  Gives project deadlines for yearly submittal. Educates them on what qualifies for the above and gives examples of alternative solutions.  A project flow chart for them to submit, have hierarchy approval & sign-off and check status of projects if approved.

I really appreciate the step taken last year in implementing new curriculum that is helpful. The addition of FSA's have been wonderful. However, I still struggle to find work-life balance. I find myself very anxious about work. Something that might help is to have our supervisors "Sunday newsletters" send on Friday's or Monday morning. There are always a lot of action items in the newsletter and once I read this on Sunday, it really distracts me from enjoying my last day of the weekend. As far as cleanliness, I know how hard our janitors work and this is nothing against them, the carpet in the building is incredibly dirty, especially eating in the classroom for k-2. Could we split the year and have students eat in the cafeteria at least half of the year? Can we have the carpet taken out and replaced with tiles?

More support for teachers when managing behaviors. Listening to teacher feedback regarding lesson plans and concerns.

I have very little time during the school day for planning, prepping, or recording student data, so this job requirement must be done at home and on the weekends. A regular planning period of at least 1 time block would help.

Higher pay for great work.  A 2% pay raise each year doesn't keep up with inflation which is what we were told is the normal amount to expect. Even 7% isn't fully keeping up with the rate at times.

Since it can be difficult at times to get substitute teachers, it might be helpful if staff was given an incentive to not use their PTO (could be exchanged for extra pay at the end of the school year, or rolled into the next school year).

Megan is very ineffectual as the manager of this team. She doesn’t communicate effectively with us. She takes multiple remote days per week and doesn’t let us know or even add her remote days to team calendar. We have had other teams tell us she wouldn’t be coming in, but we had heard nothing from her. She regularly doesn’t show up to school enrollment meetings and doesn’t let us know so we can prepare to report. She is either never around/uncommunicative or she is micromanaging us down to the minute. She steps in to change student statuses, but doesn’t follow best practices, including NA students before deadlines and not checking enrollment touchpoints before making changes. She makes changes to WL/statuses without telling school or specialist and lets the specialist take the blame when the school is upset, creating tension when we are supposing to building partnerships. She doesn’t support us as a team. She won’t step into situation needing manager escalation and doesn’t take responsibility for any of the t

Higher pay

I feel fully supported financially, with resources, with advice from leadership. I am having trouble with addressing behaviors that arise with my older students. I am aware that my behavior management methods need improvement, but in a 40 minute class, it is possible for a student to receive only yellow, level 1 behavior, yet still be disruptive enough to not allow teaching to occur. This happens because in that amount of time, I have several students engaging in level 1 behavior. It might not get to a level 2, but it's enough to keep real teaching from occurring.  At the end of the day, when these behaviors occur, there's almost no consequence for those Level 1s.

My manager is amazing at supporting me in facilitating meaningful learning with my students! I love my team and the leadership here at TEA.

At Atlanta Heights, the most glaring absence is a vibrant, joy-driven culture that celebrates positivity and consistently rewards those who are focused on overcoming challenges. I firmly believe that by establishing an environment where every student feels they are receiving the academic and cultural support they deserve, we can create a thriving community.

Professional development and advancement opportunities. Nothing specifically identified as professional development and/or advancement opportunities. It's a choose your own journey type of experience.

None at this time.

Not sure what to put here today.

I think that there should be an emphasis on work life balance as well as staff mental health. WE often are expected to go above and beyond but there doesn't seem to be an avenue for staff to take care of what they need to without being penalized. For instance, staff are not allowed at graduation for 8th grade. This severely impacts the relationships built because students begin to feel like we don't care about then once they are out of our grade. Also the meetings that we have are excessive and don't always feel like they are catering to what staff needs, but rather to fill a quota

Bridges math is very bland and repetitive. It does not benefit higher-level learners. Teachers have to supplement for these learners. The curriculum is not very user-friendly and takes a lot of in-depth reading to understand and then teach. Also, the amount of students in a classroom does not benefit lower-level learners. 28 students is too much.   My recommendations: a new math curriculum that makes learning fun and smaller classroom sizes.   Science/SS could use some updates and more kid-friendly activities. It too is very bland.

Bonuses, data driven bonuses, holiday bonuses, online trainings for regional so we dont have to drive. Smaller class sizes will increase academic performance&  sensory room& push in and pull out services.

We must find a way to address student apathy and misbehavior. The tardiness, disrespect, and disobedience is out of control. It's not just a few students. It's the majority. Teachers are discouraged and looking for other opportunities.   We need to see ALL of our leaders and ABSS -- not just a few -- in hallways and in the commons before school, between classes (and during classes for ABSS), at lunch, and after school. Please. Your presence makes such a difference, but we need all of you here. We often see some of our ABSS in and out of the office/commons, working on other tasks, or chatting with kids instead of running them out of the halls.

Give us more PTO. All data suggests that our country does not provide people with enough paid time off. The job is rigorous and demanding and we work with a population that comes to school sick, leading to illnesses that we bring home. PTO needs to match current initiatives across the nation in the wake of the pandemic; unlimited PTO (within reason) and especially for illnesses.

I didn't mean to select what I selected; It didn't allow me to unselect it.

We are working on having a set schedule to train new teachers so that we can support them throughout the year.

Too many responsibilities are placed on too few people. You can get 2 out of 3: Speed, Quality, or Inexpensive but you cannot get all 3.

Though I feel individually unsupported, I do not believe that to be the experience of everyone.

Depending on who you ask, or who handles the situation, the outcomes or procedures/policy, can look significantly different.

Meetings after school and events

Increased compensation.

In addition to salary increases, the school can focus on offering non-monetary benefits that improve teachers’ quality of life, such as enhanced professional development opportunities, flexible scheduling, increased prep time, or wellness programs. These benefits can contribute to greater job satisfaction and retention. Charter schools often have access to various state and federal funding programs aimed at improving teacher retention and compensation. Investigate if the school is eligible for any additional funding through Title I programs, teacher quality grants, or similar initiatives. Advocacy efforts at the state level can also increase overall funding allocations. A thorough audit of the school’s budget can uncover areas where funds can be reallocated to support teacher salaries. Non-essential expenditures should be minimized, and any savings can be redirected towards staff compensation.

Many schools have a clearly laid out "step system" that will show us how out compensation will change based on how long we have been employed here. That would be nice to have (unless it is already somewhere and I just haven't found it yet)

More money for teachers.

An appropriate increase in compensation for the skills and equipment I possess and that NHA readily uses on a daily basis.

More opportunities for reteaching and making adjustments where needed in the moment, trust that we know what is best for our students in certain moments.

I know that Advantage does its very best to provide safety for all of its employees. I'm just afraid of the possibilities that could occur with being a teacher in any school setting.

N/A

Provide the school with a gym, limit the number of times we have to meet in an O3, and WE NEED A GYM.

I wanted to take a moment to share some reflections on the current state of our school culture, and how we can work together to create a more positive and engaging environment for both students and staff.  At Inspire, we all want what’s best for our students. As teachers, we are deeply committed to helping them succeed, but lately, it has become apparent that the overall culture of the school is lacking. Many of our students are not excited about coming to school, and this is something that concerns me. To truly make a difference in their lives and education, I believe we need to find ways to make school more enjoyable and engaging for them.  If we can make school fun by offering more opportunities—such as clubs, extracurricular activities, and incentives for good behavior and academic effort—I feel confident that our students would not only want to come to school, but they would also give us their all. When students have something to look forward to, they are more likely to feel motivated and invested in the

Larger compensation bonuses for teachers who continue to perform at a high level.

We are given more and more special needs students with less resources to help them but are held accountable for growing them at the same rate as a student without special needs.

metal detectors

N/A

Gym membership stipend

I need more support in the classroom with students who receive special education services and have  BSP's. I had a student in class who was chronically aggressive towards me and other students. The other students would yell "I'm scared" or even cry. When this behavior is accepted it is incredibly difficult to create a calm and safe learning environment. For the first few weeks I was reaching out for support and the response I would get was "I'm sorry that's happening". I continued to express that this student has supports/accommodations put into place that they aren't receiving and as a result they are escalating and violently disrupting the classroom. It took over a month to get the student a visual schedule, which the first one I made because I didn't know when the official one was coming. If they are escalated (screaming or violent) support will give him toys to play with in the hallway. I have expressed this undermines me and we are rewarding bad behavior.. this is still an issue..

Again the time off is very difficult and not enough.

I feel that all teachers should be held to the same standards. There are some teachers who consistently go above and beyond and that is not recognized. Where some teachers are able to "get away" with not doing what is required of them.

Adding additional staff so that class sizes are not so large. Also, reducing the amount of preps (as in subject areas) that teachers have to teach. Having to teach multiple preps at the high school level is very time consuming and is overwhelming.

I have no recommendations, as a first year teacher Dean Solite has done an amazing job at making me feel ready and prepared to be in the classroom.

Serving alongside NHA’s core values is an incredible team of people who work hard to actively support, inspire and positively impact lives with this mission at its heart. It seems only fitting that the compensation of its school leaders should be more than the staff they manage. Especially when these leaders have more experience, leadership qualifications and responsibilities. Unfortunately, the reality is, this not the case. The hope is that this information would be helpful, carefully considered and lead to positive change.

There have been a number of times where the processes we have in place have been overwritten or ignored without getting to know why the processes were established in the first place and this slows everything down.

More Professional Developments for 1st/2nd Year teachers to learn the playbook/Lesson plans.

communication when behaviors are handled vs not handled. also communication from admin to teachers

I've been unhappy with the health insurance. It barely covers anything. My copays are super high even though I have the gold package. Also, 8 days off per school year is unrealistic for a single-parent household. To be honest, I'm going to need more than that. 8 days off per school year does NOT allow for the amount of mental health days and health appointments required to do this job effectively and manage a family. Even though I've never taken a single vacation day during my time at NHA, I've also never been below 10 missed days of school. I'm still rated at exemplary on most on the framework because I'm here as much as I possibly can be and I'm 100% present and effective while I am here. NHA needs to give their teachers more time if they need it.

It would be nice if we knew in advanced when there are sports games so that we can plan to attend and cheer our teams on.

look at the current status for employees in my position at other locations and match it.

Student cleaning crew, paid with incentives (such as ice cream, jeans days,etc..), that is well supervised, to clean areas of the school. Students apply for the crew with a resume/cv and interview. They must follow procedures and be punctual or else they are replaced.

The toll that student behavior takes on teachers is extremely taxing. Student behavior takes up so much of our capacity as teachers that we rarely have energy/time/desire to invest in ourselves or into building relationships and developing the culture of the school.

Higher raises or more bonuses

Hourly Staff being paid for full weeks on holiday breaks

There needs to be a true emphasis on ensuring that class sizes meet the needs of students, especially diverse learners and neuro-divergent children. Class sizes exceeding 25 and sometimes exceeding 30 are not conducive learning environments.

I see the vision with the curriculum, it's just not diversified and impossible to complete in the time frame/pace given. Fortunately, we can use what we can but the differentiation is just not there, especially for our below grade level scholars.

I have no concerns at this moment. I feel like everything is running smoothly as of now.

More prep time. Some days we only get 45 minutes, there is never enough time to get work done ahead of time.

Making sure to stay professional with staff when dealing with school related topics.  Respecting staffs time by coming prepared to O3 meetings with a purpose and not just having personal conversations.

I do feel safe.  I love the clear book bag policy. It’s just unsettling hearing the alarm go off by the door to the playground. I never know if it’s staff who forgot their keycard or older scholars running out or letting someone in. It’s more so just a safety issue in Y5-3 hallway!   I do love our principal and my Dean. They are working hard and I appreciate it!

communication to a coworker about how their strengths could be used somewhere else, and it would make more of an impact on the school.

The curriculum currently in place for ELA does not do a sufficient job in addressing standards. ELA Comprehension quizzes often have texts that are far above grade level and there are often discrepancies between questions and the targeted skill that is being addressed that week. Questions are confusing and not straightforward. RACE responses are often off topic from the skill and responses that are expected to be given are not accurate to the abilities of the particular grade level. NHA created math quizzes also do not always align with standards, and often have skills on them that are not touched on during the academic week. Supplemental materials often have to be used, and have to somehow be fit into an incredibly rigid curriculum. Students would benefit from more engaging lessons, which can only happen if curriculum expectations are relaxed.

To have the same compensation as other NHA schools in other states. I understand that we have comparable compensation to other NC teachers but why should we settle. I am doing the same work as teachers in other states, so am I receiving the same pay as my counter parts in other states.

Just for more recognition in what I do as the behaviors are impacting my managers from seeing what I do.

When I first started working for NHA I loved that our school had higher expectations for our families then other schools I have worked at. I like that they didn't let little things slide and did allow children to think their actions that hurt others and our school community were acceptable. It doesn't feel like our culture promotes the best choice for families or employees consistently.

N/A

Only allow students who haven't been kicked out multiple times attend a prep academy school.

More time to teach the kiddos.

Everyone here needs a significant pay raise.

maybe looking at whether expectations for  curriculum and expectations for delivering it are too high for the kids and teachers to keep up with.

We struggle with enforcing core values of NHA. For example we encourage students to be respectful but their is not much of a consequence if their not and their is not much of an incentive for them to be. I think more incentives could help create a more positive student culture. For example, better option is the scholar dollar store, passing out scholar dollars more often, teachers doing a monthly movie and lunch for star students, more positive phone calls home, etc.

Clear, actionable, and reasonable communication

N/A

A four day work week to allow teachers that much needed time to either grade, prepare for the following week, message parents or etc without taking work home over the weekend. It could also be used as a work from home day or mental health day. That would help to reduce burnout as well. This would truly allow space to consider both the students and the teachers themselves.

#NAME?

Having 30-32 students in each class negatively impacts the learning the kids receive. The classrooms should be capped at a much lower number(22-25). Teacher's cannot be as effective when there are too many kids in a classroom and if we want to be a school that prioritizes student success, then this is an area that is really failing. Packing the kids into each classroom tells me it's more about the money than the learning. It is my biggest complaint about working here where we can make that choice to have less kids unlike public schools.

Our school has bugs, bathrooms are always out of soap, younger grades bathrooms are rarely cleaned. The extreme amount of work load is excessive and does not allow for a work/ life balance. You are frequently discouraged to take off regardless of a illness. Because of what happened last year we are now put in a vise as teachers and given more demands that can be completed in a days work load.

more pay

I'm not sure.

Increased salary

Regional Professional development needs to be located at the home School or within a 30 minute drive. Expecting teachers to drive an hour and a half to a regional development training is not helpful for their work life balance.

Refer to nearby districts pay scales, including Masters+30 for appropriate compensation.  Currently, we are below that point meaning public school employees make more.  Public schools also have opportunities for student loan forgiveness through government programs, which is not available to us as NHA is a for-profit organization.  There should be more of a financial incentive for NHA employees because of this.

I've noticed a pattern of individuals receiving preferential treatment. Everyone is not held to the same policies or guidelines outlined by NHA (absences, leave, work practices etc)     Behavioral issues are not properly addressed after following all protocols (conduct sheets, documenting, parent contact, conduct sheets). The word for the school year is accountability which now is a blanket term.  Scholars nor parents are held accountable for daily disruptive behavior that interrupts instructional time. Parents complain and then behavior is overlooked.  The only individuals responsible for taking accountability are teachers who perform  other duties such as a nurse, janitor, cafeteria worker, and disciplinary etc.

everything is good.

More Medical Benefit Options Self-Ownership of Teacher Workdays (when PD is not scheduled) Flexibility with taking time off for appointments during the school day. This would be helpful for the shortage of substitutes, just being able to get someone to cover your class for an hour or two instead 4 or 8 hours.

better pay because of the cost of living and everyday expense is higher.  the turnover rate at NHA is high in my opinion because there's higher pay jobs in education for the same job and better benefits.

We need a pay increase to match cost of living. Paramount is very low compared to other schools.

Keeping high school full staffed with 3 teachers per subject in core areas and 2 teachers per subject in specials/electives.  This would help provide more planning/activity creation for those of us who aren't provided with a plethora of resources in our discipline.  This would also help maintain class sizes at 27 or less which helps reduce behavior issues when students aren't stacked on top of each other in a classroom.

There needs to be more communication and structure in the building. We are lacking clear expectations and communication between all roles.  There also needs to be an improvement in the culture, and work life balance.  The work load has greatly increased from last year so there needs to be more time to get our work done.

We need better pay

A better increase in pay raise/or stipend. It seems like when there is an increase in a pay raised there is also increased in medical benefits which impact the pay raise.

I would like for salaries to be more competitive with local public schools.   I love my Manager, Dean McClendon. She promotes work-life balance, she is down to Earth and relatable, she treats us to lunch, and she checked on me during a very difficult time in my personal life.

I think that with the curriculum that it shouldn't be required to be on script with the lesson but making sure we know how to use the gradual release model when teaching the subjects. I think it would be better to give more instructional time to Moral Focus Program specifically. Instructional time should at least start by 8:10am.

I believe Administration should receive a higher salary in order to be comparable to other school districts.

Bringing back our additional remote day to save money on gas and food. I'm aware we all can't be granted large raises but little things like an additional remote day, summer/winter hours or early release days, go a long way for people trying to save money & to avoid burnout. I'm aware that the odds of bringing this back are slim but collaboration is typically done via slack and google meets anyway, time is better spent working rather than hours in a car, and work culture doesn't change. I absolutely enjoy the days that I spend here in the office, I just really valued my schedule, time, and productivity when we had 2 remote days a week. It is the dream schedule! Life is expensive & people will continue to struggle financially unless we find small ways to make it easier for everyone to get through.

We need a new cleaning staff at Pathway. Our rooms are never vacuumed. The bathrooms are disgusting. We are always out of toilet paper, soap and paper towels. This can lead to sickness and then our students and staff can’t be at work.

Having a manager who listens, collaborates, follows through, knows how to read data and where to find it. Having a manager who understands her job well would be optimal for the success of our program of support for the students at NHA.

I feel like staff are not heard. We are just told what to do and not helped in anyway. We have several behaviors and nothing is done about it unless we speak out. Certain staff members are accused of not behaving with care while admin seems to struggle to behave with care themselves.

Creating a safe space for transparency without judgement. Feels like whenever you express feelings it’s taken personal and it begins to affect the work place in a negative space.

We are told when chargers do not work we need to buy our own. Both my child and then I a an employee were told this. when we mentioned separately, at different times, were told we needed to buy our own.  We hope to not be charged for the two non working chargers, although we have them and can return them.

Communication and Follow-thru.

Communication is a two way street between the one doing the communicating and the one receiving the communication.When orally communicating with others it is helpful to listen first without connecting the problem to yourself, or immediately having a "solution".When communicating with my manager they are often quick to cut off my communication and add their own story.This has led to miscommunication and leads me to feel as if my voice is not valued.When I address concerns my manger has been condescending, and makes it seem as if my concerns were trivial or a joke.So now, instead of sharing or asking for clarification, I agree to get it over with and just do what is expected.That is fine in some businesses, but this was not how Greensboro Academy and NHA were presented to me upon hiring, and it has taken time to learn this culture.This extends to our weekly updates with some dates posted there for the week and others left for you to "discover"/remember by looking at the master calendar.

We need more communication from our Leadership

Moral Focus should be emphasized and given enough time to get through a lesson. It should be a Specials class. Maybe this will help with behaviors.

I feel it would be helpful to have some sort of SpEd curriculum available as a guideline.

Stronger consequences for behaviors/disrespect shown by students especially during lunch time.

An hour of prep time and bi-weekly or monthly extended planning.

Most of my concerns are at an NHA level and not at a Knapp level. I believe that the work we do is meaningful and we are teaching the future of our country. We do not deserve to be paid less than 50k a year (Which is about 35K after taxes). That is not a livable wage. For the amount of time and love we put into Knapp and our students we should be compensated better. Benefit costs also continue to go up every year so we should be compensated better. I am very happy that Principal Maddrick got retention bonuses approved for us last year because I know without that, many people would not be able to continue working here while affording every day life.

More pay

We should not have to pay for benefits and  the wages are so low. There should be a livable wage for all employees and bonuses.

I feel like we barely give these kids time to make friends and socialize. School is for learning but school is also where most kids learn social behaviors. If we expect kids to have gym once a month, one recess for 15 minutes a day and sit quietly and do homework at driveline, where is the students time to be kids?

1.  There is a very serious mold problem in this building that is being literally and metaphorically swept under the rug.  It is growing on the air vents, in the crevices of the window sill and affects the air quality in most, if not every middle school room.   2.  Garbage is being collected during the school day.  Within the last hour of class, someone comes in to the room collecting garbage.  It ruins the learning environment. When students go to their lockers to grab their belongings at the end of the day they often have to navigate around the giant, wheeled dumpster full of classroom garbage.  Not only is it unsanitary, its a bad look for the school atmosphere.  3.  The bathrooms are rarely cleaned in the middle school.  The boys room reeks of rancid pee as it dries on the floor.  The soap dispenser was once filled on purpose with water as "students play too much with the soap" as the custodial staff told me.  Students "washed" their hands with water for over a month.

none at this time

Increase teacher salaries so that they are commensurate with the total amount of work and the level of skill and care required to do that work throughout the year.  Extra hours grading and staying after school for required meetings and parent events, covering lunch supervision, lack of bathroom breaks (or any break at all outside of what is realistically a 20 minute lunch, which is sometimes taken by a need for student supervision), are all uncompensated.  Teachers deserve more based on sheer hours worked alone, even when factoring in the summer break, and when considering the skills and patience needed to successfully educate students there is no question that the compensation should be increased.

Due to the work and the culture here at River City it would be nice to see our support staff get a better increase in their hourly compensation.

Hire more teachers. There are teachers with far heavier class loads and sizes this year, resulting in more and more work getting piled up overtime. People have lost preps to coverage problems caused by people leaving, resulting in their workload increasing over time as well. I know our school serves a smaller population, but class sizes feel unbelievably high, with up to 30+ students and only 1 teacher. We are not serving the best interests of the staff, or even the best interests of the students here by putting them in a room with as many of them as possible because it seems more feasible. This is detrimental to their education, it is detrimental to the lives of the people working so hard to help these kids, and it is detrimental to the overall culture of the school as teachers look towards the door because they get more and more frustrated with a continually growing list of demands.

Opportunities for subject-specific PD (PD days for subject-specific seminars, classes, online PD, etc)

I am honored to be apart of the Reach family. I love my job. The only thing I would like is to continue to have retention bonuses. :)

A separate eating space for students.

My position doesn't give PTO ...

Our benefits have changed so much and we have been denied so many things over the past year.  We no longer have access to urgent care and now I need to wait until my doctor is available.  EXPRESS SCRIPTS is a horrible company and they have no idea what to do to help us.  Every time I call them they have no idea on how to help me or the doctor calling for me.   Also they are making me participate in a weight loss program for a medication that I have been on since the start of the year and when I called to check out the details, the representative had no idea what I was talking about and when they finally found someone who could help me, they said I was not in the system, when in fact I was signed up for 2 months.   My doctor and Walgreen's pharmacist have both complained about calling Express script, saying that it is the worst insurance that they have ever dealt with.  The doctors I have been seeing  for years are now not going to be covered and I have to find new doctors. Fix this!

Consistent communication and regular inspections between the school and the cleaning company ensure that standards are met and any issues are promptly addressed. Proactive maintenance, such as managing spills and high traffic areas, and keeping carpet vacuumed, also helps maintain a clean and safe environment.

Lower insurance premiums and a better 401k match.

The recommendation I have to improve compensation would be to value your employee's time and achievements. Be respectful. Compensate them fairly and appropriately. If employee retention is important to NHA, than take time to ensure employee's feel valued, respected, and heard.

I have loved working at Pinnacle over the years. Most of my coworkers work hard to educate and support our students to the best of our ability.   There are some areas NHA needs to improve on:  - Safety/security of staff and student  - Behavior management  - Curriculum  - PTO hours

Some positions do not make a livable wage.  Although I think majority of compensation is fair, NHA high standards of employees with professionalism should be paid as such. I believe Para's/co-teachers should be able to get paid throughout the summer as other schools do.  Many of the positions other than teachers (co-teachers, ABSS, Para's, Interventionist), often sub for teachers or/and are a huge help to the running of a classroom.  Bonuses are GREATLY appreciated, but the differing in amounts for teachers vs. other school staff can make it feel like an under appreciation.

Hold less meetings after school, so that we can get home to our families or have time to take care of personal affairs. Also, it should not be mandatory for all staff to attend after school programs. It should be optional if you want to attend an event such as science night.

It'd be great if we had more interventionists and general staff available for support. We're missing people from last year and it's very evident. There are not enough professionals in the building which causes those responsibilities to fall upon the classroom teachers, who are already overburdened in my opinion.

No Late and sudden change in planning for employees who work with 2 deans.

I would like more resources when I ask for certain things the funds are not ready available.

Provide more substitutes so support staff does not have to sub

Use me for what I was originally hired for (teach kids how to read), not as a catch all for whatever is needed at any given time.  An encouraging statement or an acknowledgement for something I am doing well could be helpful with that, too.

I feel teachers should be able to work towards earning their days off back because 8 days is not enough for a school year

PD has been helpful in some ways, but I feel like it does not deal with behavior issues very well. The ideas are usually great but not always realistic when dealing with consistent behavior issues. I would like to learn more about strategies to help get kids on task, follow instructions, and stay focused. I believe these are necessary for a lot of the other great skills we can learn at PDs to be most effective.

Thank you for working to keep the building cleaner! I know it has been a long hard process.

If this is a public charter, I don't understand why teachers aren't compensated similarly to public school teachers. Where is money being spent that prevents that from happening? In an era where there is a significant teacher shortage, the utmost should be done to retain the effective teachers we have who are being funneled into public schools in order to make enough money to pay their bills. This is a wonderful place to work. Every person who has left here has expressed sadness over leaving this school. Each one had to do what was fiscally responsible for their family. I do not see an end to this without a change in our compensation...

Increased teacher pay. Pay teachers more please.

I believe professional development trainings would be much more beneficial if the trainer actually modeled what the teacher is expected to do in the classroom and how to achieve exemplary for classroom observations, rather than just conversating about it. I also believe modeling how to deal with common behaviors would be favorable.

It is much improved over the last year, but I would like to continue to see this improving as well.

I can say with confidence that the amount of paperwork in my department is highly excessive and arduous in nature. Teachers are required to complete a number of documents and one in particular is very excessive. These are daily service logs on each student's progress. These logs are to be done while also submitting a weekly lesson plans, responding to daily emails, completing behavior reports, submitting progress reports, and managing parent correspondences.  All of this amounts to hours and hours of typing. It is overly demanding on the whole person. Addtionally, a large portion of this work must be done at home as the daily school schedule is tightly compacted with short lunch breaks and busy preps and/or meetings. These tasks spill into personal home life. At times, it is burdonsome and constraining on normal life. Some teachers feel the pressures of the overuse of the eyes, wrist, and upper body. There is physical discomfort and eye strain with the need to wear special eyewear.

Lower cost for health insurance

My students read at a fourth grade level and they're doing work designed for 9th-11th graders. The whole college prep thing is a great idea, but it's not the right fit for this community. In my opinion, it's causing a lot of the behavioral problems we see and is entrenching the students in an overwhelming feeling of failure.

Teachers need to be compensated at least equal  if not higher than public school teachers, since our school out preforms them.  We are losing great teachers every year because of pay, and it is the reason I would leave as well.  Especially as you move beyond year three, your pay does not go up with experience- it makes me want to look for a higher paying school.

Extra days of PTO would be nice. We only get so many.

The frozen day policy could stand to be adjusted. While I understand the need for such a policy, I believe it could be more equitable if frozen day absences were evaluated situationally. The current approach, which results in loss of paid time off without pay, regardless of the reason for the absence, may not fairly account for individual circumstances. Official documentation such as a doctor's note, funeral program, etc. could be considered valid for excusing a frozen day absence. This, in turn,  could cause the employee to only lose their PTO day, and not their pay as well. Unfortunately, illness and major life events do not always conveniently fall on days that have not been frozen. I do not feel employees should be penalized for circumstances that are outside of their control, especially if they still have enough PTO to cover their absence. Thank you for taking this recommendation into consideration.

More opportunities to learn about ACTFL standards and any other language professional development opportunities.

I think it is time for a new upstairs copier.

PTO should roll over to the next year I think you would have less absences

Clear and consistent expectations for what happens when a student is consistently disrupting the learning and follow-through that we can count on to actually happen. More or less an "if, then" scenario that is non-negotiable and ALL teachers are being held accountable for following.

Recommendations would include consistency from year-to-year regarding teaching job position. This would greatly increase work/life balance and eliminate the need to start over every year learning new curriculum. Another recommendation would be to keep teachers in their certified field.

N/a

That leadership do not make decisions that overhaul a whole department of the school, without first communicating with that department about what changes would actually be helpful or not.

The ability for teachers to modify curriculum in order to best meet the needs of their students.  I have seen teachers frustrated with the rigid structure and not being able to personalize it to their classroom.

(For paras and other non salaried staff) Not use PTO times for snow days; get paid without using them (not our doing if school is canceled because of weather)-.

Too many changes with little time to adjust. Professional Development Seminars are not geared towards time to learn new adjustments that NHA makes. I make my own changes each year so on top of my own changes I have to also adjust to NHA changes within a short period of time. Professional Development does not help me with areas that I actually need help with. Giving time to do adjust would be more helpful.  Also crammed classrooms as an innovation to solve a problem creates whole new problems that teachers have to deal with as well.

I have been required to go above and beyond my expected job duties and feel as if i should be compensated a little more

Bathroom cleanliness

We need more team building on a semi regular basis. There is a very large disconnect between wings and departments.

I am fully aware of our staffing shortage and the steps that admin has been taking to rectify the issue, but it has been negatively affecting my ability to do my job. I am often pulled to subbed in classrooms resulting in me not being able to do the job I signed on to do. I understand that as a staff member, it is my job to do what admin tells me, but when I took this job, I was not informed that I would have to sub so regularly. I have been pulled into so many directions that I have not felt that I have been able to do my job effectively as an interventionist. I also have not had an O3 with my Dean. I just want to be able to do my job and to do it well.

Increase pay rate, simple.

I feel like paraprofessionals are not paid as much as they should be. I feel like I should be making more, with the education that I, and the experience I have and all that I do. Giving out raises and/or bonus' or PTO time. I wish that we also had some money to spend for supplies for our small groups for intervention...

Involvement in Decision-Making: When significant changes are planned for an employee's role, it’s essential we are included in the decision-making process. Currently, decisions are often finalized and communicated too late, leaving little room for engagement or addressing concerns. In some cases, the changes don’t work and require further adjustments, which might be avoided with earlier input.  Professional Development (PD): While I appreciate the focus on growth, five days of PD feels excessive. Some sessions, like "hacking PD," felt repetitive, though "Capturing Kids' Hearts" was fantastic and beneficial.  Staff Meetings: Weekly meetings seem more frequent than necessary. Reducing them to once a month or every other week, as some NHA schools do, could be more efficient.

The average annual salary for a Marketing Content Specialist in Grand Rapids, Michigan is between $56,050 and $63,162." I am currently making a fair amount below the lowest of this pay range. With taking this average salary for our area, inflation, work performance, etc. it would be nice to receive an increase in compensation to reflect this.

I would like to see more clearly defined paths or opportunities for advancement in my role or opportunities in other roles at NHA.

We state that we are supposed to be different from other schools but providing students with a unique learning experience.  However, NHA seems only focused on money.  NHA fills classrooms over capacity.  There aren't even enough cubbies for some students.  There is not room to move around without students falling over each other.  This practice stresses teachers out at the beginning of the year and beyond, and causes unnecessary problems.  Having so many students in the classroom also leads to difficulties differentiating lessons as there are so many students that it is hard to give them the individual attention they need.  This is especially true in schools where students are very behind academically.  It makes it very difficult to help them grow.    I would also suggest changing this red/green/yellow classification system for how teachers are doing.  It is demeaning and so unprofessional.

allowing admin to have the time and availability of doing their task and helping support others instead of being in NHA meetings and not really being helpful

Dedicated team planning day per grade level team. Current team doesn't really sit down and plan it's just a quick verbal plan so we're not all on the same page

I went down this year from my previous years of paid time off. I only have roughly four days off.

Teachers need to have more say if they decide to not use something in their curriculum. Example; they should be able to skip a math story if they feel the lesson is more important.

I feel as though there aren't too many opportunites for the students to have fun. Our curriculum is very rigorous and I think they often experience burn out just like we do.

Ensuring there is enough space for all employees to have a productive day. The media center should be used for  Tech as it has been in the future. We can currently have 130 iPads and 130 iPad keyboards and pens. These can be set up in the media center to expose student to things like graphic design, photoshop etc. Also, providing additional special courses for students as they have for other NHA schools. Specials should expand beyond Gym, Music, Art, & Tech.  Things like Spanish, French, Home EC, Theater, Yearbook, Woodshop, pottery, ect. just different things that we can expose our students to. Also, more after school clubs like book club, robotics, gaming, Photography. Just more opportunities to expose our student to new things and help them develop different interest other then them being on there phones, tablets, social media etc.

none

I feel like the compensation for most roles here at Eagle Crest should be more.  There are other districts that pay more for the same positions.  I absolutely love working at Eagle Crest and the culture the Principal and Deans have worked hard to create.  There is a sense of belonging here at Eagle Crest and appreciation for the roles, large and small.  However, those things do not pay mortgages, etc in this economy.   As much as I love working here I would strongly consider leaving for better pay and compensation of my education and skills.

More days off would benefit the staff as a whole, Teachers should be rewarded for their hard work and dedication to their job.

Shout out those who are doing their with fidelity.

I want there to be a change from "this is just how NHA does things" to making radical changes even if they're temporary (for trial). Stricter standards for parents and students. Different options for EMC. Updated schools instead of new ones. Accountability for all students up to the last minute. New websites for all schools with constant updates so there are no confusions with communication.

Maternity leave for parents needs to be addressed and isn't on par with other companies. Would be great if there were performance based incentives such as higher merit increases, increase in PTO, or bonus's.

Communication between departments can be awkward and slow.

I would like to see the staff bathrooms at Oakside maintained with better care. There have been plenty of times where I have gone into the staff bathroom and the same piece of trash was on the floor. I take medication that makes me use the bathroom frequently, however, I should not feel disgust or be able to take visible notice that the staff bathroom is barely cleaned or sometimes, have not been cleaned at all.

More PTO days and sick days separately

I was speaking with a coworker who mentioned that a student has been absent a certain number of days. It was then mentioned that students who have been absent 15 days consecutively would be withdrawn from school. I believe that if a student has been absent a certain number of days (15 for example) and it's not consecutive, then that should be grounds for withdrawal. I believe this policy/procedure proposal is fair and should be implemented. Additionally, as a result of chronic absenteeism, there needs to be truancy. NHA doesn't practice this policy/procedure and I believe this needs to change. Students who are absent on a regular basis must have a truancy officer; this makes the parents be held accountable. Furthermore, the higher-ups need to take into consideration the temperature in our school building. It tends to be too cold in our building, however we can't control it because the higher-ups do. THIS NEEDS TO CHANGE!

Better pay and benefits. It’s hard to survive on this pay as an  interventionist

Simplify lesson planning so there is more time for prep instead of so much time into planning.

Provude clear expectations before The year begins

 There is a strong lack of discipline and fairness across the board when upholding consequences and expectations for all employees, and a strong lack of support and respect for staff as grown adults. As a building overall these following areas are where I feel we need to be revamped and improve. Responsibility, communication, understanding, organization, maturity, professionalism, culture, respect, leadership, effective coaching, time management (good and bad), effective consequences and the follow through for students, even distribution of support amongst the classrooms and grade bands (wings), freedom of teacher's creativity, all around equality and fairness for all employees across the board, better decision making or being open to the opinions of others and actually applying them in the way that it was explained, consideration for other's time and work, ownership and accountability for everyone, and teamwork.

Each year at the end of the school year, you can physically see the tension in teachers because we are not sure if we are going to be asked back or what grade we might be teaching. Having these conversations so close to the end of the year adds additional stress to teachers in an already stressful time. There needs to be a more concreate time period that these decisions will be known prior to end of year testing or last days of school. Even teachers who have been here a long time get jumpy at this time and it shows that no one feels like they are secure.

The best case scenario is that Title Paras get paid more or moved to salary pay. We were told this year to remember that North Dayton does not control our pay or PTO, but we could still be advocated for. We are constantly told that our rolls are important but then get pulled away to help with other tasks (ex: passing out books). At every regional PD, other paras talk about their "large" caseloads when we have more than double their caseloads. During schools breaks we go unpaid. During snow days when it is not our choice to come in or not we go unpaid. If we don't get a summer school job we have to struggle to find a job that will support us through the summer. I know that this is not North Dayton's fault and I am not blaming NDSD. I just wish when I asked about pay that the answer is not "its not us its NHA".

hire or arrange for a resource officer or security for first and last hour of the day to include 30 min after school.

better PTO and health insurance

I feel incredibly fortunate to be part of the CCA(NHA) program. The diversity and supportive culture within the team and community make it an exceptional environment, and I truly appreciate the encouragement and camaraderie

Our pay is significantly less than surrounding schools. This is the one area I feel needs to be changed to keep good teachers at our school.

Open door policies of communicating concerns with fellow teachers without assumption and better food catering care for Teachers for PTA, PD's and other Teacher-oriented functions.

Educator collaboration is imperative for scholar success. Common planning time is key. It is necessary for teachers to have the time to not only plan, but to discuss student needs and how to best implement services that will benefit and create interdisciplinary lessons for life long learning and success.

More time to finish work at work instead of having to bring it home

The student's restroom and hallways could be cleaner, smell better and more sanitized. More respect for one another as far as coworkers. Better communication

I feel that the intervention paras are expected to do just as much as the academic specialists, and are compensated differently.  I feel that the academic specialist should be conducting the testing and the recording of data.  If I am doing the same work as a specialist, I should be compensated equally.

I want to address an important concern regarding our management's approach to diversity within Achieve. While we take pride in being a diverse community, it has come to my attention that there seems to be a lack of understanding and openness from management in truly grasping the nuances of different cultures and backgrounds.  It is crucial for management to develop skills that support and understand our students, parents, and teachers from various backgrounds. The current lack of knowledge can create discomfort among the community, which I believe is something we all wish to avoid.  I urge management to consider professional development opportunities that focus on cultural competence. Appropriate language and understanding are essential in fostering an inclusive environment.  Thank you for considering this important aspect of our educational community. I look forward to seeing progress in this area.

Instead of last minute notifications reach out to staff about things that are happening and are needed to be addressed before hand.

N/A

I recommend there be an outlined Academic Program/ Curriculum for Middle School Intervention specialist. NHA has resources that can be challenging to navigate when planning for scholars.

More help with curriculum, quizzes, tests, homework.

Actual support with student behaviors-- teachers do not have enough time to investigate or manage the whole classroom when one or two students are consistently being disruptive. Yes, we've CHAMPED it out. The students know the expectations.   We've also had a lot going on in our department. A LOT. We have not been recognized for our ability to overcome these obstacles, proper psychological support from NHA  for the distress caused by a former colleague turned criminal, nor has expectations (students & teachers) been adjusted to reflect the stressful circumstances.

I feel like the paras and interventionalists are under paid. I make $15.91 an hour and I am barely making it. I think $20 is a decent start off.

It would be appreciated if we received a few more days. I do understand we are already short on staff as is. Overall, I am happy with working in NHA and definitely feel a sense of belonging at Taylor Prep.

More opportunities for Professional Development

Dean Solite's vision and ability to navigate challenges calmly and with clarity are truly appreciated. He consistently encourages us to grow, while pushing us to reach new heights while always providing support when needed. Working under Dean Solite's guidance has been both a privilege and a rewarding learning experience.

Just having better communication because communication is the key!

Benefits are very expensive and seem to be increasing every year. The cost needs be lowered.   Another thing is there are not many PTO days.. more PTO days and sick days should be given. In public schools, teachers get several PTO and sick days.

The carpet has many stains and the halls don't smell fresh.  Also I don't feel there is consistent/regular cleaning done in many areas.

Departmentalize subject teaching for 4th and 5th grade Teachers. Automate EDCITE test less manual grading. Time consuming grading. More workbooks such as writing workbooks, math stories workbook less time making so many copies daily. More work life balance.

Expressing more appreciation to the staff and acknowledging the effort they put into working with their students every day can go a long way. It doesn't always have to be a grand gesture—something small like a donut or snack from time to time can really brighten their day and show that their hard work is noticed.

I would like to see PTO/Days for snow days. at least a couple, as they are something that is out of our control

I just think the place is great place to work.

Being at your proper duty and on time. Other staff have to pick up the responsibility when another person does not show up; or is late. Supporting one another with behaviors is another. There is not enough support with behaviors and because of that, I am seeing other students exhibit certain behaviors that are not being taken care of right away. The last one is more support with academics. I have seen and heard some teachers not knowing where to find or how to do certain things and it seems like there is just lack of support from others and admin.

Paraprofessionals have a lot of tasks to complete. However our pay does not show. Either cut back on our tasks or pay more!

Planning periods are constantly being taken for meetings, tests, and 03's. We are still expected to keep up with paperwork, grading, updating data walls, and other obligations as though we were given time to do them. This is forcing teachers to take more and more work home instead of having a positive work-life balance

Continue bonus program, through another source if necessary Bridge gap between NHA pay and pay at public schools

The curriculum needs to meet students needs. If students are below grade level, they shouldn't be required to test or take assessments in their actual grade level. I feel that that isn't fair because that isn't what they are learning everyday. We should be assessing them on where they are academically.

find a place to work in a good environment.

Resources - Limited or no physical space available to work with students in various groupings.

I feel all Deans should be on the same page with their employees and communicate not to one person about a plan but to everyone included in it. so everyone is on the same page. I don't particularly appreciate when a person knows something another person doesn't but is supposed to go along with the plan. Knowing the purpose of the plan so you can help accordingly. Is highly appreciated and causes less stress for everybody.

Improving inclusion, diversity, and equity involves implementing practices that create a more welcoming and supportive environment for all students and staff.   Professional Development and Training: -Anti-bias and Cultural Competency Training: Offering regular training on cultural competence, implicit bias, and inclusive teaching practices helps educators understand the diverse backgrounds of their students and address biases.  -Trauma-Informed Care: Educators can be trained to recognize and respond appropriately to students who have experienced trauma, which is especially important in diverse communities where systemic inequities may have a more profound impact.

More roles for my position as Technology Coordinator/in school Technology support opportunities

As an instructional para and working as a kindergarten para last year, I feel that I am not always able to focus on my job it’s because of having to help out elsewhere. Intervention and support staff are asked to do other tasks and really do not have any choice but agreeing to do said tasks and/or having to complete multiple jobs because of staffing issue without being properly compensated for it.

I feel some students need help in areas such as small groups, special education rooms and curriculum, math intervention for the middle school kids and an autism spectrum room and perhaps a dedicated ESL classroom . All these kids are mixed together and it is very difficult to have a learning environment with many different needs that are not being met in the classroom on a daily basis.

Professional Development

More custodial staff

There are a lot of opportunities for collaboration. However, I feel as though it is almost too much. There are a lot of meetings for first year deans that I think can become overwhelming. I think providing the tools to collaborate but then allowing deans to find the best time to collaborate would be helpful.

Whatever the jobs are that people are suppose to do should be clarified before school starts. Not adding different jobs during the school year. If it's something that is adding there pay should go up.

For a job that has a high risk of getting sick at various times throughout the year, 8 sick days seems like very little.

N/A

I think that the academics are great through NHA but I do think the students would benefit more from hands on learning and being instructed based on their strengths and not so much on testing. I feel like the students don't get as much instruction based on what the teacher wants them to learn for their grade level, amongst the requirements from the school board itself.

Match staff's compensation to other area school's pay scales.

Please see comment for question 25. I would like for the S.S. Curriculum Specialist and other specialist departments to be included in any financial bonuses Team One leaders receive based on the schools they directly support.

The children need a supply of books for their reading improvement.  I have purchased books and have collected a few from the dismantled school library.

Explicit communication would be most effective in this type of environment. Some information is only communicated to admin when it could also be best said to teachers and support staff. I notice a lot with new people there is a sense of "they should  already know this" but that's nearly impossible when no one has told them.

With our rigorous curriculum I believe that we should test students before accepting students. This will ensure that students are performing at grade level or above at the start and end of the school year. Rigorous curriculum for scholars who are severely below grade level does not help their confidence which in turns continues the negative performance on their academics.

I  feel that I carry a heavy amount of the weight for my team and would like ALL team members to have the same investment as I do when it comes to planning and preparing.

Accountability is actually enforced, regardless of who it is.

none

Make the curriculum more (DAP) Developmentally Preproperates for kindergarten children.

More growth opportunities and better recognition for support staffers..   I love Mr. Batt’s leadership style!  He and Nancy seem to have a great understanding of the fundamentals, morals and principles oftentimes overlooked by administration.  They are not afraid to lead but also jump into the classroom if needed.  I love that!

Making time for weekly wing meetings so we can discuss how to grow stronger as a team and about important events coming up so we all are on the same page

Not getting paid (other than using PTO if available) for school scheduled holiday breaks

Pay teachers well, and allow for teacher work time. I think it’s also important to evaluate curriculum and timing to factor in students and data.

It seems as if our new DSQ is actively trying to sabotage the culture and priorities. Every time she's addressed us she has something nasty to say about last year, even though our data is the top of the district. It no longer feels like a place that truly cares for parents, students, or staff.   We had half a day set aside for a data dive and have meaningful conversations. Instead, we were met with a three-hour lecture trashing us, our school, our culture, and our systems. I don't pretend to know everything that is happening in our school, and some of these conversations may have been warranted. However, we were blindsided, trashed, and intentionally deceived about the purpose of the day. That woman had never been in my room, but she felt entitled to trash me for three hours.   I trust Natalia Brunton and her leadership, decision-making, and ethics. Elly doesn't know us, our kids, our blood, sweat, and tears of rebuilding after Ortiz. She shows up, trashes us, and goes back to Denver.

I understand that these surveys are not anonymous. However, I would like to make several suggestions to help garner the attention of those who will receive this survey: I really appreciate the monthly/bi-weekly breakfasts that our Deans have been hosting. I also wanted to suggest that all the Specials Teachers meet for PLC Wing Meetings, as it might be conducive to us to meet and share ideas. Also, I would like to help brainstorm ideas for more parental engagement. It seems like the only time we can get parents together at FCA is for field trips, programs where their child(ren) performs, or sporting events. I believe parental involvement could be registered as a cornerstone to the success of positive student behaviors. I have more ideas but this is what I can remember.

Higher compensation for Interventionists. Compensation throughout the year, like teacher compensation. An extra mental health day added every month.

Find a program that allows more freedom to its teachers and one that has additional resources for students who are not on grade level.

Having weekly department meeting with one another and doing a" teaching demo" amongst the other teachers of that content area to 1. make sure the teacher is doing the work prior to expecting students to do it. 2. going over the material to make sure the teacher understands what they are teaching and to catch possible mistakes, 3. feedback on areas of strengths and room for growth.

Dean Lawyer is working with our Administration Team to address issues with co-workers. There are some that have grey lines between requirements of an adult and being a friend to a student. With Dean Lawyer's support, we have seen a lot of changes as well as changes from Admin before the beginning of the year to address the dreaded phone/technology use issue faced by students in different classrooms. Principal Hall has sent out staff reminders and been clear in communication with staff about expectations.

Solidified procedure for chrome books.

I am happy at NHA/ Warrendale, I have a sense of belonging and there is an awesome culture here! Great job!

OAs should be paid year-round and should not be forced to take both the summer and any time off during the year off unpaid, you expect professionalism but do not provide professional level compensation.

Fewer after school meetings

adding paid time off per year worked

Staff, still in the process of being certified, did not receive a retention bonus because we still need to pass MTTC. Not receiving anything shows that we aren't valued or appreciated for our dedication to our classroom and students. We're being punished when most of us don't have time to study because of our extensive workloads.

My coworkers and I are required to do many things stretch ourselves in many ways. We are constantly running around to be compliant. The wage we are given does not add up.

Using the paraprofessionals as substitutes is needed in cases, however not making bonuses makes being a substitute over and over again very exhausting and extra stressful since most of the time no plans are left because it is so last minute. We are taken advantage of by classes that we are unfamiliar with. None of this is taken into consideration with our compensation. The bonus that stopped last winter were a wonderful thank you for those of us paraprofessionals that spent far more time substituting than being a paraprofessional. I whole heartedly think it is an area that needs to be examined closely.

Pay employees for years of experience, not just years within the organization.

None

More coordinated effort among personnel to address behavioral issues among students.

Communicate effectively with team members

Being a teacher and working with children that bring all kinds of germs to school can result in being ill beyond a week of PTO time leaving zero time for any other personal needs such as a dental or doctor appointment or a personal matter that requires time off from work.  Plus, at this school we are encouraged to come to school even if we are sick.

More support staff are needed in our classrooms. We need more support with significant behavior issues that are impacting our ability to teach and for classmates to learn.

I think that we need more support staff - Paras or assistants assigned to specific classrooms, especially in K-2.  Our class sizes are too large for the current needs/behaviors of students, teachers need more support.

Raise! :)

More support in showing staff a pathway to promotion or more opportunities even if they exist outside of home school location.

Since Intervention is new to Taylor Prep this year, nobody seems to have a clear idea of what I am supposed to be doing in the role of Math Interventionist. Since I also teach classes, I have ended up using the two blocks I have set aside for Intervention as extra prep time for my classes. I've tried to do some intervention type work on my own, but I'm not entirely sure what I should be doing

Not sure

More sick days; more holiday time off covered.

I feel as though many educators are needing help with classroom management and how to handle behaviors, but also some that aren't following the procedures put in place at NHA schools.

I think the janitors should take better care of our building. Some areas are not consistently cleaned. Additional staff may be needed so that main areas are kept clean on a more consistent basis.

There seems to be a lot of miscommunication or untimely communication, or entirely incorrect communication.

I believe the curriculum is solid. However, the way the curriculum has been rolled out leaves something to be desired. There have been issues particularly with assessments. I have only had access to assessments only a day or two in advance in some cases. Also, the assessments have typos and other mistakes in them and when I have students ask about them, I have to do my best to answer their questions. I feel like this damages my credibility with students and that is not something I appreciate.

more affordable health benefits

A lot of times communication on changes or new expectations is very last minute, causing teachers to scramble to get something done or changed overnight. Additionally, leadership seems to have different opinions on everything. One thing you do might be okay or even encouraged by one dean or principle or DSQ, while it is not okay for another leadership member. Leadership should be consistent and clear with expectations.

The school needs better consistent communication amongst the administration and also with the teachers.  Better planning is needed and a proactive instead of reactive approach to challenges is strongly suggested.  Some deans are better at communicating than others, and I am particularly impressed with Dean Buck and Dean Sellers, although they are not my direct supervisors.

Accountability, honesty, responsibility. The tone and attitude towards myself and co workers. Core values of NHA being followed daily.

I'm not sure how we increase the budget, but many people are leaving to better and safer schools and getting paid a whole lot more, I understand we choose to be here, but at the end of the day this is a tough school to be working at. I think teachers specifically should be getting paid more, but only if they do there job correctly! If we can't compete with other schools, then many staff will leave and we will have staff in our school that is just primarily here for the money because at the end of the day its a job for them.

Full funding for school. I want to teach and I'm good at it but can not afford to go back to collage. $1000 a semester or quarter I'm not sure which one is not going to do it.

I feel that I don't know what I'm expected to do in my current role. I don't know if I'm an OLM, a sub or a test proctor. I feel like I'm all over the place. At times this can be extremely overwhelming. I don't feel like I have a great work/life balance because I'm always trying to get things done and there's always an extra task added to our plates as OLM's. Not to mention the attendance calls that we are required to make at 3% which doesn't really make sense this early in the school year. In all my years of teaching I have never felt teacher burn out this early in the school year. All in all I do love my job at PVA.

Make sure that all faucets in student bathrooms are working so that all students are able to wash their hands in the allotted time frame based on SmartPass. Make sure that the faculty bathrooms don't smell from sewage. Make sure that the floors are thoroughly cleaned. Make sure that the air conditioning units as well as any heating systems are clean and sanitary. Make sure that all classroom teacher furniture (desks, cabinets, etc.) have keys and/or are able to be locked and/or closed securely.

Students need to be totally involved in the Moral Focus program-more Direct instruction and Activities This area is as important as the Core Curriculum in my opinion.  Students need more encouragement and engagement for this to actually work.  The more involved the students/staff is engaged with the lessons the more progress students will make in their everyday lives.  This improvement will surely be shown in their classroom behavior.  I feel like overall Moral Focus is not shown the full potential!! Students need an opportunity to show how they can show RESPECT and the other values!

Accrued PTO, once per month. Ten in total.

Competitive compensation is one of the most important things that will draw quality staff to an organization. We are losing valuable staff members who are in search of more competitive pay.

I am unhappy with my current compensation. New managers are being brought in at the same salary level as mine, despite my advanced degree, experience, and annual raise. Additionally, entry-level AMs at NHA seem underpaid compared to market value. Compounding this issue, ARs are being hired at salaries comparable to what an entry-level AM makes, which diminishes the value of our leadership, roles, and responsibilities. If these disparities become widely known, it will affect morale and productivity across the department. It's particularly concerning that some new ARs earn $7K - 15K more than other new ARs. I urge leadership to review compensation structures to ensure that salaries reflect experience, performance, and market value to foster fairness and motivation. I also encourage the admissions department to review the bonus structure, as hard-working ARs who excel, such as those rated a 9 in the 9-box grid, are not being properly compensated for their performance, which is unfair.

Student and Staff restroom floors & toilets should be cleaned from urine etc. Also, the trash on the playground should be picked up more often!

Build trust among all the staff. true support for new teachers

Really look at the scholars and do what's best for the scholars.  Being overly concerned about certain data hinders them instead of showing care for their education.  Letting scholars "fall through the cracks" over the years at the school does nothing to prepare them for what comes after 8th grade.

Get paid snow days or any school closing days. Winter break, spring break.

I think we do a great job communicating as a school and should keep opportunities open throughout the year!

We do college reimbursement, but nothing for certifications, which are more important now a days then a degree.

Lower grades needs a full-time assistant in the classroom to help with behaviors.

Continued organizational focus on top line growth efforts and reduction in operating costs thus improving OM/EBITDA allowing for increased compensation opportunities.

After identifying that an employee is capable of doing more, work towards getting that employee into a new role or elevating their current role fairly quick. This is something that has been a work in progress for me for quite some time.

Communication here at Stambaugh is not something that feels like a priority. Emails do not get read with important information and there is no solution given by management. When communication does finally take place a lot of the time it can feel like you are being put down or micromanaged instead of it being a productive professional conversation with constructive feedback. Getting answers also seems to be a area of improvement here at Stambaugh it does take several attemps and almost being forceful to get a solution to a situation that does require upper management input, than once that solution is given you can be made to feel like you should have just known or done that particulary solution however if one would have did it on their own than there is backlash for that.

Just making sure that the role is explained. Also staying in that role or if you're doing more than one role being compensated as such.

As the leaders that we all are, I would say to acknowledge everyone. For example, reply to everyone's email when possible. Say good morning and/or hi to everyone regardless of who they are. It is true we all go through things and at times it may be difficult, but if you try, it might make you feel better. When we acknowledge others presence, we invite them into our space. Therefore, making them more comfortable to voice themselves when needed.

More technological tools for the classrooms such as ipads and virtual reality devices.

Salaries should be much higher and there should be more than 8 days allotted for PTO.  There should be at least 1 personal day earned per month and sick days.

Coaching and support around systems of shared leadership

Sometimes things are not communicated at all or in a timely manner. Sometimes I am forgotten in regards to like meetings or just general information

When my room (art room) is being used for after school activities, I am unable to get things done in my classroom during the week. I would recommend they use another room, or the gym, so I can get things done during the week. I have come in on weekends to do work, but it's better if I can get things done during the week, so I can have family/church time on the weekend.

Utilizing the High Five program more effectively. Rewarding points for a job well done.

I'd like to see a program/benefit that pays/pays down teacher and staff's student loans. I believe that this would help retain high quality teachers that we lose yearly to local districts due to pay inequality, pensions, etc. as well as entice quality candidates from universities. The high cost of the required education/payments is forcing many to leave education or choose another career path all together.

I feel for the work that's expected of teachers we all should be compensated  within the 6 figure rangs or NHAshould truly start to think about adopting a work week that Texas has adopted.the 4 day work week where teachers are with students and on that fifth day Teachers are to complete all paper work and parent contact, grading and lesso n planning.

Better treatment by Human Resources

Researching materials designed especially for my students

There are far too many meetings and PDs .  These could be consolidated and done more effectively.  Meetings several times a week, before and after school hours and during planning periods is a high expectation that does not prioritize our personal family time.

I feel that as a licensed teacher with a degree in education, I should be trusted to make planning decision for my class without writing up detailed lesson plans (for every subject) for administration to collect. This is valuable time that would be better spent analyzing data and planning engaging activities. The lesson plans for read aloud and math are already scripted and written up, so I feel that copy/pasting things into planbook takes away my autonomy and trust.

Teachers and all staff getting salaries at or above local school districts as the field has never been more difficult and it keeps morale high.

Professional Development sessions that focuses on a specific goal or skill, such as improving phonemic awareness, classroom culture / management, differentiation, and/or in co-teaching models.

Social Studies curriculum. We were not properly trained on this

Compensation that is comparable to the school district. Staff with master's degrees getting paid at least on the same pay scale as teachers who don't have master's degrees.

Offer more planning time or a higher pay rate to compensate for the work that needs to be completed outside of the schools day. I.E., grading, anchor charts, setting up classroom, creating work for small groups, and bulletin boards.

More leniency when it comes to flexible work hours, extra remote days, being understanding of appointments and special events. It can be daunting to take a PTO day to schedule checkups and appointments.

We have been told this year about all the extra things we have to do, and it seems every week we get something new we have to do during our already filled minute to minute day.  -Reading mastery tests -Response to data plans -More annotations  -Having assessments in the gradebook on a Saturday afternoon even if they were taken on a Friday afternoon -Updating our websites on Sundays to name a few of the things added to our plates this year on top of everything else we have to do as teachers. These things give zero time for work-life balance as it now seems we are expected to work 7 days a week. It is also giving us so many things we have to do during the week/school day while already teaching a tough curriculum to students.  Having deadlines not on the weekend would improve this area and also limiting the adding of more work we have to do which is already difficult enough.

Pay attention to what the staff wants and what they ask for. Focus more on their needs so that they will feel that they have meaning at Centerline Preparatory Academy

Allow job shadowing and let us know when new opportunities arise

i personally feel on constant razors edge of burn out and yet i feel like im not doing enough for my student.

We just need to be paid a little more, I know it’s hard but life is too expensive when teachers have to have two jobs to pay the bills!

Keep everyone in the loop, try not to forget people who need the information

Snow days not counted against our pto days

Consistent feedback. Especially after coming into our rooms and observing. We need to know what you are thinking/what you see positively. We crave positive feedback just as our student do!

Driveline!!! More so the serpentine! That is a safety issue for me, and when I went to other NHA campuses (in NC) and saw they too have that awful serpentine. What is the reason for the one way in and basically one way out? Also, for those who stand on Driveline, there should be a little shelter, like a tiny house, where we can be cool in the summer, warm in the winter, and dry in the rain. It is cold and for those with health conditions, they are constantly sick, but can't take off the time because you only give 8 PTO days for working 10.5 months. That's not even 1 day per month. This was new to me because I've never worked corporate, and others with "real jobs" don't understand when I tell them I only have 8 PTO days and no sick or bereavement time and that it is all mixed in to the 8 days. Also, I don't think it's fair to be written up if more than 8 PTO days are used. When people have children or parents to care for, they need additional leave. Or, if time could be made up...

I would like half days to be implemented back into the school calendar monthly. They allowed for catching up. I would also like to have 4-day weeks with a day left for simply study hall or virtual.

Clearer communication about what opportunities are available to see raises, promotions, career growth, and improved income plans down the road. It is less about immediate increase in income, but rather about better understanding of plan and expectations of potential short term and longterm oppurtunities and expectations (and what would be required to potentially obtain those goals)

Upgrading facilties for students when possible-- I know that all takes $$$ though so I get it

Thank for getting rid of the trash bin outside now the black top should be drained for rain water and power pressured.  Only K-3 may be 3 should used the playground. Other children are too big and break it up especially the swings.

Knowing that your Office Managers/Secretary/Admin Asst. play a very important key role in your schools. Pay for the position does not create a fair wage when you are expectant to be a part of Enrollment as well.  Not having days off when your team does, having to use your PTO to cover closed school days, bad weather days, etc...

5% pay raises each year to stay competitive with the local public schools

Although much improved, front office is still often the last to hear about changes to processes or procedures put in place for teachers and students.  We do not attend teacher meetings after school and only hear through the grapevine things that are going on at school that often we should be aware of at the front office as we are the first line of defense for teachers, parents and students.  I would recommend including the office staff to attend the weekly teacher meetings.  Or, admin needs to turn around and have more consistent meetings with front office to keep us updated on things that are being passed down to teachers at meetings.  It can't be assumed that we know what has been changed in policy or procedures at school to maintain or improve culture/safety etc. if we are not included in the dissemination of information.  I love my admin, and the staff are great as well.

The students restrooms should be checked and clean at least three times a day along with the stairwell the students use to bring their lunch upstairs food should not be there for several days.

I believe we need to better at responding to behaviors in an effective way. Often times we give way too many chances without REAL consequences and when no change in the behavior has been indicated. The children know this and they feel as if nothing seriously bad will happen which is why the behaviors continue and get worse each year. We send them away to have restorative conversations (which I believe is fine) but that is all that is done and 9/10 does nothing as far as seeing change in their behavior. I do not believe we are setting them well at all, we give off that you can have an infinite amount of chances no matter how you act, which is not ok nor is helping the students. Also believe that a lot of the teachers that are struggling could use classroom management and not in the form a PD but for the teachers that are struggling have someone in the classroom helping them for 2 weeks an hour a day. I love working at Walton but if I’m being honest, we need to do better!

Other- consequences for student behavior

Address students behavior issues accordingly so that the discipline action coincides with their behavior. Hold each student accountable for their actions.

I do more then what would be on the role description.  So an increase in pay would show that appreciation more.  Our team is Deskside Support Engineers, I suggested adding a second title for our specialites.  For me it would be AV specialist and have a bump in pay for that role.  I am techinically in a sub team of Deskside Support called Classroom Hardware team.  So the secondary title seems fitting.

Try new ways to help with children that are exhibiting  behaviors. More after school programs that relate to character and performance of the students to help them thrive in the community.

Managers should consider the feelings/ safety of the teachers when it comes to disciplining the student.

I wish I had some recommendations.  I know that money is spent where it is needed and that leaves only so much to go around.

There is open space on both sides of the building and their is no locked gate. It does not feel safe being on the playground or outside because there is not a gate on either side of the building. It feels anyone could just walk back to the playground and no security in that sense. There is a 2 bar gate on one side of the building, but that doesn't have a secure look to it and it is never closed.

Reevation of the realism of the curriculm, mostly ELA. More opportunites for teachers who are new to subjects or new to teach in general for coaches to reach out more and help them feel secure in what they're doing is correct. More check ins on new teachers. A evaluation of SPED students predominantly being all in one room. Or even better, SPED students being in a SPED self contained room and not being dumped on general ed teachers with no experience that caters their need. It does a disservice to them, the kids, and their parents.

I feel we dont need to have staff meetings every Wednesday. The idea of work life balance only works in theory given that there are only 5 occurances for the year. The time used for Wednesday meetings could be used for planning when there is no pertinent information being provided.

Transfer to another NHA school for advancement

Professional development is important, but having meaningful professional developments will be beneficial. Having subject specific professional developments that teach teachers how to use the curriculum, lesson plan, read data, and provide tools that will help teachers be more organized in the classroom.   Have your specialist and administration team put together PDs that is house specific and subject specific.

Understanding the PVA is grant funded, I know that there is not a lot that can be done. However, each paycheck is gone once it comes in. It all goes to bills not allowing any extra to provide for my family. This is extremely difficult, especially when I pour my all into my role. I try my best everyday. I bring as much "sunshine" to all of my student and staff as I possibly can. I love what I do here, it is just tough, financially.

Provide information to all staff concerning Special Needs and how to support them in the general education classroom.

I think that there are a a lot of educators that slip through the cracks of recognition & appreciation simply because they are not as vocal about the work they do. It can be disheartening to see others so appreciated and recognized when doing the bare minimum.

I sometimes feel that I am underpaid for my role.

NHA paras do a lot more work for what we are getting paid we go above nd beyond

Higher more competitive pay for non-teaching positions such as intervention/para positions.

Bathrooms could be cleaned more frequently.  Scholars should be educated on how to keep the school clean.

There’s often talk about ensuring our compensation aligns with other companies, but we rarely see actual increases. With the rising cost of living, it’s frustrating not to see higher percentage increases in merit raises or stay bonuses. A more substantial adjustment would go a long way in helping employees keep up with these financial pressures.

I believe that hourly employees should be compensated for snow days. We do not have control over the snow days called, but we are penalized when they happen. We would like to still be paid during snow days.   On a different note, it would be extremely beneficial to have an in-building substitute. There are too many instances where teachers have been pulled out of their roles in order to fill other classrooms. It is unfair to the teacher, but more importantly, the students.

N/A

Sub pay for OLMs hasn't increased in 2 years, taking away the incentive for us to cover classes. New hires are coming in at higher rates that current employees. I don't want to go above and beyond when there's no reward.

I would like to have more PTO days as an Interventionist/Paraprofessional.  I also feel that if our school is closed or there is a snow day that we as Paraprofessionals/Interventionist should still be paid for that day and /or days.  I understand that teachers are salaried employees but we as Paraprofessionals/Interventionists are also a vital part of our children's education and would like to be compensated for snow days and school closure days also.

I have two items from the above list that tie together, those being Compensation and Role Clarity. A recommendation I have is reevaluating the distribution of tasks to ensure the tasks align more closely with each team member’s core responsibilities. With the current team size, it feels that I and other's are being consistently maxed out in work and think that reevaluating tasks would help to maintain high-quality work without overextending individual capacity. Additionally, offering clear guidelines or compensation for taking on extra responsibilities would improve motivation and ensure a fair balance of workload across the team. Thank you.

Training on some of the diagnosis that are scholars are dealing with as it pertains to their education and behavior

People seem tense right now and the tension is palpable.  Some of it can be attributed to “growing pains” but I think some are understandably nervous about the future and stability of the school itself.  Everyone I talk to is devoted to a long, prosperous future at Peak.   I think some reassurance would go a long way.

NHA needs to compete with neighboring districts for all roles with compensation

Remove the cliques and favoritism

I love the high five program but I feel as if it is not utilized enough or uniformly as it could be used.

Start giving schloars homework  eliminate shared reading

Content that is comparable to Michigan standards;  cut the NHA written and endorsed textbooks that force teachers to routinely utilize outside sources.  Managers move into positions with little to no knowledge in the specific area/department in which they are assigned to support.

A straight-up pay raise. The previous ones have been felt and appreciated, but every other cost keeps rising except that of my labor. I make quite noticeably less than my peers doing the exact same work but at other schools.

I have personally taken on tasks that aren't specifically outlined in my job description because it is a need from my managers and tasks that don't take much time but do have an impact on the work if not completed regularly or given the attention it needs in a timely manner. It seems like compensation should be increased according to the extra tasks taken on regularly when they are tasks that need completed regularly and have an impact on the everyday work being done.

I often feel out of the loop on different things that are happening in the building on a daily basis. A daily email including important things to know daily, like subs, student schedule changes, and admin availability would be nice.  Also there is something else that is more NHA instead of TPHS but I cant specify so I'll talk about it here. The tech situation is frustrating with the level of blocking that happens on students chromebooks. It make it really hard to have students research topics that are appropriate for upperclassmen when the only source they can find is Wikipedia. Also there is a big issue with kids not having chargers or charged chromebooks, and because we take responsibility for our students success here at NHA that is now our problem that students cannot complete their assigned work if it is online.

The connection is great, but I sometimes feel like my goals to become a better teacher aren't actually being addressed or it is very difficult to determine a solution for what I need. I do not even think this is on any particular person; what I am trying to accomplish is just difficult to figure out in the short class time I have and the subject I am teaching.

n/a

Teacher does not collaborate with anyone,

Know about anything that effects our overall grade level team.

I would like to see more positions that support the classroom for teachers who are not interested in leadership. I do not see a lot of growth to obtain positions outside of management.

Policies need to be upheld instead of being too afraid to enforce them because we may lose school employees especially when the standards have been communicated multiple times.

Provide more personal and/or sick leave. This is an area both myself and other coworkers expressed frustration over last year and unfortunately nothing was done. As a teacher, you’re susceptible to not only contracting illnesses but also bringing those illnesses home to family. I’ve taught with a 103 degree fever and vomiting because I had no more sick days. This shouldn’t be the case.

Being recognized encourages employees and motivates them to always want to improve. We have the "High 5" that could be used to reward/acknowledge our work. I had my birthday recently and I received a snack-size bag of chips. I was really upset because I always give my best, and not even on my birthday did I feel recognized. I also didn’t understand why some new employees received a full box of gifts, including clothes, an umbrella, and a cup, but I didn’t get anything. I felt extremely undervalued.

I feel as if some of the grade levels are micromanaged to the point of distraction. I would like to see a bit more of flexibility in allowing the educators to use their experience and knowledge to do their jobs with fidelity.

Use verbal, in person communication to compliment email communication.

None

Hold EVERY student accountable not just the ones picked.

There should be more PTO to help encourage a healthy work-life balance. With all the hours and work that we pour into our jobs at NHA, I want to feel like my work is appreciated, and that I am appreciated as a person.

Remote work

Would like to make more money.

I feel like I have ZERO atonomy over my classroom. Teacher input is never asked/taken into consideration. Everything I do in the classroom is micro-managed/scripted and does not feel authentic. I feel as if admin/NHA doesn't trust the teachers to do the jobs they were hired for. I often times don't feel like I am a teacher, but a facilitator for the NHA curriculum. I wish that I had more power over the way I teach. I understand that all NHA schools have to follow the same curriculum but I wish we allowed teachers to come up with different ways to teach in addition to the "one size fits all" curriculum that is not differentiated to meet student needs at all. We are way too data driven and not student centered. We are asked to do too much with not enough time. I don't see the benefit of annotating lessons beyond the need of micro-management. Students are not held accountable/consequences are little to none. Lastly, it really  upsets me that staff are being forced to be in the classroom.

Compare salary and benefits locally to other public schools in the area.

As teachers, we spend countless hours in licensure and degree programs to become masters at our craft. Each day it seems were given a new, mindless task to appease a checklist or an uncooperative parent. Each day it seems as though we move farther and farther away from actually teaching our students and just tacking onto our to do list. It seems as though this year, our autonomy has lessened and our expectations and how to do explicitly do them has increased. We need more time to get things we are trained to do done. We also need a cleaner work space. The students deserve clean bathrooms as well as the staff. Students tell me they hover over the toilet seats rather than sit because of how filthy and unsafe they feel. As far as staff meetings go, it's become too much. I feel like we're all expected to be at school much more past our contract hours than in the past. If other careers aren't expected to work off the clock, why are we?

Hire the teachers needed to cover classes. I'm tired of subbing without compensation and having to take my work home at night. Hire a permanent sub. NHA made 480 million dollars in 2023. Use some of the money to support staff and students. Have clearly defined admin roles with standard operating procedures made clear to teachers. Admin has promised support with the new behavior initiatives and is rarely available for said support. Many teachers have given up on the initiatives because it adds more work and frustration. Then we are held accountable by admin when they see that a student has a phone, air pods or dress code violations.

Ensure Paraprofessionals get some paid Holidays.

Positive and effective communication is a necessity in creating a healthy work culture. I think that dean/leadership teams should look deeply at retention rates of teachers over the last 5 years. There has to be a sense of middle ground to create a healthier balance overall. Retention rates don't fall entirely on admin but it is a massive part of school culture. Studies show that retention rates as of 2022 have grown over 12% in urban districts and high poverty areas (according to RAND.ORG) I don't feel this is a conversation we should shy away from. This school is important. We are essentially the heart of Evanston. I believe that we as a staff can come together and create a more positive culture that would lower teacher turnover at Alliance. This in turn would help bring Data up- inspired teachers deliver strong results. I believe this is a shift that can occur at Alliance. We have great teachers here.

Stop blaming the teachers for everything that is wrong. We can only do so much with the behaviors. Taking them out of the room and bringing them back does not help. These students continue to be a disruption.  Culture starts at the top.

At least raise compensation to cost of living, even if its in increments.

The Laurus Leadership Team and staff are phenomenal. I’m happy to work here and be apart of this effective team.

Although the pay scale is appropriately median, the stress of behaviors would seem encourage a higher rate of pay, and the staffing climate would seem to suggest more retention bonus opportunities throughout the year like around Christmas and Spring Break.

A better understanding of how to do the lessons effectively.

When on leave, not to be contacted.

I think behavior expectations need to be more clear and consistent across the whole school.

Instructional support for teachers around working with students with learning deficits.

We are often told things at the last minute or it is not clarified for all staff. Many times, information is buried in our weekly newsletters from the deans and we have to click in multiple places to find things that are important. For example, information about when progress reports were supposed to go home were in a link about grading expectations, but not included in important dates. Important dates and events should be relayed to staff through our weekly newsletters from the admin team.

N/A

Are there places to innovate in our benefits package? PTO, compensation in the sc? Can we attract high talent with innovations in our benefits package?

Sometimes a day off as a reward would go a long way

Make Paras salary employees

Maternity leave you should get full pay for the 6-8 weeks. Anything after that should be the 60%

Too many expectations for my role. For example, too many other things expected in addition to my full time job as a teacher. I do not feel I cannot complete these other duties AND still plan and teach quality lessons which is why I am here. This is leading to a sense being unfulfilled  as I came here to teach and help students. This is causing me to reconsider my employment here.

More up to date technology such as updated computers for teachers, ipads for teachers or students.

Making assignments count towards the GPA.

I am new to teaching my content, and I know the state want certain things taught. I need an appropriate online curriculum for Econ.(US History is not exactly for online but not that difficult to adjust for online but W History wasn't for online and neither is Econ).  I should not have to use my personal time figuring out lessons for students because there is no official lesson plan for subjects taught. Which lead to less work/personal life balance. I recommend NHA either buy an online curriculum from like K12 online(they've been around for 20 yrs and are experts) or hire someone to write the online curriculum. It's not fair to teachers when they don't have necessary tools to teach but are being critiqued on it. I was told Civics would be ready for this fall but then told 1 week before school it won't be ready until Jan. This was very upsetting because it should have been ready to go esp. since they told me back in March of this year it would be ready.

I know that teachers have the opportunity to obtain SCECH hours, however, it would be great to see more opportunities from NHA to help social workers obtain CEs.

I know we are a high school building but it would be great if we could implement time to give the middle schoolers recess or brain breaks. The behaviors that have been happening I believe would diminish if they were able to work off some steam.

Re assess what is expected of the students once they are promoted to the next level, and teach to those expectations. Incorporate culturally responsive teaching.

More frequent recognition for all teachers. Morning pop in before school starts or quick after school pop ins. Positive recognitions during O3 meetings.

I feel that overall Rolesville does an excellent job with communication and maintaining relationships.

Some science equipment sent does not match the equipment needed on amplify or it is all gone before I can use because it was not replenished from previous years. Social studies also is basically a non factor, no training was given on it and don't have any of the materials to teach but students are expected to have a grade for it

Continued trainings for social emotional resources.

Better identifying of the students that are in need of extensive social emotional support beyond what teachers are able to provide in a classroom setting, and removing them to receive the help needed in order to return to a productive learning environment.

I dont have any

I still think middle schoolers need to choose their own electives and I really hope that is something that can happen next year.  I would be a lot happier as a teacher if that was the case for middle school.   I think another thing this school could improve on a little bit is consistency.  Being on the same page with all things would make working here easier.

Need more sick days/PTO days.  We work with kids and get sick so often - 6 days is not enough. NHA also needs better maternity AND paternity leave benefits, especially if we claim to be a company that supports families. It would also be wonderful if NHA worked to provided MUCH higher pay - inflation is going up and pay is not keeping up with the needs of a modern day family. If someone is not married to a spouse with high income, it puts the whole family in financial struggle to have their needs be met.

Compensation for teachers and support staff would be greatly appreciated. Also more PTO days for staff at NHA.

It would be nice if staff could choose a professional development that they would like to go that isn’t just an NHA focused training.

Clear and concise understanding AND practices that can/will coincide with safety for all.

Cost of living is so high and this compensation just cannot measure up to any expenses.

My chiropractor is not included in my benefits plan along with trips to minute clinic. It costs a lot to do these things.

Invest in an INTERACTIVE TOUCH SMART BOARDS for the classroom to enhance student learning experience.

Having more flexibility with lessons. In ways to engage students more.

Only having 6 days of PTO is not nearly enough to accommodate sick time and important family events. It's shockingly lower than what any of my friends and family are receiving from traditional public school districts and doesn't encourage self care or work-life balance. NHA should take this into account and provide us with at least ten days of PTO.

I am appreciative of the pay increase we receive at the end of the year, however, compared to what some of the surrounding schools are paid, I wish our pay was around the same.

it is extremely concerning when I come into my room and it isn't swept or mopped from the night before. as the winter months approach i would hate for rodents and insects to take over.

improvement on pacing schedules for our student levels

It would be helpful to feel listened to about the area of improvement identified above. I don't feel hopeful that it will be addressed or "fixed," but that is a reality each year. It is upsetting to put in countless hours of work (outside of contract hours too) and not see that reflected in pay. To have the same recommendation yearly and be told that it's just the reality of teaching is unfair.

To improve compensation and support a transition to full-time work, I recommend conducting market research to ensure our salaries are competitive with industry standards. It would also be helpful to highlight individual contributions during performance discussions to demonstrate the value team members provide. Open conversations with leadership about career goals and potential benefits of full-time positions could foster better alignment. If full-time roles aren't available right now, exploring flexible work arrangements or additional benefits might be a good step. Encouraging ongoing communication about these topics will help create a supportive environment for everyone.

Be firm in communicating and ensure consistency. If we are told one thing, don’t change it at the last second with no clear communication

There is often so much work, it feels like we are given such little time to do it, it almost feels impossible sometimes. I wish we could have time to stay after every other week instead of staff meetings every week.  I feel like I have no life outside of work sometimes. I am happy with my role, my coworkers, and my manager. But the work life balance seems near impossible with our work load and hours we have to be here.

Local public schools are paying more than NHA.  If our compensation could be equal to theirs it would satisfy me.

For staff that has expressed they want to advance. More communication or emails with opportunities to interview of be interviewed for advancement.

I feel that educators should have a choice of which regional PD they attend. Being given PD that is meaningful and also of interest will benefit educators.

Keeping a tight structure in the classroom, being consistent !

I would love to grow as a teacher/para. I feel that I have stopped growing as an educator and I want to learn how I can better serve my students and my school.

The bathrooms are disgusting, we have to find a better way to clean them. The custodial staff works very hard, but we still have mornings without paper towels, soap, toilet paper, and the restroom smells like pee. Maybe invest in a pressure washer? it is just very very bad.

Spend less money on things we don’t need from lakeshore learning and give it to staff in pay. Ask teachers what’s needed rather than wasting money on some items we don’t use. Raises that reflect work ethic and what’s being shown to you.

Provide teachers with more time for planning. I take work home a lot due to the high task list. It is no way to get things done during the work day.

More planning/work time on half days. Less meetings.

In "Resources" I am also including space/work areas. The Special Education Team is a team of 5 teachers, 1 paraprofessional, Speech Pathologist, and the OT (and sometimes OT's shadow). We are crammed into the media/library area where we need to service our students; there is not enough room and resources for all of us to be in the same area. Some personalities are not conducive to working in the same vicinity as others and is draining team morale. We often have to find separate areas to get any paperwork completed and still try to be available to our students that may need extra support.

 N/A

The area of improvement falls between collaboration and communication. I feel like we struggle to accuratly and effectively communicate and work with both staff and parents, especially when it comes to student behaviors. I would love to see more open and honest conversations with parents in a way that is productive (example: more parent meetings to discuss strategies and supports). Educating our parents on different areas of the school and education as a whole. Communicating with staff about student behaviors and what is being done (suspensions/removals, write ups, strategies to support, etc). Working with staff to develop better plans and get ideas to support our students.

We continue to be asked to do more and more, but we are not compensated financially or through paid time off in a way that is meaningful.

Look at the classroom as a place for the next generation to learn and grow rather than as a business. Allow smaller class sizes instead of over filling. Send teacher notes of appreciation or recognize more teachers for what they're doing in their class. Seek out what's happening and small positive actions of teachers. We lose a lot of our free time during the day to having to help support during our lunch or attending meetings during our planning. Give us time to eat or plan during the workday or show appreciation for all these extra things we do. Have someone give us bathroom breaks :D

Allowing more flexibility when using outside resources to supplement the curriculum.

Weekly Wednesday meetings should never go beyond 4:30pm. That's at least a 9 hour workday with a 25 minute lunch.

More help from the safety team regarding Columbia Suicide Risk Assessments.

Having reading interventions for scholars

RE: collaboration Opportunities for general education to collaborate with special education in the classroom setting would positively benefit many students. Increased coteaching opportunities would have a positive impact of the inclusion efforts and would also benefit students without documented disabilities.

I don't have any recommendations at this time.

I would feel more secure if there were hall sweeps from time to time, bookbag checks, and security actually patrolling the hallways during the high traffic times.

More role specific PDs

I feel as if teachers and staff members should be trusted more to run a classroom on their own without constantly having others tell them what to do and how to do it.

I recommend more team bonding activities. With so many new staff members, we hardly know each other. Around this time last year, we had a really nice get-together at Canterbury Village. I also recommend that our leadership team stress the value and importance of maintaining a respectful and professional work environment, as there have been too many instances where our interactions with each other have lacked kindness, respectfulness, and professionalism. I believe that the culture among co-workers could be better.

More employee benefit offerings such as: telework, holidays and paid parental leave.

The lack of prep time results in taking work home, making it hard to spend quality time with family. Increasing prep time would boost productivity and support better mental health for teachers.

Policies are applied in a one-size-fits-all manner that is not always helpful.   For example, CHAMPS is difficult to implement at the high school level. It could be more effective to teach along with class procedures. We could present each routine (notes, group work, etc.) and the CHAMPS expectations for each followed by a quiz/matching activity to lock in the information. Students would be expected to know the CHAMPS configuration for common routines, and we could display posters as reminders. This would speed up transitions in class and feel more age appropriate.   Rather than using teacher input to adapt procedures, NHA gives us an elementary procedure, and we have to train the students to comply with procedures that don't actually make sense for them. I don't want to raise up young adults to blindly follow flawed systems. I want them to be active community members who seek to create positive change in the system.

Allowing all members of a team to have a part , not just one or two

Allow room and opportunities for growth beyond the classroom. I would like to know about dean training and how to someday become one. How can I further my career beyond a classroom teacher.

Get togethers to just spend time together

Everything is scripted, school treats students and staff as if they are in solitude confinement, and autonomy is being removed from the culture.

we should get both PTO and SICK days not all in one and we should also earn them throughout the year not just get 40hrs at the beginning of the school year. Also compensation for paras should be increased, we should also be given the option to have our pay spread over 52 weeks since we can't get unemployment during the summer, and school breaks we aren't working.

More competitive pay

More focus on providing teachers time during the week to have PLC's with interventionists and amongst themselves.

Having an admin team who actually leaves NHA required notes after each observation, actual feedback to create a better teacher in me, and a manager who takes in ideas and utilizes them in the best way possible.

If the desk and chairs in middle school were not attached, janitorial staff/staff could better maintain cleanliness of floors in the classroom.

It feels that it is preached to have work life balance but the amount of items/tasks that are expected makes it impossible to have one. The behaviors and General safety in classes make classes fall behind and it is expected/blamed on teachers for trying to teach their students. Constantly having "deadlines" thrown in faces every week in an email is stressing every teacher out. Teachers understand that the curriculum must be taught at a timely manner, but it feels like the data matters more that actually teaching students the content. Then when the data comes in, parents, students, etc blame the teacher for the poor grades and results. Teacher prep hour has been shortened by 15 minutes from last year and have been being replaced with countless meetings each week, so we do not have the time to prep for two grade levels and an intervention during our "prep" at school. Then when Teachers are taking days off to get a break and not be burned out, we are scrutinized about using our PTO.

Guided reading books for small groups. Better support for students who need extra care.

More coaching instead of micromanagement. I also believe that trusting your teammates with their profession/expertise needs to improve instead of questioning their role, especially during IEP meetings in front of other teammates and parents of students.

stop blaming the teachers for everything. Taking the behaviors out for awhile and returning them doesn’t do anything. They come back and are still disruptive. Culture starts at the top. Work- life balance much needed for the teachers well being and their families.

I’ve observed a noticeable amount of tension and underlying issues within the school environment, which I believe could be addressed to improve our overall work culture. At times, I have felt that certain colleagues are not as approachable or receptive when I ask questions or offer suggestions. Additionally, there appears to be inconsistency in expectations, as some individuals seem to receive more leniency than others. Addressing these concerns could help create a more positive, inclusive, and equitable atmosphere for everyone.

Monetary/reward incentives

I enjoy being apart of the Laurus Family!

Limit PD to 3 days and not consecutive days for First week back ONLY. No PD second week. Teachers need time in their classrooms.

Consistent support for students in the classroom with plans

There needs to be more collaboration between leadership and the rest of staff. There aren't feedback options for leadership despite feedback being given to staff often, and on the insanely rare occasion that a staff member manages to give informal feedback - as there has been literally no formal options given this year - it is not taken in, and nothing is changed in regards to it. There is an obvious divide between leadership and the rest of the staff members as the majority of them feel that their opinions are completely invalidated, and they feel there's no room for culture to improve as those most important for change are unwilling to receive any negative feedback. When feedback is not allowed to be given, there is no opportunity for negative culture aspects to improve, and there is also no opportunity to encourage actions/activities that school staff appreciates/finds useful. There is also clear favoritism. Leadership struggles to separate personal from professional relationships.

I just think if you put things out they kids should be able to acess them. Im so sick of everything being blocked based on the middle school. Tech shouldnt have 100% say in what blocked. They dont know what we are doing in high school. Stop with the At-Risk teacher stuff and just pay the school the money they need to pay teachers as teachers. WE NEED MORE FULLTIME STAFF not half teacher half at risk. These kids deserve the small class sizes advertisted and the extra AP classes that come with having more full time staff.

The cleaning staff is nice and feels like family so I do not want to get anyone in trouble. I just think that the bathrooms should be cleaned more than once a day. Roaches and ants should be treated on a regular basis. Sinks and and commodes should be so thoroughly cleaned, black and brown residue should not be seen. This is for the students, faculty and staff restrooms.

My planning time, Time to collaborate with the teachers that I work with and planning.

More professional developments

More ways to learn from my colleagues. I would like to know where I can work on my own teaching and then go see someone that I can see do it to learn what it should look like and sound like.

To allow more team building activities, so we can build more productive relationship among our team members.

The math curriculum forcing me to teach things in such a specific way that students can only pass tests by solving the way they were shown.

One area of improvement I feel is important is the need we have for building subs.  It is hard to build consistency with groups when staff is being pulled to substitute for classroom teachers.  The disruption to students sets back growth and routines are broken up when they can't meet regularly.  If the building has a couple building subs or floaters to fill these needs, staff can be consistent with meeting with students that need their support.

More clear teacher Editions books that have examples of the homework for the unit in the actual lesson. The current Geometry book doesn't have any of that.

Increase rigor to prepare students for high school.

Not every teacher/staff member is held to the same standards.

More pay for added job duties and years of experience.

The books used in OOS mostly do not reflect majority demographic we service. For example, learning about Hitler Youth. Most of our students are very familiar with racial violence, they don't need to be reminded. It would be far more meaningful to showcase literature by authors who reflect the demographic we teach. Our school desperately needs a real and big kitchen and a safe space for the food workers. As of right now, there are big trash cans everywhere, food workers work in the hallway which feels inappropriate and demeaning. NHA profit margins should allow you to remedy this issue, I encourage you as a moral focus to invest in the community in which you take a profit.  My manager is over tasked. To not fault of her own, she is rarely available  You should hire another assistant principal, or a new special education coordinator. Again use your profit margins to serve the community in which you profit. Culture is not about potlucks, please rethink this.

Grade level meetings could be a good way to start improving communication.

I appreciate the thorough nature of the curriculum. The change in adding the FSAs for reading mastery is causing increased strain as the time it takes to access materials, administer, and grade the assessment takes time away from other needs. The frequency allows adds added strain. Math assessments are also at a frequency it makes it difficult to provide meaning instruction in math.

The culture of Forsyth Academy is extremely passive aggressive. There is lacking support or accountability from administration which is a large contributing factor to many teachers leaving. Favorite teachers are extremely clear and the tone in which you are addressed if you are not one of them is passive aggressive, cold and increasingly uncomfortable. The school tries to appear as a big family and this could not be further from the truth. Family is warm, inclusive, caring and wants to see you succeed. This school says many of those things, while led by people who behave in the opposite manner. Teacher successes and challenges will be addressed and supported completely different based on the teacher and whether they have a bond with administration. Concerns for safety are not taken seriously, nor handled in a timely manner. The culture of this workplace is exhausting and stressful, driving away good teachers and paraeducators to other opportunities. It is truly sad for the students.

Student behavior needs to be addressed and taken seriously by Administration.  If a student maliciously hurts another student or interrupts the learning environment in a drastic way, they need to be suspended and sent home.  I am tired of administration making my classroom an unsafe place because they talk to a student who has had an extreme behavior and then sends them right back to class.  Apart of this problem is that our classrooms are over filled and no student can get the time and attention they need/deserve.

Provide specific and relevant resources or funds for paras, ie reading and math EB curriculum.

Someone needs to really clean this school up. Even the stairs have dirt caked on them.

Better security guard, better inspection of backpacks.

Need to overhaul the middle school math curriculum. I don't like the order in which we teach the units, nor do I think that the curriculum gives students enough "at bats" to feel successful.

None.

I believe that there should be a concerted effort to extend a more competitive wage to staff.  Speaking from experience, I took a pay cut to come to Pembroke, from teaching to Academic Specialist.  I took on way more responsibility, but took home less pay.  I believe that NHA's model is a great one, so let's push the envelope, shake some trees, and find a way to increase the financial package as well!

Having a session about a teachers well being and no in the well being of benefiting the students and parents , but resources for us when we need mental help.

The school needs to be deep cleaned. My classroom floors are so dirty. The restrooms are filthy throughout the day and are not checked until the afternoon custodian arrives. The behaviors need to be addressed as a whole class. There are too many students that disrupt the entire class and there's no consequences. The classroom sizes are too big. I am still over the capacity after 6 weeks of school. This year we don't have computers assigned to students and the computer cart does not have enough chargers. There are teachers ready to quit because they are overwhelmed with all the teacher duties, the behaviors in the classroom, and other things that they cannot control.

Duty free recess, so I could do some grading instead of spending hours at home doing it.

Higher pay

More PTO especially if you plan to work through the summer

Sweep/Vaccuum classrooms daily and mop weekly.

In regards to support, I feel like we are being given more and more to do this year, with less time to do it. The micro-managing has increased this year and it feels like admin no longer trusts their teachers. I also think that some students have gotten very used to getting away with whatever they want over the years. These students are struggling when they have teachers who have higher expectations. Often when we call admin on the walkie for student support, the student is returned to class very quickly. I am not sure how to improve these areas, but just wanted to let you know what I am noticing.

School-Wide protocols with certain domains (restroom allowance, hallway monitors and procedures, PBIS adherence, documentation, etc.)  to enforce consistency across classroom and teaching styles.

I selected curriculum. Our curriculum is not age appropriate for our students. They highly lack foundational skills and the curriculum that we have at this school is not helping students grow. As educators, we are not set up for success which in return does not allow our students to be set up for success. There is no work-life balance. We have been told that as teachers we will always be having to work outside of school hours. If you are a favorite, you do get support for behaviors . Not all teachers get the same level of support or encouragement. Some co-workers are helpful, yet others do as they please and do not get in trouble. It just depends who you are. My manager is helpful when she wants to be. It is hard to gauge when it is appropriate to ask for assistance/ advice because I never know how she will respond.   There should be some form of survey that goes out prior to professional development days so educators can give opinions on what would benefit them during these days.

Training.   Compensation for doing multiple jobs without recognition.

We often work 10+ hour days and we only have 8 days off throughout the year. These days are used for sick days and for vacations. We should  have some designated sick days set aside from the 8. We shouldn’t have to sacrifice mental health days/vacation because we may potentially become sick.

Higher and more competitive pay

Pay could be increased for paraprofessionals. We are teachers as well, just without the college degree (we do have a para certification). We have ALOT to do as paraprofessionals and the pay should definitely be increased.

Don't be a so worryed about stuff that does not impact student learning

I would like communication on if we have a discipline policy for continued behavior problems, and if we do, what the steps are for putting that in place.

More days that we could take off instead of just 7 and also possibly being able to roll over days.

Cleaning staff properly meeting their requirements for cleaning the building would improve the overall look of this great school.

More time dedicated in the daily schedule to moral focus and social emotional learning, more professional development focused on how to implement age appropriate, regular mental health check-ins, and strategies for helping struggling students

I know that there are have been some concerns in the upper grades with the Amplify curriculum aligning with the State tests.  I do not teach the material, so I have not worked with it.

When teachers show, through data, that they are quality educators they should be able to plan their class periods, select their seating arrangements and not be booged down doing more busy work that doesn't help the students in the classroom.

I believe that staff members should get more PTO( vacation time) during the school year. I do not think 5 days is enough especially for individuals with children. Maybe 10 days will be good.

I wish there was more resources to connect to the instruction to better support students. Implementing things like scholastic news, brainpop, f&p reading groups, prodigy, etc are all tools that could be used to support learning in the classroom. There should also be social studies and science books (similar to the iready books) to provide more support on topics discussed in class.

While I have seen a positive uptick from last year to this year, unproductive behaviors are still high and students of all ages, not just in the middle school, need to be held accountable—we as staff need to few empowered to hold our kids to those high standards.    Furthermore, as a young educator hoping to grow her family in the years to come, I was thoroughly disappointed in the maternity leave compensation for young mothers. I’m also a member of the specials team, and I was shocked at the lack of curriculum across the board for specials teachers.

We NEED more subs. It is frustrating to be pulled away from supporting my students to cover classes for other teachers. I feel like subbing pulls me away from supporting my students, which disrupts our routines and derails ongoing projects.

Although compensation is something I do not expect to increase significantly, I feel with the cost of living increases, compensation could more accurately reflect that (cost of living increase = increase in salary)

be more consistent

The issue I see with compensation and work-life balance would be that during this past enrollment busy season, there was no time for life outside of this office because work continued into the evenings as well after leaving the office at home. There is also NO bonus or compensation for the numerous extra hours that were put in outside of normal business hours. This in turn is lost time with my family at home. There are improvements needed. There also needs to be clear expectations on how late into the night we should be working. I could work 24 hours a day and still not be caught up with what we are being told needs to be done by the end of each day during the busy season. There is not enough assistance during this time either from our team as no one else has the bandwidth to assist and other teams are not able to assist. Maybe temp staff could be helpful. It is also hard to get assistance from our manager when they do not know all the aspects of our roles.

Student behaviors need to be addressed, and they are being addressed.

Allow tuition reimbursement, better pay, and NHA pay for adults to get their teaching license

Limiting after school meetings and increased planning time to allow more work to be completed at school and less taken home. Also less required grades to be entered. For example this year, there is one moral focus grade that needs to be entered per week. I greatly value the ability and resources to teach Moral Focus and think it is imperative for student success. However, entering grades for it, is one more thing to do that takes time, but more importantly seem to reduce it to an academic exercise instead (and all that comes with) as opposed to a lesson on Morals and application.   There also seems to be a new tension in the air as leadership changes. Deans are now walking around with clipboards and checking off items in the room. This has caused a feeling of "being under the microscope" and labeled as "feedback and support" this added element, feels as if you can't go home until everything in the room is correct or it will be critiqued. Which has caused culture to take a hit as well.

Just more work-life balance. It has been a lot this year with learning a lot more things and I feel like with that it is taking more work home. There is no time to lesson plan and I like to have family time once I leave work and not worry about lesson planning and deadlines. Also, there are a lot more observations and someone is consistently in the classroom observing. Yes, it is part of the job but it becomes overwhelming at times because you just want to teach and have a moment to breathe. It is early in the year and I feel burnt out already and it is only October. Also, we do a lot of training about the children and how to better assist and help them but we also need to do some for ourselves and our mental health.

I feel that 8 days of PTO is not enough time. When it comes to sick, personal and family emergency days, I feel that these should all be separate and 8 days combined is absolutely not enough. If I am sick, I should not panic about taking my time off and having to use one of my limited days. However, I appreciate the jump up from 5 days. Comparing to public schools, I used to get 18 days off, minimum. While I never used all 18 days, it was nice to not panic when I had to call out.   Regional PD Days- my school often has to travel for these PD days. I feel that we can be just as productive if we join in online and participate that way. It is a pain to drive 2 hours there and back and often we are getting back to school after contract hours.

Having 4 different lesson plans to fill out when the majority of the information is already made by the C&I team feels like wasted planning time when I could be doing more things to actually help my students instead of filling out yet another document.

The students are worn out mentally, because they need breaks. Additionally, many students cannot finish the work in time. If middle school had study hall at the end of the day, maybe in place of specials, students would be able to finish work from the day or make up missing work.

It would be much better if the title paras either got paid more in general or got salary pay. We are the only ones in the building who go every break we get without pay, when we get a whole week of snow days out of nowhere and dont choose to stay home, we go unpaid, and it makes it hard. We are told to use our PTO but we get sick and need to take days off just like the other staff who gets paid holidays and gets to take days off when needed. I'm not blaming North Dayton, I know that its not controlled here but the administration has the ability to advocate for us.

Social Work, Occupational Therapy. Healthier Lunches.

The cleaning has gotten better but once a week to clean a classroom is not effective. The bathrooms get nasty.

None that I can think of at this moment.

Although we have PTO we do not often have subs to be able to cover which leads to other teachers being pulled from their positions to sub. If we used a platform like EduStaff - which reaches a huge range of people- instead of people applying to sub directly at one school we would have more coverage.  Personally knowing that we do not have subs, it makes me feel guilty for taking any time off knowing that it can impact my coworkers.

Based on what I have found, our paternity leave policy at NHA is only 5 days paid. I would really like to see an improvement in this policy as somebody who values being an active father and is currently approaching the birth of a second child.

More support for behavior issues and overall classrooms.

It is clear to me that a top to bottom overhaul of the middle school ELA curriculum is something that needs to happen before the end of the decade. There are serious, consistent problems with both the pacing and content which NHA provides. Not only are there inaccuracies (red meat being empty calories as an example in the Chew on This unit), but oftentimes the writing and the reading are only tangentially connected.

I love Jessica Powell. She is amazing!

Finding ways to find pathways to advancement.

All correspondence, policies, and procedures should be in writing and verbally transparent. Communication is lacking consistency for the staff and parents.

curriculum should be more standard based

I somewhat felt like I was being thrown to the wolves when I was asked to be one of the lead first grade teachers. I hadn't had much training for this role and I still feel like there may be so much that I am unaware of that I need to be doing, or should know. I say that because sometimes things will come up there I was never fully aware of that needed to be completed soon but I never had the prior knowledge of what it was or how to complete it.

Their needs to be a salary increase for staff.

I would recommend involving the entire school in activities and not just specific grade levels. I would also like to see more activities that would allow parents to partake in.

Stressing the importance of being here and the opportunity we are all given as students and staff to improve ourselves everyday. Student safety and educational urgency could bolster student success.

I would like to see a half day a month or a full day a month that is just teacher work time. There is not enough time to get everything done enough to support a work-life-balance. We need more time in school to coplan and work without kids or we will burn out.

Additional stipends for classroom supplies. Additional opportunities for salary growth.

I would like to recommend a day per month for just teachers catching up on work, with no students and no PD. I also want more PTOs offered.

Health insurance should be available after 30 days for new teachers and day one for returning teachers. Compensation. Increases and PTO days increased.

Advancement for non teachers

I feel micromanaged.

I accidentally hit resources on the previous questions and could not delete it. My experience at Willow Charter  is definitely fantastic. I would not choose to teach anywhere else!!  Words can not describe how happy I am to be part of this staff!!!

N/A

Payroll was short over $300 in one of paychecks.  Not happy.   People Services was not helpful.

Increase Base Salary: Advocating for a higher base salary for teachers across all grade levels to make the profession more competitive with other industries that require similar education and experience.  Performance-Based Incentives: Introduce merit-based pay or bonuses for teachers who demonstrate exceptional student outcomes, classroom innovation, or professional development.  Cost-of-Living Adjustments: Ensure teacher salaries are adjusted regularly to reflect inflation and rising living costs, especially in regions with a high cost of living.  Support for Continuing Education: Offer financial support or stipends for teachers pursuing further education, advanced degrees, or professional certifications to improve their teaching skills.  Student Loan Forgiveness: Expand student loan forgiveness programs for teachers, especially those working in underserved or high-need areas, to reduce financial burden.

We continuously have grants coming in and we have to spend it all by the end of the year. We spend this money on a lot of extra things off the top of our heads at the end of the year, I wonder why aren't we using more of this money to cover necessities and paying staff more with our own money? We are not making enough to live comfortably in this current economy; most staff are just getting by if they are not relying on a spouse's income.

Higher wages would be nice.

To have onboard translators. To hire multilingual teachers for EL

I feel that communication could be faster and more thorough.

The communication emails could be more informative.

More communication from management/leadership to understand the goals/decisions and the best method of support to reach those goals.

Is it possible for us to have a staff meeting once a month?

Pay us properly

Fairness, transparency, and accountability for ALL.

I think ALL staff should be paid for snow days.  I also think we should get a couple of days of sick days on top of our five vacation days.

Focus groups and advisory committees for high school related curriculum and programs. More local, site-based autonomy.

Lobby politicians in the states that NHA serves to increase the funding for public education.

Between the many charts we must make, the HUGE amount of content we are expected to know and get through in one day effectively, the amount of copying involved, the many logs that we have to fill out & having no real break, is so draining that it sucks the life out of me. I have 20 minutes for lunch but that is spent making sure the afternoon is set along with putting out any fires that arose in the morning. I get planning time on Thursdays and Fridays because the other days we have meetings during planning. I do not have time to think a thought and by the end of the day I am completely exhausted. Alas, I still end up staying until anywhere from 7 p.m. - 9 p.m. every day and I come in on Sundays too for around 5 hours or more. This is because I feel like if I am not perfect in every subject (even though this is my first year teaching this curriculum) I will get in "trouble". If the paras took care of recess, that would help a lot. Then they could take their lunch afterwards.

I really feel that the curriculum moves too fast and with it being scripted, it takes away the teachers ability to be more creative with it. Teachers should be able to use their creativity in teaching the necessary skills.

Being about to collaborate with other educators from other school in NHA who are excelling in the same content

Fair pay compensation

We need highly qualified people leading professional development sessions. They should have a strong background in education, with at least 10 years of classroom teaching experience, and possess expertise in the subject area for which they are leading the professional development. Additionally, they should be familiar with relevant and updated practices supported by research. They also need to be current teachers, as teaching today is different from teaching 10, 5, or even 4 years ago. Alternatively, consider paying for teachers to attend classes in highly rated schools.

Student behavior is a major concern.  Teachers are responsible for addressing most issues, unless it involves physical altercations.  This is not working, students are disrespectful, defiant, and are indifferent to academic failure or success.  The students put very little effort into interim and State Tests, which reflects poorly upon teachers.

Specify educator roles in writing before the beginning of the school year and consistently evaluate educator performance based on those mutually known roles.

The amount that is asked and the amount of time in a day is difficult sometimes to balance the home life balance. i have been here at the school way past 7 pm on Friday and even coming to work on Saturday. If this area could be improved working here for me would be perfect.

n/a

More incentives such as attendance bonuses.

n/a

We need pay time off for holidays and summer in order to not have to get a second job which would take away from our time at this job.

We’re losing our retention bonus

Last year, we had a 35 minute block for Moral Focus. It allowed us time to talk with students, to work on Moral Focus projects, and to work with students who needed a little extra help. The block was protected 3 days a week for Moral Focus lessons and 2 days a week to focus on the needs of the students.   This year, Triumph decided to adjust Moral Focus so that it is more like the other NHA schools. It is combined with homeroom now, from 8:00-8:20, but by the time we have national anthem, pledges, announcements, and attendance, we only have 5-10 minutes left for Moral Focus. I'm finding that I'm either greatly shortening lessons, or skipping them all together. With it being in the morning, it's during a very hectic time, and I'm finding myself just not doing the lessons (What can you do in 5 minutes?).   Thirty-five minutes was probably too long as well, but I'd like to see a more protected Moral Focus time come back again.

I believe that administration does not communicate effectively with staff members. Some speak in a negative tone and it affects how we receive the feedback from them. We receive last minute information and then are expected to complete that task immediately as it is asked of. This year we have experienced worse communication and I feel it is because the culture of the school has gone down drastically. Some administration talk down on teachers/staff behind their backs and it's just not positive behavior that they themselves say they want students to emulate. And you don't know how to express concerns you have without being talked down in the process. Also for the cleanliness of the school, the classrooms are not properly cleaned. You will find the same pieces of paper on the floor from yesterday still in the same spot the following day. And some rooms are NEVER cleaned, only the trash is taken out. The tables don't get wiped down or the floor isn't vacuumed. Unsatisfied.

Talk with staff about opportunites of advancement when opportunites or positions become available at the school. Reveiw resumes or openly ask staff who are interested, qualified, and have experience. Do not give a position to someone who is not  qualified or has no experience for the position.

I feell that there is no clear communication, or way to find out how much time you have available to take off for personal reasons, or how much time you have left as a balance.  Oracle is nice, but it is not used in the best way to communicate an individuals needs in different areas.

Better pay for Paras/title one teachers.

Offer life insurance or open benefits offers.

More pay for experienced teacher.  Pay is too low.

I would love to see a regional professional development where one of the sessions teachers could pick from different breakout sessions to attend and bring learning that they wanted to receive back to the team. Providing them the opportunity to learn about what they desire to seek more information about.

During my time at Stambaugh, I have witnessed DSQ Hunt project a sense of disrespect towards staff when she encounters them. From the time she enters the building the moral of the staff decreases significantly due to her demeanor towards those she comes in contact with. I have worked for many leaders over the last 25 years and those with this type of leadership style caused the downfall of those that worked for them.  Witnessing the teacher turnover at Stambaugh, the saying "people don't leave bad jobs, they leave bad leaders" comes to mind.  The immediate building leadership team (Deans/Principal) consistently work to ensure that the sense of belonging, and comradery are present but that is taken away by the micromanagement and consistently changing requirements from the DSQ.

Be considerate and communicate effectively

Network PD often is the same content said in a different way. Meaningful, engaging, research based PD that is centered on a clear academic vision would be an encouragement and a good use of time!

The building is old and I have about 2mm of dark dust on my surfaces weekly. It adds up & I worry about the air I breathe. Also the women’s bathroom is way below standard. The door doesn’t even lock

Written out job description

Our EC population at Matthews is high, and we are struggling with staffing (teacher, para).  Also, our Dean is split between K-2 and EC.  She does an amazing job, but I have been in a school that has a Dean devoted to EC and Intervention and I know what a difference it can make when you have someone devoted to that position as far as support.

Discipline for students who are continuously disrupting the classroom and other students learning. There is no reason why students who are rude/don't follow expectations/talk back to adults/etc don't get proper discipline. These behaviors are wearing the staff out and it is only October!

I feel very separated as a staff member. More opportunities to build community  and culture as a whole staff is needed through the whole year, not just at the beginning of the year before students start.

I believe there should be a difference in PTO and Sick time. I recommend that between two to four hours of time should be earned from each pay period if there are no absence. This could also help with mental health. It's hard when you use your PTO for sick time, and then you don't have any time left to take care of business. Most of us are forced to come to work sick because we either can't afford to take the time off or don't have it to take. We work over 180 school days out of the year, to have only five days of compensation for sick and business time is under whelming and under inspiring to say the least, and that's the part that affect our mental health.

I just wanted to suggest adding some programs to help students understand their learning content.

We need to make sure that the professional development being given is applicable to the right areas. K-6 teachers should have their PD's that are relevant to them and 7-12 should have PD relevant for them. Holding all staff meetings that are more for one and not the other is a waste of time for the teachers who have a lot to already do.  Also having instructors that are confident and informed of the content, K-6 teachers or instructors should not be doing PD for high school. They are belittling and demeaning the staff everytime.

Having the ability to create more engaging learning experiences for students

I wish there was a bit more focus on work/life balance. There are expectations that are more time consuming and life consuming than our public school counterparts - for instance committees and events that are after school.

Our pay puts just above the poverty line in our area. Single teachers with advanced degrees should not have to apply for food stamps in order to survive.

Give teachers one thing at a time to improve on and focus on. It should be quality over quantity. So many of us are overwhelmed with the amount of feedback that is being given daily. You might see all the things we’re doing wrong, but give it to us in steps because some of us are about to breakdown with all of the pressure everyday. It seems like every day is a new thing that I’m doing wrong and I’ve never had this issue here or anywhere else in all my years teaching. NHA puts a lot on us. Teachers would stay longer if you worked with us slowly but it shoves people out the door the way every day something new is needing to be implemented or improved upon. Let us get one thing down then give us the next assignment.

Early access to the cleaning crew, Have them do more cleaning duties like taking out trash

Building on the building technology and the technology for teachers.

only having 8 days makes does make me feel stressed about ever taking a sick day, or scheduling doctors appointments.

Teachers should be paid according to their experience and results they produced. Teachers should be making upwards of $65,000 or more. Teachers who know their value will not stay with the company because they can make more money elsewhere according to the benefits, experience, degrees and results.

We NEED mental health days at least 3-5 times a year during the months where there are no school breaks. PD are not included in this.

Make the moral focus curriculum more challenging. The goal check questions and assessments are too easy.

I believe it would be helpful to implement more strategic systems for students who are tardy to class, as we need greater consistency in enforcing rules and procedures. Many students seem unsure about which rules to follow due to frequent changes, particularly regarding the dress code and tardiness policies, which are not consistently enforced by leadership. To address this, I suggest holding regular assemblies where the leadership team can clearly communicate expectations, ensuring students hear the same message directly rather than relying solely on teachers. Additionally, incorporating student feedback through surveys or focus groups could provide valuable insights into their understanding of the rules. Fostering collaboration between teachers, students, and leadership will create a more supportive environment, and using positive reinforcement can help establish a culture of respect for the rules.

It's unclear how the core values carry over into the classroom.

I would appreciate even a modest increase in overall compensation.

Having actual teacher workdays. Maybe even a few at home.  Being able to leave after the students on half days.

The only area I really feel needs to improve at Pathway is PTO. I really feel we should have more PTO than we currently do, or at least a different policy in place if PTO hours run out. Sometimes I feel as if I am afraid to use PTO in case there is an emergency or need for extended leave in the future.

That it's not held every week. A lot of the information/conversation can be sent out via email

It would be nice if retirement benefits be a part of The Michigan Department of Education Retirement System.

More support staff so that general education teachers do not have to do lunch and gym duty

There always seems to be additional requirements added to our roles that individually are not much, but when added together they require a lot of time that we do not typically have during the week. I'm having to come up on the weekends just to make sure everything is done, including achievement boards, data boards, grading to make sure all work is turned in and that students can be referred for missing assignments. We need to have a copy of our lesson plans annotated and put outside our classroom, work out tech issues, complete behavior sheets and log into behaviors in NHA, and review student data for classroom instruction. Meanwhile, I'm having to print off Student Book and Home Connections pages because we do not Student Books and Home Connections for the students yet. What I'm saying is when a lot of different entities (principal, dean, DSQ, C & I, SPED, etc.) all add to our plate it doesn't leave much time for lesson planning or doing the more traditional teaching requirements.

Better pay

The aim for work-life balance becomes more and more difficult when NHA adds tedious, minute, and repetitive tasks such as the Math small group/reteach planning page.  We already create plans for these areas but now NHA wants us to do it TWICE?   That makes no sense whatsoever.     WHY IS LUNCH ONLY 20 MINUTES????? ALSO, Queens Grant needs additional workdays to accomplish the increasing tasks assigned to us.  WHY do we only have time off for Conferences and PD?  Even our half-days are packed with meaningless tasks.  Lastly, where are the opportunities to advance in NHA?   In our area, there is not much at all.Pay teachers for their Masters and other higher degrees.   I barely make more than a teacher with 2-3yrs experience, and I've been teaching for 22.    Teachers will be more willing to do what NHA asks if they're compensated fairly.   I worked in a public system and was earning $68,500/year and now I'm barely above $60,000/year.

Allow for Benefits packages to me more catered to the news of teachers and their families that are appropriate to our health needs.

I feel as though there are a lot of added components in the school day causing to spill over to be completed at home.  Which is understandable, but I feel as though it is increasing significantly

More bonuses

It would be beneficial for us to have increased pay and larger raises based on the effort we put in as teachers in the community. It would also be nice to have an easier transition for teachers who need time off.

I feel like with the help of NHA we can create better spaces for our children to learn and be successful in this building. With the lack of space, funding, and sear building design of the school is it very hard to keep up with the advancements involving innovation in the school.

10 days for PTO is not near enough to have a real vacation and also be able to have some days off to rest. I would recommend increasing that amount.

Modern updated presentation materials for scholars.

Higher wages/salaries, lower the cost of insurance/healthcare benefits, provide resources for working parents (i.e. providing a percentage childcare support cost), larger bonuses for retention

We get directions for too much the morning of, and I recommend that we receive details for step by step 1 week in advance.  I also recommend that we use our Tuesday meetings to briefly discuss necessary details for items such as testing/proctoring.  There are too many times that staff receives information the day of.

Paid time to review, practice, research, plan, and implement the resources that I (we) have been given to use.  The PD and visitors provide wonderful, helpful information, as well as, how to use in a classroom.  There is no time to modify this information to individualize use in the classroom or even how to better understand the valuable information.

More communication from Admin and other staff.... The more you know, the more informed I would feel to make decisions regarding families, students and other staff members.

communicating in advance about changes that are happening. Directly communicating with people rather than having blanket statements made at meetings for something that really is only directed at a handful of people. schedules and details sent well before events out of the norm are taking place. Communication about who is involved and what is expected of them.

It would be nice to have 8 PTO days a year

As of now I don't have any areas I'd like to address.

More/better advertisements to get students and parents to the school!!!   Bigger building

I think we all need to do better accepting feedback and actually making the change. Some people(leadership and staff) struggle with hearing constructive criticism and not taking it personal. Also the way we deliver feedback could be way more professional and helpful

Teachers should be provided with clear expectations in a timely manner so as to avoid scrambling to adjust plans that have already been submitted and approved. . Feedback should not be given right next to a due date. Teachers are expected to work through the weekend to update plans based on feedback. I do not feel this is appropriate for work life balance. Teachers' time should be respected.

We need a better curriculum for math intervention. Something that meets the needs of the students and isn't too complicated for the teachers to prepare for instruction. Corrective Math is a suggestion.

We do not have an NHA curriculum for music

Higher pay raises for returning faculty.

Hearing teachers being talked about poorly in the halls by leadership as students are walking around should not be happening

Nothing. Truth be told the leadership team here smiles in your face but truly don't care.

Advancement Opportunities Role Clarity Policies/Procedures Paid Time Off

The Janitorial Department has not improved at all since fall 2023. Our classrooms bathroom needs to be cleaned twice a day and the hallways bathrooms need to keep paper towels daily. School just started in both girls bathroom didn’t have paper towel for 3 days this is very sad. The playground is full of trash and the trash cans is always overflowing. The janitor complained that it is the neighborhood doing which can be true but this is his job to keep the school grounds clean which will keep up all safe. They get a talking to and then act accordingly for about two weeks and then go back to what they were doing. Aramark company is not a good company just saying and the food sucks too.

There is a serious lack of communication from the top down. It makes things difficult when things are not communicated well or, worse, not communicated at all.  Though I do not feel safe to be so bluntly honest in filling this out, I hope that it will spark the change needed to make Phoenix great. I do feel that there are some good things here and though I do not hold much belief that my voice will make a difference (as it did not in the past when discussing things openly), I have to hope. Thank you.

Manager should be fair in identifying employees mistakes that is not done on purpose

Please SHOW us that our feedback is heard and acted upon. I looked at the last 3 years, concerns that persist include:  Comp-Not competitive/aligned with demands; raises are not merit-based Role Clarity-remains unclear despite increased policies Feedback-Often ignored or not acted upon Cross-Dept Accountability-BP's are held responsible for other departments errors Support/Communication-Leaders often remove small roadblocks instead of the ones needed to move forward and communication is lacking With constant turnover, if these issues arise again in this year’s survey, it is essential to address them promptly. We struggle with root cause analysis and change management, often waiting for issues to surface after implementation, causing us to have to backtrack constantly. The team needs clear action and change to regain trust in leadership. The spring survey was dismissed due to a manager change, and I fear the same will happen with this.

Idk

While NHA has a variety of resources available, it can be hard to know what is available and what should be used. When resources are given to be used, there also needs to be training or help to learn how those resources work and how to best implement them.  For example, as a Resource Room teacher, I had never used ULS before. The training for ULS didn't occur until four weeks into the school year (which isn't an NHA problem, rather a problem with when the training was available.) However, for those four weeks, it was difficult to even attempt to utilize ULS with the students, even though it's what I was instructed to do. I've also been told that I can use Lexia/Dreambox/IXL/Bridges/curriculum for other grade levels. It's helpful that those things exist and are available, but I've never used any of them before. Any use that they offer to me, I've had to discover myself in my limited amount of time to play around with things. It would have been helpful to learn how these things work.

More support when I am physically attacked by students.

I would like if we are given more reteach days or days to expand on previously discussed lessons.

Figure out how to better allocate funds from areas of low priority, into areas that can help benefit teachers. Whether that is more PTO, better health insurance, or better raises.

Less obligations during prep time, security is needed for everyone to feel safe

Mrs. Owens appears to show favoritism towards certain teachers, offering more respect, communication, support, and opportunities to those she likes. In contrast, teachers she doesn't favor experience much more criticism, less inclusion, fewer opportunities, and limited communication. Many colleagues have expressed similar concerns over their experiences with Mrs. Owens. For those she doesn't like, she tends to highlight their mistakes and minimize their accomplishments. She does this in meetings as well. While Mrs. Owens is deeply dedicated to her work, she seems to struggle with understanding that leadership isn't about superiority or always being right. It seems that she compares teachers to herself and has difficulty accepting those who differ from her. Her leadership is very disheartening for those who feel targeted.

I would like to attain more resources for the classroom such as smartboards. I would also like to improve our reputation to the public such as on google review or yelp.

I enjoyed the CKH training, we need more whole school inclusive trainings like this.

At times NHA can have a lot of requirements to asssist in advancing your development as a teacher, but sometimes it would help to have a moment to breath. Everything is so fast pace even for scholars. I would like to have more teacher/admin outings and bonding time so that we can not only bond during PD, but during moments that are essential to our well being as a community of educators. I think this would bridge work life balance.

Teachers should be paid a more commetitive rate. I could make a good deal more at GRPS. We should have more that 6 PTO days a year. At previous schools I was able to carry over unused PTO days form the year prior and recieved more that 6 PTO days a year.

Right now I am feeling not as supported and kept accountable by my admin. I have not had many observations and when I did they were not followed up by admin as an O3 or anything of that sort. I really liked working here last year because of the support and feedback I received from admin on my teaching. This year I have not had that support and do not feel like I am growing as a teacher as much as I could be.  I am missing having O3 meetings because that is one of the times I can talk to one of the admin about anything. It's a time for support and I am not feeling that aid whatsoever. It's a time to help me grow as a teacher but also is a time air concerns in person so that they are addressed instead of having to just send an email.  I guess in general, there feels like more of a disconnect between admin and staff where it's not as personal and relationship-based, and more authoritative and non-personal.

Classroom Management:  As educators, we have a profound impact on the academic and emotional development of our students. A key element in fostering this growth is effective classroom management. Creating a structured, supportive, and inclusive environment is not only essential for students’ learning but also for their sense of safety and belonging. Classroom management is a shared responsibility, and while each of us has different teaching styles, the fundamental principles remain the same:  1. Consistency 2. Engagement 3. Positive Reinforcement 4. Preventative Approaches

I have no complaints or recommendations at this moment.

One thing we can do at Fortis is stream line our behavior support throughout all grades. Being consistent with write ups and documentation of behavior.

I think it may be beneficial to put together a stronger plan for students who continue to have significant behavior problems in the classroom that take away learning from others. In most situations, the student is removed from the classroom for a break, however when they return the behavior continues. The behaviors can sometimes cause too many distractions in the classroom, and its not fair to the other students who are trying to learn.  I am wondering if more behavioral interventions would be helpful to build some coping skills for these students who are not getting the mental health treatment they need outside of school. East Arbor may need more than one social worker in the building because some students need more regular intervention to build their coping strategies with a licensed professional. I think this may be helpful in creating more of positive environment.

 Clear direction on the best way to reach students of all levels.

Sometimes I really need a break in the afternoon between lunch and dismissal. A short time to decompress so I can be at my best for my scholars. By the end of the day, I am overwhelmed and visibly frazzled, and my kids are frustrated and ready to go home. It may not be support in the way the survey means, but it is a support I have asked for myself occasionally in the past that has helped.

Bathrooms/Floors need to be better cleaned IMO

More bonus opportunities would be great.

My room has not been vacuumed all year. It feels very stuffy. The germs just sit in the carpet. When going to other NHA schools, their bathrooms are so nice and clean. Ours are not clean/maintained.   Along with cleanliness, I believe that favoritism needs addressed. It is clear that there is some favoritism in our hallway. On recognition for their work, the 3rd grade team never got recognized for doing the 6 weeks of tutoring to help get the 3rd graders prepared for their state test, but the 5th grade team has gotten a lot of recognition for their camp kern. It just needs to be fair across the board.

As a senior citizen returning to work force, I would like more information regarding benefits that would complement my retirement benefits.

Effective consequences for students

I don’t feel that the lunch aides are getting much support. As I one myself.

At times our workload can be extremely heavy which causes burnout to happen quickly. I am usually in my classroom until at least 6 sometimes 7pm. work is taken home 80% of the time so work life balance is almost impossible. some recommendations that I have are to have more planning periods or time allotted to complete planning and preparedness. A couple mental health days added to time off will help relieve extreme burnout also

DEA consistently puts myself and other team members in unsafe situations. In regards to myself, DEA has protected my position and has allowed my character to be defamed amongst the school culture. DEA has allowed situations that I have reported to go on without consequence. DEA has shown me that they don't respect me and they have no care for me. In regards to my teammates, I feel that it is very dangerous to allow parents to roam the school without supervision. Parents at DEA can be very hostile.

The New Teacher Summit made it seem as if I would be provided with everything I need for each lesson and all I would have to do is make changes to meet the needs of my classroom. Meaning a lesson plans, slideshows, assignments, everything. In reality it is just the plans and schedules which while helpful, still leave me needing to produce daily slides for my classes.

It sounds like you're aiming for a positive work culture where leadership encourages autonomy rather than micromanagement, which is really key for team morale. Encouraging coworkers to take ownership of their tasks can not only boost their confidence but also help them develop problem-solving skills. It might be helpful to have open conversations about expectations and boundaries. What kind of support they need versus what feels like micromanaging. Have you tried any particular approaches for balancing oversight with allowing independence, like setting clear goals but giving flexibility in how they are achieved? I'd love to hear how you've handled this balance effectively.

Ensure clear directives/responsibility when it comes to roles that are easy for other people within the organization to identify.

Higher salaries to assist with rising costs in economy

More benefits and compensations for Paraprofessional's because we go beyond what our regular duties are. We have to stand in for other roles and don't get compensated for it. It's exhausting sometimes when other things are ask of you and it's not your job to do it but we do it anyway. It needs to change or get compensated for other duties.

I would like to see the building cleaned after lunch especially the back stairway.

A few more days off would be helpful.

I would love to see an increase in PTO days. I understand that we have a good chunk of our year where we do not work, however, you can not concise your life and the events of your life to the 2.5 months off over the summer. Life happens the rest of the year as well. I think the PTO days should be increased to at least 10 days to accommodate life events, sickness, family events or emergencies, mental health days, etc. I do not believe 6 days off throughout the school year is nearly enough.

More training and communication for new teachers. The NTS training was great during the summer, but there isn't alot of opportunities for new teacher assistance once the school year starts.

school psychologist

Respect my time just as I am supposed to be at work on time and am penalized when I am not. I should be able to leave on time as well.

Behavior should be addressed to help the teachers. The curriculum moves way to fast for the students. Classrooms have to many children for effective work. Group work shouldn't been done in the classroom. To much computer time, students can't comprehend what they are reading as we just work on sounds

More in person time with my team would be great to collaborate on PDs and projects.

Leadership should be more willing to communicate properly with members of the staff. Lack of communication negatively affects the productiveness and effectiveness of our school. This has caused or school to significantly decline.

I think this is a problem with education in general, but as an employee I struggle to pay all of my bills.

N/A

A raise more than a $0.33.

Admin needs to listen to staff when they are told what teachers are struggling with/need to be more successful in their own teaching practice and for student achievement. There are many times teachers express concerns and needs and nothing is done to support them.

Provide more PTO or more clarity regarding long term illness/contagious illness.

Seeing action taken or changes made when teachers communicate about the curriculum as far as something not working, being confusing to execute to the students, etc.

Earned bonus sick days that are bankable.

I believe our cleaning staff could improve their efforts to maintain the cleanliness of our building. Unfortunately, this has led to frequent illnesses among both staff and students. The front office, in particular, is often un-swept and undusted, which impacts the impression we make on parents and visitors, potentially harming the school's reputation. The schools outer perimeter is also very unkept. The playground trashes are never changed which leads to trash ending up all over Stambaughs playground/parking lot.

More time for specials

Adjust the curriculum, currently the 5th grade SS so that it aligns with NYS testing standards

Doing my job and my job only

Subjects must be related to 9,10,11 and 12 grades. It is not enough time only summer school to recover the material for students who failed for more than three subjects.  The shouldn't to the hallways between blocks, the teachers must do  do this so more time for students to go to restrooms. The 12 grades should have more time until they  will graduate at least one more week. Those require some statistic knowledge to fix the schedule of each grade and teacher schedule. The teacher lunchroom must be bigger size and more appliances. Those are some observations compare with European   schools. Respectfully Michael

We should be paid more

Having more notice (weeks not days) for changes happening in the building would be really beneficial for teachers and other staff (even janitors when it affects them!). Also being given appropriate time to adjust our classrooms and or lessons to fit these changes. Many of the changes this year have been for the better, but making sure that we are taking things off the teachers plates as we continue to add more on would be greatly appreciated to help avoid burnout. Also communication has been a little confusing when one thing is stated over email and then a different answer is given in person the next week. Ensuring all admin is on the same page before rolling out new decisions could help avoid further confusion!

the classrooms are never cleaned

Academic Curriculum, Work-life balance, PTO, and DEI.

Better salaries for teachers.

Providing more paid-time-off will allow us to have more work-life-balance

Smart boards would greatly enhance student engagement in the classroom.

Higher pay because of how much each paraprofessional and support staff put into the job!

There are SO many children with behavioral issues that it seems impossible sometimes to teach a class. The BSS staff are amazing here, however, they have more than they can handle. It's definitely more than the classroom teacher can handle. Teacher burnout is rabid throughout this school.

Taking accountability for their actions as well as being supportive when navigating a new teacher role. Being responsible and willing to help rather than feeling like my needs are never met.

Relationship between AR and School Leadership

I wish that Heather McNees had an assistant principal. It's good that she has deans who can report back to her; she wants teachers to write to her more frequently, and I believe she's sincere. However, she has so much backstage work to handle on a daily basis that she frequently misses out on what happens on stage. By her own admission, she is "a human with a large number of emails at times" and if she doesn't "know" that we are upset, "(she) cannot help" us. Nearly every teacher I talk to complains of not having enough information to teach their curriculum, not having enough of it, or not having enough guidance to do their job fully, and McNees has said more than once that her primary skill is not curriculum, but relationships. Would it not make sense to hire an assistant principal? They could handle the daily administration of the school (dean coordination, curriculum research, teacher training, etc.) and be a liason between faculty and the administration. That is my one wish.

A clearer idea of how I can advance within the organization.

Curriculum can sometimes feel overwhelming. I feel like there isn't enough for certain subjects. For instance, we are to teach Moral Focus from 2:35-2:50 daily however that is also Dismissal so it just feels that there is never enough time to complete Moral Focus in the allotted time when students are dismissing from the classroom.

none

Straight answer clarity in who I report too.  My role should include whatever is in my job description all other roles such as subbing should be compensated for.  My role and what I am doing should be clearly defined and not changed every couple of weeks.

Students lunch. A better variety of nutrition. Balance between nutrition and snacks. Most students complain about breakfast and school lunch.

Improved discipline/clarity of consequences for students

Actual on the job training. Rather than send a new employee to Michigan, why not have a trainer travel to them to give them at least a few days of training doing their actual day to day job. Speaking with multiple employees (all in different departments/positions), I'm not hearing that any received actual "what your day to day routine looks like" training. Personally I felt like I was thrown to the wolves to figure most stuff out for myself. The NHA training I received was heavily focused on customer service & the "NHA way" aka the Service Center way. It seemed very "in a perfect school setting, this is how your school should operate" but that's not feasible for many schools because of the demographic they serve/where they're located or because of staffing set up/lack of staff

Unlimited PTO

More money for when paras have to sub

Improve 401 K Employer Matching Contribution

Partnership with state colleges and university geared toward certifications and lower tuition costs.

I recommend hiring more janitors or a cleaning company. Teachers should not be cleaning the lunchrooms.

Job security being that I'm hourly

How bonuses are distributed. Need to be evaluated and fair.

Renovations, new flooring

All the teachers & staff work really hard. I’ve seen so many go above & beyond for students and other staff. Paying out of their own pockets for even basic classroom needs/essentials. The staff should be compensated to reflect all exceptional work they do. Also the breakfast/lunch for the students is horrible. There’s so many student behavior issues that could be helped with the right nutrition. Bigger portions, less processed food, more protein to give the kids lasting energy.

I explained this in my previous comment section

I guess it's my personal taste, but whatever is done regarding recognition, etc. is usually not anything I would want--whether attention, games, or gifts. I'm not complaining, but it does not work for me personally.

We do a lot of work and the compensation does not match what we are expected to do. I am personally doing more than one person's job. The pay can be better. Not to mention the fact that we cannot get our student loans paid off due to being a profit school. This is sad because we service high risk students that falls under the rules of Public service loans. They also get state money for lunch and for students. That is not a great service to your teachers.

I feel as if compensation for Paraprofessionals could be increased and we all could also use carpet in our Classrooms. If there has to be constant circulation, we would like to circulate comfortably. Our feet should not be in pain at the end of the day because of circulating on a hard concrete floor.

I believe the current system for chromebooks is not implemented well, and can lead to mis-management and several errors. In addition, i've noticed manufacturing errors and oversights in the different models of chromebook, most noticeably the never version having only one port to charge them with. Considering we have kids from y5 all the way to 8thgrade, they are constantly prone to breaking the charging jack, not even from rough behavior, but because the charger bends the jack while the computers are in their case. The kids also break many unreplaceable keys, which should not require me an entire new keyboard to replace, and the different computer designs also makes it so keys can not be replaced between generations, with some even not being able to replaced in the same generation/design. Lastly, having to take computers for refresh in the middle of the school year is not the best of things. The kids dont like their chrombooks being taken, and it disrupts class when i have to do it.

.

More interaction and collaboration between teams! People tend to know each other really well in their own groups but rarely branch out of that grouping.

N/A

The current workload, coupled with the high volume of meetings, often leaves little room for essential focus time to complete tasks and provide adequate support to our leaders. The frequency of meetings can be overwhelming and reduces efficiency. Additionally, having only one remote day limits flexibility, which could otherwise enhance productivity. When taking time off, the backlog of work becomes difficult to manage due to the lack of structured support from managers, placing undue pressure on other Business Partners (BPs) and Business Partner Coordinators (BPCs), who are often already at capacity. To improve work-life balance, reduce burnout, and enhance overall productivity, I recommend reducing the number of meetings and offering an additional remote workday. These adjustments would significantly contribute to a more sustainable work environment and allow us to better meet the demands of our roles.

I personally feel that if I need a resource/supplies in my classroom that would benefit my teaching, I should be able to get that resource (website unblocked, teaching materials, classroom materials, etc.) with little hesitation from HQ. Especially if it is little or no money involved.

Hard to choose between communication and appreciation. I don’t feel like I get responses to emails or texts or clear answers to my questions. I don’t feel like I get feedback or guidance. I would love more open communication and feedback. Hello and how are you is not enough. How can I help at an O3 with no follow through is not helpful. It would be nice to get a high five or hear a compliment. Great transition! I love the way you greeted someone! I like your bulletin board! That activity on your lesson plan sounds fun! Something little goes a long way. I am not even sure if it has been read or reviewed. I have asked questions that haven’t been answered. I don’t want to be a pest but I deserve an answer. I love children and they are definitely my why but I am struggling with the support and feedback at this school. It’s very disheartening.

Clear, addressed, clarity , sit down and expressed expectations

More PTO for hourly staff.

Better opportunities to grow professionally and gain experience towards any goals.

NONE

Resource allocation to the school for infrastructure upgrade

In an effort to improve classroom focus and behavior, I propose exploring the idea of allowing students to grab a handful of Cheerios or a similar healthy snack from a dispenser during work time, provided they maintain a silent voice. Research shows that nutritious snacks can stabilize blood sugar, boosting concentration and reducing disruptive behaviors (Journal of School Health, 2017). Additionally, snacks like whole grains support cognitive function, helping students stay engaged (Appetite, 2011).  Free access to snacks would also support homeless and impoverished students, ensuring they have energy for learning. This program offers security to those who may not always have access to nutritious food.  However, potential negatives include distractions or over-snacking. For 600 students, the total estimated cost is $11,425. This includes $10,800 for Cheerios (50 cents/student/week for 36 weeks) and $625 for dispensers ($25/classroom for 25 classrooms).

Consistent behavioral consequences and follow up. After x amount of behaviors in the system, reverse ISS, or some sort of consequence. They can have so many level 2/3 behaviors and there is no direct consequence. More feedback about classroom environment, management, and instruction.

I believe the school improvement committee that just started would be able to bring a lot of ideas on how we can be innovative. Also utilizing small groups, surveys etc to get feedback. Get input from students and parents and also get them involved. Introduce more projects in the classrooms including Math, this will help to teach our students to be innovative.

Communication has gotten a lot better but I hear “I’ll get back to you” or “let me find out for you” etc. and there’s not great follow through.

Not a fan of Blue Cross. There are better options.

Getting a second monitor so I could have three screens to better multi-task

nothing , i love working for Dean Solite

We need a better system for dealing with disruptive behaviors in the classroom.

Making sure that all teachers (general ed, special ed and specials) are being told the same thing and have the same understanding of what is expected of them.

I feel like cleanliness or having more cleaning equipment tools to help is much needed for our classroom. Kids have been talking about fruit flies that are being a distractions.

I do not feel that we should receive points against us when taking our PTO

More bonuses and also do an attendance bonus

I feel that the position that I work in should have full time hours.

We need more PTO days. 8 days is not enough and sets us up for failure, especially when you factor in appointments, family duties, sick days.

Facilitating ongoing communication with staff regarding substitute coverage needs, utilizing chat for updates. This includes providing information on the hiring process, ensuring teachers are informed without needing to actively monitor the situation.

Nothing

I have no current recommendations. Dean solite has provided so much help and guidance over the last year to put me in the position to succeed.

Keep doing what your doing

I think Sped Paras should receive their full pay when the school has days off as well as get paid for snow days especially since it's not our fault the school chose to close. We should not have to use our vacation time for that. Our vacation time should be able to be used when we are sick, or need time off for appointments, or if we would like to accompany our kids on field trips. Teachers get paid and i get they are important but we sped paras are working with high stress level kids and with out us those kids can't be in the classroom. I don't think its to much to ask

Need more days or have actual sick days

We can walk in more unity to further the mission of NHA/Laurus Academy.

Having job roles defined and outlined with procedures and expectations. Show new employee around so they know where things are located. Communicate more effectively about all things.

The students bathrooms need to be sanitized every day to cut down on illnesses.

Updates to sound system in gym, more monitors in halls to help with passes and school events and information, Full recycling program that includes plastics and metals, in class or out of class garden systems,

I would recommend staff have personal/vacation days and sick days instead of drawing from one bank for all.

New furniture/ desks, technology that actually works, smartboards, investment in bookshelves/ organization, pens, pencils, paper, investment in new books for classroom libraries.

Nothing to compare to, however there is always room for improved learning opportunities for students that will assist them in suceeding

more pto time and better pay .

Continue to reach out to any and all parties.

janitors that care about cleaning the bathrooms effectively & efficiently.

The large storage area is an opportunity to build and use for even more leaning and opportunities here at Advantage. Turf area for for football, soccer etc. Bathrooms are always an area of potential growth.

Resources are not just the physical materials used in the classroom, but also includes the people and staff. Having sufficient and good, hard-working, and knowledgeable personnel, with a good work ethic - teachers, substitutes, paraprofessionals, etc. - to allow everyone else to be able to effectively perform all aspects of their jobs, sufficiently address student needs and behaviors, and be able to complete all work within the confines of the scheduled work day, rather than having to come in early, stay late, and bring work home with us to be able to better maintain a work-life balance, would be the biggest changes to help the MVA environment.

N/A

Our current provider of cleaning services seems very overwhelmed.  Perhaps it could be a good idea to enlist our students to clean the halls and classrooms in the same way we enlist them to support cleaning up the gym after lunch.

Role Position/Financial Clarity

I think that if you have a planned absence or are truly sick that you should not be penalized, especially if you communicate in a proper manner. Accruing points for absences even if they are planned well in advance or if you have a doctor's note does not seem fair and I think it leads to disgruntled employees and people coming to work when they are sick.

Communicate core values to the kids and allow us to follow through with discipline so that they will be more likely to do what they are supposed to do.

Time for collaboration between general education teachers and special education teachers.

I think we would benefit from a DEI committee or board to promote and discuss diversity and inclusion opportunities. I was saddened to hear that was declined in recent years.

PaperCut

As Math and ELA are extremely important, I feel that science can also be just as important. Science projects/fairs/experiments would be a fun way for students to learn and be engaged.

Those who are hired on through a permit but teaching full time in a classroom by themselves should be eligible to all bonuses including retention bonuses. Certification costs out of pocket upwards of $6,000. We deserve to be compensated better to help offset this cost.

Student behaviors need to be addressed.  This is a school wide issue.  This is across all academic curriculums, especially in grades 3 - 8.  Most students are not learning because teachers cannot get through lessons.  The Curriculum and Expectations do not allow for students to spend appropriate time learning the information needed, or spending time remediating skill gaps.  I have first hand knowledge of this since I have been both a 5th grade math teacher and the Technology Teacher this year.  I have also been a classroom substitute.  Often significantly disruptive students are required to be kept in the room for extended period of time causing significant learning disruptions.  When trying to have a disruptive student removed, the “4 before the door” has to be completed.  We cannot document issues in less than 5 minute increments, which means that at a minimum 20+ minutes of instructional time must be lost before the disruption can be removed/resolved.  The teacher also must take time away from teaching to

Everything works together

I don't feel I have all the resources I need to do my job effectively. We are missing some of the Reading Mastery and Corrective Reading books or the interventionist are having to share items which makes it hard.

Young 5s   More pay  More prep time

Compensation doesn’t keep up with inflation.

improve on the roles on the co-workers

I think that students here at this school don't feel like they should follow the rules, because some of the staff members don't follow the rules, for example the dress code.  We aren't holding staff to the same standards as the students. I also think that at this school we should offer Spirit Wear Fridays again.

Who does not want to get paid more?  I think the expectations are high and the comp provided does not necessarily always match them.  Giving Leaders more opportunity and freedom to monetarily reward their team members would be ideal.

This is just my feeling about staffing. I have been with North Saginaw Charter Academy for less than a year so I don't know everything. I understand that staffing can be a challenge. Especially finding candidates that are qualified for doing the job that they are applying for. I feel that we were not prepared staff wise this year and that has been a real challenge. I am an Interventionist and we have been really short staffed. During NWEA testing we have been pulled to proctor sometimes twice a day and have been pulled to sub in classrooms because there is not staff sub. I know this comes with the territory of being an Interventionist but I feel like it is pulling us more from educating the kids in our own class. So my recommendation would be to be more aggressive in searching for candidates in all areas, if we weren't already doing so.

To find a concrete way to get students with disrupting behaviors to comply with the culture of the school.

I would like to have some professional development in the area of properly dealing with student behaviors that constantly disrupt the flow of lesson execution and student engagement.

Monitored bathroom breaks and just voicing to the students that if they want a clean environment to learn in they have to respect the environment.

The schedule is very difficult to keep up with considering how much is expected to be done in a day.  It would be nice to have a little more flexibility to be creative with a class that may need extra help, or enrichment.

co-teachers/instructional paras  to receive pay during school breaks or year around salary.

The longer I am in this role, the more confident I will become. This is still a fairly new role for Phoenix, so I don't feel alone in needing clarification of my role, I know I am supported. It will take time and flexibility.

Utilizing all of the tenured, seasoned resources we can to better assist students with multi-faceted needs, especially those with behaviors, or disabilities. Also, making sure the resources used and found effective are used with responsibility, accountability, and fidelity across all academic settings.

remove unnecessary paperwork which spills over into out of school hours. To send communication during school hours and not on weekends.

Paraprofessionals should get paid for days like fall break off because we don’t get paid for summer obviously. We should also get paid for snow days.

The paid time off starting at 10 days is low compared to other companies out there. NHA offered the lowest amount of PTO compared to the other 5 companies I was interviewing with before accepting my job at NHA. All other companies were 14 days and above. A recommendation would be to increase PTO per employees by a few days especially since the compensation/benefits has always been a struggle and question per the scorecards and at Huddles.

I feel like certain people abuse time off, and it puts a strain on others and their jobs. Those who are here every day do not get compensated more, and in return lose money for extra lunch coverages.

I need more days off We need at least 14 if possible. Also if Aspire could pay into the Indiana perf which is the teacher retirement fund.  Some teachers  have to leave and return to Aspire so they can pay into their retirement.

NA

Constantly emails with Kosta to be filled out our surveys to take. It takes a huge chick of my weekend to keep up with them.  If Curriculum had better practice and reviews then I wouldn’t have to spend so much time doing it.

I'm not quite sure innovation works at the school beside having a little sense of autonomy to tweak my role. Innovation need to be clarified as in job descriptions or curriculum.  I do not know the resources we have for students who are special needs. What Orion has in place doesn't fit every grade in the building. There is no special education person for the primary students either.

I love high five points, but I can’t give my co workers points. At first I was giving them out and making people feel seen but when I found out that they didn’t receive anything like points, I stopped. I wish we had a form for shoutouts to add to the weekly be in know. Sometimes people do things I want to recognize them for, even if it’s something small that made a difference in my day or week.

Thank you.

Match what other IT support techs are paid

DMA can be more focused on how we evaluate students that may have a hard time learning and place them in a class that will help them produce better outcomes. Also when is comes to disciplining students, giving students the proper consequences so that teachers are not overwhelmed with bad behaviors during class.

Kinder should have more support. For at least the 1st month and 1/2 of the year, each K teacher should have a full time teacher's assistant in class. That would a us to handle all of the testing required, teaching and stamping the routines and procedures needed to ensure success, and build the relationships needed. As it is we start the year teaching curriculum before they've learned to sit in a chair without hurting themselves or others and are expected to be writing sentences with sharp objects in a matter of weeks. With a teacher's aid, we could do this, but 1 teacher to every15-20 slightly dangerous, unstable, chaotic, high maintenance 5-6 year olds is a recipe for a rough start. That said, my Dean is absolutely wonderful and helpful everytime I ask her. She volunteers to help and has been a fantastic resource. I no longer feel ignored when we have issues. She is a huge asset. She too is only one person and cannot sit in one classroom long enough to make up for the lack of a TA.

Lower teacher student ratio  Classrooms are too full

I would recommend more effective communications methods. I would also recommend more appropriate communication times.

Students who do not demonstrate the ability or an effort to participate as a cooperative and productive member of the learning community as defined by the student code of conduct and community expectations should not be admitted, allowed to stay, nor welcomed to return to the general classroom until certain qualifications have been attained. What qualifications? This needs to be defined and supported. Currently there is no program, support or location for students who are missing the basic literacy and behavioral qualifications. There must be a place for students who are not ready for the general classroom to build social and academic skills needed to be a successful member of a successful learning community. As it stands, no student is getting what they need. The students who are ready to learn are unable to maximize their learning opportunities because there are a few constant and continual disrupters who are allowed to continually disrupt and undermine the learning environment. On the flip side, the disrup

I believe teachers should get better pay

Passing down big ideas or changes that are being made should allow company-wide feedback before being implemented.

In the area that Oakside Prep is located in, the school serves a lot of ELL students (mostly Spanish speakers). Most of my time is spent translating all the material to their language so that I can help them succeed. This takes up the time I can be finding a work life balance. Not only do I have to prep and make sure I know my material but I also have to worry about the success of my ELL students. Over half of the books we read in 8th grade are not available in a Spanish version. Also, I have not been able to make copies of the slides, so I am forced to make my own slides from scratch for every lesson to ensure that my ELL students have the same chance to succeed as the rest of the class. Not to the fault of our staff, but I do not feel like I can give proper instruction to my ELL students because I do not speak Spanish and class lectures do not appear to be effective for them.   Materials provided in Spanish to lighten the load for teachers with ELL students would be great.

More bonus pay/ holiday pay of $4000.00

Our students don’t have any real consequences for their actions. We’ve created a culture at Laurus where the students are invincible, the only thing that happens is a think sheet or lunch detention but the more students aren’t held accountable the more students join in on the poor behavior. We can hardly teach at this point especially with teachers not allowed to put behaviors in electronically. The parents can only be notified if the teachers calls and the 4 minor infraction sheets that have to be condensed to two behaviors “reduces” our behaviors in the system but increases our workload and keeping up with the various behaviors that happen in our classroom. I’m not sure why we even have an electronic behavior system if we’re not allowed to put in individual behaviors and are now using minor infraction sheets. With 30-120 students it’s a waste of paper and more time consuming. Plus figuring out how to condense 4 behaviors into two feels wrong since 4 behaviors actually happened.

I can put up with a lot, but not for the amount that I'm currently being paid. Pay is a big part of morale and I do a lot of things that are beyond the scope of my job that don't seem to count and end up leading to a feeling of being taken advantage of. This also goes into role clarity, as there seems to be some wishy-washy sentiments about who can do what and when as long as it suits their own purposes with no regards to how team members feel or how they are really being treated when taken objectively. Collaboration is defeated when this happens as nobody is sure what is going on or why. Communication is almost nil and there is no guarantee that leadership won't go back on their word or change things without informing staff. Leadership does not follow their own moral focus virtues and the way that they communicate (if they do at all) is often harmful and undermines their own authority.  Appreciation is not shown consistently or in meaningful ways, other than in PTO-led initiatives.

Responsibilities seem to stack with no consideration for breaks. For example, some teachers only get 2 planning periods a week. Also, there are no comp days for conferences. I think an understanding of these extended responsibilities and appropriate compensated time would be beneficial.

Communication is last minute and often confused or contradictory. There are too many platforms email, teams, text, intercom.

To be considered for an available position I'm qualified for.

Classrooms should be swept and mopped daily as well as bathrooms. I think Inspire should incorporate more time for specials. I think Specials contribute to the learning process just as much as the core classes. Another improvement as far as the middle school department, I think there should be a teacher for every grade. (1 6th grade math , science, ela and social studies teacher. A separate teacher for  7th math, science, social studies and ELA teacher. and a different teacher for 8the math, science, social studies and ELA.)

There is no curriculum for EL teachers.  We have to make/find everything on our own.

A higher salary would allow for me to support my family without having to do extra jobs just to pay the bills. I have been teaching for ten years, and currently work pay check to pay check and have to tutor 4 days a week for additional income to make ends meet.

Often, tasks and expectations are not well communicated, especially for new teachers who need more guidance. Dean Baracy and all K-2 coworkers are wonderful when I need to ask for clarification but there should be more initial information, which I believe could have fit into the 2 weeks of PD before school. One other communication issue is that students have been moved into and out of my classroom without a heads up beforehand (even just a 2 minute warning would be super helpful!); one time a student was permanently moved out without me or his mom being informed, so when I spoke to her on the phone and realized she wasn't made aware I was very embarrassed. Events like these as well as a lack of notice for things that new teachers may not have had an easy time finding access to (Bridges, the google drive/calendar, etc.) all took a lot of trial and error and I figured them out, but I think after reflecting could be done with much less stress and tears if more guidance was given.

The local school district offers  a higher rate of pay for the same jobs NHA offers. We have lost and will lose more talent if the rate of pay doesn’t match or exceed them.

More staff so children are not split, teachers are not alone in cafeteria when they are supposed to be an extra person not the only person.  Teachers get one day a month do catch up if we are required not take a break and missing our planning.  More support, communication, and follow through.

I need to go back to school to gain my Master's Degree in Special Education.  I also need to take the test that is required for teacher licensing.

There should be more tech staff added so that tech tickets can be handled more efficiently. There needs to be clarity for parents about who their contact points should be for different issues. A parent sent in a tech ticket before school started, and left several messages with the tech office, to no response. I (in a different role) got in contact with her regarding her scholar's attendance weeks later. It turned out that the tech ticket had been marked as resolved when it actually wasn't, and the issue with the initial tech ticket wasn't communicated to the parent at all. I asked tech or attendance to communicate with her since they had more insight on the situation and they never responded to me. I finally was able to communicate the issues to the parent after a month. This is absolutely unacceptable and there NEED to be more staff for tech as an online school, so that issues can be handled properly and promptly. Parent communication needs to be much better overall.

I'd always appreciate having additional time off. Overall, I'm quite satisfied with my current situation at NHA.

we may need a Library

I understand that NHA upholds high standards and expects scholars to reach their full potential. However, the current curriculum does not resonate with the needs of our present demographic. Many of these students are performing below the expected level, making the curriculum inaccessible for a significant number of them.

carefully reviewing someone's intention, background and goals for our school before hire or collaboration

I would recommend making sure all parties are included before making changes.

Can the order of instruction can the order of units.

None at the time

Need sick days in addition to PTO. PTO should be generated every paycheck.

To ensure that the correct people are in PVA Positions to ensure quality work & completion takes place.  This will provide other PVA Staff that are dedicated and skilled to complete their work, without carrying the workload of others.

We need more help here. I think having an aid to move between specials would help a lot. Specials teachers have a high turnover here because their classes turn into babysitting. We need more ABSS support, and paras.

Look at pay & benefit structure.

I understand computer technology is key in today’s society however using pencils paper and text books has proven to increase student engagement and learning by tapping into other parts of the brain.  And coincidentally, I also feel we are not utilizing technology enough, as in, we should have smart boards in every class, and sensory rooms.

Offer more inside and outside resources for students. Or offer more time for teachers to edit the their lessons for the students in their class that aren’t on grade level.

More opportunities to increase chances to respond.

As of this moment I am more concerned for student safety. I am noticing trends of students targeting other students as a means of "getting even". Admin are responding quickly and efficiently as they can, but the consequences are time off school or in school suspension. If possible, I would try a community building professional development session where parents/guardians are welcome to build a relationship between Parents/Students/Staff where we are all combined in ensuring student success. I hope I am not the first to suggest the idea, but I welcome any critique or concerns it may bring. I know there is a degree of separation between Parent and Teacher. But we're both invested in the kids, so it makes sense to not feel as if consequences in the classroom go away once a student goes home.

More money to bring in experienced staff and teachers and all providers needed, especially counselors and special education teachers.  A principal for the elementary school and one for the middle school.  Better yet, get rid of the middle school.  Too small.  Middle schools kids need more space!  A gym - somewhere to get exercise.  The building is not safe.

Teachers should be allowed to make adjustments to the curriculum

pay

Celebrate all of our success.

An increase in compensation

More staff collaboration and team planning time during work hours

The area chosen is not really in the control of my colleges/leadership team here at AP. However, I have seen them turn even the most difficult to teach of curriculums into pedagogy magic, because they are true professionals.

Disciplinary: I feel that scholars are given too many chances, and they do not take discipline seriously.

Still thinking about it

Department head for onboarding and training new employees. I have received very little training, curriculum, and resources. I feel undervalued, undersupported, and overworked.

Timely communication and updates.

I would like to recommend that our team consider allowing employees to work from home more than one day a week, particularly during the winter season. Given the harsh Michigan winters, remote work would help improve safety by reducing the need to commute in hazardous conditions. It would also save time and reduce transportation costs for employees, while increasing overall comfort and productivity. Allowing more flexibility in our work-from-home policy during the winter months would support employee well-being and ensure that we continue to work efficiently, even during severe weather.

Allow employees to leave work at work. I spend to much time at home doing school work.

I would like to suggest to give the teachers the time to prepare everything that NHA ask to do.

pay rate

I feel that some teachers do not use the training that we learned at professional developed to help them be successful here at Windemere

I would like to be able to adjust my lesson plans to fit my students needs/interest

More PD on basics like time management and classroom efficiency.

I picked other because I have no complaints once so ever !

Offer people leadership opportunities. Or discus their long term plans/aspirations.

Increase pay for teachers, interventionists, and support staff.

Increase pay, it also increases morale, willingness of being involved, and keeps everyone wanting to be at work.

I recommend a curriculum that is geared a bit more towards various types of students and learning styles. The current curriculum seems to be a bit more focused on more educationally advanced kids and kids that have alternative learning styles or other educational services seem to be left behind or ignored. The curriculum doesn't really self-correct for those that are absent often or need extra help.

It seems very strict with teachers having to follow the academic curriculum and NHA protocols. I would recommend that teachers be given some intentional time/days to able to add their own knowledge, experience, or fun games to the school/classroom environment and make school fun for the students, rather than always having to go exactly by the book. Have monthly school wide/grade level community building games in the gym/cafeteria or outside. These could be positive reinforcement that students have to earn their right to participate in.   Additionally, related to PTO- There are many restrictions with when I can use my personal time off during the school year. If I am responsible and have all my duties and responsibilities completed and prepared, so I believe teachers should be able to use their two personal days freely.

I feel that Forsyth would benefit from the already started implementations of Capturing Kids Heart. Behavior needs to be more restorative.

My job description and daily tasks are in a grey area currently. I understand that this is due to my role being newly created as well as my managers role. But hopefully with time things will get figured out! I am excited about the transition and all the new opportunities that the role switch will provide me.

my recommendation is on the days the students have half days. Allow the teachers to take half days and go home to be with their families or an opportunity to take advantage of their mental health or self care. Teachers shouldn't have to wait for a school break to spend time with their families. Teachers are doing work after hours which takes away time from their families.

I feel like I'm not apart of them team because I'm only a LTA and not a licensed teacher and that I'm not very important and I'm always the last to know things or not included at all.

More PD for new teachers. If they need extra help and might need a little more guidance.

N/A

Special education and ABSS departments have offered little to no support for me so far this year. Middle school honestly needs at least one more ABSS person to support, especially since we've had SO many fights and behavior issues this year. High school needs to stop taking our ONE ABSS person because we have nearly as many issues with like half the kids and staff. Middle school needs to stop being treated like second class citizens to the high school (staff and students). The special ed department should hire more people, not make inappropriate comments to our students (like "all of your gen ed teachers think you're stupid and can't do the work so they send you here" for example), support accommodated testing and prioritize students with the highest needs if they're overwhelmed, rather than just prioritizing high school as usual.

The building is old and not in the best repair. There are only 3 outlets per room so it is difficult to plug in all of the chromebooks and electronics. Also, there is only one staff bathroom on the middle school side which presents challenges. Also, the evening janitor often does not do their job and in the morning, my classroom smells of weed.

A long-term substitute position should receive additional pay. The requirements and time needed to be a long-term substitute is vast.

Assembly to help students be more inclusive but show how to be more inclusive while staying in their lane- help students mind their own business not others

As I become more confident in my position and exhibit growth-minded results, I would like to see my role/position expand into more of a mentor or senior member role. I was a supervisor in my prior positions and especially enjoy helping others grow confident and experienced in their roles. As the school grows/expands, or if our area is able to add a high school, I would like to be a part of that development team serving in a trainer/facilitator role.

I think it would be nice to have more paid time off. Maybe 30hours of vacation time and 40 hours of paid time off. And the reason for this is because someone could get sick for the week and that can take up their whole 40 hours of paid time of.

Direct managers that want to help plan a better strategy. I don’t like the “that’s how it is” response I get. I’m worried about my coworkers not being able to figure the balance out. Also planning time not required to be filled by meetings.

Advancement

There are a few students who have maliciously attacked other students and the school isn't doing anything to have them removed. It is usually a 1 day or a few days of suspension. Then, the students are put right back to where they were before. Do they really think it is going to make an impact for them to have a few days off? Who doesn't want a few days off!? If a student attacks someone, they should be immediately expelled. It is not up to us to be wary and on the tips of our toes ready to defend students because we have that ONE student who always antagonizes everyone. It not only affects the students - I have had a few parents comment about those situations to me during conferences, but it also affects ME and the rest of the faculty mentally....this isn't right.

I want to express my appreciation for how my direct manager and leadership have helped balance my schedule and set boundaries at the beginning of the year, allowing me to complete task in a timely manner.  However, I’ve noticed differing expectations between my co-worker and myself, primarily due to our differing hours, even though our roles are the same. I’ve made efforts to improve communication and create helpful documents, and I’ve tried various ideas to streamline our processes. Despite this, it often feels like the responsibility falls primarily on me. I’m attempting to step back from their location, but I continue to receive requests. I genuinely want to contribute, but it’s frustrating since we’re equals. Also, I know this falls on me for not expressing concerns to leadership. Overall, I am happy with Phoenix Leadership and my manager, so I will continue to do my best, just do not want to get to the burnt out point

N/A

I feel that many staff members are standoffish and do not want to collaborate. I have been told many times that staff members do not care to get to know other staff members.

Put more focus on security before and after school so that the teachers can prepare better for students arrival.

Role clarity can be somewhat confusing. It seems some positions are easily and quickly altered to fill other positions. There are also many, many layers of administration at Quest, which makes it difficult to know who to get information from. Communication could be improved greatly, especially when roles and positions change.

Admin tends to micromanage teachers on every little thing.

I enjoy being the paraprofessional for our 3 kindergarten classes. However, I sometimes feel that it would help to have another paraprofessional for this age group. It isn’t easy splitting my time in 3 rooms. I want to equally help all of our kindergarteners.

I feel that the curriculum does not clearly align with the NC Check-ins and EOG proxy's

Honestly, I chose this one because I wanted to say how grateful I am to have such an amazing manager. I absolutely love this job and it is because of the leadership. They care so much about their staff and that helps me do my job better. I come to work happy everyday because of the leadership. I have never worked at a place that cares so much. People would be so lucky to work here and I count myself as one of those lucky people. Truly a great place to work.

I feel the position entails a tremendous amount of responsibility and compensation should reflect that concern. The paras do a lot to support the teachers in the department and have a genuine concern for the children under their care. Communication could be better at times but I feel if I need help or assistance from other teachers or personnel in our department, I feel assured that someone will always step up to the plate to help.

I would like clearer ways of accessing lessons

More flexibility with the amount of time I stay on topics in Math, not being made to follow an assessment map; however; let the scholar show when they are ready to assess,

taking input from people who work directly with students daily not just classroom teachers.

Maybe smaller meetings between wings more frequently?

I'm not sure if I missed it but an optional training for going through the curriculum, but mainly geared towards first year teachers.

This is an NHA issue and not a Canton Prep issue: the life insurance plan includes a salary range for employees across the whole NHA network.  The highest is $600k. Absolutely no employee in education, no matter what their position is, should be making that much.  There should not be such a large pay discrepancy between the lowest and highest paid employees.

Add more people to the cleaning staff or change the schedule of how often they clean certain areas.

n/a

The schedule needs to be changed to allow teachers a break and to leave the school at reasonable hours. In order to keep retention staff should want to be here and not constantly given another thing to do that is outside their job description.

I feel like we need a new math program, such as Eureka or My Math, which are also scripted but everything is in one place. It is very frustrating to have to go through multiple binders for one lesson when it should be all laid out for us in one place. Also, the Social Studies and Science curriculum are not sufficient. They are very vague and we need more hands-on activities and stations for science.

A clearer outline of who support personnel are and what their job/role is would be beneficial to new staff.

I feel that co-teachers deserve more than what they currently receive. They are an amazing asset in the classroom and a tremendous help with student growth and achievement.

To have better consequences to repetitive behaviors with same children.

When a staff member goes to the leadership team about something they want to feel heard and supported.

I, at this point in my career at NHA, am very happy. I feel supported by all deans and admin as well as other teachers.   Thank you

I would like more paid planning time. I have to work over the weekend in order to sufficiently plan for my classes and to grade the assessments the students take during the week.

Increase the amount of leave to at least one per month.

I love that this survey can reflect our feels on HPA specifically. I didn’t like that I felt pressured by admin to respond a certain way on the survey, as that is the whole point.  I would also love the opportunity to provide feedback to NHA as a whole, not just Holly Park.

I love that we have an extra mental health day, but I wish we had more sick days.

It's a challenge because everyone is exhausted and working hard, but it often feels like a very unwelcoming place. I feel like people don't like me, and there are certain clicks within the school. I can see that improving, but it's hard to find community when everyone is so stressed.

We all know that teachers do not get paid what they should. We also have so few days off. There is a significant difference between this NHA school and public schools. It would be nice if we could have our extra days off be bought back or something.

Having the stuffed animals for each moral focus would help the teachers to make points and have a visual representation

More compensation and PTO

The relationship between the Service Center Employees and the Leadership teams within our schools should be developed more.

Would like to understand what the path for advancement may look like in the future.

We need to insure that the whole staff is committed to both maintaining policies and discipline as well as incorporating moral focus into every aspect of our learning/lessons and day.

This school lacks structure, starting from the top of the administration team. Teachers receive no true break, admin is only present in the hallways when they know the CEO and DSQ are coming, which is only the morning of. Once they leave, you will rarely see more than one dean in the hall. Student behavior is not dealt with, most behaviors start in lower grades and gradually worsen as students move up in the building. This is due to the lack of support and consistency from the dean team. Discipline does not exist in this school, which allows students to continue to act on these behaviors knowing they will get away with it. Extra-curricular activities that students are involved in, most staff do not know about since there is no want from the dean team to be involved in these things. Whether that is being present at or even announcing the events. Dean Overman, is the most involved and present, you can tell she knows the kids and cares for them.

It would be helpful to have adequate time to complete our independent duties, prep and tasks during the week and during teacher work days.

Better training of the evening custodians or different custodians.  Bathrooms are never completely finished or even partially cleaned every night.  The bathrooms are dirty, and the boys has a strong urine smell.  The classrooms are mostly done by the teachers, and the custodians barely do a partial cleaning, if that.  Teachers, don't have time for this along with cleaning throughout the day.

I am being paid less than that of a McDonald's employee.

This is something that I believe that I will get better at, with me still being new there is an imbalance of work & personal life. This is because I want to be great at my job and it sometimes leads to staying long hours and less time for myself after hours.

Our team concerns are not resolved. We are on the front lines and it would be helpful to be included in solution finding.

I recommend more math and writing the children don’t even know how to write in cursive. They read pretty well but the writing and math is horrible. The children don’t know how to write their name on the right side of the paper it’s all over. Writing sentences isn’t good either.

Staff do not speak when spoken to.

I am completely happy with Riverton Street Charter School.

I would love to see a clearer devotion to diversity within our company culture.

I think training improvement would be great! Just having someone who knows your role and is able to train you at least the first 3 days of employment. Because not everyone here knows how to do what you do, and there is a certain way to do things here; as there is with any other company. And there is no one here to tell you that, so it would be helpful with having a trainer for new employees. Because when I joined the company/school I had to learn everything on my own. I did lucy have one co-worker who just joined also and she taught me some stuff but she couldn't tell me everything because of time and other obligations. So, I went through the first 3-4 , months trying to figure things out on my own. I am kind of still doing that, because I never was showed everything. It just kind of makes your job harder and you seem unprepared and unknowable of things and it just looks bad when your at work. This could have been eliminated with a trainer of some sort.

I genuinely have no free time now.

Honestly I do not know at this time. I feel like sometimes I take work home, because I have no time during the day, or I find myself staying after school for at least 2 hours playing catch-up or printing. The printers were given but immediately broke down after a few uses. Most teachers come as early as 6am just to catch the one printer that is available. At this time I feel that work/life balance is something I need to maybe figure out and see how to better adjust my schedule to get school stuff done at school and not bring it home or stay after school every day.

Use a different curriculum or allow teachers to go off script and use what their own things that they know work.

 I selected other because I believe the areas for improvement are already being addressed and progress is actively being made.

More employment opportunities

I feel like so much is expected of our teaching staff that it is draining/tiring and that personal life isn’t given much consideration. We deal with very difficult discipline issues and it wears on all of us.

It feels like we are often silenced regarding our personalities and beliefs.

I know that my overall manager (the principal) has a plan to improve our school. However their attitude toward students and parents sometimes gives me pause about their ability to createI a positive environment. Constantly rushing students to get food, eat, and get to class is not something I personally find conductive to a positive environment. Trying to talk over parents or dismiss their concerns is another issue with creating a positive environment. I believe my manager still thinks they are back at their original school where these actions were necessary to faciliate their plans. My manager means well but I feel like they only care about fulfilling what NHA expects above all; not the students, staff, or parents.

I think the SPED program needs a lot of improvement. Communication is great, everywhere but the SPED teachers. A lot of IEPs need revisiting.   Next year I don't want the MS electives. Students are spending more time in electives then social studies and science combined.  Also the electives is a lot. We have to come up with our own curriculum after teaching 6 classes.

It seems we are expected to work outside of school hours pretty frequently

Specials subjects often get overlooked (curriculum-wise) and I was not provided with specific materials to teach to middle school.

Keep listening to the teachers and parents

More custodial assistance

leadership needs to be positive not trying to gain respect by fear, demands, and over work load. Teachers cry on a daily basis.

Our team has shrunk significantly since July, and we have no plans to backfill positions. Since we are dealing with more schools, it would be nice to have some extra compensation to match the added workload.

I understand the intentions behind placing students in classrooms based on their academic performance (Group A, B, C), that way they can be better assisted by having lessons that are more tailored to them. The problem with this is that there are many students who struggle academically due to poor behavior, and they wind up all getting lumped into the same classroom. This causes a situation where the teacher is unable to get through lessons, since she and I (the para) have to constantly take the time to redirect. I find this to make a poor "Purpose/Positive Impact on Students," since the students who can/want to learn are not given the opportunity, as well as on those students with poor behavior, since they are constantly being yelled at for playing around/talking with each other.  One recommendation for this is to leave the classes mixed and hire more paras. Another is to implement more severe consequences for repeat offenders. Finally, parents/students need to be held more accountable

Create formal channels for staff to provide suggestions.

timely communication about upcoming events, meetings, etc. instead of the night before or only a day before; being included in all necessary messages that go out; being made aware of changes in student/teacher changes of those on my caseload

We need more resources and a different priority from the top down. It feels as though what is actually happening in school that is completely deterring the learning environment (behavior, not enough staff members, mental health concerns, family needs etc.) is not being responded to by NHA. This is reflected in the priority list being meeting deadlines with achievement boards, regional PD that is focused on moral focus etc (this is not form admin, but from above admin). While I think this is important and could help some of the issues, it feels like putting a band aid on a bullet hole because there is so much more foundational stuff occurring that the things we are asked to do is forcing us to skim over/ignore these foundational issues. More resources like a permanent cleaning staff, more academic support staff, an IT department to help with technology issues, a larger lunch staff to allow students to eat breakfast/lunch in the gym, a certified guidance counselor etc would really help.

I am still very new to the position, and perhaps still finding my way, but not a lot of wiggle room for downtime, and the work life balance role.

Sometimes I feel very restricted by all of NHA's curriculum expectations and only really giving me one way in which they want me to teach. In addition to this, trying to meet all of these expectations while enforcing various behavioral elements is very difficult with our large classrooms. So I think giving us more freedom in how we teach/enforce could be helpful.

Holiday Bonuses or longevity bonuses after your first year

Increase pay

N/A I enjoy my job a lot and don't have any further feedback at this time.

Training in Special Needs

More feedback, I feel like I have been guessing if I am doing my job right

I think as someone new it can be jarring to walk into a school like Windemere. While everyone is very friendly and I can tell they care about one another it also makes me feel like the lines of professionalism are often blurred. It can be hard to understand rules at time because of this and also make it feel uncomfortable to come to leadership if an issue arises. I also think that there needs to be a better focus on the demographic that we teach and some training regarding cultural trauma, generational trauma, and simply the backgrounds of our students. While people do seem to try, I have heard many comments in regard to make me feel like the staff think the students are dumb and cannot learn. That there are words/phrases that the teachers maybe do not understand and use lightly, but that I know they would not say around students/parents. Cultural sensitivity/DEI training is something I think WPCA does unfortunately need both for the sake of the students and staff.

Maybe a supervisor of school social workers.

A lot of noise, too much information not needed, and becomes noises that covers the actual information we need and some of them is never brough up, so the prioritizing has not been correct with what information is need and which ones is not.

We need more space or at least a place to put items so we can use our small facility to its fullest potential.

Work more as a team. I feel that my grade level teachers don't work as a team. It is like "pulling teeth" to get them to communicate or help me. We are in our own classrooms and there is not much help from the other teachers. As a new teacher to this program and the school culture, I feel like I am more supported by my dean rather than my grade level teachers.

Better understand the hostility and anger that students exhibit towards one another and works on ways to improve classroom management.

N/A

There are inefficiencies in the additional administrative processes and procedures that I have expereienced so far in my first month.  These are areas that I helped improve at my previous schools.  I am not sure if some of these aspects are required by the state, or if they are inherent to the corporate structure of NHA, but these are areas that  take time.

If BVA is going to allow students with behavioral issues to return to school yearly a realistic and consistent system needs to be in place before week 0 of every school year.  Swift action to permanently remove students that demonstrate an ongoing  threat to the school.  BVA seems to be more focused on the quantity of students vs the quality due to it being a for profit institution.  Hire more people so all employees can focus on their 1 position instead of 2 plus roles to fill the school needs.

Maybe have some people come in to teach moral focus to students.

Teachers pay shouldn't be counted against them if an real emergency occurs on the day of an closed out day. What I mean by real emergency is child gets sick or car issues.

I would like if our staff meetings and professional development (besides just the fall and spring regional days) can count towards our certificate renewal. If we have a google form that can be sent out before and after our meetings documenting our time in time out and how we use the information in our classroom, and 95% of our staff meetings contain information that directly effect our "classroom management" and/or "instruction delivery" (the two categories needed for certificate renewal), staff would be more engaged and less likely to miss our staff meetings because it would benefit them directly.

need more staff, so that there is less burn out

It would be nice to have interactive smart white boards. If we can’t get the actual smart boards maybe the kind that works with a projector and a smart pen.

support project that are presented to management that are outside of the box suggested to benefit the kids behavior more than benefiting their education.

none

Be provided pay scale and more transparency during the hiring process, recognition of previous experience and education in consideration of salary offer, better assistance in the endorsement process for certified teachers like myself. I was unaware I would have a pay cut and I have not had great success in receiving the answers to my questions for the process of obtaining my endorsement through Teachers of Tomorrow.

I haven't identified an area yet to improve

I would like to have the ability to use curriculum as a guideline, not a rigid protocol. We spend so much time doing paperwork that our ability to teach feels hindered.

Continue to do surveys asking for the feedback of our/from our staff

I feel that some students are not being held accountable for their actions in a way that leads to change in their behavior or helps them make up the work that they are missing by being disruptive. Do suspensions really have a positive impact on our students' growth/change? What about giving a working detention after school?

I feel that new information needs to be given with time in advance by manager (Dean) instead of hearing it by someone else. I also feel that more training needs to be given. Being told the information is in mynha does not help. It's logical that when you have new teachers/employees you need to review locations of where some of these items are located since there is so much information in the portal. The management behavior policies also need to be better addressed or in more detail.

Cleanliness is the most immediate concern I have at the moment and I feel daily maintenance needs to be improved.  My classroom is not fully cleaned each day, causing a build up of grime on my floors that now is much more difficult to manage since it wasn't taken care of right away.  Also my desks are not getting cleaned each day, allowing germs to spread in our little room.

The compensation is very low for what special education paraprofessionals do and what is expected of us.

My manager usually communicates with us very last minute. For example, today we had a half day for the kids and the teachers spend the second half of the day doing a data dive. We didn't get any information about what the data dive is or what was expected of us during this day until after 8:30 the morning of. I didn't get to check my email on this until after the kids left at 11:10 because class had already started when the email was sent. It would have been nice to get this information sooner so that I could be more prepared and understand what is expected of me sooner than only a few hours before hand. This is very common practice for my schools deans and principal, last minute communication on everything.

I don't think the school should tell someone when they can or cannot take off due to the school breaks. Anniversaries and birthday are substantial for some and they should be allowed time off on those days and still receive pay if they choose to celebrate those events regardless of how many breaks are given throughout the school year.

There appears to be too many responsibilities on the plate of the teacher between behavior, curriculum, classroom and area decoration and logistics for them to handle unless they complete some of those during class periods, which is not what we are asked to do.

More sick days, or a certain number of sick days don't count towards the 8 days we get off

There has to be training and a real understanding of the importance of diversity/ equity/ inclusion and implicit bias. Also, training on how we speak and correct students of color.

More advance notice and communication regarding schedule changes and what those changes will be. Communicate with entire wing/department about students who are out for suspension, extended vacation/sick, not returning, etc. Same for teacher absences. I hear a lot of information from students days before I hear from admin, if admin communicates it at all.

Allow teachers to have more autonomy regarding the curriculum.

My specific role is experiencing growing pains and high employee turnover with understaffing in the recent past. This has contributed to this specific program having fallen by the way side. However, it is better staffed at the moment and the manager and Principal are supportive of the program being brought into compliance. Our teacher preparation institutions do not adequately prepare general education classroom teachers and even administrators to implement the program and not everyone gets the opportunity to work with students of the program. New teachers and administrators need to be required to have at least one initial training session during their first year of employment. People don't know what they don't know. Some aspects of the program need to come from the top down to the classroom teachers, some basic direction. There can be some misconception of what is (legally) required and what the purpose and aim of the program truly is.

so i have not been at this school for very long but the best part about this job is the kids. I do somewhat feel supported by staff however, the turn around timing for things is awful. For example, my walkie was taken out of my room twice and i had to find a new one both times. I was alerted of me having to cover for other classes about 15 mins before i had to. I was scrambling. I understand i have to cover for teachers when others arent here but why is it always me? Why am i volunteering for lunch duty during my lunch/class because we are so understaffed. i am also almost never recognized anymore for putting in 40+ hours a week to give my kids the best opportunity and constantly staying late to catch up on work because i have so many meetings during my planning and afterschool since i dont have any time during the day. im not leaving westfield since i bonded so heavily with my students and i want them to succeed, i know they wont be able to without a mathematics professional.

Being able to be paid during breaks and not having to rely on PTO, as well as being paid more for my experience in this role.

Let us have all 5 plan times, smaller class sizes, fewer extra teacher tasks, less assessment

More collaboration and working towards realistic solutions with students with behavior concerns/issues regardless of the student being in EC.

Fine tailored PD and opportunities to fellowship and collaborate/brainstorm with others in my role across the state

The current workload is unsustainable. In addition to the full 40-hour workweek spent with students, we often spend an extra 10-15 hours or more on paperwork and other tasks. While I understand the job isn't always 'finished,' this additional workload is leading to burnout. It would be beneficial to find a better balance to ensure we can continue delivering quality work while maintaining our own well-being.

There are many things that I love about my job.  I love that the curriculum and pacing is laid out for me.  I love the people that I work with, the encouragement and support I receive from my principal and dean.  What I would like to see is a better balance of time and curriculum.  There is so much to be done at all times and often more and more gets piled on for us to do.  I spend so many extra hours working outside of my regular hours.  As a teacher you expect this to a degree but its a bit more excessive here.

Better pay for specific professions, more recognition for specific professions, specific professions being included, specific professions jobs being taken seriously and not seen as a joke, more respect for specific professions, specific professions being treated as equals, etc

This is my first year with NHA and I am loving being a part of the NHA family. I am in the process of trying to find my work life balance but have felt supported in that process.

The culture makes me feel stifled and wary of all people around me. There is a strong focus on checking boxes and little care for the true development of the children. There is little respect for teachers. Rumors are a major concern. The dirtiness of the school enforces some of these behaviors - broken window theory.

Emails sent out with more advanced notice for the weeks activities and a good way to help staff connect more effectively when just a short note is needed.

I honestly feel like the workers here are unprofessional. I have been observing a lot of yelling from the staff to the students, there has been burnt out staff where their whole attitude and demeaner changes, there's staff flirting with parents, staff flirting with other staff. I think there needs to be set procedures and policies for expectations for staff. Making sure that those expectations are constantly being told and worked on. If there is a staff doing something unprofessional then having a talk and instilling those expectations. I think the problem is that the expectations aren't being pushed and when the staff aren't doing what their supposed to do nothing is getting told to them.

I feel as though we need more staff trauma informed care and training throughout the entire year to continue to support staff and their student's needs. Educating staff on different best trauma informed practices, as well as how trauma responses can display differently at school.

While I understand the need for a rigorous curriculum, I feel like the students are missing out on the "fun" of school. There are a lot of demands place on the students and the teachers to "work until there is no time left". The students are not enjoying their time at school. The last thing I want is for students to dislike school because they feel overwhelmed with the amount of work that is required by them. I would love to see a time for either Read Aloud or Shared Reading each day and not both each day. I would also like to have some autonomy in the classroom to "do my own thing" and bring in pieces that I enjoy. I feel like I am not trusted as a teacher to guide my own class in a productive way.

More time to complete tasks in school (weekly teacher workdays).

Social Studies curriculum needs to be modified and updated for teachers to access the material to teach students successfully.

More time to plan and get things done that administration requires us to do.

As a new teacher, I feel like there are a lot of resources I haven't been introduced to yet that could help my teaching be even more efficient.

Work-life balance is a huge issue at Stambaugh. Not only for teachers on the floor that I am on, but also for teachers on all of the other floors.   The amount of time that we have to put into annotating lesson plans is extensive. Most of the time, our planning periods are taken because of different meetings that we have.   A lot of teachers including myself do not take work home because we are exhausted from our day at school. Most of us have no choice but to take our lesson plans home and work on them during the weekend.   This means that we not only work all week long, but now we also have to work on the weekends.   Additionally, I go to the school every Sunday to clean my room because it is not cleaned throughout the week.   Lastly, we have meetings after school on Wednesday’s that we are not paid for. Teachers are required to attend these meetings until 4:45 even though we have been there since 7:45.   Work-life balance is a huge issue at Stambaugh, and the teachers are exhausted.

Open to the possibility of smart board’s

Clear pay raises.

Smaller class sizes.  As a parent and teacher at Foundations, the class sizes are much too large to assure the best success of student academics, safety, and care.

More recently Vanguard has adopted including DEI speakers and this type of practice should be discouraged among schools. It should be discouraged during PD days and for the students as well.  Race has become a huge focal point throughout the US and the magnification of this is just working in opposition to the goal of achieving unity among people.  Personally as a parent of 4 children I do not want these types of practices being introduced and explained by another adult to my children, nor do I need them explained  at nauseum to me In an ideological way.  Please reconsider these new practices being adopted in your  Professional Development days and curriculum for students.

With Mill Creek still being a new school, there are many policies and procedures that are being worked through. Procedures for tiered intervention, both for high and low students, are not clearly put in place. This can make it challenging for students to get the supports they need. This also makes it challenging for teachers to plan and figure out how to best support those students as well.

Team management

Making the opportunities know by posting them in the teacher's lounge or sending an email.

I recommend more time for students to have social time with other peers. I feel the school expectations and schedule are too strict and have limited to none time for students to speak freely, if students did have more access to speak freely during their time for example: lunch, through the hallway, etc. There would be less behavior. As well as, more learning time with students paying attention more.

Have actual curriculum for social studies. You have a button to access it but it just takes you to the science curriculum. If you want to have an impact on the world, take social studies seriously and it does not feel like NHA even considers it other than having ELA read a few books.

Hire more janitorial staff who are effective workers. Students should be able to take pride in their school, and when the environment isn't clean, that is an example for them to not show further respect towards their environment. The janitorial staff currently employed at the school are not enough. Also, teaching staff has to assist with cleaning up after students (lunch-time duties, for example) and I feel like this is a very ineffective use of time that teaching staff could use to plan or work for the betterment of their students in a professional capability.

Upon being hired, the clarity of my role wasn't as good as I would liked, I would have felt more prepared for the school year understanding the type of position I was being settled into!

More space for the EL program

Not all roles are very obvious of what is expected and saying "learn on the job" is not sufficient

Higher pay especially for taking on an additional class, encore

There could be adjustments made to improve meeting times and the effectiveness of those meeting like: start time, end-time, on-topic discussions. Also, operating within a time period concerning afterhours communication as well as specifying what information constitutes an emergency; use of school connect more, but for educators.

Communication between speech teachers/pull-out for scheduling and collaboration purposes.

Too much copying and writing when we are to read the lessons like scripts. Would rather spend the time getting materials ready. Science and Social Studies doesn't have the materials to complete.

I feel that if we as teachers had more time to reinforce concepts before moving on to a new concept, that it would help student content retention.

Acknowledging staff's efforts and accomplishments would be beneficial in raising staff morale as well as providing feedback and direction in workload. It would also help with role clarity especially for new staff.

salary scale of area schools

I have been struggling with teaching the curriculum so far this year. The workbook units go in an order that feels unnatural and not as effective for student understanding. When working with 8th grade math, Unit 1 is based on rigid transformations. We have not yet covered the unit on linear equations, so understanding how to transform figures on a graph that students are not as comfortable with is quite intimidating and difficult. In one particular lesson, an isometric grid was provided to make rotations of 60 degree increments easier, but the problem was asking students to perform a 90 degree rotation. When students' images did not line up on the grid lines, many students lost confidence because they believed that they had graphed something incorrectly. On the EdCite common assessments, some tools do not work correctly. For example, on the Grade 8 unit 1 Topic C quiz, students were asked to transform a trapezoid, but the tool to draw the lines between points did not work.

In my opinion is not enough time in the schedule allowed for brain breaks for the students, transition time between subjects, ELA manipulatives and creativity for the teachers. I feel as though concrete, hands on materials will help the growing minds of our students. I think we could also benefit from a science class for the whole school.

Take teachers seriously when they say they are concerned about the safety and quality of education in the classroom.

Student success requires more professionals educating the majority of students that are below grade level.  Class sizes are too big...not nearly enough time or opportunity to improve academic performance.  Perhaps I am not talking about culture...it's the academic model that is sorely lacking.

More compensation to compete with Public Schools so we dont lose valuable employees

T

IMPROVE EVERYTHING!

I'd like to have 40 instead of 35 hours

The continuous observing and focus on small things like boards and room design put unnecessary stress on teachers. The lack of freedom can be exhausting.

Be more positive and don't look for negatives. Do not lecture teachers in front of students. This shows the students that the teacher does not have to be respected. Show more support to staff members and their needs. Be thankful that the staff members are trying their best.

Clean the building, better communication.

I feel that often students are on their computers too much. I would like to see more paper and pencil activities and  hands on activities available

Benefits should include FLMA for the staff. Along with a better compensation for paras.

Better healthcare options are needed without such high deductibles.

Increased opportunity to seek grants, additional funding sources, other options to improve instruction and intervention for students and staff. Time for teachers within the schedules.

Having a difficult time working with teacher partners, have had great experiences with students and leadership but struggling with working with people who are supposed to be peers in the workplace.

Just would like to know how advancement works here

I am new and I feel comfortable with my coworkers and boss. I feel there should be more support for the SWs but I know NHA is working towards that.

Being a teacher is enjoyable but has a heavy workload and lots of due dates. I would love to see a better system in creating a work life balance

I think that students take advantage of our policy to Behave with Care, and abuse their privileges. For those who can't conform, and while maintaining a sustainable number of students in the population, I think some stiffer penalties would help.

Graded work. Although it will take more time from our already busy schedules, at least students can know how they're doing on a number scale as far as their understanding of the material. Also, a better system for intervention time.

I feel for the role I'm in there's a lot of work to be done and you wear many hats. I feel the pay isn't equivalent to the work you do even with experience

Better pay would be wonderful. I am well educated and only make around $24 an hour.  Otherwise the school is a wonderful place to work and have my children attend. I am proud to work at Endeavor.

The curriculum for science and social studies could be clearer. It is not as well laid out as math and ELA. It would also be nice to ensure we have enough copies and all needed materials: read aloud books, shared reading student books, etc.

I would ask for NHA to review teacher salaries.  Schools are losing many good teachers to the public system because of pay.

More science supplies would be nice.

Improving compensation to reflect the significant effort dedicated teachers invest in ensuring their students' growth.

Adapting the curriculum and teacher duties to fit a more realistic approach that takes into consideration that teaching the curriculum is not a rigid process but instead a variable filled process that sometimes escapes the idealistic confines of the pacing guide. Finding a "work-life balance" becomes more difficult when teaching starts spilling over into other areas of "life" due to having to accommodate the seemingly endless amounts of tasks, and also as a result of trying to stay on pace...not to mention if one also has a part-time job. The result can increase stress and make teaching seem like an overwhelming process in a tunnel, and the just when you think you are about see the light towards the end, it turns out to be another train loaded with more "things" to add to what feels like an already overloaded process.

I feel like some emails from admins are sent out at inappropriate times throughout the night.

Reduce class sizes.  The class size is currently larger than the public schools.  Students get very little personal time with the teacher (if any at all) if they are not enrolled in services. Could create a "boutique" and novel experience that parents would seek out.

I would recommend professional development could stand to be more engaging and thought out. It should be framed as something that is critical to our growth and the growth of our scholars. It's something we "get" to do rather than something we "have" to do. There should be more excitement and wonder about each PD session. We encourage our scholars to not opt out EVER and I think we should lead by example. There always should be an action step tied to our PD sessions. As well as mechanism for follow up. Incorporating a team builder and introductions can build comradery amongst the participants, especially if they hardly work together during the school day. PDs can also cover topics that we as a team may need brushing up on. For example: behave with care, correcting behavior positively, crisis cycle, restorative practices, communication home, identifying and intervening at-risk students, gradebook audits, etc.

The school needs to be completely stripped and cleaned. The rodents are not only disgusting but unsafe and trigger allergies for many students and staff.

Lots. Instead of lump sum bonus for sign on, do 5 separate 1000 payments. Retention bonuses that feel impactful. Less holding pay over TOA and licensure pathway staff.

I would reccomend that the curriculum be revamped to be more developmentally appropriate for the younger ages, such as kindergarten through 2nd grade.

As a new teacher I was not trained on many of the programs or the curriculum, so it has been a learning curve. I have been struggling to ensure student safety as well as academics. However, all I hear is the negative. I know they are trying to support me, but I feel inadequate.

Maybe an in school-suspension would be critical.

With all of the tools and resources available, it would be beneficial to be training in them.

Communicating and understanding the procedures using the portal and in person.

Salary position as I often go over 80 hours and it would free me to work more instead of just sticking to schedule. (Example: school events often keep me there later due to need in front office.)

Help the teachers when they ask for it. Enforce discipline so teachers can teach.

some type of metal detector or way to be sure nothing dangerous is being brought in

Professional development surround ECATs would be helpful for new Special Education teachers.

N/A

Teachers are putting in way, way more hours than what they are getting paid for here.

More time for planning during planning periods. A lot of meetings are held during these times which are helpful but takes away from grading/planning

More rigorous Content. Curriculum differentiated based on State and State exams requirements for that State. Teachers of that state contribute to the curriculum and a stipend for it over the summer. Higher salaries. Town Halls for teachers twice a year to express concerns and state suggestions.

More training on specific curriculum.

There needs to be consequences for behaviors in the classroom...lunch detentions, detentions, suspensions, etc

Provide more time to complete expected tasks DURING work hours especially for new teachers or new staff.

I feel as if people are saying different things about what we need to get done and it’s confusing

I believe that there needs to be better clean up procedures in place after lunch for K-2.

There are holes in the walls and the water filters need to be replaced.

I need more of a work life balance

Making sure everyone is treated with the same respect no matter race culture religion, and that all new employees are being treated fairly and have a proper work life balance. I also recommend that all new employees are caught5 up and able to stay ahead and get all supplies and support needed within the first three weeks so that he or she may stay ahead, because falling behind and playing catch up can be overwhelming . It feels like you are never caught up once being behind. The curriculum is very high level and the expectations required by staff within in certain timeframes is intense and I rather be weeks ahead then behind or always feeling like I'm trying to play catch up spending long hours and most of personal or off the clock time and still not feeling like  caught up, prepared or properly effective .

Smart boards would be nice and computer carts to house computers when not in use to charge because those cords are hazardous

I have no issues to communicate at this time.

Most of my issues with the work-life balance are personal growing pains of being a first-time teacher. Getting comfortable with all the systems to navigate my role and the routines that need to be built have been a challenge with my role. The support of my admin team has helped, but it's a difficult balance since those mentorships also directly conflict with my planning time, making me struggle to find more time and leading to working even later.

Better coverage, lower deductible, pay less for prescriptions, less premium payment each paycheck

Standardizing policies and procedures across all of IT and Tech Teams will have ripple effect in terms of improving communication, morale, and accountability for all teams.  Some specific areas to look at would be change management, Agile framework for planned work, professional development schedule, and use of single source for requesting help/assistance (Cherwell/TDX).

North Dayton heavily focuses on following the OOS and ensure that everyone is strictly aligned to the content. It becomes more challenging when there isn't autonomy to allow teachers the opportunity to scaffold the curriculum to meet the differentiated learning needs in the classroom. Students continue to underperform due to the negligence of attention to the various learning needs that exist. The time constraints doesn't allow students opportunities to fully complete their assignments. Teacher rarely receive time to decompress, take 5 minutes mental breaks, or even restroom breaks.

We should have time for records. Like a records day or a day off after conferences. During Staff meetings or other meetings we need to be mindful of others time. Leave on time.

To be invested in the Michigan Retirement System

Clear and concise communication with team.  Not last minute.  My role is not clearly communicated.  Most of the information I have learned about my job (duties and role) has been from co-workers barely any obtained from administration.  Highly inappropriate behavior from staff has been witnessed ex, yelling at students, (of which has been administration) and using verbal threats to communicate the "standard as the expectation, and the expectation as the standard." It is important to hold students accountable and being firm, but yelling and speaking disrespectfully is highly unprofessional.   I have heard the principal tell a student to "shut your mouth.

Bonus plan for hitting goals.

N/A

As a teacher new to NHA I have little to no time for my personal life. The expectations are so intense and overwhelming that I spend hours outside of school time trying to prepare lessons, grade work correctly according to NHA standards, and adjust the classroom schedule for the changes that are expected for the next day. It is difficult and overwhelming. I am doing my best but it is a very large challenge.

More defined curriculum.

ELA curriculum should have greater differentiation of content and pedagogy so it can better meet students where they are instead of where it want's student's to be. Most of the time curriculum appropriately balances school and student learning goals. Sometimes the level of rigor is out of balance with where our learner's skills and abilities lie.

I have only worked in high impact ELL schools, so collaboration was an automatic given staff-wide. I'm still working to find my place as the only ELL teacher in the building. I am trying to branch out into weekly ELL newsletters, reaching out through email, and giving out my contact information to other teachers. It's been hard since I have small groups during a lot of teacher's preps. I'm confident that I will continue to navigate utilizing other communication methods. :)

Being paid 2-5 dollars more per hour would be commensurate with the work being asked to do, which is a co-teacher role and not traditional support. As such, I do not think a slight increase in pay, at current hours, is unreasonable.

More planning time, the planning time is non-existent because teachers are entering behaviors or calling parents.  There is not time to do grading unless it's brought home.

appreciation/recognition gift certificates.

How is a city school not 1 to 1 with technology?

Clearer instructions

Security officers or the detector systems added.

Including full time assistants for kindergarten staff

In response to the question regarding role clarity, I believe my recommendations are minimal but important. What I envision is ongoing clarity around the population focus for the Admissions Representative (AR) role. Specifically, whether the primary focus should be on current families or on newly applied families for the upcoming school year. Additionally, when an AR is responsible for two schools, it’s crucial that the metrics reflect the level of support needed for both. Ensuring that the AR can effectively manage the demands of both schools should be accounted for in performance expectations.  The Manager is very supportive, often advocating for the team, which is appreciated. However, leadership should be mindful when assigning more challenging schools to a single AR, recognizing that this can increase the difficulty of the role. Clear and realistic metrics, as well as continued advocacy for ARs, would support better performance and balance across multiple assignments.

My previous employer did not limit our PTO days. Instead, we gained a day each month. For example, if you are a new employee that started in August, the next month, September, you'll have 1 PTO day. For the month of October, without any absences, another day is gained, which equals 2 days of PTO. This PTO system accumulated during summer break, too. Do you all mind "grandfathering" the current employees' PTO days with this new system? Another idea is that Teachers get Vacation Days!!!!

The accelerated class has many students who do not have enough background knowledge to be fully successful. The curriculum is very fast paced so it makes it hard to work with students who are behind.

Provide the appropriate training for programs we are using in the classroom. Provide more staff support when teachers are providing testing that requires more individual attention to each student, so that classroom management doesn't become a problem when the teacher is not available to help the whole class during one-on-one testing situations.

if you’re not going to provide quality special education , at least open up curriculum and quizzes for teachers to differentiate according to student need

Smaller class sizes.  More security.  Self defense training.  Teacher education for deescalating a physical confrontation in the classroom.  First aid training.  Metal detectors.

With the rising cost of expenses it would be nice to be compensated so that 1 paycheck is not all going towards rent it causes things to be behind and over time the deficits will show especially if you have a family

Train more teachers in the science of reading.

I think that the way it's structed isn't always meaningful to the students. I think a more relevant and still educational

The workload doesn't allow for a true work-life balance, even with the provided lesson plans. Recs: (1) Implement 1 teacher workday every month or every other month that is not designated to PD or other required tasks -- maybe the day prior to progress reports and the day prior to report cards. Why? This would allow teachers a "catch up" day, a day to make anchor charts for the month, a day to call parents, a day to print/organize lesson plans, a day to deep-dive into individual student data, or a day to prepare report cards/PT meetings...a day to breathe, or not breathe -- so we have the option to breathe other days.  (2) Send pre-made anchor charts while still giving us the option to make our own. NHA tells us what needs to be on them. Why not save every teacher the time of reproducing all of them every week? (3) Require students to be present when instruction begins. Students miss out on core concepts and T needs to pause instruction to input attendance later. It makes no sense.

I like the virtues that we teach but the experience I have had teaching it to my students is difficult because some of the text going with the lessons seems to go above their heads. I also think it would be good to add in skills like blocked breathing or planning in order to give them skills they can use now and in the future.

Example: parent teacher conferences and being gone for 14 hours each day

Less computer use more lessons/ testing on paper

Provide the ability to rearrange the current structure of classes to see if student academic success improves.

Oakside is an amazing place to work. The pay is the only downside I see to working here.

Better school-wide behavior management system that doesn't rely heavily on empty warnings.

Cleaning locker rooms, gym floor, bathrooms

More community building opportunities with coworkers. For example staff holiday party or staff movie night etc.

We need to establish time for small group intervention for those students who need more one to one instruction because they are below the grade level.

Allowing students to be apart of their support meetings (504 plans, IEP, possibly BSP).

More time to prep/plan/grade/contact parents. Time that is not consumed by scheduled meetings.

Linden Charter is a great place to work.

I think the PTO provided is incredibly insufficient. While work attendance is vital in education, employee health and well-being is also important. Personally, I have experience with needing to see specialists for appointments that simply cannot be scheduled outside of contract time. Additionally, I feel that events such as weddings/honeymoons/vacations should be permitted if the employee has worked x-number of years in NHA. (Obviously not first years!) Even with summers off, I feel that, outside of my role as a teacher, my personal life is important and matters just as much. I would not want to be forced to plan my wedding around the school calendar.

Have less frequent required after school staff meetings and gatherings. I feel like I am always working even if I am not at work and it makes me feel burned-out.

I don't feel that there is enough prep-time in the schedule. I'm not sure how to address this...

Fewer after school meetings. Once a month instead of once weekly.   Have NO requirements to attend events after hours, especially unpaid.   Pay staff for overtime stipends when expecting them to attend after hour or before hour events.   Pay staff higher wages across the board so we can do things in our personal lives that doesn’t involve getting a second job.   Give at least 10 paid days off a year for full time staff and/or offer a paid mental health day each trimester. Encourage staff to take these days.   Provide more time for planning periods so working from home after hours unpaid is minimal to none. For example, provide supervision/coverage for students that arrive before 8am so that from 7:30am-8am teachers have a half hour paid planning. 40minutes is NOT enough time.   We don’t want jeans passes or afternoon donuts; we want higher wages, respectful students, and a work life balance that allows us to be more than a teacher once we leave the classroom.

It would be extremely beneficial if we were able to hire more people to assist inside of the classrooms. Right now, we have a team of three behavioral support personnel that travel between classrooms. However, they are often times needed for other things outside of their control. If we had an individual para for each of the classes (6 in total), it would allow everyone to feel more supported and get done necessary things for student success.

In the long run having more compensation. I'm happy with my current compensation but it the long run I can see if being a reason that I would leave to go to another school. It would also be nice to have something similar to Schedule B pay for after school concerts and commitments. I would like to add a pep band, but not having compensation for the time spent with it is a little frustrating.

Lower deductible for health insurance.

I believe that there is an excessive number of trainings/meetings. Often times I don't get a plan or lunch because of meetings or trainings. Traveling over an hour away for training also interrupts the work/life balance.

It would be helpful to have recommendations on how to have a work life balance. Especially being new to the field, I do not know how each person has that balance but being able to give a few ideas is helpful. I feel like it is expected for me to be available for every family for more hours than when I am at school. I want to be reassured that it is okay that I am not responding all the time and I am able to have a life outside of work.

The day is very busy, which is fine, however, transition time needs to be worked into the schedule.

There is a long stretch between Labor Day weekend and Thanksgiving when teachers also get a day off. A fall break that includes a day off for teachers would be helpful. I always feel like I am very behind, even with working 60 hours a week. It is my first year teaching, so I hope that will change as I gain experience. I am not sure how to "not work" so many hours, because I am still behind in my work.

I wasn't sure where to put this in the categories, but I do think there is too much e-mail communication from the service center to the schools.  My principals are overwhelmed with compliance tasks and other things that keep them from being purposefully present in their schools.  Their talents are best used working with Deans and teachers and many are overwhelmed with tasks that keep them from doing that.  My hope is that the Service Center can work to take on some of these tasks from Principals and Deans so they can focus on teachers and students.

A clearer understanding among the school staff of what each role is responsible for and consistency in following those expectations from leadership.

Increase compensation and sick days for staff

Students need more discipline so that teachers can actually do there job they were hired to do.

My pay at JCA is below what I was making in public schools, and the cost of doctor's appointments, prescriptions, etc. are going to also cost me far more than with my state benefits.  I would like to see JCA better aligned with the pay and benefits of the surrounding areas.

Continue with the good work being done to prioritize prep and lunch time being long enough and not intruded on.,

I believe my role is not clarified. I am expected to do things that were not included in my role. I would just like further education about the role and what it all entails.

Improve our benefits and give more than 6 days of PTO. This is very little and especially for people with kids (if their kid gets sick or has an emergency). Your PTO days should increase every year as you've been working with NHA longer.

Teachers need to teach and manage behaviors in their own classes. I was not aware this would fall on me. I perform the role of a teacher more than I perform my role as an administrator. I also perform the role of ABSS. There is no work/life balance because I have to take the vast majority of my work home. Am I a teacher, administrator or ABSS? I can't do them all.

More planning time during the day.

It can improve by communicating to everyone at the same time that way thing are more clear

I feel that our job is family liaisons. Homeless liaisons really requires some more compensation and coverage. While we are traveling for our vehicles for ourselves, we do a lot of work outside of work, because our families are in need and in dire. Straits, and I think that would be a place where additional compensation to assure that you have the best possible team would be. Important

Pay is always low in education, but for my role it seems inappropriately low.

more room for growth

Do not assume people know what to do, give clear explanation.

Overall, I have enjoyed my time at Prep-Net. Over the past few weeks I have felt a lack of communication and feedback due to the departure of Dean HT.

Things can at times seem chaotic and unorganized. I think having clearer communication could help

Communication is huge for the type of organizer that I am. I am someone who likes to create a meticulous calendar/planner. I found that especially during Professional Development week, there was not great communication and when and what I would be doing. During times that would be distinguished as "Work Time" and I planned out what I was going to do during that work time, I would then be told that there is a mandatory meeting that I need to be at in the next five minutes. I just wish that the communication and organization as well as structure of the Professional Development was improved. As a new staff member, I think those two weeks can make or break a lot of people and if you get stuck behind, it is hard to catch up.

I think NHA should hire more people on the janitorial team, my classroom should be sprayed often.

Help with work life balance. We have been pushed to do more and more each week. I’m doing 2-3 hours a day then weekends a whole day of work.   We also get coached or graded all the time but never supported and how we are improving.

With communication, a lot of things are given to leadership late, which causes us as teachers to have little to no time to complete things that are asked of us. This in turn causes us to be looked at like we're not doing our job when in reality we haven't been given the proper time to perform adequately.

The policies/procedures I feel need improvement revolve around expectations and consequences of student actions across the entire school.  It’s unclear to me and the students what the exact steps are when it comes to consequences: Verbal warning, sit alone, call home, principal, etc. And what to do in a situation where the whole class learning becomes affected by 1 or more students on a daily basis after consequences have already been taking place.   Students have a hard time understanding that they are practicing following rules because there will still be rules to follow when they’re adults.   My suggestion would be to have an assembly that focuses on these expectations/consequences and have the local police department come to talk to our students about why following rules are important now. Police officers’ entire jobs are about expectations and consequences and could give real life examples of why it’s so important to follow rules and the risks of breaking them.

Each room could use an adult para or teachers aid. I think it would help with behavior, overall classroom management and students who need one on one.

The recommendations I would like to see improvement is students take the responsibility of learning and contribute to their knowledge.  Also, training on classroom management   What it look like and should be implemented on  daily. Plus, have all middle school students to eat lunch cafertina and take 15-20 minutes recess outside. It may help with focus and behavioral problems.

Please shorten meetings and make them more productive.

None

More compensation and better insurance

I feel like having a solid curriculum for Young 5's would be helpful and get the most out of the year as they transition into kindergarten.

Unsure

Hard work on my part

More structured opportunities to build skills that may help us advance either within the company or elsewhere.

Have a compensation schedule that is relative to years of experience/years of service. Secure student loan payment grants and help teachers repay their loans.

I don't have anything other than pay the staff more.

More opportunities for professional development relating to ancillary staff

I am a technology teacher and would like access to more technology tools that are currently unavailable to me.

More focus on student comprehension rather than student tests scores.

I often feel that at times when there are behavioral issues that arise in the classroom, the teacher is often left to figure things out for themselves and take time out of their day to message or call a parent when there is a behavior in the classroom. Also, there is not access to supplies for students when they do not send them in. It is not right that the teacher has to constantly spend their own money on supplies like pencils and glue sticks. The school should have a stock of supplies that students readily need at all times.

I look forward to continuous professional development trainings to improve our school and scholars.

As a new teacher I am learning the curriculum and what is involved when creating the lesson unit, plans, and grading scale system. This is something that takes time to adjust as I use a new curriculum for the C.O.C students I am learning what their needs are and making it the right pace for each student.

There are no recommendations regarding improving the area I have identified.

Have the tests and quizzes be more closely related to the material that kids are being taught on a day to day basis

More in depth scaffolds and/or supports we can provide teachers when teaching the ELL population. Resorting to iPads frequently won't full address the language barrier. How can we provide supports or scaffolds that fit the curriculum being used throughout the building and can be slowly taken away? Without always using translation apps and such?

Provide at least 5min of transition period for teachers to get situated for the next class, have a moment to mentally switch gears and process. Or at the very least have a bathroom break.

more recess for the kids.

Introduction to tech for newcomers would be helpful

My dean is amazing ! He holds us accountable but love us too.

The selected recommendation above is reflective of NHA, not Oakside Prep Academy. There are some serious concerns regarding the curriculum NHA established as sufficient and the student population/needs at Oakside Preparatory Academy.

Need to address behavior better

More PTO. Personal days and sick days in different categories'.

More insight or conversations around establishing and maintaining a stable healthy work life balance.

Overall, I feel that collaboration is strong at my school. However, I'd like to see more opportunities for collaboration amongst departmentalized teachers across schools at NHA. I go to other grade levels when I have questions, but having a check-in or group chat or something that allows me to share ideas and questions with other 5th grade Math teachers would be very helpful.

I believe that having a manager that’s knowledgeable of my role and what I should be doing would help me in my role . My knowledge is based on my own research via NHA as well as the most recent PD(it was a great help). I am not confident in my manager and most times go to others in leadership for assistance.

Professional

Help with time management.

I worked for almost an entire month with no feedback on my performance at all from upper management.  I only received notices when I was doing something wrong yet no one ever went thru what I needed to know or where to find it.  I honestly would have quit if it hadn't been for my co-workers support.

Recommendations for Safety: -Metal Detectors -More drills during different times of the day/ including scholars lunch -Safety locks in the door -Better system for covering the glass on the door during an emergency -Students should wear a student id with lanyard(a part of dress code)

I took on this role in order to be flexible within my teaching. I do enjoy working with mult grades and it is giving me experience but it is very hard to teach a subject like "tech" to YK-Kinder grade levels with no parapro or extra support. Also, I would love to use the library and have more time for reading but I have such short class times and no transition times between classes in order to prep for the next classes lesson.

More planning time

There are an absurd amount of assessments and checkpoints that are required for kindergarten. I feel that I cannot pull small groups and target skills or do fun activities with my students due to the amount of testing. In addition, I feel that once we finish one test there is another one we are starting and that is super frustrating as I feel I am losing time getting to know my students.

It is very time consuming to be making paper copies of all the reading Mastery Books.  The para's do not need duplicate books when great books are provided to put in sticky notes about the lesson plans.  I honestly thing it has taken me over two hours of unpaid time just to make copies of four lessons for three different books for our 3 different RM groups.. It is also creates a loss of funds that could be used for better tech and school supplies that look families don't have.  The Paras' also just get pd by the hour and don't get paid for staying for hours to make the copies or come to school on the weekends either.  Many paras live far.  The regular teachers get a salary and already know that they have to works after school hours sometime.

metal detectors at the front doors, fencing that surrounds the entire school (hardened campus), security guards and/or school resource officers

Increase pay for ABSS staff.

I feel teacher spend the majority of the day redirecting behavior issues, because they are grossly out numbered. While they redirect one student several other take that as an opportunity to act out and with the current student adult ratio it just continues all day, making the children who are behaving and wanting to learn miss out.

Just keep communicating and working with the new staff as we learn and adjust

Work requires at least 10 hours a day. There are too many meetings each week and breaks aren't given.

Take student violence seriously and have a plan in place to deal with it. The rights of the violent student should not continuously put the safety and learning of all the other children in jeopardy over and over again.

Maybe having the floors done more often? My classroom floor does not appear to get mopped ever...

Ensure we have the proper procedures, resources, and programs in place to serve the exceptional students we enroll.

When I need to take a day off due to emergencies or personal reasons, my dean tries to control when I can do so. I'm not sure if she has the right to do that, especially since I've been very responsible and consistent in my work.

None need the improvement at the moment

I suggest a review of our current PTO and compensation structure in comparison to neighboring school districts. Competitive benefits are crucial for attracting and retaining talented educators, and I believe that aligning our offerings with those of similar districts will enhance our staff's morale and overall effectiveness, especially keeping in mind that our work day is nearly one hour longer than neighboring districts. Two personal days a year are not enough to allow for work life balance. Additionally, administrative respect for teacher’s scheduled planning time is also critical for work life balance and addressing teacher burn out.

As Sped teacher data collecting been mimized but still acheived the goal

Observations on peer teaching.

Allowing more resources approved by NHA that foster exciting learning opportunities for the students.

Address what needs to be done for each area of curriculum, and how you want to approach it.

Salary competitive to public schools in the area and retirement options comparable.

Things are communicated, but not in a timely manner. Many of us didn't know we were required to attend curriculum night until we got the Sunday email just a few days before. Most things are expected that we just know even though there is a lot of newer staff.   Nursing and pumping mothers are placed in an unclean server closet, which doesn't seem to meet pumping laws. They have also been refused a key and, in order to pump, have to find admin to help. When higher ups were in the building one of our pumping mothers was told that she wasn't allowed in the office and she had to miss a pump due to this. She seemed to be pretty upset about it.

The custodial crew needs to be expanded. The school is not clean.

It not be so expensive

Science curriculum needs more structure. Students in middle school need a textbook or some kind of central reading they can follow along with to stay up to date on content. STEMscopes provides very little in the way of actual content and is geared toward students perfoming at grade level. I often find myself feeling as if I am writing the whole textbook for my students in order to fill in the gaps in STEMscopes.

Somehow pay the teachers better. The pay at NHA is not competitive with the other schools in the area. I think this would help with staff turnover every year.

More planning time at school

I think one way of helping staff maintain a better work-life balance would be to help staff to make a schedule of all of their different duties outside of their classroom teaching. A schedule, not to be trapped to, but to give us a better idea of when we could get things done with the overwhelming amount of work being given. This could be done in PLC groups, as I think it would be helpful for each grade level to do it together with their dean.  Examples: 1. Helping staff to make a schedule for testing and responding to the data. Blocking out when we can go over work with students that are behind.  2. Understanding that work should not be done at home, or more than one hour after work. So the workload should reflect the time that we have allotted in our contract hours.

I feel that the pay could be a little higher, especially for the Gen Ed paraprofessionals roles. I still am not making a livable wage, and I imagine I am not the only one in that boat.

It is challenging to find a work-life balance when planning for 60+ conferences, while still maintaining excellence in planning for instruction etc. I am finding myself working from home at least 3 hrs per evening, and at least one full day on the weekend. There never seems to be enough time to be as prepared as I'd like. I am trying to find a good balance between work and home life, I think we all agree that it is just HARD- but we do hard things :)

I disagree with PRIDE related clothing and visuals being banned. This does not support inclusion, equity, and diversity in any way and creates an unsafe working and learning environments for staff and students alike.

It would be better to have a later start time all week, or at least a late start Monday since the kids constantly come in tired because some of them are waking up at 5 or 6 in the morning to catch the bus

A clear guideline on how volunteering for extra opportunities, committees, or other projects could be compensated. I believe I'm on the lower end of the salary spectrum for teachers at Alliance  and I'd gladly take on more work or program events, tutor, etc., if I knew for a fact that a bonus or increase in pay could be discussed too. I currently am hesitant to put in *too* much extra work out of fear that I may grow resentful if that extra work is not recognized financially or otherwise.

I think there needs to more action taken to students who are not following procedures and policies, especially those that are more physical and serious than others.

I would like to see grade level teachers collaborate and work together more effectively. This will help with everyone being on the same page when it comes to teaching lessons and providing resources for everyone on the grade level team, to ensure that every student receives equal opportunities to learn the curriculum and be well prepared for the next grade.

Needs to be updated or adjusted to better support low socioeconomic students and their families. Reading Mastery is outdated.

More opportunities for raises or more hours a week

While needs are identified , the next steps with behavior/academics/spl seem unclear. Who is responsible to help make accommodations to collect data so these may move forward and needs are concretely addressed.

N/A.

I think that 03’s should not be every week. More importantly that the school should have a gym and computer lab so teachers are not kicked out of their rooms so much. This issue is making it difficult to get work done throughout the week.

Talking with everyone involved to ensure everyone is on the same page. It always seems like someone is out of the loop.

The cleaning staff use leaf blowers instead of sweeping/vacuuming which usually results in piles of dirt and trash building up along the sides of the class and under desks. It also feels like they only mop the floor once a week and its constantly covered in dried mud. Most teachers have to sweep/clean their own rooms every day.

There is a lack of communication when it comes to expectations and schedules.

none

Allow employees, including hourly, to accrue sick time throughout the school year. The fixed amount of PTO and unpaid time off currently available is extremely limited considering how easy it is to get sick while working with children. I am an hourly staff member and already used up almost all of my PTO in the first quarter getting sick. The lack of cleanliness in the building and the many students coming to school while sick makes me worried that I will continue to get sick repeatedly. If all of my PTO and unpaid time off get used up so early in the school year, then I will not feel that I am able to take care of my health and well being adequately.

I'm not sure what needs to be put into place, but there's a lot expected of teachers (hosting after school activities, completing online training modules, meetings, consistent parent - teacher contact, managing behavior, moral focus, learning what it means to do things the NHA way, staying on track with the curriculum at all times, completing morning announcements, changing bulletin boards regularly, IEP Meetings, keeping track of chromebooks, cleaning the staff lounge, etc. It's almost impossible for someone to have a life outside of work.

Getting more personal and sick days for the year.

Finding a way to work towards a common goal for respect from the students and giving them ways to implement it.

As a new teacher to NHA, I felt very unprepared for my role. Very much a learn as you go atmosphere which left me feeling inadequate. I would like to see NHA provide training, or even have videos available that teachers can watch to prepare for their first day in the classroom.

There are multiple students that do not respect teachers and it is a concern for the overall success of the school. Their lack of respect and ability to follow directions makes classroom instruction virtually impossible. While classroom management techniques have been implemented, there are still multiple students that refuse to participate.  I suggest that we evaluate what the consequences are for behavior and provide more support for teachers that are dealing with aggressive and disrespectful students. We can also collaborate more with each other and find systems that we can implement for certain students. I believe that communicating staff-wide about the behavior of students will help us come to a consensus on how to approach the behavior of our students.

An overwhelming amount of work to do. No free time, and a lot of other teachers are behind me on this. We have a never ending amount of work that HAS to be completed at home or after school, leaving no time to relax or do the things that we need to do to unwind. Expectations are high and are causing a lot of us to be burnt out, and it is only October. The amount of hours I put in regardless of how much I get done, I turn around and there is another 30 things to do. I can not keep up. Something has to change, because i work 65+ hours a week, every week. Something needs to be addressed to the staff, like an elephant in the room, because we are drowning and it seems like nobody cares.  Also, behavior needs to be addressed. A lot of students with more than 8+ behavior inputs and nothing has happened. (WVA)

Accountability for teachers and staff who are not doing their jobs. This results in other staff having to step in and increase burnout of great staff.

Make the school more modern.

I am just needing to learn the curriculum but it is very rigorous and verbatim to me and I am trying to figure out a balance for all my students to successful and feel good about what they are learning and teaching it.

Slight room for adjustment between "NHA does it this way" and "our school needs this" would be nice, but it's such a minor thing that it genuinely doesn't impact my enjoyment of my work whatsoever!

There should be more flexibility in curriculum. We as teachers  need more space to bring authentic passion and connection to our work.

Have opportunities for teachers to leave early without adverse consequences and the opportunity to make up the time that has been unexcused.

More time for teachers to work together.

Less scripted lessons

I've spent a ton of time re-writing the curriculum for my students. And then even more time trying to differentiate for my low students. If curriculum was written at a more grade-appropriate level AND differentiation tools were provided, that would go a long way toward supporting work-life balance because it wouldn't take as long for teachers to prepare.

I think for the amount of money NHA receives from the state per student (roughly $6.2 million for QG alone), not nearly enough is going into staff salaries. You could double our salaries and/or cover our insurance premium at 100% and still be making millions in profit The pay with NHA is so low that after benefits, taxes, and retirement contribution, I can BARELY -and I mean BAREY- keep my family afloat. I end up with $1500 per pay check to take home. My mortgage alone is $2800. I work HARD for NHA and I just feel like a number rather than a human. My salary isn't a livable wage with the inflation since covid and the significant rise in the cost of living (gas, groceries, utilities). I am struggling to make ends meet and it hurts.

More intentional on-boarding training for staff that come on board after the school year has begun. I feel "Lost in the sauce." many times because I didn't receive training during the two week PD at the beginning of the year.

Specifically with how student information, attendance, communication, and accommodations are logged/stored, I would recommend a more direct/centralized database connection. While spreadsheets do work, there must be a faster API method than manual scraping and input. There are programs out there that seem to do that (which I'm sure you're aware of).

After the safety class we took I would like to see new ideas to protect scholars, staff and faculty.

The space feels very unorganized and not clean at all. I have found all sorts of bugs , gnats and unpleasant smells. I do not feel comfortable in the school and students do not care to keep the building clean as it already does not present itself properly.

I do not like how everything is so micromanaged and controlling. It does not allow for the teachers to actually show themselves and their knowledge and personality in the classroom. I am a confident teacher that knows I can make appropriate lessons based on the standards however, with all the assessments, need to stay after every Wednesday for one meeting or another, the nearly scripted lessons, etc.  it makes teaching here not enjoyable. Everything is so fast paced and teachers are constantly bogged down by all the NHA assessments and responsibilities like making sure every classroom is nearly identical to each other that I barely have time to focus on actual teaching. I am just trying to find time to assess. I love my coworkers here which makes it the only reason I am still here. Even the read aloud books are picked out by NHA. For a new teacher to this school, it is overwhelming and I barely have time focus on teaching with all the extra requirements. No ability forWork Life Balance

I chose to take a paycut in order to work at NHA as an Instructional Coach. I love the work and the people I work with. But I AM struggling to make ends meet. I wonder if there are grants that could be used to increase salaries.

Increase the number of days off to be aligned with what the state is currently offering.

Some teachers do not see their email until it is too late to do anything about issues that arise

Communicate my performance on the job I am doing

When I was hired it was very close to the beginning of the school year, so it felt very frantic. I understand there is a lot of information that I needed to get, but it became very overwhelming and some things got missed. Part of the reason why it became so overwhelming is when I asked about the curriculum the recruiter had said they weren't sure but had made it sound like there was a curriculum. I later found out that I would have to compile the curriculum myself and it then became a very overwhelming start to the year.   it would be helpful to have a clear picture of the responsibilities of the role even during the first phone interview. That way, especially when the start of the year is so close to getting hired, all the time from hire to starting could be used to properly prepare.   My leadership team here at holly park has however been supportive from the very beginning, so that overwhelming feeling has since gone away.

More space to be able to work with student individually and collectively

Having multiple New Teacher Summits so when teachers start later than expected there is a designated day to dig into the curriculum before the year starts or within the first week of when classes start.  This way teachers can adjust to the NHA curriculum.

I think there needs to be a person on staff that has a general understanding of everything that can jump in to help when things get really busy, or we are short staffed for the day.

More comprehensive training to familiarize staff with curriculum. Having all the curriculum information in one place vs. multiple locations which can lead to confusion and being on wrong weeks or lessons.

I think that Walker should do active shooter training to identify any areas we need to improve in for staff and student safety as well as train staff for if this should occur.

smaller class sizes

consistent implementation of student discipline

Providing an opportunity for more class selections.

To make sure to hire admin that supports you. No one should work in a place where you do not feel comfortable talking to your boss.

More individualized/same group topics and trainings

I believe that we should have more than 8 days off. There are some of us who have children and in the event, they get sick, or we get sick, 8 days are not enough.

Considering that the Spanish program is new to NHA, I would like to continue collaborating with the other Spanish teachers to reinforce the Spanish curriculum.

I greatly appreciate the curriculum resources NHA has developed across content areas. I would like to be able to add a little innovation to my teaching experience by using research based strategies, ideas, and activities to facilitate the learning process.  Thank you

Increase pay for qualifications for all staff

Available teacher preparation time for students' assignments during work hours. Better plan for helping students with behavior issues. Smaller classroom sizes, I do not agree with 36 students in a classroom and feel this is not benefitable to the student's growth. This has also been stated to me by students.

Increased base salary to compensate for inflation and demands of being an educator.

NA

Smartboard, Slower pace writing instruction with a/p writing sheets.

The school is too small to provide what's needed. No gym/lunchroom. I feel that we would be more productive with a bigger school.

Longer winter break for students and staff

I would just like a more comprehensive list of what is expected in my role at BG and NHA. That way I can make a complete checklist of all the things I need to do, and make sure it gets finished on time. I don't want to not do anything I am supposed to do or be late on anything. That's all! :)

Getting up to date on technology to teach like SmartBoards

Increase salaries.

Clarity on timelines available for advancement

Better communication and support as far as behavior goes for new teachers.

Autonomy for teachers to teach the curriculum how they believe best fits the learning style of their students, Teachers creating own schedule outside of specials/prep times. Address chronic misbehaving students.

As a paraprofessional some Lead teachers seem annoyed with our position in general.  I believe we could collaborate more and be seen as a team member versus someone that simply comes into their classroom and takes out a group of students.  We have valuable information that may aid in the social, emotional and academic growth of their students.

More learning opportunities about black culture.

More training for paraeducators to be able to take over classrooms when needed.

As a new employee a sit down meeting with the academic dean outlining expectations and procedures in and out of the classroom at the beginning of school would be helpful.  I did start after school had started and I feel confident in my position now.  I have received great support from my dean and other teachers.

I don't feel like I have enough time to teach the lessons

Remove mandatory assignments/activities outside of school hours. If its necessary compensate employees for volunteering their time outside of school hours.

N/a

More time to prep

I would recommend for the math curriculum. A complete break down of each problem step by step to help the teacher to explain the material better.

NHA has wonderful onboarding / training modules and all sorts of virtual support, but nothing beats "boots on the ground" training and job shadowing. When resources are stretched thin, it's difficult to give people in-person time, but this (for me at least) is missed. And, by "time" I mean direct modeling and shadowing - w/ resources and curriculum organized and at the ready - not simply a Q+A driven by the learner / trainee. Thanks.

Specific requirements for job role. And clearly stating expectations while in that particular role.

N/A

I don't think I really have recommendations. My biggest difficulty so far at NHA has been that I feel like there is far too much to do in not enough time, but I understand that not much can really be done about it.

I think providing more support to workers for pursuing education, every job I have worked at has offered to pay for education expenses up to the $5,000 per year, whereas here it is only $1,000

Training

Teachers should get at least 7 Paid Days a year

Remove it. It does nothing for the students when things cannot be reinforced at home. Work-life balance, again, not really possible in certain situations. Given this is a grant funded school, maybe find grants that recognize behaviors in different physical areas (Detroit vs. Jackson vs. Ann Arbor) and can fund more in-classroom, during instruction, behavioral support or partner with local colleges and universities that are studying things such as psychology, teaching/education, behavioral sciences.

Build better relationships with students

All forms(Immunizations, Breakfast & Lunch) etc. should be mandatory at the beginning of the school year.   Emails should be a form of communication to excuse children from school, causing less phone calls to be able to work on other tasks.  Inside doors leading to outside doors should be locked from the inside to avoid any children going outside to look for parents that are calling them out early. The only way out should be through the office.

Effective listening

Have different days to talk about world issues, and to be inclusive with those with disabilities!

I feel like that area can always be improved by learning the student more which involves there background and seeing what methods work for them and just progressing as time passes.

I just want to pass my MTTC test and my teaching program so I can work at NHA for a long time!

Focus on more cleanliness

Better organization of materials. The curriculum could also be better for NYC students. The curriculum assumes that students already know the material. and the materials could be more engaging for students. I've also noticed mistakes in assessments and lessons.

It was hard to pick one topic to improve when I believe South Pointe is an amazing place in all aspects. However, If i HAD to pick one, it would be innovation (maybe?). As the Boys Soccer Coach, I wanted to implement earlier practice times, and Friday practice. I hope for the next season we can make some changes to turn around the Soccer program! The program is amazing already, and the kids LOVED it this year. I want to be the best coach I can and provide as much resources to the athletes as possible to improve skill, push academics, and bring Student Pride to SOUTH POINTE! WOOOO!

academic programs mostly—especially reading mastery. i don’t think it’s very effective long-term to students.

I would like to provide after school programming for endeavor in the future if possible! Endeavor has an amazing environment and community. Check out our website here: www.biggerpictureassociation.com. I love being apart of the endeavor family.

The training program or lack there of would be highly beneficial to integrate into quest

The policy of working at the Service Center 4 days a week rather than at home affects me, but does not affect others in similar positions that live in the Grand Rapids area. This feels unequal and a targeted policy for some people/teams, but not others. As a professional, I should be trusted to work from home as needed OR coworkers should be held accountable to the policy. This is not referring to those of us who have desks at the office; it is referring to specialists who do not have desks and only work from home.

I have none! I have only been an employee for just about a month, but within that month I felt extremely secure and welcomed here! Triumph does an excellent job following standards!

I hope that PreEminent has the resources to serve each family appropriately and efficiently. I don't think that we don't do a good job. I just hope that more resources are available so that we can make the students experience better.

n/a

n/a

I love that there is a curriculum in place, I just wish there was more teacher say when it comes to delivery and timeline. The timeline that the current curriculum is on is too fast-paced for most students. It is also not engaging to me to teach lessons that I have 0 say in.

nothing

 I would like to provide more insight and ideas. I want to work for a company that is empowering me to not only become better but also not to be micromanaged. I also would like for my PTO to be paid out if needed. We should also be given more days than 7. When you think of an entire school year that is not alot of days. Also, the think sheets for behavior concerns are not working. Kids are thinking that they are a joke and consistently still interrupting the class and also it's taking too much time to fill out the infraction. There should be a easier way of disciplining kids that are disruptive.

Curriculum training

Improved Salary

My primary role is working working with EC youth. I have tasked to have sessions with 27-30 youth per week that receive EC services while also offering services for general education students (truancy, conflict resolution, McKinney-Vento and Foster care). That is a lot of responsibility and the compensation should reflect that. Social Work is a profession with its own degree helps people function the best they can in their environment. The amount of work is takes is something only other social workers will understand.

N/A

More clear on boarding and behavior management system.

If we were given the opportunity to work longer it would be good.

I have been working here but have had little to no training at all and rely completely on feedback which is sometimes hard to navigate hard situations. I want to do my best but I am going off conversations when I feel like I should have more general clarity on how to do my job. I just want to be better trained so I can be an asset and not an inhibitor.

Unfortunately, I witnessed Mr. Williams being rude to a new staff member in the hallway. It was not what he said, but how he said it. There was other staff and students around. I believe it could have been said in a nicer tone. I believe the new staff had been a part of the team for 3 days.  I felt bad for the new staff member because you could see the humiliation in their countenance.

Have individual roles and responsibilities blatantly discussed

The EL teacher doesn't have a designated space to bring her students, despite having a table in her office. She uses the kidney tables in the hallways because the two instructional coaches she shares an office with, don't want her bringing students in there unless absolutely necessary. There are four reading specialists crammed in an office the size of a closet. They also don't have designated areas to bring their students. No one goes over behavior policies with new hires, especially ones that don't start at the beginning of the year. The deans are made almost unavailable to everyone because they are so busy. There is also no library at this school. All staff must do either morning duty or driveline duty. There is no communication about what is expected from teachers/staff and what they will be evaluated on, so they know what is expected of them. Sometimes it is hard to get an email response from teachers.

More guidance in what professional development opportunities we can participate in with the allotted tuition reimbursement.

I believe that paraprofessionals deserves more compensation for their service and daily duties.

Improvement is to maintain the state of function ability of this great educational institution

I know this probably varies from team to team but a more remote/hybrid environment would be nice. From my offer and understanding is that the SC is going to 4 days in office and 1 remote.

Keeping the staff bathroom clean, probably spraying after school for ants and bugs.

Just more clarity/ protocol to explain what staff is able to use and what is already available for us.

No recommendations at this time.

Providing physical copies of work to be read and written at home as well as assignments that are hands on.

Some days we just need more bodies around to support teachers in the classroom.  I think one of the goals should be that everyone has the right to an education that is not disrupted.  Many times when support is needed for a child who might need a break, people are not available to help.  I also think that administration should not be spending all of their time running around being the only support for kids.  If there were more people for that support, there would be an healthy balance.

HHA is a great place to work.

More PTO days

I think there is a group of children who really want to learn and advance through school and there is a group that doesn't and they get tied in the same room and it does not go over very well. There's also select few children that are very unruly and disrespectful to the classmates that actually want to learn and to the teachers that actually want to teach and they don't respect the rest of the environment, nor do they get disciplined enough, for if they did, they wouldn't carry on with their behaviors and their ways.

None at this time.

I like the environment of working with the children. I would like more opportunities to work with them

frequent staff development courses

Provide class coverage for PD days that align with our content area or technology needs.

These kids are less behaved than some prisons that I have visited. The pay does not accurately reflect the amount of additional work that is needed to prepare lessons to bring the students up to grade level. The teaching staff has also been directed that "not every student can fail" while they do not verify correct answers to homework. Or they do not grade classwork.

coaching

More job specific training is always better.

None at the moment I am satisfied

Training on how best to analyze and apply the curriculum.

I love all of the training that is provided for safety, but I would like to see more involvement with our Police and Fire Departments on entering and exiting during Emergency Situations along with Lockdown experiences in live action. I believe when someone can see how it should be done in live action it will stick much better. Full Retention will take place that way.

Subject matter should be transitional daily.  Subject matter is rushed upon the students.  Retention is poor as a result.

Let new staff know job expectations and specific responsibilities.

Everything is great