Dr. Lauri Burton must be fired from her position at B.B. Harris Elementary. I have heard it is a terrible work environment and teachers are leaving in droves. One teacher who has been at the school for years resigned on the same day. We are hearing some of the best teachers in this school who originally decided to stay at BB Harris, are now interviewing in other counties and several people are preparing to resign unless something is done. Teachers are afraid to speak out against Dr. Burton for fear they will be fired and if the parents don't speak out about this, nothing will change. Our children's education and emotional well being may be affected. I have had 3 children attend BB Harris Elementary and I have lived through several principals. I do not see any positives from the current principal and I'm angry and disappointed Gwinnett County Schools for not listening to the needs of this community.
The children are the most affected because the school is losing so many teachers; some who I have heard have just resigned from Gwinnett County and others are expected to follow. This principal has been yelling at our children during lunch, publically embarrasing teachers and staff members and several parents have told me her thesis was about court cases involving removal of tenured teachers. Parents we must stand up against this invidual for the sake of your own child. My child's well being is the most important thing in my life and I intend to stand up against this mistake and fight for my children and my children's teachers. The children need a better role model and Lauri Burton has no right to come into our school and ruin the morale of the school with the children and the teachers.
If the Gwinnett County Board Members and the Gwinnett County Board of Education do not address this problem, I believe parents need to form together and we'll make certain something is done. We are the tax payers, we elect Board members, and we are the ones who have to fight for our children's well being.
Someone who asked to remain anonymous from another school said they believe there were 4 teachers at Dr. Burton's previous school who had grievances against her. Does this mean the county moved her from the previous school to get out from under the microscope?
FIRE DR. BURTON NOW!!!!!!!
DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY FROM ALVIN WILBANKS TO ABIDE BY THEIR POLICIES!
PROTECT OUR CHILDREN! PROTECT OUR TEACHERS and STAFF!
SAVE BB HARRIS ELEMENTARY!
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15 comments:
Can someone tell me why the county didn't move the assistant principal, Ms. Jones into Mrs. Hammond's position since she retired during the middle of the year? This didn't make any sense at all. I believe the children would have felt better because they know Mrs. Jones, but the county didn't seem to be too concerned with anything.
My child came home about 3 weeks ago complaining about how this crazy principal was in the cafeteria and talking loud on the microphone about how loud there were and then she put them all on silent lunch. This is ridiculous! I'm going to start showing up for lunch more and eating with my child. Can she put me on silent lunch?
It is funny how over dramaticized people can make something. It is obvious that the person who wrote this blog has had a personal altercation with Lauri Burton. They probably believe that Dr. Burton is to strict and follows the rules, "to much." One cant say for sure, but I highly doubt the person who wrote this blog had you in their mind while they were typing it up. They want this done for their own personal desire, and actually care little about your child. They realize that by saying things like, "save B.B. Harris, and save our children" they cut straight to your emotions and in return get your support. Dont be weak minded and uneducated, find out facts. Melissa, I would like to bring the point that a principle has the right to keep kids under control. If the kids were talking loud then she had to talk loud on a microphone so that they could hear her. Is this bad? Should a principle really be fired for talking loud? Even better, should she be fired for keeping the kids under control? Kids used to be paddled and no parents complained, but now a principle talks to loud and its a bad thing? I just find this blog to be funny. Its like politics. Dumb, uneducated people are emotionally swept into believing Dumb things.
DevilsAdvocate ...
I agree with you that we should focus on the facts.
In the first posting, it mentions that many teachers are leaving. If 16+ teachers are or are about to leave would be a very serious fact to address. Last year NO teachers left BB Harris. In the past 3 years, 3 teachers have left. That would be 5 times the teachers leaving in ONE year. These are FACTS.
The Thesis comment is also a FACT. This doesn't make Ms Burton a bad person but it does support that the "poster" is supplying facts.
I can't speak to "Crazy" or "Loud" because they are very subjective as you note, but I can tell you I attended the PTA meeting just this past week. My observations were the students did an excellent job with the presentation but Ms Burton came across as very cold toward the children and very disorganized with the agenda of the meeting.
Ms Burton should keep in mind that these are elementary school age children. They need warmth and caring to ensure they will be productive in their learning. That was not the impression I got from Ms Burton at the PTA meeting (my opinion).
I would hope that other parents would speak up with their observations and hope that the school board or administration would look into the FACT of so many teachers leaving a Happy and Successful school (I don't know the names of the awards but I know they've received them the past few years).
Finally, if you are going to chime in on a subject like this, I would learn to spell "Principal". It is somewhat important to the subject of the blog and somewhat discredits your points when you miss that one.
I agree that if there are a large number of teachers leaving then there must be something wrong in the administration and Gwinnett County needs to look into it and not just say suck it up. Our kids need stability. Mrs. Jones wasn't able to take Mrs. Hammonds position I heard because Gwinnett County has a policy that you can't move from an AP position to the head Principal position of the same school. My daughter came home from school a few weeks ago and said that Dr. Burton put everyone on silent lunch. I agree that the kids sometimes get to loud in the cafeteria, but they have never in my opinion gotten to loud to all be put on silent lunch. This incident took place one day after testing was complete. Now someone tell me after the kids were done testing don't you think they need to talk? I do not feel the family atmosphere at the school that was there before Dr. Burton arrived. I think there should be a survey for the teachers, kids and parents to take to see what everyones opinion is on this subject.
My name is Christy Espy and I have a second grade daughter at BB Harris. I served on the PTA board this past year. My opinion of Lauri Burton is very positive. She has been extremely supportive of my daughter's teachers, as well as supportive of all the PTA activities.
I can think of at least a dozen different teachers who have personally told me that they are very happy with Dr. Burton.
I can also say that I have personally spoken with also at least 6 of the teachers who are leaving and they have all assured me that they are leaving because of reasons wholly separate from Dr. Burton.
I spoke with my daughter about the cafeteria incident and she said the noise that day was out of control and that Dr. Burton came in and used the microphone to quiet them down. Not outrageous to me.
I support her and will express my feelings with the superintendent.
Thank you -
Christy
Much of what has been addressed by the previous bloggers is of a concern. In my opinion (if anybody's opinion even matters here)is to ask the county to pay attention to what changes have occurred at BB Harris. There will always be positive and negatives with any change, but maybe the negatives are so extreme that it is creating a climate not conducive to learning. I feel the teachers need an opportunity to voice of their concerns (if any) about the new principal's on the job performance since beginning in January, I believe. I also agree there should be a way to anonymously provide a question and answer survey to the teachers, the parents, and more importantly the children's point of view should be considered. Children may actually provide the best truth in what already seems to be questionable a concern.
I have been a silent observer (until now) and the school has lost the positive energy it used to have. I've noticed so many teachers seem to look extremely tired, actually some of them look so sad, and I notice the school climate seems to be very segmented. I don't feel this concern about the leadership is a witch-hunt, but it is more importantly about what is best for BB Harris and the children. One individual can have a profoundly negative effect on others and can turn the school into a very undesireable environment. This effects everyone: the children, the teachers, and the community. Maybe Dr. Burton is just trying to prove herself and dig her feet in too deep or maybe she needs to figure out what the best leadership style is.
I agree there needs to be some inquiry into the current leadership in place. We are Gwinnett County's customers and we do have a right as a community to request this action.
Dear Concerned: I agree with you, the county should allow the staff, children, and community to be able to provide input.
Hopefully the county will listen and maybe they can focus their efforts to consider a mentor to help Dr. Burton focus on a more positive leadership style.
If things get worse in the upcoming year, I will have to consider whether or not I will want my child to attend the school.
devilsadvocate - I sincerely hope you are not in any way involved in education as your spelling and grammar are at the level of a 4th or 5th grade student. Please learn the difference between "principle" and "principal." The person who manages a school is the PrinciPAL. The princiPLE reason for this blog is to show the dissatisfaction of parents, teachers and students in the current leadership which only had four years of previous experience in administration. You may also want to learn when to use "to" and when to use "too" when writing a comment on a board that is meant for discussion of an educator and/or school. Your ending sentence regarding dumb uneducated people was extremely juvenile and has virtually no credibility as you seem to be in that category yourself as evidenced from your lack of understanding of basic english which a fourth or fifth grader should have mastered by the time they enter middle school.
One more comment - How many teachers left B.B. Harris last year at the end of the school season??? In case you don't know the answer, it was ZERO! That is unheard of!! In any private or public company a primary gauge of low morale and/or dissatisfaction in the leadership is in the employee turnover rates. GCPS needs to step up to the plate and admit they have made a serious mistake in putting Ms. Burton in any position that involves elementary school age children as it is obvious from this blog and from the many comments I have heard from teachers and parents at her previous school that she is not capable of working in an environment such as B.B. Harris. As the saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Harris Elementary was totally transformed in the four years of leadership under Mrs. Hammond from a school with very low test scores and teachers that had very low morale to one of the best elementary schools in the state. Sadly, it seems to be reverting back to how it was five years ago.
My name is Denise Bucy and I resigned my position at B.B. Harris Elementary on May 15th. I have 11 years of exemplary service within Gwinnett County; four of those years at Harris. I decided to resign my fourth grade teaching position at BB Harris due to the differences of philosophy between my view of elementary education and what Lauri Burton's view(new principal's philosophy) is in regards to elementary education.
First of all a principal today must facilitate and lead in a professional manner and Lauri Burton is using her role to be a dictator and not a leader who handles herself in a professional and respectful manner. This applies not only to teachers and parents, but also to the children as well.
I loved working at BB Harris because of the children and the staff, but I personally witnessed a 180 degree turn in the morale of the school. Students often were saying negative comments about Lauri Burton, teachers feel we are not validated and respected for our work and a number of parents I spoke with also saw the school climate become a place which didn't have the positive energy it once had.
As educators, test scores are important of course, but the role of the school has changed. We are responsible not only for the academic progress of our children but we have to focus on the emotional and social well being of every child in today's world.
I try to focus on the positives and try my best in any work environment to be a team player, but this new work environment at Harris is not a positive environment nor is it a professional one. Happy teachers make happy students and if your teachers come to work feeling the environment lacks professional respect and dignity, then this will negatively impact the climate of the school.
As I said, I gave 11 years of service to Gwinnett County and have a perfect personnel record. When I asked Lauri Burton for a general letter of recommendation she refused to provide me a letter of recommendation or referral. What I received was a letter of "reference", basically nothing said positively about my years of service to Gwinnett County Schools, but the reference was I worked at BB Harris Elementary. Certainly not a letter I will place in my professional portfolio.
The Gwinnett County Board of Education failed the Duluth community by not finding the best principal for the community. One who leads by example. Unfortunately, BB Harris received just the opposite.
Denise Bucy
First of all the person whom has issue with Dr. Burton in my opinion it is not personal. The year that was posted was 2007. Today, is July 24, 2011, and the same thing applies regarding Dr. Burton the principal of BB Harris is alive and well. Almost exactly how all of the indiviuals described it except she's even worst today. I often wonder what kind of school is this and why the parents and teachers are allowing this kind of behavior by a principal to exist. She has caused my child and our family much grief with her outrageous behavior and cruelty to my child we have been looking for ways to have our issues address and ultimatley have her removed along with the teachers that have jumped on her band wagon. The environment that she has created is abusive and emotionally damaging. My child's self esteem and self confidence have been greatly effected by this so-called principal. She is loud, rude, disrespectful and two-faced to the teachers, students and the parents. She acts as if she is untouchable and has no problem threatening the children of suspension and expellsion for any and everything. I know that there are very few, if any, children and parents that have encountered her likes her at all due to her superior and holier than thou attitude. She abuses her position and the other vice principals and some staff members take on that same persona. I have even contacted the Board to no avail. There is always strength in numbers. WE ALL NEED TO COME TOGETHER, ESPECIALLY THE PARENTS WHOM HAVE CHILDREN THAT STILL HAVE TO ATTEND BB HARRIS, AND FILE A COMPLAINT WITH THE BOARD COLLECTIVELY. IF NO RESULTS THEN WE NEED TO TAKE THE COURSE OF ACTION TO FILE A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT AGAINST THE BOARD, BB HARRIS AND DR. BURTON TO HAVE HER REMOVED AND THE BOARD AND SCHOOL SANCTIONED, ETC. PLEASE TAKE THIS SERIOUS. FOR ALL OF THE PARENTS WHOM HAVE EXPERIENCED DR. BURTON'S HORRIBLE PRACTICES THAT WOULD SURELY BE CONSIDERED CRIMINAL AND NOT TOLERATED IN OTHER STATES, AND FOR THE PARENTS WHOM WILL BE SENDING THEIR KIDS TO BB HARRIS TO HAVE TO DEAL WITH DR. BURTON AND ALL OF HER FUTURE THREATS AND MISCOUNDUCT TOWARDS YOUR CHILDREN, PLEASE DON'T WAIT UNTIL THEY ARE ABUSED BY HER. DOCUMENT ALL & ANY INCIDENTS YOU WILL DEFINITELY GO THROUGH AND JOIN IN TO THE CAUSE.
It is now June 2015 and Dr. Burton is still the principal. The school recently won an award as a high performing urban school. Do any of you still have children at this school? Have you changed your opinion of her?
It is now June 2015 and Dr. Burton is still the principal. The school recently won an award as a high performing urban school. Do any of you still have children at this school? Have you changed your opinion of her?
FINALLY after 8 years Laurie Burton is gone! She abused her powers as an administrator and Gwinnett County did nothing about it for years.
Hey, hey, hey...Goodbye! Laurie Burton!!!!!
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