Post-Pandemic Woes Grind Common Ground

Students, staff, and parents at Common Ground High School say the school is going downhill because of high teacher turnover and distrust for administration. The environmental-themed charter school’s board and leaders say they are working to get to the bottom of these concerns. 

Out of about 50 staffers total at Common Ground, more than two thirds have voluntarily or involuntarily departed in the last two years, according to former art teacher Nicole Mackin, among those who left. 

School Director Cherry Pacquette-Emmanuel confirmed these departure numbers for the Independent, stating that these departures occurred between 2021 and 2023. 

“A small number departed during the school year; most left over the summer in 2022 and 2023,” she said. ​“Since September 2021, four staff members have been terminated or not had their contracts renewed. Three retired; the rest chose to leave Common Ground.”

In an Aug. 24, 2023 letter of resignation, Mackin said, ​“I would love to work at Common Ground under different circumstances, leadership, community, safety and support.”

“Unhappy staff, students, and parents can’t just keep getting swept under the rug,” added former employee Rikki Brown, who said she reluctantly resigned as a math teacher last school year.

Current students and staff, parents, and former staffers shared their concerns about the West Rock-based school with this reporter in a series of recent interviews.

School community members from the past and present have issued public and private pleas over the last year for a more transparent and accountable administration. In response, the school’s board of directors hosted focus groups with staff to hear concerns and feedback. 

Click here to read one letter written to school leaders. 

The board’s school committee met with a total of 25 staff members for the focus groups over two weeks in November. Each session lasted 40 – 60 minutes

Pacquette-Emmanuel said those who spearheaded the focus groups ​“asked questions with an emphasis on concerns about communication and systems as well as feelings of mistrust of, and/or not being valued by, leadership.” She said the school is looking to work with staff on solutions.

So far the gathering of staff input has led to the school hiring a director of diversity, equity and inclusion, and a lead teacher of curriculum development and instruction. Both positions have been filled by long-term staffers. 

Pacquette-Emmanuel and Assistant School Director Shanequa Sturgis-Nash started at Common Ground three years ago. 

Pacquette-Emmanuel told the Independent that upon her arrival, the school was facing staff shortages and high turnover rates as a result of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. She said that since her start, she has been deliberate about re-stabilizing the school community.

“Staff satisfaction, effectiveness and retention are a shared priority of our board, leadership and staff. We are proud of the strong, diverse team we’ve built for the 2023 – 24 school year (we are at 47% teachers of color compared to 11% statewide), and are committed to working hand in hand with them to make sure they have the support and resources to give our students the education they need,” she wrote in an email message.

The new director of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) position has been filled by Candi Fulcher, who previously served as the manager of environmental leadership & portfolios and has worked at the school since 2018. 

Fulcher will be charged with being a listening ear and liaison between students, staff, and administration when it comes to concerns related to diversity, equity, and inclusion and helping administration check in with staff and students morale. 

The role as DEI specialist was paid through a stipend. As staff and student concerns continued it was made into a full-time position within administration. Pacquette-Emmanuel said the DEI role was created this year due to students expressing concerns about racism in the classroom. 

Fulcher said since the start of year she has been hosting one-on-one check-ins with staff to identify where support is needed, address concerns as they come up, and mediate conflicts.

This school year staff have been offered trainings and professional development in leadership and equity, classroom practices for improving student learning and behavior, creating welcoming classrooms, deescalation, and gender and sexuality.

Ex-Staffers Speak Out

Former math teacher Rikki Brown resigned from her job in July 2023 after dealing firsthand with what she described as retaliatory behavior from the administration. 

“The culture of the school now is based in fear and heavy paranoia,” Brown said.

Brown began working at Common Ground in 2021, the same time the new school leadership arrived.

During Brown’s first year, about 20 educators left the school. During her second year she and three other educators (Win Vitkowsky, Allison Hornak, and Leonardo Cisija) were each sent email notices informing them that their teaching positions would not be renewed. Students protested this news for several days. Ultimately all of the staffers’ positions were renewed the next year except Vitkowsky’s. 

Vitkowsky later went on to take the wrongful termination to the National Labor Relations Board, which led to a $10,000 settlement from the school.

Brown added that it was no secret amongst staff that those who received these letters were vocal supporters of the formation of a teachers union in November 2021.

“Doing things that push people out when there’s teacher shortage just doesn’t make sense at all,” Brown said. 

In Brown’s final year, after her position was renewed, an administrative complaint was written by Sturgis-Nash and put on her file. 

According to Brown the complaint letter alleged that while in a school hallway Brown approached Sturgis-Nash’s son, who does not attend the school, and said disrespectful things about Sturgis-Nash. The hallway cameras from that day, Brown said, proved she never had an interaction with Sturgis-Nash’s son while he was on the campus. 

After stating the complaint was false, she received an email from administrators telling her there was a misunderstanding. But no further discipline for the false complaint was taken, she said. As a result she ultimately decided to resign last summer. ​“When I got that, I was like, ​‘I cant stay here.’ I felt targeted and disgusted,” Brown said. 

She said she believes the ​“misunderstanding” occurred out of retaliation for her union support and acting as a union steward on campus.

“If admin was better it could have been a forever school for me,” she said. ​“Dr. Nash caused people to walk on eggshells.”

Pacquette-Emmanuel did not allow Sturgis-Nash to be available for comment and chose to respond instead. 

To address such staff concerns, Pacquette-Emmanuel said the school has restructured its ​“staff-only days” to more intentionally allow new and veteran staff to bond. 

These ​“staff-only days” have a focus on ​“getting out of the grind and spending time together,” Pacquette-Emmanuel said. 

This so far has meant cooking classes together, surprise field trips to Yale’s art museum, and the creation of a ​“sunshine committee” dedicated to highlighting staff accomplishments, birthdays, and recognition on a daily basis. This committee was suggested by a staffer. 

When Pacquette-Emmanuel first arrived at Common Ground, she said, its school culture team was made up of just two people. It has grown to five members who are dedicated to building relationships with students and staff and building systems to make everyone feel supported. The culture team suggested this year the school aim to do a culture reset. 

As a result of this suggestion, Pacquette-Emmanuel said leaders have introduced a series called ​“Culture Resets” for staff, students, and families to meet and get reminders of the school’s behavioral expectations.

Pacquette-Emmanuel said staff pushed for wellness and a culture reset to be the priorities for the remainder of the school year and so her team has been working to address those priorities. This winter break Pacquette-Emmanuel’s team decided to turn the staff lounge into a wellness space after concerns about burnout were shared with her. 

Former Student Support Manager Victor Rios was fired this school year, on Oct 17. He declined to share the details of his termination because, he said, he plans to bring a case to the NLRB.

Rios, who worked at Common Ground for seven and a half years, said he was constantly hearing from students about being unhappy with the current administration. 

“Before the new admin, it was my dream job,” Rios said. 

After several student protests were held in 2022 as a result of teacher departures, Brown said, administrators weren’t held accountable and instead staff were given four percent raises. 

“The nepotism and favoritism in place is rampant,” Rios said. ​“We couldn’t rely on board. And you can’t give nepotism training.” 

A current Common Ground staffer who asked to remain anonymous said they participated in one of three focus groups organized by the school board to collect staff feedback and concerns about the school. 

During their session the staff member said they had a positive experience and felt comfortable enough to express concerns to the board members hosting the sessions because they are former employees of Common Ground. 

The sessions were run by board members Liz Cox, who is a former principal; Brian Kelahan, a former guidance counselor and teacher; and Monique Frasier, a former assistant principal. 

“If it had been somebody else they might not have been as comfortable,” the staffer said, ​“because there’s been a pattern of teachers getting retaliated against if you say something or don’t agree with administration.” 

Since the November focus groups, staff have been updated that their input was shared with the school board and will next be used to form a school improvement plan. 

Because of concerns not being addressed in the past, the staffer said, ​“it’s hard to believe after we complain and say these things that admin will change.” 

The staffer added that the administration’s biggest mistake was making so many changes upon first arrival to Common Ground before learning about how school works. ​“It was overwhelming for everyone,” they said. 

Additionally the staffer recalled when they started the job they were told they would not have to create lessons plans but once starting the job this was not the case. ​“If they said ​‘yes’ during my interview, I would have reconsidered,” the staffer said.

The staffer concluded that the leadership is overwhelmed and could use more administrators to delegate tasks and make more meaningful decisions. 

Students Speak Out

One Common Ground senior, who asked to be identified as JC, said she has lost motivation to learn math because of the school’s staff turnover. Since the start of the school year her pre-calculus teacher has been switched out three times. And her class work rarely gets graded because the class has a backlog of ungraded work.

Current junior Kiana Camacho said staffing changes are impacting her comfort at the school and overall learning. She said about five of her seven teachers are new this year and don’t seem invested in the students or the job. 

She said she witnessed an educator refer to a student as a ​“thug” who ​“won’t make it far past high school.” She said her complaints about racism have gone unaddressed. 

Fulcher said Monday she hadn’t heard of any complaints raised by Camacho regarding this specific incident but hopes in her new role to ​“address these things as they come up if they’re shared with us so we can reach out to the student and staff member and do our best to address it.” 

Earlier in the school year, JC said, she received two detentions from Sturgis-Nash, which caused her to miss a week of her after school academic programming. JC said this was a result of Sturgis-Nash listening in on a conversation JC and her friends were having and deeming it inappropriate. JC didn’t disagree but was concerned that she, as a trans student of color, was the only student punished in the group.

“It felt like transphobia,” JC said. 

“After that whenever I see Dr. Nash, my brain turns off, because I don’t feel acknowledged or like I can speak,” she said. ​“I want the school to actually punish this discrimination rather than just looking down on it.”

Jasmine Armijos, mother of Camacho and a Common Ground senior, has been working with the school for several years. Her older daughter transferred to Common Ground this school year from Wilbur Cross.

​“This year has been the worst,” Armijos said. 

Armijos said she has worried about Camacho struggling to finding a trusted staffer to go to after the firing of Victor Rios. 

When Rios was at the school, Armijos said, he ​“made me know my daughter safe in school.”

After a hard transition from middle to high school, Armijos said, Rios was the main staffer who helped Camacho work through anxiety, panic attacks, and her bipolar disorder. When it came time to take her medication, Rios did daily check-ins on her. 

Camacho said that now that Rios is gone, when it comes to taking her medication in school, ​“Nash announces it to the entire school which is so so embarrassing.”

“Now I don’t really have anyone to go to,” Camacho said, because high demand often leaves social workers unavailable.

Earlier in the year Camacho was suspended for being involved in an argument with another student, who is the child of a school staffer. After the incident only Camacho was suspended for what was initially decided as three days, she said. On her final day of suspension, her mom received a call from the school stating they were adding an additional two days to her suspension for a recent Instagram post regarding the argument that the school alleges Camacho made. 

Camacho denied making the post. Armijos said her daughter does not own a cellphone or Instagram of her own.

“All the teachers that they fired, they were good teachers who made the kids who they are,” Armijos said.

This year Armijos has made several visits to the school for issues related to her daughters, like a required health class credit not being counted and her daughter not having a grade for a class due to not having a permanent teacher.

“That school is going down real quickly,” Camacho said. ​“It feels like a huge weight has been put on me.” 

Camacho added that five out of her seven classes are led by new teachers who she said don’t come prepared to teach due to being uncertified. 

“Every day I regret choosing that school,” Camacho said.

Pacquette-Emmanuel was asked for comment about these and other specific student and staff incidents.

“I cannot comment on specific staff or student incidents but I can say that staff member complaints are investigated and addressed directly with the people involved,” she responded.

“Student disciplinary issues are also investigated and consequences or restorative actions assigned in alignment with our student policies. We make every effort to ensure processes are implemented equitably and it is our goal that students and staff at all levels and in any role, feel respected and valued.”

Pacquette-Emmanuel said the school is focused on doubling down on being there for students through guidance counselor supports, social workers, and gathering student input from student council.

Pacquette-Emmanuel said some reasons for departure cited in staff exit surveys included student culture, burnout, and a need to improve communication.

School Leader Speaks

Pacquette-Emmanuel said her first year was tough because of the Covid pandemic. Rather than being afforded to time to observe, she had to act.

Student mental health is also a major concern for Pacquette-Emmanuel. Within two weeks this school year, her team had to call emergency services four times. One day included three separate calls for three different student struggles. 

The school currently has three social workers for its total of about 225 students.

Students have told her they want more hands-on instruction in classes, which will encourage them to get off their phones, Pacquette-Emmanuel said.

She said the school has filled about five vacancies in art, English language arts, health, science, and math that were open at the start of the year. As of this past Wednesday, it has one open administrative assistant position. 

Pacquette-Emmanuel said she has heard concerns about staff fears of retaliation and is working to help them feel more heard and supported through roles like the DEI director. One goal is to improve the feeling of team spirit amongst the staff.

When asked if she and the assistant school director would benefit from more administrative leaders, Pacquette-Emmanuel said the hiring of the DEI director and an incoming lead teacher of curriculum and instruction will help. When Pacquette-Emmanuel first arrived, the school had a director of culture and climate and a director of academics and instructions; those positions have since been eliminated.

The school community will gather on Jan. 30 for a public hearing for Common Ground’s charter renewal in-person at the school’s campus at 6pm. Click here to learn more about how to provide testimony.