This post is a little late, but comes as a result of the misconduct of the DOS and Management at Siam International School.
The DOS joined the school 6 weeks into the new term last year (05/06). Her main task would be to guide the school towards WASC accreditation (apparently she was a real whiz). From the beginning of the year, both new staff and old worked hard to set up a curriculum that would cater to all students and that focused on ESL support. The graded reading program was very popular with students and staff alike. When DOS finally arrived, she decided to pretty much cancel out everything the staff, parents and students had been developing over the past year. This was done without any dialogue with those it would affect the most. The school then waited patiently for our Director's vision for the future and for her to do what the job implies - direct the curriculum. It never happened. The owners of the school had to put the WASC application on hold for a year because of her negligence and sloth, this has put into doubt hopes for Grade 11 graduating next year.
However, when I said she had done nothing, that's not entirely true. In some areas she was a real workaholic. For example:
Harassment
DOS moved into a small community of teachers and from the first week began making uninvited visits on staff, in there own homes, at any hour of the night or day. In some cases she actually walked straight into people's homes without permission. Some members of staff also noted that, on nearly every occasion, DOS was intoxicated with alcohol.
When staff had the audacity to complain, DOS retaliated with random class inspections, letters of reprimand (all with errors in grammar - yeah, I know, I'm no Shakespeare myself) and generally inferred to the owners of the school that such people were bad teachers and probably unqualified. Yes, she has alleged on numerous occasions as to the authenticity of teacher credentials. Now if you contact any teacher who worked at the school they will happily supply you with their teacher license numbers from the home country along with contact numbers and whatnot. The truth is the school had a first class, dedicated and hard working faculty.
DOS generally rolled into her office about an hour after most teachers had started work.
Ignorance of Thai Culture
Obviously, when you are new to a culture as alien as Thailand, Thai people don't expect you to be perfect in your manners and conduct. What they do expect is that you at least pick up the basics of their customs. DOS did not bother and caused great offence to Thai and Foreign staff and to parents and students. This was most notable when she took down certain royal photographs and laid them face down on the corridor floor.
Unfair dismissals
If any member of staff disagreed with DOS, openly or in private, then there days at the school were numbered. We were lucky enough to have a teacher from the US who had been through the WASC accreditation process. In a meeting with the owners and staff, he had the courage to stand up and explain where, precisely, DOS was not doing her job. It was a long list - over 20 points. He was sacked a few weeks later. Our highly respected ESL teacher was fired because, according to DOS, he was unqualified, he was been replaced with someone who has exactly the same qualifications. He needed to be in the job one more month to be able to legally adopt his 12 year-old step-daughter. DOS knew this but sacked him anyway - at Xmas. He's 62.
Since DOS joined the school over 15 people left, either fired or so depressed they decided to move on. A further 12 teachers sadly informed the school that they would not be returning for 06/07 and cited DOS as there main reason for quitting.
Incompetence
To put it bluntly, she was thick (remember the typo interview?).
Case in point, recently we had a very serious incident where one student cut another with a knife. That same day, at a very emotive emergency faculty meeting, DOS exclaimed, "then he just went all loony!"
Please take a moment to let that sink in. How would you feel if you were the parent of the boy who had committed such a terrible act? I can not imagine the horror and shame they must have gone through.
How would you then feel when you found out your child was called a "loony" by the head teacher of the school?
Good God.
Hypocrisy
DOS, near the end of the year, informed our K3 teacher that he would not be welcome back next year (such a delightful turn of phrase the gal has, eh?). Poor guy has a wife and kids to think about so he finds another job in a Thai school and hands in his notice. So the owners think, "well, DOS has done nothing for her considerable salary since the day she started so maybe she can teach K3". The head of Kindergarten made repeated requests to her for lesson plans to cover the few remaining weeks of the year. Now having used LP's to beat the staff over the head, we all expected some pretty hot stuff from DOS. Sadly, nothing was forthcoming and, on her first day of work, DOS called the school to say she was in hospital (nobody is sure which one) and that she would be off for 2 weeks. What a coincidence.
All of this happened under the nose of the owners of the school and the thai school manager.
A lot of decent people left what could have been an excellent little school.
A lot of great kids are getting their education shafted because the management will make the same mistakes over and over.
Does this sound familiar?
Topic: Siam International School- opinions? (Read 4072 times)