Faculty Fallout: Teachers Leaving Too Soon 

Over the past few years, a surprising number of teachers and faculty at the School have left the community before their contracts have ended. 

These departures have occurred for different reasons such as controversy over classroom commentary from former teacher Dr. Bradley’s case, or claims of lack of assistance to students in Jacqueline Spivey’s case. 

It might even be as simple as retirement after a lengthy career, for instance Owen Von Kugelgen and Chris Harper. When asked about teachers leaving the school, Head of Upper School, Ricky Lapidus, shared, “I’m always sad when a teacher decides not to return, but especially so if it’s in the middle of a year. I trust that people don’t do that without important reasons for them.” 

When asked about what process goes into a teacher leaving the School before their contract ends, Lapidus mentioned, “It’s very dependent on the situation. However, employees have the right to give notice at Head-Royce like at any company.” As to how long a teacher usually stays at the School, Lapidus mentions that it is a wide range: “We had one person leave after one year, and then Dr. Enelow is on year 46, I believe, so obviously it varies widely ” 

I was able to get in touch with the teacher that was mentioned in Lapidus’ statement who only stayed for one year, Jason Seals, who was known around the School as Brother Jason. 

When asked about his experience at the school, Seals said: “Being the only man of African ancestry and one of few people of African ancestry [at the School] I definitely found myself in situations where I was acutely conscious of being different from those around me. Sometimes this reality created a sense of otherness or isolation, as my experiences and perspectives was not aligned with the predominantly white culture of the school— awareness was emotionally and mentally taxing ” 

When comparing his teaching experiences at other institutions, Seals mentioned how diverse other schools were, and how there were others around campus that look like him and come from the same cultural background.

To some, it is believed that the School has not quite solved its diversity inclusion problems and that there is more work to be done to make our community home to many for the long run. It seems as though the School is in need of improvement when it comes to making people in the community feel welcome. When asked if there are areas of improvement to make people feel more welcome, Courtney Duke, Assistant Head of School, mentioned: “I think for all schools that’s the case… hearing from our teachers about their experiences is important and if they felt welcome, I think that’s something that we would want to find out about and what we could do better.”