Why would one of Tacoma’s largest elementary schools lose its vice principal to cuts?
An admired vice principal whose role will be eliminated next year as part of cutbacks at Tacoma Public Schools, upsetting many parents and staff, works at one of the district’s most-populated elementary schools, state data shows.
When the district made the decision to cut five assistant principal jobs for the upcoming school year, including Birney Elementary vice principal Britni Proudman’s, it cited overstaffing due to years of declining enrollment. The question then became: If motivated by student population, why pick Birney?
Enrollment near the beginning of the school year at Birney in Tacoma’s South End was 484 students, according to data maintained by the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Only two of TPS’ 36 elementary schools had more.
While student population prompted eliminating five administrator roles from the district’s system, amid deeper budget concerns facing TPS than last year, enrollment didn’t factor into how officials decided to carry out those cuts, district spokesperson Tanisha Jumper told The News Tribune.
The five assistant principals whose jobs were eliminated were chosen not based on the schools they were assigned to but, rather, through individual evaluations using Association of Washington School Principals criteria, according to Jumper. Birney will still have an assistant principal next year — to be selected from the pool of remaining district assistant principals — if enrollment and other factors show it to be justifiable, she previously said.
“The fact that families love (Proudman) is a beautiful thing,” Jumper said. “Just know there is a process, just like in every job.”
The news that an evaluation decided Proudman’s forthcoming departure only further frustrated parents at Birney, who last week spoke glowingly about her performance in front of the school board as they pleaded to keep her.
“If they’re basing a decision off of check marks, checking boxes, I don’t think that’s enough,” Emily Hasenleder, mother of a fourth-grader and kindergartner, said in an interview Wednesday. “As a parent, I fully support her being at our school, and I do not want to see her leave.”
Regina Lewis, who has three foster children with severe behavioral issues attending the school, told The News Tribune that she was “flabbergasted” that performance could be a factor in letting Proudman go.
“They think that she’s just (a) replaceable vice principal and that’s it, and she’s not,” Lewis said.
Reached by phone, Proudman said she loves Tacoma and would be “unbelievably ecstatic to stay in the community.” She also said she believed that the district was doing “great things” and called it “validating” that so many have rallied for her to stay.
“Obviously, it’s great to feel that what we’re doing here is making an impact on our students’ lives and the community,” she said.
Her future, however, is to be determined. Affected assistant principals, including four from Hilltop Heritage Middle School and Edna Travis, Lister and Stafford elementary schools, were offered certificated teaching positions. Proudman said she is seeking to continue serving in an administrative role.
Families, staff rally against decision
District officials reviewed job performance, leadership capability and where assistant principals were in their contract to make difficult decisions about which assistant principals to cut and offer reassignment, Jumper said.
“It doesn’t mean that she ever had a bad evaluation,” Jumper added, noting that she wasn’t privy to that information. “I know there were several things that were looked at.”
Proudman, who has been at the high-need school for three years, has been lauded by parents and staff for being engaging, proactively implementing successful programs and building a rapport with students and families, including members of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community.
A change.org petition to retain Proudman had garnered more than 230 signatures as of Wednesday; 26 Birney staff members recently wrote the school board to request cuts be delayed for public feedback and consideration of their impact; and nearly a dozen parents and one teacher last week urged the board to act to keep Proudman.
Families also expressed frustration that they found out about Proudman’s impending departure by word of mouth. Jumper said last week that assistant principal assignments and changes were not typically shared broadly with parents.
LaNiqua Bell, a foster parent of a second-grade boy at Birney, said in an interview that the district wasn’t taking into account the desires of students and families or how hard it was to build trust between the school and its significant low socioeconomic and non-English-first speaking community. Instead of trying to fit Proudman into a box, Bell said, the district should simply respond to what families are saying they need.
“What they are not listening to is the harm or the damage that it’s going to cause,” she said.
Acknowledging the support Proudman has received, Jumper said that “climate and culture is just one piece to a much broader puzzle.”
“Schools are so personal to the people that go to them and we recognize that,” she said. “But we’re also a district and we have to look at the larger, systemic things,” which she added included having the right people in the right places at the right time.
