Pros
The team of teachers here, up until the 2018-2019 school year, has been phenomenal. However, the greater majority of them are about to leave.
Cons
In my opinion, the administration that has taken over in the 2018-2019 school year at KLS has created an extremely toxic and stressful work environment, to the point where it is physically, emotionally, and mentally unhealthy to be a teacher at this school. As far as I am aware, none of the administrators at the school have any extensive or meaningful teaching experience, nor am I aware of any of them having demonstrated proficiency as educators. This lack of experience and skill in teaching seems to trickle down and have an egregiously adverse effect on their every day decisions. The teaching staff at KLS this year and in the past has been a phenomenal group of capable, passionate, and hard working teachers that have worked to find solutions to some of the most challenging problems in education. This year's admin does not seem to have any nuanced understanding of their teachers, or even what strong teaching and learning look like. Additionally, admin seems to completely lack interpersonal skills, managerial skills, organizational skills, and general knowledge of what it takes to run a school, let alone interact with students and children. Teacher turnover is consistent here, and not due in any part to teacher incompetency or teachers not being on board with the mission and vision of the school - quite the opposite. Teachers seem to consistently be bullied out of their roles. It also seems that very frequently teachers that are forced to leave midway through the year are replaced by free interns who are well-meaning, smart, and hard working, but are young and impressionable and replaceable, and, thus, easy to ply into admin's bidding. In fact, it seems like the unpaid interns who are being taken advantage of are treated with more professional respect than experienced teachers themselves. Working here has felt like working in an autocratically controlled organization with ulterior motives that are unclear - an autocracy that suffers from severe communication issues, top-down decisions that are rooted in nonsense and end up adversely affecting students, and an autocracy that is making purposeful and measured moves toward squashing teachers who try to stand up for what is right. In the environment that has been created, it feels like teachers who stand up and speak out will be retaliated against or let go. There will be massive amounts of teacher turnover at the end of this school year due to these factors and more, and I personally don't see how an admin that has no teaching experience will be able to hire a strong staff and build good culture and practices moving forward. The environment has been so toxic for teachers that multiple individuals have had to seek outside counseling from various sources to deal with the stress and what feels like bullying coming from the administration. In my opinion, if you are a current or prospective parent, I would find a new option for your child. It hurts me to say I cannot ethically recommend this school for anyone moving forward. In my opinion, if you are a prospective employee, I would also stay far away. It may seem like the branding and name that go along with the school are solid, but once the new admin took power this year, it began to feel like all of the marketing and PR the school does is a complete sham.
