1. August 19, 2015
Emily,
The purpose of this letter is to review the matters that we, Nikki and Julie, have addressed with you
during our conversations on August 4th, August 5th, August 7th, August 14th and August 18th regarding
your role and responsibilities as the Principal of Leadership Prep Canarsie.
As it is expected of any school leader at Uncommon, it is important to uphold Uncommon’s core
values and principles by supporting one’s colleagues in teaching and executing Uncommon aligned
practices, systems and routines. You and Nikki have now had a few discussions about episodes
during which you did not exemplify some of these values and in doing so undermined some of your
partners’ and colleagues’ work to advance Uncommon’s core values, principles and mission.
1) On Tuesday, August 4, you showed a lack of engagement and changed common practices for
teachers during PD sessions. These sessions were being led by other Uncommon New York
City elementary principals. When Nikki discussed the above incidents with you, you did not
demonstrate remorse but instead suggested that your lack of engagement stemmed from
not being invested in the facilitators ability to lead sessions. You also shared that you needed
to figure out whether or not you agreed with the Uncommon principles and values that have
been part of our work together for several years. You drew a diagram to show that schools
should select what they want to take or not take from Uncommon’s core training and
approaches to running schools.
2) On Wednesday, August 5, after one of your colleagues shared a concern about how one of
your teachers responded to feedback and Nikki shared feedback on how to push teachers to
practice small, concrete action steps during practice sessions, you stated that your job is find
a “third way” to doing things.
3) On Friday, August 7, you gave 9 out of 12 new-to-Uncommon teachers permission to take a
day off from STEP professional development sessions. Their participation in these sessions
was mandatory, yet you made this decision without consulting the Uncommon New York City
AMD.
4) On Friday, August 14, you were observed leading a session that did not uphold Uncommon’s
core beliefs on and expectations for the first days of school, systems and routines, and the
value of leader feedback.
2. In light of these events, we’d like to highlight several key values and principles that are expected of
all of our Uncommon school leaders, and that as a school principal, we expect to see you (and know
you can) model in the coming weeks and school year.
1) Alignment with Uncommon School’s mission, vision and values by upholding our core beliefs
around structure, rigor, and joy.
2) Consistent support and respect for your fellow principals and peers at Uncommon by showing
engagement and participation in all Uncommon PD activities, valuing the contributions of
your colleagues and engaging in respectful discussions about one another’s work. If you
have feedback or suggestions for the Uncommon New York City elementary team, these
must be shared and discussed in a collegial and respectful manner with AMDs and/or other
elementary principals one-on-one.
3) Ensure and reinforce the attendance and participation requirements of your teachers/IL/DCI
at all Uncommon School PD sessions.
4) Communicate with your AMD when you would like to propose a change or revision to
network-wide decisions.
Emily, we need you to understand that the foregoing expectations are essential functions of your job
as an Uncommon Schools Principal. It is not acceptable for you to decide which parts of the
Uncommon Schools structures for educating our students and developing and supporting our
educators that you would like to adopt and which ones you would like to discard. During our meeting
today to discuss the foregoing performance issues and our concerns about them, you also raised
separate concerns that you have been experiencing feelings of stress, anxiety and fear. You
suggested that you “need a new manager”. While we are absolutely open to exploring with you ways
that we might accommodate you in connection with the stress and anxiety you are experiencing, as
you may know, a reasonable accommodation must be designed to enable you to perform the
essential functions of your job. Providing you a new manager is not a reasonable accommodation,
however, and is not an option that we can entertain. If you are interested in exploring possible
reasonable accommodations, it is important that you reach out to Miriam Cohen, Uncommon’s
Director of Human Resources, at mcohen@uncommonschools.org or 202.641.4666.
If you have additional questions and concerns regarding your job duties and expectations, please let
us know so that we can continue to work with you to help identify where we can help you align on
these important expectations.
Sincerely,
Nikki and Julie
