Success Academy Charter Schools reviews

First off let me begin by saying go to survivors_of_successacademy on Instagram and read up about this place. Then you will believe every word I say. This place is a nightmare. It is poorly run by people who run this place akin to a headless chicken running around trying to gain its footing. This place is corrupt to the bone, and is run like a for profit. They don't really care about the kids as much as they say. For them the kids are just numbers to bolster their revenue from the DOE, so all the executives can get their ungodly salaries and bonuses. Google the CEOs salary and you'll see what I mean. It's even on the survivors page. Oh on that note, last school year almost NO ONE got a raise including cost of living raise. We were bonus eligible for the longest time, but in Jan they took that away, promising us an increase in salary late in the year. Want to take a guess whether we got that promised increase? Answer is NO--- BUT from what I heard all the executives still got their full salaries and BONUSES! That tells you something about how much they care about their employees and instead are just out to line their own pockets at the expense of their employees and the kids. They had MASSIVE layoffs and furloughs this year, and put hundreds of people at the schools and at the network out of jobs, in this pandemic. Imagine the cruelty and heartlessness that goes into that. They had a similar layoff last year too! I was a victim of this furlough and trust me it sucks.

-Leadership. Leadership at my school was not the best. Their feedback focuses on what you do wrong much more than what you do right. I felt I received more constructive feedback about how to grow as an employee at the retail job I worked back in high school. One time I was accused of "playing on the computer" while I conferenced with students about a project. When I politely explained why I was using technology at that moment, I got called unprofessional for pushing back. Meanwhile leadership pats themselves on the back constantly. -Unrealistic expectations. Leadership seems very happy to blame the teachers for anything that isn't up to par. My school had an attendance rate of 98.5%, and leadership basically told us we were lazy and that we needed to exert more pressure on parents to make sure their kids are in school. Now I'm sure some schools have kids who constantly skip for no reason or parents who don't give a damn, but my school was not like that. If I contact a parent and they say their child has the flu, is attending a family member's funeral, or other completely legitimate excuses I received for absences, I will not be pushing them or making them feel bad about their child being absent. -Similarly, the behavior management feels too rigid and uncompromising. My direct leader was consistently on us about having 100% of attention, perfect posture, tracking eyes, hands still, etc. Now I'm a grown adult, and I'll still see coworkers at meetings (including meetings at Success!) tapping their foot, having eyes wandering around the room, and not sitting at rapt attention every second someone is speaking. If this is how people in from their 20's to their 50's act, why are we expecting children whose ages are in the single digits to be perfectly attentive at all moments? If a child is genuinely engaged with the material, working hard and staying focused, and demonstrating how much they learned, I feel it's absurd to give them detention because they got corrections for slouching or holding a pencil when they weren't supposed to be. -CEO seems to think she's the best thing to happen to education, and if you don't espouse these views, forget about moving up in the company. She had video conferences in which she suggested people write-in questions or comments for her to address. Anybody whose comment was not praise and adulation got brushed off. Would it be so wrong to say "Hhm you know, maybe we should focus more on socio-emotional development; you've given me some interesting ideas to think about," instead of giving a 5 minute blow off about why the curriculum and everything about the schools is great as is?