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October 11, 2021

‘This Drop Came So Quickly’: Shrinking Schools Add to Hong Kong Exodus

HONG KONG — Extended just before the school calendar year commenced, Chim Hon Ming, a key university principal in Hong Kong, understood this year’s college student human body would be smaller sized. The city’s birthrate had previously been slipping, and households were increasingly frustrated by Hong Kong’s stringent pandemic restrictions and the political turmoil.

Even he was not prepared for the extent of the exodus. When college started off past thirty day period in his district of western Hong Kong Island, the first-quality classes were being about 10 percent smaller than the earlier year’s — a decrease of a lot more than 100 learners.

“This fall came so immediately,” Mr. Chim explained.

As Hong Kong has been battered by two years of upheaval, among the pandemic and a sweeping political crackdown from Beijing, several of the consequences have been quickly noticeable. Firms have shuttered, politicians have been arrested, tourists have disappeared. A single main change is just coming into emphasis: some residents’ perseverance that the town is no longer where by they want to increase their young children.

Last yr, Hong Kong expert a populace fall of 1.2 {e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}, its major given that the federal government began maintaining documents in the 1960s. From July 2020, when China imposed a nationwide stability regulation, via the pursuing July, far more than 89,000 men and women still left the city of 7.5 million, according to provisional governing administration data.

The variety is very likely to expand. Each situations the authorities up to date its provisional information for the previous two many years, the range of departing people more than doubled.

Officers have not explained how numerous of those departures have been college students. But they have offered at minimum a person metric: Hong Kong’s primary colleges will have 64 less initially-grade classes this calendar year than previous, in accordance to stats introduced by the Training Bureau late previous month soon after an yearly pupil head rely.

The figures feel to confirm a craze that educators have warned about for months. A study in May perhaps by the city’s biggest teachers’ union found that 30 p.c of main schools polled had viewed extra than 20 learners withdraw. (The union, which was pro-democracy, not long ago disbanded under government stress.) One more study in March by a pro-Beijing union located that 90 per cent of kindergartens had shed college students, with much more than half of principals citing overseas moves as a reason.

Directors say the rate has accelerated considering that then, with some getting rid of as much as 15 p.c of their pupils just after a summertime of emigration. When several of the initially-quality course cuts have been prepared in the spring, the bureau purchased that 15 additional be trimmed just after the September head rely.

“They like their young children to have a lot more freedom of speech and to have a lot more balanced education,” John Hu, an immigration marketing consultant, claimed of parents. Mr. Hu reported his small business surged soon after the security regulation was enacted, and households with little ones designed up about 70 percent of customers.

The exodus of citizens has slice throughout culture. Hong Kong now confronted a medical professional shortage, and in the 12 months finished in August, 4.9 p.c of community healthcare facility physicians and 6.7 percent of nurses experienced stop, a lot of to emigrate, in accordance to the medical center authority’s chairman. People leaving Hong Kong withdrew $270 million from the city’s required retirement system between April and June, the premier amount in at least seven years, govt stats demonstrate.

The schooling sphere is each a sufferer and a driver of the departures.

Starting this academic 12 months, officers have pledged to instill obedience as a result of mainland-China-fashion “patriotic education.” Topics as assorted as geography and biology should include content on countrywide stability. Kindergartners will learn the offenses under the stability legislation. Instructors accused of sharing subversive ideas can be fired.

Anne Sze, a educating assistant at a university, learned about all those variations in March, throughout a personnel conference. The principal explained how all topics going ahead would consist of lessons on loving China, Ms. Sze, 46, reported.

Until then, Ms. Sze, who had developed disillusioned with the political atmosphere in Hong Kong, experienced taken preliminary measures toward emigration but had no concrete plans. But just after that conference, she imagined her possess sons, 8 and 11, likely as a result of related “brainwashing,” as she identified as it.

She and her spouse hurriedly applied for distinctive visas that Britain is providing to Hong Kongers in response to the security law. In August, they still left.

“If I did not have young children, I might not see the urgency,” she reported. But “the education process is not the similar as right before. That’s the primary cause I have to go.”

Govt officers have brushed off worries about a general exodus, noting that Hong Kong has constantly been an intercontinental town with a transient inhabitants. But even they have acknowledged the blow to educational institutions. Kevin Yeung, the city’s instruction secretary, claimed very last thirty day period that it was a “fact” that “there are quite a few persons picking to go away Hong Kong.”

The adjustments have maybe been most noticeable at Hong Kong’s most-prestigious educational institutions, as households with the usually means to leave have rushed to do so.

In the previous, a very good aspect of Julianna Yau’s job concerned needling admissions offices at Hong Kong’s elite worldwide universities. Ms. Yau, the founder of Ampla Education, an admissions consultancy, would inquire if they experienced any open places, or about the duration of the waiting record.

A short while ago, the inquiries have flowed in the other direction. Did she have any purchasers fascinated in making use of?

“It’s quite different now,” Ms. Yau claimed. “There has been a wave of college students going to the U.K. in the previous year.”

That wave has also dented the market place for debentures, payments that parents can make to intercontinental faculties to gain priority in the cutthroat admissions method. Some faculties restrict the range of debentures they give, creating a secondary marketplace with in some cases astronomical values.

They are nevertheless astronomical — but a very little less so. Debentures for one perfectly-acknowledged faculty, Victoria Shanghai Academy, fetched about $640,000 for every student in 2019, according to KC Consultants Limited, a business that trades secondhand debentures. Now, they are accessible for about $510,000 just about every.

The exodus is not confined to high priced global educational institutions. Previous thirty day period, the pro-Beijing teachers’ union, which represents numerous educators at local schools, petitioned the government to freeze trainer using the services of. It cited “the instruction sector’s panic” about the “severe crisis of class reductions.”

Mr. Hu, the immigration consultant, reported the new particular visa route to Britain could be drawing households who generally could not manage to shift overseas. Historically, quite a few Hong Kongers have utilized investment decision visas, which can demand millions of pounds in belongings, he reported. The new route needs only that arrivals be equipped to assist themselves for six months.

“I believe this concern is typical for dad and mom: If they have the economical capability to move overseas, I believe they would,” Mr. Hu explained.

Hong Kong also observed a surge of departures in the years prior to 1997, when Britain returned manage of the territory to China.

But lots of of these migrants had been affluent people who secured overseas passports as “insurance” towards Communist rule when even now touring generally to Hong Kong. Several at some point returned complete time.

The new immigration pathways have much more-stringent residency necessities, producing it a lot more probable that the recent departures will be permanent, Mr. Hu mentioned.

Faculty directors have been still left scrambling to recruit learners from other schools in the town. Dion Chen, the principal of a secondary faculty that shed about 50 out of 1,000 learners above the earlier 12 months, said he experienced loaded about half all those vacancies.

He has also targeted on the much less tangible function of supporting the learners who continue to be. His college has introduced extra check-ins with students and provided out little back again-to-school presents, partly simply because administrators concerned about the psychological toll on individuals whose pals had still left.

Mr. Chen pointed out that far more departures had been possible to appear, primarily when the pandemic subsided and travel limitations eased.

“I do not believe it’s the bottom of the valley yet,” he said.

Pleasure Dong contributed reporting

October 7, 2021

Thief River Falls Public Schools offers online learning option

This 12 months, Thief River Falls Community Faculties is providing students a entirely on the internet choice, known as NW On-line Finding out Academy. The method is available for learners in kindergarten by eighth grade at Thief River Falls Public Educational facilities and surrounding university districts.

“It’s typically COVID-related, so we have overall flexibility with our households who are nervous about coming into the university, which is why we labored genuinely difficult to make this transpire in a extremely short interval of time,” claimed Stepan.

The on the web studying academy has 32 learners, with 4 from exterior of the district.

According to Stepan, supplying on the web mastering solutions is also component of the district’s strategic plan to superior personalize mastering experiences to pupil needs although enabling them to keep in the university district.

“As we think about all of the solutions that little ones have these days to discover a school – there is homeschooling, charter faculties, online schools, personal educational facilities, Catholic educational institutions, just an array of solutions for children to check out diverse points – we want to make confident that kids can keep section of Thief River Falls Community Colleges,” explained Stepan. “Offering this on the net discovering academy will be an option for our households to remain listed here in Thief River Falls.”

Thief River Falls General public Educational institutions is giving the application underneath a provisional license by means of the Minnesota Section of Instruction for this college year to deliver an on line alternative throughout the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but Stepan hopes to be absolutely licensed to present on the web understanding as an possibility in the future.

The programs for elementary college learners and middle college college students are furnished as a result of EdOptions Academy, but the unique ages have different plans for discovering. For kindergarten through fifth grade, the on the internet plan offers project-dependent discovering via Edmentum’s Calvert Learning. Elementary students have one trainer who qualified prospects them by way of assignments to arrive at mastering targets.

For learners in grades 6 via 8, on-line studying is via Edmentum’s Courseware application, and is structured a lot more like in-man or woman faculty. Students have four main courses and two elective courses they get to opt for. Just about every subject has a specialised trainer.

The teachers for NW On the net Learning Academy are employed by Edmentum, but learners regularly satisfy with Thief River Falls General public Colleges workers associates who provide as their “success mentor.” Accomplishment coaches are a bridge between pupils and the remote teachers, and maintain standard check-ins with learners and their people to make sure they are on track and supply any added help a pupil requires.

For all on line learners, understanding is mostly asynchronous, enabling college students to work at their own pace, when they want.

“If a baby desires to do 5 math assignments now due to the fact they actually like math, they can do 5 math assignments in a day,” claimed Danielle Schantz, NW On the internet Studying Academy on-line administrator. “If they want to operate 4 times actually tricky and then take Friday, Saturday and Sunday off, they have that versatility in their timetable.”

The versatility also lets moms and dads to routine mastering close to the workday. If they are not equipped to help for the duration of common college hrs, a parent can as an alternative sit down with their boy or girl in the night to entire college perform.

While college students can work each time they want, Schantz does advocate that pupils have a program for functioning on schoolwork, as properly as a designated workspace for finishing classwork and research.

Schantz found that the on the net, asynchronous structure does not offer NW Online Discovering Academy pupils with opportunities for social interaction, so as a good results coach, she has produced approaches for the on-line pupils to link with each and every other. The moment a 7 days, college students and coaches satisfy for a “fun Zoom,” where they engage in games and link with every single other.

“The people definitely appreciated it (and) the young children relished acquiring to see other kids. Some of them acknowledged each and every other from final year mainly because they had been on-line last yr,” reported Schantz.

Schantz oversees the online academy and coaches learners on top of her main job as innovation coach at Challenger Elementary School. She and the other employees members who serve as coaches are undertaking their coaching on prime of their standard training agreement time. Conferences with pupils are generally through a coach’s prep time, lunch or after faculty.

October 6, 2021

Shaker Heights’ Forward Together initiative looks at proposed state funding formula increases for schools

SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio — With the group-engagement course of action now in total swing, the Ahead Jointly initiative proceeds to transfer in advance on many fronts, together with expanded condition funding options for school projects.

Leaders with the metropolis, the school district and the community library fulfilled Sept. 30 in joint session at Shaker Heights Large Faculty for an update on the collaborative scheduling effort among the city’s a few taxing bodies, shaped in 2019 to build a put together Services Master Program.

The 3 entities have break up the around $340,000 cost of the plan’s consulting group, which established a concentrate on date of Dec. 20 for the master system define, adopted by far more community engagement in February.

From there, the closing prepare could be accepted by the town, the colleges and the library in May perhaps 2022.

“It’s an ambitious project and one particular that is not been done with these three bodies, with a huge quantity of foundational get the job done that we’re performing on a shared foundation,” Mayor David Weiss stated.

“It’s also historic to have all three boards meeting jointly in general public, whilst we have completed this just about in current months.”

Expert and Shaker resident Steve Zannoni told the boards that the Ahead Jointly advisory committee, now with more than 30 customers and which includes some pupils, experienced currently fulfilled 2 times by the conclusion of September. “Building the Vision” outreach carries on this thirty day period.

After digital conferences established for noon to 1 p.m. and 6 to 7 p.m. Thursday (Oct. 7), three different in-particular person Forward Together classes will be held:

— 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 13 in the Shaker Middle Faculty cafeteria

— 11 a.m. to 1 pm. Oct. 14 at the Stephanie Tubbs-Jones Group Creating

— 4 to 6 p.m. Oct. 14 at Chelton Park

Also in Oct, the Ohio Facilities Construction Fee will be updating its building evaluation of at least eight educational facilities in the Shaker Heights City University District. These universities are part of the 12 properties now below critique by the Ahead Alongside one another consulting crew, together with the STJ Local community Centre, the Sussex Spouse and children Center, Thornton Park and the Bertram Woods library branch.

Qualifying jobs could get as significantly as 36 p.c in condition funding for “direct educational improvement fees,” a share that Superintendent David Glasner famous has “gone up substantially, to a share we are reluctant to move up,” where by the district would only have to pay back 64 p.c for new design.

At this point, some elementary educational institutions would be ineligible simply because they have fewer than 350 learners, together with Boulevard, Mercer and Fernway — all K-4 properties. But Fernway just underwent a $17.6 million restoration immediately after a 2018 hearth, all but $3 million of that coated by coverage.

The restored Fernway was created by Van Akin Aukens Architects and developed by Gilbane Construction, the two on board as well with the Forward Collectively consulting team.

‘Maximum capacities’

Academic expert Frank Locker said preliminary group conversations have provided calls for universal Pre-K, universal air conditioning, lifelong learning possibilities, and much more range, equity and inclusion.

Locker also pointed to studies recommending that colleges ought to be expanded to additional than two grades, alternatively than the current setup in Shaker with “intermediate” educational institutions for grades 5 and 6, then the middle university with grades 7 and 8.

Shaker Library Board Trustee Doreen Katz recalled the period of “school rooms without walls,” a style and design notion that has extensive considering that been abandoned.

Katz and Board of Schooling President Heather Weingart proposed more “input and obtain-in from teachers” in the method, particularly with figures displaying that all round, school properties in the district are only 69 per cent occupied.

“If you question the instructors, they would say the place is insufficient,” Weingart explained.

State funding tips for “direct academic needs” also do not deal with competitiveness gyms and fields (these with spectator seating), auditoriums, pools, stadiums, board offices, bus depots and assistance centers, all of which would need “locally funded initiatives (LFIs).”

College board Vice President Ayesha Bell-Hardaway also questioned figures that display a 13.7 {e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} drop in enrollment from 5,331 students in the 2013-14 university calendar year to about 4,600 this year.

Bell-Hardaway stated the decline of 255 college students this yr could be attributed to the pandemic and may prove to be momentary.

Faculty board member Jeffrey Isaacs agreed on existing pandemic-linked factors, indicating he was unpleasant with “capacity numbers” established by the state, pitting “maximum capacity vs. best numbers.”

Town Councilman Sean Malone wants to see far more buildings provided in the analyze, these kinds of as the previous Ludlow College, the city General public Is effective garage, Higher Cleveland RTA structures on Coventry and Lynnfield streets, and, in the Chagrin-Lee corridor, the college bus depot and The Dealership housing the Shaker Heights Progress Corp.

University board member Emmitt Jolly requested if the city’s “robust senior population” could be component of the prolonged-term academic system as well.

Councilman Earl Williams asked if any potential “escalation costs” could be predicted, “so we don’t have to go again and talk to for a lot more income,” citing “a large amount of volatility” in the building discipline proper now.

Consultants claimed style and design contingency money are provided in the condition formula and that a lot of the potential perform is projected at 3 to 5 several years out.

A person project requiring additional urgency is the $2 million renovation of the Bertram Woods Library Department that was set on hold earlier this calendar year at the ask for of the other Ahead Alongside one another companions.

Echoing Williams’ economical concerns, Shaker Library Trustee Tom Cicarella stated that in addition to operating on “process and inclusion,” he desires much more current “data, in purchase to get the most bang for our buck.”

And in likely forward, Weingart additional that “we need to have all a few entities mirrored more equally” in the early options.

Read through more from the Sunlight Push.

October 2, 2021

Parents fear online learning changes could force thousands of students to find new schools

Parents of on the internet learning college students close to B.C. are anxious that changes to the method could power 1000’s to obtain new universities.

The Ministry of Instruction intends to introduce a new on the net studying model starting up in the 2022-23 calendar year.

Between the modifications, college students would be necessary to show up at an on line mastering faculty in just their district — unless they enrol in a school that has been designated to instruct students from across the province.

Just about 76,000 students go to the 69 on the web discovering educational facilities in B.C. Of people college students, around 14,000 go to online faculties exterior of their districts, meaning they may well no lengthier be capable to attend the school of their family’s deciding on.

A adaptable studying environment

During the pandemic, the Banez family members switched to online discovering and under no circumstances seemed again.

“I really noticed the progress in both of those my little ones,” said Kaye Banez — especially with her nine-12 months-outdated son Lazarus, who has autism.

“He was hitting educational milestones all the time. All these points that we did not realize he was ready to do mainly because in the university process we have been working with behaviour all the time.”

The residing place of the Banez family’s Richmond, B.C., household has considering the fact that been turned into a classroom for Lazarus and his seven-12 months-old sister Estella.

The flexibility of online mastering and the specialized system presented by a school in Kamloops, B.C., works for the Banez family members — but now they are apprehensive that upcoming yr they won’t be allowed to re-enrol because the school is outside their district.

“Autism and transform do not go properly alongside one another. The transition is so a lot harder when we’ve previously uncovered our sanctuary of a college,” Banez said.

Estella Banez does her school perform on the computer system in the family’s dwelling home. (Garbiel Osorio/CBC Information)

Autism B.C., of which Banez is a board member, has sent an open letter to the ministry expressing issue and inquiring for clarity all over the modifications.

It states numerous family members conclude up choosing schools exterior their district mainly because the guidance they need isn’t obtainable in their local faculty.

Banez states the firm will satisfy with the ministry in Oct.

Star Nap chose on-line studying for her a few children — ranging from kindergarten to Quality 6 — because it provided her loved ones greater versatility.

The Nap household reside in the Comox Valley but the children’s on the internet school is primarily based in Powell River, meaning they, way too, are at risk of shedding the school of their decision.

Nap claims on line finding out creates fairness between students.

“For rural family members, families up north, Indigenous families in remote communities, on the web understanding is seriously opening up enormous opportunities for them,” suggests Nap.

“It is definitely levelling the taking part in area for so a lot of family members and which is why these ministry improvements are so about.”

Impending session

Even while the new on the internet mastering design is owing to be carried out considerably less than a year from now, dad and mom say facts about it keep on being slim.

According to the Ministry of Education and learning, students and families will be capable to pick out classes or plans in online educational institutions in their faculty district or unbiased university authority — or at a public or impartial provincial university, which will be open to learners from across B.C.

The ministry claims suitable educational facilities are welcome to use to be provincial suppliers, but it truly is unclear how numerous will be selected.

“Our aim is to supply the most effective understanding experience achievable for learners, no make any difference in which they reside, and to make sure the minimum doable disruption to a kid’s training as we modernize the shipping and delivery of on the net studying applications,” the ministry explained in a statement.

“The changes are currently being set in location to guidance B.C.’s curriculum and guarantee every student has equivalent and dependable obtain to a quality education.”

Banez and Nap say mothers and fathers haven’t been bundled in the discussions and they’re trapped digging for answers.

The ministry states dad and mom and households are invited to voice their issues at public boards that will be hosted through October or through the on line finding out website. On the other hand, the mom and dad say participation in the community forums is limited to two dad and mom from every college.

October 2, 2021

10 Indoor Physical Activities for Kids | K-12 Schools

Summer time is about, the days are receiving shorter and colder temperatures will quickly get maintain throughout a lot of the region. For mom and dad and lecturers caring for young children in early grades, that implies going outdoors for work out at a park or playground will get increasingly more challenging.

But gurus say planning indoor bodily pursuits for kids can aid preserve young children lively and entertained.

“Being inside of does not mean that bodily exercise has to quit or even be shortened,” states Richard Rairigh, physical action instructional adviser at the Center for Health and fitness Promotion and Sickness Prevention at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. “It’s vital to retain to the recreation timetable, and that can effortlessly be done indoors with a couple of modifications.”

Rairigh states exploration implies little ones should preferably get 120 minutes of physical action each and every working day. If heading exterior only isn’t an option, right here are some bodily routines for young children in grades K-4 that can be carried out indoors:

Dancing

Dancing is a entertaining way to burn off off excess electrical power. At the GoNoodle.com Indoor Recess website page, parents and lecturers can locate videos and pursuits that offer you guided dance lessons to hip, new new music for young children. The routines are tied to core educational principals, like reading through, science and math. All things to do are appropriate for tiny, indoor spaces.

Parachute enjoy time

This a person from Munchkin.com only will take a bedsheet, if you never materialize to have a parachute hanging all over. Have anyone in the family members maintain a side when immediately transferring their arms up and down. Put some modest balls or balloons on best and see how speedy you can knock them off.

Harmony beam pleasurable

Using an precise gymnastics beam is not the only way for kids to study equilibrium. This concept from Lively for Existence recommends applying painter’s tape to make a straight line on the ground. Stimulate your baby to walk ahead, backward and sideways.

Reserve-worm exercise session

Tale time does not have to be just a bedtime ritual. Decide a e-book that has a phrase that’s recurring normally. For illustration, pick out the word “hat” if you’re studying “The Cat in the Hat.” Each time the word will come up in the tale, pupils do an work out.

Stay clear of the shark

This a person, one more from Lively for Existence, will take a small extra area, means and time, but it’s a artistic way to burn off energy. Deal with your dwelling area ground (the shark-loaded ocean) with foam ground tiles or towels taped to the flooring with masking tape and have your child soar from just one to the following without touching the drinking water.

Races to instruct animal existence

Hop like a bunny or waddle like a duck. This one, courtesy of the Mommy Poppins web page, can be completed when lessons get uninteresting and small minds get started to wander. Connect with a timeout and inquire for anyone to slither like a snake.

Finding out is entertaining and active

Want to break up the book perform or trainer speak time? Run for Excellent indicates possessing youngsters training as they’re practicing math or spelling. They can do leaping jacks as they spell text, recite math info as they are accomplishing squats or go a ball again and forth as they do either.

Snake dance

For this exercise from Playworld, kids sort a line to make a snake. They position their hands on the shoulders of the little one in front of them, and the to start with child or the instructor potential customers them close to the place or participate in space. To make things a little bit more enjoyable and demanding, the youngster at the entrance of the line can try out to tag the kid at the conclude.

Racing inside (actually)

Even if you never have considerably space to operate in your home or classroom, there could be house for a few races, in accordance to the Worthy of Creating Forblog. Equilibrium a difficult-boiled egg on a spoon and race every other across the place or have pillowcase races comparable to potato sack races. (Hint: Use pillowcases you are not fond of in case they don’t endure.)

An oldie but goodie: Simon Says

In this old preferred from Family members Enjoyment Twin Towns, you are the leader and get to perform the youngsters up into a frenzy. Initially, decide on a person to be “Simon.” Simon either commences a command with “Simon says” or not. To continue to be in the video game, young children only need to comply with the instructions that start out with “Simon claims.” If you want to make the activity additional demanding, simply situation instructions speedier and make the steps a lot more tough.

‘Training Throughout the Curriculum’

Adults may perhaps be tempted to shorten the exercise time outside the house and return inside of the place it’s heat and toasty. But recall the target: Exercise, indoors and out, helps assist wholesome and satisfied kids. It can also enhance other discovering.

William Potter, president of the California Association for Overall health, Actual physical Schooling, Recreation and Dance, teaches cross-curricular lessons in math, literature and science in his elementary faculty bodily schooling courses at Serendipity Faculty in Belmont, California.

“Teaching across curriculum is a terrific way to incorporate actual physical action, motion and general health and fitness,” Potter says. “We identified these lessons labored good when absolutely everyone was at-dwelling discovering, and they translate nicely in tiny spaces indoors.”

Longtime actual physical education teacher Terri Drain, president of the Shape The united states, the Society of Overall health and Physical Educators, touts the advantages of physical action in any setting.

“I hope children are however having most of their exercise outdoors,” she says. “Right now, if you talk to a scholar what they like to do, only 1 in 5 will say an outside the house activity. They are getting absent from character, and that’s not normally a superior factor.”

September 30, 2021

California schools chief churns through top aides in allegedly toxic workplace

Tony Thurmond, with Gov. Gavin Newsom in the background | AP Photo — Thurmond faces reelection next year for the nonpartisan office. | AP Photo

SACRAMENTO — Nearly two dozen senior officials have fled California’s top education agency since Tony Thurmond became state schools superintendent in 2019, with several of them accusing him of creating a toxic workplace that burned through staff with decades of experience.

Much of the exodus occurred as California’s K-12 system faced its most tumultuous crisis in generations. The state had some of the nation’s longest pandemic school closures, and districts have been desperate for more guidance from the California Department of Education on how best to reopen and keep campuses safe.

Nine former state education officials said that morale is so low and turnover so high that CDE cannot efficiently operate as Thurmond allegedly humiliated and intimidated staff. The former officials once in Thurmond’s inner circle spoke to POLITICO on the condition of anonymity because they are still working in education and worried about retribution.

Two of the former aides said that the department executive team was asked to proclaim aloud that they were “all in on Team Thurmond” at a meeting last year. Seven of the former top officials said that anyone who disagreed with Thurmond on policy matters or did anything he felt could hurt his public image was accused of being insubordinate or disrespectful.

Some said working under him impacted their mental health. Three former employees compared it to being in an abusive relationship or having an abusive parent — where aides walked on eggshells and cried on the job. Former officials described hostile exchanges and three of them provided texts and video to POLITICO to corroborate incidents, but they did not want specifics published out of concern the details could identify them.

“It’s not the California Department of Education. It’s Tony Thurmond’s campaign headquarters. It’s not about the students of California,” one former employee said.

Asked about the allegations, Thurmond said in a statement that he is “immensely proud” of the California Department of Education’s “work that has taken on even greater urgency as California fought through a global pandemic and a society-wide reckoning on civil rights.” He declined an interview request and retained an outside consultant to help respond to the allegations.

POLITICO spoke to 24 sources familiar with Thurmond’s office for this story, including former Department of Education employees, education consultants and lobbyists.

Thurmond, 53, is a former Democratic assemblymember from the East Bay. He was elected superintendent in 2018 with support from the California Teachers Association against another Democrat backed by charter school advocates in an unusually expensive battle. Thurmond faces reelection next year for the nonpartisan office.

California is one of only 13 states where the state superintendent is elected by voters rather than appointed. Thurmond’s supporters have pointed to his focus on equity in a state where public school students of color comprise the overwhelming majority.

As the pandemic unfolded, Thurmond was noticeably absent from major education announcements as Gov. Gavin Newsom, a fellow Democrat, built up his own school response team and leaned on state school board officials and his own cabinet for policy expertise. That has reduced the role of Thurmond’s Department of Education in guiding schools through Covid-19 closures and reopening.

The CDE organizational chart, updated just last month, is already out of date. Five of the 34 officials listed as overseeing the 2,174-employee agency are no longer there, in addition to two vacancies for general counsel and an audits director on the chart.

Catalina Cifuentes, chair of the California Student Aid Commission, was appointed by Thurmond in January 2019 as deputy superintendent of performance, planning and technology. Three months later, she resigned to return to her previous job at the Riverside County Office of Education.

Since Thurmond took over the Department of Education in 2019, nine officials have been assigned to help oversee State Special Schools, which is in charge of education for California’s deaf and blind students.

“The long-term end result of this might be that more and more of the operations of the department come under the control of the governor,” said a former CDE official who worked closely with Thurmond. “People are coming and going, trying to survive working under him, and it’s getting to the point where who is going to be left to get things done? The last thing you want to do is work for him.”

When asked about the hostile workplace allegations, Thurmond’s role in the state’s school pandemic response and the superintendent’s relationship with the governor, Newsom’s office said, “We have no comment on your inquiry. Thanks for reaching out.”

California Department of Education spokesperson Maria Clayton, Thurmond’s third director of communications in less than three years, denied “the characterization” of the superintendent and said in an email that he is passionate about education in part because of his experience as “an orphan and foster youth.”

“This is demanding work, and the superintendent has high expectations of staff — because he knows that kids don’t get a second chance at childhood. That reality defines his approach to the job and how he believes the Department should fulfill its important mission — especially in this time of great need,” Clayton said.

The California Teachers Association was instrumental in Thurmond’s 2018 election win after spending more than $8 million on his behalf against charter advocate Marshall Tuck. But the union said it is too early to commit to supporting the state schools chief’s reelection.

“We have a really extensive and deliberative endorsement process. It’s premature to talk about endorsements for next year’s election,” CTA spokesperson Lisa Gardiner said.

Two other powerful labor organizations, the California Federation of Teachers and Service Employees International Union, have already donated this year to a committee to reelect Thurmond.

Newsom has drawn the most attention among California leaders for public school operations during the pandemic. Conservatives and some parents blamed him for lengthy shutdowns last academic year, while teachers feuded with the governor when he called on schools to reopen before education staff was fully vaccinated.

Thurmond does not have the executive powers that Newsom does, nor does he oversee the state public health department, which has established protocols for schools during the pandemic.

But Thurmond has rarely used his pulpit to voice strong opinions on school policies the way Newsom and several state lawmakers have. And school districts are struggling to figure out how to navigate state Covid-19 requirements.

When Newsom announced that California would be among the first states to mandate teacher vaccines in August, the superintendent was not at the news conference in Oakland, a city he represented as a legislator. The governor was flanked by local education leaders and State School Board President Linda Darling-Hammond, whose education policy research he has routinely acclaimed.

While Thurmond has joined Newsom at some education events and hosted “virtual town halls” to promote vaccines and made appearances on national TV to talk about California schools during the pandemic, sources in the Capitol say he has not been in the room for Newsom’s biggest decisions.

It’s a stark contrast from other state setups. In Washington, a comparatively more vocal Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal has shared the spotlight with Gov. Jay Inslee, overseeing school compliance on issues like masking.

“I think various superintendents have been much more visible than Tony. I was,” said Delaine Eastin, a former Democratic state legislator who served as state superintendent of public instruction under governors Pete Wilson and Gray Davis. “It’s a tough world these kids are in right now, and to have a Department of Education that really doesn’t have some of the power and the staffing that it needs … there needs to be more of a sense of a mission.”

In California, local control reigns when it comes to education. But the superintendent of public instruction, one of eight elected statewide constitutional officers, is responsible for overseeing curriculum and ensuring that California’s 10,000 schools comply with laws and the state’s need-based funding formula. The department also oversees programs like the California School for the Blind.

Separately, the governor appoints state school board members, and Newsom reinforced his own team last year by appointing Brooks Allen, a civil rights attorney, as his education policy adviser and executive director of the California Board of Education.

Thurmond backers say that the state superintendent has led on equity and addressing student poverty in a state where nearly 60 percent of public school students qualify for free and reduced price lunch.

Last week, Thurmond announced “a new effort to improve African American student achievement in the state,” as well as “a new plan to improve literacy rates of California students,” setting a goal of getting all third graders “able to read” by 2026.

“When we think about who the children are who rely on public education in the state, they are largely poor and largely children of color,” said Holly Mitchell, a former state legislator who now serves on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and has worked with Thurmond on issues such as police in schools. “I don’t know that there’s been a superintendent that in recent history has really stepped into that space.”

After POLITICO contacted Thurmond’s office for this story, he retained crisis communications consultant Nathan Click, a longtime Newsom spokesperson who helped locate outside supporters to vouch for the superintendent’s work.

But the turnover at Thurmond’s Department of Education is an “open secret” in Sacramento, lobbyists and sources close to the governor said, and his staffing policies have caused a concern before.

The California State Auditor’s Office flagged the Department of Education’s hiring practices in an audit last year of “improper activities” by state agencies. Unnamed senior‑level managers worked to “quickly hire” a pre-selected contractor for a management position and improperly approved “an inflated salary,” the audit found.

In response to the audit, the department agreed that it should not have used the hiring process but disputed other findings, disagreeing with the state auditor that the specific case was indicative of other staffing issues.

Thurmond has had three chief deputies of public instruction — the role of number two at CDE, and often the policy brains of the operation — since 2019. He’s been unable to retain employees in that key role despite the job having one of the highest salaries in state government, between $220,548 and $227,160.

Earlier this month, Thurmond promoted Mary Nicely, who previously led the department’s information and technology branch, to the position. She replaced Stephanie Gregson, who was sworn in in March 2020 and left to become a director at the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence, a liaison between state and local education agencies.

Lupita Cortez Alcala, who was sworn in as the department’s first Latina chief deputy in January 2019, held the role for one year before leaving to become the director of education policy at WestEd, a San Francisco-based education nonprofit.

An employee of another state agency, who worked closely with Thurmond on education issues, said he made it difficult to conduct business.

“Operations are at a standstill,” the official said. “You can’t get stuff done with him.”