To Our Fellow Parents and the Penn‑Mont Community,
We are writing to you as parents who chose Penn‑Mont Academy for its promise: a nurturing Montessori environment, a dedicated faculty, and trustworthy leadership.
Today, that promise is broken. Our school is in a crisis of trust, stemming from a failure of leadership that has shaken our community. What began with the departure of beloved teachers has uncovered systemic issues of safety, transparency, and accountability that we can no longer ignore.
It is with heavy hearts that we find ourselves compelled to speak out, but the stakes—our children's safety and the school's future—are too high to remain silent.
A Pattern of Failed Leadership
The first warning sign was the mass exodus of staff this spring, including four of five lead teachers from the Children's House. The administration dismissed this as the departure of a "small handful" of staff. We believe this was a symptom of a much larger problem: a culture where our dedicated educators felt disrespected, unsupported, and unheard.
Since then, the situation has escalated, revealing a pattern of mishandling critical incidents:
- Unaddressed Safety Allegations: We are aware of deeply troubling allegations, including the improper confinement of a child by a staff member and disturbing student-on-student misconduct. Parents who reported these issues have been met with inaction and a lack of transparent communication.
- Failure in the Duty to Inform: The administration's response to these serious allegations is compounded by other lapses, such as the failure to implement a timely lockdown during a nearby armed robbery scare. This demonstrates a troubling disregard for their fundamental duty to keep parents informed and children safe.
These are not isolated incidents; they are evidence of a leadership that is failing to meet its most basic responsibilities.
Compromised Oversight and a Community in Jeopardy
Effective oversight is the ultimate safeguard for our children. However, the close personal friendship between the Head of School, Andrea, and the Board President creates a clear conflict of interest. This relationship undermines the community's faith that the Board can provide the impartial, objective leadership evaluation that this moment demands.
This leaves us with an impossible choice. How can we trust our children's safety and education to an administration that has not been forthcoming about critical events? With so many trusted teachers gone and key positions for next year still unfilled, the quality of our children's education is at risk.
Many families, facing this uncertainty, have already made the painful decision to withdraw their children. This growing exodus of families now threatens the financial stability and long-term viability of the school itself. The current path is unsustainable.
We Must Act to Save Our School
We are acting now not to harm Penn‑Mont, but to save it. The heart of our school is not in an office; it is in our classrooms and with our teachers. It is time to protect it.
To restore trust, ensure our children's safety, and secure Penn‑Mont's future, we demand immediate and decisive action.
- We call for the immediate removal of the Head of School, Andrea.
- We demand the Board of Directors cure its conflict of interest by establishing a fully independent and impartial process to investigate these failures and oversee new leadership.
This is the only way to begin rebuilding our faculty, restoring our community's confidence, and ensuring Penn‑Mont can once again deliver on its promise.
In solidarity,
The Concerned Parents of Penn‑Mont Academy
SavePennMont.org