Berlin’s school councils can dispose of reports of school management failures without violating regulations. This surprising fact came to light on the occasion of the years of quarrels about the management of the Tagore grammar school in Marzahn. The numerous complaints from the college can no longer be found and therefore cannot provide any information about the connections on the occasion of the current fire letters.
Now the education administration explained to Tagesspiegel’s request how this could come about. Accordingly, the cleaning up of the files is justified by the administrative regulations of the State of Berlin. The relevant “joint rules of procedure” provide that the retention period is based on the “documentation function of the files for the traceability of administrative actions”.
In general, however, the deadline should be “set as short as possible”, says Section 61, to which the spokesperson for Education Senator Sandra Scheeres (SPD) refers.
The CDU MP Dirk Stettner had found out that the administration had no previous complaints: State Secretary Beate Stoffers (SPD) had answered his request in the negative. So she probably had no knowledge that teachers had even tried to get help from the complaint manager of the school authorities on January 30, 2019.
As a result, parliament and the public had to assume that there had been no previous complaints from the college against the head, only the incendiary letters from the parents and students, which had been published in March 2021.
The students had reported, among other things, that the headmistress looked “unorganized, uncoordinated and overwhelmed” and was perceived as “disinterested”. The parents ‘representatives agreed with them and added that the headmistress communicated “condescendingly, accusingly and abusive towards the pupils and parents’ representatives”.
But they weren’t the first to criticize. Rather, according to Tagesspiegel information, there were already several attempts by the college in 2017 to solve the problems through discussions with the head of the department, who started her position in Marzahn in 2016. When, in the opinion of the critics, there was no improvement, functionaries from the ranks of the college were sent to the school inspectorate in 2018, as confirmed by employees of the school at the time.
The school inspectors named the school management as a problem
The slight improvement in the head’s behavior that followed was apparently short-lived: at least that is what the 2019 school inspection report, which primarily objected to the management’s actions, says. There it was said that the headmistress was “not very present in everyday life and that neither the staff nor the students could speak to them spontaneously”. As a result, current issues could not be clarified or decisions made – even “in conflict situations”.
Long-time school principals told the Tagesspiegel at the weekend on request that they considered it downright “absurd” that a college had to wrestle with the school management for “daily communication” which, according to the inspection report, was “only partially” given.
“Resignation and loss of confidence” as a consequence
The fact that neither the criticism from the teaching staff nor the school inspection brought about a change in the school’s situation had “led to resignation and a loss of confidence,” reports student spokesman Sebastian Peine from discussions with teachers. They had learned the lesson from the process that it makes no sense to defend oneself, since the education administration remains inactive anyway. The high school graduate is also the district student representative.
This Monday, Peine and his class will receive their high school diplomas.
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In the case of the Tagore grammar school, there would have been reasons to keep the documents longer than “as short as possible” and to use leeway. Because the college had compiled extensive points of criticism, as those involved report. Even more: the criticism was by no means new in 2018 and should therefore have alarmed the school inspectorate particularly.
Because there were similar allegations at the previous school of the headmistress, the Lankwitz Brondby secondary school. In their school inspection report from 2014/15 you can read that the school lacked “sustainable communication structures”. A flow of information urgently needs to be established. There is also a lack of “structured and transparent school management action with clear priorities, goals and areas of responsibility”.
Relocated from Lankwitz to Marzahn
In other words: the two inspection reports – four years apart – come to comparable results. This means, however, that the school inspection missed its point, according to which the school inspectorate should help the schools or heads to resolve identified problems on the basis of the inspection results.
- Here go to the 2015 Brondby School inspection report.
- Here go to the 2019 Tagore High School inspection report.
In the specific Tagore case, the transfer of the headmistress brought further hardship for the “receiving” school: The Tagore-Gymnasium had an excellently suited applicant, who for years as deputy headmaster had mastered all tasks to everyone’s satisfaction and who is currently was only awarded the German Teacher’s Prize. He had to stay on the deputy post because Scheeres’ school supervisor needed an alternative position for the Brondby director.
A management academy should help
“The school inspectorate must not duck back, but must take action,” says a former school principal who has seen over and over again what happens when problems are not addressed during school inspections. He recalls that Scheeres launched a quality package with 39 projects in January 2019 had imagined. First and foremost was the start of a “management academy”. Objective: to strengthen school administrations, middle management in schools and school inspectors ”. The project is now called “Leadership. lab ”, but is still largely unknown to the school public.
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The administration is also far from the project already pursued under Scheeres’ predecessor Jürgen Zöllner (SPD) to find a reliable plan B for weak school principals who, despite coaching, prove to be unsuitable. Resigning to the next lower office, i.e. the teaching profession without management activity, has so far not been compatible with public personnel law.
As a result, schools have to struggle for decades with leaders who have missed their job – who lack the “headmaster gene,” as a long-time school inspector puts it.
Left: “First occupy management posts only for three years”
The education expert of the Left, Regina Kittler, demanded a fundamentally different regulation on Sunday, which would have to be brought about by a change in personnel law: “I would be in favor of it, as with the appointment of directors at the theater, headmasters: inside only for a limited time after the Appointing a trial period for three years and then either agreeing an extension (with the participation of the school conference) or not, “is Kittler’s proposal.
Gordon Lemm, the SPD City Councilor for Education in Marzahn-Hellersdorf, said on Sunday that he wished the school “in principle a quick return to its actual task”. Lemm said he “feels that the headmistress is aware that this is her last chance to prove herself”. However, as far as he knows, the director undertakes “serious efforts” to “compensate for the communicative deficits and accept help and restore peace at school”
The SPD city council wants “clear rules for dealing with misconduct”
“I hope for everyone involved that it succeeds. Here the Senate Administration will have to (and certainly will) keep an eye on it,” said Lemm. Incidentally, he sees “the problems fundamentally like Ms. Kittler and would like me to have clear rules for dealing with misconduct for this important task”.
The education administration asks for patience – and refers to a mediation that had been started at the Tagore high school. There are also “ongoing talks” and a study day should take place in the coming school year that will focus on “communication structures”.
According to reports, a long-standing parent’s representative recognized throughout Berlin is also supposed to help improve communication between the head of the department and the General Parents’ Representation (GEV): As reported, the GEV fully supported the fire letter for the Abitur class with its own three-page letter.
The headmistress denies the allegations
Since then, the headmistress herself has had her lawyer answer: The well-known labor law expert Jens Brückner denied all the allegations in the letter from the high school graduates in March – from the problem of constant lateness and lack of cooperation to noticeable staff turnover. Brückner justifies the fluctuation with many teachers of retirement age. According to Tagesspiegel information, some went into early retirement. A young teacher who had followed the popular deputy resigned a short time later.
And what about the “Common Rules of Procedure”? Will criticism continue to disappear from the files because the GGO insists on “the shortest possible” retention times?
It doesn’t have to be. Because the decisive paragraph leaves some leeway. There you can read that “the authorities can set the retention periods themselves”, unless the duration is stipulated by legal or administrative regulations. The administration evidently did not make use of this option.
The comment on the destruction of the complaint documents can be found HERE.
