The Tree has Burned

My relationship with my Upper School (and Middle School for that matter) Alma Mater has been through many phases. It got started out on a really poor note when my they refused to enroll my sister for her senior year for reasons were perhaps a minor disciplinary matter.

So I wrote a letter to the Headmaster. Its long, goes on about a bunch of stuff and isn’t anywhere near my best writing. But it is reproduced below for posterity and whatnot. I’ll get onto the other pieces of this tortured relationship after the break.

Mr. Brereton:

I am disappointed that I feel the need to write this letter, but I hope it
is the beginning of a meaningful dialogue.

I was angered when I learned of the disciplinary committee’s decision not to
allow my sister, Lauren, attend Miami Valley for the 2000-2001 school year.

My disenchantment is shared with others at the school. You yourself felt the
need to hint at it in the 1998-99 Annual Report mentioning that
“…others [have] expressed their desire for our school to maintain
the core values that guided it through its early years.” The shift of
MVS’s core values was exemplified during the 1997-1998 school year.

The 1997-1998 school year was a time of many changes, the enrollment
increased, but more importantly, students who attended MVS in the previous
years noticed a difference in the new students. As a group we felt that the new
students were not as well prepared, and in some cases did not care as much
about learning as we did. Trying to detail all the ideas and feelings that were
presented and argued fervently during hours of discussions over lunch and
classroom tables would tax even the most cognizant of participants, but one
statement sticks in my head. A trusted faculty member told me, “Its not
then number of students, but the quality of students…” that has caused
a change in atmosphere. The end product of these intense discussions is a
Squiers inspired belief that continuity and change are constants, in varying
proportions. Evaluating the result of a change in midstream is a futile
effort.

Now that I am free of the stream of change, I must assert what my colleagues
and I originally believed: MVS has changed for the worse, losing a significant
portion of its intimate and supportive atmosphere.

The change my colleagues and I felt is best expressed in an obfuscated
version of MVS’s mission, instead of presenting “…to students of
demonstrated ability a challenging program in a supportive and caring
community”, MVS now apparently seeks to first, present a challenging
program to students of demonstrated financial reserves, and second present a
challenging program to students with exceptional demonstrated ability. This
double standard does exist within MVS’s administrative actions.

My sister was expelled for being, “mentally unstable” or more to
the point, the school falsely suspected her of abusing illegal substances, but
could not prove it. According to well-respected research, which MVS was
surveyed for, 55% of students have used an illegal substance before graduating
high school. By this standard over half of MVS’s students should be expelled
each year.

My sister was singled out for several reasons, first she is outspoken in her
beliefs, and she utilizes and embodies the MVS Philosophy of striving to
“academic excellence and freedom while [discovering] and fulfilling [her]
potential.” Unfortunately the first amendment allusion in this school
policy does not apply when it comes to Laura Mack. Second, my sister has felt
held down and singled out by Laura Mack, forcing her to endure unreasonable
treatments, and criticisms. These unfair treatments have brought my sister to
tears on several occasions. Laura Mack has done this by attacking my family as
being dysfunctional, upon the grounds that my parents are divorced (like half
of all marriages) and my immediate family is dispersed over several thousand
miles, a normal situation, considering the fact that thirteen years separates
the oldest from the youngest sibling. None of these situations is an acceptable
basis for criticism of an individual or a family. Finally, my family has fallen
on economic misfortune that has changed the amount of money that is available
for school tuition.

Money unfortunately talks, and MVS tolerates the behavioral and substance
abuse extremes of students whose parents have the financial ability to pay
tuition in full, it does not tolerate lesser behavioral abnormalities of
students whose parent do not have the financial ability to pay tuition in
full.

Money is the only thing that MVS appears to listen to; as a result I am
forced to speak with my checkbook. To this end, I will not fulfil my five-year
pledge beyond my most recent donation. This pains me, because I feel a personal
need to support the school that supported and nurtured me.

In painful sincerity,

Nicholas Barnard

MVS Class of 1999

Johnston, L.D., O’Malley, P.M., & Bachman, J.G. [book on-line] The
Monitoring the Future National survey results on adolescent drug use: Overview
of key findings, 1999 (Rockville, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse,
2000, accessed 21 June 2000); available from http://monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/keyfindings.pdf Internet, 10.

I never received a response from Mr. Brereton.

Things eventually thawed and a new alumni coordinator, Jill Hanning, did wonderful things engaging the alumni community which allowed me to allow water under the bridge to be water under the bridge. I even considered participating in the alumni book club of sorts, which is funny if you realized how much I despised MVS’s English program.

This newfound relationship came to a screeching halt when I received the following email from Jill on October 23, 2006.

MVS Alumni,

I want to update you on some changes that were made at school this
week. I was let go from my position as alumni and communications
coordinator. I was told by Peter Benedict that the advancement office
will be heading in a different direction and that my position will be
eliminated and replaced with one that focuses solely on publications.
Mr. Benedict will be honoring the 06-07 alumni calendar of events that
I put together and will be meeting up with you all around the country,
himself.

I am disappointed that I was not warned of this change or given the
opportunity to be a part of the redirection of the office. It is my
sincere hope that the alumni program is preserved and given the
attention and value from the administration that it deserves.

I have enjoyed the last three years spent getting to know many of you
and I am sad for the abrupt end to what has been a lovely job, serving
our school.

I will be
in the advancement office until November 10; after that time
it is my understanding that Mr. Benedict will be handling all
communications. I will be at the DC gathering on November 3. You can
still email me at this address for the remainder of the year; I will
fulfill my teaching commitments (teaching one English elective per
term) in the upper school.

Fondly,

Jill

At this point Peter Benedict had not yet been the headmaster for six months. Two days later I received an email from Mr. Benedict recapping what was left of the alumni program. I responded with the following email.

Peter,

I was saddened to hear of Jill Hanning’s dismissal from the alumni and communications coordinator position. I know Jill primarily through her position as the alumni coordinator, although I have fond memories working with Jill on the play the Diary of Anne Frank. Through all of these interactions I have always believed that Jill is a consummate communicator, both in her ability to listen and her convey information.

I do understand and support the logical necessity to achieve some synergies by utilizing travel for multiple purposes.

However one of the values that I cherished most in my time at MVS was the caring community. I have several relationships that are still ongoing from my years at MVS, and even when I run into friends who I have not seen in quite some time those relationships quickly rekindle. This sense of caring is not only between students and faculty and staff to student, but also between members of the faculty and staff. To this day I remember Mr. Graetz’s professional and caring guidance to Mr. Fisher, a young Algebra teacher who at the time was not any older than I am today. I remember Ms. Lash’s tireless efforts to keep Mrs. Kretzler on one topic for a full hour to gather the necessary information to reoutfit the art room. I also remember the longevity of many of the staff members and that they both were afforded generous notice from the school about the future of their employment and they also provided the school generous notice about the future of their employment. In all cases that I was aware notice of several months was provided, while this is much more than the standard required in business it is indicative of the caring environment that is a hallmark of The Miami Valley School.

Given these examples, I hope you can understand my dismay from the messages that I received last week from Jill and yourself. To alumni who do not have the benefit of other ties with the school the messages provide the impression that there was unacceptable, uncaring, and bureaucratic bungling involved in this decision. It is unfortunate that as an proud alumni member this is the first decision and first impression that you have made that affects my relationship with the school.

My relationship with MVS was tenuous during my senior year, and my first few years as an alumni. Both Aileen and Jill’s efforts have gone a long way to repair the rent that has existed between the school and I. Unfortunately some of their effort was unraveled last week.

Regards,

Nicholas Barnard ’99

I just sat in the background receiving MVS’s communications to me but not really responding to them. The straw that almost broke the camel’s back was when I got the “MVS Magazine” in my mailbox. Simply this was the most masturbatory piece of collateral that I’ve seen in a long time, on top of that it was a step backward given the increasing trend toward internet delivered communication. I decided to recycle it and hope that it was a onetime faux pas.

It wasn’t. I finally decided to tell MVS off when I got another slightly less masturbatory email, but it also mentioned that I’d be getting the next issue of the MVS Magazine. I just wrote the following email

Julia,

Please take me off MVS’s email and postal mailing lists.

Ever since the woefully fumbled dismissal of Jill Hanning by Peter Benedict MVS’s communications have been either to ask for money or to stroke the school’s ego. Miami Valley has abdicated any efforts to build a strong alumni community from which the school could then have cultivated donations.

I was appalled when I received the MVS magazine in the mail; I found it to communicate very little useful information, it was clearly produced with significant financial, staff, and environmental resources that could have been better deployed into other areas. I found it to be a self-congratulatory and aimed at showing off and not toward building and maintaining a community.

The alumni outreach program, as managed by Jill Hanning, had gone a long way toward healing embattled relationship I have had with MVS; since her dismissal I have found my relationship with MVS to be lackluster at best.

Regards,

Nicholas Barnard

Miami Valley School, Class of 1999

Thats where things stand.

Don’t even try the argument that I’m not a valuable alumni member with deep pockets. It is true that my pockets are rather shallow, but things may not always be that way…