BURTON HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT AT SCHOOL BOARD MEETING
Burton High School’s Principal has announced her retirement.
Principal Karen Steenken made the announcement at Monday night’s board meeting, saying she gave her letter of retirement to the school on October 2nd.
Her retirement date was initially set for January 1st, but at the meeting she submitted an addendum moving the effective date to January 31st.
Steenken will retire with 30 years of school experience, including 15 years at Burton ISD.
Also at Monday’s meeting, the Burton School Board met for several hours behind closed doors, to discuss a lengthy list of executive session items.
During the open forum preceding general session, one person came forward to express his concerns on how the school has handled some of the grievances and complaints brought before the board.
He stated he was “disappointed” in the behavior of the school board, and in some staff members personally. School District Attorney Makenzie Walters assured him the board was doing what it could to handle the complaints responsibly.
After executive session, the board granted remedies requested by Jason and Lauren Hodde, for the grievance process. The district will respect the privacy of students, and apologizes for any results of actions that failed to keep that confidentiality. The vote passed 6-1, with Tracey Cox recusing herself from the vote.
Motion was also made and granted for outcomes and remedies requested in the grievance from John Parffrey and Susan Simpson.
In other items, Superintendent Dr. Edna Kennedy said bus safety would be addressed at future board meetings. This will include consideration of cameras and a communication system for driver, along with other guidelines and procedures.
Dr. Kennedy said all buses of a 2018 model or newer will have three-point harness seatbelts. She included that each bus will be equipped with reflectors, flares, first aid and bodily fluid clean-up kits.
The board also discussed special education and its Special Services Cooperative, which provides funds for requested services and programs. Dr. Kennedy said all special education students’ needs are being addressed through called meetings, with the appropriate staff taking part.
During the superintendent’s report, Dr. Kennedy stated that the high school had not received any applicants for its open counselor position. She did say coach James Little would be willing to move into a “Director of Student Services” position.
Kennedy said Little approached her about the position, which would consist of some counseling duties. If the board decided to move forward with this, Kennedy said he would keep his coaching job, but would likely give up his teaching duties.
Before the meeting began, the board held a public hearing on the school district’s “FIRST” financial accountability rating. The board received explanations on how FIRST scores are calculated, and how Burton received its rating of an 86, or a “B”.
With such praise pouring forth, it seems that there are discrepancies between the “cheerleaders” and the “facts” on the school. Link: https://schools.texastribune.org/districts/burton-isd/burton-high-school/
An observation: to those who think this is all the Superintendent’s fault, has anyone considered too that Steenken may have chosen to retire herself for whatever reason other than just the school?
I’m not saying that any of these claims are invalid – far from it. There’s plenty going on in the district that does need to be investigated and thoroughly for guilt AND innocence.
However… it just seems odd that any and every thing that is done at the school district is somehow the superintendent or board’s fault. This is validated a bit more when she moved back her retirement date as well – if she was truly entirely angry at the administration level stuff – I think she’d been firm when she was retiring.
Maybe the good lord has bigger plans for her and the school. She’s done a great job. Change isn’t always a bad thing. I can’t see the parents of this school, or this community, letting it get run into the ground, and I certainly don’t think that’s the boards or current superintendents intent either. I can empathize with the current superintendent, and board, because it appears she was seeking advise from past superintendents (just by reading these comments and past comments) and in a way sort of undermining the current superintendent and board. I would bet that past Superintendents would not have appreciated these comments when they were employed by BISD. Which leads this reader to believe there was some resistance to change. Not to mention the animosity that came along with anyone taking the current superintendent position, because the board then did not even give Mrs Steenken a interview. I know I would have been upset if I were in her shoes, and I was, once I heard they did not interview her. Just my opinion, perhaps she had too many (metaphorically speaking) “bosses”.
Realistically, Change was going to happen regardless. She was at a no win situation when the board took the action they did on her contract. She had to make a choice, either make the changes, wait it out and see if she could out last the superintendents contract, or retire. (Just judging by the posted comments they didn’t seem to get a long.) Either way it’s a sad situation. She’s done a great service to this community. Regardless, change is coming, like it or not. When one door closes another one opens. There just might be bigger opportunities around the corner for everyone. Great job Mrs Steenken!
Too soon. Fifteen years of great service to the community and school. You leave behind a great legacy. Working with Mrs. Lindell in Moving 50% of the African-American students, about 50 students, out of Special Education and giving them the opportunity to be in regular education. In three years they went from a success rate of 9% passing to over 70% of them meeting the state requirements. We avoided the TEA takeover and looked back.
You then changed our discipline numbers to the point we no longer required all day ISS. The culture of the kids changed to helping one another and pulling for each other. That translated to teamwork and being unafraid of hard work. That lead to athletic successes on a regular basis. In 2012 we had girl’s volleyball and football in the state semi-finals, your youngest son was on the football team, David Warner’s kid, Sam Gibson, Xavier at QB with Ms. E wearing his number, Brandon Green. Volleyball had Mrs. Upshaw’s daughter, Kieke, our current coach and so many others digging and flying around the court. This past year we had it again.
You got a national award for your work in getting colleges to accept vocational classes taught at our HS for college credit. Soon others followed. Then in 2015 Burton HS was recognized as one of the Top 100 High Schools in Texas. We were judged on attendance, state test success, facilities, discipline, community support, college readiness, students enrolled in college, the armed forces or gainfully employed within one year of HS graduation, percentage of kids that passed all state tests, cost per student spent on education and graduated on time were some of the measures
It is disappointing that the district Board and superintendent chose to turn their back on you. Hopefully you will find a new passion that appreciates your integrity, your ethic and energy.
You leave behind a group of individuals that are trying to tear down what they have. Some out of hate, some out of apathy, some excited about the prospect of something new. They see the current successes as a reminder that they had no part in it. They want tear it down, subtract that success. They want build their own legacy. They do not realize if they kept the people responsible for the current success, they could add new staff with new ideas, avoiding mistakes made in the past. They could build a better legacy and get credit for sustaining success over many years. But such is life.
Mrs. Steenken left under duress from Superintendent. Superintendent went so far As to have a voluntary separation agreement drawn up without Mrs. Steenken requesting it and without the knowledge of the Board President. The superintendent tried to pressure Mrs. Steenken to sign it before the February Board meeting. Mrs. Steenken refused. The superintendent refused to hire a custodian for the HS campus from spring to this week. The superintendent refuses to hire a new counselor.
After twenty years of having a counselor, the superintendent made this decision. So the kids have no assistance in registering for ACT/SAT that are usually taken in November or December. No assistance with early college registration and acceptance. Six weeks is about over, no one to counsel the kids about progress reports. Guess who had to do all the schedule changes? Mrs. Steenken. Who is going to have to coordinate all the state testing materials? Mrs. Steenken.
In addition the superintendent changed policy on designated administrator for games. It used to be the Elementary Principal covered JH activities and Mrs. Steenken the High School. There is one or two activities per week and a short season for Junior High sports. Right now it is a volleyball game on Monday and football on Thursday. High school has at least three events a week. Volleyball on Tuesday and Friday. Football on Thursday and Friday.
What was The reason for the change in policy? Mrs. Steenken had a designee that was supposed to cover a volleyball game. The designee did not show up. The superintendent was walking through. She ended up having to stay to the end to serve as designated administrator. Having to sit in the stands for all those games, visit with parents and support the teams was “too much”. What was the response? The superintendent decided that not only would Mrs. Steenken have to cover all HS events, no more designers, Mrs. Steenken would also be required to attend all JH events as well. Instead of writing up Mrs. Steenken for the one miss in this superintendent’s three years, she punished Mrs. Steenken by heaping more demands on her time and forbade Mrs. Steenken to designate a staff member if she wished, which is Mrs. Steenken’s option. A designated administrator does not have to a certified administrator. The requirement is they be an employee not involved in coaching the activity. What the superintendent did was punitive. It also freed one staff member to do nothing and Mrs. Steenken to be responsible for all. Very arbitrary.
Mrs. Steenken was also questioned when she took a day off. You are not required to tell what you are doing on your day off, but the superintendent wanted to know. The superintendent also changed policy on leaving the campus for Mrs. Steenken, but not anyone else. Used to Mrs. Steenken would call to notify the superintendent if she would be leaving the campus. Now she is required to ask permission.
Pretty harsh and petty. This superintendent did what she could to not get along. She did all she could to make working at Burton ISD for fifteen years, Mrs. Steenken was no longer welcome.
Mrs. Steenken was a large part of re-designing the curriculum, for getting teachers training in lesson planning, and for innovative use of technology to encourage our students that were behind to catch up in their reading and math skills. She was responsible for encouraging staff, students and parents to attend remedial classes if necessary. She helped save our school from being closed down by the TEA. She turned around to the point our HS was recognized as one of the top 100 HS in Texas. We were one of two schools with a student population less than 400. Our students were recognized by the TEA as college ready in Math and Language Arts. She started the vocational classes for college credit that is now common across the state,. She received a national award for her work.
Now she gets no support from the Board. They know and condone the treatment listed above. The Board and superintendent has turned on all administrators. No one knows why. There is no documentation to support this treatment. What they have is fabricated to support their decisions. I guarantee you if pressed for them to present evidence to support the way they are treating these long time dedicated servants of the Burton community, there would be nothing. They have allowed abuses at their meetings, failing to enforce their own rules to allow people to attack them without an opportunity to respond, that is lack of due process. When this latest speaker used their name he was stopped immediately, the superintendent shaking her finger “he can’t do that”.
Burton ISD is being torn apart. Can no one save them from the decay?
Burton ISD is losing a FANTASTIC leader! Cheers to you Mrs. Steenken, may you enjoy your retirement.
Once again, same board member abstaining. I’m just shaking my head.