Azle ISD Schools - opinions

[augustmist]

One of the principal's in Azle has been telling people that the Azle school board is planning on asking the superintendent to resign because of mismanagement and corruption in the district. Everyone I know that works for the district is very unhappy working there and poor treatment of employees and lack of administrative support are the main problems. Can anyone shed any light about the problems that are going on in this district and if the board is finally going to do something about it?

[yeah right]

azle has its head so far up its arse it cant see the light out its eyeballs. we need sports before academics? get real. my kids haven't had text books since grade K.

GOOD LUCK MORONS

[Get Real]

Its a sad thing when the future of our country will be in the hands of these young ones who are not taught the basis of education. With lottery money, and high property taxes Texas schools should be improved, but are not.
Visit a district where property owners pay very high taxes & look at their schools, they make sure their tax dollars go for those schools.
Azle is a small city just now catching up with other districts with revenues from the gas wells should be put into the schools.
I was greatful none of my kids attended Azle schools...they would have attended private before I would let them go there.
But its really time that the parents take a stand and demand changes, this is the only way changes will come....

[Teacher]

H.F. who works at the high school stirs up more crap. She is allways talking about other teachers and slamming the administration. Counselors should be there to help

[Too Old]

When I attended school, many, many years ago, we had PTA's. Parents were involved in everything that the schools and administrators did. They voiced their opinions and kept a close eye on what and how students were taught.
In todays world, students are dropped off at school, sometimes, even before school is open. Sports are more important than math, english and science. Children arrive home to empty houses and parents are too tired to help or ensure that class work is done. Ask a student who wrote the constitution of our country? But I bet they know every title and high score to a video game.
Teaching needs to get back to basics and prepare our future generation for what's to come.

[azle mom]

Hey teacher, I know what you are talking about. she is not a nice person.

[Mom-Above and Beyond]

My last and youngest daughter is a Senior at the High School and I have begged her to change schools for the last 2 years. This is all because of all the political hoopla that was going on 3 yrs. ago when our school district hired a new head volleyball coach. If you ever read the Azle News or the Sports in the Star Telegram you have seen her pictures and read about her (and others) during volleyball season. I'm sad to say that for those that watched and followed her,they won't see her there on the court anymore.On Tuesday night she played her last game against Midlothian. As much as it pains me to see her give up on her "Dream" since the age of around 10 years old, she has weighed the positive and negative and done a lot of soul searching with crying day and night and decided to "Quit"!This is all due to a coach that is continuously degrading the girls and playing them against one another more than the opposing team. This is also what these girls go through during practice,and don't forget they put in about 4 hrs. a day,(except game days), not including the actual class period.There has been several other girls Quit since she came to our school because they couldn't take the constant ridicule and degradation anymore. There is even one that transfered to another school.
I have tried to talk to the coach, and even the athletic coordinator as we are supposed to do before going to higher authority.This has not helped and really isn't acceptable. They do not want to hear from parents. The team has been instructed by the coach NOT to talk to parents,they are to come to her and talk themselves. I have been told by many of her teammates and their parents as well that there is no talking to her, just listening, and you are always wrong. I have to say, I agree 110%, because I too have tried.Personally, my daughter cannot talk to her even with me there without ending up in uncontrollable tears. The things that this woman has done and said to these girls is truly unimaginable, not to mention against UIL rules, the "Athletic Code" for coaches, and even the code set forth from the "TEA". I give up with playing "cat and mouse" and will not try to deal with the system in our school district anymore on this issue and suggest that others do the same.
I do not have the time to run in circles and see nothing getting accomplished or any changes, as do the majority of people thes days. Especially when it is something so trivial to the well being of a child. People are always talking about what shape this world will be in when they talk about this generation being the "Future". Well? Look who is with them the majority of the time and do something about it!I wrote a 3 page letter to the coach and e-mailed it and asked her to please call me after she read it,guess what?--you got it! I have not heard from her by phone nor e-mail.When other parents of my daughters teammates heard about her quitting the team, they called me, I shared with them the letter I wrote and they thanked me for getting it out in the open about some,(not all) the issues and not calling any names. They too are having to watch and listen to their daughters crying and being miserable because of this coach killing their love of the game and their self-esteem.There are still more threatening to quit or wait till district and have a "Walk OUT". This did get the athletic coordinators attention although it does still concern me as to why the attention is NOT on the well being of the girls themseves as individuals and why something would not get done before MY daughters "SPIRIT" was shattered by this so-called Coach.I would love to hear from others that may want me to add their complaints to my next letters going out to the above named resources and also share with you exactly what this coach has done to my daughter and a few others.Leave me your e-mail address or phone# and I will check for a reply on this site.

[Mystified]

to Mom-above and beyond. It is awful about your daughter. As a former employee of the district, I was mortified at the behavior of the coaching staff at AHS in an inservice I attended. They were openly rude to the speaker. They were talking amongst themselves in loud voices with some of them even turning their backs on the speaker. The most shocking thing of all is that all this was taking place with the Coordinator of Secondary Curriculum sitting close by. She never said one word to them about their disrespectful and embarrassing behavior, but then they are all friends. This is the biggest problem in this district. Too many people in Central Admin are covering up for the unprofessional behavior of certain employees in the district. Nepotism is rampant. And if an administrator like the AHS prinicipal tries to set any standard in her school, she is beaten down by the Central Administration. Good employees and good administrators in this district get no support from the central admin, but if your are in the in-crowd (like most of the coaching staff) or are willing to kiss the ass of Central Admin then you can get away with anything.

Maybe when they bring in a new Superintendent, things will get better, but if the current board is really serious about improving this district then they need to do some more housekeeping in its Central Administration. There's more trash that needs to be taken out.

[Teacher]

I wish we could all get together and clean this place up.

[Mom-Above and Beyond]

Teacher wrote:

I wish we could all get together and clean this place up.

I am not ashamed of who I am nor how far I am willing to take this issue. If anyone wants to help me, even anonymously to others, you can e-mail me at [e-mail] I had so many threatening to turn the coach into the UIL last year for many things anf of course it was all talk. When I said I was tempted I was begged not to because the team would loose its Championship status and all the girls (seniors) had worked for. I started a notebook last year. All I need now is to finish getting typed for the UIL and other resources.

[concerned student]

I think we should stop arguing and find a way to fire ms Kelly !

[Relocated to AZLE]

This is a response to the blogs I have recently read.
My family and I recently relocated to the Azle area due to my husbands job transfer.My son was a wrestler for his previous school and considered wrestling for AHS, only to find he also was required to run cross country which he was not interested in. I went to the school to get his schedule changed out of wrestling and explained the reason for the change, only to find the wrestling coach in the office listening to us whom we had not yet met.
He looked at my son... in front of me and said, If you can't hack it we don't need you anyway"..but that wasn't the end of it..apparently there is a suggestive sign known to all the kids that refers to a woman's, he female parts and the wrestling coach made this sign (while my back was turned) to my son. This coach insinuated that my son was a *&%$$.In font of me and get this one of the assistant principals.As we walked out of the office and down the walk way to our car the wrestling coach was outside.When we passed by the coach, he came running up behind us still unfinished with what he had to say..and let my son know that if he did not wrestle he would have to sit out a complete year in between.I was proud of my son for his response..he said I totally and completely understand, but I will never wrestle for you. I was made aware of what happened behind my back after we got to the car.. I was so fuming mad, one because of my son having to be degraded and he hadn't even started school yet,and two because I worked in education for twelve years at our previous schools in NC,where this kind of behavior was NOT tolerated by any of the educational staff.
I threatened to go to the superintendent, but my son begged me to not cause any trouble for him being new to the area. He didn't want to risk the entire school year for the actions of an IGNORANT,SELF CENTERED,ABSORBED
IDIOT.
So for now we bide our time at AHS, but I guarantee should something like this happen again,I will not be quick to turn the other cheek.

[Scotty]

This type of behavior is not unknown in the past. Part of the problem is, there are too many on the board that are much more interested in sports than a good well rounded education. The issue of sports before education has been around since the AISD came into being. Any one that thinks that they may have some valid input for the staff, administration, or the board, will find themselves sadly disappointed. We always hear, "come to the board meetings and talk to us". Many people have tried very hard to do that, only to be ignored. "Thank you for your input, but we'll do it our way".

[Former Resident]

Well, I see Azle HS hasn't changed a bit. If anything, it sounds as though it may have gotten worse. To Mom-Above and Beyond and Relocated to AZLE...all I can say is "Good Luck." I was a student there for 2 years and your stories sound all too familiar. I'm glad your children have parents like you to help and support them. Most of the school administration at AHS damn sure won't.