Unrest at secondary school in Amsterdam: 60 teachers (!) gone, great dissatisfaction with management | Domestic

There is talk of an exodus at the Calandlyceum in Nieuw-West. From internal documentation that Het Parool has seen that eighty employees, out of more than one hundred and fifty, have left since August 2022. They include sixty teachers and six team leaders.

It has been restless at the Calandlyceum for some time now. In the summer of 2022, the Calandlyceum was given an ‘improvement assignment’ by the Education Inspectorate, because it was unclear how the school would strive for quality. At that time, then director Wendelien Hoedemaker left after a disagreement with the board.

In the following year the school had three different principals. The improvement assignment from the inspection was completed in December 2022.

In addition, the school is in serious financial problems, according to documents Het Parool realized that €700,000 had to be raised from its own funds to continue running for the 2023-2024 school year.

Insiders – who do not want to be named in the newspaper for fear of reprisals, but whose identity is known to the editors – report that the behavior of the third and current director Sufayil Dönmez, who took office in May 2023, is accelerating the exodus .

In internal documentation, but also from conversations with these insiders, one incident emerges that would be indicative. On the first day that Dönmez was director, there was a clash between him and a team leader, who had previously sent a critical email about the school’s vision. According to insiders, the team leader was summarily dismissed that same day.

When other employees got wind of this, later that day there was an altercation in the staff room between them and the director, during which Dönmez allegedly shouted at employees. According to the board of the Progresso school umbrella organization, which includes the Calandlyceum, a coaching program was initiated, but insiders say they never heard anything about it again.

“It is true that there was a staff outflow at the end of the previous school year,” says director Judith van Biemen. However, according to her, this concerns the departure of thirty teachers, a number that would not differ significantly from previous years. “In addition to the regular outflow, a number of employees have indeed left who did not agree with the choices made as part of the improvement process. This is normal and understandable in a situation where there are changes in an organization.”

She says she is aware of ‘a discussion in the staff room’ in May 2023. “This related to an organizational choice about which there was a difference of opinion between a number of members of the team and Mr Dönmez. I discussed this afterwards with a number of team members and Mr Dönmez.”

According to Van Biemen, with the appointment of director Dönmez, there is ‘more focus and structure at the school’. “Employees are now experiencing pleasure in their daily work again.”

Regarding finances, Van Biemen says that Progresso is ‘a financially healthy organization’. “It is true that the number of employees at the Calandlyceum, as well as at many other schools, has increased as a result of the extra resources that the school has received to eliminate the corona backlog. This must be brought back into balance with regular funding.” That is why there was a contribution from equity. She does not recognize the amount of seven thousand euros.