Bright elementary is the worst of the worst. High teacher turnover. Dropping enrollment. 2 teaching positions eliminated last year. Ever since the current principal began her tenure at O.T. Bright school test scores have plummeted, enrollment has dropped, and teaching positions have been cut. Needless to say: morale at O.T. Bright elementary school is in the pits. The principal is very disrespectful and combative (her favorite word). She screams at the students and the teachers. I have heard her scream at a teacher in front of other parents and children. I dont understand why our kids never receive the required textbooks and workbooks until November? Who is in charge of ordering materials the teachers or the principal? Is there any wonder why so many teachers quit Bright in the middle of the year every school year? Every year we get a new batch of teachers and a new assistant principal. It is heartbreaking to see teachers pick up our kids in the morning after marathon morning staff meetings that regularly go over time and force our kids to stay out way after the bell. At least 4 times this year I noticed that the teachers had tears in their eyes after a meeting. Our children should not have to see that. Bright elementary school has a huge problem with bullying unfortunately the biggest bully is the principal and all of our children are suffering because of it. Bright elementary is the worst school in Chicago and it needs change. Desperately.

I know a few teachers that worked there, this seems like one of the prime examples of why education is doing below average. The biggest surprise is that this principal is still there, I wonder how is she accountable to someone else?This school seems more like a day care instead of an institution of learning. I know some teachers try very hard but if there is little support from administration it just makes it very difficult. This school needs a reset button.

In the middle of every year the principal hires brand new teachers just out of colleges like UIC, Quincy, DePaul, and Dominican only to blame those teachers for problems the principal caused herself. Do they bother asking why so many positions are even available? The principal blames new teachers for low test scores and bad discipline even though its the principal that forces teachers to use antiquated methods and disrespects teachers right in front of parents and students. What does it say for the treatment of teachers if even the best of the best veteran teachers that have received the Golden Apple Award have bolted at their first chance? How safe can teachers or students feel when the principal refuses to apply the CPS discipline policy for student bullying and theft unless the students steal from her office? The principal treats teachers as expendable-except for the few that keep coming back year after year. How do the same handful of teachers come back year after year when the other dozen + the assistant principal transfer or quit after just a few months? Could it be that the principal plays favorites? If older teachers get younger teachers in trouble do they save their skin? Or does the principal hold something over their heads? Is this why new teachers disappear from one day to the next and nobody says anything? Miss so-and-so was having health problems so thats why she quit. Health problems? Really? Do they mean stress leave? So how exactly does the administration make teachers sick? How about stressing them out by not allowing them to check portfolios, write lesson plans and update their bulletin boards because the principal calls them into her private sorority-shrine-office for daily 2-hour-plus bullying sessions-even interrupting their lunch breaks and prep times? By screaming at them: and you call yourself a teacher while a variety of phone calls and other people interrupt the 15-hour-per-week-plus bullying sessions? How about the assistant principals that get roped in into the questionable treatment of staff? Oh yes, principal malignant is telling the truth and you havent updated your portfolios, turned in good lesson plans or fixed bulletin boards. Never mind the fact that the assistant principals dont witness the times the principal interrupts instruction by asking students to move furniture in the middle of lessons. You have to admit she sure knows how to hire: she gets young teachers fresh out of college, teachers that cant receive any protection from the union. If the principal is always right why are the assistant principals always found crying in their office daily and then quitting mysteriously in the summer? This is how certain principals get 140K even though they cause schools to fail. They benefit from being politically connected in a peculiar school district with a cowering staff and silent community. These are the ethics lessons for children at O.T. Bright: new teachers are expendable, children are expendable and the principal gets to act as a third-world dictator while African American and Hispanic children get a substandard education. Look on the CPS website. Why is the assistant principals name still listed in a position she left in 2011? The other two assistant principals names have not even been listed on the CPS website. Look at the results of the 5 Essentials survey conducted by the University of Chicago. The link is available on the CPS website. Only 7 teachers feel supported and respected by the principal. I wonder which ones.

When I was little I went to this school and I was there in Chicago for six years starting at the lowest grade and ending at 4th grade and I liked the school not the principal but some of my teacher and she made one of my sisters favorite teacher quit and she got fired a few years ago.

Horrible environment for children and staff. There is a reason for the dropping enrollment: a terrible principal. If the elimination of positions was not bad enough the high turnover of teachers and assistant principals makes the school unstable. What could be so awful at this school that people leave in droves? The principal goes out of her way to intimidate and insult staff. She even gets staff to inform on each other. The principal bullied my nieces teacher every day including during her lunch break and for 2 hour meetings after school during which the principal screamed at her and told her to assume the children know nothing. Its no surprise that the school gets a new assistant principal every year.

I love it