Baker-Butler This community didn’t need a formal invitation to come together. Families, teachers, and staff — people who rarely share the same hours of the day — mobilized, organized, and spoke with one voice. What you’re seeing here is what Baker-Butler already is. We’re asking for the leadership to let us and this county shine.
About this site
Baker-Butler is the largest elementary school in Albemarle County. It has had five principals in eight years. Families, teachers, and staff built this survey — and this site — because the district provided no formal way to ask what the community needs before appointing the next principal.
146 people responded anyway. The camaraderie and unified purpose in those responses is the proof that this school is ready. This data is being presented to Dr. Matt Haas, Dr. Daphne Keiser, and the Albemarle County School Board.
Read our unified voice → Contact the board →
The pattern in numbers
Five principals in eight years. The National Blue Ribbon was earned during the only extended stable period.1
Teacher turnover has risen every year, crossing the critical threshold in 2024–25.1
¹ Virginia Dept. of Education, School Quality Profiles — Baker-Butler Elementary (2024–25)
Our Unified Voice — May 12–16, 2026
146 voices. One direction. These are the themes that came through clearly.
146 people responded in five days — May 12–16, 2026. The survey was not commissioned by ACPS. The district offered no formal mechanism for community input before appointing the next principal. So the community built one.
Respondents: 72.6% are Baker-Butler parents; 19.9% are Baker-Butler teachers or staff; 7.5% are both. The responses below come from people who are in this building every day.
One note on what this data does not capture: a meaningful number of staff did not feel safe completing this survey. Several respondents said so explicitly. The numbers here are a floor.
What 197 open-ended comments said
The survey included three open-ended questions. Respondents were not given categories or prompts — they wrote freely. The numbers below count how many of those 197 independent responses raised each concern unprompted.
Each dot represents one response.
“Baker-Butler is severely lacking an administrative team that’s willing to help where needed. Telling us ‘you’ll figure it out’ in response to requests for assistance — there has been a clear lack of empathy and a big distinction in ‘us’ and ‘them.’”
“We are such a strong team as staff. We deserve and want that in return from our administration. They are not communicating with each other, and that is affecting how students are learning, how discipline is being handled, and how our school is being run as a community.”
“A trusting leader for the teachers is crucial. The uncertainty and distrust that happens when leadership is cycled through spreads throughout the employees, causing this hemorrhaging of staff that we have seen.”
“For the past three years, administrators have not known the students’ names. Not knowing students as individuals absolutely impacts discipline, community, and the support that teachers feel.”
“This is the first school we’ve been at that actively prevents families from engaging in daily life at the school. The teachers at our school are amazing. Sadly, they are not being supported in this. They are being policed, being devalued, and being punished.”
“Students with behavioral issues are often simply ignored by administration and returned to classrooms to continue disrupting the education of other students.”
“Stay for more than one year. You can’t make a connection with constant turnover.” (submitted twice, independently)
“I’m tired of doing this every couple of years. We can’t build anything if you keep sending folks away and don’t value the input of the search committees.”
Responses could address more than one theme. Source: Baker-Butler Community Survey, May 12–16, 2026. 146 respondents, 197 open-ended comments.
Baker-Butler Community Survey, May 12–16, 2026. 146 respondents in five days.
This data was collected, analyzed, and presented by the Baker-Butler community. It is being submitted to Dr. Matt Haas (Superintendent), Dr. Daphne Keiser (Assistant Superintendent), and the Albemarle County School Board.
The Cost of the Revolving Door
What five principals in eight years has done to this school.
Virginia’s Department of Education publishes annual School Quality Profiles for every public school. Baker-Butler’s data documents what the community already knew.
Five principals in eight years
Baker-Butler earned a National Blue Ribbon Award in 2020, recognizing five years of stable leadership that closed the Black-White achievement gap from 40 to 13 percentage points. Since 2019, the school has had four different principals. The position was re-posted for 2026–27 before the school year ended.1
Five principals in eight years. The National Blue Ribbon was earned during the only extended stable period.1
Academic performance
Both reading and math scores declined in 2024–25, the year of the most recent principal transition. Writing proficiency, tracked separately by the state, dropped 13 points in one year — from 73% to 65% — while the division and state averages both held at 76%.1
Math held stable and above division average during the same period. The divergence in writing tracks the transition window specifically.1
Research from the Brookings Institution links principal transitions to lower test scores and reduced teacher retention — with effects lasting up to three years after each change.2 Baker-Butler has had three transitions in three years, with no recovery window between them.
SOL pass rates, Baker-Butler, 2022–2025. Source: Virginia Dept. of Education School Quality Profiles.1
Teacher retention
Baker-Butler’s teacher turnover rate has risen every year for three consecutive years, reaching 22.1% in 2024–25 — above the critical threshold identified by education researchers and more than double the state average.1
12.5% of Baker-Butler’s teachers are now first-year — nearly double the division average of 7%.1
The Learning Policy Institute estimates the cost of replacing a single principal at $75,000 in preparation, hiring, and placement costs.3 Baker-Butler has absorbed this cost five times in eight years.
Baker-Butler teacher turnover, 2022–2025. Critical threshold at 20%. Source: Virginia Dept. of Education School Quality Profiles.1
The SPED dimension
Baker-Butler has one of the largest special education populations in the county. IEPs are legal documents specifying services — pre-opening school access, teacher familiarization, environmental preparation — that must be in place before the school year begins.
At least one Baker-Butler family reported at a public board meeting that pre-opening school access written into their child’s IEP went unfulfilled for two consecutive years, including after a direct commitment from school leadership.4
A November 2025 Virginia General Assembly report found that SPED teacher retention is directly tied to administrative stability.5 Three principals in three years does not produce that stability.
The hiring process
Virginia Code § 22.1-293: the school board, upon recommendation of the superintendent, employs principals.6 No board policy requires community participation in that process.
Virginia Code § 22.1-78 authorizes the board to adopt regulations for the management of its official business.7 It has not done so for principal hiring.
Fairfax County uses community stakeholder panels for principal interviews.8 Prince George’s County, Maryland mandates a panel including at least one SPED parent.9 Nothing in Virginia law prevents ACPS from doing the same.
Taken together
The writing drop, the first-year teacher rate, the IEP fulfillment failure, the absence of community process — these are not separate problems. They are the same problem at different stages: a school absorbing repeated leadership transitions without a recovery window, managed by a district that does not publicly report whether it is meeting its legal obligations to its most vulnerable students.
References
- Virginia Department of Education — School Quality Profiles, Baker-Butler Elementary (2024–25). schoolquality.virginia.gov
- Brookings Institution — “The Cascading Effects of Principal Turnover on Students and Schools.” brookings.edu
- Learning Policy Institute — “Supporting a Strong, Stable Principal Workforce.” learningpolicyinstitute.org
- Baker-Butler parent testimony, ACPS School Board meeting, spring 2025.
- Virginia General Assembly — Recruiting and Retaining Special Education Teachers (RD759, November 2025). rga.lis.virginia.gov
- Code of Virginia § 22.1-293. law.lis.virginia.gov
- Code of Virginia § 22.1-78. law.lis.virginia.gov
- Fairfax County Public Schools — community involvement in principal selection. content.govdelivery.com
- Prince George’s County Public Schools — Board Policy 4113. pgcps.org
Our Demands
What we are asking for — and when.
The new school year starts August 12th. A principal must be in place, prepared, and connected to this community before that date. That leaves a narrow window. These are the specific commitments we are asking the district to make.
A public search timeline — with community checkpoints built in
We are asking the district to publish a complete timeline for this search: when the position closes, when candidates are screened, when interviews occur, and when a decision is made. That timeline should be shared publicly, not filed internally.
It should also be explicit about who is driving each stage — the superintendent, an outside firm, a committee — and where community input formally enters the process. A survey that gets collected and never referenced again is not community input.
A recruitment process that fills the funnel with the right candidates
62% of survey respondents said the next principal must be a Teacher Champion. 59% said Community Builder. 47% said they must commit to staying. Those priorities need to be embedded in how this position is posted and promoted — not just used as interview talking points at the end.
We are asking the district to publish the specific criteria used to screen applicants, confirm whether an outside search firm is involved and what their brief is, and describe what steps are being taken to reach candidates who are already trusted leaders in comparable schools — not just whoever applies to a posted listing.
A selection process that gives the community a real voice at the final stage
The bottom of the funnel is where previous searches have failed this community. Input collected at the start has been overruled at the end. A parent who served on a hiring committee reported that a candidate the committee rejected was hired anyway. That cannot happen again.
We are asking for a school-specific advisory panel for finalist interviews — including Baker-Butler parents, teachers, and at least one SPED family representative. The panel’s assessment should be documented and submitted to the superintendent and board before any offer is extended. The community’s recommendation should be on record, and any decision to override it should require an explicit, public explanation.
Why the dates matter
A principal who arrives on August 12th having met the staff, reviewed IEPs, walked the building, and understood the community is a different hire than one who walks in cold. The work of transition happens before the first day. These dates are not arbitrary — they are the minimum required for a real start.
What You Can Do
Reach out to the superintendents and the board.
We’ve put together simple email copy you can use to send your own note. Pick a topic, choose how you identify, and copy the text. All the addresses you need are on this page.
1 Pick a topic
2 Choose how you identify
3 Review and send
Subject
Body
Send to these addresses:
mhaas@k12albemarle.org, mkeiser@k12albemarle.org, jle@k12albemarle.org, aspillman@k12albemarle.org, rberlin@k12albemarle.org, kacuff@k12albemarle.org, jdillenbeck@k12albemarle.org, bbeard@k12albemarle.org, eosborne@k12albemarle.org