Angry Teachers Abandoning Boston's City on a Hill Charter

By Julie Blair

Educators working in Massachusetts' first accredited charter school are so furious with the implementation of a new governance system that nearly 60 percent of the faculty members plan to quit at the end of the school year. They say they're convinced that the school's philosophy of teacher-driven decisionmaking has been corrupted by bureaucrats.

The imminent exodus from the 220-student City on a Hill Charter School in Boston follows the board of trustees' decision to hire several administrators to manage school business, said Ann Connolly Tolkoff, one of two teachers who started the school and a current board member. The school has grown in size and scope since it opened its doors seven years ago, and now needs full-time managers, she said.

But many of the 26 teachers employed at the school contend that the new administrators have destroyed the stability of the school and ultimately...