Let's Fill You In

At the end of the 2021-22 school year, Le Monde has lost roughly 1/3 of its staff, including our special education teacher, gifted and talented teacher, PE teacher, among others. These teachers are invaluable to our school in many ways.  Just a financial example, both the PE and GT teachers wrote their own grants for the school and/or hosted fundraisers, bringing in a combined total of roughly $50,000. Two days before school ended, Ms. Christine, our school counselor, was told her position was being cut. It's not even a year old.

We are losing valuable, amazing people dedicated to the financial health of Le Monde's programming, the social and emotional wellbeing of our students, and ultimately the success of our children. 

The magnitude of this is risky. We are a new school, and a special program that does not exist in this part of Oklahoma. With such a high rate of staff turnover, we are struggling to make improvement toward our school's mission and vision.

Le Monde's Board of Education

Currently, Le Monde's Board of Education doesn't seem to have a multi-year strategic plan driving their decisions. Their current method of decision-making is directly impacting our children's access to highly important resources and relational and environmental stability with faculty/staff, both essential to positive childhood outcomes.

Le Monde's board does not seem to have a nomination and selection process or procedure for prospective board members. We're not seeing any formal protocol to ensure incoming board members have some knowledge or experience with education. And, the process by which new board members are voted on is not democratic.

Le Monde's board isn't filling all board seats, and they're only bringing in people who unanimously vote with one voice. The minutes that are available for public viewing reflect that. Each year, they continue to reelect themselves. It has become clear, the board's votes do not always reflect the community voice, mission and vision of Le Monde, or IB values.

A growing number of the parent-teacher body has quickly become concerned, because we aren’t seeing transparency or accountability around operational and organizational decisions regarding Le Monde. Many of these decisions create moving targets for teachers and Mr. Seeright, which ultimately impact the relational and environmental stability of our school and our children. 

About This Petition

This petition is for the Le Monde Board of Education, who is holding their monthly meeting on Monday, June 13 at 7:30 p.m. in the H-wing. These meetings are open to the public, and we encourage everyone to be there. This is a school; children are welcome!

The parents of Le Monde call on the Board of Education to commit to transparency, accountability, an alignment to IB values, the upholding of Le Monde’s mission and vision, and amend the decision-making process to be more democratic. We also call on the Board of Education to make decisions about Le Monde based from a multi-year strategic plan that is made available for public review. We do this through our Calls to Action.

Our Positions

We stand behind our Executive Director, Lance Seeright. His empathy, passion, and drive for Le Monde is what draws and keeps families and faculty/staff invested. He provides a vital support role to the group of humans who make Le Monde so great, our faculty/staff.

We believe Lance is pulled in too many directions. He not only fulfills his job duties as both Executive Director and Principal, he also manages many of the board’s responsibilities by way of policy delegation by the board. He performs extra duties "as assigned". He manages all of this without the support of an assistant principal. To note, each new duty delegation takes away from his vital support role to faculty/staff. The impossibly high demand on Mr Seeright by the board has, in part, led to the high teacher turnover. The board, not Lance, is legally and financially responsible for the school's success or failure.

We continue to stand behind the faculty/staff and their needs. Today in particular, we rally for Ms. Christine and her immediate contract renewal as student counselor of Le Monde for the academic year 2022-23 and beyond.

As a person, she is invaluable to this school. She leads with compassion, ethics, and a commitment to making the world a better place. These virtues foster trust with faculty/staff, parents, and more importantly, the students. She is a lifeline, providing a safe place for many of our children. For some, school is the only place they experience stability and feel safe. As a professional, her value directly impacts the school’s bottom line: student performance and outcomes.  

Ponder This

The opportunity for our children to learn in a language immersive environment is vital to language acquisition. Le Monde is unique, not only in its language immersion, but in the cultural appreciation and commitment to inclusion that is so important to all Le Monde families. The parents and family members of the students want to be good stewards of this learning opportunity, while ensuring our voices are heard and incorporated as our school grows and evolves into the leading language education school in Oklahoma. 

Our Voices Matter

Our voices need to be heard. Our children are a huge investment in Le Monde. Their enrollment provides substantial funding to the school. About 1/3 of our children provide extra funding to the school, because they participate in gifted and talented/advanced placement, special education, free and reduced school lunches, and other programming.

Le Monde is more than the sum of its parts; together, the students and all the adults who play a part make a kaleidoscope of an organization with a vision to think and serve beyond themselves. We the parents love being part of this school that embraces multiculturalism and critical thinking. We are grateful to the founders for opening the school, and we thank the board for what they have done to keep it open. We are bringing forth these Calls to Action, because we want to support the board in stewarding the task at hand. We ask the board to consider this opportunity to grow and thus grow Le Monde in the direction this community believes in. The following Calls to Action are an invitation to further discussions through Listening Tours, and we are eager to proceed together.

We are Le Monde. All of us.

Please take a moment to review our Calls to Action and sign the petition before Monday, June 13. 

Direct any questions to parents.lemonde@gmail.com. 

PLEASE NOTE: this petition only represents the voices of the parents, guardians, or relatives of Le Monde students. And, it only represents the voices of those said individuals who have signed this petition. This petition is not authored or issued by Le Monde International School.

Thank you for your time and attention to these important matters regarding our children.

Sincerely,

Parents of Le Monde