JPA Head of School: Steve McCambridge

I said I'd be writing about Julie Jovan, but I'll have to put that one off.

It's about that time where international schools are recruiting teachers, and I feel it's my "responsibility" to discuss Steve McCambridge. You'll find out later why I put "responsibility" in quotes.

Steve was the head of operations at Jay Pritzker Academy while the former principal was still there. After raising school wide test scores by a miraculous percentile, the principal's contract was terminated. That's not my story to tell, but I'll just say that he and Jeanette Dibella had a large disagreement and the billionaires flew out to Siem Reap from San Fran to fire him, giving this as a reason: they were doubling down on Jeanette. Whatever happened to negotiation? This also left the teachers feeling like we had no job security. If the principal can get fired with no due process, what about us?

Dan Pritzker assigned Steve McCambridge as the new head of school. Dan told us that he believed Steve was serious about education and about Cambodia, since he's been an expat for ten plus years and can speak conversational Khmer. And as head of operations, he did work hard to keep the campus beautiful--I'll give him that. He made sure the walls were painted, the buses were running on time, and the food was nutritious. The teachers witnessed him taking a very angry and demeaning tone of voice when speaking to the Khmer staff, but since we didn't understand Khmer, what could we really say. He also fired the Khmer staff with no due process, and he seemed to do it quite often. We would come to school and there would be another bus driver, another custodian. Well, he was always very polite to the white expat staff.

When Steve first was promoted, the teachers supported him. We wanted the school to work, despite the political problems. The students are amazing. They are well behaved and hungry to learn. The Pritzkers promised that they college was in their future if they received a certain level of success on test scores and school work. We wanted them to go to college, badly. So, we worked with Steve, although he does not have a university degree. We worked with him while he proceeded to demoralize teachers (Khmer and expats this time), students, and other staff.

The next posts:

How Steve McCambridge Demoralizes Students

How Steve McCambridge Demoralizes Teachers

How Steve McCambridge is Racist Against Khmer People