TEACHERS IN THEIR OWN WORDS — A YEAR OF UNHEARD CONCERNS
Source Documents
The narrative below is constructed from public records obtained via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for internal District 31 communications between Field Middle School staff and District Administration from August 2025 through April 2026. These documents provide a window into the professional reality of the SBG rollout that was never formally shared with the public.
We have chosen to present these in their original sequence to show how concerns were not just isolated moments of friction, but a sustained, year-long effort by educators to seek clarity and support that documents show was not provided in a way staff felt was effective. We encourage you to access and read the full compilation of email correspondence in the Resources section.
Summary Metrics
- 24 unique email threads documenting implementation friction points
- 3 formal written letters from 6th-grade staff to Administration
- 0 public acknowledgments of staff implementation objections through the entire year
- 1 formal response to all of it: "We will continue to implement fully SBG in 6th grade and continue with preparation to roll it up to 7th grade and 8th grade as planned." (Admin's update to the Board, December 2025)
The Evidence, Chronologically
September 3, 2025 — "We really need it"
This exchange was initiated by Sandra Luna (Director of Multilingual Services) and Lauren Lipsey, who proactively offered to join a team meeting after hearing there were "questions or concerns regarding grading for our ML students within the SBG system." This was two weeks into the school year. Teachers needed help with foundational grading questions from day one.
Q1 Fall 2025 (before 1st report card) — The teacher letter to administration
This document appears to be the "comprehensive handout summarizing the team's experience" referenced by district administration in their December 18, 2025 formal update to the Board. Internal language suggests it was written in preparation for the first Q1 gradebook update — meaning teachers raised these concerns before the first quarter SBG report card went out. It is signed by the 6th grade/Arts+ team collectively.
This collective letter from the 6th grade core team detailed the "social-emotional toll" on both staff and students.
Q1 Fall 2025 — Teacher structured concerns document
This document appears to be compiled notes from a 6th grade teacher meeting, organized under two sections: "Concerns" and "Lack of Support." No author is named. The timing places it in the same early-Q1 window as the letter above. See quote: "Genuine concern about losing good staff who are feeling unlistened to and overwhelmed"
Q1 Fall 2025 — The structured check-in meeting: teachers and administrators
After Q1 report cards went out on November 7, 2025, 6th grade teachers were asked to meet with administration. The following is drawn from the structured meeting notes.
On inconsistency across teachers:
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"Different teachers using different criteria for what is considered 'meeting' at this point in the quarter."
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"Potential parent confusion because inconsistencies in grading in different content areas."
On the need for support:
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"Support on how to communicate with parents; need support with admin on this."
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"Teachers need support for content areas that don't have a specific coordinator (arts+, Spanish, pe, social studies, etc.); would be helpful to have someone who really knows their standards and content and have experienced SBG before."
On student impact:
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"Students asking a lot of questions about why they're getting the grade they're getting (seeing Cs, Ds, Fs)."
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"Students feeling stress because they have to tell parents why they're getting low letter grades."
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"Negative: students overly-focused on the letter grade, social-emotional impact on students."
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"Feels less clarity for students and parents using SBG."
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On what teachers wanted changed:
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"Close student/parent portal while figuring things out/or until later in the quarter."
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"Going back to old system but still somehow reporting on standards."
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"Can we look at other districts who are using hybrid model?"
December 18, 2025 — The district's formal response: "We will continue as planned"
After receiving the teacher letter, the structured check-in notes, and reviewing the Q1 family survey results (which showed 76.5% of parents found the report card unclear), district administration issued a formal written response and presented it at the December 18, 2025 Board of Education meeting. The administration also acknowledged what teachers had shared with them on a separate slide in the same presentation (see below).
District's own summary of what teachers told them:
"Teachers shared concerns regarding SBG, including: Increased workload / Monitoring work completion / Preparing students for HS courses that are traditionally graded / Aligning instruction to standards-based grading practices."
The formal decision:
"We will continue to implement fully SBG in 6th grade and continue with preparation to roll it up to 7th grade and 8th grade as planned."
Framing of teacher concerns:
"With only one quarter (9 weeks) of SBG implementation, we remain in a transition phase where workload and challenges are highest. Working through these challenges is expected and will become smoother over time. We have been preparing for this shift for several years and will continue partnering to move SBG forward together."
This response was delivered to the same teachers who had submitted a detailed written document describing social-emotional harm to students and staff, persistent unanswered grading questions, technology burdens, and a genuine concern about losing good teachers. The formal response acknowledged the feedback and proceeded without modification to the timeline or implementation plan.
"We will continue to implement fully SBG in 6th grade and continue with preparation to roll it up to 7th grade and 8th grade as planned." — Administration's formal update to the Board, December 2025
February 18, 2026, 8:04 AM — "We are in the middle of drowning"
Lauren Lipsey had emailed 6th grade teachers asking them to share SBG "tips and tricks" at the upcoming all-staff March meeting. This was two months after teachers had submitted their formal concerns document and received the "we continue as planned" response.
February 18, 2026, 8:52 AM — "We aren't at that point"
February 27, 2026 — "We are still stuck"
The administration had pivoted from a staff meeting "tips" format to a "Gallery Walk" — asking 6th grade teachers to display their SBG materials for 7th grade teachers to browse at the March 17 PD Day.
March 2, 2026 — "We can't breathe ourselves"
Lauren Lipsey's full response to this email — sent the same day, addressed to the same teacher — was a single sentence: "I will stop by the 6th grade team meeting on Wednesday as planned and we can talk more." This email was sent with the Assistant Principal copied. It contains four distinct, documented concerns: (1) fundamental questions about day-to-day SBG practice remained unanswered after a full year; (2) the 6th grade team had never once been given time to collaborate among themselves; (3) administration's responses to teacher questions were formulaic and unhelpful; (4) most 6th grade teachers did not feel good about what they were doing.
April 16, 2026 — The Superintendent confirms "a high level of frustration"
This all-staff email was sent on the same day the FOIA request was submitted. The Superintendent's own words confirm: "a high level of frustration," concerns about "purpose, preparedness, and implementation," and that "adjustments have not gone far enough." The district's plan for next steps will not be presented to the Board until June 2026 — yet continued expansion at Field is expected for the Fall of 2026.
What a full school year of documentation shows
The documentation collected here suggests that the implementation of SBG at Field Middle School suffered from what staff characterized as a top-down approach that did not adequately account for the complexities of middle school grading or the legitimate concerns of the educators responsible for it.
From before the first report card was issued in Fall 2025 through the final weeks of the school year in Spring 2026, 6th grade teachers at Field Middle School documented their concerns in writing — repeatedly, formally, and with specificity. They described a team that was never given time to work through the system together. They described students experiencing social-emotional harm. They described foundational grading questions that remained unanswered after months of implementation. They described the departure of key support staff at the worst possible moment. They asked for alternatives. They asked for time. They asked to be heard.
Instead of a collaborative adjustment process, the archive shows a pattern of requests for help being met with reminders of the overarching vision. As the district prepares for the Fall 2026 rollout, these documents remain as a record of what can happen when stakeholders are consulted in name, but not in practice. The goal of this archive is to ensure these professional concerns are finally made a part of the public conversation regarding the future of grading at Field Middle School.