Hello. My name is Yvette Amblo-Bose.

I have been a School Counselor in the Burlington School District for 21 years.

During this time, I have had the honor of serving hundreds of Burlington students and families, -- and
the privilege of being colleagues with some of the best educators in Vermont.

As a School Counselor at BHS, I have worked under the leadership of 4 Principals and 5 Guidance
Directors.

I have always felt respected, valued, and valuable as a professional and person -- in the Burlington
School District until last year.

I can best describe my experience at BHS last year as one where I was ignored, silenced, shamed and
bullied to the point that it created significant barriers to serving my students, families and colleagues
to the level of which I am capable -- and that they deserve.

During our first meeting with our new Director of Guidance last August, we were informed that our
roles as Counselors had changed, but were not offered any clarity or rational around these changes.

In that first meeting and throughout the year, we asked for clarification of our roles- and the reasons
behind the changes. We were consistently met with ambiguity, hostility, and blaming.

For example, during a department meeting early in the fall, we were reminded that BHS School
Counselors were no longer the point people for our students when they needed social or emotional
support. As a professional School Counselor who is licensed, trained, and experienced in serving
students in this way for over 20 years, I asked for more information:

The response I received was a finger pointed across a desk and into my face, followed by a loud angry
voice telling me that I was the problem in the department. That I asked too many questions and that I
was unwilling to change.

Despite this and other attempts to silence our questions and advocacy around best practice and
services for students and families we as a Counseling Department continued year to ask questions.

**We voiced concerns that no member of the BHS Counseling Department was consulted about or
collaborated with around changes in services. **We asked why no needs-assessment or other
information was gathered in a systematic, transparent, or intentional way including input from
students, parents, faculty, staff, and counselors prior to making changes. **We asked who was making
these decisions-- and based on what knowledge of our school, student needs, and professional and
ethical standards of school counselors. **All inquiries were met with defensiveness and hostility, and
answered with vague references to the board and superintendent or left unanswered.

In addition to on-going lack of clarity, the Counselors and Registrar endured unprofessional, dishonest
and disrespectful behavior from the Director in our office all year. Examples include ignoring us on a
 daily basis, tantruming when asked to participate in department services like presenting college
information to Senior Seminar classes, and refusal to work with a high-risk student with potential self-
harm ideation - at the request of another staff member. In these and other countless examples, the
other Counselors and Registrar in our office had to pick up and cover for his lack of communication,
professionalism, follow-through and day-to-day work as a school counselor and director, so all
students could continue to be served.

Throughout the year, Counselors made on-going attempts to address these and other concerns directly
with the Director.

We also addressed our concerns to our Directors supervisor, the Principal of BHS, on several
occasions. Although Ms. Racicot listened and offered a few interventions, the Director in our
department was not interested or engaged in hearing or working with us, evidenced by not making any
sustainable changes in his professional practice or day to day treatment of us. Further, he was not held
accountable to any on-going changes by his supervisor or other administrators, essentially giving him
permission to underperform in his job, make unilateral changes, and treat other professionals in any
manner he desired -- creating a hostile work environment for all.

As experienced professionals who believe deeply in modeling respect, clarity, teamwork, honesty, and
integrity we were left with no choice but to leave BHS at the end of the school year. Ethically, we
could not continue to be attached to a department or school led by administrators who refused to
hear, respect, or value our professional experience and voices knowing the extreme negative impact
it was having and would continue to have on services for students, families and colleagues.

So although not one of us started the 2016 -2017 school year thinking it would be our last at BHS,
these are the truths behind the resignation of 3 experienced School Counselors and 1 highly-
competent Registrar from the BHS Guidance and Counseling Department. It is my belief that the
Burlington Community deserves to be told the truth about what is happening at BHS.

Thank you.