Kauffman School reviews

Let me take you on a journey through the toughest two years of my life. Hopefully you can live vicariously through my experience and spare yourself the trauma to come. I remember waking up at 1:00 am most nights, horrified and drenched in sweat at the mere thought that I might’ve overslept and missed a 6:30 am meeting or call. My stomach and spine had contrived a quite familiar relationship-- since they were always touching one another, as I was unable to enjoy lunch or leave the premises for anything conducive to my well-being. Yet somehow, I still managed to pack on an unhealthy stress induced 15 pounds. When I first heard the term “built to last” I assumed that it was some sick version of military style initiation that prepared one to work, and try to thrive, in some of the most harrowing corporate environments. Afterall, this is all I knew working at Kauffman School. To my surprise, it was the complete opposite. But how? How could “built to last” be anything more than verbal abuse coupled with demeaning down speak, cult-like procedures, color-coded growth opportunities, empty threats and blanketed lies to sheath the truth – leadership incompetency. I’ve witnessed first-hand, people get told that their input was foolish, to “shut-up” in meetings, get berated for opting to actually teach students instead of chastise them for running their fingers through their hair or resting their chin on their palm. Putting all the 5th-11th grade students in five of the worst zip codes in Kansas City in one school that promises to get them to and through college looks like a noble undertaking, doesn’t it? What if I told you that those same students who often have concerns about where they’ll sleep some nights, or how they’ll manage to complete homework while working a night job, get plagued on a daily basis for not walking with their hands by their sides, using sign language to speak to one another in the hallway, demerited for not sitting a certain way or speaking in a certain manner? Would it still seem as morale? Then, to endure all of this without acknowledgement of the trauma or foundational frustrations outside of school is counterproductive at best. And to anyone who is employed under such strict standards and disagrees with the aforementioned discipline tactics – you are blackballed, dismissed, degraded verbally in meetings and, blatantly put, bullied. “Well why don’t you leave?” is something I’m sure you’re contemplating. Leaving is merely half the battle. I’ve laid eyes on “action plans” that the CEO and others in leadership devised to retain employees that appear to be contemplating redemption. In these action plans, leadership utilizes everyone at the school whom you may think are “friends” and truly care about your well-being against you as a manipulative ploy to get you to stay. They’ll employ people to inquire about your dating and love life, sponsor happy hours, appear to give you this mirage-like pillar of support—which in reality is just the cyanide that cripples the logical decision you made to move on in the first place. So here you are, constantly looking over your shoulder, because there are eyes everywhere. You find yourself the recipient of gifts you never asked for, but you take them anyway to be “courteous” and soon you forget why you were going to leave “Disneyland” in the first place. But much like Disneyland – you’ve entered the dimension of make-believe and just as soon as you get comfortable the abuse returns. It’s like a scary movie where the antagonist merely keeps you alive only to experience your internal death over and over and over again. A hamster wheel of degradation, manipulation and delusions. Word of advice: decline the interview…. unless you are a single, CIS, asexual white woman, under 40 with no desire for children and a stomach for subordination. If you are a current employee please know you deserve better, you are capable and the grass is indeed greener on the other side, especially compared to a place where the grass doesn’t grow at all.