Unqualified Staff Members -

[Anonymous]

Lori Heist "Spanish Teacher" apparently has
no degree whatsoever.  I thought all teachers
were properly trained - guess I was wrong.
$5700 per month for an "academic boarding school"
that cannot even hire qualified teachers. My
child who is gifted in languages could probably
have taught Spanish, too.

[Anonymous]

isn;t tuition now raised to 5950

[RobertBruce]

Anyone puppets care to argue how reasonable this is considering the kids get almost nothing for it?

[Troll Control]

I think it's important for people to understand that, although HLA and its supporters claim it is "improving," actually the opposite is true.

When I worked there at its inception, it was a hard requirement that all PG counselors had an MA Psy, MSW or higher and all AC's had a BA Psy or BS SW minimum.  Of course, the exception was the staff they brought over from CEDU, all of whom were completely uneducated.  New hires, however, all had to meet the minimum requirements above.

Now it appears there are no minimum standards at all.  PG counselors have unrelated degrees, no degrees, etc.  Qualifications for AC's have slipped to "loves sports" or none at all.

If this is "getting better," "improving," or "refining" I'd hate to see what "backsliding" looks like.

The price keeps going up and the quality of staff and the care they provide keeps going down.

_________________
"Compassion is the basis of morality."

-Arnold Schopenhauer[ This Message was edited by: Dysfunction Junction on 2006-06-08 08:17 ]

[Anonymous]

This is because it is getting harder and harder to find people that want to work at HLA.  The word is out on what a depressing environment it is to work in.

[Troll Control]

If it were important to have qualified staff (it clearly isn't) then there would be only one way to achieve that:  pay better wages.

The problem is that "spreading the wealth" will never happen with the greedy Little Napoleon at the helm.  He views all that money as his and his alone.

Anyway, what's your take on why more parents don't raise a fuss or ask questions?  What kinds of things are they told to deflect their inquiries?

[Anonymous]

On 2006-06-08 09:34:00, Dysfunction Junction wrote:

"If it were important to have qualified staff (it clearly isn't) then there would be only one way to achieve that:  pay better wages.



The problem is that "spreading the wealth" will never happen with the greedy Little Napoleon at the helm.  He views all that money as his and his alone.



Anyway, what's your take on why more parents don't raise a fuss or ask questions?  What kinds of things are they told to deflect their inquiries?
"

Tough question...

First, I think it is because most of the kids at HLA seem to making improvement.  They are fighting less with their parents, they are making good grades, and they are communicating on a deeper level than they have in years.  If their child is making improvements, then  they are not going to worry  about the rest because it is working for them.

If questions are raised about the ammount of staff turnover, they are told that this is a natural thing that happens in any business setting and that HLA is helping their child deal with changes that are going to happen throughout their life.  If a parent causes too much of a problem with any complaint they will simply be told to come pick up their child.  Most of the time a parent will back down if they are told that.  The last thing that most of these parents want is to have their child back at home, having to deal with them again.  That is often what HLA banks on in an attempt to keep the kids there.  The parents lack of other alternatives.

[Troll Control]

Thanks for the reply.

So, I guess if folks get too nosy, they use the "nuclear option" - "Come get Junior."  That can be a huge threat and seems like an effective way to bring cloture to any discussion.  Unethical, but effective.

[Anonymous]

True.  One of the ironic things about HLA is that they really push the fact that a child will have the same set of counselors throughout the program.  With the most recent graduation, however, not one group graduated with the same set of counselors that they started out with.

Counselors either quit or were fired.  Most of the counselors got burned out when they had to take on their second Peer Group.  That is also something that not all parents are made aware of when they enroll their children.  The fact that their childs counselor will be working with two groups instead of just their childs.  It really spread the counselors thin and takes away most opportunities to really bond with the kids.  When I took on my second group, it was all I could do to keep up with the paperwork.  Spending time with kids became secondary.  If you wanted to keep your job you had to get the paperwork done.  All of the management knew that the job was impossible, but their hands seemed to be tied as well because Dr. Buccellato would not make the changes that needed to be made.

[Anonymous]

The entire counseling Team , except for the top guy, strongly opposed the counselors taking on a second peer group, just not effective.

to make the money he wanted to make, he refused to listen to the team

make the religous director take a peer group or be fired?

make hr teach classes to save a position

[juniper2]

Who is hr?  They made DeVente take a peer group?

[juniper2]

Who are you?  Did you resign?

[Anonymous]

soon , very soon

[Anonymous]

I was told yesterday by a current parent that Clay Erickson is running the infirmary...because he 'was', yes, 'was' an M.D. Although his B.A. was from a diploma mill, now defunct by the Federal Gov't, he did get an MD...I often wondered why aN M.D. would be at HLA..I knew years ago he had a substance abuse problem, he re-iterated that to the parents and now he was the Director of the substance abuse program..Like AA,NA, that would be helpful..He is a nice man..However, there really is no program at HLA, detox, etc..Yet the parents are told that the school is a good choice for substance abusers..What they do not tell the parents, as I was informed today, is that Clay
Erickson,apparently LOST HIS M.D. license 10 years ago.. So,if this is true, there is my answer as to why a nice man like Clay is at HLA...The HLA web site shows him as
still having an MD and the school allows one to
think he still does...Mind you , I personally like the man...but talk about misrepresentation.
Does anyone else know about this?

[Anonymous]

http://webapps.ama-assn.org/doctorfinder/disclaimer.do

This should help you determine whether he does have license to practice medicine or not.