I have an issue as a parent with a member of staff but I'm also the chair - what do I do?

[autumnmum]

I am chairperson of our local pre-school and have been for the last 2 years. The pre-school is excellent (rated outstanding by OFSTED) and I have generally enjoyed the challenges of being chair. However, recently one of the supervisors spoke to me about my son in front of other parents in a way I don't believe she would have spoken to another parent. To cut a very long story short she asked me to take my son home as I was dropping him off because she believed (wrongly) he was ill. I said he wasn't ill and I didn't understand why she was asking me to take him home. She lost her temper and ranted at me about having had a terrible week. This resulted in my son bursting into tears and me then taking him home because I was so furious about the way she had spoken to me. I am very concerned that she did this in front of 10 other parents. Putting aside the fact I am chair I would expect any other parent being treated like this to make a complaint, but if I complain I am effectively complaining to myself. It could also make Committee meetings very awkward.

We have not spoken since this happened and I now have half term to think about it.

Anyone else had a similar problem? How did you deal with it? I am so angry about it that I am seriously considering resigning because I think she has seriously undermined what had been a good working relationship.

She was wrong to talk to you the way she did. If she's normally a good member of staff I'd be wondering why she did. It sounds like she was under a lot of stress and exploded. Time for a chat with her. If there's no good reason it's time for a disciplinary thing isn't it?

It's a minefield. The Supervisor works for the c

(sorry. Stupid iPhone posted too early)

Supervisor works for the committee. Do you have a vice chair or other person on the committee you can discuss it with?

Sometimes the job of being chair is difficult to separate from being a mother. Having done chair a couple of years ago, sometimes I'd go in to have a sensitive conversation with the team only to be derailed by being told my son had bitten someone.

We don't have a vice chair but I have discussed it with the secretary and she says she is willing to deal with any complaint I make as a parent. It's just very tricky because it's stuff like this that can completely derail a whole committee. Part of me thinks I should just ignore it and carry on as if it hasn't happened because I don't want to undo all the good work we have done. However, I have been taking phone calls from parents who saw it happen and are very concerned that that a member of staff would speak to anyone like that and make a child cry. Like I said before I don't think she would have spoken to me like that if I hadn't been a committee member (not that that excuses what she did). I am the nominated person with OFSTED and it bothers me that a member of staff thinks I am so irresponsible that I would bring a sick child to pre-School but is quite happy for me to deal with all the responsibilities that go with the chairpersons job.

Hi 5ofus and autumnmum. I am administrator for a pre-school and was looking back at any relavent threads and came across this. Was just wandering how the issues were resolved?

Strangely our supervisor is also severely lacking in the interpersonal skills department and has had previous committee members in floods of tears by her harsh treatment of them. Does your supervisor appreciate that she is a member of staff 'under' the committee? We always get the feeling its the other way around!

Interested to hear how you got on.