Help! pre-school committee and staff nightmare!

[Ripeberry]

I think you all know about my trials and tribulations with our pre-school and our leader being off for a week because her child was ill and now last week because she was ill.
Well she is back and out of the blue i got a request from another school for a reference for OUR leader.
Basically, she has been applying for other jobs and i'm really upset about it.
She says to me that i must not mention it to the committee and i won't BUT i've told her that there is NO WAY that i'm giving her a personal reference, she will have to get it from the committee.
I'm really angry at being put in this position and she says that next week she will give notice once she gets offered another job.
But i'm holding some of the cards as the interviewers want references BEFORE doing an interview.
Its tearing me apart!

This is an old thread but your comment caught my eye! It is not a thankless job it helps support struggling preschools everywhere. Granted, some chairs are better then others. One of ours had been a sahm for 10 years and got a fabulous job in a school on the back of the reference the preschool could give her for being an amazing chair for 2 years.

I think that when you are on the committee of preschool it is really difficult. I have been on both sides as I was part of the committee, then later took a job as a preschool assistant.

Can you look at using an agency/supply teacher short term to give you some time to find the right candidate? I don't know what your funds are like, but it's better to get the right person rather than do things in a hurry. Are there any staff in the preschool that you could train up to take on the position? Having worked in a preschool, it is that kind of thing that keeps staff motivated. If you can recruit staff from within and keep them all happy then it does make for a happier environment.

You could also speak to some of the local training centres, to see if they may have suitable candidates?