"In my 30-year career, I've never seen morale at a lower level," he says. O'Sullivan taught middle school science before heading the teachers union.

He says a "style issue" separates Evans from her staff. By criticizing the previous high school so strongly, he says, Evans has in effect told long-time teachers that what they were doing before was all wrong.

"There is no morale. It's down as far as you can get. It's a general, overall malaise that comes down," says one teacher in school 2. "It's not one great big thing. It's many small things."

Larry Aaronson is not a typical teacher. He used to teach in Pilot House, an alternative program that was popular with students and parents. And he was the only teacher in Pilot who actively supported the restructuring.

He says he still supports redesign, but sees only slow progress toward the kind of cultural change that Evans envisions.

"There's a lot of demoralization. A lot of faculty are upset," he says. "People don't feel community. Where's the love?"

Reviews are not all bad, though, even from critics. For the most part teachers praise the deans who run their small schools. The deans make decisions about curriculum, as well as tending to discipline matters and filling in for sick teachers when there's no substitute teacher.

Inconsistent discipline policy is a major issue hurting morale. But that concern is not new to the redesigned CRLS and is not something redesign can fix.