LAMB AP's contract not renewed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t care about the AP, but I care about (1) spanish and (2) academic standards.

As I said above, some people are doing great and are fine. But the vast majority of parents in upper grades can see how the academic standards are falling. They can see how poor the spanish has gotten.

Every other school has plenty of aftercare spots. For the third year in a row, lamb will have insufficient aftercare. This is directly due to the COO Maria Jose Carrasco and Charis.

People are worried about being open with this because Charis retaliates against kids whose parents complain.

I have neighbors at Yu Ying who didn't get a spot in aftercare and friends at DC Prep whose kids are on the aftercare waitlisted. I guess it is easy to come up with bold statements like every other school has plenty of aftercare. What is hard is to accept reality. I am no happy with the aftercare situation. Though, I don't think it is fair to make such bold and false accusations.

Not a false statement. And yes in nearly all schools in Dc there are plenty of aftercare spots.

Furthermore, parents suggested solutions which were all (rudely) shot down. I don’t know why your neighbor doesn’t have a spot at yu ying but at lamb a huge percentage of parents did not get aftercare spots. Of course the percentage of students left out was never released but anecdotally seemed like half of all parents.

The fact that there isn’t enough aftercare spots and such horrible mismanagement of summer camp (canceled for this year leaving many parents in the lurch) is sufficient grounds IMO to clean house.

[Anonymous]

55 kids were on the waitlist. I know because I asked.

We were told months that there would no camp this summer because they need to do work on the building in preparation for consolidating the two campuses.

[Anonymous]

I know plenty of parents at other schools that don’t have aftercare. I really think there is one person on this thread who is very upset with the school. That’s fine. I too have been upset with the school. Accept that you aren’t going to change it. Accept that you can change nothing about any school by yourself. Accept that the DC system means that you have enough choice to go somewhere else that is more to your liking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know plenty of parents at other schools that don’t have aftercare. I really think there is one person on this thread who is very upset with the school. That’s fine. I too have been upset with the school. Accept that you aren’t going to change it. Accept that you can change nothing about any school by yourself. Accept that the DC system means that you have enough choice to go somewhere else that is more to your liking.

YES! What about going to one of the MANY schools that HAVE aftercare spots for all?

[Anonymous]

This is crazy. How can you justify hiring teachers who don’t speak Spanish with the result that kids are getting no Spanish instruction in the upper grades?

I don’t understand even if you only have kids in lower grades how above would not be concerning for you as a parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is crazy. How can you justify hiring teachers who don’t speak Spanish with the result that kids are getting no Spanish instruction in the upper grades?

I don’t understand even if you only have kids in lower grades how above would not be concerning for you as a parent.

Every classroom has at least one teacher who is a native Spanish teacher. I guess I don’t know all the teachers or classrooms but I have a child in upper El and a child in lower El and both have native Spanish teachers. One has an English teacher who also speaks Spanish and one has an English teacher who does not speak Spanish.

All of their primary teachers spoke Spanish fluently.

Again I do not know the situation in every classroom but for my children this has not been their experience. They receive Spanish instruction 2 days a week for half the year and 3 days a week for half the year. Their Spanish is strong but not fluent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:55 kids were on the waitlist. I know because I asked.

We were told months that there would no camp this summer because they need to do work on the building in preparation for consolidating the two campuses.

I agree that it’s not fair to say summer camp was mismanaged. They shared this with ample notice to find alternate options. I don’t believe summer camp is coming back; I think teachers and assistant teachers get burned out by working all year.

It’s shocking that only 55 kids were on the waitlist given how frustrated parents are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is crazy. How can you justify hiring teachers who don’t speak Spanish with the result that kids are getting no Spanish instruction in the upper grades?

I don’t understand even if you only have kids in lower grades how above would not be concerning for you as a parent.

Simply not true. There are 8 teachers in UE. 4 are Latino and their first language is Spanish. 2 are Americans and speak fluent Spanish. 2 are Americans and speak some Spanish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:55 kids were on the waitlist. I know because I asked.

We were told months that there would no camp this summer because they need to do work on the building in preparation for consolidating the two campuses.

I agree that it’s not fair to say summer camp was mismanaged. They shared this with ample notice to find alternate options. I don’t believe summer camp is coming back; I think teachers and assistant teachers get burned out by working all year.

It’s shocking that only 55 kids were on the waitlist given how frustrated parents are.

A ton of parents took their kids off the waitlist and enrolled at Lala or elsewhere. That’s what our family had to do.

Also for a school to leave 10% of kids unable to find aftercare is a huge percentage.

And again, they announced that this problem would happen again. At least this time returning parents will be able to sign up before the new families come.

so warning - so no or very limited aftercare available for new families at lamb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is crazy. How can you justify hiring teachers who don’t speak Spanish with the result that kids are getting no Spanish instruction in the upper grades?

I don’t understand even if you only have kids in lower grades how above would not be concerning for you as a parent.

Simply not true. There are 8 teachers in UE. 4 are Latino and their first language is Spanish. 2 are Americans and speak fluent Spanish. 2 are Americans and speak some Spanish.

Interesting how my post explaining that parents would not have access to this information was deleted. Interesting.

Since I am just a parent and don’t work in HR, I wouldn’t know how many teachers speak spanish. But the reality is that all of them should. Furthermore few if any enforce spanish days and push spanish writing. The kids have poor grammar and need it taught to them.

[Anonymous]

I don't know why anyone is surprised by the fact that Charis isn't being clear. This is the modus operandi for years now.

I guess be glad that you've gone this long at LAMB without figuring this earlier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is crazy. How can you justify hiring teachers who don’t speak Spanish with the result that kids are getting no Spanish instruction in the upper grades?

I don’t understand even if you only have kids in lower grades how above would not be concerning for you as a parent.

Simply not true. There are 8 teachers in UE. 4 are Latino and their first language is Spanish. 2 are Americans and speak fluent Spanish. 2 are Americans and speak some Spanish.

Interesting how my post explaining that parents would not have access to this information was deleted. Interesting.

Since I am just a parent and don’t work in HR, I wouldn’t know how many teachers speak spanish. But the reality is that all of them should. Furthermore few if any enforce spanish days and push spanish writing. The kids have poor grammar and need it taught to them.

This is not a reasonable ask in the DC job market for bilingual teachers, let alone Montessori certified teachers. We've been at three bilingual schools in DC and the English teachers have ranged from being functionally fluent to knowing close to zero Spanish. It's a 50/50 bilingual model in DC schools, so English teachers do not need Spanish to do their jobs effectively. What you NEED is the Spanish teacher to do exactly what you said - enforce Spanish on Spanish days. We've had the experience as well where the Spanish teacher is a balanced bilingual and doesn't force Spanish only during Spanish time. That makes the Spanish instruction suffer terribly and I agree it's incredibly frustrating. More so in a Montessori environment where you're stuck with that weak Spanish teacher for 2-3 years. But regardless, the focus should be on making the Spanish teachers teach according to best practices, not making the English teacher supplement the Spanish instruction. That's just not how 50/50 immersion works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know why anyone is surprised by the fact that Charis isn't being clear. This is the modus operandi for years now.

I guess be glad that you've gone this long at LAMB without figuring this earlier.

Charis was hired based on promises of transparency and willingness to learn spanish and promote latin Culture.

I don’t see transparency right now. I see a leader who proudly says she isn’t and won’t learn spanish. Who doesn’t respond to parent requests to improve the spanish program.

She didn’t even record the Charla about terminating the vice principals contract despite promising to do so.

Why is she promoting some people- like our COO- after the debacle of BASE and base summer camp (which was horrendous and now canceled)?

I want to make it clear to the few parents on this board- it is NOT normal to have dozens and dozens of parents publicly complaining about the executive director, academic standards, Lack of spanish, no aftercare, no summer camp, etc. It is not normal to worry whether you’ll get a “good” teacher since the principal and vice principal have no authority to question decisions made by teachers. It is not normal to have an amazing primary experience and worry that your older kids won’t be on grade level or speak spanish.

I’m an old timer. My kids at DCI speak WAY better spanish than my younger kids. I can point to decisions made by this administration which have directly lead to the academics dropping, the lack of spanish in upper el, etc. I’m tired of this mess. I understand you might not have the same experience as a parent with one or two kids in primary or lower el, but that doesn’t invalidate the serious serious concerns of so many parents. I suggest you start asking hard questions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is crazy. How can you justify hiring teachers who don’t speak Spanish with the result that kids are getting no Spanish instruction in the upper grades?

I don’t understand even if you only have kids in lower grades how above would not be concerning for you as a parent.

Simply not true. There are 8 teachers in UE. 4 are Latino and their first language is Spanish. 2 are Americans and speak fluent Spanish. 2 are Americans and speak some Spanish.

Interesting how my post explaining that parents would not have access to this information was deleted. Interesting.

Since I am just a parent and don’t work in HR, I wouldn’t know how many teachers speak spanish. But the reality is that all of them should. Furthermore few if any enforce spanish days and push spanish writing. The kids have poor grammar and need it taught to them.

This is not a reasonable ask in the DC job market for bilingual teachers, let alone Montessori certified teachers. We've been at three bilingual schools in DC and the English teachers have ranged from being functionally fluent to knowing close to zero Spanish. It's a 50/50 bilingual model in DC schools, so English teachers do not need Spanish to do their jobs effectively. What you NEED is the Spanish teacher to do exactly what you said - enforce Spanish on Spanish days. We've had the experience as well where the Spanish teacher is a balanced bilingual and doesn't force Spanish only during Spanish time. That makes the Spanish instruction suffer terribly and I agree it's incredibly frustrating. More so in a Montessori environment where you're stuck with that weak Spanish teacher for 2-3 years. But regardless, the focus should be on making the Spanish teachers teach according to best practices, not making the English teacher supplement the Spanish instruction. That's just not how 50/50 immersion works.

This is totally reasonable ask. Lamb used to have a relationship with Montessori schools overseas and would find amazing teachers. Since charis doesn’t properly compensate teachers, valuing Montessori experience above spanish experience, those teachers left.

Also bilingual montessori teachers have options. They don’t need to go work somewhere where the exec director is allegedly making racist statements.

[Anonymous]

When do the academics start to drop? In upper el or earlier?