Maret and former Whittle students?

[Anonymous]

4 families had access to all the most sensitive information and presided over the handling of Whittle in 2022. HoS family was one and never stopped being paid by Whittle while it existed.

[Anonymous]

Whittle preyed on wealthy DC area parents who wanted to show that they had the money to buy the next flashy thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whittle preyed on wealthy DC area parents who wanted to show that they had the money to buy the next flashy thing.

So did the HoS and his wife. That’s the whole point. And now they get to fail upward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whittle preyed on wealthy DC area parents who wanted to show that they had the money to buy the next flashy thing.

Whittle was extremely generous with financial aid in the beginning; families turned down other schools because of the FA offers and then found themselves stuck.

[Anonymous]

It’s a classic hook ‘em and crook ‘em.
Are Maret parents really completely disenfranchised? I’m just trying to understand how can there be any accountability when someone is the head for 29 years (?!) and then finally a chance for someone new and modern and you pick Whittle Jr.?!

[Anonymous]

Dennis Bisgaard wasn't responsible for the fraud Chris Whittle committed on families, staff, funders and his lenders. Chris Whittle, (and later HOS Manny Rivera) lied to everyone about the state of funding while begging for tuition money, while not disclosing they were sued for failure to pay hundreds of millions, and while taking gigantic ( think $50M-see Golden Eagle/Pure East NY cases) loans personally, skimming big dollars for himself off the top. The mind boggling failure of Nick Anderson of the Washington Post to see it for what it was is another conversation, but the bottom line is that Dennis was loved by many and did his best in a blurry situation.

What was atrocious to many-- is worth considering if you are thinking of going to Maret, which is that the Bisgaard family exercised poor judgement when the stress hit the school. The wife participated in and led many efforts to reorganize the financing as part of a somewhat secret committee with privileged access--imploring others to donate cash while she had eyes on the red-ink financials, and while her husband was making plans to take on a competing school. That conflict of interest was glaring and worthy of recusal and does suggest the Board of Maret didn't completely understand how they, as a couple, operate. They were very much a duo of a presence at Whittle and at Kingswood Oxford. They appeared to have made a deal for their own kid to finish at Whittle, receiving aid while driving a Mercedes around, which irritated many. It doesn't mean Dennis can't run a school properly--he has plenty of credentials in that arena--it does suggest that when under duress, he might not make clear eyed professional decisions. His wife was over her head in unprofessional ways during the final chapters at Whittle, despite what were likely sincere efforts to assist unpaid teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s a classic hook ‘em and crook ‘em.
Are Maret parents really completely disenfranchised? I’m just trying to understand how can there be any accountability when someone is the head for 29 years (?!) and then finally a chance for someone new and modern and you pick Whittle Jr.?!

Yup, they're all miserable as evidenced but the massive outflow of students, terrible college placements, exodus of teachers, financial dire straits and pending merger with Basis.


This might be the dumbest thread on DCUM...which is no small accompilshment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dennis Bisgaard wasn't responsible for the fraud Chris Whittle committed on families, staff, funders and his lenders. Chris Whittle, (and later HOS Manny Rivera) lied to everyone about the state of funding while begging for tuition money, while not disclosing they were sued for failure to pay hundreds of millions, and while taking gigantic ( think $50M-see Golden Eagle/Pure East NY cases) loans personally, skimming big dollars for himself off the top. The mind boggling failure of Nick Anderson of the Washington Post to see it for what it was is another conversation, but the bottom line is that Dennis was loved by many and did his best in a blurry situation.

What was atrocious to many-- is worth considering if you are thinking of going to Maret, which is that the Bisgaard family exercised poor judgement when the stress hit the school. The wife participated in and led many efforts to reorganize the financing as part of a somewhat secret committee with privileged access--imploring others to donate cash while she had eyes on the red-ink financials, and while her husband was making plans to take on a competing school. That conflict of interest was glaring and worthy of recusal and does suggest the Board of Maret didn't completely understand how they, as a couple, operate. They were very much a duo of a presence at Whittle and at Kingswood Oxford. They appeared to have made a deal for their own kid to finish at Whittle, receiving aid while driving a Mercedes around, which irritated many. It doesn't mean Dennis can't run a school properly--he has plenty of credentials in that arena--it does suggest that when under duress, he might not make clear eyed professional decisions. His wife was over her head in unprofessional ways during the final chapters at Whittle, despite what were likely sincere efforts to assist unpaid teachers.

"Aid" from a for-profit school is called a discount.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dennis Bisgaard wasn't responsible for the fraud Chris Whittle committed on families, staff, funders and his lenders. Chris Whittle, (and later HOS Manny Rivera) lied to everyone about the state of funding while begging for tuition money, while not disclosing they were sued for failure to pay hundreds of millions, and while taking gigantic ( think $50M-see Golden Eagle/Pure East NY cases) loans personally, skimming big dollars for himself off the top. The mind boggling failure of Nick Anderson of the Washington Post to see it for what it was is another conversation, but the bottom line is that Dennis was loved by many and did his best in a blurry situation.

What was atrocious to many-- is worth considering if you are thinking of going to Maret, which is that the Bisgaard family exercised poor judgement when the stress hit the school. The wife participated in and led many efforts to reorganize the financing as part of a somewhat secret committee with privileged access--imploring others to donate cash while she had eyes on the red-ink financials, and while her husband was making plans to take on a competing school. That conflict of interest was glaring and worthy of recusal and does suggest the Board of Maret didn't completely understand how they, as a couple, operate. They were very much a duo of a presence at Whittle and at Kingswood Oxford. They appeared to have made a deal for their own kid to finish at Whittle, receiving aid while driving a Mercedes around, which irritated many. It doesn't mean Dennis can't run a school properly--he has plenty of credentials in that arena--it does suggest that when under duress, he might not make clear eyed professional decisions. His wife was over her head in unprofessional ways during the final chapters at Whittle, despite what were likely sincere efforts to assist unpaid teachers.

Yes they knew. Monica was the Special Advisor to Manny and Chris and had the insight into all the financials per the reporting.
Dennis is absolutely culpable.

Let’s pretend we are all naive, they still displayed staggering levels of self-interest over other parents and children in a school where they had a privileged position and staggeringly poor judgment. Honestly. Maret parents need to step up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a classic hook ‘em and crook ‘em.
Are Maret parents really completely disenfranchised? I’m just trying to understand how can there be any accountability when someone is the head for 29 years (?!) and then finally a chance for someone new and modern and you pick Whittle Jr.?!

Yup, they're all miserable as evidenced but the massive outflow of students, terrible college placements, exodus of teachers, financial dire straits and pending merger with Basis.


This might be the dumbest thread on DCUM...which is no small accompilshment.

But that’s ridiculous. Why would parents leave the school? The Bisgaards should.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dennis Bisgaard wasn't responsible for the fraud Chris Whittle committed on families, staff, funders and his lenders. Chris Whittle, (and later HOS Manny Rivera) lied to everyone about the state of funding while begging for tuition money, while not disclosing they were sued for failure to pay hundreds of millions, and while taking gigantic ( think $50M-see Golden Eagle/Pure East NY cases) loans personally, skimming big dollars for himself off the top. The mind boggling failure of Nick Anderson of the Washington Post to see it for what it was is another conversation, but the bottom line is that Dennis was loved by many and did his best in a blurry situation.

What was atrocious to many-- is worth considering if you are thinking of going to Maret, which is that the Bisgaard family exercised poor judgement when the stress hit the school. The wife participated in and led many efforts to reorganize the financing as part of a somewhat secret committee with privileged access--imploring others to donate cash while she had eyes on the red-ink financials, and while her husband was making plans to take on a competing school. That conflict of interest was glaring and worthy of recusal and does suggest the Board of Maret didn't completely understand how they, as a couple, operate. They were very much a duo of a presence at Whittle and at Kingswood Oxford. They appeared to have made a deal for their own kid to finish at Whittle, receiving aid while driving a Mercedes around, which irritated many. It doesn't mean Dennis can't run a school properly--he has plenty of credentials in that arena--it does suggest that when under duress, he might not make clear eyed professional decisions. His wife was over her head in unprofessional ways during the final chapters at Whittle, despite what were likely sincere efforts to assist unpaid teachers.

Exactly. Add to that that the family received money from the Whittle throughout and lied and showed no remorse or empathy for the victims.
I disagree on the HoS - I think he is culpable and this lack of stewardship, even if unintentional, shows he cannot run a school competently

[Anonymous]

He clearly is not fit to be an HoS. Integrity, role modeling of the correct values and understanding of the financials are a sine qua non of the HoS job.

[Anonymous]

On the evidence cited above, he doesn’t even meet the qualifications for his own assistant:

https://www.maret.org/about-us/employment/details/~board/employment/post/executive-assistant-to-the-head-of-school

[Anonymous]

Good moral character and integrity is a stated code value of Maret. Hmmm.

[Anonymous]

Where is the investigative journalism on this? It has Pulitzer written all over it. Clearly someone is looking into this other than these anonymous DCUM posters, right?