Feedback on Bridges PCS?

[Anonymous]

Doesn't matter if they have jobs or not. It's just really sad that a school who comes so highly recommend is failing it's employees so bad that they would rather leave than stick out the rest of the school year.
I'm under the impression that the things that were said in the parents meetings were just to cover up what is really going on. I regret putting Bridges on my top list of schools for my child.

[Anonymous]

It does not surprise me at all that all this is coming out after the lottery submission deadline.

[Anonymous]

What's sad about this is that Bridges started out just doing ECE - and doing it really well.

Parents pushed the Board and administration hard to add more grades. To be fair the administration went along with it.

I think some of what has happened is due to growing too fast and older kids being harder / more complex in every way than younger ones. The new building project is also yet another Hong to manage. Fortunately they will be sharing space with Briya which should help with the cost.

Hopefully they will get through this period and things will improve. We need all the high quality seats we can get in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Doesn't matter if they have jobs or not. It's just really sad that a school who comes so highly recommend is failing it's employees so bad that they would rather leave than stick out the rest of the school year.
I'm under the impression that the things that were said in the parents meetings were just to cover up what is really going on. I regret putting Bridges on my top list of schools for my child.

Definitely agree with you! Everything communicated to the parents is always everything the administration wants you to believe, but not what's really going on! No teacher or staff will leave due to commute at this point in the school year. There are only less than 3 months left! I just think the school is growing too fast, but the administration fails to understand that at the pace that they are growing, they need more support for their staff all around the school! Maybe Olivia still sees the school as a small Pre-K program and not as the elementary school it is expanding into.

It is sad that this coming out after the lottery closes, but maybe ones person experience cannot justify the others, in the end we all have different opinions and different fits for our children. I do however think that if what's going on is an administration issue, things will not change-even with a new building. I actually think things will be a chaotic mess next year! There isn't a guarantee the building will even be ready, and at this rate- are they even going to have any staff members moving to the new building?

It concerns me a lot as a new coming parent in simply because all the good things I've heard about Bridges are the wonderful staff and teachers that they have! Past parents have spoken so highly of Ms. Neris and the joy she does bring, and this post obviously justifies that! I wanted my child to be with Ms. Katie this upcoming year, is she coming back? Does anyone know?

At this point there's obviously no turning back, but it does raise huge red flags for me!

[Anonymous]

^^No, Ms Katie is not coming back next year.

[Anonymous]

I think its sad that teachers are leaving in the middle (or at the end) of a school year. I guess they are not that great and dedicated to students.

[Anonymous]

Ms Katie is moving to Germany. At least she is not leaving her students in the middle of the school year. Thats a great teacher!

[Anonymous]

I know most of these people personally. It wasn't easy for a lot of them to leave their kids behind. Without badmouthing the administration too much, the conditions must really be bad for that many people to leave. These aren't opportunists we're talking about. Think about the environment they're in. They're teachers at a school for kids with special needs. Being a parent with kids on a bad day is stressful enough. Imagine having 18 kids (many with special needs and the challenges that comes with that) and all of that stress bearing down. Would you rather they stay and inadvertently take it out on the kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I think its sad that teachers are leaving in the middle (or at the end) of a school year. I guess they are not that great and dedicated to students.

I would never say a persons personal choice to leave a school in the middle/end shows that they are not dedicated to the students. As a parent I honestly would want someone who is unhappy to take themselves out of the equation because one bad apple definitely can spoil a bunch. Also, ones lack of motivation because of the negative things going on around them can be very harmful to the children emotional.
So many pros and cons to all this. I just wish I could see a day at the school and what really goes on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I think its sad that teachers are leaving in the middle (or at the end) of a school year. I guess they are not that great and dedicated to students.

I would never say a persons personal choice to leave a school in the middle/end shows that they are not dedicated to the students. As a parent I honestly wouldnt want someone who is unhappy to take themselves out of the equation because one bad apple definitely can spoil a bunch. Also, ones lack of motivation because of the negative things going on around them can be very harmful to the children emotional.
So many pros and cons to all this. I just wish I could see a day at the school and what really goes on.

[Anonymous]

I can tell you that in my child's classroom, the two teachers both appear quite inexperienced for what they're dealing with on a day to day basis. A third of the class is barely to completely non-verbal. Nearly as many are not potty trained. They do not have kids who come in and out of the classroom during the day (as I have heard about the inclusion model in another class); rather, all the kids are in there all day.

The pros: my child is getting a richer, more diverse experience with other children than I think is available in just about any other public school. Learning to communicate and socialize with children who are non-verbal or have other profound special needs is really lovely to watch with kids this young, and there is a lot of compassion among the children. At the preschool level, so much of what they need at this age is about socialization, and in that way, there are some terrific lessons for the kids to learn.

On the flip side, we have no way to communicate with other parents, having never received a class list (despite multiple requests), so we have not been able to help our child foster any friendships outside of school. The parents we've met don't seem interested in connecting as a class, so there's no sense of community. I don't even know the names of all the kids in my child's class.

So, the cons: just about everything else when it comes to educating my kid. The teachers appear to be overwhelmed and under qualified for the challenge. At least one is out of the room much of the time to handle toileting or give one-on-one attention to the children with more serious needs. The typically developing kids seem to fend for themselves, which, while understandable given the circumstances, is not optimal. The classroom is messy, often dirty, and disorganized. The promise of doing child-driven units on different themes is pretty much a joke. Communication from our teacher is sporadic and limited to a paragraph long "newsletter" once every other week at best, although I was told by the assistant principal (who has since left) that it's supposed to be sent by email and hard copy a minimum of once a week. We've never received an all-class email all year. Our child, who entered school knowing all the letters and their sounds, does not appear to have had any support to go further in early literacy, as the class works on one letter at a time, and they are maybe halfway through the alphabet at this point.

I admit we are majorly disappointed. Our experience does not match what we were told about the school before choosing it, or even what seems to happen in the handful of classrooms with stronger teachers. When I met with the assistant principal about a handful of issues with our teacher, she seemed well aware of her weaknesses but nothing changed as a result--even the more concrete, easy fixes we discussed.

I think the school excelled in the past because it was small and focused exclusively on early childhood. Now I think they are stretched too thin, and have hired teachers just to have warm bodies in the classroom, despite the rigors of the job. Would I say you should take a chance on it if your child gets in? If you have no other choices, maybe so; you could luck into being in one of the classrooms with a good teacher. But definitely go in with your eyes open.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can tell you that in my child's classroom, the two teachers both appear quite inexperienced for what they're dealing with on a day to day basis. A third of the class is barely to completely non-verbal. Nearly as many are not potty trained. They do not have kids who come in and out of the classroom during the day (as I have heard about the inclusion model in another class); rather, all the kids are in there all day.

The pros: my child is getting a richer, more diverse experience with other children than I think is available in just about any other public school. Learning to communicate and socialize with children who are non-verbal or have other profound special needs is really lovely to watch with kids this young, and there is a lot of compassion among the children. At the preschool level, so much of what they need at this age is about socialization, and in that way, there are some terrific lessons for the kids to learn.

On the flip side, we have no way to communicate with other parents, having never received a class list (despite multiple requests), so we have not been able to help our child foster any friendships outside of school. The parents we've met don't seem interested in connecting as a class, so there's no sense of community. I don't even know the names of all the kids in my child's class.

So, the cons: just about everything else when it comes to educating my kid. The teachers appear to be overwhelmed and under qualified for the challenge. At least one is out of the room much of the time to handle toileting or give one-on-one attention to the children with more serious needs. The typically developing kids seem to fend for themselves, which, while understandable given the circumstances, is not optimal. The classroom is messy, often dirty, and disorganized. The promise of doing child-driven units on different themes is pretty much a joke. Communication from our teacher is sporadic and limited to a paragraph long "newsletter" once every other week at best, although I was told by the assistant principal (who has since left) that it's supposed to be sent by email and hard copy a minimum of once a week. We've never received an all-class email all year. Our child, who entered school knowing all the letters and their sounds, does not appear to have had any support to go further in early literacy, as the class works on one letter at a time, and they are maybe halfway through the alphabet at this point.

I admit we are majorly disappointed. Our experience does not match what we were told about the school before choosing it, or even what seems to happen in the handful of classrooms with stronger teachers. When I met with the assistant principal about a handful of issues with our teacher, she seemed well aware of her weaknesses but nothing changed as a result--even the more concrete, easy fixes we discussed.

I think the school excelled in the past because it was small and focused exclusively on early childhood. Now I think they are stretched too thin, and have hired teachers just to have warm bodies in the classroom, despite the rigors of the job. Would I say you should take a chance on it if your child gets in? If you have no other choices, maybe so; you could luck into being in one of the classrooms with a good teacher. But definitely go in with your eyes open.

Dosent sound like they are inexperienced at all to me. It sound like they are as you stated overwhelmed and they have seemed to give up. Which is also very sad to hear. I think as a parent I'm very opened minded and this class seems to be a daycare if they have all this potty training they have to do. Also as a parent I know my child's previous daycare experience we were responsible for reaching out to parents on our own as they didn't want to give out families information, you stated that above so that isn't their fault. But I do feel sad for you since your child is as you stated typically developing and may not be getting what they need. Do you know what letter system they use? Cause my child also knows all their letters?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can tell you that in my child's classroom, the two teachers both appear quite inexperienced for what they're dealing with on a day to day basis. A third of the class is barely to completely non-verbal. Nearly as many are not potty trained. They do not have kids who come in and out of the classroom during the day (as I have heard about the inclusion model in another class); rather, all the kids are in there all day.

The pros: my child is getting a richer, more diverse experience with other children than I think is available in just about any other public school. Learning to communicate and socialize with children who are non-verbal or have other profound special needs is really lovely to watch with kids this young, and there is a lot of compassion among the children. At the preschool level, so much of what they need at this age is about socialization, and in that way, there are some terrific lessons for the kids to learn.

On the flip side, we have no way to communicate with other parents, having never received a class list (despite multiple requests), so we have not been able to help our child foster any friendships outside of school. The parents we've met don't seem interested in connecting as a class, so there's no sense of community. I don't even know the names of all the kids in my child's class.

So, the cons: just about everything else when it comes to educating my kid. The teachers appear to be overwhelmed and under qualified for the challenge. At least one is out of the room much of the time to handle toileting or give one-on-one attention to the children with more serious needs. The typically developing kids seem to fend for themselves, which, while understandable given the circumstances, is not optimal. The classroom is messy, often dirty, and disorganized. The promise of doing child-driven units on different themes is pretty much a joke. Communication from our teacher is sporadic and limited to a paragraph long "newsletter" once every other week at best, although I was told by the assistant principal (who has since left) that it's supposed to be sent by email and hard copy a minimum of once a week. We've never received an all-class email all year. Our child, who entered school knowing all the letters and their sounds, does not appear to have had any support to go further in early literacy, as the class works on one letter at a time, and they are maybe halfway through the alphabet at this point.

I admit we are majorly disappointed. Our experience does not match what we were told about the school before choosing it, or even what seems to happen in the handful of classrooms with stronger teachers. When I met with the assistant principal about a handful of issues with our teacher, she seemed well aware of her weaknesses but nothing changed as a result--even the more concrete, easy fixes we discussed.

I think the school excelled in the past because it was small and focused exclusively on early childhood. Now I think they are stretched too thin, and have hired teachers just to have warm bodies in the classroom, despite the rigors of the job. Would I say you should take a chance on it if your child gets in? If you have no other choices, maybe so; you could luck into being in one of the classrooms with a good teacher. But definitely go in with your eyes open.

I have an idea what classroom you are talking about, but this is not the teachers fault at all. This is administrations fault for allowing that many kids with special needs in an inclusion classroom due to their needs in saving money by not hiring another floating SPED teacher. It's too much for a teacher and on top of that add the lack of support given to the teachers. I'm surprised they haven't quit yet with the lack of support and the workload they have.

I agree, I think they are really stretching themselves too thin!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can tell you that in my child's classroom, the two teachers both appear quite inexperienced for what they're dealing with on a day to day basis. A third of the class is barely to completely non-verbal. Nearly as many are not potty trained. They do not have kids who come in and out of the classroom during the day (as I have heard about the inclusion model in another class); rather, all the kids are in there all day.

The pros: my child is getting a richer, more diverse experience with other children than I think is available in just about any other public school. Learning to communicate and socialize with children who are non-verbal or have other profound special needs is really lovely to watch with kids this young, and there is a lot of compassion among the children. At the preschool level, so much of what they need at this age is about socialization, and in that way, there are some terrific lessons for the kids to learn.

On the flip side, we have no way to communicate with other parents, having never received a class list (despite multiple requests), so we have not been able to help our child foster any friendships outside of school. The parents we've met don't seem interested in connecting as a class, so there's no sense of community. I don't even know the names of all the kids in my child's class.

So, the cons: just about everything else when it comes to educating my kid. The teachers appear to be overwhelmed and under qualified for the challenge. At least one is out of the room much of the time to handle toileting or give one-on-one attention to the children with more serious needs. The typically developing kids seem to fend for themselves, which, while understandable given the circumstances, is not optimal. The classroom is messy, often dirty, and disorganized. The promise of doing child-driven units on different themes is pretty much a joke. Communication from our teacher is sporadic and limited to a paragraph long "newsletter" once every other week at best, although I was told by the assistant principal (who has since left) that it's supposed to be sent by email and hard copy a minimum of once a week. We've never received an all-class email all year. Our child, who entered school knowing all the letters and their sounds, does not appear to have had any support to go further in early literacy, as the class works on one letter at a time, and they are maybe halfway through the alphabet at this point.

I admit we are majorly disappointed. Our experience does not match what we were told about the school before choosing it, or even what seems to happen in the handful of classrooms with stronger teachers. When I met with the assistant principal about a handful of issues with our teacher, she seemed well aware of her weaknesses but nothing changed as a result--even the more concrete, easy fixes we discussed.

I think the school excelled in the past because it was small and focused exclusively on early childhood. Now I think they are stretched too thin, and have hired teachers just to have warm bodies in the classroom, despite the rigors of the job. Would I say you should take a chance on it if your child gets in? If you have no other choices, maybe so; you could luck into being in one of the classrooms with a good teacher. But definitely go in with your eyes open.

I have an idea what classroom you are talking about, but this is not the teachers fault at all. This is administrations fault for allowing that many kids with special needs in an inclusion classroom due to their needs in saving money by not hiring another floating SPED teacher. It's too much for a teacher and on top of that add the lack of support given to the teachers. I'm surprised they haven't quit yet with the lack of support and the workload they have.

I agree, I think they are really stretching themselves too thin!

If they haven't quit, they are close to doing so.

[Anonymous]

There are 11 current job openings at Bridges, only 2 for next year specifically. Are there that many vacancies?

https://bridges.tedk12.com/hire/index.aspx