Will Whittle be around next year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Those numbers almost certainly include benefits like health insurance, retirement, etc. So your math is off.

Again, $150k/yr is an excellent private school salary. Are you really arguing that payroll taxes, health insurance, and retirement contributions are $50-$100k/yr. per person?

[Anonymous]

Are Chris Whittle and other top executives on this payroll. Don't see why they wouldn't be.....From what other money pot are they being paid from? but if they are, then that changes the calculations fairly significantly, doesn't it?

Most private schools have a few very high earners at the top. But because this school is structured not as a school but as a business whose main mission was supposed to be establishing and running a 36-school international system within seven or eight years, while providing investors with a good return, don't they still have an added layer of very high earners that other schools don't have? Despite the New York layoffs?

[Anonymous]

Glassdoor is showing two DC-area teacher salaries, $32k and $80,193. Three admissions staff reported base salaries from $57k-$111k/year. Whittle full-time employment ads on Glassdoor from the last year were offering $33k-$69k/year.

So yeah, total payroll expenses of $1 million for a month’s worth of 44 salaries seems really suspicious, even if the school had the most costly benefits packages in the entire DC area.

Either it’s a lie, or leadership at Whittle were making serious bank.

[Anonymous]

No teacher at whittle makes 150k or even close to that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: We were able to make, for our teachers, each and everyone of the 44 payrolls during this crisis period but, always placing DC teacher compensation first, we have done less well with suppliers. Further, many members of our senior leadership team have graciously gone for months without any or reduced pay… The amount required before closing of the larger transaction is roughly $2mm which includes roughly $1mm in payroll and benefits for the Dec 15 payroll and the Dec 31 payroll and other payments which, for technical reasons, are required to clear the way for the larger transaction.

If $1 million covers one month payroll for 44 people, then the average annual total compensation per employee was $204,500 (9 month payroll) to $272,700 (12 month payroll). If those were truly the compensation amounts, then faculty and/or administration were absurdly overcompensated compared to market rates for local private school employees. If those were not the average compensation amounts, then Whittle kept lying right up to the end.

Did you account for benefits in your calculations?

Yes, “total” compensation. VERY good private school teacher pay is $100-$150k/year. Let’s say everyone has expensive health insurance that’s $2k/month family plan. Typical retirement benefit is up to 3 percent of salary match IF the employee puts away 3 percent. Payroll taxes are 7.65 percent. Let’s assume $150k salary.

Salary: $150,000
Health insurance: $24,000
Employer retirement contribution: $4500
Employer payroll taxes: $11,475
TOTAL: $189,975

Even assuming a nine-month payroll, that’s still $14k shy of Whittle’s average. I doubt they were making that up in gym memberships, short-term disability insurance, life insurance, or other benes that schools so rarely provide. Also, plenty of teachers at private schools are making $80k or less, especially those is their first 10 years of teaching.

I applaud your effort. Whatever is going on there is not good.

[Anonymous]

Wasting your time trying to reverse engineer the financials. Supposedly Chris Whittle said "around $1M" to keep afloat for some period of time. First problem, you are believing something Whittle said. Anytime you believe something he said, you have already screwed up and any conclusion you make is worthless. Point is, only Whittle knows the financials. Everything else is just randomly throwing darts.

[Anonymous]

Ask the staff how much payroll cost in august. Chris whittle told them in person. It was well below $1mil. Ask the staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If this really happened with the teachers in this meeting, I am truly appalled. Wanting to be paid for your work is now “selfish”? Can anyone from the school confirm this took place?

It took place. Ask the COO. He went off on staff. Said that staff shouldn’t be given any information. “That’s not how this world works.” All leadership on the call backed him up. The teachers were rational in their responses, but were told they were “complaining” by one of the school nurses. All the staff want is a representative they get to choose who has access to all the same information as the leadership. Because the leadership lied to get them there, lied to get them to stay, and are continuing to lie to them. Lord only know what they’re saying to the parents.

“One of the school nurses”? There is only one nurse, so this sounds bogus. Last I’d heard was that they’d raised enough to pay the staff and that’s what they told them.

There are two school nurses. One medical. One for behavioral health. Ask any staff member, this happened and it was messed up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Glassdoor is showing two DC-area teacher salaries, $32k and $80,193. Three admissions staff reported base salaries from $57k-$111k/year. Whittle full-time employment ads on Glassdoor from the last year were offering $33k-$69k/year.

So yeah, total payroll expenses of $1 million for a month’s worth of 44 salaries seems really suspicious, even if the school had the most costly benefits packages in the entire DC area.

Either it’s a lie, or leadership at Whittle were making serious bank.

Not arguing here, but pointing out that Whittle has tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions owed to creditors. I am pretty sure at least half of any potential money that is given to these crooks will be going to the scariest creditors first. This brings up an interesting question. Who will get repaid when this all implodes and who will not get paid? Wouldn't it be crazy to see one of the biggest construction companies in this area, Turner, not get paid for over 30 million in work!!! Or what if the small vendors that sued for their basic compensation don't get paid? I am sure a lot of less empowered people and organizations have been really hurt by Whittle's "Trump-like" business strategy of not paying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Those numbers almost certainly include benefits like health insurance, retirement, etc. So your math is off.

Again, $150k/yr is an excellent private school salary. Are you really arguing that payroll taxes, health insurance, and retirement contributions are $50-$100k/yr. per person?

Most private school teachers in this area are making about $70k with crappy health insurance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Those numbers almost certainly include benefits like health insurance, retirement, etc. So your math is off.

Again, $150k/yr is an excellent private school salary. Are you really arguing that payroll taxes, health insurance, and retirement contributions are $50-$100k/yr. per person?

Most private school teachers in this area are making about $70k with crappy health insurance.

Depends on the grade level but yeah, something like that. USs pay the best and could see some teachers, particularly STEM, hitting $100k. Buy on average from LS to US, $70-75k makes sense. Benefits at private schools are universally terrible.

[Anonymous]

The point of those stats being that in the letter parents received at the end of December (quoted up thread), Whittle claimed that $2 million was needed for operating expenses, $1 million of which was to cover debts due immediately and the rest to cover December payroll. As Whittle also mentioned having 44 teachers in that same letter, $1 million seems a very high monthly payroll expense. It would suggest that he, and perhaps other school leaders, are making exorbitant salaries well in excess of what very highly compensated DC-area heads make or that Whittle was lying about finances up until the very end.

[Anonymous]

Guess they don’t have any endowment

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think Chris has consulted a good crisis-management team. He seems to be providing a textbook case of what not to do.

Of course he hasn't, he doesn't have any money to hire one!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Guess they don’t have any endowment

Of course they don’t! It’s a for-profit school.