SSFS Will Stay Open

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll believe it when I see it. Why should they all of a sudden be transparent now when they haven't been for years? The Board MUST GO!!

Oh for sure. To clarify, it was the Coalition who hosted the Zoom and whose legal team advised them last-minute not to do Q&A. Their work has been tremendous, but at the end of the day, they are volunteers and they can't speak on the school's behalf. Yes, the school leaders and the Board will have a lot to answer for very soon.

Okay so now he coalition is just a band of volunteers who can’t promise anything on the schools behalf, when literally their entire story is built on the trust that they’re promising everything on the schools behalf. Doesn’t this seem like a concern to anyone?

I'm very concerned and I'm tried of having to temper my grave concerns with constantly making sure I'm not acting ungrateful towards the coalition. I think those of us who are hoping to stay at SSFS or who just want to see the school succeed can agree that we are grateful for the herculean effort of the coalition to raise the money. But stop asking for grace and patience in this situation. The announcement that the school was closing was shocking and the actions that led to its near demise and the way in which staff and faculty were told are unconscionable. I think the fact that some of us are even still willing to entertain the possibility of staying is grace enough! That's certainly all the grace I can muster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m so grateful they raised the funds and will send my kids again next year. Looking forward to the school’s communication on Monday. It’s a lot to figure out in a short period of time, but they can do it with the support of the coalition and the community. Thank goodness many amazing teachers are staying!

Who is they? If you were on the call last night it didn’t go well. The school definitely lost more families. The coalition had to issue an apology. You need families to stay if you want your kids going next year period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll believe it when I see it. Why should they all of a sudden be transparent now when they haven't been for years? The Board MUST GO!!

Oh for sure. To clarify, it was the Coalition who hosted the Zoom and whose legal team advised them last-minute not to do Q&A. Their work has been tremendous, but at the end of the day, they are volunteers and they can't speak on the school's behalf. Yes, the school leaders and the Board will have a lot to answer for very soon.

Okay so now he coalition is just a band of volunteers who can’t promise anything on the schools behalf, when literally their entire story is built on the trust that they’re promising everything on the schools behalf. Doesn’t this seem like a concern to anyone?

I'm very concerned and I'm tried of having to temper my grave concerns with constantly making sure I'm not acting ungrateful towards the coalition. I think those of us who are hoping to stay at SSFS or who just want to see the school succeed can agree that we are grateful for the herculean effort of the coalition to raise the money. But stop asking for grace and patience in this situation. The announcement that the school was closing was shocking and the actions that led to its near demise and the way in which staff and faculty were told are unconscionable. I think the fact that some of us are even still willing to entertain the possibility of staying is grace enough! That's certainly all the grace I can muster.

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m so grateful they raised the funds and will send my kids again next year. Looking forward to the school’s communication on Monday. It’s a lot to figure out in a short period of time, but they can do it with the support of the coalition and the community. Thank goodness many amazing teachers are staying!

It's not a lot to figure out. Most of the figuring out comes AFTER they know how many families are staying. But they can't know how many families are staying until they give families the information we need to make that decision - are you going to honor the financial aid commitments that were made before you decided to let the school close? Are you going to give families a reasonable date to sign re enrollment contracts (a date that allows us to hear from the schools you forced us to apply to in the first place)? does the money you've secured for the upcoming year include the money to keep sports teams operational? And will the entire BOT of trustees be replaced or at least a good portion of them? That's all I need to know before making my decisions and then I'll give you time to work out the rest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m so grateful they raised the funds and will send my kids again next year. Looking forward to the school’s communication on Monday. It’s a lot to figure out in a short period of time, but they can do it with the support of the coalition and the community. Thank goodness many amazing teachers are staying!

The only reason many amazing teachers and many amazing families for that matter are staying is because finding another job that you love or another school that your kid will love requires more time than this unethical and incompetent BOT gave us. Talk about not giving people grace! The BOT did not give ANYONE the grace we all deserved to make good decisions for ourselves. I'm grateful to the coalition for coming up with the funds to give us more time to find good places to land but this is still a sinking ship and more amazing people will leave after the 2025-2026 school year without incoming enrollment to match the departures because let's face it - how many NEW families do you think you can possibly entice to join us?

[Anonymous]

I wonder if the school will approach those who had already declined re-enrollment for next year way back in January to see if they might change their minds. And also what are they doing to try to hold onto yield of new families who had planned to join in the fall for the first time? To me, those are the greatest pools of potential retention that could make a difference. Those sitting in limbo who had planned to return and had paid deposits (which were refunded) are the likeliest to stay, IMO.

[Anonymous]

Why on earth would someone who declined before this happened decide now to come back?

I want this to succeed. But it is a fool’s errand.

[Anonymous]

Head of school sent out an email to the families with some key info.

• Financial aid will still be awarded.
• New contracts will be sent out to families who were already enrolled.
• They will send a Q&A document later today that will keep getting updated as more answers become available.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if the school will approach those who had already declined re-enrollment for next year way back in January to see if they might change their minds. And also what are they doing to try to hold onto yield of new families who had planned to join in the fall for the first time? To me, those are the greatest pools of potential retention that could make a difference. Those sitting in limbo who had planned to return and had paid deposits (which were refunded) are the likeliest to stay, IMO.

.

Why would anyone who left before come back? You’re going to pay them? I’m not even sure that would be enough

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll believe it when I see it. Why should they all of a sudden be transparent now when they haven't been for years? The Board MUST GO!!

Oh for sure. To clarify, it was the Coalition who hosted the Zoom and whose legal team advised them last-minute not to do Q&A. Their work has been tremendous, but at the end of the day, they are volunteers and they can't speak on the school's behalf. Yes, the school leaders and the Board will have a lot to answer for very soon.

Okay so now he coalition is just a band of volunteers who can’t promise anything on the schools behalf, when literally their entire story is built on the trust that they’re promising everything on the schools behalf. Doesn’t this seem like a concern to anyone?

I'm very concerned and I'm tried of having to temper my grave concerns with constantly making sure I'm not acting ungrateful towards the coalition. I think those of us who are hoping to stay at SSFS or who just want to see the school succeed can agree that we are grateful for the herculean effort of the coalition to raise the money. But stop asking for grace and patience in this situation. The announcement that the school was closing was shocking and the actions that led to its near demise and the way in which staff and faculty were told are unconscionable. I think the fact that some of us are even still willing to entertain the possibility of staying is grace enough! That's certainly all the grace I can muster.

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'll believe it when I see it. Why should they all of a sudden be transparent now when they haven't been for years? The Board MUST GO!!

Oh for sure. To clarify, it was the Coalition who hosted the Zoom and whose legal team advised them last-minute not to do Q&A. Their work has been tremendous, but at the end of the day, they are volunteers and they can't speak on the school's behalf. Yes, the school leaders and the Board will have a lot to answer for very soon.

Okay so now he coalition is just a band of volunteers who can’t promise anything on the schools behalf, when literally their entire story is built on the trust that they’re promising everything on the schools behalf. Doesn’t this seem like a concern to anyone?

I'm very concerned and I'm tried of having to temper my grave concerns with constantly making sure I'm not acting ungrateful towards the coalition. I think those of us who are hoping to stay at SSFS or who just want to see the school succeed can agree that we are grateful for the herculean effort of the coalition to raise the money. But stop asking for grace and patience in this situation. The announcement that the school was closing was shocking and the actions that led to its near demise and the way in which staff and faculty were told are unconscionable. I think the fact that some of us are even still willing to entertain the possibility of staying is grace enough! That's certainly all the grace I can muster.

Frankly the BOT deserves "zero grace." If they have ANY integrity they will issue a statement saying they'll all collectively step down as soon as a new BOT is found and seated. How they can remotely think they can continue and have anyone trust them is beyond my understanding!

This.

[Anonymous]

FAQs are finally up on the achool website: https://www.ssfs.org/news-media/faqs-for-2025-2026

Two important takeaways based on discussions on this forum:

Families have until May 15 to decide and send in new contracts.

There will be a new and smaller Board with "a particular fiduciary radar" (whatever that means).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious, if anyone is going to leave anyway – teachers or students?

I'm sure some will, but I know we're staying. My 11th grader is absolutely thrilled to be able to graduate with his class!

We are a rising 9th grade family and are going to leave. We've liked the school and education but don't want to be in a bad position my child is a rising Junior or Senior. Just can't risk it.

[Anonymous]

Whoever keeps saying great teachers are staying is clearly just in hopeful mode. I know of more than a dozen SSFS teachers interviewing currently. I know a handful willing to stay, but many are not willing to stick through this game of “what if.”

[Anonymous]

I would think teachers who were blind sighted will say they are staying while they continue to look. If they find something better, they’ll leave. Any sane person would do that, and I wouldn’t blame them for it. They don’t owe their lives to my kid. I hope some are able to stay if this is the best thing for their family. That’s all they should be expected to do.