Holton Truth?

[Anonymous]

Hahahaha. This is all amazing and it makes me abundantly happy the truth is coming out.
As someone VERY close to the school, Penny’s spending inappropriate sums of money on her house is true.
Her horrible writing and speeches are true. Teacher morale is amazingly low. Heck, half the admin hate it!
New admits are weak and many students left last year. As a result, Holton had to dip into its waitpool very, very early last spring.
The new Director of Development doesn’t know a blessed person but has no problem asking previous donors for more money without even calling or meeting them in person.
Penny stripped any DEIB language out of employees contracts the day she got there.
School operations are a complete mess. There are weekly schedule changes that complete screw up the flow of the educational day.
Donors get Penny’s ear (and promises that their DD will make the team they want).
The AHOS is a robot. She is just simply going through the motions until she can become a head herself.

To the OP, go to an admissions event to hear empty promises and watch the show. Go talk to a tenured teacher (or better yet, one the recently left) to go the whole, real truth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Former Holton parent here. We are one of the parents who took the suggestion of many on this board and left the school because we were incredibly unhappy with how the school was being run. The school has changed drastically in the past few years. There is a lot of discussion about DEI because Penny came in guns blazing with a goal of gutting the school's DEI program. At the time, few white parents seemed bothered by that, despite some really abhorrent behavior on the part of Penny, the board and the administration. My understanding is that Penny was trying to "right-size" the school so that it would be more attractive to donors. It is also my understanding that this effort didn't work, and she failed to attract large donations. And instead, she is actually costing the school money. She hired an Assistant HOS, spent a fortune on the interior design of her school paid for home (that is what Holton parents should be livid about btw), and has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on comms consultants (again, Holton parents, ask for a detailed accounting, this is all true). Part of the reason why the "what's the deal with Holton" question is so hard to acertain on DCUM is because Penny PAYS CONSULTANTS TO POST HERE.

Ok, so where were we?

She is in hole financially because she has mismanaged money, her right-wing politicking didn't end up in more money for the school, so what does she do? She is increasing enrollment at the school, leading to larger class sizes and the bid to expand the school. Many of the kids she's admitting aren't super strong academically, so the teachers have more kids to teach and more ground to cover. So sure, Holton girls currently in 11th and 12th grade will likely have strong outcomes because they were at the school Pre-Penny, but that is not going continue. Instead, Holton will be a lovely school for mid-tier students of very wealthy parents. It's such a shame.

I have no dog in this fight. We aren't there anymore, but I wanted to post so hopefully the OP sees this and understands what is being all the Holton angst here. Oh... and I could care less about the skirt length.

Totally agree. (Still a parent at Holton but have 1 more year to go)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents of older children, how often in a week is your kid actually seeing their teachers? Are you finding classes only meet a couple times a week? Concerned about what I'm hearing.

As someone earlier said, there are a lot disruptions and often last minute changes or changes that aren't well-thought out and require last minute fixes. There are very few weeks where they actually have classes for five days straight.

What sort of disruptions are you talking about? There have been three public holidays and school conferences since the start of school. Are you saying they shouldn’t close to those?

If you've got an upper or middle schooler, just pick a class and a random two weeks in September or October. How often did that class actually meet? What I'm seeing is sometimes only 4-5 class meetings over the course of two weeks because of schedule and calendar disruptions. Their peers are getting twice that number of class meetings over two weeks. How do you think that affects your child? How do you think that affects the curriculum?

Middle school parent here. That's false. I just pulled up my DD's schedule. They have the 10-day rotation (A-J).

Math: 7x in 10 days
Science: 7x in 10 days
English: 7x in 10 days
Foreign Language: 7x in 10 days

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents of older children, how often in a week is your kid actually seeing their teachers? Are you finding classes only meet a couple times a week? Concerned about what I'm hearing.

As someone earlier said, there are a lot disruptions and often last minute changes or changes that aren't well-thought out and require last minute fixes. There are very few weeks where they actually have classes for five days straight.

What sort of disruptions are you talking about? There have been three public holidays and school conferences since the start of school. Are you saying they shouldn’t close to those?

If you've got an upper or middle schooler, just pick a class and a random two weeks in September or October. How often did that class actually meet? What I'm seeing is sometimes only 4-5 class meetings over the course of two weeks because of schedule and calendar disruptions. Their peers are getting twice that number of class meetings over two weeks. How do you think that affects your child? How do you think that affects the curriculum?

The wild number of disrupted weeks is not unique to Holton. Religious holidays, homecomings, Indigenous Peoples Day, community service days - September and October in DMV privates are not known for establishing clean rhythms.

Holton operates a lettered day schedule to address this, A-J. In a normal week, M-F would be A-E, then the second week would be F-J. But let's say Monday in week 2 is a holiday. Then it all shifts so F is on Tuesday instead of Monday (and following weeks shift too). This ensure every class gets the same number of meeting days, even if there's a lot of holidays on Mondays for example.

I think a lot of schools do this for that reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents of older children, how often in a week is your kid actually seeing their teachers? Are you finding classes only meet a couple times a week? Concerned about what I'm hearing.

As someone earlier said, there are a lot disruptions and often last minute changes or changes that aren't well-thought out and require last minute fixes. There are very few weeks where they actually have classes for five days straight.

What sort of disruptions are you talking about? There have been three public holidays and school conferences since the start of school. Are you saying they shouldn’t close to those?

If you've got an upper or middle schooler, just pick a class and a random two weeks in September or October. How often did that class actually meet? What I'm seeing is sometimes only 4-5 class meetings over the course of two weeks because of schedule and calendar disruptions. Their peers are getting twice that number of class meetings over two weeks. How do you think that affects your child? How do you think that affects the curriculum?

Middle school parent here. That's false. I just pulled up my DD's schedule. They have the 10-day rotation (A-J).

Math: 7x in 10 days
Science: 7x in 10 days
English: 7x in 10 days
Foreign Language: 7x in 10 days

That's the ideal, not what actually happens regularly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents of older children, how often in a week is your kid actually seeing their teachers? Are you finding classes only meet a couple times a week? Concerned about what I'm hearing.

As someone earlier said, there are a lot disruptions and often last minute changes or changes that aren't well-thought out and require last minute fixes. There are very few weeks where they actually have classes for five days straight.

What sort of disruptions are you talking about? There have been three public holidays and school conferences since the start of school. Are you saying they shouldn’t close to those?

If you've got an upper or middle schooler, just pick a class and a random two weeks in September or October. How often did that class actually meet? What I'm seeing is sometimes only 4-5 class meetings over the course of two weeks because of schedule and calendar disruptions. Their peers are getting twice that number of class meetings over two weeks. How do you think that affects your child? How do you think that affects the curriculum?

Middle school parent here. That's false. I just pulled up my DD's schedule. They have the 10-day rotation (A-J).

Math: 7x in 10 days
Science: 7x in 10 days
English: 7x in 10 days
Foreign Language: 7x in 10 days

That's the ideal, not what actually happens regularly.

How does it not happen? The "letter" days shift if school has a day off due to holiday.

Sounds like someone doesn't know what they're talking about, when faced with real facts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Former Holton parent here. We are one of the parents who took the suggestion of many on this board and left the school because we were incredibly unhappy with how the school was being run. The school has changed drastically in the past few years. There is a lot of discussion about DEI because Penny came in guns blazing with a goal of gutting the school's DEI program. At the time, few white parents seemed bothered by that, despite some really abhorrent behavior on the part of Penny, the board and the administration. My understanding is that Penny was trying to "right-size" the school so that it would be more attractive to donors. It is also my understanding that this effort didn't work, and she failed to attract large donations. And instead, she is actually costing the school money. She hired an Assistant HOS, spent a fortune on the interior design of her school paid for home (that is what Holton parents should be livid about btw), and has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on comms consultants (again, Holton parents, ask for a detailed accounting, this is all true). Part of the reason why the "what's the deal with Holton" question is so hard to acertain on DCUM is because Penny PAYS CONSULTANTS TO POST HERE.

Ok, so where were we?

She is in hole financially because she has mismanaged money, her right-wing politicking didn't end up in more money for the school, so what does she do? She is increasing enrollment at the school, leading to larger class sizes and the bid to expand the school. Many of the kids she's admitting aren't super strong academically, so the teachers have more kids to teach and more ground to cover. So sure, Holton girls currently in 11th and 12th grade will likely have strong outcomes because they were at the school Pre-Penny, but that is not going continue. Instead, Holton will be a lovely school for mid-tier students of very wealthy parents. It's such a shame.

I have no dog in this fight. We aren't there anymore, but I wanted to post so hopefully the OP sees this and understands what is being all the Holton angst here. Oh... and I could care less about the skirt length.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents of older children, how often in a week is your kid actually seeing their teachers? Are you finding classes only meet a couple times a week? Concerned about what I'm hearing.

As someone earlier said, there are a lot disruptions and often last minute changes or changes that aren't well-thought out and require last minute fixes. There are very few weeks where they actually have classes for five days straight.

What sort of disruptions are you talking about? There have been three public holidays and school conferences since the start of school. Are you saying they shouldn’t close to those?

If you've got an upper or middle schooler, just pick a class and a random two weeks in September or October. How often did that class actually meet? What I'm seeing is sometimes only 4-5 class meetings over the course of two weeks because of schedule and calendar disruptions. Their peers are getting twice that number of class meetings over two weeks. How do you think that affects your child? How do you think that affects the curriculum?

Middle school parent here. That's false. I just pulled up my DD's schedule. They have the 10-day rotation (A-J).

Math: 7x in 10 days
Science: 7x in 10 days
English: 7x in 10 days
Foreign Language: 7x in 10 days

That's the ideal, not what actually happens regularly.

How does it not happen? The "letter" days shift if school has a day off due to holiday.

Sounds like someone doesn't know what they're talking about, when faced with real facts.

I'm looking at the number of class meetings in an actual two weeks, not theoretical. In addition to holidays and other breaks, there are other schedule disruptions. All these things make it so you don't ACTUALLY see your teachers 7 times in two weeks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents of older children, how often in a week is your kid actually seeing their teachers? Are you finding classes only meet a couple times a week? Concerned about what I'm hearing.

As someone earlier said, there are a lot disruptions and often last minute changes or changes that aren't well-thought out and require last minute fixes. There are very few weeks where they actually have classes for five days straight.

What sort of disruptions are you talking about? There have been three public holidays and school conferences since the start of school. Are you saying they shouldn’t close to those?

If you've got an upper or middle schooler, just pick a class and a random two weeks in September or October. How often did that class actually meet? What I'm seeing is sometimes only 4-5 class meetings over the course of two weeks because of schedule and calendar disruptions. Their peers are getting twice that number of class meetings over two weeks. How do you think that affects your child? How do you think that affects the curriculum?

Middle school parent here. That's false. I just pulled up my DD's schedule. They have the 10-day rotation (A-J).

Math: 7x in 10 days
Science: 7x in 10 days
English: 7x in 10 days
Foreign Language: 7x in 10 days

That's the ideal, not what actually happens regularly.

How does it not happen? The "letter" days shift if school has a day off due to holiday.

Sounds like someone doesn't know what they're talking about, when faced with real facts.

I'm looking at the number of class meetings in an actual two weeks, not theoretical. In addition to holidays and other breaks, there are other schedule disruptions. All these things make it so you don't ACTUALLY see your teachers 7 times in two weeks.

Anybody who pays any attention to school schedules knows that it's all theoretical. Just look at a true block schedule like many public schools have. In theory classes meet 5 times every two weeks. Except they don't. Because many many weeks aren't five days. So kids oven see teachers only 3 or 4 times in two weeks. Add to that the extra disruptions that are common in private schools for special events and kids never see their teachers as often as promised.

[Anonymous]

Penny’s consultants and bidders at it again. The obviously pissed parent is correct. Classes don’t meet enough. Recent disruptions include: Holton/Landon collaboration day, Indigenous Peoples Day, two days of conferences, Thanksgiving assembly day, and Festival of Lights. The result, kids freaking out because of “test dumping” in the week before breaks.
Oh, and Penny, why don’t you try coming to work once in a while rather than “working from home” every day. Your zillion dollar house is literally a stones throw away from your office.

[Anonymous]

+1
And stop bringing your dog! Or make it fair and let any teacher bring in their dog! Or student!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents of older children, how often in a week is your kid actually seeing their teachers? Are you finding classes only meet a couple times a week? Concerned about what I'm hearing.

As someone earlier said, there are a lot disruptions and often last minute changes or changes that aren't well-thought out and require last minute fixes. There are very few weeks where they actually have classes for five days straight.

What sort of disruptions are you talking about? There have been three public holidays and school conferences since the start of school. Are you saying they shouldn’t close to those?

If you've got an upper or middle schooler, just pick a class and a random two weeks in September or October. How often did that class actually meet? What I'm seeing is sometimes only 4-5 class meetings over the course of two weeks because of schedule and calendar disruptions. Their peers are getting twice that number of class meetings over two weeks. How do you think that affects your child? How do you think that affects the curriculum?

Middle school parent here. That's false. I just pulled up my DD's schedule. They have the 10-day rotation (A-J).

Math: 7x in 10 days
Science: 7x in 10 days
English: 7x in 10 days
Foreign Language: 7x in 10 days

That's the ideal, not what actually happens regularly.

How does it not happen? The "letter" days shift if school has a day off due to holiday.

Sounds like someone doesn't know what they're talking about, when faced with real facts.

I'm looking at the number of class meetings in an actual two weeks, not theoretical. In addition to holidays and other breaks, there are other schedule disruptions. All these things make it so you don't ACTUALLY see your teachers 7 times in two weeks.

Anybody who pays any attention to school schedules knows that it's all theoretical. Just look at a true block schedule like many public schools have. In theory classes meet 5 times every two weeks. Except they don't. Because many many weeks aren't five days. So kids oven see teachers only 3 or 4 times in two weeks. Add to that the extra disruptions that are common in private schools for special events and kids never see their teachers as often as promised.

And we're proud to settle for this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents of older children, how often in a week is your kid actually seeing their teachers? Are you finding classes only meet a couple times a week? Concerned about what I'm hearing.

As someone earlier said, there are a lot disruptions and often last minute changes or changes that aren't well-thought out and require last minute fixes. There are very few weeks where they actually have classes for five days straight.

What sort of disruptions are you talking about? There have been three public holidays and school conferences since the start of school. Are you saying they shouldn’t close to those?

If you've got an upper or middle schooler, just pick a class and a random two weeks in September or October. How often did that class actually meet? What I'm seeing is sometimes only 4-5 class meetings over the course of two weeks because of schedule and calendar disruptions. Their peers are getting twice that number of class meetings over two weeks. How do you think that affects your child? How do you think that affects the curriculum?

Middle school parent here. That's false. I just pulled up my DD's schedule. They have the 10-day rotation (A-J).

Math: 7x in 10 days
Science: 7x in 10 days
English: 7x in 10 days
Foreign Language: 7x in 10 days

That's the ideal, not what actually happens regularly.

How does it not happen? The "letter" days shift if school has a day off due to holiday.

Sounds like someone doesn't know what they're talking about, when faced with real facts.

I'm looking at the number of class meetings in an actual two weeks, not theoretical. In addition to holidays and other breaks, there are other schedule disruptions. All these things make it so you don't ACTUALLY see your teachers 7 times in two weeks.

Anybody who pays any attention to school schedules knows that it's all theoretical. Just look at a true block schedule like many public schools have. In theory classes meet 5 times every two weeks. Except they don't. Because many many weeks aren't five days. So kids oven see teachers only 3 or 4 times in two weeks. Add to that the extra disruptions that are common in private schools for special events and kids never see their teachers as often as promised.

It seems like the calendar and not the school is to blame for this. If there are holidays in the calendar, so be it. Kids will have a class on 70% of the days that school is in session.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents of older children, how often in a week is your kid actually seeing their teachers? Are you finding classes only meet a couple times a week? Concerned about what I'm hearing.

As someone earlier said, there are a lot disruptions and often last minute changes or changes that aren't well-thought out and require last minute fixes. There are very few weeks where they actually have classes for five days straight.

What sort of disruptions are you talking about? There have been three public holidays and school conferences since the start of school. Are you saying they shouldn’t close to those?

If you've got an upper or middle schooler, just pick a class and a random two weeks in September or October. How often did that class actually meet? What I'm seeing is sometimes only 4-5 class meetings over the course of two weeks because of schedule and calendar disruptions. Their peers are getting twice that number of class meetings over two weeks. How do you think that affects your child? How do you think that affects the curriculum?

Middle school parent here. That's false. I just pulled up my DD's schedule. They have the 10-day rotation (A-J).

Math: 7x in 10 days
Science: 7x in 10 days
English: 7x in 10 days
Foreign Language: 7x in 10 days

That's the ideal, not what actually happens regularly.

How does it not happen? The "letter" days shift if school has a day off due to holiday.

Sounds like someone doesn't know what they're talking about, when faced with real facts.

I'm looking at the number of class meetings in an actual two weeks, not theoretical. In addition to holidays and other breaks, there are other schedule disruptions. All these things make it so you don't ACTUALLY see your teachers 7 times in two weeks.

Anybody who pays any attention to school schedules knows that it's all theoretical. Just look at a true block schedule like many public schools have. In theory classes meet 5 times every two weeks. Except they don't. Because many many weeks aren't five days. So kids oven see teachers only 3 or 4 times in two weeks. Add to that the extra disruptions that are common in private schools for special events and kids never see their teachers as often as promised.

And we're proud to settle for this?

No teacher I know is proud to settle for this. It's frustrating for kids, teachers, families. But for some reason the so called "schedule experts" who don't actually teach think it works. The amount of class time has diminished greatly in the past 15 years or so and it's horrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Penny’s consultants and bidders at it again. The obviously pissed parent is correct. Classes don’t meet enough. Recent disruptions include: Holton/Landon collaboration day, Indigenous Peoples Day, two days of conferences, Thanksgiving assembly day, and Festival of Lights. The result, kids freaking out because of “test dumping” in the week before breaks.
Oh, and Penny, why don’t you try coming to work once in a while rather than “working from home” every day. Your zillion dollar house is literally a stones throw away from your office.

Penny just living all up in your head, rent free