Basis Mclean
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Anonymous
Mistakes were made in year 1 when Basis DC opened. Mistakes occur the first few years when any school opens. Basis DC got sued for not providing adequate special education accommodations. They took measures to fix it, hiring a special ed coordinator as well as others. Schools, both charter and public, frequently get sued for failure to provide accommodations. Parents I know are satisfied with the 504 and IEP accommodations that their children are now receiving. |
Anonymous
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I saw Diane Ravitch speak about charter schools years ago, right when Basis dc was opening. Her basic point was public schools are not as bad as the school choice movement says they are, so there is no need for school choice, charter schools, magnet schools, and private schools.
i asked her afterwards if a charter school with a good record and a curriculum, where most (tho not all) parents at existing schools had good things to say about their kids' education, and about which smart education reporters like Jay Mathews at the Post consistently laud what is happening -- if that was coming to a community like it was coming to mine, what is the downside to sending my children there? She said, there is no downside. She essentially said that she was speaking in a macro sense about "the choice movement" and how it denigrates public schools; that's her beef. But she said of course individual charter schools like basis or others could provide a great education for some kids, if not all kids. And my husband followed up and asked, what school IS good for ALL kids? Is Harvard? Is SUNY Binghamton? She laughed and said no, not every school is right for every child, and public schools are at a disadvantage because they have to try harder to be, and charter schools have an advantage because while they should be, the burden on them is less stringent. Which may or may not be true, i dont know. But I see Basis dc seems t try. And it doesn't succeed with every kid, but I am not going to take my child out bc someone else had a worse experience. The point is there are education professionals like ravitch who can rail against charters, but even she acknowledges, if you find a school that fits YOUR child -- go! Use it! That is a blessed opportunity! The other point is, with the tens of thousands of parents who have sent their children to Basis schools in Arizona and Texas and the district and now california and new york, of course there are going to be some with "horror stories" of how it wasnt right for their kid. And that could be eventually true for our child too - and if it is, we will go back to our public school. So far, so good. (My 8th grader is at Basis DC, and my 2nd and 3rd graders will be there eventually). But if Basis, with its acknowledged great curriculum and acknowledged great enthusiastic teachers who are truly excited to teach, is good for 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 percent of the kids who try it out -- whatever the number is -- that is fantastic for any community that lands a Basis school. |
Anonymous
| Who cares about a charter school? You keep discussing a FREE charter school to justify $25,000 a year. Admit it -- a previous poster referenced Chris Zeffries, Director of Student Enrollment, thinks McLean was a mistake. |
Anonymous
I have spoken to Chris Zeffries many times and was very frank about my concerns witb Basis McLean. He has never suggested that McLean is a mistake and I truly don't believe he thinks that. He told me he was in charge of Basis Silicon Valley and also worked on Basis Brooklyn, and he commented about how different each of those schools was from the other -- and then said how different McLean was from each of them. But that's what Basis has done - bring its top curriculum and program to very different markets. While that is perhaps DIFFICULT for someone in Chris' position, as he acknowledged to me, it is not a mistake. And what would "mistake" really mean? That our community wouldn't in fact benefit from a new great private school? That's wrong. That they might have X number of students at the beginning instead of Y number of students? Well, for the students there -- not a problem. Basis is big enough that it's not going to go away. It's not like Basis isn't investing in this community -- and because they ARE investing, they ARE staying. At least that's what Chris tells me! 
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Anonymous
| I would pay double what Basis McLean is charging for the Basis curriculum, anywhere in northern Virginia. Have you checked private school tuitions lately? $25,000 is a bargain. |
Anonymous
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Google the Blocks salary!
So it's okay for someone who makes iPhones to make money, or someone who is an actor in a movie every 2 years, or someone who wrotes vampire novels, or someone who throws a baseball really fast, or someone who drills for oil, or someone who moves paper money around a hedge fund -- but someone who provides a fantastic education for thousands of children shouldn't make money? (And much less than all THOSE folks!) Yeah, that makes sense. Go Blocks go! |
Anonymous
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So many folks have talked about how teachers should make more money and athletes and movie stars and the like less money.
That's true. But now that a lifelong educator has come up with a curriculum that's said to be among the world's best, and proves it with student results year after year, is making money from a school network that's educating tens of thousands of children -- he shouldn't make a few hundred thousand dollars? Why in the world not? Better him than any number of folks in any number of industries! I wish there were more people like the Blocks, not less! At least we who send our kids to BASIS schools are getting something for the money we're paying! -SP (child applying to McLean next year) |
Anonymous
I mean, we who sending our kids to BASIS Independent Schools are getting something for what we are paying. I know the charter schools are free public schools. And that's great too. The more kids who have access to basis's education, the better. -SP |
Anonymous
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This thread is a disaster. I don't understand it one bit.
Do any of you live in NOVA? We have one good private high school and one that's so-so. It's a wealthy area and we have money to spend on private schools. I don't care that Basis DC is free and McLean is $25k a year. I'd rather pay that then schlep my kid to GDS from NOVA. I would really like to get back to the heart of the discussion and figure out what's going on with the admissions team and with the school as a whole. |
Anonymous
I am a former BASIS.ed employee (I left to return because my spouse was transferred out of state and there are no BASIS offices where we live). I have seen the posts on Chris Zefferys and Tamara Block Handler of BASIS Independent. I have worked with both of them, and they're two of the hardest working, most straight forward, and nicest people I have met professionally. Both are extremely smart, and each has a lot of experience doing what they're doing for BASIS Independent Schools. The question about whether Chris is "invested in the schools" -- you have to be no matter what you do at BASIS.ed or BINS (BASIS Independent Schools). Chris knows the schools well. He spent a LOT of time touring different BASIS charter schools in Arizona, and was in San Jose and Brooklyn classrooms too. He knows the schools, knows the curricular philosophy, and has seen THAT it works and HOW it works for most children (not all). We all have. Well, most of us. Just as each BASIS.ed school is filled with smart teachers - really, the upper end of teachers in any given community -- the BASIS offices are also filled with smart folks who know that their purpose is to support great schools. Hence, everyone is "invested" in the schools. As for Tamara Block Handler, she is a bright, funny, ray of sunshine whose loud laugh filled the hallways at the BASIS.ed headquarters before she moved to New York to better support the east coast schools. She is also an experienced educator having been a senior director for a national health care nonprofit organization which provided education to patients and doctors for a specific disease -- Chron's disease and ulcerative colitis. She is as hard working as anyone there. She knows her way around a classroom, a board room, a marketing meeting, an office of professionals, or a policy session. Very capable. Someone called her "evil" on this thread -- haha. That's probably someone whom she spoke truth to, about something they were doing or not doing. Tamara says what needs to be said, and I always appreciated that honest and forthright thought and speech. (An aside - we call men who are like that 'successful,' and women who are like that 'evil'! Oh well). She's only "evil" if dedicating your entire professional life to getting great medical care to seriously ill patients, and getting a great curriculum to students who want it, is "evil". She's awesome. So is Chris. |
Anonymous
Yes, we live here, and we are sending our daughter to Basis McLean. I don't know what is going on with the admissions team but I do know the school will be there, and will open this fall. I was told that the woman in charge of the local admissions team has young kids and a long commute so she is voluntarily leaving, so some new people are coming in. I don't know about the rest of the team; I thought there were just two local people, with visits from other Basis Independent people from time to time. I don't see that as problematic, at all. |
Anonymous
The school will be there. It will have the same awesome basis curriculum as other basis schools, and it will have the same uptick in amenities and extracurriculars as the other basis private schools. It will also have the fantastic teachers (many of them with masters degrees and phd's) that the basis independent schools all have. It's happening. I can't wait. My husband can't wait. My daughter will be in kindergarten there and can't wait. And my friend who has taught in Fairfax County for 20-plus years is applying to teach, too. |
Anonymous
Love the typo, SP. "we who sending our kids to BASIS". In the post above this you said you were a child who is applying to Basis McLean next year. Here you say you are sending your kids to Basis. Who are you, really? And, why do you have awful grammar? Clearly, you don't belong at Basis! |
jsteele
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This poster is an obvious shill. In the course of this thread, the poster has claimed to have been a onetime DC resident who considered BASIS DC who then moved to McLean and is interested in BASIS McLean, to have called the BASIS McLean office and had a bad experience, to have had conversations with Chris Zefferys (whoever that is), and now to be a former BASIS employee living in a place with no BASIS offices (an interesting term for what are normally called "schools"). The poster appears to be located in New York City. |
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jsteele
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This is the same shill, now in the guise of someone planning to send her child to BASIS McLean. |