Basis is sucking the energy out of my child

[Anonymous]

I’d believe this if we were hearing it from her. Possible that all you’re really saying is that you love you Cap Hill row house lifestyle. Any kid can study biology from 6th grade these days if they’re motivated. So many online courses and excellent web sites.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The full story is that BASIS ditched any kind of PE for 7th and 8th graders a few years back, then reinstated it as an elective after many parents complained. Many kids can't work PE into their schedule, and the offerings are so paltry that there's little appeal anyway.

Bull. They get an elective slot, and there are no requirements at all as to what they must take in that slot. When you say that they "can't work PE into their schedule," what you mean is that they're choosing to take something other than PE, but are then whining that they can't also have PE. You don't get to force everyone else to do PE simply because your child, when given an elective, would rather pick something other than PE.

This isn't much different from any other school. Kids get a certain number of electives. Many kids want to take more electives than the elective slots they have. They must make choices and live with those choices.

Really, you people are ridiculous. "BASIS is bad because it doesn't have a rooftop basketball court and my kid wanted it." "BASIS is bad because my kid simply needs PE, but didn't want to choose it for his elective." "BASIS is bad because my kid wasn't happy there, and thus no one is happy there." "BASIS is bad because my kid likes browsing the school library, and they don't have one. My kid and I are incapable of visiting public libraries, so the school simply must have a library." (Not on this thread, but....) "BASIS is bad because I want immersion level foreign languages, and BASIS doesn't offer that. I'm sorry that you feel like there's some sort of stigma about leaving BASIS, and the whole thing makes you insecure. You need to get over it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d believe this if we were hearing it from her. Possible that all you’re really saying is that you love you Cap Hill row house lifestyle. Any kid can study biology from 6th grade these days if they’re motivated. So many online courses and excellent web sites.

Okie doke. You don’t have to believe me.

She’ll do great on all her exams — she’s already earned a 5 and two 4s on exams she the ones she’s already taken the last couple years. She’s just feeling that much more confident about AP Bio because of all the coursework she and her classmates have done so far. Next year she’ll take AP Chem and AP Physics. She’ll probably feel good about those, when the time comes, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Basis’ building sucks. The network prioritized being at a central location near many transit options. It is pretty easy to get to Basis from anywhere in the city via bus or train. That is a big deal and students to come from all over.

The trade off is a building not designed to be a school.

I do admire their rationale for selecting the building/location, i.e., to make it accessible to the entire city. That is cool. But $$ wise (because of hot office building real estate market) they were stuck with a not so great building. I wonder if the pandemic could affect the downtown building stock enough to change things up radically??? Maybe they can get a better/bigger building cheaper given all the open office space downtown now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not the poster you're responding to but I disagree, too.

BASIS didn't do a good job when they cut out PE classes for 7th and 8th graders.

They didn't do a good job when they renovated the building without outdoor space. They could easily have built a basketball court on the roof.

They don't bother to help certain students they want gone. Teachers go through the motions to help, pay lip serving to helping, but certainly don't knock themselves out for the "wrong" students.

It's a mean-spirited place for the "wrong" students.

You have no idea what you are talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d believe this if we were hearing it from her. Possible that all you’re really saying is that you love you Cap Hill row house lifestyle. Any kid can study biology from 6th grade these days if they’re motivated. So many online courses and excellent web sites.

Great point. We shouldn't bother with Basis (or other schools). Rather, we should spend our ample free time in our lovely Capitol Hill rowhouse homeschooling our kids and supervising their enrollment in online courses and perusal of excellent websites.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Basis’ building sucks. The network prioritized being at a central location near many transit options. It is pretty easy to get to Basis from anywhere in the city via bus or train. That is a big deal and students to come from all over.

The trade off is a building not designed to be a school.

I do admire their rationale for selecting the building/location, i.e., to make it accessible to the entire city. That is cool. But $$ wise (because of hot office building real estate market) they were stuck with a not so great building. I wonder if the pandemic could affect the downtown building stock enough to change things up radically??? Maybe they can get a better/bigger building cheaper given all the open office space downtown now?

The way the building is financed - there’s some sort of arrangement where the network holds all their properties jointly (you can look it up on past minutes of PCSB meetings re Basis, I don’t remember the details) - makes that highly unlikely.

When the idea of an elementary Basis was kicking around they looked hard for something near the MS/HS building that would be appropriate for little kids and came up with nothing.

But the real answer is that the Basis DC Board and the network don’t think the building is a problem worth solving. Their enrollment is stable. The wait list is a bit longer each year and their graduates get into terrific colleges with lots of scholarships.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Basis’ building sucks. The network prioritized being at a central location near many transit options. It is pretty easy to get to Basis from anywhere in the city via bus or train. That is a big deal and students to come from all over.

The trade off is a building not designed to be a school.

I do admire their rationale for selecting the building/location, i.e., to make it accessible to the entire city. That is cool. But $$ wise (because of hot office building real estate market) they were stuck with a not so great building. I wonder if the pandemic could affect the downtown building stock enough to change things up radically??? Maybe they can get a better/bigger building cheaper given all the open office space downtown now?

The way the building is financed - there’s some sort of arrangement where the network holds all their properties jointly (you can look it up on past minutes of PCSB meetings re Basis, I don’t remember the details) - makes that highly unlikely.

When the idea of an elementary Basis was kicking around they looked hard for something near the MS/HS building that would be appropriate for little kids and came up with nothing.

But the real answer is that the Basis DC Board and the network don’t think the building is a problem worth solving. Their enrollment is stable. The wait list is a bit longer each year and their graduates get into terrific colleges with lots of scholarships.

Oh come one, this is a silly statement. If there were a feasible way to get a better (and cheaper!) building in roughly the same location due to all the newly vacant office space that may never come back in the same way because the pandemic has fundamentally changed the way America works/teleworks, I'm sure they wouldn't turn it down. Of course, now that Metro is planning to shut down all these routes, a central location accessible by mass transit may no longer be a possible thing . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d believe this if we were hearing it from her. Possible that all you’re really saying is that you love you Cap Hill row house lifestyle. Any kid can study biology from 6th grade these days if they’re motivated. So many online courses and excellent web sites.

Great point. We shouldn't bother with Basis (or other schools). Rather, we should spend our ample free time in our lovely Capitol Hill rowhouse homeschooling our kids and supervising their enrollment in online courses and perusal of excellent websites.

The rub is that's what a lot of us are essentially doing these days, with or without kids at BASIS. My 5th grader remains on the BASIS WL, but takes some seriously good biology/nature classes on Outschool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The full story is that BASIS ditched any kind of PE for 7th and 8th graders a few years back, then reinstated it as an elective after many parents complained. Many kids can't work PE into their schedule, and the offerings are so paltry that there's little appeal anyway.

Bull. They get an elective slot, and there are no requirements at all as to what they must take in that slot. When you say that they "can't work PE into their schedule," what you mean is that they're choosing to take something other than PE, but are then whining that they can't also have PE. You don't get to force everyone else to do PE simply because your child, when given an elective, would rather pick something other than PE.

This isn't much different from any other school. Kids get a certain number of electives. Many kids want to take more electives than the elective slots they have. They must make choices and live with those choices.

Really, you people are ridiculous. "BASIS is bad because it doesn't have a rooftop basketball court and my kid wanted it." "BASIS is bad because my kid simply needs PE, but didn't want to choose it for his elective." "BASIS is bad because my kid wasn't happy there, and thus no one is happy there." "BASIS is bad because my kid likes browsing the school library, and they don't have one. My kid and I are incapable of visiting public libraries, so the school simply must have a library." (Not on this thread, but....) "BASIS is bad because I want immersion level foreign languages, and BASIS doesn't offer that. I'm sorry that you feel like there's some sort of stigma about leaving BASIS, and the whole thing makes you insecure. You need to get over it.

Why do I get the feeling that the boosters will run out of steam before the detractors/defectors? There seem to be more of the latter in this city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Basis’ building sucks. The network prioritized being at a central location near many transit options. It is pretty easy to get to Basis from anywhere in the city via bus or train. That is a big deal and students to come from all over.

The trade off is a building not designed to be a school.

I do admire their rationale for selecting the building/location, i.e., to make it accessible to the entire city. That is cool. But $$ wise (because of hot office building real estate market) they were stuck with a not so great building. I wonder if the pandemic could affect the downtown building stock enough to change things up radically??? Maybe they can get a better/bigger building cheaper given all the open office space downtown now?

The way the building is financed - there’s some sort of arrangement where the network holds all their properties jointly (you can look it up on past minutes of PCSB meetings re Basis, I don’t remember the details) - makes that highly unlikely.

When the idea of an elementary Basis was kicking around they looked hard for something near the MS/HS building that would be appropriate for little kids and came up with nothing.

But the real answer is that the Basis DC Board and the network don’t think the building is a problem worth solving. Their enrollment is stable. The wait list is a bit longer each year and their graduates get into terrific colleges with lots of scholarships.

Oh come one, this is a silly statement. If there were a feasible way to get a better (and cheaper!) building in roughly the same location due to all the newly vacant office space that may never come back in the same way because the pandemic has fundamentally changed the way America works/teleworks, I'm sure they wouldn't turn it down. Of course, now that Metro is planning to shut down all these routes, a central location accessible by mass transit may no longer be a possible thing . . .

Have you met the people in AZ who control this stuff? I promise you they do not care. At all. Their metrics are the above.

They know that the DC parents making the most noise only send their kids to escape their crappy IB MS, and that they can’t wait to send them to a private or DCPS application school. If you aren’t happy, there’s a 5th grader ready to take your place.