Will Whittle be around next year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel so bad for all of our parents. I just want to share that the staff feel the same way. We are exhausted by the continual unmet promises. Finding out the potential investor, who covered our pay numerous times, has pulled out is devastating. We were lead to believe that this investment was secure. The thing I know is that Whittle continues to hide the full details from us and blames everyone else for his failures. And he does this on a Sunday morning.

(johnjoseph we miss you so much)

This thread is the chronicle of a fraud and a fraudster. Sorry it's upsetting to some, but the only way to stop people like Whittle preying on yet another set of victims is to make clear what he did this time and the consequences.

Hoping that at least one great investigative reporter and one strong scholar of business have screenshots of every page, including the deleted items. Reading all this commentary from many points of view will provide excellent context for the writers I hope are digging into the story as wel speak.

Especially despicable that so many of Whittle's serial frauds have had kids and their education as primary victims. Some detailed high-profile exposes might mean he'll not get the chance to pull one of these stunts again. When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel so bad for all of our parents. I just want to share that the staff feel the same way. We are exhausted by the continual unmet promises. Finding out the potential investor, who covered our pay numerous times, has pulled out is devastating. We were lead to believe that this investment was secure. The thing I know is that Whittle continues to hide the full details from us and blames everyone else for his failures. And he does this on a Sunday morning.

(johnjoseph we miss you so much)

This thread is the chronicle of a fraud and a fraudster. Sorry it's upsetting to some, but the only way to stop people like Whittle preying on yet another set of victims is to make clear what he did this time and the consequences.

Hoping that at least one great investigative reporter and one strong scholar of business have screenshots of every page, including the deleted items. Reading all this commentary from many points of view will provide excellent context for the writers I hope are digging into the story as wel speak.

Especially despicable that so many of Whittle's serial frauds have had kids and their education as primary victims. Some detailed high-profile exposes might mean he'll not get the chance to pull one of these stunts again. When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

The only thing that will stop Chris Whittle is Chris Whittle. He has been doing this for over 40 years and people still haven’t stopped supporting him. And the reason is because he sells dreams. The same way the former employee that so emphatically defended the school in this thread, did so because he truly was happy pursuing his dream alongside Chris Whittle and so are all the parents. Even people who have been wronged by Chris from decades passed until now, probably look back fondly at the work they were able to do. As long as Chris has another dream to sell, he will sell it. Unfortunately, once he sells you the dream, that is all it is, is a dream. Clearly, the mismanagement of funds that follows him everywhere he goes demonstrates that he is not grounded in reality.

[Anonymous]

Father time is also moving on Whittle. He's 75 now and is running out of people to sell his dreams to. It is not for nothing that most of the money for this scheme came from China since his track record was well known to US investors but not the Chinese. And if he's looking for other foreign lands flush with cash and gullible folks, Russia checks one of the two boxes but decidedly not the second.

One of the biggest reasons Whittle is able to invoke such cult like devotion from his employees (initially) is that he pays them quite lavishly. In many cases, well above market rates for the same position (hint: also known as poor financial management). It is a pattern that has repeated time and again and is why, if you look at his inner circle, they have been happy to follow him from one failed venture to the next. The failures may leave investors significantly out of pocket but management rewards itself richly while the going is good.

If the parent who posted earlier is correct in saying that Whittle needs $250 million to dig out of this hole, the prudent course of action would be to find a backup plan asap. The math simply does not compute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Father time is also moving on Whittle. He's 75 now and is running out of people to sell his dreams to. It is not for nothing that most of the money for this scheme came from China since his track record was well known to US investors but not the Chinese. And if he's looking for other foreign lands flush with cash and gullible folks, Russia checks one of the two boxes but decidedly not the second.

One of the biggest reasons Whittle is able to invoke such cult like devotion from his employees (initially) is that he pays them quite lavishly. In many cases, well above market rates for the same position (hint: also known as poor financial management). It is a pattern that has repeated time and again and is why, if you look at his inner circle, they have been happy to follow him from one failed venture to the next. The failures may leave investors significantly out of pocket but management rewards itself richly while the going is good.

If the parent who posted earlier is correct in saying that Whittle needs $250 million to dig out of this hole, the prudent course of action would be to find a backup plan asap. The math simply does not compute.

It costs many times less to start a new venture while Whittle goes under. Basis Independent McLean spent about $20 million outfitting a leased building and has eaten losses ever since, but their total red ink is still well under $50 million, I would guess.

All you need is money, a curriculum, and people to make the school happen. No way that costs anyone in their right mind $250 million.

[Anonymous]

Lease rates in DC for the class of building the school is occupying are $45-55 per sq ft per year. That suggests Whittle's rent bill alone should be upwards of $30 million. No wonder this venture / scheme was never grounded in reality. Whittle is like a food truck operator who suddenly (funded with other people's money) starts giving away filet mignon for $5. Of course everyone loves it and lines up for it, while avoiding the inconvenient truth that there is no way it is sustainable..

[Anonymous]

I’m very disappointed in the blatant lies that continue to be told. “Do to prep times needed by restaurants to prepare and deliver the number of meals needed; we are suspending food services until our short-term operating funds are secured.” That simply contradicts itself, so restaurants need more time for meals, but you are waiting for the short-term funds? Please tell me I am not the only one confused by this contradiction. Just say you don’t have the funds because many restaurants are losing money due to covid, and I know many would be happy to provide PAID meals to a school.

[Anonymous]

Seems like a very wordy way of communicating the essence. "Our food service vendor has ceased providing meals until we can pay them". Hiding behind prep times.... that's rich!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m very disappointed in the blatant lies that continue to be told. “Do to prep times needed by restaurants to prepare and deliver the number of meals needed; we are suspending food services until our short-term operating funds are secured.” That simply contradicts itself, so restaurants need more time for meals, but you are waiting for the short-term funds? Please tell me I am not the only one confused by this contradiction. Just say you don’t have the funds because many restaurants are losing money due to covid, and I know many would be happy to provide PAID meals to a school.

Exactly.

Investors walked away = We lied to be people we were trying to get money from. They realized we lied to them. They decided they didn't want their money stolen. Shame on them for not just giving us money.

[Anonymous]

Whittle came tantalizingly close to securing an investment from private equity giant Teddy Forstmann, signing a letter of intent to obtain $350 million in return for a third of the company. Less than 10 percent of the investment would have gone to funding new projects, with the balance mostly going out again to equity holders and an increasingly important and wary constituent—the banks that had lent the company money. This dream transaction came to a screeching halt almost as soon as the Forstmann team landed in Knoxville and observed the disparity between the vision spun by Whittle and the reality reflected in the company’s financial results.

Sound familiar? The above is not from some recent Whittle scam. This happened in 1991 (!!) and is a direct passage from Jonathan Knee's most excellent book Class Clowns which devoted a chapter to Whittle and his shenanigans up to the launch of Whittle Schools. For all the Whittle die hards - read the book... You will be astounded as to how many of the same patterns he has repeated throughout his career. And everyone ensnared in one of his schemes always wants to believe that this time is different...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seems like a very wordy way of communicating the essence. "Our food service vendor has ceased providing meals until we can pay them". Hiding behind prep times.... that's rich!

And a wordy way to cast all responsibility and blame away from him and onto something or someone else. Vintage Whittle word salad.

[Anonymous]

I'd assume most people were unaware of his previous history outside of Avenues in NY which read as a dispute over money which happens in companies or business regularly. Parents/Teachers are trying to ride it out until the end of the school year. A mid year transfer would be extremely disruptive to the students especially if you have multiple kids in different grade levels (HS, MS, ES) The news will probably will/has picked this up but is waiting on the school year to end or the school to close permanently. You have to give the administration every possible opportunity to acquire funding that will cover costs until the school year ends before you drop a bombshell article or story on the nightly news.

Hoping the school fails does not help the children, teachers, or parents in any way even though that may eventually become the reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Whittle came tantalizingly close to securing an investment from private equity giant Teddy Forstmann, signing a letter of intent to obtain $350 million in return for a third of the company. Less than 10 percent of the investment would have gone to funding new projects, with the balance mostly going out again to equity holders and an increasingly important and wary constituent—the banks that had lent the company money. This dream transaction came to a screeching halt almost as soon as the Forstmann team landed in Knoxville and observed the disparity between the vision spun by Whittle and the reality reflected in the company’s financial results.

Sound familiar? The above is not from some recent Whittle scam. This happened in 1991 (!!) and is a direct passage from Jonathan Knee's most excellent book Class Clowns which devoted a chapter to Whittle and his shenanigans up to the launch of Whittle Schools. For all the Whittle die hards - read the book... You will be astounded as to how many of the same patterns he has repeated throughout his career. And everyone ensnared in one of his schemes always wants to believe that this time is different...

Another thing to consider from Class Clowns (and other sources): As each of his businesses was reaching either its last gasp or at least its last gasp with him at the helm of it, Whittle was secretly scrambling and conniving to get a huge sweetheart deal with lots and lots of money and perks for him, personally, before he'd agree to leaving his top-leadership position.

In his last days of being head of Edison Schools, for example, this is what he did:

"Before selecting a middle-market private equity firm called Liberty Partners as the
'winner' to be his preferred partner, Whittle negotiated these terms with the parties to determine where he could get the best deal for himself. Generally a 'management buyout' implies that, usually with the help of a partner, the management is actually using all or a substantial part of its equity in the company to help finance the transaction. Here, however, Whittle wasn’t buying anything. He was looking to get completely cashed out and then provided a salary increase, new equity, new loans, and non-compete payments (as well, of course, as getting the expenses for his financial advisors paid for). Whittle ultimately negotiated that over the next several years he could make the company buy up to $10 million of that equity back from him plus another $7 million to cover the non-compete (held in escrow just in case)."

Is anyone willing to bet that right now he isn't trying his damnedest to grab any personal perks he can out of this collapse?

I know there are some who might say, "Oh, he's such a nice guy and he cares so much about education. He wouldn't do that to kids." But he's been doing this explicitly and pretty much entirely to kids for more more than three decades now.

He really couldn't care less about kids' lunches. But I'm sure he cares quite a lot about leaving this situation with as much cash and personal perks as he can possibly salvage. It's what he's always done.

[Anonymous]

THIS!! PP - your post hits the nail squarely on the head. The right thing to do here would have been to arrange an orderly wind down of the school either before the school year started or at the latest before the holidays when the school was clearly out of operating cash. But that doesn't serve Whittle one bit... He needs the illusion of this going concern school to try and extract all he can for himself. The former school safety director who posted here and all the others who speak in defense of Whittle either choose are ignorant of this reality or know it but don't want to face it

[Anonymous]

Just saw that an advertising agency, Bennett Elia, enrolled its $300,000 judgment awarded in New York down here in DC last week (2022 CA 000483 F).

An endless trail of debt and unpaid creditors. I’m surprised Whittle hasn’t pursued bankruptcy yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The news will probably will/has picked this up but is waiting on the school year to end or the school to close permanently. You have to give the administration every possible opportunity to acquire funding that will cover costs until the school year ends before you drop a bombshell article or story on the nightly news.

Hoping the school fails does not help the children, teachers, or parents in any way even though that may eventually become the reality.

If what you're saying is true, then Washington media is failing in its most basic duty and is acting as a propaganda machine... Just because the facts are inconvenient doesn't mean they shouldn't be reported.