How was the meeting with the admin meeting last week at BASIS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After reading that email from the HOS, I think a lot of people need more instruction in English, both in writing and reading comprehension. He does seem to try to mask his inexperience with a lot of jargon.

The email demonstrates a complete denial the gravity of the situation created by the Dean's behavior,
a refusal to admit that any mistakes were made, just that they "may have been,"
a lie that he had been "messaging students,"
and a promise to continue to "message students" which he never fulfilled,
and when the poor Chemistry teacher tried to do it instead, some of the children did not believe her.

So to all of you who say every parent who did not/does not understand that email is stupid,
And children who are still in fear of their grades are stupid,

just consider the fact that a couple of parents who were trying to prevent this from turning into a full blown crisis informer him that he had not gotten his message across via that email, and he ignored them.

That was STUPID and just as callous as the attitudes that many of you all have displayed here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
All that happened is that a perhaps overzealous Dean (who, by the way, came from the DCPS system and who's used to how things are done there) tried to get some accountability for the theft, and his statement was IMMEDIATELY WITHDRAWN BY THE HEAD OF SCHOOL.

That's all that happened. End of story.

"Perhaps overzealous?" You sound like Cameron Louis.
"tried to get some accountability" by leaving the room and having the kids toss it,
and when they could not find the candy, said he would mess with their grades as a group
the withdrawal was ineffective. The egg was fertilized. Sorry, no dice.

[Anonymous]

I really cannot believe how people are making a mountain out of a mole hill to say the least over this incident in a chemistry class. Talk about over-reacting. I have never ever met a school that was perfect.

I question the agenda of several posters here who are going on and on and on about the supposed evils of BASIS. It seems to me that they must want to take down the school instead of supporting the school and helping it improve.

These posters have also tried to flame anyone who disagrees with them or who tries to correct misinformation of which a ton has been posted here and elsewhere. I realize BASIS is not perfect but neither is anyone school. I will push back when people put out wrong information and that does not make me a rabid booster as these posters would say. I push back in the name of fairness because people who post incorrect info in their rants against BASIS are not fighting fair in my book and are not bothering to get the facts as well.

Lastly, I ask anyone making rants against BASIS what their solution is since surely it is not to help the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The rookie mistake was by the unqualified dean who made a threat he can't deliver on -- I hope he becomes yet one more in a string of supposed male role models who aren't the right fit for this school.

I completely agree.

What is so interesting is that someone has now defended the Dean's behavior on the basis that he "came from the DCPS system and knows how things are done there" I wonder whether the mistress of the tardies also came from DCPS. They are a couple, and it would explain a lot.

Because the real question is which DCPS system he came from, and whether that is really the way you want Basis kids to be treated. Because those who have left say they left in part because they were mistreated, and we are not supposed to be KIPP lite. We are supposed to be a Basis school. We are supposed to be attracting the best and the brightest from all wards. But this would never have happened at a JKLM school, and I doubt it would happen at Deal. It certainly would not happen at a private school unless it was the football coach.

So how are we going to attract and retain all those unicorns who come from Ward 3 and private schools? All those sons and daughters of professionals?

Not by having some thug threaten the academic future of our 8th graders. Because they will leave.

This article was posted on a thread where a mom was upset because her child is being yelled at all the time in her crappy EOTP school. It talks about the different methods of discipline depending on what social class the students are from, and is quite illuminating.

OP your story reminded me of a report from 1980 that someone posted on DCUM a while ago, Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work: http://cuip.uchicago.edu/~cac/nlu/fnd504/anyon.htm Read the section on "working class school". Apparently not a lot has changed since 1980.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really cannot believe how people are making a mountain out of a mole hill to say the least over this incident in a chemistry class. Talk about over-reacting. I have never ever met a school that was perfect.

I question the agenda of several posters here who are going on and on and on about the supposed evils of BASIS. It seems to me that they must want to take down the school instead of supporting the school and helping it improve.

These posters have also tried to flame anyone who disagrees with them or who tries to correct misinformation of which a ton has been posted here and elsewhere. I realize BASIS is not perfect but neither is anyone school. I will push back when people put out wrong information and that does not make me a rabid booster as these posters would say. I push back in the name of fairness because people who post incorrect info in their rants against BASIS are not fighting fair in my book and are not bothering to get the facts as well.

Lastly, I ask anyone making rants against BASIS what their solution is since surely it is not to help the school.

+1000

And, one could do a lot worse than BASIS, it's still one of the best options in DC - and I suspect the ranting poster knows this too, which is why she hasn't left BASIS. Anyone can be an armchair critic, anyone can nitpick and complain - that's an easy and lazy thing to do - REAL leadership comes from not just talking about problems, but talking about solutions. If the PP thinks things can and should be done so much better, she's always been more than welcome to offer those solutions - though in two weeks of ranting has failed to do so.

In offering solutions, simply firing, punishing or humiliating people you don't like is not a real solution. Also, any solution has to be realistic, pragmatic and implementable, and has to bear in mind that the school has to respond to very REAL problems. For example, student freedom has to be balanced against the fact that given too much freedom, there may well be a lot more disruption in classrooms, along with property damage, vandalism, et cetera. In the past, that kind of behavior was definitely a very real problem and dozens of parents expressed concern about it, and frankly many of us are happy that it's improved and do not want to see that return.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really cannot believe how people are making a mountain out of a mole hill to say the least over this incident in a chemistry class. Talk about over-reacting. I have never ever met a school that was perfect.

I question the agenda of several posters here who are going on and on and on about the supposed evils of BASIS. It seems to me that they must want to take down the school instead of supporting the school and helping it improve.

These posters have also tried to flame anyone who disagrees with them or who tries to correct misinformation of which a ton has been posted here and elsewhere. I realize BASIS is not perfect but neither is anyone school. I will push back when people put out wrong information and that does not make me a rabid booster as these posters would say. I push back in the name of fairness because people who post incorrect info in their rants against BASIS are not fighting fair in my book and are not bothering to get the facts as well.

Lastly, I ask anyone making rants against BASIS what their solution is since surely it is not to help the school.

As another person said, it is quite possible that many of the people posting are not Basis parents.

I have to hope so. But what scares me is many of the people looking are not, and never will become, Basis parents if we keep this up.

I think you are lumping many posters together who do not know each other, the same way the Boosters do.

I think there are people here who believe they know particular parents they are addressing, and are incorrect.

And I think your post is just as belligerent and off putting as many others have been.

I don't think that is a good way to begin if you are truly trying to generate something constructive out of this, which I am not sure is possible, but I admire your optimism.

For instance, I do think the former Basis teacher wants to help parents carefully evaluate whether or not the school is a good fit for their children.

And she was spot on about the marketing, despite the numerous posters who tried to shoot her down.

And I do not understand why people have to "push back" or "correct false information" in such a nasty, aggressive, and holier than thou way. This just seems to be the way Basis parents do it, and it is really off putting.

How DARE a parent be so ignorant that they did not know about the tardy policy, for example.
I would have liked to get in there and say that there is a great deal of difference between how it is written and the way it is being enforced, but I did not want to get into a pissing match. This is exhausting. And I do not think Basis parents who stridently correct people who post about pushing kids into AP Calculus are winning any converts, either. And the parent who had the 6th grader and made the mistake about how many years 5th graders have been at the school. You can correct misinformation without alienating the person who is misinformed, and alienating everyone else at the same time. But none of these parents seem to care about that.

We have a very bad reputation as a group on this board, and I think it is well earned because of the belligerent nature in which parents (or even worse) outsiders, are corrected, reprimanded, and shamed.

I personally do not think this incident was a small thing, however, having been at the school for 3 years, understanding how important grades are to the kids, considering the way the Dean behaved, and evaluating the way the whole situation was handled in the days that followed. And I think you should respect my opinion.

And I think that the people who are trying to make it into a small thing by attacking the kids, attacking the parents, pointing fingers everywhere but at the Dean and the HOS, are not doing us any favors either. The parents who are justifying the behavior of the Dean are really not helping, because they move from saying how terrible the child who stole the candy is, to the fact that the Dean had a right to try to get to the bottom of it. The fact remains his behavior would not be acceptable at any good school, public or private.

I have an 8th grader whose friend was in the class. While she did not know about the email, my child could not convince their friend last week that the Dean would not fail her. And that was very frustrating. Whatever the Dean did, he made a deep impression. And the evidence speaks for itself - Cameron Louis did very little appropriate damage control.

As others have said, fixing the situation would have been so simple at that juncture - go in to the Element with the Dean that next Monday, make the Dean apologize for threatening the students academically, and explain that his type of threat is contrary to everything that Basis stands for. I think he still needs to do this with this class. They deserve an apology from both of these authority figures who failed them on October 16th and in the days after.

His failure to do this simple thing was why we ended up where we were last week - children who were still scared, parents who were confused, and rumors that were spreading.

One potential dynamic that no one has mentioned is that since so many Basis parents seem to think that the kids overreacted (I heard a description of what happened and I am not sure that I would have been able to hold myself steady), is that Jack got home and wanted to talk things over with his parents, but since they had read and understood the email, they told him he was overreacting. But I think that is unlikely. You would not spew the venom you all are spewing if it was your child who was scared and confused and yes, a bit traumatized.

This happened during the school day, and the email did not arrive until 7pm, and not everyone spends a lot of time on line..........

Reading the other thread about why students in the upper school who were not "academically struggling" decided to leave Basis, it was all about the way that they were treated by administrators and teachers...

I think the people who are blowing off the attrition of "top students" are wrong. I think Basis should be making a sincere effort to try to convince the kids who always planned to leave to stay, and try to keep the ones who always wanted to but now are questioning whether or not they should.

The major complaint is mistreatment. Why not have a forum about respect, about how it is a two way street, about how students have the right to be treated with respect the same way that teachers do. About what respect means, and how it looks. How you earn it, how you show it, and how you can lose it, and how valuable it is.

I think the Dean does not belong at Basis (last year, the real heavy was Mr. Aiken, but he approached discipline issues in a much more appropriate and sophisticated way that respected individual autonomy and emphasized individual responsibility.) And I think the email is an embarrassment to the school.

The other major complaint is disruption, and failures in classroom management that interfere with instruction. But until we have another Dean of Students, I think after this incident, many teachers will think twice before they send even the most badly behaving students to him now. He really appears to have anger issues, and he clearly does not respect the students. He needs to go.

I think when you start with 5th graders who are coming from so many different backgrounds, education levels, and standards of behavior, it would be easy to use Aero and other times to make expectations and consequences clear. The student handbook is hundreds of pages. I have not even tried to read it.

For the kids who need more discipline, they should be getting it. I am not sure that they are, because some inexperienced teachers are losing control of their classes and are afraid to admit it. What are they going to do? Call the Dean and have him terrorize everyone? Talk to Cameron Louis who NEVER taught here, who would probably respond with gobbledy gook about more appropriate messaging?

I think people here should try to be more gentle with each other, and the same is true of the internal list serve. While we are not a Christian community, I think we could take a page from their book. Try to believe everyone has good intentions, and do not shoot people down immediately when they raise issues. Respect that the issues they raise are real to them from the get go, and move on from there.

Now they are raising them here, and I think it is actually the only safe place to do so. But that is sad for Basis.

And that is a direct result of a bunch of snooty parents not liking what happened in the first few weeks when some former disgruntled families came out, and not being able to manage their inboxes. The one thing that I like is how people are cooperating on homework, and there are even parents complaining that this is not an appropriate use for the list serve. Then I really do not know what function it is supposed to serve.

I think petty attacks on wording and personalities and all of this should just stop. Declare a cease fire, if you will.
Show some respect for each other.

The saddest thing is that the answer to the initial question is that virtually nothing was accomplished at the initial meeting, and virtually nothing was resolved, except when Mr. Aiken took the lead.

For all the extended time the meeting went on, the explanation of Mastery Defense was clearer in the subsequent email, and should have been clarified at the beginning of the year, the parents who spoke about violence were kind of shouted down, the parents who spoke about theft were met with a lecture about how this was the result of bad parenting, the tardy lady just dug herself into a deeper and deeper hole, and the only concrete assurances, promises, and responses really came from Mr. Aiken, not Mr. Louis, and he unfortunately left before the whole tardy issue was discussed.

I just do not think Mr. Louis is doing a good job of running the school, and I think he is actively doing damage as opposed to the first Head who mostly did nothing, but hence almost nothing bad. And I do not think the Dean is an appropriate Basis employee.

I think what happened in 8La was a big deal for many of the kids and at least some of the parents. And I am entitled to my opinions on these matters. And I wish people would just all be more gentle with each other.

It is very easy for educated people to pulverize posts on this forum from other parents, but what is the motive? I will never understand the dynamic we have going on here, I just hope it stops. It came in with the new administration, and should go out with them, quickly.

Unfortunately no one who reads this thread is going to want to join our community, and many are at fault for that.

Just as an example, I got really angry when all those parents said essentially that what happened in the classroom on that day could never be established to any degree of certainty and so it could not be addressed. I think that position is ridiculous and shows a real lack of respect for our kids. Who are 8th, not 5th graders, and have been at Basis for 3 years.

So I hope maybe you, or someone else, could salvage this by responding to the original question with your own impression of what was discussed and resolved at the meeting (without fear of being ridiculed, pulverized, or belligerently contradicted).

If we could harness all this wasted energy into trying to make Basis a better place, think of how constructive and productive we could be.

[Anonymous]

Man, I wish charter schools counseled out parents. Having to put up with this crap for page after page, email after email, and meeting after meeting, is enough to send anyone off the deep end.

Lady. Seriously. You have some sort of illness. People have been so patient with you, for months now. But enough is enough. Can you please just take your rants offline?

[Anonymous]

People make mistakes. My husband yelled at his 4 year old son "I'm gonna kill you!" after said son threw 200 straws all over starbucks. People make mistakes. Perhaps the school needs to be more understanding/forgiving of student mistakes (sounds like it). But you need to be more understanding/forgiving of the Dean's mistake. My husband didn't do the greatest job apologizing to his son either. It isn't easy to admit to a mistake - the weird "messaging" email was someone's awkward attempt to admit a mistake.

It is fine to fight hard for a school culture that respects the children there (and it doesn't doesn't like basis has that now), but harping on this one egregious misstep is just, well, kinda gross. Be understanding and forgiving as you demand the same for your child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People make mistakes. My husband yelled at his 4 year old son "I'm gonna kill you!" after said son threw 200 straws all over starbucks. People make mistakes. Perhaps the school needs to be more understanding/forgiving of student mistakes (sounds like it). But you need to be more understanding/forgiving of the Dean's mistake. My husband didn't do the greatest job apologizing to his son either. It isn't easy to admit to a mistake - the weird "messaging" email was someone's awkward attempt to admit a mistake.

It is fine to fight hard for a school culture that respects the children there (and it doesn't doesn't like basis has that now), but harping on this one egregious misstep is just, well, kinda gross. Be understanding and forgiving as you demand the same for your child.

And if only the BOOSTERS would have been willing to make the same admission, this thread would have been over long ago............. but they wanted to blame the kids, interpret the email, etc etc etc

No, you cannot counsel out parents. But you can SLAM them here for their lack of understanding, poor English, what have you. And you have done all that.

Unlike your dh, who had only had a son who could push his buttons for 4 years, the Dean they are claiming has a ton of DCPS experience. So he does not have that kind of excuse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Man, I wish charter schools counseled out parents. Having to put up with this crap for page after page, email after email, and meeting after meeting, is enough to send anyone off the deep end.

Lady. Seriously. You have some sort of illness. People have been so patient with you, for months now. But enough is enough. Can you please just take your rants offline?

I honestly believe you are talking to several different people, and I know the person who was at the meeting and sent the emails ain't one of them, so could you please stop defaming her

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Basis tries to create a facade, albeit somewhat unsuccessfully, that its pupils study, analyze and extrapolate from the Enlightenment philosophers like that
of John Lock to Russian grand masters like that of Anton Chekhov and to the treasury of the English poetry like " The Rime of the Ancient Mariner."
In truth, nothing could be further away from reality for the quality of a school cannot be determined by the superfluous assignments and questionable
grading practices.
En quote from the aforementioned Russian grand master " People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they are happy."
The truth is that people are not happy with the proud words on dusty shelves Basis provides them with. Lack of extra-curricular activities and sports
are the least of their problems.
Our fearless leaders keep telling us " If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear."
If they have nothing to hide, why even bring the secretaries from Arizona?"

I like this kind of crazy. Any guesses?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Again no mention of the make it or break administrator, still flying under the radar and acting as a mere teacher.

Since we have suffered SO much through this agonizing thread, please reward us with a clue as to whom you are referring to here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People make mistakes. My husband yelled at his 4 year old son "I'm gonna kill you!" after said son threw 200 straws all over starbucks. People make mistakes. Perhaps the school needs to be more understanding/forgiving of student mistakes (sounds like it). But you need to be more understanding/forgiving of the Dean's mistake. My husband didn't do the greatest job apologizing to his son either. It isn't easy to admit to a mistake - the weird "messaging" email was someone's awkward attempt to admit a mistake.

It is fine to fight hard for a school culture that respects the children there (and it doesn't doesn't like basis has that now), but harping on this one egregious misstep is just, well, kinda gross. Be understanding and forgiving as you demand the same for your child.

And if only the BOOSTERS would have been willing to make the same admission, this thread would have been over long ago............. but they wanted to blame the kids, interpret the email, etc etc etc

No, you cannot counsel out parents. But you can SLAM them here for their lack of understanding, poor English, what have you. And you have done all that.

Unlike your dh, who had only had a son who could push his buttons for 4 years, the Dean they are claiming has a ton of DCPS experience. So he does not have that kind of excuse.

no, everyone makes mistakes, even people with tons of experience. Your self righteousness is preventing you from having any empathy or humanness. It is very ugly. Model for your child how you fight for the respect and kindness s/he deserves while not becoming a monster over others' mistakes.

[Anonymous]

To every Basis parent: read this article and let go of the thread, but think about the Dean

OP your story reminded me of a report from 1980 that someone posted on DCUM a while ago, Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work: http://cuip.uchicago.edu/~cac/nlu/fnd504/anyon.htm Read the section on "working class school". Apparently not a lot has changed since 1980.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Again no mention of the make it or break administrator, still flying under the radar and acting as a mere teacher.

Since we have suffered SO much through this agonizing thread, please reward us with a clue as to whom you are referring to here?

Again this is a non-issue in my book. So what if a possible future or actual administrator is acting as a teacher? I think that is great if it is so since I think every administrator should go through teaching classes in the school ideally. It is much easier to make wiser decisions about the school when they have such experience IMHO.

Geesh Talk about trying to nitpick everything about the school.