Feedback on Bridges PCS?

[Anonymous]

Yes, Bridges may be having a "bad year" but I do think that turnover like this at this time in the year is a red flag. Jobs are not that easy to come by at this point in the school year- unless there is something amiss, spots couldn't be filled or schools are beginning to look for staff for the next year etc. if these teachers are as young/inexperienced as these posts lead me to believe I can't believe they have many references to fall back on- meaning they probably need a good reference from Bridges to help them into the next position. As someone in education, i don't know how much weight I'd give to a candidate that left mid year.

[Anonymous]

Here is a little insight on why most people quit their jobs.
Based on www.gallup.com/businessjournal
"75% of workers who voluntarily left their jobe did so because of their bosses and not the position itself" "people don't quit jobs, they quit bosses" Keep this in mind.

[Anonymous]

^^Jobs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's sad about this is that Bridges started out just doing ECE - and doing it really well.

Parents pushed the Board and administration hard to add more grades. To be fair the administration went along with it.

I think some of what has happened is due to growing too fast and older kids being harder / more complex in every way than younger ones. The new building project is also yet another Hong to manage. Fortunately they will be sharing space with Briya which should help with the cost.

Hopefully they will get through this period and things will improve. We need all the high quality seats we can get in DC.

Great points. I'm a parent as well. The three campus set up has been hard. Not a choice the school made but one that was forced on them when the city backed out of awarding the Sharpe campus for charter-school reuse two years ago. Getting everything into one place next year should make a huge difference for the better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's sad about this is that Bridges started out just doing ECE - and doing it really well.

Parents pushed the Board and administration hard to add more grades. To be fair the administration went along with it.

I think some of what has happened is due to growing too fast and older kids being harder / more complex in every way than younger ones. The new building project is also yet another Hong to manage. Fortunately they will be sharing space with Briya which should help with the cost.

Hopefully they will get through this period and things will improve. We need all the high quality seats we can get in DC.

Great points. I'm a parent as well. The three campus set up has been hard. Not a choice the school made but one that was forced on them when the city backed out of awarding the Sharpe campus for charter-school reuse two years ago. Getting everything into one place next year should make a huge difference for the better.

Sorry, but I don't see how moving to a new location (even if it means consolidating three campuses) is going to solve the root of Bridges' problems, which seems to be leadership.

[Anonymous]

Bridges suffers from a lack of competent, motivating leadership at the top level. I taught there (not this year), and I got the impression that creating a supportive environment for teachers was the absolute last priority. I'm not even sure what the top priority was...the administration seemed lost and generally uninterested in everything.

[Anonymous]

It would be great if all the staff needed to do was bring these concerns to the administration, and the administration responded in a respectful and proactive way...but that's just not how it has played out at Bridges. This situation didn't occur overnight. For years, the director has chosen to look the other way while visible (at least to the staff and administration) problems piled up. Schools are unique environments, but in this sense, they are much like any other workplace...if the top boss isn't doing her job well, the school will not be successful and the students will suffer. Maybe this is exacerbated by the fact Bridges is a charter school? Less stringent oversight from outside the school? I am not sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know most of these people personally. It wasn't easy for a lot of them to leave their kids behind. Without badmouthing the administration too much, the conditions must really be bad for that many people to leave. These aren't opportunists we're talking about. Think about the environment they're in. They're teachers at a school for kids with special needs. Being a parent with kids on a bad day is stressful enough. Imagine having 18 kids (many with special needs and the challenges that comes with that) and all of that stress bearing down. Would you rather they stay and inadvertently take it out on the kids?

Terrible! I seriously doubt teachers are leaving because of the "stress" caused by children with special needs! The teachers that work with my son love their children and most of them are degree-holding special ed educators.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At this point, I'm seeking a parent advocate to help us in our situation. This has been one hellava year.

What is a "parent advocate"? Are you a current Bridges parent? Can you give more info? Thanks.

My experience from an earlier page:

Anonymous wrote:My child is currently attending Bridges in Kindergarten and this will be his last year. I have become very unhappy with Bridges. I looked high and low for a forum where I could express this but kept pulling up old threads on how wonderful the school is. To be fair, my son's pre-k year, although started off rocky, was a really great experience for him. He has Autism, and as soon as he became a student, they worked to create an educational plan that was right on with his needs. Coming from DCPS, I was ecstatic. Soon, he was assigned a dedicated aid that worked with him and was also a great resource for our family. I couldn't be any happier. Nevertheless, from the first year of his attendance, we noticed a very high turnover of teachers in his classroom. Within the first month of Pre-K, his head teacher left. Two more teachers were added to the classroom (one head teacher and one assistant). Soon enough, both of the new teachers left the school. By the time we all visited the pumpkin patch (October/November) there was a brand new set of teachers in the classroom. I was appreciative that during staff changes, my child's educational plan did not stop in any way. The rotating special ed teacher was wonderful. Coupled with my son's dedicated aid, he was progressing and reaching beyond his goals in his IEP. By the end of the school year, my son was eligible for Extended School Year classes, and we were so pleased to find out that his dedicated aid was going to be one of the head teachers in his class! We were super excited.

But we quickly realized that all good things come to an end.

By the beginning of the school year and within the first two weeks, the head teacher of the Kindergarten class left. At the same time, my son was being placed from a Non-cat class back into inclusion. Before his head teacher left, it was her recommendation that he be placed back into general education and that his dedicated aid from last year be assigned to him or at least there be a transitional period to where she will be phased out as his DA. This is when we hit our bumps in the road, but being that we felt Bridges has always had our child's best interest in mind, we trusted the process and remained patient. My son was transferred from non-cat to inclusion, whoever, he was not able to retain his DA because she was needed in non-cat to help the new head teacher in the class. However, because his IEP requires for him to have a DA, another child's DA was snatched from her for my son. This created problems for the mother of the other child, the DA of the other child, and myself. What was worse was that the decision makers did not thoroughly think about how that would affect the children being involved. The DA wasn't familiar with the ABA style of learning that my son was used to. So she wasn't confident in being a DA for my son in the inclusion environment. The parent was upset because at that point, her daughter didn't have the support that she needed. And I was upset because I didn't think it was fair for the other child to be stripped of her support, plus I wasn't understanding why the DA was apprehensive with working with my son. The Asst. Principal explained that they were in the process of finding another DA for my son but that he had to remain in his Non-cat class until one was hired. Essentially, we were okay with this.

Another DA was hired through a temp agency and my son began his transition. She was also working with his last DA to incorporate some of the same protocols in the new inclusive classroom. Although we wanted desperately for his old DA to be with him, we settled for the DA that was assigned and she was really nice and very helpful with my son. Soon enough, she left the school. Rumors began to circulate on the reasons from other teachers, and when I spoke with her, she was quite embarrassed and sad that her financial issues were being told to the parents behind her back. I thought that to be very unprofessional. In addition, my son didn't have a special ed teacher, so his hours per week of special ed were not being met. Another young lady was ushered into the classroom to be my sons DA. As nice as she is, she didn't have the ABA training to meet my son's needs. In the interim, I've sent numerous of emails with my concerns on the turnover of my sons DAs and the lack of communication as to what was really going on with his services and what services were/were not being met (as is my right and his right as a child protected by IDEA laws). I continuously received "fluff" from the administration. The teachers were telling me one thing, and the Asst. Principal was telling me different things. My husband and I's head was spinning in circles. Pretty soon, the head teacher in the class pulled us to the side and said they were practically pleading for the Principal to make accommodations for my son's old DA to come into the classroom and help his new DA with his ABA protocols. Although each day, we asked about my son's progress and was told his days were good, in reality, he was regressing and exhibiting behaviors that were a hindrance to his learning and the learning of other children. I took to email again about how dissatisfied I am that they have made decisions that were affecting not only my child, but other children and was not taking our concerns into consideration. In addition, they did not want to meet with us. Our IEP was to be updated in January and I've still not received an update of a meeting, even after emailing and requesting one. Now when I see the director, Asst Principal, or the Special Ed Coordinator, they either run past me and act like they don't see me or ignore my presence altogether. I've stopped trying to communicate, will be surrendering my son's seat for the next person who wish to deal with the unprofessionalism, rash decision-making, and lack of accountability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bridges suffers from a lack of competent, motivating leadership at the top level. I taught there (not this year), and I got the impression that creating a supportive environment for teachers was the absolute last priority. I'm not even sure what the top priority was...the administration seemed lost and generally uninterested in everything.

Current parent. This seems like the case. The school actually need a real leader. It seems like folks were placed in positions without knowledge on how to effectively lead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know most of these people personally. It wasn't easy for a lot of them to leave their kids behind. Without badmouthing the administration too much, the conditions must really be bad for that many people to leave. These aren't opportunists we're talking about. Think about the environment they're in. They're teachers at a school for kids with special needs. Being a parent with kids on a bad day is stressful enough. Imagine having 18 kids (many with special needs and the challenges that comes with that) and all of that stress bearing down. Would you rather they stay and inadvertently take it out on the kids?

I seriously doubt teachers are leaving because of the "stress" caused by children with special needs! The teachers that work with my son love their children and most of them are degree-holding special ed educators. I understand that 18 special needs children can be overwhelming at times. The real problem is why these children aren't being properly balanced in a classroom. That is an administration issue; the children didn't have a choice of being born with special needs. But I believe that there could be a better spread of special needs children to typically developing kids in a class. My son's old classroom had a total of 18 kids with 11 of them having IEPs...11/18 is too many. Maybe 6 or 7 children out of 18 would be a better balance for teachers. I would rather good sped teachers to stay and advocate for a better balance of special need/typical children classrooms than to leave or take it out on the children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the PP at 23:00, I'm sorry to hear that you've had such an unfortunate experience this year. I would be very frustrated if I were in your shoes. That said, our experience in the past two years at the school couldn't be more different than what you describe, nor have I spoken with anyone in a different classroom who has had an experience like yours. I don't doubt what you say -- but I do want to be clear that it is not representative of what is going on generally in the early childhood program. We love our child's teachers, the units are fun and well thought out, they go on interesting field trips, and our child is learning to read. We feel a sense of community both in the classroom and in the wider school.

There have clearly been some problems this year in the early childhood program, but I believe that these problems now have the administration's full attention and that that they are working to address them. A strong new assistant principal and the move to a single building will be a good start. For what it's worth, it sounds like things are going pretty well in the older elementary grades. The families with kids at Sharpe seem much less affected by the current issues.

Seems like this should go without saying, but I sincerely hope that anyone who is considering Bridges (or any school) for their preschooler doesn't rely too heavily on what they read here, because this site can present a skewed picture. If you get a spot in the lottery and have concerns, talk to the principal about them and ask to talk with current parents about their experiences.

It seems like most people here are current parents. There are no lies being told. I hope people are knowledgeable enough to identify patterns in what is being said on this thread and understand that different people, who are all anonymous and more than likely don't know one another, are literally identifying the same issue with Bridges. If folks are having a great experience, fine. But I wouldn't discredit what is being mentioned here because as a parent with a child that I'm getting ready for class at Bridges as we speak, what is being mentioned on this thread as been spot on with the current issues that I've experienced with my son at the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know most of these people personally. It wasn't easy for a lot of them to leave their kids behind. Without badmouthing the administration too much, the conditions must really be bad for that many people to leave. These aren't opportunists we're talking about. Think about the environment they're in. They're teachers at a school for kids with special needs. Being a parent with kids on a bad day is stressful enough. Imagine having 18 kids (many with special needs and the challenges that comes with that) and all of that stress bearing down. Would you rather they stay and inadvertently take it out on the kids?

Terrible! I seriously doubt teachers are leaving because of the "stress" caused by children with special needs! The teachers that work with my son love their children and most of them are degree-holding special ed educators.

I think you misunderstood my post. I meant that you have to deal with the demands of the job, AND having to deal with the problems with the administration. I'm a former Bridges teacher with a degree in Special Education. It's extremely stressful, regardless of how much you love the kids. That, however, wasn't my point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: If you get a spot in the lottery and have concerns, talk to the principal about them and ask to talk with current parents about their experiences.

The last thing you should do in the case of Bridges is talk with the Principal. That may work in other schools, but not at Bridges. Kristine Rigley is the best politician I have ever seen. Truly, she is in the wrong profession. She is gifted at telling you what you want to hear and making you believe it. Nothing that comes from her mouth is the truth. The faculty knows it, which is why so many have left and most have said they are not returning next year. Many parents know it as well. Current parents are the only people in a position to tell you how it is. Now, some will always love a place and some will always hate a place. But when the majority all tell you the same thing..., well, you are a fool if you don't give it serious consideration.

Bridges is a ship that is sinking and it is sinking because it has a Principal who does not prioritize supporting staff, does not hire people genuinely qualified for the positions at hand, does not provide on-going training and support for those working with the special needs children, and goes out of its way to dissuade an open and honest community. It is all smoke and mirrors.

In my children's classes, most of the parents are not sending their children back next year and both teachers have said they are not returning either. And it is NOT because the school is moving to a new location.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ms Neris definitely does not have a new job.

Finally learned what happened. Ms. Neris did have a great job - close to her home, more money, new organization, new experience - but withdrew because they wouldn't give her the schedule flexibility she needs for her family.