Lowell vs Washington Episcopal School (WES)

[Anonymous]

Yeah, Lowell’s been horrible since she took over. She and other administrators treat everyone like dirt. Board is complicit. It’s a terrible school in just about every respect. Glad we left when we did.

[Anonymous]

When did new HoS take over? I’m a little confused bc some PPs refer to HoS as male, others female. How is she driving teachers away? Any specifics would be much appreciated. Visiting next month and school has been at the top of our list.

[Anonymous]

We have had a truly amazing experience at Lowell. The teachers have been exceptional and we have had great experiences with the Head of School and the head of our daughters division. Tuition is on par with most schools in the area and just about every private school in the region had tuition hikes this past year including my nephews school Maret. What I really appreciate is the attentiveness of the teachers and Head of School. They truly care about our kids and helping us as parents explore methods to cultivate a good human - simply put. We have a younger daughter who we also hope to enroll in the next year or two. It’s certainly an investment, but one that we have already seen transition our oldest into a thriving confident young girl.

[Anonymous]

Hi OP! I’m a current parent and we have been there since our first started in Preprimary. First off, I highly encourage you to come visit next month. Lowell is an excellent school and warm community. Please come judge for yourself!

There is both misinformation and some shades of personal vendetta that gets repeated on this forum about Lowell and directed at our head, in particular. I’ll give you my take as an involved parent whose family has had some challenges, but is overall very pleased with Lowell

The current head started in the summer of 2019–imagine a worse time to take over! She is highly capable, incredibly thoughtful, and does significant research before making her decisions. She cares deeply for faculty, staff, students, and families. There has been turnover, of course.

There is always turnover with a new HoS—and we know the pandemic shifted many people’s priorities. But turnover has not been out of line with other schools. Lowell faculty is overall wonderful. Some of our best teachers are new in the last few years; others have been here for decades. I can rattle of multiple people who left for new growth opportunities. Others were probably unhappy, but we all have left jobs for that reason. When a new leader comes in, not everyone will align with their approach or vision, and that is ok.

Donna is a big reason we have some excellent new teachers to complement our longer term faculty. People know her and want to work with her. The school is well-known as a model of progressive education, and it’s a selling point for families, teachers, and administrators. The school tends to attract pretty down to earth folks, as well.

As to the finances, yes, there was a tuition model shift last year. It was not rolled out well, and that was HARD. And, it correctly put Lowell in line with the market, which it previously hadn’t been.

I have all kinds of examples about our good to excellent experiences there. I have a short list of my frustrations (don’t we all.)

What is most important is that Donna has led the community through a few very difficult years—including crises outside of the pandemic—and we have come out strong and connected. Not everything is perfect, and it never will be. But there is a palpable JOY on campus this year that I haven’t felt this strongly since before the pandemic. Our kids are thriving, and our community is growing together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP! I’m a current parent and we have been there since our first started in Preprimary. First off, I highly encourage you to come visit next month. Lowell is an excellent school and warm community. Please come judge for yourself!

There is both misinformation and some shades of personal vendetta that gets repeated on this forum about Lowell and directed at our head, in particular. I’ll give you my take as an involved parent whose family has had some challenges, but is overall very pleased with Lowell

The current head started in the summer of 2019–imagine a worse time to take over! She is highly capable, incredibly thoughtful, and does significant research before making her decisions. She cares deeply for faculty, staff, students, and families. There has been turnover, of course.

There is always turnover with a new HoS—and we know the pandemic shifted many people’s priorities. But turnover has not been out of line with other schools. Lowell faculty is overall wonderful. Some of our best teachers are new in the last few years; others have been here for decades. I can rattle of multiple people who left for new growth opportunities. Others were probably unhappy, but we all have left jobs for that reason. When a new leader comes in, not everyone will align with their approach or vision, and that is ok.

Donna is a big reason we have some excellent new teachers to complement our longer term faculty. People know her and want to work with her. The school is well-known as a model of progressive education, and it’s a selling point for families, teachers, and administrators. The school tends to attract pretty down to earth folks, as well.

As to the finances, yes, there was a tuition model shift last year. It was not rolled out well, and that was HARD. And, it correctly put Lowell in line with the market, which it previously hadn’t been.

I have all kinds of examples about our good to excellent experiences there. I have a short list of my frustrations (don’t we all.)

What is most important is that Donna has led the community through a few very difficult years—including crises outside of the pandemic—and we have come out strong and connected. Not everything is perfect, and it never will be. But there is a palpable JOY on campus this year that I haven’t felt this strongly since before the pandemic. Our kids are thriving, and our community is growing together.

Lowell tuition is significantly higher than WES, Sheridan, St. Pats, and Norwood. I would not say it is “in line with the market.”

[Anonymous]

Does tuition vary at these schools by grade/ES vs MS, for example?

[Anonymous]

https://www.lowellschool.org/admissions/tuition--fees

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP! I’m a current parent and we have been there since our first started in Preprimary. First off, I highly encourage you to come visit next month. Lowell is an excellent school and warm community. Please come judge for yourself!

There is both misinformation and some shades of personal vendetta that gets repeated on this forum about Lowell and directed at our head, in particular. I’ll give you my take as an involved parent whose family has had some challenges, but is overall very pleased with Lowell

The current head started in the summer of 2019–imagine a worse time to take over! She is highly capable, incredibly thoughtful, and does significant research before making her decisions. She cares deeply for faculty, staff, students, and families. There has been turnover, of course.

There is always turnover with a new HoS—and we know the pandemic shifted many people’s priorities. But turnover has not been out of line with other schools. Lowell faculty is overall wonderful. Some of our best teachers are new in the last few years; others have been here for decades. I can rattle of multiple people who left for new growth opportunities. Others were probably unhappy, but we all have left jobs for that reason. When a new leader comes in, not everyone will align with their approach or vision, and that is ok.

Donna is a big reason we have some excellent new teachers to complement our longer term faculty. People know her and want to work with her. The school is well-known as a model of progressive education, and it’s a selling point for families, teachers, and administrators. The school tends to attract pretty down to earth folks, as well.

As to the finances, yes, there was a tuition model shift last year. It was not rolled out well, and that was HARD. And, it correctly put Lowell in line with the market, which it previously hadn’t been.

I have all kinds of examples about our good to excellent experiences there. I have a short list of my frustrations (don’t we all.)

What is most important is that Donna has led the community through a few very difficult years—including crises outside of the pandemic—and we have come out strong and connected. Not everything is perfect, and it never will be. But there is a palpable JOY on campus this year that I haven’t felt this strongly since before the pandemic. Our kids are thriving, and our community is growing together.

Lowell tuition is significantly higher than WES, Sheridan, St. Pats, and Norwood. I would not say it is “in line with the market.”

"Tuition model shift." So "hard", boo hoo. Sounds like the same garbage Hulu sends you in an email to 'splain away their next 20% increase. The real question is why the school had a net income shortfall of $841,587 ending 2023 while HoS salary keeps going up by the tens of thousands each year.

[Anonymous]

Our family has had an excellent experience at Lowell School, sending two very different kids through pre primary and now middle school.

[Anonymous]

I want to like Lowell but compared to the other big 5 schools we’ve toured this fall it seems more like they are trying their best instead of being a well-oiled machine. Also, the idea of applying out again for high school gives me anxiety.

That being said, I can tell the students are thriving and that they have a really good community. It seems like a special place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Loads of people apply to both WES and Lowell. There are families that have switched from one to the other in both directions.

Lowell might be considered more progressive and WES more traditional, but although surely left-leaning, WES probably would not put a picture of a kid in a political t-shirt on the homepage of their website, like Lowell has done. I think Lowell really leans into that identity. I think WES is indeed probably ideologically and parent-community-wise more similar to Norwood than to Lowell, with NPS and St. Pats skewing equal distance to the other side of the spectrum.

As far as academic profiles, I am less certain. When we were looking, we felt that St. Patrick’s offered a traditional curriculum, and WES as well. Beauvoir and NPS both seemed more coddling in their approach to teaching (and I don’t mean that in a bad way).

They’re all great schools. Pick one you like that’s close to your home. I LOVE being five minutes away and it is by far more impactful to our lives than so many of the other minute details often discussed here.

Kudos, pp. I think this is the best description of WES vs the other schools that I’ve ever read! And I’ve been on DCUM a very long time!

[Anonymous]

While the academic profile of Lowell is progressive, it's hard to maintain that when the faculty is constantly turning over and there's little support for students who need extra support. You'd think the increase in tuition would allow for more learning specialists, but that's not so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP! I’m a current parent and we have been there since our first started in Preprimary. First off, I highly encourage you to come visit next month. Lowell is an excellent school and warm community. Please come judge for yourself!

There is both misinformation and some shades of personal vendetta that gets repeated on this forum about Lowell and directed at our head, in particular. I’ll give you my take as an involved parent whose family has had some challenges, but is overall very pleased with Lowell

The current head started in the summer of 2019–imagine a worse time to take over! She is highly capable, incredibly thoughtful, and does significant research before making her decisions. She cares deeply for faculty, staff, students, and families. There has been turnover, of course.

There is always turnover with a new HoS—and we know the pandemic shifted many people’s priorities. But turnover has not been out of line with other schools. Lowell faculty is overall wonderful. Some of our best teachers are new in the last few years; others have been here for decades. I can rattle of multiple people who left for new growth opportunities. Others were probably unhappy, but we all have left jobs for that reason. When a new leader comes in, not everyone will align with their approach or vision, and that is ok.

Donna is a big reason we have some excellent new teachers to complement our longer term faculty. People know her and want to work with her. The school is well-known as a model of progressive education, and it’s a selling point for families, teachers, and administrators. The school tends to attract pretty down to earth folks, as well.

As to the finances, yes, there was a tuition model shift last year. It was not rolled out well, and that was HARD. And, it correctly put Lowell in line with the market, which it previously hadn’t been.

I have all kinds of examples about our good to excellent experiences there. I have a short list of my frustrations (don’t we all.)

What is most important is that Donna has led the community through a few very difficult years—including crises outside of the pandemic—and we have come out strong and connected. Not everything is perfect, and it never will be. But there is a palpable JOY on campus this year that I haven’t felt this strongly since before the pandemic. Our kids are thriving, and our community is growing together.

The only thing accurate in the bolded paragraph is the HoS start date. She is vengeful and narcissistic and has not just driven away amazing staff, but great families as well (including refusing to renew a primary student’s contract when the parent held the HoS accountable). Thoughtful and caring couldn’t be further from the truth. She does, however, have a core group of supporters who report gossip back to the HoS and further corrode the school’s culture. She leads by instilling division and fear. There is no vendetta against her, just current and former parents and staff sharing their perspectives and experiences.

OP - I would strongly suggest that you focus on other schools.

[Anonymous]

I hope the terrible things being said here are not true. All three of our children attended Lowell, 2 until 8th and 1 until 5th. They then went to one of the big schools often mentioned and magnet programs in MCPS. They are all fantastically well educated children, terrific writers, and the most interesting people and I do credit a lot of it to their early years at Lowell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope the terrible things being said here are not true. All three of our children attended Lowell, 2 until 8th and 1 until 5th. They then went to one of the big schools often mentioned and magnet programs in MCPS. They are all fantastically well educated children, terrific writers, and the most interesting people and I do credit a lot of it to their early years at Lowell.

We can assure you from intimate experience that the comments above are spot on. This person and her enablers have no business being within 500 miles of a school. We have never, in our collective fifty years of experience in professional environments, encountered a situation like this. It’s really, really unconscionably bad. You would just simply not believe how badly they treat people.