Avoid CMI at all costs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The real shame here is the kids who have been having to put up with a half-baked school for years now. Say nothing of the time wasted by teachers and others who worked so hard to try to fix things.

I honestly don’t know how people keep their kids here. My DCPS inbounds isn’t amazing but would rather my kid go there.

[Anonymous]

We lasted for two months in pk3 and bailed. I would rather pay daycare a whole other year than put my kid there.

[Anonymous]

Parents of the 300k playground, your kids should be in 7-9th grade by now. Do you regret that investment now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We lasted for two months in pk3 and bailed. I would rather pay daycare a whole other year than put my kid there.

Can you share more about your experience? My child is starting in PK3 there this year and will switch to our inbound for K (Bruce Monroe). I understand CMI doesn’t have great test scores so we don’t plan on staying past PK but it would be helpful to understand your PK experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We lasted for two months in pk3 and bailed. I would rather pay daycare a whole other year than put my kid there.

Can you share more about your experience? My child is starting in PK3 there this year and will switch to our inbound for K (Bruce Monroe). I understand CMI doesn’t have great test scores so we don’t plan on staying past PK but it would be helpful to understand your PK experience.

My child was injured and the administration admitted the playground was unsafe and they were understaffed. They showed very little care for what happened.

I could also tell in the short period I was there that it was not run well. I went to the September board meeting and there were no other adults there. No parents seemed to care about the school. The board members were more interested in their free dinner. This is petty but it rubbed me wrong that the leadership drove Porsches and bmws at a title 1 school. The classroom was chaotic. The teacher was kind but was absent often. It was not a good experience and it made me really sad and very much soured me on charters.

[Anonymous]

"This is petty but it rubbed me wrong that the leadership drove Porsches and bmws at a title 1 school."

And took the front row of parking while staff had to hoof it in from the back lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The pay probably sucks.

Incorrect. A few years ago, the top 5 salaries listed on the website were between about 130K - 200K. The most updated information must be intentionally buried on the website because I can't find it now, but I do know that those salaries weren't updated for a couple of years after that, even though the core leadership team obviously got raises. All of this is to say, for a school that pays its leaders such high salaries, things must be really bad for several directors to up and leave, some with minimal notice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The lack of institutional stability in these charters is really something.

At this charter perhaps. But that's not even close to true for all charters. Nor is it true for all DCPS even though there a few DCPS schools with constant leadership turnover.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The pay probably sucks.

Incorrect. A few years ago, the top 5 salaries listed on the website were between about 130K - 200K. The most updated information must be intentionally buried on the website because I can't find it now, but I do know that those salaries weren't updated for a couple of years after that, even though the core leadership team obviously got raises. All of this is to say, for a school that pays its leaders such high salaries, things must be really bad for several directors to up and leave, some with minimal notice.

The pay was actually great, but that also ended up screwing over staff, as many got laid off and couldn't find work at the same pay to which they had become accustomed. And quite a few folks were laid off this summer. None of leadership, though...

[Anonymous]

They do pay a lot, but there is not consistency. They had no teacher salary scale, and now they published one that tops out at $85k. Meanwhile they were paying people in non teaching positions way more than that. Take a look at their finances. They were passing budgets that put them $1m+ in the red, before they even started not meeting their enrollment targets. It is high level mismanagement.