I am loving the support Shepherd is receiving

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boosting is great just stop comparing the school to JKLM. It screams inferiority complex.

Trust me, we really don't want to be JKLM. Shepherd's test scores are going up, and in just a few years they will likely be comparable with those schools, but the reason many of us are so passionate about the school is that it is a friendly, welcoming community, something that many of us find lacking at certain WOTP schools. You can keep your Janneys, et al., and we will stick with our great little school.

Shepherd IS a great school. Your message gets lost when you keep putting down other schools.

Not PP but s/he was defending their school from a mean-girl poster (too many these days IMO). I get it. This JKLM snobbery is getting old. ESPECIALLY when it's been debunked many times that JKLM are the best and only schools out there (see white student performance apples to apple to see that JKLM are great, just like the other DCPS and charters that score similarly or better). Can we move past this JKLM snobbery now?!

See inferiority complex. Let Shepherd stand on its own merits and stop comparing to other schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boosting is great just stop comparing the school to JKLM. It screams inferiority complex.

Trust me, we really don't want to be JKLM. Shepherd's test scores are going up, and in just a few years they will likely be comparable with those schools, but the reason many of us are so passionate about the school is that it is a friendly, welcoming community, something that many of us find lacking at certain WOTP schools. You can keep your Janneys, et al., and we will stick with our great little school.

Shepherd IS a great school. Your message gets lost when you keep putting down other schools.

Not PP but s/he was defending their school from a mean-girl poster (too many these days IMO). I get it. This JKLM snobbery is getting old. ESPECIALLY when it's been debunked many times that JKLM are the best and only schools out there (see white student performance apples to apple to see that JKLM are great, just like the other DCPS and charters that score similarly or better). Can we move past this JKLM snobbery now?!

Actually the OP included JKLM in the original post. That is what started it all and was just a shame that OP decided to do that because a great thread about a great school has turned into OP continuing to put down other schools instead of just talking about Shepherd.

The OP did not say anything negative about JKLM in the original post. Saying that a small school can do something great like JKLM is not a negative post. It was subsequent poster and most recent PP that continues to say posting such is an inferiority complex. Not cool PP, not cool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is great for them.

Just as an FYI, a school auction should never sell out. There should always be room for anyone who wants to pay to attend. I think this happened because the format (from looking at the site-- checked it out because I was surprised it sold out, you just don't hear of that). While a sit down dinner is nice it does limit the number of tickets you can sell. Change the format. Passed appetizers, donated liquor (means venue change), mix of regular tables and high tops, etc. cram the people in there and you can sell a lot more tickets. Plus make it fun!

No matter where you have an auction you have capacity limits. The seated dinner from their invitation is to honor teachers and members of the community.

[Anonymous]

A seated dinner cots more and severely limits attendance numbers. If the goal is to raise money rather than honor people then you don't do seated dinner. Who knows how many people you are turning away when you hit a low capacity cap?

I have done galas at 4+ different schools and attended lots more. If you have around 300 kids in the school your goal should be about a 70% attendance rate out of 600 (or so given either both parents attending or single parents bringing someone with them), plus staff with them bringing someone with them and community members who may want to attend. A 350 cap is much too low. Take the seated dinner out and your cap would go up a lot-- with a lot more tickets sold.

Just some helpful hints. Take it or leave it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A seated dinner cots more and severely limits attendance numbers. If the goal is to raise money rather than honor people then you don't do seated dinner. Who knows how many people you are turning away when you hit a low capacity cap?

I have done galas at 4+ different schools and attended lots more. If you have around 300 kids in the school your goal should be about a 70% attendance rate out of 600 (or so given either both parents attending or single parents bringing someone with them), plus staff with them bringing someone with them and community members who may want to attend. A 350 cap is much too low. Take the seated dinner out and your cap would go up a lot-- with a lot more tickets sold.

Just some helpful hints. Take it or leave it.

The school has 350 students and the gala has sold over 300 tickets, I think that is excellent. No one goes to the Mayflower for light food and drinks. You have to cater to your audience and what they feel a $125 ticket should command. Shepherd Gala use to be one of the highlights of DC social scene for the middle-upper class AA community. There is a history to this that i believe it is not known.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boosting is great just stop comparing the school to JKLM. It screams inferiority complex.

Trust me, we really don't want to be JKLM. Shepherd's test scores are going up, and in just a few years they will likely be comparable with those schools, but the reason many of us are so passionate about the school is that it is a friendly, welcoming community, something that many of us find lacking at certain WOTP schools. You can keep your Janneys, et al., and we will stick with our great little school.

Shepherd IS a great school. Your message gets lost when you keep putting down other schools.

09:48 here. This is my opinion based on my own personal experience. My DC attended one of those previously mentioned WOTP schools. The academics are great, but we really didn't find the community to be particularly welcoming. IME, it was insular and overly competitive, but YMMV. I find the balance of academics and a strong community at Shepherd to be just what we were looking for. If anyone wants to attack Shepherd for its so-called inferiority complex, I am absolutely going to respond.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A seated dinner cots more and severely limits attendance numbers. If the goal is to raise money rather than honor people then you don't do seated dinner. Who knows how many people you are turning away when you hit a low capacity cap?

I have done galas at 4+ different schools and attended lots more. If you have around 300 kids in the school your goal should be about a 70% attendance rate out of 600 (or so given either both parents attending or single parents bringing someone with them), plus staff with them bringing someone with them and community members who may want to attend. A 350 cap is much too low. Take the seated dinner out and your cap would go up a lot-- with a lot more tickets sold.

Just some helpful hints. Take it or leave it.

I don't attend Shepherd nor did I go to gala but with all due respect, it doesn't sound like they need hints or advice. I only wish our charter could have similar gala. Congrats!

[Anonymous]

Congrats to them for pulling it off.

[Anonymous]

i have no dog in the fight but i am starting to feel like Shepherd is the red headed step child. Thank god my children are in private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i have no dog in the fight but i am starting to feel like Shepherd is the red headed step child. Thank god my children are in private school.

I don't understand this post

[Anonymous]

I repeat: we are all sitting in our giant houses typing away. I am just the outlier who admits I don't like Shepherd. I still want to! And I hope the gala is awesome. Hopefully they will raise money for productive that their thirty million dollar renovation has not yet provided. Ponies? Ant farms for all? We seem to have ruled out band instruments, or playworks, or expanding the after school offerings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I repeat: we are all sitting in our giant houses typing away. I am just the outlier who admits I don't like Shepherd. I still want to! And I hope the gala is awesome. Hopefully they will raise money for productive that their thirty million dollar renovation has not yet provided. Ponies? Ant farms for all? We seem to have ruled out band instruments, or playworks, or expanding the after school offerings.

I will literally donate money to get this one anti-Shepherd poster to stop flooding any thread that has to do with Shepherd. We all get it, you don't like Shepherd. What do you get by continuing to dog your supposed former school? Ok you didn't like it, why not move on? I have 2 former schools, I never continue to dog or even opine. I really don't get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I repeat: we are all sitting in our giant houses typing away. I am just the outlier who admits I don't like Shepherd. I still want to! And I hope the gala is awesome. Hopefully they will raise money for productive that their thirty million dollar renovation has not yet provided. Ponies? Ant farms for all? We seem to have ruled out band instruments, or playworks, or expanding the after school offerings.

You are so bitter. I feel sorry for you. Have a happy Mother's Day.

[Anonymous]

Lol. You sad sweet summer children. I'm like the most positive critical poster you could ever have. Unlike many, I believe in Shepherd. I support it. I think you actually make the school look worse in the way that you booster it. It is not just a jack and Jill enclave, it is not just a school for the affluent, and it had a lot going for it that the jklm schools do not.

Sadly, it also had some Shepherd parents, sitting in their giant houses with large glasses of gin and more than a little ego.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lol. You sad sweet summer children. I'm like the most positive critical poster you could ever have. Unlike many, I believe in Shepherd. I support it. I think you actually make the school look worse in the way that you booster it. It is not just a jack and Jill enclave, it is not just a school for the affluent, and it had a lot going for it that the jklm schools do not.

Sadly, it also had some Shepherd parents, sitting in their giant houses with large glasses of gin and more than a little ego.

17:35 here. I don't have a kid at Shepherd and I live in a small 1400 sq foot house. I literally just think you are crazy and should let go of your bitterness.