LAMB administrative changes -- fallout from sexual abuse case

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP must be a new parent who realizes we don't talk about LAMB business on DCUM

LAMB should have put out a press release about this and otherwise disseminated it widely. It is a significant decision and would demonstrate its commitment to transparency.

Agree. The culture of secrecy is over.

[Anonymous]

dcps, child protective services, and dc police reports show when the board was aware. Are the same board members still around? Where can we get the board contact info?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. It is the end of an era.

Disagree- teachers are the reason the school is so good. The idea for lamb was great, but all the heavy lifting was done by the parents. I assure you very few parents will miss them.

End of an era simiply means that the founders will be gone. Agree that the school will survive this.

The Board members who were in place during this period should resign too, IMO. They could have and should have asked many more questions.

Maybe. Sounds like the investigation concluded information was withheld from the Board.

ty

Sounds like the police did not protect us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:dcps, child protective services, and dc police reports show when the board was aware. Are the same board members still around? Where can we get the board contact info?

have you tried the webpage?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. It is the end of an era.

Disagree- teachers are the reason the school is so good. The idea for lamb was great, but all the heavy lifting was done by the parents. I assure you very few parents will miss them.

End of an era simiply means that the founders will be gone. Agree that the school will survive this.

The Board members who were in place during this period should resign too, IMO. They could have and should have asked many more questions.

Maybe. Sounds like the investigation concluded information was withheld from the Board.

ty

Sounds like the police did not protect us.

That was my takeaway. The Board relied on the findings from the police investigation. FWIW I'd do the same if the police don't bring charges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP must be a new parent who realizes we don't talk about LAMB business on DCUM

Wow. Your kind of thinking is the reason pedofiles are able go undetected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. It is the end of an era.

Disagree- teachers are the reason the school is so good. The idea for lamb was great, but all the heavy lifting was done by the parents. I assure you very few parents will miss them.

End of an era simiply means that the founders will be gone. Agree that the school will survive this.

The Board members who were in place during this period should resign too, IMO. They could have and should have asked many more questions.

Maybe. Sounds like the investigation concluded information was withheld from the Board.

ty

Sounds like the police did not protect us.

That was my takeaway. The Board relied on the findings from the police investigation. FWIW I'd do the same if the police don't bring charges.

I would have made sure the guy was fired for poor judgment. And I bet you they made sure they didn't have their kids in his class....

[Anonymous]

What the Board letter said was after there was a decision to not press charges in 2015, there was an all-staff training on sexual abuse and appropriate/inappropriate interactions with students. Fernandez attended.

After the training, teachers again reported issues and concerns. The Board said that he could have been and should been fired then for not following the guidelines.

He was not. The external investigators said the Board didn’t know about these new teacher reports about Fernandez.

[Anonymous]

This action by the Board is an appropriate response. The top administrators at the school, at a minimum, were extremely negligent in dealing with serious allegations that were put in front of them. LAMB will survive this leadership transition just fine.

[Anonymous]

I hope you're right that LAMB stays great (excluding how they deal with potential sexual predators--obviously that was a problem). Though certainly not everyone feels that way. In the hallway at school this morning I head some parents discussing where they were hoping to lottery into next year. Ie it sounds like, at this point at least, they are abandoning the school.

My concern is that the administration who is being fired was actually instrumental to the quality of the school (again, excluding the unforgivable mistakes made re Fernandez). The teachers are the key--but who hires and manages the teacher and sets the vision for the school? By analogy, by many accounts Steve Jobs was a real SOB however no one questions he was crucial to the success of Apple. The fact that some people--teachers included--found the principal etc. who are leaving annoying or bad or whatever does not mean that they people who are leaving weren't crucial to the success of the school.

My hope of course is that the people who fill those roles will be EVEN better than Encinas and co were. Of course, a truly excellent principal is hard to find. I've been super impressed by the other administrators I've interacted with, but that is just on a personal, bump-into-you-in-the-hall basis. I don't actually know what it takes to make a school great other than retaining great teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope you're right that LAMB stays great (excluding how they deal with potential sexual predators--obviously that was a problem). Though certainly not everyone feels that way. In the hallway at school this morning I head some parents discussing where they were hoping to lottery into next year. Ie it sounds like, at this point at least, they are abandoning the school.

My concern is that the administration who is being fired was actually instrumental to the quality of the school (again, excluding the unforgivable mistakes made re Fernandez). The teachers are the key--but who hires and manages the teacher and sets the vision for the school? By analogy, by many accounts Steve Jobs was a real SOB however no one questions he was crucial to the success of Apple. The fact that some people--teachers included--found the principal etc. who are leaving annoying or bad or whatever does not mean that they people who are leaving weren't crucial to the success of the school.

My hope of course is that the people who fill those roles will be EVEN better than Encinas and co were. Of course, a truly excellent principal is hard to find. I've been super impressed by the other administrators I've interacted with, but that is just on a personal, bump-into-you-in-the-hall basis. I don't actually know what it takes to make a school great other than retaining great teachers.

There was lottery chatter last year too when things felt much worse and yet no mass exodus materialized. The Board is keeping Diane on through the end of the year to ensure a smooth transition. There are plenty of current and former teachers and administrators who could step into leadership roles too.

I'm not even going to bother with your atrocious analogy. I was a Cristina and Diane believer but they made major mistakes that put our children in jeopardy. This is called accountability and this is the right thing for the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope you're right that LAMB stays great (excluding how they deal with potential sexual predators--obviously that was a problem). Though certainly not everyone feels that way. In the hallway at school this morning I head some parents discussing where they were hoping to lottery into next year. Ie it sounds like, at this point at least, they are abandoning the school.

My concern is that the administration who is being fired was actually instrumental to the quality of the school (again, excluding the unforgivable mistakes made re Fernandez). The teachers are the key--but who hires and manages the teacher and sets the vision for the school? By analogy, by many accounts Steve Jobs was a real SOB however no one questions he was crucial to the success of Apple. The fact that some people--teachers included--found the principal etc. who are leaving annoying or bad or whatever does not mean that they people who are leaving weren't crucial to the success of the school.

My hope of course is that the people who fill those roles will be EVEN better than Encinas and co were. Of course, a truly excellent principal is hard to find. I've been super impressed by the other administrators I've interacted with, but that is just on a personal, bump-into-you-in-the-hall basis. I don't actually know what it takes to make a school great other than retaining great teachers.

There was lottery chatter last year too when things felt much worse and yet no mass exodus materialized. The Board is keeping Diane on through the end of the year to ensure a smooth transition. There are plenty of current and former teachers and administrators who could step into leadership roles too.

I'm not even going to bother with your atrocious analogy. I was a Cristina and Diane believer but they made major mistakes that put our children in jeopardy. This is called accountability and this is the right thing for the school.

I'm interested to see if any of the former teachers/administrators return. I've heard rumors they might.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope you're right that LAMB stays great (excluding how they deal with potential sexual predators--obviously that was a problem). Though certainly not everyone feels that way. In the hallway at school this morning I head some parents discussing where they were hoping to lottery into next year. Ie it sounds like, at this point at least, they are abandoning the school.

My concern is that the administration who is being fired was actually instrumental to the quality of the school (again, excluding the unforgivable mistakes made re Fernandez). The teachers are the key--but who hires and manages the teacher and sets the vision for the school? By analogy, by many accounts Steve Jobs was a real SOB however no one questions he was crucial to the success of Apple. The fact that some people--teachers included--found the principal etc. who are leaving annoying or bad or whatever does not mean that they people who are leaving weren't crucial to the success of the school.

My hope of course is that the people who fill those roles will be EVEN better than Encinas and co were. Of course, a truly excellent principal is hard to find. I've been super impressed by the other administrators I've interacted with, but that is just on a personal, bump-into-you-in-the-hall basis. I don't actually know what it takes to make a school great other than retaining great teachers.

I am hearing the exact opposite from parents. People are hopeful and feeling like this is a very positive change for the school.

Also, Steve Jobs is dead and Apple is doing just fine.

[Anonymous]

The actions by the board make me feel better about the school and its future. Though, we are still going to do the lottery again next year mainly because of the proposed campus move.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope you're right that LAMB stays great (excluding how they deal with potential sexual predators--obviously that was a problem). Though certainly not everyone feels that way. In the hallway at school this morning I head some parents discussing where they were hoping to lottery into next year. Ie it sounds like, at this point at least, they are abandoning the school.

My concern is that the administration who is being fired was actually instrumental to the quality of the school (again, excluding the unforgivable mistakes made re Fernandez). The teachers are the key--but who hires and manages the teacher and sets the vision for the school? By analogy, by many accounts Steve Jobs was a real SOB however no one questions he was crucial to the success of Apple. The fact that some people--teachers included--found the principal etc. who are leaving annoying or bad or whatever does not mean that they people who are leaving weren't crucial to the success of the school.

My hope of course is that the people who fill those roles will be EVEN better than Encinas and co were. Of course, a truly excellent principal is hard to find. I've been super impressed by the other administrators I've interacted with, but that is just on a personal, bump-into-you-in-the-hall basis. I don't actually know what it takes to make a school great other than retaining great teachers.

There was lottery chatter last year too when things felt much worse and yet no mass exodus materialized. The Board is keeping Diane on through the end of the year to ensure a smooth transition. There are plenty of current and former teachers and administrators who could step into leadership roles too.

I'm not even going to bother with your atrocious analogy. I was a Cristina and Diane believer but they made major mistakes that put our children in jeopardy. This is called accountability and this is the right thing for the school.

Good to know about last year's experience with the lottery chatter not materializing. Aside from that, while we like our classmates they---like we---were just lucky to get in so I suspect any replacements will also be great (unless everyone is scared away from even entering the lottery). However, the innovation this year is that this report was extremely damning. It's hard to read it as anything other than gross negligence. Last year we didn't know that.

The Steve Jobs analogy (I do not know what your complaint with it is) was a response to the comments above that teachers and parents didn't like Cristina etc. (I wasn't aware of that---though employees often have problems with managers---and I never had an issue with them). There is obviously no question that they failed big time and need to go. But despite that major inexcusable lapse the idea that they were 100 percent terrible (clearly not an idea you hold) can't be right. The question I wonder about is what hard-to-replace skills will they take with them? And will LAMB replace those skills. I hope so!!