Ludlow-Taylor principal suddenly leaving?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Its a tough situation but I would rather principals leave on their own at the end of the year than mid-year or forced out altogether.

Why would those be the alternatives? If you’re moving on voluntarily for whatever reason, tell your school on the same timeline as the push outs so DCPS is aware of the opening and the school isn’t behind the eight ball on paneling replacements. Waiting until the end of June is crappy. It just is. Not having any leadership over the summer/having leadership who is already out the door basically guarantees COVID planning is going to be convoluted and half-assed. It sucks. They better go with the internal AP candidate. To his credit, I hear he’s been pushing her and it’s DCPS that’s been balking. Anyone have details on that?

[Anonymous]

So, apparently the interim principal is Shaunte Daniel, formerly an AP at Langley and Stanton. Anyone have any experience with her?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, apparently the interim principal is Shaunte Daniel, formerly an AP at Langley and Stanton. Anyone have any experience with her?

Oh wow. She was... ok. My DD absolutely loved her. But she is still quite young, and I thought took a bit too much of the traditional DCPs top-down, reject parent input approach. Seemed to always be wearing sort of a professional face and sometimes got offended by parent input. I am surprised she wants to be at a school so thoroughly gentrified. Did she panel this year at other schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, apparently the interim principal is Shaunte Daniel, formerly an AP at Langley and Stanton. Anyone have any experience with her?

Oh wow. She was... ok. My DD absolutely loved her. But she is still quite young, and I thought took a bit too much of the traditional DCPs top-down, reject parent input approach. Seemed to always be wearing sort of a professional face and sometimes got offended by parent input. I am surprised she wants to be at a school so thoroughly gentrified. Did she panel this year at other schools?

She was competent. You could do a lot worse for an nterim. The kids liked her a lot.

[Anonymous]

Well hopefully the next principal will not cater to the White-families and be about equity for all students and staff.

[Anonymous]

My dd loved her. We had such a fantastic experience and felt comfortable with our daughter under her leadership.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well hopefully the next principal will not cater to the White-families and be about equity for all students and staff.

I couldn't really get a good read on who exactly she was catering to. I don't think she was catering to anyone. She seemed pretty indifferent to parent opinion about most things regardless of who the parent was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well hopefully the next principal will not cater to the White-families and be about equity for all students and staff.

If this is a dig at Principal Smith, I had a very different experience with him. That said, I do actually think principals should “cater to” IB parents and students — insofar as that means taking their needs into account — because that’s the way the school system in DC is set up. L-T is becoming more IB — which is literally a stated goal of DCPS — and the school’s decisionmakers should reflect that in their decisions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well hopefully the next principal will not cater to the White-families and be about equity for all students and staff.

Would love to hear what you mean by this...

[Anonymous]

Surprise surprise

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do any of you realize that principals are human beings? They work harder in one year than many people work in a lifetime. I don’t mean this in a judgmental way, just to say that it is an all-consuming job that is emotionally and physically exhausting, demanding in every sense, and one that requires immense sacrifice from their loved ones. He was an incredible leader who did many good things for the school and deserves to be able to make decisions about his life and career without being shamed for it. Thank you, Principal Smith.

I don’t think OP was shaming. As originally described, this seemed like a totally bizarre move and so raised questions about whether it was totally voluntary. Turns out it was. In his goodbye email, he didn’t divulge that he’s also going to work for an educational consulting company that has DCPS as clients. I wish him well. He was a really good principal. But this is terrible timing for the school and leaves an especially bitter taste for many families when you consider that he lacked urgency in getting the AP replaced and just embarked on a complicated afterschool plan in his own vision that a new principal may not want to be saddled with. In short, he did not act as a responsible steward of the school’s interests for the last few months if he was on the way out the door.

[Anonymous]

Lack of ethics and integrity is precisely why he is in the position he is in now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do any of you realize that principals are human beings? They work harder in one year than many people work in a lifetime. I don’t mean this in a judgmental way, just to say that it is an all-consuming job that is emotionally and physically exhausting, demanding in every sense, and one that requires immense sacrifice from their loved ones. He was an incredible leader who did many good things for the school and deserves to be able to make decisions about his life and career without being shamed for it. Thank you, Principal Smith.

I don’t think OP was shaming. As originally described, this seemed like a totally bizarre move and so raised questions about whether it was totally voluntary. Turns out it was. In his goodbye email, he didn’t divulge that he’s also going to work for an educational consulting company that has DCPS as clients. I wish him well. He was a really good principal. But this is terrible timing for the school and leaves an especially bitter taste for many families when you consider that he lacked urgency in getting the AP replaced and just embarked on a complicated afterschool plan in his own vision that a new principal may not want to be saddled with. In short, he did not act as a responsible steward of the school’s interests for the last few months if he was on the way out the door.

Not a LT parent, but curious how he can be a DCPS employee and work for “an educational consulting company that has DCPS as clients” at the same time.

[Anonymous]

The voice of reason!!!

Anonymous wrote:Well hopefully the next principal will not cater to the White-families and be about equity for all students and staff.

[Anonymous]

So where is the AP going? She said she was a principal at another school. Where? She has been in and out of LT over the past 5 or 6 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So where is the AP going? She said she was a principal at another school. Where? She has been in and out of LT over the past 5 or 6 years.

She is going to be the principal of a school in Annapolis. It was in her goodbye letter, which she sent back in January/February. She hasn't been in and out unless you just mean when she took maternity leave?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The voice of reason!!!

Anonymous wrote:Well hopefully the next principal will not cater to the White-families and be about equity for all students and staff.

I think this really shows why no one can please everyone. I did not remotely have the perception that Principal Smith catered to "white" families (which, I assume you mean UMC, because the school has a size-able cohort of UMC families of color as well). If anything, I thought Principal Smith put some constraints on fundraising in the name of equity that I think were unnecessary; I also think they will be completely unviable now that the school has lost $200K in Title I $$ and COVID is going to make fundraising enormously challenging in any event. I do like that he made all school/community building events free; that I completely agree with and think was good for equity & school cohesiveness.