What is going on at SSSAS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have high attrition rates and they need the money to pay for the Upper School renovation.

They have very low attrition rates compared to peer schools and the upper school renovations are not funded out of tuition. Please know what you are talking about or don't post.

I’m an alum (left well before senior year, as did many of my classmates). It had and continues to have much higher attrition rates than other dmv k-12s. The building will be funded by donations. As in the past campaigns they’ll no doubt reach out to those of us who left and didn’t care for the school.

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. Agree it will be funded by donations. My understanding is that they largely have been identified but no doubt some topping off. At lower school attrition is low compared to other privates. Same at middle. Upper has some but not really much and not any more than peers. Many of you classmates did not leave. A handful -- that is true but not many.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have high attrition rates and they need the money to pay for the Upper School renovation.

They have very low attrition rates compared to peer schools and the upper school renovations are not funded out of tuition. Please know what you are talking about or don't post.

I’m an alum (left well before senior year, as did many of my classmates). It had and continues to have much higher attrition rates than other dmv k-12s. The building will be funded by donations. As in the past campaigns they’ll no doubt reach out to those of us who left and didn’t care for the school.

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. Agree it will be funded by donations. My understanding is that they largely have been identified but no doubt some topping off. At lower school attrition is low compared to other privates. Same at middle. Upper has some but not really much and not any more than peers. Many of you classmates did not leave. A handful -- that is true but not many.

Though I can believe the actual attrition numbers are on par with other area schools, I think it’s interesting who chooses to leave SSSAS. It’s often the best and the brightest - the most talented athletes, the best students, etc. Yet the school does nothing to try to keep these families or understand why they want to leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have high attrition rates and they need the money to pay for the Upper School renovation.

They have very low attrition rates compared to peer schools and the upper school renovations are not funded out of tuition. Please know what you are talking about or don't post.

I’m an alum (left well before senior year, as did many of my classmates). It had and continues to have much higher attrition rates than other dmv k-12s. The building will be funded by donations. As in the past campaigns they’ll no doubt reach out to those of us who left and didn’t care for the school.

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. Agree it will be funded by donations. My understanding is that they largely have been identified but no doubt some topping off. At lower school attrition is low compared to other privates. Same at middle. Upper has some but not really much and not any more than peers. Many of you classmates did not leave. A handful -- that is true but not many.

Though I can believe the actual attrition numbers are on par with other area schools, I think it’s interesting who chooses to leave SSSAS. It’s often the best and the brightest - the most talented athletes, the best students, etc. Yet the school does nothing to try to keep these families or understand why they want to leave.

Why do the best students leave? Curious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have high attrition rates and they need the money to pay for the Upper School renovation.

They have very low attrition rates compared to peer schools and the upper school renovations are not funded out of tuition. Please know what you are talking about or don't post.

I’m an alum (left well before senior year, as did many of my classmates). It had and continues to have much higher attrition rates than other dmv k-12s. The building will be funded by donations. As in the past campaigns they’ll no doubt reach out to those of us who left and didn’t care for the school.

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. Agree it will be funded by donations. My understanding is that they largely have been identified but no doubt some topping off. At lower school attrition is low compared to other privates. Same at middle. Upper has some but not really much and not any more than peers. Many of you classmates did not leave. A handful -- that is true but not many.

Though I can believe the actual attrition numbers are on par with other area schools, I think it’s interesting who chooses to leave SSSAS. It’s often the best and the brightest - the most talented athletes, the best students, etc. Yet the school does nothing to try to keep these families or understand why they want to leave.

Why do the best students leave? Curious.

I’m the PP who left before graduation. I appreciate that the booster is certain that only a handful of my classmates left, but I assure you, many did leave. Odd that they think they know better than what the actual numbers say. I’d agree with the PP who said it is generally some of the best all around as far as student athletes, nice kids, etc. That was definitely true in my year. Overall my year was fairly tight to the point that at reunions/homecoming there are often more people at the out of school events who didn’t actually graduate or even make it to upper school vs those who did. There were various reasons but a lot left bc they were sick of the mean girl behavior that was consistently ignored or almost condoned by certain teachers/coaches. This impacted a wider net than just the girls who were on the receiving end. It’s not enjoyable to have that swirling around you year after year and watch your friends be treated poorly. Some left bc we saw that once you backed out the girls lax players and a handful of boy basketball players, the college admissions were pretty weak. I actually had more than one friend who left bc their parents were sick of the parent culture at the school. It’s hard to separate that from the mean girl behavior too. The boys who left more often wanted more challenging academics. Some even left for sports reasons

[Anonymous]

Sssas parent here.

Schools go through rough patches, and my understanding is that there was a rough patch before the new head of school came in (maybe six or so years ago now?)

Thankfully I don’t see any of these things being an issue on her watch.

I’m sorry you had a bad experience PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sssas parent here.

Schools go through rough patches, and my understanding is that there was a rough patch before the new head of school came in (maybe six or so years ago now?)

Thankfully I don’t see any of these things being an issue on her watch.

I’m sorry you had a bad experience PP.

I am not the PP or even a SSSAS parent. This is such a kind and empathetic response rather than the rudeness usually seen on DCUM. If most of the parents at SSSAS are like you, I will definitely consider sending my DD!

[Anonymous]

We have kids in JK and K at SSSAS and there would be more demand for private schools right now anyway in this area because the Alexandria elementary schools are in turmoil and will be for the next few years at least. They have needed to replace outdated facilities and add space for a while and it’s great that they are finally doing it but in the short term it’s going to be several years of kids crowding into existing buildings and trailers and having boundaries redrawn in a few years once the new building is finally finished. For us, we might have stayed public until MS but we went private because we wanted stability and our kids’ elementary years line up with all this chaos. And we made that call in late 2019.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have high attrition rates and they need the money to pay for the Upper School renovation.

They have very low attrition rates compared to peer schools and the upper school renovations are not funded out of tuition. Please know what you are talking about or don't post.

I’m an alum (left well before senior year, as did many of my classmates). It had and continues to have much higher attrition rates than other dmv k-12s. The building will be funded by donations. As in the past campaigns they’ll no doubt reach out to those of us who left and didn’t care for the school.

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. Agree it will be funded by donations. My understanding is that they largely have been identified but no doubt some topping off. At lower school attrition is low compared to other privates. Same at middle. Upper has some but not really much and not any more than peers. Many of you classmates did not leave. A handful -- that is true but not many.

Though I can believe the actual attrition numbers are on par with other area schools, I think it’s interesting who chooses to leave SSSAS. It’s often the best and the brightest - the most talented athletes, the best students, etc. Yet the school does nothing to try to keep these families or understand why they want to leave.

Why do the best students leave? Curious.

I’m the PP who left before graduation. I appreciate that the booster is certain that only a handful of my classmates left, but I assure you, many did leave. Odd that they think they know better than what the actual numbers say. I’d agree with the PP who said it is generally some of the best all around as far as student athletes, nice kids, etc. That was definitely true in my year. Overall my year was fairly tight to the point that at reunions/homecoming there are often more people at the out of school events who didn’t actually graduate or even make it to upper school vs those who did. There were various reasons but a lot left bc they were sick of the mean girl behavior that was consistently ignored or almost condoned by certain teachers/coaches. This impacted a wider net than just the girls who were on the receiving end. It’s not enjoyable to have that swirling around you year after year and watch your friends be treated poorly. Some left bc we saw that once you backed out the girls lax players and a handful of boy basketball players, the college admissions were pretty weak. I actually had more than one friend who left bc their parents were sick of the parent culture at the school. It’s hard to separate that from the mean girl behavior too. The boys who left more often wanted more challenging academics. Some even left for sports reasons

Ok. I understand. I though this thread was talking about the upper school and attrition here which is minimal. I do think I know better than you as I have had three kids there -- one that left recently and two others now. I would agree with the attrition from pre-K to 12th grade. Just don't see it once people are in the upper school. I agree there have been rough patches. College admission have been crazy good for sports folks. But have been improving for others as well. I agree several years ago if you took out the sports folks -- the list not as great. Not the case the last couple of years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It seems like a nice school with a lot of good things about it, but we decided it wasn't for us, after learning that my son would be required to re-do the same math that he already did in ACPS TAG.

The academics in the LS are not the focus. They live the mission of goodness as well as knowledge and push hard in MS to catch the kids up on the knowledge part. Is there space in the MS to do that with all these kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems like a nice school with a lot of good things about it, but we decided it wasn't for us, after learning that my son would be required to re-do the same math that he already did in ACPS TAG.

The academics in the LS are not the focus. They live the mission of goodness as well as knowledge and push hard in MS to catch the kids up on the knowledge part. Is there space in the MS to do that with all these kids?

This is a weird comment. Usually one hears about SSSAS that the lower school is exceptionally strong, which has been our experience.

Also, my DD has a friend who came from public and had to “repeat” some math that she had previously done - and she hadn’t actually mastered it AT ALL before coming to St Stephens! Despite having covered the subject matter at public, she was at the bottom of the class in the material. The school uses Singapore math, which goes far deeper than a public school common core curriculum, and has many creative ways of challenging even the smartest kids while still staying in the same basic subject (ie, logic problems that use addition and subtraction, more mental math, etc)

[Anonymous]

The HOS is incredible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The HOS is incredible.

Is she the one that was previously at NCS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The HOS is incredible.

Is she the one that was previously at NCS?

She is. And I’m not the PP, but I agree with her/him 100%!

(We have one child in the Upper School who came to the school in MS.)

[Anonymous]

Lots of racists in VA switching from public to private because of the dreaded boogeyman CRT being foisted on them in public

[Anonymous]

Back under the bridge with you.