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Will Whittle be around next year?
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Anonymous
What independent school would bother accepting kids so far behind when there are a plethora of applicants who aren’t behind? |
Anonymous
| I of course agree. Wilson and Deal shouldn’t be criticized. My thoughts about violence there comes from word of mouth, which I regret airing in my post. Hopefully that comment doesn’t take anyone out from what else I said. I really hope that families withdrawing from Whittle find a great new school for their students. Overall, I know from a bit of experience, DC Public schools is an excellent, upgrade of an educational alternative to Whittle. School culture at Whittle however—which is created by the genuine encounters and relationships there, is very positive. I imagine when they leave, students and teachers will miss it. School culture is quite inconsistent in DCPS. That is something many teachers and students will attest to. Though, again, I regret depicting Deal and Wilson as violent. We all know well there are far worse schools in the city. |
Anonymous
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Anyone else notice that Manny put "could be" in quotation marks when saying funding was 2-4 weeks away? 😂 Even he doesn't believe it..
To the teacher who posted the long message - you mentioned that a fellow educator filed a complaint with the DC AG. Did you? The more folks that come forward and expose Whittle the less likely he and the organization are to victimize you and others. As for your taking issue with the parodies and jokes - those are the exception and there are a lot more factual posts exposing the sham that is Whittle for all to see. And many of us have been providing ample caution about Whittle's track record which a few die hards (and even not so die hards) refused to believe until the recent shambolic events. But now its in plain sight for all and only the reckless aren't making plans to exit ASAP |
Anonymous
Not PP but if the school is out of money, is there any benefit to filing a complaint with the DC AG, aside from alerting others? Will it help teachers or staff get their missing or overdue pay? Even if a judgement is made in their favor for the missing payroljavascript:void(0);ls, Whittle won't have the money to pay it. |
Anonymous
| I am a teacher and I am still waiting on information. Can anyone talk about this morning’s meeting? |
Anonymous
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It's one thing to say "there is a deal scheduled to happen January x, so help us get to that day."
It's another to say, "the deal is delayed slightly but we have identified someone to help us get to that day." It is yet another to say "there is currently no deal. We have not identified anyone to replace the investor who dropped out. We do not have a date when the deal would close if we do find that person. And we do not have anyone who will help us get to that day." If the first two were true, a person could possibly deliver that message in good faith. The third message, which is the current situation, is not that a responsible person can deliver and still ask people to hold on in good faith. |
Anonymous
We can’t have our kids going to school with The Poors! |
Anonymous
May not have much choice when Whittle shuts down completely |
Anonymous
I in no way support that classist way of thinking or raising of children. I was raised and educated in poverty all the way up until college. I made a mistake when making that claim, as it was something I only knew from what others have told me. A regrettable generalization. If you’ll accept a rewording—parents won’t have an easy choice when withdrawing and enrolling their child in a new school. And there are undoubtedly some families that live in wards with substantial interpersonal problems and poor school culture. Obviously, that pales in comparison to a totally failing school. I just want to echo back against those in this thread who have admonished parents for not pulling their kids out. |
Anonymous
| It's over. |
Anonymous
And added clarification: one investor was in talks to cover 70% of the long-term funding needed to keep in operations for rest of the school year. Two others are to contribute the remaining 30. The main investor walked. But according to CW (grain of salt) the other two toured the building and are committed to the investment. Of course, those two will not finalize a deal to fund a school that can’t be operational because it can’t secure the majority of funding. One gem in a recent email from Manny/CW is that the deal to secure a partial amount of the funding necessary to “take us to through the period from now until the building auction date,” which includes three payrolls. “We received an offer yesterday for a portion of those funds from one of our investors. We have not been able to agree upon those terms and, as a result, there is going to be a delay on payroll, perhaps as much as 48 hours.” If this is to be believed, Whittle could have gotten at least a portion to pay teachers. But one of the parties didn’t agree. If it was Whittle, just further evidence that they don’t give half a sh** about paying teachers. If it was the investor that didn’t agree, just another blood red flag that there will never be a deal. Further evidenced by the fact that three days later faculty was informed funding won’t come for “perhaps” two-four weeks. |
Anonymous
| The families of at least 13 students have officially pulled them out most recently. But that’s just those who officially unregistered. Others just haven’t been coming in to the building. |
Anonymous
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I want to rhetorically ask this question delicately to the families and teachers at the school…does anyone know, roughly, what % of the students are receiving some kind of discounted tuition? Note that I’m saying “discounted tuition” rather than financial aid as it’s a for-profit school with contributions (excluding the current scrounging for cash).
I have a theory that one of the many issues (beyond, you know, that Chris Whittle is a Madoff wannabe), is that the revenue side of the house is a disaster. In addition to lower than desired enrollment, I suspect that a massive percentage of families are paying little to nothing. I think that his philosophy is probably the same as every dot com or online sports book book out there…take the losses early to get folks in the door. He thought his “revolutionary” approach to education would be such a aphrodisiac to the elites (both in DC and China) that he could eventually charge whatever we wants. He is, of course, batshit nuts and and a criminal. Just curious if anyone has actual info on discounted tuition %. Thanks. |
Anonymous
They lost 20+ students since December. |
Anonymous
Yes. The Manny email refers to efforts to solve immediate and short-term needs, but there’s nothing to bridge to. If last week’s payroll is covered, then the panic just moves to the next one. And a CW email said an investment is delayed because they haven’t yet agreed on terms? Is he trying to protect his own interests while not paying staff or rent?! He should agree to *any* terms an investor demands if they were really willing to pay the bills! |