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Will Whittle be around next year?
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Anonymous
| Stakias and his partner (Bennett) probably love Whittle for the endless stream of fees he seems to have provided them with. The Florida teachers pension plan not so much. Crony capitalism at its worst |
Anonymous
Just what we need in education reformers. |
Anonymous
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If Chris whittle had any class, and respect for the families and staff, he would do scenario A. My child was there last year and thankfully I saw the writing on the wall and got her out. But many were enticed by the discounted tuition and promises. I regret that we turned down a better school to go to whittle for that one year, but grateful for our and DD started HS at a well established school.
I wish all the families well and hope they land somewhere better. |
Anonymous
How long were you at the school? My nephew is there and I haven't heard my sister mention anything to-date about concerns with the school. |
Anonymous
| 1 year. |
Anonymous
And you were aware of these issues throughout? Were you happy with the education you received during the year your child was there? |
Anonymous
We were there for two years and the academics were trash. |
Anonymous
I'm puzzled by how many people describe it like that. I know the school was new, and there are always little hitches as you start. But they had the benefit of a very experienced, highly educated faculty, mostly with experience in established schools with strong reputations. And they had a small student body, which makes it much easier to give the best to every kid in your classes. The families seemed to have positive attitudes about the new school, so I'd think there'd be minimal dissension at that point. Plus, in those first couple years it seems the faculty was being paid pretty well, which usually makes for decent morale. Can you name anything in particular that was going wrong at a time when it seems it should have been relatively easy to provide good solid education? |
Anonymous
DP here, but amazing teachers are amazing when they are supported by a strong administration, a curriculum of which they have kicked the tires (perhaps at a previous school) and an environment where they feel empowered and heard. Doesn't sound like Whittle would have been this place. |
Anonymous
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The fact that there is literally almost not one person from the founding faculty and staff left at the school less than 3 years from when they started says it all about how empowered (or lack thereof) they felt
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Anonymous
| It's difficult to feel empowered when you aren't getting a regular paycheck. |
Anonymous
In small classes, the slowest students will dictation the speed and the student body is largely composed of kids who can't get into established privates. |
Anonymous
Certainly true! The thing is, though, people generally speak quite highly of that first batch of DC school administrators, too -- i.e., those first heads and assistant heads.....And as an retired teacher, I'd say those are the people who normally disempower you.... But if they were good -- as so many reports indicate -- then exactly who was disempowering the teachers? And exactly how was that disempowerment visible, and how did it play out in the classroom to produce all this bad education that people report? Again, as a retired teacher, I experienced one quite disempowering and non-supportive and resource-starved situation. And yet I know that I and other teachers were able to provide some pretty strong educational experiences even in such a situation. Not as easily and not as good an education as we could have provided if things were ideal, granted. But still....I got quite a lot of parental and even student priase for teh quality of learning kids were getting in a situation like that. So the details of exactly where this disempowerment at Whittle was coming from and what form it took that made it impossible for some to do a good job for their kids aer what I'd like to know! In a writeup of that pre-opening Switzerland conference the faculty and staff attended, teachers were quoted as saying that, for the first time in their careers, they felt fully respected and like true scholars of educaion rather than cogs in a machine. So what happened in a few months that started sinking the quality of education in more than one classroom, even though class sizes were small and most of the kids came from middle class families who supported education? Who imposed what on whom that crippled this school? |
Anonymous
But that's the thing- it all means nothing untill the rubber hits the road. Withholding information on the health of the school, seeing enrollment drop, a lack of cohesion when trying to make the "vision" real, not addressing problems that come up -- these are all ways Whittle may have dropped the ball. (Not a teacher or a parent at Whittle, but just based on what I know generally.) Being able to create your own curriculum must have felt very freeing, but if the structure isn't there to back it up, it's not worth much. |
Anonymous
It all comes down to one simple fact - money. Or more precisely, the gross financial mismanagement that has been a feature of each of Whittle's schemes and was no different here. There was a chronic lack of funding from before this school opened - as evidenced by the multiple suits and mechanics liens that far predate COVID19 - and which has only gotten progressively worse to the point that the school now cannot even make payroll and have had their bank accounts garnished. No funds for supplies, musical instruments, books, properly functioning wifi, among a long list of others. In the face of this, I don't think even the best educators could be functional, much less effective. |