DCI Parent Petition
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Anonymous
Just so you know, you’re talking to multiple people. I still don’t see a reason why the have “no confidence” with the ED. That is more interesting than the 6 points on the letter of complaint. I do think maintenance staff need a raise. For sure. But everything else seemed to fall under the big bucket of staffing shortages and need to hire. How is this the ED’s problem? I am genuinely asking. |
Anonymous
The letter makes claims about things that happened- specifically the undermining of the IB model where I’m most interested- and doesn’t provide specific examples. Again, you seem to be unable to distinguish between a claim, evidence for a claim, and an emotional appeal. |
Anonymous
Other than the termination of the IB diploma coordinator (which yes seems like a mistake but we don’t have all the info!) I see little evidence that they’re degrading the IB model. |
Anonymous
While I don't agree with Mr/s Bad Boss on here (yikes!), I do feel similarly out of the loop about the undermining of the IB curriculum and languages. I would like to see detailed examples of how that specifically has happened, outside of personnel issues. For example: was there a dispute between ED and the departing IB coordinator of substance? What were they? I'm SURE there is way more to this story and it's likely the 6 page letter assumed the recipient knows this context. They don't have to add this to a letter which wasn't initially made public. BUT I was hoping DCUM would be able to sleuth this out for me. |
Anonymous
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On IB degradation beyond personnel: the staff letter provides quite a bit of specific evidence.
Here’s what it documents: The MYP Coordinator resigned in February with no succession plan and no communication to families. Community and Personal Projects, which are IB requirements not optional programming, are currently operating with little to no guidance for 8th and 10th grade students right now. IB coordinator roles have been restructured to include unrelated coaching duties, in some cases supervising double or triple the number of teachers they previously did. This directly reduces their capacity to manage IB program requirements, which are substantial and non-negotiable. Teachers no longer receive consistent IB-specific training. The IB has very specific professional development requirements that must be documented and verified at program evaluation. The letter describes the process as having become “convoluted and difficult to maneuver.” The French language track has had multiple phases collapsed into single courses that the letter says serve neither set of language learners. Current middle school students are not receiving the same degree of target language instruction as previous cohorts and will arrive in DP years at a deficit. The board presented biliteracy outcomes at the March meeting as evidence the program is strong, but the letter points out those outcomes reflect students who were taught under the old model. The current cohort is a different story. And what we do know about the DP Coordinator is that he had a history of only strong performance evaluations per the staff letter, that 744 students signed a petition to reinstate him, and that the ED told an alum inquiring about his status that conversations about his future at DCI were ongoing when verifiably no such conversations were happening. Here is why the personnel and the IB program degradation are not separate issues: the DP Coordinator oversees the Extended Essay, Theory of Knowledge, and the full diploma candidacy process. The MYP Coordinator manages Personal and Community Projects. These are not general administrator roles. They require IB-specific training and certification and years of program experience. Losing both simultaneously, with no succession plan, at a school with an IB re-evaluation coming in 2027-28, is not a personnel matter. It is a program integrity matter. |
Anonymous
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(1) no MYP coordinator.
(2) new MYP coordinator has too many job duties (3) no good IB teacher training (4) French language track poor (I agree fwiw) (5) need a DP coordinator urgently Is this it? I don’t see how this is entirely the ED’s fault and whether they have plans to fix this. |
Anonymous
| Also, in the EDs defense if indeed he made the decision to move on from the DP coordinator, the IB exam scores were pretty mediocre. How much of that is on the DP coordinator? Probably a little. |
Anonymous
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When lamb removed their ED after the Fernández situation, we were in a long period of instability. Then we got a truly awful ed who was eventually fired. Then more instability. Then our current ED who I don’t like at all. None of them ever resolved the many issues parents brought up over the years.
I still feel it was worth removing Diane as ED. She made catastrophic choices. But for years we had instability and the school declined. I don’t want to deal with years of that. I am fine with dci’s ED but I do want them to address the points on the parent petition. Also fyi when they removed the EDs from lamb usually the Board chair becomes ED. Do you want Pardo in charge, even in the short term? |
Anonymous
Everyone knows Pardo is as evil as the ED. They both need to go. There are other leaders in the school who could step in. |
Anonymous
Evil. That’s a little dramatic? |
Anonymous
I am just telling you what happened at lamb. The best option IMO is a carefully structured succession plan where they have a new acting ED lined up. Instability is worse than a bad leader. And usually it leads to desperation and like at lamb, you get an even worse leader. |
Anonymous
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Those five points are accurate summaries of what the letter documents, yes. But framing them as a list makes them sound like five minor complaints.
No MYP Coordinator plus a replacement posting that adds unrelated duties means the role that manages IB Personal and Community Projects, unit planning compliance, and staff training in MYP standards is either vacant or structurally compromised. Both at once. No consistent IB teacher training means the school cannot demonstrate compliance with IB professional development requirements at re-evaluation. This is not a preference. It is a program requirement. A collapsed French language track means current students will arrive in upper years underprepared. The board cited strong biliteracy outcomes at the March meeting. The letter documents that those outcomes reflect students taught under the old model. The current cohort is different. On the DP Coordinator and exam scores: this is a reasonable question. IB exam scores at any school reflect many variables including student preparation across all years, resourcing, and program support. Holding one coordinator accountable for mediocre scores while simultaneously reducing IB training, collapsing language tracks, and destabilizing the MYP pipeline that feeds into DP is not a coherent improvement strategy. You can’t weaken every upstream condition and then blame the person managing the downstream results. Whatever the performance rationale, the handling of that situation alone reflects a pattern of integrity failures that go beyond any single personnel decision. On whether the ED has plans to fix this: that is exactly what parents asked at the town hall last Tuesday. He did not answer. That is why people were frustrated. |
Anonymous
Issues are rarely ever just the responsibility or fault of the LT, let alone a single member. As your experience shows things often get worse, not better. I think the ED can handle things better but so much of it is HR issues- you can’t comment on staff terminations, and you can’t say much more than “hiring is difficult and we want to find the right person. That takes time.” I’m not sure the people complaining will be satisfied with that. Note: it’s not clear he’s said either of those things. |
Anonymous
| I agree what you’re saying PP. no good solutions. But I would be cautious to fire the DCI ED right now without a good plan. |
Anonymous
This long post shows me that as a middle school parent, I know precious little about the IB model for MYP, much less for high school, and how it's meant to be implemented. I personally think that the school needs to work much harder at educating parents and bringing families on board to support the school. They do almost nothing. That is one role an ED should take on, via their coordinators. It's one sign that is a red flag to me. At one point, I attended a Zoom meeting for incoming 6th grader families in which a couple of fairly young professionals who led the MYP but were about to leave the school presented a slide show. That is about it for the information on the IB model. This school has so much potential and so many eager parents ready to chip in and support almost anything. They do not engage and already the kids in 6th are discussing how they can try to get into Walls and other schools, amongst themselves. I also am a LAMB parent and I know what the other poster means by years of instability. I also know the signs that a set of teachers is ready to leave or rebel against an ED, and this is not a good sign. But at least at LAMB, there are many opportunities to learn what Montessori is all about, and the school does make an effort (less so now than before, but it happens) to educate parents on the model itself and bring them frequently into the building to learn what's happening. Of course, it's a much smaller school, but something needs to happen. Letting go of the ED with a succession plan and perhaps pushing out the Board chair are a start, but only if someone with vision is on the horizon. One of the issues with the changes at LAMB are that the initial vision of the school has been lost to an extent, since the subsequent new leaders were not particularly visionary. It matters. Where do you locate the vision and heart of a school with turnover? With the longtime staff and most dedicated teachers. |