Will Whittle be around next year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hey Whittle families, the MySchoolDC lottery for pk3 to 8th graders deadline is tomorrow

Bumping this incase any parents haven't found independent schools to take their now very behind kids.

[Anonymous]

Cris the Little here!

Feedback taken - no comedy this time.

Let’s take a look at the “capital stack”

1) Friendship Charter Schools
2) The “new bride” Probably has a shotgun to her head - oops sorry, no comedy, no comedy, no comedy - bad precious
3) Friends of the School

Friendship Charter School
- They need to do a bond sale to fulfill their commitment. Nevermind that this is a bond sale that would benefit a current board member personally. Also nevermind that this would be the one of the largest charter bond sales in DC charter history. And finally nevermind that this bond sale actually has to go through the public charter school board. I’m sure none of these minor details will have any impact on this part of the stack. All of them have a virtual 99% chance of not failing. I vote sarcasm not comedy on that last statement.

The New Bride
- A new hope\investor! (so many Star Wars jokes - focus damnit) is in the picture. This is a good thing until you read the 30 to 45 day fine print. The reason for that is the underwriters are not involved yet. You can say on your initial mortgage application that you have $1M in income and they will happily start the process. However the minor detail of $5M of debts; or $200M to be more accurate could have a material impact on whether or not the investment moves forward. Then you have to factor in whether there is any chance of a return on said investment which hasn’t been going particularly well. Also, the deal might be contingent on all of the trivial details on the charter school investment. I hope the bride doesn’t get cold feet. That was snarkiness, not comedy.

Friends of the School
- This is a euphemism for other people looking to make quick money. If the Bride of Friendship does in fact get married these are the people who will come out of the woodwork looking to leverage investments to make more money. This is the dirtiest money in this entire endeavor. Wish I had a joke for this one #sademoji.

I know what they are thinking: “I wish she had stuck to satire.”

#ArrogantWhiteMenAreSoYesterday

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:the 3 families that are the stogies also have kids that are seniors and are waiting for college acceptances. I am not sure how many seniors are left, but I do know they are the parents.

What the 3 families should have done, is hire the teachers to work with their kids and make sure they graduate, instead of tossing good money after bad. Although, some of those families have so much money 1M here or there doesn't matter to them.

Oh, and Danielle Braynt was fired in Nov because she spoke up about not being paid. FYI - I pulled my kid in Jan. and he is so far behind I am not sure what I am going to do. Summer school probably.

That makes sense then — this is the easiest and surest way to “graduate” and fulfill all the acceptance conditions. Plus get a nice tax write off. Presumably the firms are paying and not the families directly. That would make me less confident there’s next year to be had, not more confident

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:100%!! Honestly, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Someone who left a job teaching elsewhere to join up at Whittle would make me question their judgement very seriously. I strongly believe that teachers are saints and deserve to be paid well, but if someone was going to Whittle because salaries were an anomaly within the current market, then they took a huge, uninformed risk.

Here is a reflection written by one of Whittle's inaugural year teachers, who had left Sidwell Friends School for Whittle. In spite of her positive end-of-first-year review in June 2020, she moved on to Maret at the end of that summer. Reading this Whittle reflection gives a peek at why some strong teachers took a chance on Whittle and what they valued about teaching there. It is sad that the school's vision was torpedoed by wildly unrealistic finances. But I can understand why some teachers chose to believe at first.

https://dc.whittleschool.org/blog/teacher-perspective-why-i-chose-whittle

I get it, but I also don't think she was somehow unable to do this at a, ahem, real school. Institutions like Sidwell are designed to have continuity and clear structure. If you don't want to teach that way, there are alternative schools like Templeton Academy or Parkmont where there is immense freedom for teachers to create learning in new ways. Its not like Whittle had some magic sauce that no one else did. Its that she chose to teach in a traditional schools.

Meanwhile, the fact that she mentions DCUrban Moms would be downright hilarious, if not such an indicator of insecurity.

[Anonymous]

What’s disgraceful is that this involves children who are easily identifiable when some anonymous person posts their parents’ names in a thread about their school. And then mocks them.

What happened to the earlier posters who were so concerned about the families and the students? The PPs who wanted to help other families avoid becoming involved with the school?

So much bs. You all are just loving that these kids/families have been put in this position. Kids. You are mocking kids.

Nice.

[Anonymous]

>You all are just loving that these kids/families have been put in this position. Kids. You are mocking kids.

Wrong again! (But keep trying!)

The students need to tell their parents that this sh*te is bananas. The parents prolly think they are doing the right thing. The students have more influence on this process and their parents than they believe. The students need to go to their parents and say "enough is enough"

And if this forum helps any students stand up for themselves and their educations, great.

[Anonymous]

Nobody mocked them. The families are no strangers to publicity around donating, raised record funds for a charity last year too in a national students’ competition. But it’s a false conclusion that this group stepping in should give confidence to parents whose children are not graduating in a couple of months. If these are the 4 people responsible for continuity (including Chris), it’s highly relevant who they are, just like people are relevant to any investment decision

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:>You all are just loving that these kids/families have been put in this position. Kids. You are mocking kids.

Wrong again! (But keep trying!)

The students need to tell their parents that this sh*te is bananas. The parents prolly think they are doing the right thing. The students have more influence on this process and their parents than they believe. The students need to go to their parents and say "enough is enough"

And if this forum helps any students stand up for themselves and their educations, great.

You think these kids are reading DCUM?

“The parents prolly…”? Not mocking? You sound like someone who thinks they probably know what is probably happening.

Fact is, you are mocking children. For your own amusement. Over and over.

Real nice.

[Anonymous]

Not true. Whittle is a scandal in the making. It’s normal for people to comment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey Whittle families, the MySchoolDC lottery for pk3 to 8th graders deadline is tomorrow

Bumping this incase any parents haven't found independent schools to take their now very behind kids.

We are in Big3 and gratefully also took part in this lottery the year we were applying

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Fact is, you are mocking children. For your own amusement. Over and over.

Real nice.

No one is mocking the children. They're mocking the parents who ignored the flares in the water and ship halfway on its way to the bottom of the Potomac AND STILL decided that this was the boat they wanted their children to ride on. Parents who apparently are ok with small and large contractors, teachers and a host of others being stiffed out of MILLIONS in overdue compensation / unpaid bills but are outraged when the scammy school that is perpetrating this is exposed in a public forum

[Anonymous]

To put a finer point on it, it is really the parents that remain in denial and defensive of all the wrongdoings of CW and his cronies that are beyond disgraceful. There are many others who have realized all that is wrong and have either voted with their feet or are actively about to

[Anonymous]

I’m not coming to this from any place of blame, for anyone other than the people misleading or reneging on their obligations. I’m very interested in this developing story, in the same way I watched the Tinder Swindler, Boeing Max and read about Theranos, but in a smaller, local context and while it’s in motion. Will they? Won’t they? Is there way out of the tailspin? Most of all, I hope hardworking people get paid fairly, their benefits are funded, and children get a great education one way or another.

[Anonymous]

Comeuppance for the bad guys after years of slaps on the wrist is nice too, just like Tinder Swindler is now getting sued into oblivion by the same family he pretended to be a scion of to swindle so many innocent victims

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:>You all are just loving that these kids/families have been put in this position. Kids. You are mocking kids.

Wrong again! (But keep trying!)

The students need to tell their parents that this sh*te is bananas. The parents prolly think they are doing the right thing. The students have more influence on this process and their parents than they believe. The students need to go to their parents and say "enough is enough"

And if this forum helps any students stand up for themselves and their educations, great.

You think these kids are reading DCUM?

“The parents prolly…”? Not mocking? You sound like someone who thinks they probably know what is probably happening.

Fact is, you are mocking children. For your own amusement. Over and over.

We’re certainly reading, and we’re enjoying it

Real nice.