Feynman School Closing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Former Feynman teacher here. 90% of the students were not gifted. Not even close. These kids had some sort of behavioral or social problems. It was clear to the teachers that any student can enroll as long as the parents can pay and it was frustrating. This caused families with actual gifted kids to leave over the past few years. The school lost excellent teachers due to the administrations dishonesty and lack of communication. So much potential, just the wrong administration. I feel sorry for the teachers and families and hope that at the very least everyone gets reimbursed.

They never would have been able to fill the school with gifted kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Marriage implosion was not on my bingo card.

Do you know how the other Board members fit into all of this? What was their connection to the Golds?

Neither was Daddy cutting her off.

Feynman parent here. While we knew there was dysfunction, we had no idea it was shutting the place down the next day bad. I'd expect some of that in a small school. When you care about your bright kid's education, there's a certain amount of management dysfunction you're willing to put up with if you kid is doing well. There's a lot of arrogant unhelpful "you should have seen this coming" on this board when there was a lot that was hidden from parents. I mean, we've gotten more information from folks on this board after the fact than the school. These parents aren't dumb.

One board member was a PG County head of school that she had worked with. Another was a retired Admiral who had kids go through the school. And I think another is a gifted educator friend. So yeah, no one who knows anything about running a business or managing money and too many drinking the kool-aid people with personal ties to Susan Gold to take a step back and effectively manage.

I kind of want a lawsuit just so we can see just how much more dumpster fire tumbles out of this whole saga.

Friends and family boards are my worst nightmare. Too often it is a backdoor way for a founder to retain absolute control of an organization.

[Anonymous]

It is true that the entry criteria softened as time went on. It was frustrating. It’s weird though… in a place where so many kids are considered so gifted, where were they all over the years? Especially the ones who didn’t get into magnets for some reason? I mean Feynman's model was based on the Mirman School, maybe on the Nueva School too. They have done great. Why did this work in CA and not here? Was it the board? The founders? The demographic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is true that the entry criteria softened as time went on. It was frustrating. It’s weird though… in a place where so many kids are considered so gifted, where were they all over the years? Especially the ones who didn’t get into magnets for some reason? I mean Feynman's model was based on the Mirman School, maybe on the Nueva School too. They have done great. Why did this work in CA and not here? Was it the board? The founders? The demographic?

As for the magnet piece, MCPS switched to a lottery system at some point which boxed out a lot of kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is true that the entry criteria softened as time went on. It was frustrating. It’s weird though… in a place where so many kids are considered so gifted, where were they all over the years? Especially the ones who didn’t get into magnets for some reason? I mean Feynman's model was based on the Mirman School, maybe on the Nueva School too. They have done great. Why did this work in CA and not here? Was it the board? The founders? The demographic?

Not to be mean, but when we visited many years ago we were turned off by the kinda weird vibe we got from the administrator. That plus the small size, which made things seem a bit uncertain, were two factors in our decision to have DC enroll elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Not to be mean, but when we visited many years ago we were turned off by the kinda weird vibe we got from the administrator. That plus the small size, which made things seem a bit uncertain, were two factors in our decision to have DC enroll elsewhere.

Not mean. Totally true. The administrators are definitely weird and, obviously now in retrospect, completely incompetent, at running the business side of a school. That said, the small size was a major plus for the kid that gets overlooked or ignored in a larger classroom, or the kid that needs more attention. The uncertainty was always a coin flip, for sure. And landed unfortunately for those that were enrolled this year.

Personally, we left many years ago because we were tired of feeling like a piggy bank for the administration to fund a disproportionate number of kids on financial aid. I get the mission. It's a worthy one. But not at the expense of running the entire school into the ground.

[Anonymous]

Former parent who saw many red flags and corruption…but rode it out for the many reasons many families do…For those unaware, years ago, a house was purchased at 9490 River Road that was going to be the Gold’s personal residence with a school built on the land. Architects hired (expensive cost and a lawsuit because they weren’t paid) and a frantic request for money. Many of us never donated and went looking for 990s…but we couldn’t find any at the time - something rotten in Denmark! The long story short is money raised - close to $500k or more if I recall, but $ never returned AFTER the deal fell through. Former family in real estate worked on the deal and they abruptly left afterwards. Apparently there was black mold in the house! Many of us joked that funds went to pay for daughter’s bat mitzvah and other daughter’s tuition at Holton arms…but really, many of us weren’t kidding!! We saw many egregious things - charging families $25 for field trips when really they cost nothing (free admission or parents drove)… multiply that by 30 kids -where did $ go? Also, where did Covid relief funds, PPP money go? The school never published financials like other private schools, an annual fund update or state of the school info.

Feynman is a part of our past but always frustrated with the lack of transparency and devious, underhanded way they pocketed money for personal use. I would pursue legal actions if I were there and gather as a group of parents/faculty to work in tandem. There are a bunch of former faculty, who apparently had to sign NDAs - red flag as who signs an NDA at a school? Privacy for students is imperative but the NDA covered discussions about operations… there are many individuals who know where the bodies are buried… so it would be easy to gather a trail of evidence or info for an audit. Clearly closing the doors of a school mid year is breach of contract. Someone suggested reaching out to press and many local tv stations have consumer/fradulent activity journalists.

So sorry for everyone impacted and sadly, all of us who left periodically checked to see when the doors would close…it was always a question of when not if…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Former Feynman teacher here. 90% of the students were not gifted. Not even close. These kids had some sort of behavioral or social problems. It was clear to the teachers that any student can enroll as long as the parents can pay and it was frustrating. This caused families with actual gifted kids to leave over the past few years. The school lost excellent teachers due to the administrations dishonesty and lack of communication. So much potential, just the wrong administration. I feel sorry for the teachers and families and hope that at the very least everyone gets reimbursed.

But didn’t they require WISCV or WPPSI
gifted scores?

[Anonymous]

They used when my DC attended. Maybe that was dropped.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Former Feynman teacher here. 90% of the students were not gifted. Not even close. These kids had some sort of behavioral or social problems. It was clear to the teachers that any student can enroll as long as the parents can pay and it was frustrating. This caused families with actual gifted kids to leave over the past few years. The school lost excellent teachers due to the administrations dishonesty and lack of communication. So much potential, just the wrong administration. I feel sorry for the teachers and families and hope that at the very least everyone gets reimbursed.

But didn’t they require WISCV or WPPSI
gifted scores?

Requiring a score isn't the same thing as rejecting anyone below a certain level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Former Feynman teacher here. 90% of the students were not gifted. Not even close. These kids had some sort of behavioral or social problems. It was clear to the teachers that any student can enroll as long as the parents can pay and it was frustrating. This caused families with actual gifted kids to leave over the past few years. The school lost excellent teachers due to the administrations dishonesty and lack of communication. So much potential, just the wrong administration. I feel sorry for the teachers and families and hope that at the very least everyone gets reimbursed.

But didn’t they require WISCV or WPPSI
gifted scores?

I think they required you to submit the test results, but didn’t have (or at least didn’t publicize) a minimum cutoff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Former Feynman teacher here. 90% of the students were not gifted. Not even close. These kids had some sort of behavioral or social problems. It was clear to the teachers that any student can enroll as long as the parents can pay and it was frustrating. This caused families with actual gifted kids to leave over the past few years. The school lost excellent teachers due to the administrations dishonesty and lack of communication. So much potential, just the wrong administration. I feel sorry for the teachers and families and hope that at the very least everyone gets reimbursed.

But didn’t they require WISCV or WPPSI
gifted scores?

I think they required you to submit the test results, but didn’t have (or at least didn’t publicize) a minimum cutoff.

So, basically just for show. That's so sleazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Former Feynman teacher here. 90% of the students were not gifted. Not even close. These kids had some sort of behavioral or social problems. It was clear to the teachers that any student can enroll as long as the parents can pay and it was frustrating. This caused families with actual gifted kids to leave over the past few years. The school lost excellent teachers due to the administrations dishonesty and lack of communication. So much potential, just the wrong administration. I feel sorry for the teachers and families and hope that at the very least everyone gets reimbursed.

But didn’t they require WISCV or WPPSI
gifted scores?

I think they required you to submit the test results, but didn’t have (or at least didn’t publicize) a minimum cutoff.

So, basically just for show. That's so sleazy.

Well, I got the sense there was an approximate minimum but it was not a hard cutoff. And as their financial issues worsened they were more willing to be flexible there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Former Feynman teacher here. 90% of the students were not gifted. Not even close. These kids had some sort of behavioral or social problems. It was clear to the teachers that any student can enroll as long as the parents can pay and it was frustrating. This caused families with actual gifted kids to leave over the past few years. The school lost excellent teachers due to the administrations dishonesty and lack of communication. So much potential, just the wrong administration. I feel sorry for the teachers and families and hope that at the very least everyone gets reimbursed.

But didn’t they require WISCV or WPPSI
gifted scores?

I think they required you to submit the test results, but didn’t have (or at least didn’t publicize) a minimum cutoff.

So, basically just for show. That's so sleazy.

You need a base number of students to run the school. The number of gifted kids with parents who want them in that environment and can afford it was never going to be enough to make ends meet

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

You need a base number of students to run the school. The number of gifted kids with parents who want them in that environment and can afford it was never going to be enough to make ends meet

Honestly, the number of really "gifted kids" is really small. Sorry, all you doting parents. That doesn't mean your DSs/DDs aren't smart for their age. But "gifted"? Unlikely.