BASIS DC shut down/abolished the school list serve

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You've already answered your own question. For upper grade admissions, if they are to be admitted at all, their schools use placement tests. If a student place, s appropriately to grade level, they are admitted into that grade. If not, they are placed in a lower grade.

Well that is great, just confirm it at the coffee hour tomorrow and report back
and if you could, ask him how he left more than $250k on the table, and how they will prevent it in the future

Best of luck, mates

[Anonymous]

Ok. Since this thread is already here in all its ugliness, and I was not able to go to the coffee, I'm going to ask:

What happened at the meeting?

What questions were asked? How were they answered?

What issues were brought up? How were they addressed?

Thank you.

And please remember, for those of you who are not Basis parents, we no longer have a list serve, and neither the Boosters nor the administration summarized what happened at the first one, or changed the time to the evening so that working parents could attend (a request that was made at the last coffee hour)

[Anonymous]

come on folks, please answer

[Anonymous]

is there anyone out there who actually went to the meeting?

would love any comments on the tardy policy

the 25 slots we left open on the table for 6th

and whether we are really going to open up ourselves to kids 7th-9th who have not made it through a single comprehensive exam

Common' people, we wants to know................

[Anonymous]

After the mess you guys have made with any information you have or have not received, a person woukd have to be nuts to write anything on the subject!

[Anonymous]

So I guess you had to be there or you will never know what happened. Real pity, that, for working parents who requested last coffee hour that they hold them in the evening. Thanks so much for all the info

[Anonymous]

I miss OP. She was fun. You guys are not fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So I guess you had to be there or you will never know what happened. Real pity, that, for working parents who requested last coffee hour that they hold them in the evening. Thanks so much for all the info

They already said a while back that they will be holding meetings at alternative times for folks who said they couldn't make the morning coffee hour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I guess you had to be there or you will never know what happened. Real pity, that, for working parents who requested last coffee hour that they hold them in the evening. Thanks so much for all the info

They already said a while back that they will be holding meetings at alternative times for folks who said they couldn't make the morning coffee hour.

bullshit. But I'm sure all the rest of you and the admin will just LOVE having to repeat the answers to the same questions over and over again because no one wants to go to a boosters meeting, and the last message was "we will have boosters meetings in the evenings, and coffees in the mornings, every two weeks. Aiken said she made a good point. Cameron tanked it. So shocked.

So no one asked why we would consider admitting 9th graders?
There was no outrage, no betrayal, no long winded rants?
I feel rocked to my core.
No way is my next child going to Basis to be in classes with a bunch of kids who did not take much less pass comps in 6th, 7th, or 8th grade

BTW the only placement test they have is for math
DC is so behind they had to create a lower level, which combined with a 2 year precalculus class guarantees you cannot graduate early or do a senior project

lovely guys

I'm sure I guess it was all worthless or someone would have taken the time to summarize it

we no longer have a list serve, and the boosters did not summarize the last coffee hour, so this is a really elitist way to keep us working stiffs out of the loop. Thanks for nothing

[Anonymous]

^ what a jerk

Evidently you don't think other parents work too - and evidently you seem to think all the other parents are there solely to serve you, to sacrifice their own time to go to coffee hours and evening booster meetings in order to ask your questions for you, to volunteer their time for you so that you can have detailed written minutes.

But then again, over the past month, you've made it glaringly obvious that you don't want to hear from other parents in the first place. Many many times they've tried to tell you what they've heard from the administration but again and again, you've rejected their responses and insights, you instead just want to shut them down, denigrate them as "boosters" and just going back to repeating your wild accusations and speculations. So, why should they, and why would they, want to ask your questions for you?

You don't want to hear from parents and don't want to accept the answers you've gotten, so you're still asking the same old questions for going on a month now, making it all the more glaringly obvious that you can't even be bothered to even pick up the phone to the school or make an appointment to meet with them.

And meanwhile, with this new stuff about pre-calc, you are wrong yet again. Looking at the 2011-2012 BASIS handbook that I have (which is for all BASIS schools including Arizona, and which was printed even prior to DC opening) has the same 1 year and 2-year pre-calc options. Not to mention, the Saxon pre-calc textbook is designed to be a 2-year course, so that's not at all new and nothing has changed.

So here we go yet again, for what, the 6th or 7th time now going with some new angry tirade based entirely on incorrect information. I'll agree with you on your one statement - that you are definitely out of the loop.

How about, before your next assumption-filled post, you stop and actually TALK to the school? For the record, the next coffee hour will be on a Saturday morning - and the boosters meetings usually do have open forums for Q&A and school admins present. And... there's always email.

For all the time and energy that's been wasted in these posts, you could have already posed your questions directly to the administration ten times over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I guess you had to be there or you will never know what happened. Real pity, that, for working parents who requested last coffee hour that they hold them in the evening. Thanks so much for all the info

They already said a while back that they will be holding meetings at alternative times for folks who said they couldn't make the morning coffee hour.

Yes, but then they said in their memo that they were going to alternate these with no time changes

bullshit. But I'm sure all the rest of you and the admin will just LOVE having to repeat the answers to the same questions over and over again because no one wants to go to a boosters meeting, and the last message was "we will have boosters meetings in the evenings, and coffees in the mornings, every two weeks. Aiken said she made a good point. Cameron tanked it. So shocked.

So no one asked why we would consider admitting 9th graders?
There was no outrage, no betrayal, no long winded rants?
I feel rocked to my core.
No way is my next child going to Basis to be in classes with a bunch of kids who did not take much less pass comps in 6th, 7th, or 8th grade

I was trying to make a joke about long winded rants. Sorry it fell so flat. I did not ask about the 25 slots.
Come on, people, have a sense of humor on that one. Why are you calling me a jerk?

But the other question was serious - neither my husband nor I could come.
The idea of admitting students past 6th is a new one, and I would like to know if it came up and what the explanation offered was if the question was asked (in a non ranting way)

BTW the only placement test they have is for math
DC is so behind they had to create a lower level, which combined with a 2 year precalculus class guarantees you cannot graduate early or do a senior project

So the person below pointed out that there are 2 year precalculus classes at other Basis schools, as if this makes my point moot, but it does not - because here in DC we had to create a lower math level - math 6/7. So here would be the sequence
5th 6/7
6th 7/8
7th pre Algebra
8th Algebra I
9th Algebra II
10th precalculus
11th precalculus
12th calculus, which I understand is a prerequisite for graduation, so no senior project
unless I am wrong and you only have to get to precalculus. But the kids in AZ come in better prepared for math, I think that much is clear. I don't think math 6/7 exists in that 2011-2012 handbook, but if I am wrong, please correct me

remember as well, the only comp you can fail and still be promoted to the next grade is math. When I thought this all through it occurred to me that they have made it impossible for some people to graduate early and do senior projects unless they take a class over the summer to skip one of these steps. And of course if you had to repeat one, you would be in real trouble in terms of graduation, right?

I'm sure I guess it was all worthless or someone would have taken the time to summarize it

we no longer have a list serve, and the boosters did not summarize the last coffee hour, so this is a really elitist way to keep us working stiffs out of the loop. Thanks for nothing

someone asked the same question last time, and they got jumped on. But they also got some information. Honestly, I did not have a single friend there. Everyone we usually count on had work or doc appts or something. So I was just asking a real question

Thanks for the tongue lashing.

[Anonymous]

Anyone willing to say anything about what happened at the meeting? I have no one to call and find out and I don't think Mr. Louis would really appreciate me sending him an email and requesting a summary (I wouldn't dare, either)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I guess you had to be there or you will never know what happened. Real pity, that, for working parents who requested last coffee hour that they hold them in the evening. Thanks so much for all the info

They already said a while back that they will be holding meetings at alternative times for folks who said they couldn't make the morning coffee hour.

Yes, but then they said in their memo that they were going to alternate these with no time changes

bullshit. But I'm sure all the rest of you and the admin will just LOVE having to repeat the answers to the same questions over and over again because no one wants to go to a boosters meeting, and the last message was "we will have boosters meetings in the evenings, and coffees in the mornings, every two weeks. Aiken said she made a good point. Cameron tanked it. So shocked.

So no one asked why we would consider admitting 9th graders?
There was no outrage, no betrayal, no long winded rants?
I feel rocked to my core.
No way is my next child going to Basis to be in classes with a bunch of kids who did not take much less pass comps in 6th, 7th, or 8th grade

I was trying to make a joke about long winded rants. Sorry it fell so flat. I did not ask about the 25 slots.
Come on, people, have a sense of humor on that one. Why are you calling me a jerk?

But the other question was serious - neither my husband nor I could come.
The idea of admitting students past 6th is a new one, and I would like to know if it came up and what the explanation offered was if the question was asked (in a non ranting way)

BTW the only placement test they have is for math
DC is so behind they had to create a lower level, which combined with a 2 year precalculus class guarantees you cannot graduate early or do a senior project

So the person below pointed out that there are 2 year precalculus classes at other Basis schools, as if this makes my point moot, but it does not - because here in DC we had to create a lower math level - math 6/7. So here would be the sequence
5th 6/7
6th 7/8
7th pre Algebra
8th Algebra I
9th Algebra II
10th precalculus
11th precalculus
12th calculus, which I understand is a prerequisite for graduation, so no senior project
unless I am wrong and you only have to get to precalculus. But the kids in AZ come in better prepared for math, I think that much is clear. I don't think math 6/7 exists in that 2011-2012 handbook, but if I am wrong, please correct me

remember as well, the only comp you can fail and still be promoted to the next grade is math. When I thought this all through it occurred to me that they have made it impossible for some people to graduate early and do senior projects unless they take a class over the summer to skip one of these steps. And of course if you had to repeat one, you would be in real trouble in terms of graduation, right?

I'm sure I guess it was all worthless or someone would have taken the time to summarize it

we no longer have a list serve, and the boosters did not summarize the last coffee hour, so this is a really elitist way to keep us working stiffs out of the loop. Thanks for nothing

someone asked the same question last time, and they got jumped on. But they also got some information. Honestly, I did not have a single friend there. Everyone we usually count on had work or doc appts or something. So I was just asking a real question

Thanks for the tongue lashing.

Actually, you are wrong about the sequence-the Basis DC math student who starts at 7/6 then goes to pre-Algebra. Many of the 5th graders who take 8/7 math also end up in prealgebra in 6th regardless of hiw well they do, since Algebra 1 goes very fast compared to other Saxon math years. The kids staring in 6th that enter at 8/7 go to Algebra 1 if they perform well on comps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone willing to say anything about what happened at the meeting? I have no one to call and find out and I don't think Mr. Louis would really appreciate me sending him an email and requesting a summary (I wouldn't dare, either)

I am sure if you had some questions that you want answered that he would be happy to answer them.

[Anonymous]

I really do not get what the PP's point about the math sequence and the addition of Saxon 7/6 in DC. So what?? The sequence is not carved in stone. If a kid starts in Saxon 7/6 based on diagnostic testing, then it does not mean that a year later that they absolutely cannot take Algebra 1 the next year. It is possible that a child may catch up enough in one year to be able to go on to Algebra 1 if their diagnostics indicate and the teacher approves. By adding Saxon 7/6, BASIS was just trying to better serve students' needs.

Also, in regards to the fact that some students will not graduate early, again I say so what. BASIS has never expected every kid to graduate early. In fact, as a parent whose kid will probably be able to graduate early, we will most likely choose not to go the early graduation route to allow for another year of maturity.