SELA teacher exodus

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I appreciate that the original posting was concerning, but I think this has gone on a bit long and a bit far without any corroboration with this story. I am strongly considering sending my son to Sela next year for PK3. On the plus side, I spoke to two teachers from Sela who taught the PK4 classes this year. I also spoke with a recent parent whose child was in PK4.

Both the teachers and the PK4 parent were so effusively positive that I am basically shocked to read these postings, and I question these postings. Are these all real? Are all of them from concerned parents? Is it possible that some of these are from internet trolls with an axe to grind?

One teacher is one of the Hebrew teachers who left for Israel this year. He left because his wife finished her post-doc at a local university, and she got a permanent position in Israel. His wife's sister is a good friend of mine from graduate school. I don't see why he would lie to me. The other teacher I spoke with is staying. She is a Hebrew teacher and she said she only knew of two Hebrew teachers who are leaving. She told me the only teachers that left were those who had to for family reasons. Both teachers were so positive that it seemed that they saw Sela as part of their personal identities. The PK4 teacher who had to move back to Israel actually told me that he will always feel like he is part of the Sela family. To me, it sounds like a major endorsement from a person who would still be teaching at Sela if family circumstances allowed him to stay in the US.

In addition, in the email that the principal sent to parents at the end of the year, Dr. Arthurs announced that two new hires would be Hebrew teachers with over 12 years of experience. Those new teachers are not on short-term visas, so they are likely to stay for some time. While the school had a number of postings for new jobs, some of those postings may very well have been for the two new teachers that Dr. Arthurs announced. Moreover, the school is expanding by adding PK3 classrooms. This does not sound like a school that is in disarray.

Regarding the issue of immersion, I am going to directly quote from the email:

"As you know, we are expanding and will offer Pre-K3 during the upcoming school year. Pre-K3 and Pre-K4 students will still receive full Hebrew immersion, while also receiving approximately an hour of English each day from a Pre-K English-speaking teacher (similar to this school year). Kindergarten students will still receive Hebrew Language instruction about 50% of their instructional time each day instead of receiving Hebrew all day on one day and English all day on the next day."

I don't have any information about the rest of the school, but for now, that's not my concern. Sela is a new school, and it had a rocky first year. But, in my understanding, the second year went quite well. Dr. Arthurs seems to be a great addition, and she is an administrator who earned the admiration of the teachers I spoke to. Moreover, I found her to be extremely nice, personable, and caring.

I think as parents, you have to decide what you want for your children. Immersion for the PK classes is seemingly assured. Immersion seems like a good idea to me. I will think about the kindergarten class and beyond when I need to.

I can't say much about how the front office works at Sela. I send emails to the principal. She answers my emails. Not within seconds but within a very reasonable amount of time. I know that they can't answer some things easily. For instance, there was an RFP for transport services. They are supposed to come up with a response for that RFP by July 31st, as per the public document. So, until they know, I am not sure that they can answer the questions.

My one fear is that this DCUrbanMom thread will scare off parents who would otherwise have sent their kids to Sela. I don't know if that is the case, however, because I can't verify anything

But one thing I do know. My quote above is a direct quote from Dr. Arthurs' email to parents, sent on June 21st. It starts off: "Dear Awesome Sela Families,"

If you were a Sela parent, or a parent whose child matched at Sela for next year, you probably received that message from Dr. Arthurs. So, you know at least that my posting is genuine. About these other people, I can't be sure. Is there any other evidence that you can provide to suggest that you are who you say you are? Is there

Moreover, are you talking about facts? Do you know actual teachers, or are you spreading other people's rumors?

Their first year didn't go well. Fine. But, the second year (i.e. last year) sounds like it went pretty well, and I want to focus on the future anyway. If you have concerns, by all means, post them, but let's not hear from people who are against the very idea of a Hebrew charter school (would they be against a Danish charter school? or a Quechua charter school?). Parents can decide for themselves about things like that. The questions that are legitimate are: does Sela do a good job at what it claims to do? Does it educate its kids with love and with love of its target language? Does it prepare its students for their future?

Those are the real questions. I wish I knew more parents at Sela. I don't. But the one parent I do know loved it. The only problem she had was the location -- it was too far from home, and so she is changing schools for her child. But that said, if the logistics weren't a problem, she would continue at Sela. Why is there so much negativity on this thread? How can these people that I know, who have absolutely no reason to lie to me, be wrong?

I think this thread is full of trolls, and I am deeply suspicious of the negative posters who are stating unverifiable rumors.

NP here. Sela has been a target on DCUM in the past, so you may well be right on the money.

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much for posting that response. I am the snarky one who is sending their 3 y/o to Sela and who is not afraid that the school will shut down mid-year just as i'm not afraid of tornadoes or aliens. I truly believe that people want to just make trouble and cause false alarm. I'm sure my child will have a good experience at Sela based on what I have heard from legitimate sources not these ridiculous trolls.

[Anonymous]

Perhaps some trolls. But it is true that the school has yet to hit its enrollment targets. It isn't trolling to saybthat Hebrew immersion isn't sustainable or frankly an appropriate curriculum for a public school. Just makes one opinionated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I appreciate that the original posting was concerning, but I think this has gone on a bit long and a bit far without any corroboration with this story. I am strongly considering sending my son to Sela next year for PK3. On the plus side, I spoke to two teachers from Sela who taught the PK4 classes this year. I also spoke with a recent parent whose child was in PK4.

Both the teachers and the PK4 parent were so effusively positive that I am basically shocked to read these postings, and I question these postings. Are these all real? Are all of them from concerned parents? Is it possible that some of these are from internet trolls with an axe to grind?

One teacher is one of the Hebrew teachers who left for Israel this year. He left because his wife finished her post-doc at a local university, and she got a permanent position in Israel. His wife's sister is a good friend of mine from graduate school. I don't see why he would lie to me. The other teacher I spoke with is staying. She is a Hebrew teacher and she said she only knew of two Hebrew teachers who are leaving. She told me the only teachers that left were those who had to for family reasons. Both teachers were so positive that it seemed that they saw Sela as part of their personal identities. The PK4 teacher who had to move back to Israel actually told me that he will always feel like he is part of the Sela family. To me, it sounds like a major endorsement from a person who would still be teaching at Sela if family circumstances allowed him to stay in the US.

In addition, in the email that the principal sent to parents at the end of the year, Dr. Arthurs announced that two new hires would be Hebrew teachers with over 12 years of experience. Those new teachers are not on short-term visas, so they are likely to stay for some time. While the school had a number of postings for new jobs, some of those postings may very well have been for the two new teachers that Dr. Arthurs announced. Moreover, the school is expanding by adding PK3 classrooms. This does not sound like a school that is in disarray.

Regarding the issue of immersion, I am going to directly quote from the email:

"As you know, we are expanding and will offer Pre-K3 during the upcoming school year. Pre-K3 and Pre-K4 students will still receive full Hebrew immersion, while also receiving approximately an hour of English each day from a Pre-K English-speaking teacher (similar to this school year). Kindergarten students will still receive Hebrew Language instruction about 50% of their instructional time each day instead of receiving Hebrew all day on one day and English all day on the next day."

I don't have any information about the rest of the school, but for now, that's not my concern. Sela is a new school, and it had a rocky first year. But, in my understanding, the second year went quite well. Dr. Arthurs seems to be a great addition, and she is an administrator who earned the admiration of the teachers I spoke to. Moreover, I found her to be extremely nice, personable, and caring.

I think as parents, you have to decide what you want for your children. Immersion for the PK classes is seemingly assured. Immersion seems like a good idea to me. I will think about the kindergarten class and beyond when I need to.

I can't say much about how the front office works at Sela. I send emails to the principal. She answers my emails. Not within seconds but within a very reasonable amount of time. I know that they can't answer some things easily. For instance, there was an RFP for transport services. They are supposed to come up with a response for that RFP by July 31st, as per the public document. So, until they know, I am not sure that they can answer the questions.

My one fear is that this DCUrbanMom thread will scare off parents who would otherwise have sent their kids to Sela. I don't know if that is the case, however, because I can't verify anything

But one thing I do know. My quote above is a direct quote from Dr. Arthurs' email to parents, sent on June 21st. It starts off: "Dear Awesome Sela Families,"

If you were a Sela parent, or a parent whose child matched at Sela for next year, you probably received that message from Dr. Arthurs. So, you know at least that my posting is genuine. About these other people, I can't be sure. Is there any other evidence that you can provide to suggest that you are who you say you are? Is there

Moreover, are you talking about facts? Do you know actual teachers, or are you spreading other people's rumors?

Their first year didn't go well. Fine. But, the second year (i.e. last year) sounds like it went pretty well, and I want to focus on the future anyway. If you have concerns, by all means, post them, but let's not hear from people who are against the very idea of a Hebrew charter school (would they be against a Danish charter school? or a Quechua charter school?). Parents can decide for themselves about things like that. The questions that are legitimate are: does Sela do a good job at what it claims to do? Does it educate its kids with love and with love of its target language? Does it prepare its students for their future?

Those are the real questions. I wish I knew more parents at Sela. I don't. But the one parent I do know loved it. The only problem she had was the location -- it was too far from home, and so she is changing schools for her child. But that said, if the logistics weren't a problem, she would continue at Sela. Why is there so much negativity on this thread? How can these people that I know, who have absolutely no reason to lie to me, be wrong?

I think this thread is full of trolls, and I am deeply suspicious of the negative posters who are stating unverifiable rumors.

NP here. Sela has been a target on DCUM in the past, so you may well be right on the money.

Thank you as well. I am also a poster whose child matched for Sela and is enrolled for PreK3. I also know a family who is there and has had a positive experience. Was it our first choice, no, but we had it on our list for a reason. We liked what we heard and saw and thought it would be a great experience for our 3yo. It is hard for parents who do not have access to the same information as you do and we start to worry because of the rumors. It is hard to ignore the negativity and begin to doubt. I also wish we knew more families coming in for PreK3 or current families. It would be nice to hear from parents with actual experience and knowledge of the school.

[Anonymous]

Thank you PPs for the positive posts about Sela. We were matched and enrolled in Sela for PK3. I really like the program. I have heard nothing but good things from current families at Sela. I wish all current and new Sela families the best and a great school year!

[Anonymous]

I understand the concern about Hebrew as a smaller language group. It's a legitimate question, and if in the long term, it is not sustainable, that's something that we will see in the long term. I have a friend who is a Latin professor at a university. He faces similar criticisms about Latin, but he has had a job for quite a while, and I expect he will be able to stay teaching until he retires one day.
At my public school, there were classes for Hindi, Japanese, Russian, Latin, Chinese, Latin, Hebrew, Spanish, Arabic, French, German, and Italian (and probably more that I forgot). Nothing similar exists in DC. I think it was a great school, and the kids were mostly high achievers who have done quite well in the world thus far. I don't think the school had any problems as a result of offering too many languages. If there was a demand, they would do it. I am waiting to see if Greek ever gets added to the mix. Technically, it was a language magnet, but most of the kids were known for their academic excellence generally - so go figure... Some of them were even high achievers who went to the school for Hebrew, Japanese, and (gasp) Latin! Correlation or causation? Either way, it was good for the public school system overall to have these academic high achievers in the system rather than in private schools. And, it seemed to be good for the parents and students, too, at least in my opinion. (For the record, I took French)...

But, what's funny to me is that has absolutely NOTHING to do with this unsubstantiated rumor about ALL (or nearly all) of the Hebrew teachers leaving. As far as I can tell, two teachers are leaving, both because they wanted to or had to move back to Israel. And one of those two told me he LOVED the school! And, the school already had 2 new hires to replace them by June 21st... So, what is this thread about exactly?

If you want to debate the finer points of having a smaller language group be a legitimate charter school choice, that's one thing. But, who knows what Sela will evolve into? Maybe they will have an Arabic arm, an Amharic arm, or a focus on Semitic languages generally. Maybe in a few years, it will fizzle out.

I'm a busy parent. I take this one step at a time. I'm focused on the PK classes. They seem ok thus far. The PK teacher that I know is very engaged. I don't see her leaving any time soon. I really just want a good school with high quality language instruction for my child going into PK classes. Does the half English-half Hebrew thing work for kindergarten -- I don't know. But, I have two years to find out. If anyone has experience with that, I am all ears.

Please, just end the trolling here. I really don't care what anyone has to say about offering a Hebrew charter school. If someone wanted to have such a thread, I would have ignored it. But this thread started off with a highly charged and inflammatory claim that the school was failing somehow. That teachers were leaving in droves and continued on with claims that DC would have to pick up the pieces. What complete and total unsubstantiated BS! Was this a waste of time meant or was it just a mean-spirited way to scare parents of prospective kids at Sela?

The question is: how good is the school that we have. If it were no good, then fine. But, frankly, most of the people who have ACTUALLY been involved in the school seem to love it. There is even a 53 person Facebook group for parents of Sela kids. It is a closed group, so no trolls there either!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps some trolls. But it is true that the school has yet to hit its enrollment targets. It isn't trolling to saybthat Hebrew immersion isn't sustainable or frankly an appropriate curriculum for a public school. Just makes one opinionated.

This.

Hebrew immersion makes no more sense than Quechua immersion or Finnish immersion. It was established so a few people could defray part of the cost of Jewish day school on the taxpayer's dime and serves no legitimate secular purpose for the rest of the student body.

There ought to have been a first amendment lawsuit. Or better yet, a charter board that acted with integrity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps some trolls. But it is true that the school has yet to hit its enrollment targets. It isn't trolling to saybthat Hebrew immersion isn't sustainable or frankly an appropriate curriculum for a public school. Just makes one opinionated.

This.

Hebrew immersion makes no more sense than Quechua immersion or Finnish immersion. It was established so a few people could defray part of the cost of Jewish day school on the taxpayer's dime and serves no legitimate secular purpose for the rest of the student body.

There ought to have been a first amendment lawsuit. Or better yet, a charter board that acted with integrity.

There's no religious component to the school, though -- which is what makes it sort of useless to both the Jewish families who might otherwise be interested in a day school experience (since Judaism is a big part of why they'd be into that) and to the non-Jewish families who might be interested in an immersion school (because Hebrew is a particularly un-pragmatic language to learn, insofar as so many of its native speakers also speak English and it's mostly spoken only in one country).

I don't think that means it runs into any First Amendment problems, though -- it just might explain why they're having trouble retaining students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps some trolls. But it is true that the school has yet to hit its enrollment targets. It isn't trolling to saybthat Hebrew immersion isn't sustainable or frankly an appropriate curriculum for a public school. Just makes one opinionated.

This.

Hebrew immersion makes no more sense than Quechua immersion or Finnish immersion. It was established so a few people could defray part of the cost of Jewish day school on the taxpayer's dime and serves no legitimate secular purpose for the rest of the student body.

There ought to have been a first amendment lawsuit. Or better yet, a charter board that acted with integrity.

Or failing those people can start dishonest threads making false claims to scare families away. That might help kill it.

Though I would not say that is a strategy that shows integrity.

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry, is there evidence that they are having trouble retaining students? Or, is this more random speculation? Who is mentioning enrollment targets? Is this information that is actually available?

This is supposed to be a parents' forum on issues of concern for actual parents of actual kids. This absolutely ridiculous argument over the utility of this one language is wasting everyone's time.

Also, it seems like there was nothing to the original comment that actually started the thread...

[Anonymous]

I have no problem with Hebrew language immersion, but don't confuse good teachers who are dedicated to their students and can put on a good face for parents and those who are unhappy with their working environment and don't want to burn bridges with their employer on the way out. Parents- You are greatly mistaken if you think that teachers are always going to tell you exactly how they feel about certain situations. Part of being professional is not telling parents problems that exist and putting on a good face. This is even more relevant when parents go onto DCUM and talk about specific teachers, who are easily identifiable based on their descriptions. This may be how this teacher actually feels, but it's possible he hasn't shared his true thoughts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm sorry, is there evidence that they are having trouble retaining students? Or, is this more random speculation? Who is mentioning enrollment targets? Is this information that is actually available?

This is supposed to be a parents' forum on issues of concern for actual parents of actual kids. This absolutely ridiculous argument over the utility of this one language is wasting everyone's time.

Also, it seems like there was nothing to the original comment that actually started the thread...

Check the myschooldc site and you will see the number of available slots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sorry, is there evidence that they are having trouble retaining students? Or, is this more random speculation? Who is mentioning enrollment targets? Is this information that is actually available?

This is supposed to be a parents' forum on issues of concern for actual parents of actual kids. This absolutely ridiculous argument over the utility of this one language is wasting everyone's time.

Also, it seems like there was nothing to the original comment that actually started the thread...

Check the myschooldc site and you will see the number of available slots.

Good point. MyschoolDC shows them only having 5 K slots available, none for any other grades. If that holds up, they should be in a much better place with enrollment. I was one of the posters analyzing their enrollment and financial details, don't know anything about the specifics of the school other than public info. Good luck to them, seriously. I don't want any school to fail, it's a tough situation for everyone involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have no problem with Hebrew language immersion, but don't confuse good teachers who are dedicated to their students and can put on a good face for parents and those who are unhappy with their working environment and don't want to burn bridges with their employer on the way out. Parents- You are greatly mistaken if you think that teachers are always going to tell you exactly how they feel about certain situations. Part of being professional is not telling parents problems that exist and putting on a good face. This is even more relevant when parents go onto DCUM and talk about specific teachers, who are easily identifiable based on their descriptions. This may be how this teacher actually feels, but it's possible he hasn't shared his true thoughts.

So, it is possible that you are right about the teacher who is staying. Maybe she is just putting on a good face. But, then again, I heard the EXACT same story from one of the teachers leaving to move back home to Israel. He was both super-enthusiastic, and he has no reason to lie. That's the point. His family had to move back to Israel. But, he feels invested in the school enough to remain both positive and encouraging. That has to say something. He does not need to worry about burning bridges because he will never work in the US again. Also, did I mention that he is the brother-in-law of a good friend of mine from graduate school?

If there is a problem, I would want to hear about it. But, I would like to hear about more than just speculation. On one hand, we have two happy teachers and a few happy parents who have spoken up. (Are parents also afraid of burning bridges?)

One teacher who is staying and claims to be happy. One teacher who is leaving but felt it was a great professional environment and loved teaching the kids at Sela. I have also personally spoken to happy parents. Even the one parent I know who is leaving liked the school -- she just hated the location.

I feel like the original posting that started this thread was, in fact, not correct. The students seem to be staying.

I care about the teachers, and I want them to be happy, but I have not heard that any one is actually leaving because they aren't happy... Or some fatal flaw with the school that means that we all need to reconsider our decisions? I'm very interested in something besides random speculation or undeserved negativity.

[Anonymous]

Later posts seem more positive. Time tells for all new schools.