Will Whittle be around next year?

[Anonymous]

Wow, the website is so slick. It would be easy to be taken in by it.

[Anonymous]

Is this the longest thread??? i dont think ive ever seen a 150 pager on a school...

[Anonymous]

Apparently, I heard that CW gave a talk, and he mentioned plans to build another campus in China after losing control of the Shenzhen campus. He also said that another campus was being built in Cyprus. Hard to believe what the guy has to say. I don't know if his grand plans will materialize. It can be a desperate lie that CW is telling. The so called Brooklyn campus is no longer in the works, but there is no mention of it. Tried calling the Brooklyn number, but it appears to be disconnected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, the website is so slick. It would be easy to be taken in by it.

Trust me. The website is so outdated. And for one of the promotional videos that has a bunch of admin and the launch team speaking, those people are all gone and no longer affiliated with Whittle. Most of the students you see in some other promotional videos have all transferred out too. I can't emphasize how many people, both employees and students left Whittle.

Everything about the school from school lunches to individualized education has been a lie. I don't even know if the school is still doing an X-day either. Which private school asks families to pack lunches for their children? I just hope that the teachers and students have a backup plan elsewhere. The teachers who left all seemed to have gone to more reputable schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Apparently, I heard that CW gave a talk, and he mentioned plans to build another campus in China after losing control of the Shenzhen campus. He also said that another campus was being built in Cyprus. Hard to believe what the guy has to say. I don't know if his grand plans will materialize. It can be a desperate lie that CW is telling. The so called Brooklyn campus is no longer in the works, but there is no mention of it. Tried calling the Brooklyn number, but it appears to be disconnected.

Unlikely for a number of reasons, including China's recent (2021) clamp down on private education. https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Education/China-pushes-private-schools-to-turn-public-in-fairness-lesson

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Apparently, I heard that CW gave a talk, and he mentioned plans to build another campus in China after losing control of the Shenzhen campus. He also said that another campus was being built in Cyprus. Hard to believe what the guy has to say. I don't know if his grand plans will materialize. It can be a desperate lie that CW is telling. The so called Brooklyn campus is no longer in the works, but there is no mention of it. Tried calling the Brooklyn number, but it appears to be disconnected.

Exactly to much focus on branding and expansion. First priorities should have been student's education and well being, paying and retaining teachers/faculty, paying outstanding debts, etc...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apparently, I heard that CW gave a talk, and he mentioned plans to build another campus in China after losing control of the Shenzhen campus. He also said that another campus was being built in Cyprus. Hard to believe what the guy has to say. I don't know if his grand plans will materialize. It can be a desperate lie that CW is telling. The so called Brooklyn campus is no longer in the works, but there is no mention of it. Tried calling the Brooklyn number, but it appears to be disconnected.

Exactly to much focus on branding and expansion. First priorities should have been student's education and well being, paying and retaining teachers/faculty, paying outstanding debts, etc...

I'm pretty sure that's a major reason why Nations threw Whittle out.

It occurred to people that he didn't actually care about them or the school or evem education generally. He cared about having HIS "brand" on some really BIG important thing that nobody else had managed to brand at anywhere near the scale he was aiming for.

That kind of "thinking" leads you to ignore a bunch of important stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apparently, I heard that CW gave a talk, and he mentioned plans to build another campus in China after losing control of the Shenzhen campus. He also said that another campus was being built in Cyprus. Hard to believe what the guy has to say. I don't know if his grand plans will materialize. It can be a desperate lie that CW is telling. The so called Brooklyn campus is no longer in the works, but there is no mention of it. Tried calling the Brooklyn number, but it appears to be disconnected.

Exactly to much focus on branding and expansion. First priorities should have been student's education and well being, paying and retaining teachers/faculty, paying outstanding debts, etc...

I'm pretty sure that's a major reason why Nations threw Whittle out.

It occurred to people that he didn't actually care about them or the school or evem education generally. He cared about having HIS "brand" on some really BIG important thing that nobody else had managed to brand at anywhere near the scale he was aiming for.

That kind of "thinking" leads you to ignore a bunch of important stuff.

Oops. Didn't mean "Nations." Meant "Avenues."

Nations blew up mainly for other, realated Whittle-type reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, the website is so slick. It would be easy to be taken in by it.

Trust me. The website is so outdated. And for one of the promotional videos that has a bunch of admin and the launch team speaking, those people are all gone and no longer affiliated with Whittle. Most of the students you see in some other promotional videos have all transferred out too. I can't emphasize how many people, both employees and students left Whittle.

Everything about the school from school lunches to individualized education has been a lie. I don't even know if the school is still doing an X-day either. Which private school asks families to pack lunches for their children? I just hope that the teachers and students have a backup plan elsewhere. The teachers who left all seemed to have gone to more reputable schools.

Any current or prior parents who can speak to how X-Day was executed? Seems like a bad idea. Mix of career day and field trip, but 1x a week is too disruptive.

[Anonymous]

Prior parent here. Was done 2 times last school year

[Anonymous]

But some schools do it successfully. At least at younger ages, for example I believe Cap Hill Day School has an expeditionary component and they go out into the community weekly or very frequently. At least that's what I recall learning when we looked at them a few years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Apparently, I heard that CW gave a talk, and he mentioned plans to build another campus in China after losing control of the Shenzhen campus. He also said that another campus was being built in Cyprus. Hard to believe what the guy has to say. I don't know if his grand plans will materialize. It can be a desperate lie that CW is telling. The so called Brooklyn campus is no longer in the works, but there is no mention of it. Tried calling the Brooklyn number, but it appears to be disconnected.

Can we not gloss over the fact that somehow they are building a campus in Cyprus when they aren’t even paying their teachers in DC? What is wrong with anyone associated with this organization? Or that they are somehow building another campus in China even though the first school broke off with Whittle? This is looking like a franchise with no product.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apparently, I heard that CW gave a talk, and he mentioned plans to build another campus in China after losing control of the Shenzhen campus. He also said that another campus was being built in Cyprus. Hard to believe what the guy has to say. I don't know if his grand plans will materialize. It can be a desperate lie that CW is telling. The so called Brooklyn campus is no longer in the works, but there is no mention of it. Tried calling the Brooklyn number, but it appears to be disconnected.

Can we not gloss over the fact that somehow they are building a campus in Cyprus when they aren’t even paying their teachers in DC? What is wrong with anyone associated with this organization? Or that they are somehow building another campus in China even though the first school broke off with Whittle? This is looking like a franchise with no product.

Suzhou has been in development for some time — featured on a page of Whittle books and websites running back a couple years. It is unclear what the economics are or how the organization is structured to benefit from any schools in China bearing its name. I would be skeptical of Cyprus. Former Whittle employees saw many “real” campuses alleged to be on the verge of being announced, including Brooklyn, Mumbai, New Delhi, London, Silicon Valley, Nanjing, and Hangzhou. To say nothing of the GEMS merger (and years before that an acquisition of another school with the ability to recruit international students). My understanding is that much of the funding was squandered on development in these places, in addition to other insane expenses, like the multimillion-dollar retreat to Switzerland. A series of bad, desperate bets, some of which were true catastrophes— it is widely known that the security deposit ceded on the Brooklyn campus was upper eight figures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shame on you too for having no integrity. Find a new job- there are PLENTY of employers looking for great employees like yourself and the lazy jerk at WSS

Not quite sure why the need for your rudeness. Everyone is taking things day by day and trust me my co-workers and I have applied out to over ten schools (and yes we have offers)…

+1,000

Kind of funny to hear a Whittle sycophant / kool aid drinker talking about "integrity". Now that is truly shameless (or shameful!) 😂

HAHAHAHAHA you have NO clue of what you speak of either!!

That’s quite a few capital letters, exclamation points and childish emojis. Please try to tone down your hysteria.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apparently, I heard that CW gave a talk, and he mentioned plans to build another campus in China after losing control of the Shenzhen campus. He also said that another campus was being built in Cyprus. Hard to believe what the guy has to say. I don't know if his grand plans will materialize. It can be a desperate lie that CW is telling. The so called Brooklyn campus is no longer in the works, but there is no mention of it. Tried calling the Brooklyn number, but it appears to be disconnected.

Can we not gloss over the fact that somehow they are building a campus in Cyprus when they aren’t even paying their teachers in DC? What is wrong with anyone associated with this organization? Or that they are somehow building another campus in China even though the first school broke off with Whittle? This is looking like a franchise with no product.

Suzhou has been in development for some time — featured on a page of Whittle books and websites running back a couple years. It is unclear what the economics are or how the organization is structured to benefit from any schools in China bearing its name. I would be skeptical of Cyprus. Former Whittle employees saw many “real” campuses alleged to be on the verge of being announced, including Brooklyn, Mumbai, New Delhi, London, Silicon Valley, Nanjing, and Hangzhou. To say nothing of the GEMS merger (and years before that an acquisition of another school with the ability to recruit international students). My understanding is that much of the funding was squandered on development in these places, in addition to other insane expenses, like the multimillion-dollar retreat to Switzerland. A series of bad, desperate bets, some of which were true catastrophes— it is widely known that the security deposit ceded on the Brooklyn campus was upper eight figures.

It looks like Suzhou is hiring teachers to start in August 2022. Is there actually a real campus there? For most of the Whittle campus pics, it just seems to be conceptual images. I remember back in 2019 when I met with the admissions team at a model house located at the Chevy Chase Neiman Marcus, I was shown a toy-size replica image of the current DC campus building. Back then, WSS enticed a lot of families with great finaid and tuition discounts. We had a discussion about how natural lighting is good for the students and how the school architecture takes into account natural lighting. Most of the original admissions team is no longer there.