Why is everyone at Holton-Arms leaving?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Great school but the perception is it is always a backup option to the DC privates ( Sidwell, GDS, NCS, Maret) and Virginia like Potomac and Veritas. HOS needs to change this perception instead of causing drama that will hurt enrollment even further.

What is Vertias? I've never heard of that

Veritas Christian Academy/Veritas Collegiate Academy is part of a Chinese school chain. They flood review sites to boost their ratings. I am shocked that anyone would put them in the same sentence as established private schools.

The "DC" location is currently in Arlington. They were in Vienna, where Fairfax Christian School used to be.

https://www.veritasacademydc.com/campus-locations-veritas-collegiate-academy

[Anonymous]

FYI I just checked. Sidwell had openings for 16 jobs right now, while HA has openings for 14 jobs. Maybe Penny's spirit is harassing Sidwell? Or maybe this turnover also happens in other schools. In any case. I am not worried.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FYI I just checked. Sidwell had openings for 16 jobs right now, while HA has openings for 14 jobs. Maybe Penny's spirit is harassing Sidwell? Or maybe this turnover also happens in other schools. In any case. I am not worried.

I just checked too. When it comes to teachers, Sidwell has:

0 job openings in Upper School
1 Spanish and 1 substitute teacher in Middle School
1 Assistant K teacher in Lower school.

Compare that with Holton Arms:

1 History teacher, 1 CS teacher, and 1 math teacher in Upper school;
1 math teacher in Middle school;
1 Spanish teacher, 1 4th grade teacher, 1 school counselor, 1 math specialist + 1 substitute teacher (across all divisions).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI I just checked. Sidwell had openings for 16 jobs right now, while HA has openings for 14 jobs. Maybe Penny's spirit is harassing Sidwell? Or maybe this turnover also happens in other schools. In any case. I am not worried.

I just checked too. When it comes to teachers, Sidwell has:

0 job openings in Upper School
1 Spanish and 1 substitute teacher in Middle School
1 Assistant K teacher in Lower school.

Compare that with Holton Arms:

1 History teacher, 1 CS teacher, and 1 math teacher in Upper school;
1 math teacher in Middle school;
1 Spanish teacher, 1 4th grade teacher, 1 school counselor, 1 math specialist + 1 substitute teacher (across all divisions).

So you are saying that job vacancies in teaching are more relevant than job vacancies in other positions? So only teachers could be affected by the HoS but not admin staff. Get your story straight. The overall number of vacancies are similar to Sidwell. Nothing special about HA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI I just checked. Sidwell had openings for 16 jobs right now, while HA has openings for 14 jobs. Maybe Penny's spirit is harassing Sidwell? Or maybe this turnover also happens in other schools. In any case. I am not worried.

I just checked too. When it comes to teachers, Sidwell has:

0 job openings in Upper School
1 Spanish and 1 substitute teacher in Middle School
1 Assistant K teacher in Lower school.

Compare that with Holton Arms:

1 History teacher, 1 CS teacher, and 1 math teacher in Upper school;
1 math teacher in Middle school;
1 Spanish teacher, 1 4th grade teacher, 1 school counselor, 1 math specialist + 1 substitute teacher (across all divisions).

So you are saying that job vacancies in teaching are more relevant than job vacancies in other positions? So only teachers could be affected by the HoS but not admin staff. Get your story straight. The overall number of vacancies are similar to Sidwell. Nothing special about HA.

As a parent, I prioritize having teachers over having communication directors or transportation experts.

Value of English instruction: “overall number of vacancies IS (not ARE) similar to…”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI I just checked. Sidwell had openings for 16 jobs right now, while HA has openings for 14 jobs. Maybe Penny's spirit is harassing Sidwell? Or maybe this turnover also happens in other schools. In any case. I am not worried.

I just checked too. When it comes to teachers, Sidwell has:

0 job openings in Upper School
1 Spanish and 1 substitute teacher in Middle School
1 Assistant K teacher in Lower school.

Compare that with Holton Arms:

1 History teacher, 1 CS teacher, and 1 math teacher in Upper school;
1 math teacher in Middle school;
1 Spanish teacher, 1 4th grade teacher, 1 school counselor, 1 math specialist + 1 substitute teacher (across all divisions).

So you are saying that job vacancies in teaching are more relevant than job vacancies in other positions? So only teachers could be affected by the HoS but not admin staff. Get your story straight. The overall number of vacancies are similar to Sidwell. Nothing special about HA.

As a parent, I prioritize having teachers over having communication directors or transportation experts.

Value of English instruction: “overall number of vacancies IS (not ARE) similar to…”

I also value math instruction. Holton-Arms has 14 vacancies, compared with 16 at Sidwell, meaning that Holton has fewer openings than Sidwell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two comments:

1. I remember when my alma mater had a big turnover in the upper school shortly after I graduated. Nothing omnious. It just happened. A combination of retirements, following husbands moving out of state, offers/promotions elsewhere. Based on the information shared earlier in this thread, the changes at Holton averages to one per department. Which seems not outside the ordinary.

2. Vibe change is real. I can believe it happening. If the new head is less woke/DEI than the previous regime and wants to tame down certain messages, I can see how this disincentivizes some teachers and encourages them to start looking elsewhere. Woke/DEI people are believers, little different from people adhering to a faith. Just as people will leave a congregation over theological disuptes with the pastor, they will leave an organization if it's not conforming to their viewpoints.

However, and this is a big however, the vibe change wouldn't be happening if there weren't clear backing by the board and enough parents.

HS parent here. The vibe is different but in a different way than described above. The previous HoS knew every single girl in the school. Apart from the daughters of a few big donors, the new HoS doesn’t know the names of the girls. DD told us it was very disappointing to have so many names butchered during the closing ceremony. And this is after the HoS pulled a girl into her office before the ceremony to ask how to pronounce the different names. This is after being on the job for 3 years. While it seems like a minor thing, this example gives a sense of how she behaves on campus. I can only imagine how she treats the teachers.

If this really happened, it's inexcusable. It sounds minor, but it is not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI I just checked. Sidwell had openings for 16 jobs right now, while HA has openings for 14 jobs. Maybe Penny's spirit is harassing Sidwell? Or maybe this turnover also happens in other schools. In any case. I am not worried.

I just checked too. When it comes to teachers, Sidwell has:

0 job openings in Upper School
1 Spanish and 1 substitute teacher in Middle School
1 Assistant K teacher in Lower school.

Compare that with Holton Arms:

1 History teacher, 1 CS teacher, and 1 math teacher in Upper school;
1 math teacher in Middle school;
1 Spanish teacher, 1 4th grade teacher, 1 school counselor, 1 math specialist + 1 substitute teacher (across all divisions).

So you are saying that job vacancies in teaching are more relevant than job vacancies in other positions? So only teachers could be affected by the HoS but not admin staff. Get your story straight. The overall number of vacancies are similar to Sidwell. Nothing special about HA.

As a parent, I prioritize having teachers over having communication directors or transportation experts.

Value of English instruction: “overall number of vacancies IS (not ARE) similar to…”

I also value math instruction. Holton-Arms has 14 vacancies, compared with 16 at Sidwell, meaning that Holton has fewer openings than Sidwell.

I also value common sense. Just because Sidwell has 16 jobs posted doesn't mean there are 16 vacant teaching positions. If you scroll up a bit, you will see that Sidwell has 3 vacant teaching positions: 2 in MS and 1 in LS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FYI I just checked. Sidwell had openings for 16 jobs right now, while HA has openings for 14 jobs. Maybe Penny's spirit is harassing Sidwell? Or maybe this turnover also happens in other schools. In any case. I am not worried.

I just checked too. When it comes to teachers, Sidwell has:

0 job openings in Upper School
1 Spanish and 1 substitute teacher in Middle School
1 Assistant K teacher in Lower school.

Compare that with Holton Arms:

1 History teacher, 1 CS teacher, and 1 math teacher in Upper school;
1 math teacher in Middle school;
1 Spanish teacher, 1 4th grade teacher, 1 school counselor, 1 math specialist + 1 substitute teacher (across all divisions).

So you are saying that job vacancies in teaching are more relevant than job vacancies in other positions? So only teachers could be affected by the HoS but not admin staff. Get your story straight. The overall number of vacancies are similar to Sidwell. Nothing special about HA.

As a parent, I prioritize having teachers over having communication directors or transportation experts.

Value of English instruction: “overall number of vacancies IS (not ARE) similar to…”

I also value math instruction. Holton-Arms has 14 vacancies, compared with 16 at Sidwell, meaning that Holton has fewer openings than Sidwell.

I also value common sense. Just because Sidwell has 16 jobs posted doesn't mean there are 16 vacant teaching positions. If you scroll up a bit, you will see that Sidwell has 3 vacant teaching positions: 2 in MS and 1 in LS.

I also value logic. During the whole thread, there is a discussion that teachers are leaving because of the HoS. How about admin? Are they immune to bad management or not? Why exclude them from the total count?

The only thing I see is a normal number of departures, comparable to Sidwell, and lots of comments from paranoid teachers. Before responding, think logically. It will be good for you.

[Anonymous]

But the admin is leaving. Academic dean is gone, and all three division directors left after Penny’s first year. Head of admissions is leaving and the school is on its fourth communications director.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But the admin is leaving. Academic dean is gone, and all three division directors left after Penny’s first year. Head of admissions is leaving and the school is on its fourth communications director.

Yes, fewer than Sidwell. Fourteen job vacancies is comparable to what you see at other schools. So far, I have not seen any hard data suggesting that this is an anomaly. The only anomaly here is the troll-like paranoia from some teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: The only anomaly here is the troll-like paranoia from some teachers.

And the amount of time you have to hover this site waiting for any Holton-Arms related post to come up so you can negate any and every negative claim made.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: The only anomaly here is the troll-like paranoia from some teachers.

And the amount of time you have to hover this site waiting for any Holton-Arms related post to come up so you can negate any and every negative claim made.

I am not negating anything. Just requesting hard data, and just receive in exchange paranoid comments. Does Penny work in Sidwell? Or stone ridge? They seem to have the same “crisis”.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not a HA parent. But in looking at the college matriculations for this cycle, something appeared off. It’s not the HA of even a few years ago.

The college admission results are almost identical to previous years (about 20 percent of girls going to HYPSM, Duke, UChicago, UPenn, Cornell, Brown, Northwestern). This year’s class was very strong academically. But, compared with previous years, there were very few athletes going to top schools.

The impact on college admissions will take awhile to play out.

Not really. Past classes have been stronger. The range of matriculations was more top 20 heavy compared to now.

Other all-girls in the area have done just as well, if not better this cycle. Visi and SR are strong this year. The Co-Ed’s = very impressive.

Either other schools have upped their college counseling, or Holton is lackluster. But still a great school.

I love it when ppl talk without looking at the data

If you go back and examine the Holton over the past 5 years, you will see that the proportion of girls going to the above schools is basically the same.

If you want to compare with Stone Ridge, please do so carefully. The SR Insta page has 92 out of 93 commits. Out of 93 girls, only 3 are going to the top schools mentioned above (that’s less than 5 percent of the graduating class). And 2 of 3 are athletes.

I’ve been watching this results quite closely for many years. Have friends kids that went to several of these schools, including Holton.

Again, reading is fundamental.

I shared that either other schools have upped their game and are now posting just as strong, if not stronger results than Holton this year, or Holton’s results appear more lackluster than the past.

Visi had another very strong year. And SJC— wow. Look at the arts matriculations—Berkeley and Julliard. SR has typically been a range lower than Holton, but I think that they did fine.

Madeira; Sidwell. I’ll stop there.

Holton used to stand apart a lot more in the past. Not so much anymore.

Look, let me first say that I am not a fan of the HOS, and I am concerned about the number of great teachers leaving.

That said, there is a difference between your impressions (based on anecdotes) and the actual data. The latter show that college admission outcomes this year are in line with Holton’s performance in previous years. As a parent, I have been tracking the actual data for many years too.

With the number of teachers leaving, this will have seismic effects a year or two down the road. HA was already behind the DC schools and this is not helping.

I fully agree that there would be damage down the road. But let me push back on the dramatic statement that HA is behind other schools.

Here are this year’s college admissions results from some of the schools mentioned above.

Based on Insta posts and Claude’s analysis (which took 5 mins), the proportion of students going to T20 schools (USNWR) is as follows:

Holton Arms: 30 percent (30 out of 99)
NCS: 31 percent (21 out of 68)
GDS: 25 percent (29 out of 115)
Madeira: 19 percent (11 out of 58)
Visi: 20 percent (21 out of 107)
Stone Ridge: 12 percent (11 out of 93)

The corresponding proportions for Ivy+ schools are as follows:

Holton Arms: 17 percent (17 out of 99, 2 athletes)
NCS: 25 percent (17 out of 68, 4 athletes)
GDS: 17 percent (19 out of 115)
Madeira: 12 percent (7 out of 58)
Visi: 7 percent (7 out of 107, 3 athletes)
Stone Ridge: 3 percent (3 out of 93, 2 athletes)

Note that NCS has more recruited athletes this year.

What about last year and the year before? We are asking as concerned parents what will be the effect of this mass exodus of teachers on our students who will be in HS in a year or 2. Thanks for clarifying!

Here is the official matriculation numbers during 2022-25:

https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1755023338/holtonarms/k3jgh39rwkljepnmugcy/schoolprofilesy20251.pdf

Based on those, the proportion of T25 is 25 percent (93 out of 387) and Ivy+ is 15 percent (60 out of 387).

Again, you are not reading what I am sharing. You must be an admissions counselor to have all of this detail that is not on Instagram.

On Insta, only 95 posts are listed for HA. Of those, based on USNWR, only 28 of the 95 are matriculating top 20. That's about 29%. UMichigan is your top school, followed by Vandy. You have 3 each at Duke, Cornell and Wash U. Everything else is a one-off mainly.

Again, I never said that this was not decent. What I said was that other all girls & Co-Ed schools did pretty well also. Infact, outside of UMichigan, the matriculations were okay. We all know that there are many factors that go into matriculations, not just grades and test scores.

At Visi, which reported 107 matriculations, nearly 10 are headed to ND. Another 3 to Columbia and then another 3 to UMichigan. So they seem pretty even here.

Its the next Top 20-Top 30 that send a clear message.
-Holton has 6 going to UVA (Visit has 4 headed there);
-Holton has 3 going to Georgetown (Visi has 3 also);
-Visi then has 1 Chapel Hill and 1 USC. Plus Visi has 4 headed to Villanova, 2 headed to West Point and 4 to Boston College.

Again, I am not saying that Holton did poorly. What I am saying is that other schools like Visi and Madeira, also did well. Madeira has 28% that are matriculating into top 20 colleges, plus 3 headed to UVA and 3 headed to Georgetown.

What makes Madeira's list very good is the higher concentration of top 10 matriculations -- Princeton (2) Stanford (1) Yale (2) U Chicago (1) Duke (1) and Northwestern (1). Holton has 10 and Madeira had 7. So they are close there. UVA and GU numbers are similar across schools.
So overall, based on a smaller class size, Madeira punched pretty well based on what I see -- nearly as good as Holton across the board.

SJC had a different visual, but it is interesting since Holton and SJC are the two arts schools. Berkelee and Julliard stand out a lot.

But you were right -- SR hits lower than these, and I didn't look at NCS this time. No need to look at Sidwell, GDS, etc. They always do well.

Again. Visi and Madeira had very nice results this year. Not saying that Holton didn't have nice results, but it has looked better in past years. These days, Visi and Madeira are posting very strong results and keeping right up there with Holton.

Comparable outcomes. Not sure this information is useful to assess whether the school is good or bad. I rather prefer having a balanced school education and my daughters ends up in UVA, rather than having a very stressful high school years and ending up in Princeton. Just to point out that college admissions is not a metric of what represents a good school for my family.

I agree and that's why I shared that there could be many reasons for college choices, outside of grades and test scores. But this is a more balanced look at the results. Holton does well. But other schools are also doing well. Does it impact whether or not to attend Holton? Dunno.

I’m sorry but this analysis is stupid. The Holton results are far better than Visi or Maderia. What are you even talking about? BC and Villanova are not between 20-30 in any ranking. Villanova is a good outcome, but Swarthmore, Vanderbilt, Duke, Northwestern, Chicago, Pomona, etc. are not. You are an idiot.

+1

[Anonymous]

I can't share a detailed story with Penny because I have to protect my daughter, but there was an incident related to one of the abroad trips that completely changed my mind about her. I went to her in tears to beg her to accommodate my daughter for a medical/mental health concern so that she could go. I offered anything; to pay more, to have my daughter lie to the other kids, anything to let her be included. She had no empathy. She has a daughter and had no empathy for mine, and I cried in front of her.

Both the head of diversity (who was in charge of the overseas trips at the time) and the upper school head were 90% willing to OK it, pending approval from Penny.

For those who will ask, think the most mortifying thing that can happen to a teenage girl who experiences bodily reactions to strong emotions. Think about how you would feel if that was your child.

Worse than all of this, truly, was the fact that we found out later that another girl on the trip had an accommodation to use her phone on the trip to listen to music because of her anxiety. We weren't even asking for a phone or anything that would be visible or known to the other students.

I can only imagine how she is in internal meetings with teachers when they are asking for any kind of change or help. Without the facade required when speaking to parents, she must be terrifying.