Oyster Adams - give me the dirt!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:An anonymous forum is exactly the place for gossip and speculation! Especially since room parents ban it in the semi-official parent group chats.

Like it or not, humans like to informally share information. It's ridiculous to pretend someone will get the full story from official meetings and sanitized communications from DCPS.

Precisely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having 3 AP is a waste of money. I fully agree with this. Moving kids to a campus with middle schoolers in 4th grade isn't ideal. My experience is that the 4th graders are almost treated as middle schoolers, and there are unspoken expectations of them growing up a little too fast. But it is true that Oyster campus cannot hold that many people. So, I am not sure what the solution is. I also agree that by the time you get to middle school, most parents are tired, and they don't want to engage that much. Teachers cannot be that mad at that. It's logical that it would happen. Also, for a school admin that is quite disorganized, lacks transparency, and asks a lot of parents, it is a lot to expect from parents. If they want more engagement, then they need to figure out how to engage us more. Back to School night in person may help. Being better a communicating with parents may help. Being a little bit nicer may help. Some parents felt that some of the middle school teachers weren’t very welcoming. So many things to work on. Hopefully, the new principal will be the right fit to fix some of these issues. Not like Pineda. He was absolutely the worst person for the job. I believe that he made the already existing divide even wider. His methods (intimidation, lies, threats, putting people against each other, inefficiency, lack of care, etc. etc.) only made things worse.

My take: an outsider principal stepped on the toes of a group of entitled teachers, primarily from Oyster Campus. These teachers, backed by a clique of entitled parents (lawyers!), orchestrated a coup d'état. The truth of the matter is that Adams needs full attention from the principal, given its demographic composition. In my opinion, the previous principal focused way more on Oyster, an already well-endowed campus.

Principals need to respect teachers and keep them happy so they can do their jobs. Hiring and retaining good teachers is the principal’s job.

How is an unplanned resignation a “coup d’etat”? The principal is being asked to do his job and quits. It’s a conspiracy! It’s the teachers! It’s the parent attorneys!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's an interesting take but I think it's a bit too simplistic. Or least one sided. Many teachers and parents at the Adams campus wanted him gone, many are not lawyers, many are from that demographic you mention, and definitely did not orchestrate a coup d'etat, but had terrible experience with him and thought him to be a terrible Principal who care zero about the kids and was dismissive of teachers and their needs. In fact, some were not even fans of the previous Principal but admitted this one was way worse.

Agree that Adams deserves attention, but I think Pineda used whatever existing tension was there to get teachers on his side, given that he had many against him, and for fair reasons. My family, and other families I know, have gone to him to ask for help many times (at Adams) and he was very unhelpful and quite aggressive.

How many are "many"? The few outspoken English dominant ones? What type of special accommodation you demanded for your special one that was not attended?

Is this PP so ignorant that they believe legally mandated accommodations (like 504 and IEP accommodations) are somehow optional? If so, they know nothing about education and should STFU.

I'm not the original PP but surprisingly the major complain my sons have is precisely when they are mixed in classrooms with those getting these mandated accommodations... Clearly this is a "cost" they have to share given the multiple interruptions during class aggravated by the absence of extra personal to take care of these cases. We never complain btw

How exactly does some kids getting extra time on a test or being able to listen to an audiobook version of assigned reading disrupt your kid’s learning?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

My take: an outsider principal stepped on the toes of a group of entitled teachers, primarily from Oyster Campus. These teachers, backed by a clique of entitled parents (lawyers!), orchestrated a coup d'état. The truth of the matter is that Adams needs full attention from the principal, given its demographic composition. In my opinion, the previous principal focused way more on Oyster, an already well-endowed campus.

Principals need to respect teachers and keep them happy so they can do their jobs. Hiring and retaining good teachers is the principal’s job.

How is an unplanned resignation a “coup d’etat”? The principal is being asked to do his job and quits. It’s a conspiracy! It’s the teachers! It’s the parent attorneys!

Exactly! The fact that he quit in the spot, after an emotional interchange at an LSAT meeting, leaving everyone else scrambling (including his boss) shows how immature he is and how he was never good for that job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's an interesting take but I think it's a bit too simplistic. Or least one sided. Many teachers and parents at the Adams campus wanted him gone, many are not lawyers, many are from that demographic you mention, and definitely did not orchestrate a coup d'etat, but had terrible experience with him and thought him to be a terrible Principal who care zero about the kids and was dismissive of teachers and their needs. In fact, some were not even fans of the previous Principal but admitted this one was way worse.

Agree that Adams deserves attention, but I think Pineda used whatever existing tension was there to get teachers on his side, given that he had many against him, and for fair reasons. My family, and other families I know, have gone to him to ask for help many times (at Adams) and he was very unhelpful and quite aggressive.

How many are "many"? The few outspoken English dominant ones? What type of special accommodation you demanded for your special one that was not attended?

Is this PP so ignorant that they believe legally mandated accommodations (like 504 and IEP accommodations) are somehow optional? If so, they know nothing about education and should STFU.

I'm not the original PP but surprisingly the major complain my sons have is precisely when they are mixed in classrooms with those getting these mandated accommodations... Clearly this is a "cost" they have to share given the multiple interruptions during class aggravated by the absence of extra personal to take care of these cases. We never complain btw

How exactly does some kids getting extra time on a test or being able to listen to an audiobook version of assigned reading disrupt your kid’s learning?

I have a kid with accommodations. They are generally pulled out for testing.

That said, I know that some (not all, not even most) kids with accommodations have behavioral issues and disrupt classrooms and learning, which I think is what the poster is referring to.

If I understand correctly, bc of staffing issues, kids with IEPs are not getting the one on on minutes required.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have two sons at Oyster and have an absolutely amazing experience with the teachers, AP Rosa and school councilors. From my direct experience ID recommend the school 110%

But the principal resigned and at tonights community meeting the was all sorts of innuendo about issues at the school, rivalry between campus, unhappy parents etc…

So please dump all the gossip here I want to know what the cool parents talk about when they are talking badly about the school, because I don’t see it, but I’d it’s there I want to invest energy in ensuring everyone has as a fantastic experience as my family and I have had

THe biggest gossip I can give is that I saw AP Rosa happier than ever. Does she think this will give her a chance to lead the school?

She is pretty messy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A solution would be to take middle school out altogether. Make oyster pk3-1 or 2 and Adams gets the upper elementary grades. Go to MacFarland like the other bilingual schools (Bancroft should go there too). Current families would hate it but there would be more ece spots and kids would get to kindergarten better prepared.

Absolutely not! OA as a PK4 to 8th grade is great. We just need a much better principal than Pineda.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A solution would be to take middle school out altogether. Make oyster pk3-1 or 2 and Adams gets the upper elementary grades. Go to MacFarland like the other bilingual schools (Bancroft should go there too). Current families would hate it but there would be more ece spots and kids would get to kindergarten better prepared.

+1. It makes zero sense for only O-A out of all of the bilingual schools to have their own middle school. If DCPS wants a successful pre-K-12 immersion program, all schools should feed into a designated middle and high school immersion pathway. Maybe two middle schools for geographic reasons. Adams, maybe sometimes CHEC, and then JR unless you want Roosevelt (ha, right) just means that high SES stop immersion in middle school and sets MacFarland and Roosevelt up to fail.

Idiots like you are determined to destroy the few high performing DC public schools. OA has survived an inept Central Office, and it will survive Pineda.

OA has its own bilingual middle school because it’s one of the oldest (nearly 50 years), most successful, continuously operating dual immersion schools in the country. Stop trying to fix things that aren’t broken.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A solution would be to take middle school out altogether. Make oyster pk3-1 or 2 and Adams gets the upper elementary grades. Go to MacFarland like the other bilingual schools (Bancroft should go there too). Current families would hate it but there would be more ece spots and kids would get to kindergarten better prepared.

+1. It makes zero sense for only O-A out of all of the bilingual schools to have their own middle school. If DCPS wants a successful pre-K-12 immersion program, all schools should feed into a designated middle and high school immersion pathway. Maybe two middle schools for geographic reasons. Adams, maybe sometimes CHEC, and then JR unless you want Roosevelt (ha, right) just means that high SES stop immersion in middle school and sets MacFarland and Roosevelt up to fail.

Idiots like you are determined to destroy the few high performing DC public schools. OA has survived an inept Central Office, and it will survive Pineda.

OA has its own bilingual middle school because it’s one of the oldest (nearly 50 years), most successful, continuously operating dual immersion schools in the country. Stop trying to fix things that aren’t broken.

It only has 55% IB usage, something is broken. Maybe put a bilingual school where bilingual kids live instead of making them trek across the city to Woodley Park.

[Anonymous]

Oh, I bet! But that would be a disaster waiting to happen right there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have two sons at Oyster and have an absolutely amazing experience with the teachers, AP Rosa and school councilors. From my direct experience ID recommend the school 110%

But the principal resigned and at tonights community meeting the was all sorts of innuendo about issues at the school, rivalry between campus, unhappy parents etc…

So please dump all the gossip here I want to know what the cool parents talk about when they are talking badly about the school, because I don’t see it, but I’d it’s there I want to invest energy in ensuring everyone has as a fantastic experience as my family and I have had

THe biggest gossip I can give is that I saw AP Rosa happier than ever. Does she think this will give her a chance to lead the school?

She is pretty messy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A solution would be to take middle school out altogether. Make oyster pk3-1 or 2 and Adams gets the upper elementary grades. Go to MacFarland like the other bilingual schools (Bancroft should go there too). Current families would hate it but there would be more ece spots and kids would get to kindergarten better prepared.

+1. It makes zero sense for only O-A out of all of the bilingual schools to have their own middle school. If DCPS wants a successful pre-K-12 immersion program, all schools should feed into a designated middle and high school immersion pathway. Maybe two middle schools for geographic reasons. Adams, maybe sometimes CHEC, and then JR unless you want Roosevelt (ha, right) just means that high SES stop immersion in middle school and sets MacFarland and Roosevelt up to fail.

Idiots like you are determined to destroy the few high performing DC public schools. OA has survived an inept Central Office, and it will survive Pineda.

OA has its own bilingual middle school because it’s one of the oldest (nearly 50 years), most successful, continuously operating dual immersion schools in the country. Stop trying to fix things that aren’t broken.

It only has 55% IB usage, something is broken. Maybe put a bilingual school where bilingual kids live instead of making them trek across the city to Woodley Park.

Nothing is broken. They’ve been willing to trek “across the city to Woodley Park” for nearly 50 years. If they want to attend a school closer to their homes, there are bilingual DCPS schools in other wards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A solution would be to take middle school out altogether. Make oyster pk3-1 or 2 and Adams gets the upper elementary grades. Go to MacFarland like the other bilingual schools (Bancroft should go there too). Current families would hate it but there would be more ece spots and kids would get to kindergarten better prepared.

+1. It makes zero sense for only O-A out of all of the bilingual schools to have their own middle school. If DCPS wants a successful pre-K-12 immersion program, all schools should feed into a designated middle and high school immersion pathway. Maybe two middle schools for geographic reasons. Adams, maybe sometimes CHEC, and then JR unless you want Roosevelt (ha, right) just means that high SES stop immersion in middle school and sets MacFarland and Roosevelt up to fail.

Idiots like you are determined to destroy the few high performing DC public schools. OA has survived an inept Central Office, and it will survive Pineda.

OA has its own bilingual middle school because it’s one of the oldest (nearly 50 years), most successful, continuously operating dual immersion schools in the country. Stop trying to fix things that aren’t broken.

It only has 55% IB usage, something is broken. Maybe put a bilingual school where bilingual kids live instead of making them trek across the city to Woodley Park.

Nothing is broken. They’ve been willing to trek “across the city to Woodley Park” for nearly 50 years. If they want to attend a school closer to their homes, there are bilingual DCPS schools in other wards.

Indeed! The commute has been worth it. And as much as I think Rosa is sweet she’s not Principal material.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's an interesting take but I think it's a bit too simplistic. Or least one sided. Many teachers and parents at the Adams campus wanted him gone, many are not lawyers, many are from that demographic you mention, and definitely did not orchestrate a coup d'etat, but had terrible experience with him and thought him to be a terrible Principal who care zero about the kids and was dismissive of teachers and their needs. In fact, some were not even fans of the previous Principal but admitted this one was way worse.

Agree that Adams deserves attention, but I think Pineda used whatever existing tension was there to get teachers on his side, given that he had many against him, and for fair reasons. My family, and other families I know, have gone to him to ask for help many times (at Adams) and he was very unhelpful and quite aggressive.

How many are "many"? The few outspoken English dominant ones? What type of special accommodation you demanded for your special one that was not attended?

Is this PP so ignorant that they believe legally mandated accommodations (like 504 and IEP accommodations) are somehow optional? If so, they know nothing about education and should STFU.

I'm not the original PP but surprisingly the major complain my sons have is precisely when they are mixed in classrooms with those getting these mandated accommodations... Clearly this is a "cost" they have to share given the multiple interruptions during class aggravated by the absence of extra personal to take care of these cases. We never complain btw

You are complaining though, on an anonymous forum. Your child is in a publicly funded, public school. And you are complaining that other children receive legally mandated accommodations. Let that sink in.

[Anonymous]

Oyster became Oyster-Adams in 2007 when they took over Adams Elementary (a regular dcps elementary school) and used that building to house the new middle school. Before that Oyster kids went to Deal and even when it was new, many kids still went to Deal for MS.
So, no, the middle school is not 50 years old, it's 16 years old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oyster became Oyster-Adams in 2007 when they took over Adams Elementary (a regular dcps elementary school) and used that building to house the new middle school. Before that Oyster kids went to Deal and even when it was new, many kids still went to Deal for MS.
So, no, the middle school is not 50 years old, it's 16 years old.

Oyster (Pk to 5th) is nearly 50 years old, and people having been traveling to WP from all parts of DC to attend since then. Others have been traveling for 16 years to attend the Adams campus. None of those families decided the commute wasn’t worth it. Mind your own (non-OA) business. We like the school’s two locations just fine.