New principal for Deal - what about ex-Janney principal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I say send her to Lafayette and Dr. B to Brookland. Lycknell has experience dealing with Lafayette type parents and Dr. B's management style is better suited to a parent group that is more likely to embrace it and not question her heavy handedness.

look, you are not really helping your cause, every time I see a post like this, I am more and more convinced that the new principal at Lafayette must be doing a good job and that some parents at Lafayette are self centered, gigantic PITAs with way too much time on their hands

[Anonymous]

Brent is lucky. I think she will be great. Very self aware of her to realize she is better suited to the ES level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't want her at Deal. She was good at getting money out of DCPS but lousy (and lazy) with the day-to-day operations of the school. She never came to events, etc. and she had definite favorites.

I couldn't disagree more!!!!

She was FANTASTIC at Janney. I miss her there. Things have been... interesting since...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a former Janney parent. You may not agree with everything Norah Lycknell did, I certainly don't, but you cannot call her lazy.
She is very high quality for DCPS and I would be fine with her coming to Deal or Hardy. She is very intelligent and competent, if a bit headstrong.
Not the most personable for sure but I can live with that.

I think you were probably there during the early years of her tenure. As a current Janney parent who has been involved in school-wide events for the past 8 or so years I can tell you that the last 2-3 years of her time at Janney she really phoned it in.
She NEVER answered emails, never attended school-wide events and basically left daily at 2:59pm. The new Janney principal is much more involved in the school and is about 100% more responsive.

This was the absolutely OPPOSITE of my experience!! She was always VERY responsive. Perhaps it wasn't her... ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a former Janney parent. You may not agree with everything Norah Lycknell did, I certainly don't, but you cannot call her lazy.
She is very high quality for DCPS and I would be fine with her coming to Deal or Hardy. She is very intelligent and competent, if a bit headstrong.
Not the most personable for sure but I can live with that.

I think you were probably there during the early years of her tenure. As a current Janney parent who has been involved in school-wide events for the past 8 or so years I can tell you that the last 2-3 years of her time at Janney she really phoned it in.
She NEVER answered emails, never attended school-wide events and basically left daily at 2:59pm. The new Janney principal is much more involved in the school and is about 100% more responsive.

This was the absolutely OPPOSITE of my experience!! She was always VERY responsive. Perhaps it wasn't her... ...

Huh. I know countless parents who sent her emails that were completely ignored. It was a running joke in our grade. I sent her one and we had never even met so there was no reason for her to snub me. We had no history at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a former Janney parent. You may not agree with everything Norah Lycknell did, I certainly don't, but you cannot call her lazy.
She is very high quality for DCPS and I would be fine with her coming to Deal or Hardy. She is very intelligent and competent, if a bit headstrong.
Not the most personable for sure but I can live with that.

I think you were probably there during the early years of her tenure. As a current Janney parent who has been involved in school-wide events for the past 8 or so years I can tell you that the last 2-3 years of her time at Janney she really phoned it in.
She NEVER answered emails, never attended school-wide events and basically left daily at 2:59pm. The new Janney principal is much more involved in the school and is about 100% more responsive.

This was the absolutely OPPOSITE of my experience!! She was always VERY responsive. Perhaps it wasn't her... ...

Huh. I know countless parents who sent her emails that were completely ignored. It was a running joke in our grade. I sent her one and we had never even met so there was no reason for her to snub me. We had no history at all.

We had a great dialogue with her from K on, and she was always VERY responsive. I commented all the time on how I didn't know how she managed it. She knew our kids SO WELL... gave great advice, took time for meetings if there were ever necessary from our perspective... truly outstanding.

And I loved that she was no-nonsense. Loved it. Nothing wishy-washy about her! Confident in her experience and judgment... terrific. I think some teachers have been running amok since she left. Fine line between "nice" and indulgent as a Principal, I think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a former Janney parent. You may not agree with everything Norah Lycknell did, I certainly don't, but you cannot call her lazy.
She is very high quality for DCPS and I would be fine with her coming to Deal or Hardy. She is very intelligent and competent, if a bit headstrong.
Not the most personable for sure but I can live with that.

I think you were probably there during the early years of her tenure. As a current Janney parent who has been involved in school-wide events for the past 8 or so years I can tell you that the last 2-3 years of her time at Janney she really phoned it in.
She NEVER answered emails, never attended school-wide events and basically left daily at 2:59pm. The new Janney principal is much more involved in the school and is about 100% more responsive.

This was the absolutely OPPOSITE of my experience!! She was always VERY responsive. Perhaps it wasn't her... ...

Huh. I know countless parents who sent her emails that were completely ignored. It was a running joke in our grade. I sent her one and we had never even met so there was no reason for her to snub me. We had no history at all.

+1 This was my experience as well. I really, really disliked her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I say send her to Lafayette and Dr. B to Brookland. Lycknell has experience dealing with Lafayette type parents and Dr. B's management style is better suited to a parent group that is more likely to embrace it and not question her heavy handedness.

look, you are not really helping your cause, every time I see a post like this, I am more and more convinced that the new principal at Lafayette must be doing a good job and that some parents at Lafayette are self centered, gigantic PITAs with way too much time on their hands

No worries. Not looking for you to support my cause bc I am fairly certain you are a non-factor in any of those decisions anyways.

[Anonymous]

I'm not surprised that the above views on Norah Lycknell are of two extremes.

If you were a PTA parent or popular family she was very, very responsive. She definitely had her favorites. If you were not in this group she ignored your emails.

The new Janney principal is entirely egalitarian. She treats everyone equal. This drives some of the old-guard PTA families nuts because they're used to having the principal's ear
and a degree of favoritism. I've heard this talked about on many occasions by certain types: "the new principal just isn't as responsive to me!".
Well, yes. This one is completely fair as opposed to Lycknell who exhibited favoritism and responded to ass-kissing.

It will be interesting to see how she works out at Brent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not surprised that the above views on Norah Lycknell are of two extremes.

If you were a PTA parent or popular family she was very, very responsive. She definitely had her favorites. If you were not in this group she ignored your emails.

The new Janney principal is entirely egalitarian. She treats everyone equal. This drives some of the old-guard PTA families nuts because they're used to having the principal's ear
and a degree of favoritism. I've heard this talked about on many occasions by certain types: "the new principal just isn't as responsive to me!".
Well, yes. This one is completely fair as opposed to Lycknell who exhibited favoritism and responded to ass-kissing.

It will be interesting to see how she works out at Brent.

We were not a PTA family and not a popular family either. She still responded to our emails very quickly, quicker response from her than the teachers, psychologist or OT specialist. She made a point to come and observe our son who was/is borderline ADHD. She walked us through the whole 504 and IEP process matter of factly and was extremely helpful.

[Anonymous]

We were not a PTA family at Janney but I found Norah Lycknell pretty responsive. I only emailed her for real issues though and not anything trivial. But when we had a concern she was responsive and worked with us to figure it out. I miss her at Janney and wish her the best.

[Anonymous]

I would estimate that she averaged 800 emails per day. Many that were trivial--doing the quick math on that I don't see how she could respond to them all. (As a Janney teacher I would get 10-60 per day.....and follow ups if I didn't respond in a few hours. Sorry, busy teaching.) Curious what events she "never attended" because when I worked there she was always around and supportive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would estimate that she averaged 800 emails per day. Many that were trivial--doing the quick math on that I don't see how she could respond to them all. (As a Janney teacher I would get 10-60 per day.....and follow ups if I didn't respond in a few hours. Sorry, busy teaching.) Curious what events she "never attended" because when I worked there she was always around and supportive.

Maybe the parents who think they deserve an immediate response need to fundraise to pay for a personal assistant to the principal, lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not surprised that the above views on Norah Lycknell are of two extremes.

If you were a PTA parent or popular family she was very, very responsive. She definitely had her favorites. If you were not in this group she ignored your emails.

The new Janney principal is entirely egalitarian. She treats everyone equal. This drives some of the old-guard PTA families nuts because they're used to having the principal's ear
and a degree of favoritism. I've heard this talked about on many occasions by certain types: "the new principal just isn't as responsive to me!".
Well, yes. This one is completely fair as opposed to Lycknell who exhibited favoritism and responded to ass-kissing.

It will be interesting to see how she works out at Brent.

We were not a PTA family and not a popular family either. She still responded to our emails very quickly, quicker response from her than the teachers, psychologist or OT specialist. She made a point to come and observe our son who was/is borderline ADHD. She walked us through the whole 504 and IEP process matter of factly and was extremely helpful.

Given DCPS's top-down directive to minimize expenses for SN families this hardly comes as a surprise. Her job was to give you attention and make you feel good about receiving as few services as possible.