Murch?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WL offers a classical curriculum. Murch offers DCPS Standards, birthday parties, and basketball. Depends on your priorities.

Yes, I mean why would we want our kids to celebrate birthdays and play basketball in ELEMENTARY school? For god's sakes, they need to be learning the classics!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe the problem is the person selecting the principals, Michelle Rhee, and her boss, Adrian Fenty. Oops, I forgot Fenty was at the ribbon cutting for the new Murch playground, he must be a good guy.

This current Principal was hired by Rhee. The others were not. There was a Principal in place for 7 or 8 years. She left when she went out of state to care for family. She is back in DCPS this year.
We had a principal for 2 years who worked under Janey. DCPS wore her down and she went to a charter for 2 years. She is back in DCPS this year.
The last principal was an unmitigated disaster and was in for 2 years- hired under Janey, left under Rhee.
As much as you want to blame Rhee for the turnover, its just not true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WL offers a classical curriculum. Murch offers DCPS Standards, birthday parties, and basketball. Depends on your priorities.

Yes, I mean why would we want our kids to celebrate birthdays and play basketball in ELEMENTARY school? For god's sakes, they need to be learning the classics!

Or you could offer both.

My experience teaching elementary school children, including my own, is that they are enchanted by Greek and Roman gods and goddesses, mythical creatures, epic tales, stories about Athens and Sparta, gladiators and games, etc. It makes for great opportunities to explore art, traditional literature, astronomy, and history of science. Because elementary age children are such enthusiastic learners, these are excellent grades to introduce this content.

[Anonymous]

No matter who hires the principal, the principal has some professional responsibilities to do the job. This one is not getting it done. Still, maybe we should look at ourselves as a community to see what we are adding to the situation as well.

[Anonymous]

What are the problems with the current principal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No matter who hires the principal, the principal has some professional responsibilities to do the job. This one is not getting it done. Still, maybe we should look at ourselves as a community to see what we are adding to the situation as well.

Murch parent here- what is this principal not doing? This email was just sent out and it looks to me as if they are working on a strategic plan, which has been a long time coming, but a huge step and huge undertaking.
February 1, 2010

Dear Murch Parents,

On behalf of the Murch administration and staff, the Local School Restructuring Team (LSRT), and the Home and School Association (HSA), we are pleased to share the news that Murch will conduct a strategic planning process this spring.

The premise of this strategic planning effort is that, while Murch is already a strong school, it can and should be even stronger.

Through strategic planning, the school community (parents, staff, and administrators) will have the opportunity to come together around a vision of the kind of school we want Murch to be, and to develop a multi-year plan for implementing that vision. We ask you to join us in this effort.

To move our school forward, we will need to establish goals that will fulfill our vision for the school and develop an action plan for reaching those goals. A plan of this kind will provide Murch administrators and faculty, the HSA, and the LSRT with fixed guideposts and essential practical direction as we make decisions on curriculum, enrichment, budget, and other matters in the years ahead.

Parent input is a critical part of the strategic planning process. We will be seeking your views in a variety of ways, including through surveys and "town hall"-style meetings. We will communicate regularly with the Murch community throughout this process.

The LSRT, Murch's elected body of stakeholder representatives, will oversee the process. Through parents' generous contributions to the HSA, an experienced consultant will lead us through the planning process, ensuring that all voices are heard and that we emerge with a practical and promising action plan.

Please look for more communication from us concerning meeting dates and ways you can be involved. If you have any questions at any point, we encourage you to contact your LSRT parent representatives:

[Anonymous]

It will be interesting to see (and I hope it is transparent)how much parent input shapes the strategic plan. Until we see how this plays out, my vote's still out. She seems to go through the motions of involving parents but reportedly tolerates much less parent involvement (=interference) than this community may be used to. Except for the fundraising of course. Glad my child will be out of elementary soon, but I hope it does turn out positively for those who have more time left at the school.

[Anonymous]

I'm a new Murch parent and rarely see her around. The VP seems to be everywhere.

[Anonymous]

We are in the early years at Murch and have been very happy with our Pre-K and K experiences, 1st is fine too. I hope that "strategic planning" doesn't take away the things that have been working well at Murch. I don't want to see it become a data driven EL Haynes.

I have to say that I don't see the principal much either, but perhaps that is how they divide up the responsibilities?

ll:46 do you have any other insights?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:. . . I don't want to see it become a data driven EL Haynes. . .

Do you have any experience with Haynes, or was that just a gratuitous swipe?