GDS and limits

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So what is it that the faculty thinks parents/ Board want that differs from what teachers want and that the previous Administration protected the teachers from?

That is a good question. I guess I would say that school faculty in general, not just at GDS, get nervous when they think the Board and/or parents micro-manage (even if the content of the micro-managed decisions are good). It can lead to things like parent interference in discipline, curriculum, hiring, etc. There's a happy medium: it's good for parents to care, but over-involvement is hard on teachers.

[Anonymous]

Didn't accept admission to GDS in the end, but applied our MS kid because parents of college-agers suggested we should. Same people said Maret much better option lately because, in their words (parents of the 90's) the board has changed and they are far more interested in reaching beyond the DC borders to keep enrollment and $$ up and less so about the original mission of the school and local community. Just two cents maybe not worth much, but the elders who I heard from have no stake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what is it that the faculty thinks parents/ Board want that differs from what teachers want and that the previous Administration protected the teachers from?

That is a good question. I guess I would say that school faculty in general, not just at GDS, get nervous when they think the Board and/or parents micro-manage (even if the content of the micro-managed decisions are good). It can lead to things like parent interference in discipline, curriculum, hiring, etc. There's a happy medium: it's good for parents to care, but over-involvement is hard on teachers.

Yes, generically, that would be the concern. But I don't get any sense it's an issue for GDS faculty with respect to the new Head As a PP indicated, the faculty were very enthusiastic about this candidate. And, in recent years, when stakeholders disagree, what I've seen has been faculty vs. administration (with administration trying to solicit parent support -- sometimes succeeding, sometimes not depending on the issue). I haven't seen administration and faculty vs. parents (or faculty vs. parents, with administration intervening to support teachers). It's a strong faculty (experienced, articulate, knows what it wants, at GDS because it's GDS) and I suspect that an inexperienced head would have a more difficult time resisting faculty demands than resisting parental demands, were the two to conflict. The school's doing really well at this point and the challenge is not to mess it up. For that you need the support of teachers. And I honestly can't think of a major change that would have strong parental support (except parking and drop-off policies, LOL -- which isn't a case where the faculty is deeply invested in the status quo or has interests that differ from those of the parents) -- much less a major issue that would pit faculty vs. parents.

RE experience. The only concern I've heard on that issue is re fund-raising. Shaw has significant experience in academic administration -- but that's only a part of the Head's job. To the extent that the Board is likely to play a bigger role, fund-raising is the place where they'd be most likely to increase their involvement, given their interests/skill sets.