GDS high school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:GDS seniors are getting fabulous college results this year! They must be doing something right.

Yes, most things about GDS are great. Great faculty, especially. The point of this post is that the administration and high school principal are lacking. Despite a mediocre counseling office (many parents hire outside college counselors), this year's GDS seniors are a great group of kids yielding great results.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The administration in general is the weak spot of GDS. With the lower school principal turnover and the high school principal's lack of experience it has been frustrating.

GDS' strengths are definitely the teachers but most programs run by the administration, especially in the high school, are lacking (DEI, college counseling, disciplinary). As a parent of a high school student many of the programs are great in theory but we find them lacking with very little accountability or transparency.

We have had several interactions and meetings with the HS principal and found her inexperienced and lacking empathy or interest.

Similar here. Our interactions with HS principal have been the same. The people who report to her in administration - curriculum people, display people and CCO - seem entirely not empowered to make decisions and openly defer to her while grin f’ing the parent.

And yet she’s hard to reach and generally has been slow to respond on the few occasions we’ve escalated something unless we’ve basically gone 911 on our email over a serious school f-up. There was a really bad one a few years ago. And then I’ve had an immediate response from her.

Have heard from my kid that many faculty members despise her and speak openly about how bad a leader and decision maker she is. Maybe this is normal. Maybe not. I hear a lot of it though.

On the disciplinary committee front, have heard from other parents that every decision made - even for minor *entirely* non DEI infractions - are dominated with a DEI restorative justice lens as how the kid needs to make amends. It’s very much on brand for the former head of DEI at dalton. One can google how that went at Dalton…

This too shall pass - but probably not in time for our kid’s tenure at the school. Like many 2020 and 2021 decisions, boards are seeing the reality of bad hires slowly. GDS’ board will be late to seeing this but will eventually. Pretty much can count on this.

I have no skin in this game and am honestly not trying to stir up drama by asking, but if you had to guess, is there a chance she's not going to last very long in the role?

I find it troubling that the administration has had so much turnover in the last decade. That indicates larger problems.

This unfortunate dei restorative justice disciplinary style is also very much in the middle school so I'm not sure it's specific to the high school principal. The administration doesn't seem to realize that they are creating unnecessary tension among the students through this uneven and unfair practice.

My MSer has experienced zero tension or stress. Maybe your kid shouldn't get in trouble so much?

Goodness. People on this board are ruthless. I hope your child never makes a mistake.

I'm a GDS parent with a student in the high school. An A student, never in trouble in the 10 years we've been at GDS, and very active in the school. My high schooler made a poor judgement call but did not harm anyone and learned their lesson very quickly. The administration and principal decided it required disciplinary action and prioritized restorative justice disciplinary policies to an extreme including a hearing amongst student peers to determine consequences, several essays, lessons plans on what lessons were learned, apology letters and other restorative actions along with the threat of suspension and reporting to colleges. Parents are only informed of the results but are not allowed to be a part of the process. There is also no opportunity to appeal. This dragged on for weeks and when we finally had the opportunity to discuss with the HS principal she informed us she wasn't privy to the details and passed us back to another individual in the high school to get more information. We love GDS but because we've never been a part of the disciplinary process we were shocked on how this was handled and we fault the administration but mainly the principal as this is under her purview. At our child's request, we didn't push our situation further out of fear of risking what could be reported to colleges.

Would you have preferred jumping straight to suspension? That's the point of restorative justice -- give the offender a chance to learn something and make amends, instead of jumping to punishment.

Sounds like the preference would have been to talk with the HS principal up front to convince her that no punishment is warranted because child is an A student, has never been in trouble in the prior 10 years at GDS, no one was harmed, lesson was learned quickly, and it was just poor judgment, and if the HS principal didn't agree, they would appeal to the HOS.

I'm the previous poster re: the disciplinary action of our GDS high schooler. It's hard to explain the entire situation while remaining anonymous and brief on a message board. I think the point is the focus was so much on implementing restorative justice while not actually addressing the issue and looking at the student. And that the HS principal oversees these policies but when requested to meet with us to discuss she absolved herself from any responsibility and in all honest was not interested in talking with us. We are also very well aware, like other posters have mentioned, there's no consistency. Some students receive disciplinary action while others do not for similar or worse actions.

We had a similar experience here last year. No one in administration seems to take ownership. We met w/ her and the HS principal says it's not hers to own and she knows no details. The grade dean says its not his or hers to own. The advisors know nothing. So no one knows anything yet our kid is somehow magically at the committee.

At some point last year, for something very minor (not drugs, violence, language) our kid did, I became *that* parent and called every senior administrator until i figured out who owns the process and could tell us what had happened . Even that liar seemed to deny they knew anything until I would not let up until they read me everything in the files.

I've got to say having gone through this last year, the lack of transparency as to how the school runs this process, and to who truly owns it was shocking. This person kept saying "the students run the process" - that's false. My kid knows many of the kids on the discipline committee. The students all say that 2 or 3 administrators run the whole thing and in fact those admins recommend the punishments and often overrule the kids who think nothing should be done for minor things to their peers.

It's a classic GDS farce. They create some process. Claim a moral high-ground and lack of knowlege and then hide behind that process. Are then totally opaque about how it REALLY works. And then leave the kids wondering for WEEKS as to their fate. When *all along* the administrators were the ones deciding the punishment and what even goes to committee in the first place. Meanwhile, they all deny that they are involved, To a one, every single person until that last guy i got hold of after i went postal bc no one was replying to my kid, finally admitted that they in fact run the process and have all the info.

Here's what I think actually happens - the grade deans and this administrator and the HS principal actually decide what comes to the committee and they have pre-planned the punishments. The whole farce of peers questioning and voting is classic GDS thing to make everyone feel included. Also the grade deans and HS principal all deny they are in the know so they dont get non stop calls from parents and kids.

I've been at this school so long as a parnet of multiple kids that I know before the callbacks now the grinf*cks and the glad handing the admins will give me, The nice nice act they wil put on and then deliver bad news via an email later. I know all of their moves, I feel bad for them all since it must suck having those jobs and feeling like a low paid cog in the GDS machine

The teachers are mostly good to amazing. The administrators are mostly horrific. In fact, we had one kid at another DC Big 3 and it was FAR better there than at GDS in terms of transparency. something about adhering to the GDS kindness thing makes all of these admins act like neutered noobs. I often want to scream - tell me the f-in truth. BTW same exact thing in college process where they are opaque about list building, no access to SCOIR or Naviance even though they have it and wont even show kids o parents. Lies about AP testing and SAT/ACT.

I wanted to scream like many other parenrs - tell my kid the g-d truth that 35 kids are applying to U-M or USC this year and they wont make the cut. Instead it was all in code words like "if it's in your heart to apply, then you should" - jesus christ, just tell me how i stack up. Plus they limiit to 10 or 12 college apps total so WTAF? Each slot is critical, tell us upfront.

I'm glad we are almost done here and I so badly wish we had sent all our kids to cathedral schools.

This is so bizarre. I understand why you can’t say what was done, but I’m so curious what type of incident warrants all that work, honestly. I can’t imagine that it’s cheating related as that doesn’t seem like it should go through peers. But in thinking about this, nothing should go through peers. What about your kids privacy? What is going to stop the student panel from telling others about this and then potential bullying occur? Also, what type of students sign up to be on this panel. Why would you want to punish your peers? Did parents have a say in this policy?

GDS parent here and it is a horrible disciplinary process that was implemented a few years ago but really activated by the current principal.You can read about it in an article in the GDS student paper https://theaugurbit.com/2023/11/13/inside-the-dcc-the-committee-that-makes-disciplinary-recommendations/

The process is intimidating and lacks transparency. You can be sent to the DCC for the smallest infraction to obviously larger ones. A report is written about the incident and provided to the student panel and grade deans overseeing the hearing. The student going in front of the student panel or parents are not allowed to see any documentation - even for accuracy. Parents are not allowed in the hearing and following the hearing the student panel recommends the disciplinary action and then it goes to the GDS principal.

Another GDS parent here. I just asked my kid to ask their friends who have experienced the disciplinary process and they confirmed all of this and the article is true.

Holy smokes this is a terrible process. The kids don’t even know what they are being accused of when they go in front of the committee? Wow.

This seems like something that deserves a letter to the board. This is actually shocking.

For everything this school says it believes about the justice system, this is actually how they handle it internally? What utter hypocrisy!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:GDS seniors are getting fabulous college results this year! They must be doing something right.

Yes, most things about GDS are great. Great faculty, especially. The point of this post is that the administration and high school principal are lacking. Despite a mediocre counseling office (many parents hire outside college counselors), this year's GDS seniors are a great group of kids yielding great results.

Agreed. Not a senior parent but my kid knows a lot of the seniors. It’s a special group of kids. Their success has nothing to do with yom or the college office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The administration in general is the weak spot of GDS. With the lower school principal turnover and the high school principal's lack of experience it has been frustrating.

GDS' strengths are definitely the teachers but most programs run by the administration, especially in the high school, are lacking (DEI, college counseling, disciplinary). As a parent of a high school student many of the programs are great in theory but we find them lacking with very little accountability or transparency.

We have had several interactions and meetings with the HS principal and found her inexperienced and lacking empathy or interest.

Similar here. Our interactions with HS principal have been the same. The people who report to her in administration - curriculum people, display people and CCO - seem entirely not empowered to make decisions and openly defer to her while grin f’ing the parent.

And yet she’s hard to reach and generally has been slow to respond on the few occasions we’ve escalated something unless we’ve basically gone 911 on our email over a serious school f-up. There was a really bad one a few years ago. And then I’ve had an immediate response from her.

Have heard from my kid that many faculty members despise her and speak openly about how bad a leader and decision maker she is. Maybe this is normal. Maybe not. I hear a lot of it though.

On the disciplinary committee front, have heard from other parents that every decision made - even for minor *entirely* non DEI infractions - are dominated with a DEI restorative justice lens as how the kid needs to make amends. It’s very much on brand for the former head of DEI at dalton. One can google how that went at Dalton…

This too shall pass - but probably not in time for our kid’s tenure at the school. Like many 2020 and 2021 decisions, boards are seeing the reality of bad hires slowly. GDS’ board will be late to seeing this but will eventually. Pretty much can count on this.

I have no skin in this game and am honestly not trying to stir up drama by asking, but if you had to guess, is there a chance she's not going to last very long in the role?

I find it troubling that the administration has had so much turnover in the last decade. That indicates larger problems.

This unfortunate dei restorative justice disciplinary style is also very much in the middle school so I'm not sure it's specific to the high school principal. The administration doesn't seem to realize that they are creating unnecessary tension among the students through this uneven and unfair practice.

My MSer has experienced zero tension or stress. Maybe your kid shouldn't get in trouble so much?

Goodness. People on this board are ruthless. I hope your child never makes a mistake.

I'm a GDS parent with a student in the high school. An A student, never in trouble in the 10 years we've been at GDS, and very active in the school. My high schooler made a poor judgement call but did not harm anyone and learned their lesson very quickly. The administration and principal decided it required disciplinary action and prioritized restorative justice disciplinary policies to an extreme including a hearing amongst student peers to determine consequences, several essays, lessons plans on what lessons were learned, apology letters and other restorative actions along with the threat of suspension and reporting to colleges. Parents are only informed of the results but are not allowed to be a part of the process. There is also no opportunity to appeal. This dragged on for weeks and when we finally had the opportunity to discuss with the HS principal she informed us she wasn't privy to the details and passed us back to another individual in the high school to get more information. We love GDS but because we've never been a part of the disciplinary process we were shocked on how this was handled and we fault the administration but mainly the principal as this is under her purview. At our child's request, we didn't push our situation further out of fear of risking what could be reported to colleges.

Would you have preferred jumping straight to suspension? That's the point of restorative justice -- give the offender a chance to learn something and make amends, instead of jumping to punishment.

That may be the point, but that isn't how it's going. You have teachers and administrators with zero to little behavioral science background implementing this stuff. Some go rogue with their own interpretations and others have no idea what they're doing and how to attend to the victim's needs. In some cases, you need to jump to consequences. Otherwise, what message is that saying? You can hit a peer hard in front of a teacher and keep on going without any school consequence? Cause yes, that happened to my dc.

[Anonymous]

Back to the first question on this string....as a 9 year GDS parent yes, the HS admin is very weak. Teachers are the gem and they really care about the kids. But, the admin is soo out of touch. They try to force the kids to meet with them with repeated emails but kids have no interest.
Also, there is NO appetite for diverse thinking at this school - its the far left or you are considered a complete idiot. When this is raised with teachers they agree but their hands are tied and they express frustration. The HS principal is a total joke. The placement of the seniors is good but dont mistake that for the admin. They dont help one bit. We are excited to be done with that place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Back to the first question on this string....as a 9 year GDS parent yes, the HS admin is very weak. Teachers are the gem and they really care about the kids. But, the admin is soo out of touch. They try to force the kids to meet with them with repeated emails but kids have no interest.
Also, there is NO appetite for diverse thinking at this school - its the far left or you are considered a complete idiot. When this is raised with teachers they agree but their hands are tied and they express frustration. The HS principal is a total joke. The placement of the seniors is good but dont mistake that for the admin. They dont help one bit. We are excited to be done with that place.

Totally agree. New to this thread and agree with everything you say and in the thread. The admin is terrible and out of touch. Talk to the older teachers and in private they will often reveal what they feel. They despise the admin and the regressive way the admin runs the school. The teachers feel hamstrung in what they can say in classes. The admin will send monitors into controversial classes like teachers who discuss Israel Palestine. Teachers feel like they are being watched by the GDS speech police. It's a very small minority of kids who like the admin. Most side with and love their teachers. Most kids feel as the teachers do - a particularly weak principal and her entire office and many of her underlings are also weak "yes men" who have an axe to grind on regressive speech monitoring.

We are almost done after many years and a few kids here. I can't wait. I will never ever give another dollar to the place.

The place changed for the worse in last 3-4 years. Especially the HS. But not just that. There have been a cascade of bad hiring decisions at LS/MS principal level too. L

ike many, we love(d) Russell but you can't just be good at giving speeches.

Privately someone said HOS is even afraid of his admin in some ways. Return in person was latest of *any* DMV school after COVID b/c he was afraid of a revolt from his administrators. Wow. If that. is true, that tells you a lot.

The tail wags the dog here.

The entire place needs to be cleaned out of its leadership, I'm afraid. That said, I wonder if the board has the balls to do this. Looking at the board, I doubt it.

My two who already graduated from GDS mostly have terrible things to say about the admin and the speech police and great things to say about the vast majority of the teachers. They feel no sense of pride in having gone there, no bind to the school overall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Back to the first question on this string....as a 9 year GDS parent yes, the HS admin is very weak. Teachers are the gem and they really care about the kids. But, the admin is soo out of touch. They try to force the kids to meet with them with repeated emails but kids have no interest.
Also, there is NO appetite for diverse thinking at this school - its the far left or you are considered a complete idiot. When this is raised with teachers they agree but their hands are tied and they express frustration. The HS principal is a total joke. The placement of the seniors is good but dont mistake that for the admin. They dont help one bit. We are excited to be done with that place.

Perhaps inside of school, but not outside. I'm noticing an increase in diverse thinking outside of school among some parents and students. With over-the-top dei practices (GDS is not alone in DC), the pendulum feels like it's shifting to the right in some circumstances. The inability to predict this shift and hire administrative experienced talent is disappointing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back to the first question on this string....as a 9 year GDS parent yes, the HS admin is very weak. Teachers are the gem and they really care about the kids. But, the admin is soo out of touch. They try to force the kids to meet with them with repeated emails but kids have no interest.
Also, there is NO appetite for diverse thinking at this school - its the far left or you are considered a complete idiot. When this is raised with teachers they agree but their hands are tied and they express frustration. The HS principal is a total joke. The placement of the seniors is good but dont mistake that for the admin. They dont help one bit. We are excited to be done with that place.

Totally agree. New to this thread and agree with everything you say and in the thread. The admin is terrible and out of touch. Talk to the older teachers and in private they will often reveal what they feel. They despise the admin and the regressive way the admin runs the school. The teachers feel hamstrung in what they can say in classes. The admin will send monitors into controversial classes like teachers who discuss Israel Palestine. Teachers feel like they are being watched by the GDS speech police. It's a very small minority of kids who like the admin. Most side with and love their teachers. Most kids feel as the teachers do - a particularly weak principal and her entire office and many of her underlings are also weak "yes men" who have an axe to grind on regressive speech monitoring.

We are almost done after many years and a few kids here. I can't wait. I will never ever give another dollar to the place.

The place changed for the worse in last 3-4 years. Especially the HS. But not just that. There have been a cascade of bad hiring decisions at LS/MS principal level too. L

ike many, we love(d) Russell but you can't just be good at giving speeches.

Privately someone said HOS is even afraid of his admin in some ways. Return in person was latest of *any* DMV school after COVID b/c he was afraid of a revolt from his administrators. Wow. If that. is true, that tells you a lot.

The tail wags the dog here.

The entire place needs to be cleaned out of its leadership, I'm afraid. That said, I wonder if the board has the balls to do this. Looking at the board, I doubt it.

My two who already graduated from GDS mostly have terrible things to say about the admin and the speech police and great things to say about the vast majority of the teachers. They feel no sense of pride in having gone there, no bind to the school overall.

I've never understood why so many parents give him a free pass while complaining about everything else.

[Anonymous]

I am a GDS middle school parent and this whole thread is super frustrating. I don't understand why parents aren't bringing this to the attention of the board. My good friends at an equivalent private school were instrumental in implementing admin change via board actions. Even at the HOS level (not implying Russell should leave), just saying with enough voices that change occurs. For those on the way out, just curious if you've raised your concerns in writing to board members or others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back to the first question on this string....as a 9 year GDS parent yes, the HS admin is very weak. Teachers are the gem and they really care about the kids. But, the admin is soo out of touch. They try to force the kids to meet with them with repeated emails but kids have no interest.
Also, there is NO appetite for diverse thinking at this school - its the far left or you are considered a complete idiot. When this is raised with teachers they agree but their hands are tied and they express frustration. The HS principal is a total joke. The placement of the seniors is good but dont mistake that for the admin. They dont help one bit. We are excited to be done with that place.

Perhaps inside of school, but not outside. I'm noticing an increase in diverse thinking outside of school among some parents and students. With over-the-top dei practices (GDS is not alone in DC), the pendulum feels like it's shifting to the right in some circumstances. The inability to predict this shift and hire administrative experienced talent is disappointing.

I agree with this. I see it happening around us. At every parent dinner, coffee, meeting. And yet GDS remains as restrictive as ever on diverse views outside of one minimester elective and one HS speaker recently who was ex military and fox news. These administrators were hired exactly because of their views. Until they are turned over, nothing will change. But they will all be turned over. It will just take longer than most of us are gonna be around for as parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back to the first question on this string....as a 9 year GDS parent yes, the HS admin is very weak. Teachers are the gem and they really care about the kids. But, the admin is soo out of touch. They try to force the kids to meet with them with repeated emails but kids have no interest.
Also, there is NO appetite for diverse thinking at this school - its the far left or you are considered a complete idiot. When this is raised with teachers they agree but their hands are tied and they express frustration. The HS principal is a total joke. The placement of the seniors is good but dont mistake that for the admin. They dont help one bit. We are excited to be done with that place.

Totally agree. New to this thread and agree with everything you say and in the thread. The admin is terrible and out of touch. Talk to the older teachers and in private they will often reveal what they feel. They despise the admin and the regressive way the admin runs the school. The teachers feel hamstrung in what they can say in classes. The admin will send monitors into controversial classes like teachers who discuss Israel Palestine. Teachers feel like they are being watched by the GDS speech police. It's a very small minority of kids who like the admin. Most side with and love their teachers. Most kids feel as the teachers do - a particularly weak principal and her entire office and many of her underlings are also weak "yes men" who have an axe to grind on regressive speech monitoring.

We are almost done after many years and a few kids here. I can't wait. I will never ever give another dollar to the place.

The place changed for the worse in last 3-4 years. Especially the HS. But not just that. There have been a cascade of bad hiring decisions at LS/MS principal level too. L

ike many, we love(d) Russell but you can't just be good at giving speeches.

Privately someone said HOS is even afraid of his admin in some ways. Return in person was latest of *any* DMV school after COVID b/c he was afraid of a revolt from his administrators. Wow. If that. is true, that tells you a lot.

The tail wags the dog here.

The entire place needs to be cleaned out of its leadership, I'm afraid. That said, I wonder if the board has the balls to do this. Looking at the board, I doubt it.

My two who already graduated from GDS mostly have terrible things to say about the admin and the speech police and great things to say about the vast majority of the teachers. They feel no sense of pride in having gone there, no bind to the school overall.

I've never understood why so many parents give him a free pass while complaining about everything else.

Because he's smart, involved and compassionate. He's more than a gifted speaker. Also, can you imagine who they might hire if he leaves? Given recent HOS hiring at other schools, GDS is darn lucky to have him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back to the first question on this string....as a 9 year GDS parent yes, the HS admin is very weak. Teachers are the gem and they really care about the kids. But, the admin is soo out of touch. They try to force the kids to meet with them with repeated emails but kids have no interest.
Also, there is NO appetite for diverse thinking at this school - its the far left or you are considered a complete idiot. When this is raised with teachers they agree but their hands are tied and they express frustration. The HS principal is a total joke. The placement of the seniors is good but dont mistake that for the admin. They dont help one bit. We are excited to be done with that place.

Totally agree. New to this thread and agree with everything you say and in the thread. The admin is terrible and out of touch. Talk to the older teachers and in private they will often reveal what they feel. They despise the admin and the regressive way the admin runs the school. The teachers feel hamstrung in what they can say in classes. The admin will send monitors into controversial classes like teachers who discuss Israel Palestine. Teachers feel like they are being watched by the GDS speech police. It's a very small minority of kids who like the admin. Most side with and love their teachers. Most kids feel as the teachers do - a particularly weak principal and her entire office and many of her underlings are also weak "yes men" who have an axe to grind on regressive speech monitoring.

We are almost done after many years and a few kids here. I can't wait. I will never ever give another dollar to the place.

The place changed for the worse in last 3-4 years. Especially the HS. But not just that. There have been a cascade of bad hiring decisions at LS/MS principal level too. L

ike many, we love(d) Russell but you can't just be good at giving speeches.

Privately someone said HOS is even afraid of his admin in some ways. Return in person was latest of *any* DMV school after COVID b/c he was afraid of a revolt from his administrators. Wow. If that. is true, that tells you a lot.

The tail wags the dog here.

The entire place needs to be cleaned out of its leadership, I'm afraid. That said, I wonder if the board has the balls to do this. Looking at the board, I doubt it.

My two who already graduated from GDS mostly have terrible things to say about the admin and the speech police and great things to say about the vast majority of the teachers. They feel no sense of pride in having gone there, no bind to the school overall.

I've never understood why so many parents give him a free pass while complaining about everything else.

Russell's total comp in 2022 was nearly $1 million vs. $200k or less for everyone on down.
Riddle that one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a GDS middle school parent and this whole thread is super frustrating. I don't understand why parents aren't bringing this to the attention of the board. My good friends at an equivalent private school were instrumental in implementing admin change via board actions. Even at the HOS level (not implying Russell should leave), just saying with enough voices that change occurs. For those on the way out, just curious if you've raised your concerns in writing to board members or others.

There is a pretty deep impression that those who reach out to the board are viewed as non-compliant parents, squeaky wheels and it disadvantages their kids. I actually dont believe this to be true but many are afraid. Those who tried to complain about school's slow return after vaccination policies were ignored or worse.

My kid is almost done here so I'm stepping up and writing letters to HOS and the board. I'm afraid many wont.

One more thing: GDS is a particularly tougher place for boys. There is much work societally to do for girls and women, but GDS, like many institutions is increasingly not meeting boys where they are.

Acc to my kid, an anonymous straw poll of one of the HS classes was recently taken by students and over 1/3rd of the boys said they would vote for Trump if they could vote. I'm not sure if this is higher or lower than a random sampling of DMV private school boys but it seems awfully high for GDS

That's not something to be ignored. Of course it's not directly relevant to this thread either and I recognize that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back to the first question on this string....as a 9 year GDS parent yes, the HS admin is very weak. Teachers are the gem and they really care about the kids. But, the admin is soo out of touch. They try to force the kids to meet with them with repeated emails but kids have no interest.
Also, there is NO appetite for diverse thinking at this school - its the far left or you are considered a complete idiot. When this is raised with teachers they agree but their hands are tied and they express frustration. The HS principal is a total joke. The placement of the seniors is good but dont mistake that for the admin. They dont help one bit. We are excited to be done with that place.

Totally agree. New to this thread and agree with everything you say and in the thread. The admin is terrible and out of touch. Talk to the older teachers and in private they will often reveal what they feel. They despise the admin and the regressive way the admin runs the school. The teachers feel hamstrung in what they can say in classes. The admin will send monitors into controversial classes like teachers who discuss Israel Palestine. Teachers feel like they are being watched by the GDS speech police. It's a very small minority of kids who like the admin. Most side with and love their teachers. Most kids feel as the teachers do - a particularly weak principal and her entire office and many of her underlings are also weak "yes men" who have an axe to grind on regressive speech monitoring.

We are almost done after many years and a few kids here. I can't wait. I will never ever give another dollar to the place.

The place changed for the worse in last 3-4 years. Especially the HS. But not just that. There have been a cascade of bad hiring decisions at LS/MS principal level too. L

ike many, we love(d) Russell but you can't just be good at giving speeches.

Privately someone said HOS is even afraid of his admin in some ways. Return in person was latest of *any* DMV school after COVID b/c he was afraid of a revolt from his administrators. Wow. If that. is true, that tells you a lot.

The tail wags the dog here.

The entire place needs to be cleaned out of its leadership, I'm afraid. That said, I wonder if the board has the balls to do this. Looking at the board, I doubt it.

My two who already graduated from GDS mostly have terrible things to say about the admin and the speech police and great things to say about the vast majority of the teachers. They feel no sense of pride in having gone there, no bind to the school overall.

I've never understood why so many parents give him a free pass while complaining about everything else.

Russell's total comp in 2022 was nearly $1 million vs. $200k or less for everyone on down.
Riddle that one.

That's in line w/ others schools of its ilk I believe. But it's still shockingly high. Teacher starting salary is 45k and maxes around 85k. That's the most distressing stat.

Meanwhile there are 20+ DEI and community engagement staff at the school across divisions. And DEI only means one thing. Not jewish kids, not middle eastern kids, not indian kids. Bareky hispanic kids. Just one thing.

Such a bummer. Reason this school was started was not to be a regressive place with speech limitations. Ask any HS student if they feel comfortable sharing political views that dont match the blue haired minority. They dont.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a GDS middle school parent and this whole thread is super frustrating. I don't understand why parents aren't bringing this to the attention of the board. My good friends at an equivalent private school were instrumental in implementing admin change via board actions. Even at the HOS level (not implying Russell should leave), just saying with enough voices that change occurs. For those on the way out, just curious if you've raised your concerns in writing to board members or others.

I am one of the previous posters and a HSl parent and we've been beyond frustrated but also on our way out. We have brought issues informally to members of the board that we know. Generally the answer is no answer: that the board doesn't have the ability to facilitate change or its slow change or the HOS isn't really aware or involved of day-to-day as he leaves it to the administrators. We considered formally raising issues but our senior did not want us to cause a fuss or put a spotlight on them because of fear of unfair treatment. When we brought issues up to teachers and advisors the answer was generally we are aware but I'm just the "xx" teacher, no one listens to me.