Which schools at the expo....

[Anonymous]

Do they (CM) still have those stock photos on their website . . . just asking?

[Anonymous]

Funny, that the most popular schools YY, CM and LAMB have people complaining about them. Probably of the hundreds of positive experiences that happened during the course of the day, there were a few negatives. Of course you had to wait a few minutes to talk at the more popular charter school programs like LAMB or CM, because people want to go there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Funny, that the most popular schools YY, CM and LAMB have people complaining about them. Probably of the hundreds of positive experiences that happened during the course of the day, there were a few negatives. Of course you had to wait a few minutes to talk at the more popular charter school programs like LAMB or CM, because people want to go there.

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I don't agree. The stands at Inspired and MV were just as busy if not more and I was amazed by their enthusiasm. However, I do agree that a few reps from a school (parents or staff) shouldn't have an influence on the school itself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Funny, that the most popular schools YY, CM and LAMB have people complaining about them. Probably of the hundreds of positive experiences that happened during the course of the day, there were a few negatives. Of course you had to wait a few minutes to talk at the more popular charter school programs like LAMB or CM, because people want to go there.

I only heard one complaint about YY. Multiple about LAMB and CM. Hopefully there were hundreds of positive experiences that haven't been reported in this thread, but I certainly pay attention when everyone raves about Inspired Teaching and a couple of others, and there are only negative posts about LAMB (because, unless I missed one, there were no positive posts in this expo thread).

As usual though, comments here can only be one of many sources of info - anyone who only goes on what is said on DCUM is making a huge mistake.

[Anonymous]

I found it easy to engage with most of the schools. Perhaps this is because I went in the afternoon and I heard it was less crowded then than in the morning. Stand-outs for me were Bridges and MV. YY was fine too, although we are ultimately not interested in Chinese immersion. Did not visit LAMB because we do not believe Montessori is the right approach for our child. In general, however, like many other parents, I feel like this system is mostly chance, not mostly choice, so I am not going to get too excited about any one program right now. Will do my best to figure out the order and see what happens!

[Anonymous]

I thought LAMB was okay, and while a bit evasive on plans for locations in the future, I gathered that the rep was telling me all she was allowed to our felt prudent to say on that matter, basically no guarantees.

[Anonymous]

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She's very friendly (I'm sorry you got that impression from her). As a parent at CM, let me say that she is an extremely friendly, warm and wonderful person. She also loves kids. I know she was at the expo all day - so you may have caught her at a moment when she sat down for a minute to take a break (as 7 hours is a lot of time to be talking to people). If you haven't yet, come on by one of our open houses and get a chance to meet her. She is truly amazing!

I am the poster who originally said that I was not impressed and was disappointed by Creative Minds. There were three young women just standing there behind the table. When I walked up they did not greet me. I greeted them and started asking my questions. One woman smiled in a friendly way and answered my questions, while the other two just stood there next to her with sour looks on their faces. I finally asked who they were since I was directing my questions at the three and two of the three did not respond or acknowledge me. One said she was an office administrator or something. They seemed young and not together and just kept directing me to the open house. Obviously we know you need to go to the open house, but answering the preliminary questions in an engaging manner would have been helpful. As it turns out, I will not go to the open house based on this exchange and will just put my app in and deal with them later if we get in.

Just out of curiosity PP, are you AA? I had a similar experience, and observed the staff who were there when I was there to react differently to other (non-AA) parents who walked up. I tried not to make assumptions, but the lack of response was very tangible to me.

Hmmm...I am AA. I met an AA family at the Black Student Fund who told me that the pulled their AA son out of Creative Minds because of negative treatment by the teachers. They said that they believed it is not the place for little black boys. I chalked this up to their personal experience and not necc. An accurate reflection of how another child's experience would be. I will have to ask CM about this.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I was not impressed at all by Creative Minds--actually quite disappointed. The LAMB parent had no clue as to whether her school was AMS or AMI montessori--didnt know what I was talking about. And the LAMB administrator also seemed confused by the question. What a joke.

Curious to hear what disappointed you about Creative Minds. I didn't have a chance to go by there (was really focused on the schools in the common lottery). I agree that LAMB was not at all helpful. I found the parents to be very off-putting and unfriendly (but that may have just been when I went--it was pretty late in the day). Didn't ask any specific questions like you did because I was pretty turned off by them and didn't think they would be helpful.

I'm not the PP you're responding to, but I found the CM Principal to be unwelcoming. There were others who seemed very friendly, but she's the Principal, that sets the biggest tone.

She's very friendly (I'm sorry you got that impression from her). As a parent at CM, let me say that she is an extremely friendly, warm and wonderful person. She also loves kids. I know she was at the expo all day - so you may have caught her at a moment when she sat down for a minute to take a break (as 7 hours is a lot of time to be talking to people). If you haven't yet, come on by one of our open houses and get a chance to meet her. She is truly amazing!

I am the poster who originally said that I was not impressed and was disappointed by Creative Minds. There were three young women just standing there behind the table. When I walked up they did not greet me. I greeted them and started asking my questions. One woman smiled in a friendly way and answered my questions, while the other two just stood there next to her with sour looks on their faces. I finally asked who they were since I was directing my questions at the three and two of the three did not respond or acknowledge me. One said she was an office administrator or something. They seemed young and not together and just kept directing me to the open house. Obviously we know you need to go to the open house, but answering the preliminary questions in an engaging manner would have been helpful. As it turns out, I will not go to the open house based on this exchange and will just put my app in and deal with them later if we get in.

Just out of curiosity PP, are you AA? I had a similar experience, and observed the staff who were there when I was there to react differently to other (non-AA) parents who walked up. I tried not to make assumptions, but the lack of response was very tangible to me.

You must not have gone in the am, because on of their volunteers was AA.

It was the morning, but there were a lot of people at their table so that particular volunteer may have been standing further away. I know that's what happened with the people who were behind the table when I went up. And I'm the PP asking the other PP if they're AA. That PP who said they also didn't respond to her may not even be AA.

Lastly, and this is not as relevant, AA people sometimes can be cold and un-engaging of other AA people too, just as caucasian people can be cold to other caucasians. The fact that CM had an AA volunteer does not make it impossible that that AA volunteer was unfriendly to an AA propsective parent. Just pointing that out, even though none of the volunteers I there were AA that I saw.

Indeed I am AA. I responded to your question in my previous post. I agree with your remarks re: what having an AA volunteer means.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:FWIW I'm white and did not find much engagement from the CM volunteers, but mainly because when I went there were a ton of them, and they were mostly interacting with themselves. I didn't wait long, though, and forgot to go back at the end.

Well then, sounds like CM was equal-opportunity about their lack of engagement

Yes but the reasons behind the lack of engagement could be totally different. Who knows? I will ask Cm about this if we get in.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:FWIW I'm white and did not find much engagement from the CM volunteers, but mainly because when I went there were a ton of them, and they were mostly interacting with themselves. I didn't wait long, though, and forgot to go back at the end.

Well then, sounds like CM was equal-opportunity about their lack of engagement

Yes but the reasons behind the lack of engagement could be totally different. Who knows? I will ask Cm about this if we get in.

While I agree it is a very important issue to get a better read on, I'm very curious what you think they're going to say if you ask? I highly doubt anyone's going to come out and say anything obviously problematic - they're not stupid. Yet I've also heard ripples of concern from AA parents there, and I know how it felt at the open house. Me, I wouldn't send my child there (we're AA too), because as parents we have to listen to others and trust our guts on these issues. No one is going to admit to not being welcoming to AA students/families.

[Anonymous]

This is true, but I have learned that one can tell a great deal by the way people answer/handle these types of questions. Interesting to know that you have heard concerns from other AA parents there.

[Anonymous]

I am an AA parent with CM students and have never heard any of these rumors. We feel very welcomed at the school. Everyone knows my children and have been nothing but warm to and supportive of my children and our family. We love the school and the community there. It would be a very unfortunate mistake to base your opinions on a school by how you felt for 5 minutes at a crowded fair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is true, but I have learned that one can tell a great deal by the way people answer/handle these types of questions. Interesting to know that you have heard concerns from other AA parents there.

One. Singular AA family.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:This is true, but I have learned that one can tell a great deal by the way people answer/handle these types of questions. Interesting to know that you have heard concerns from other AA parents there.

One. Singular AA family.

The last quote was not me, and I was the PP that the 1st poster was talking to, so not sure who you are "One. Singular AA family" poster, but please do not speak for me, because you don't know what I've heard or from who. PP who is planning to ask the school, please do report back if you're comfortable doing so. If not, wishing you the best of luck on whatever you decide re: applying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am an AA parent with CM students and have never heard any of these rumors. We feel very welcomed at the school. Everyone knows my children and have been nothing but warm to and supportive of my children and our family. We love the school and the community there. It would be a very unfortunate mistake to base your opinions on a school by how you felt for 5 minutes at a crowded fair.

The sad truth is, when we have to carefully select schools for the lottery, the 5 minutes at the fair and any open houses attended (plus some DCUM research) are going to be all we really can go on. It's far from ideal, but that's the bottom line.

And for my specific case, you make a mistake to assume I (or any parent) spent only 5 minutes at any given table. I circled back to the ones I was most interested in or puzzled about. I was there all day (long day!) and I never really found my gut reaction changed by speaking to different people at any particular table. I spent as much as 40 minutes at some tables talking to different people.