Does anybody know what is going on with Crossway Montessori Charter School?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are abysmal at following policies and providing straight answers. Current parent there, but this is my LAST year for sure. They aren't sure if they will have enough families to make a first grade class and their (excellent!) Teachers are leaving in droves due to terrible mistreatment. I can't think of any reason to recommend attending there, sadly.

Former parent here. Both my kids went through the entire Montessori program at Crossway from the Nido room through the last year of the 3 - 6 classroom. It was an awesome experience for them in many ways and the teachers they had were amazing.

BUT

The administration was nothing short of incompetent. In addition to all of the issues others have posted about lack of response to messages, lack of info, contradictory info, etc., they also treated their teachers poorly and had a bad track record of huge hikes in tuition for the aftercare program without notice, etc. They were contemptuous of some families' choices (working moms, for example).

If I had it to do all over again, I would pick a different school.

When you mention "administration," how are you defining it?

It's a charter, which means it has an MCPS principal who's working with a charter board. From what I can see, I can't find Guinan's ("CEO") credentials. If she's running a Montessori school w/o credentials, that's a problem. I can speak from experience in saying that any leader of a school w/o a strong educational background will be its downfall.

The principal is a public educator who is also trained in the Montessori philosophy.

[Anonymous]

People are referring to the administration of the non-profit organization, not the current principal (who has been there for the current school year only).

There is no separate board for the charter school, so, it is being administered by the non-profit. You can look on their website for information-- or lack thereof about the larger non-profit organization. The current principal's boss is the CEO of Crossway Community.

I also want to add that many charter's have a CEO-type that is not an educator. The CEO's lack of education/Montessori credentials is not that unusual or alarming in of itself. Her job is to raise money and run the non-profit organization-- and in this case fund the Charter's pre-K students.

[Anonymous]

The principal is fantastic, but was forced upon the school after they didn't hire a principal their first charter year (well, they had two, neither of which lasted a week). She was stifled from doing any work though, parents and teachers were directly forbidden from working directly with her by the two heads of school. Literally yelled at if they talked to the principal instead of the old guard. It was so sad as the parents had such hope for the changes she'd bring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People are referring to the administration of the non-profit organization, not the current principal (who has been there for the current school year only).

There is no separate board for the charter school, so, it is being administered by the non-profit. You can look on their website for information-- or lack thereof about the larger non-profit organization. The current principal's boss is the CEO of Crossway Community.

I also want to add that many charter's have a CEO-type that is not an educator. The CEO's lack of education/Montessori credentials is not that unusual or alarming in of itself. Her job is to raise money and run the non-profit organization-- and in this case fund the Charter's pre-K students.

which is where the problems arise

I wouldn't expect an engineer to be a partner in a law firm. When everyone BUT educators start to run schools and systems, education falls apart. Not even Starr has enough educational experience to give him credibility as an educational leader. It's no longer about the child - but about the image and the politics driving that image. So is it any wonder the principal was bullied by the CEO?

Money can be raised by a PTA - or a separate fundraising committee. You don't need a CEO to do that job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are referring to the administration of the non-profit organization, not the current principal (who has been there for the current school year only).

There is no separate board for the charter school, so, it is being administered by the non-profit. You can look on their website for information-- or lack thereof about the larger non-profit organization. The current principal's boss is the CEO of Crossway Community.

I also want to add that many charter's have a CEO-type that is not an educator. The CEO's lack of education/Montessori credentials is not that unusual or alarming in of itself. Her job is to raise money and run the non-profit organization-- and in this case fund the Charter's pre-K students.

which is where the problems arise

I wouldn't expect an engineer to be a partner in a law firm. When everyone BUT educators start to run schools and systems, education falls apart. Not even Starr has enough educational experience to give him credibility as an educational leader. It's no longer about the child - but about the image and the politics driving that image. So is it any wonder the principal was bullied by the CEO?

Money can be raised by a PTA - or a separate fundraising committee. You don't need a CEO to do that job.

Ironically, they wouldn't allow a PTA to form. And blocked parents' attempts to fundraise (cancelled events, wouldn't dispense fundraising information parents had proposed (again, blocked a PTA so parents couldn't organize on their own). For one and a half years they told us charter families not to worry our pretty little heads about school finances, they had robust fundraising. Then we all got a letter the school was closing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are referring to the administration of the non-profit organization, not the current principal (who has been there for the current school year only).

There is no separate board for the charter school, so, it is being administered by the non-profit. You can look on their website for information-- or lack thereof about the larger non-profit organization. The current principal's boss is the CEO of Crossway Community.

I also want to add that many charter's have a CEO-type that is not an educator. The CEO's lack of education/Montessori credentials is not that unusual or alarming in of itself. Her job is to raise money and run the non-profit organization-- and in this case fund the Charter's pre-K students.

which is where the problems arise

I wouldn't expect an engineer to be a partner in a law firm. When everyone BUT educators start to run schools and systems, education falls apart. Not even Starr has enough educational experience to give him credibility as an educational leader. It's no longer about the child - but about the image and the politics driving that image. So is it any wonder the principal was bullied by the CEO?

Money can be raised by a PTA - or a separate fundraising committee. You don't need a CEO to do that job.

Ironically, they wouldn't allow a PTA to form. And blocked parents' attempts to fundraise (cancelled events, wouldn't dispense fundraising information parents had proposed (again, blocked a PTA so parents couldn't organize on their own). For one and a half years they told us charter families not to worry our pretty little heads about school finances, they had robust fundraising. Then we all got a letter the school was closing.

sad

But I can tell you that it wasn't the principal's decision to implement these decisions. She was bullied.

[Anonymous]

This school seems abysmally run. Even if you could get a spot at it it boggles my mind how anyone can read the horror show of poor administration decisions on this thread and still pick the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are referring to the administration of the non-profit organization, not the current principal (who has been there for the current school year only).

There is no separate board for the charter school, so, it is being administered by the non-profit. You can look on their website for information-- or lack thereof about the larger non-profit organization. The current principal's boss is the CEO of Crossway Community.

I also want to add that many charter's have a CEO-type that is not an educator. The CEO's lack of education/Montessori credentials is not that unusual or alarming in of itself. Her job is to raise money and run the non-profit organization-- and in this case fund the Charter's pre-K students.

which is where the problems arise

I wouldn't expect an engineer to be a partner in a law firm. When everyone BUT educators start to run schools and systems, education falls apart. Not even Starr has enough educational experience to give him credibility as an educational leader. It's no longer about the child - but about the image and the politics driving that image. So is it any wonder the principal was bullied by the CEO?

Money can be raised by a PTA - or a separate fundraising committee. You don't need a CEO to do that job. [/quote

Ironically, they wouldn't allow a PTA to form. And blocked parents' attempts to fundraise (cancelled events, wouldn't dispense fundraising information parents had proposed (again, blocked a PTA so parents couldn't organize on their own). For one and a half years they told us charter families not to worry our pretty little heads about school finances, they had robust fundraising. Then we all got a letter the school was closing.

This is not surprising. My experience with Crossway was pre-charter, but we had similar experience with Kathleen Guinan and Anne Byrne, the "head of school." Astounding level of contempt for parents, hideous treatment of staff, many untruths with regard to finances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are abysmal at following policies and providing straight answers. Current parent there, but this is my LAST year for sure. They aren't sure if they will have enough families to make a first grade class and their (excellent!) Teachers are leaving in droves due to terrible mistreatment. I can't think of any reason to recommend attending there, sadly.

Former parent here. Both my kids went through the entire Montessori program at Crossway from the Nido room through the last year of the 3 - 6 classroom. It was an awesome experience for them in many ways and the teachers they had were amazing.

BUT

The administration was nothing short of incompetent. In addition to all of the issues others have posted about lack of response to messages, lack of info, contradictory info, etc., they also treated their teachers poorly and had a bad track record of huge hikes in tuition for the aftercare program without notice, etc. They were contemptuous of some families' choices (working moms, for example).

If I had it to do all over again, I would pick a different school.

When you mention "administration," how are you defining it?

It's a charter, which means it has an MCPS principal who's working with a charter board. From what I can see, I can't find Guinan's ("CEO") credentials. If she's running a Montessori school w/o credentials, that's a problem. I can speak from experience in saying that any leader of a school w/o a strong educational background will be its downfall.

The principal is a public educator who is also trained in the Montessori philosophy.

PP here. I wasn't talking about the principal. Our experiences were pre-charter.

[Anonymous]

As an example of the level of incompetence and deception that goes on...

The school is currently planing a silent auction. Anyone who has been involved with these types of events know that there is a massive amount of planning and organization that is required. The school didn't begin organizing for the auction until two months prior to the actual event. The initial information that went home stated that any money that was raised would be used to fund student scholarships. We come to find out that the money will actually be used to pay off the schools debt and (possibly) fund scholarships.

The administration (CEO and Board of Directors) was asked a series of questions, including:

* What percentage of the funds raised will go to scholarships and what percentage will be used to pay off debt?
* How much debt is the school currently carrying? To whom is it owed?
* How many scholarships are needed? In what amount?
* Will the scholarship money be kept in a separate account or will the funds raised all go into a general account?
* Since the school currently employs folks whose primary responsibility if fundraising, how much funds have already been raised to this date?

The school has to date provided no response to any of these questions.

[Anonymous]

Here's one benefit...

According to their *publicly available* tax returns, in 2011, the CEO's total compensation increased over 42% ($34,486) from $80,736 in 2010 (before the Charter School was approved) to $115,222 in 2011 (when the Charter School was finally approved).

Anonymous wrote:Our son attended the private school at Crossway before it opened the charter school. I could not understand the benefits of having a charter school for Crossway so I am not surprised that it is now closed. The sad thing is that the charter school put a lot of strain on the private school. We, the paying parents, didn't know for sure if our money did not somehow go to pay some of the expenses of the charter school. We pulled our son out of Crossway. I am not sure how many families did what we did but losing a paying family when the school struggled was never a good thing.

[Anonymous]

What are most of the people doing who started at the school in its charter form? Are they enrolling as paying students, going back to neighborhood school, or seeking out montessori alternatives? I'm sure this really disrupted some people's plans, especially if they could have enrolled their children at other montessori schools or gotten into other lottery programs in MCPS, opportunities that may or may not be there now.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it seriously disrupted many families lives. I know families where someone quit a job, went back to school, started businesses, or bought houses because they thought their children had preschool and montessori charter through 3rd grade. Having the school close has been devastating. The administration could care less, gave parents zero chance of saving the charter. The disrespect and outright contempt for "middle class struggles" is truly astonishing. The CEO, Kathleen Guinan's indifference about the impact on so many families is well known. I'm particularly disgusted with the utter lack of caring for the children. The admin could care less that many of our 3 and 4 year olds will have to leave their friends and transition to yet another new school. We were told to pay $11,500 a year and that it "would be better to use our children's college money for Montessori preschool". Most families I know are leaving, some going to more affordable Montessori's, some are scraping together the funds to pay for one more year at Crossway before their child starts public K.

[Anonymous]

I really feel for the charter families, but even if you had managed to save the school for one or even two more years, it was not sustainable in the long run due to incompetent management. Better to look for options now when your child is little, rather than once they hit the elementary level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it seriously disrupted many families lives. I know families where someone quit a job, went back to school, started businesses, or bought houses because they thought their children had preschool and montessori charter through 3rd grade. Having the school close has been devastating. The administration could care less, gave parents zero chance of saving the charter. The disrespect and outright contempt for "middle class struggles" is truly astonishing. The CEO, Kathleen Guinan's indifference about the impact on so many families is well known. I'm particularly disgusted with the utter lack of caring for the children. The admin could care less that many of our 3 and 4 year olds will have to leave their friends and transition to yet another new school. We were told to pay $11,500 a year and that it "would be better to use our children's college money for Montessori preschool". Most families I know are leaving, some going to more affordable Montessori's, some are scraping together the funds to pay for one more year at Crossway before their child starts public K.

I am a Crossway parent from many years ago (my kids are now in middle school) but this sounds very typical of how they treated us -- with contempt. This is not surprising at all.