Why is the head of school at BASIS really leaving?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He was never supposed to stay more than 2 years and was always returning to Arizona (where he's lived for 15 years and where he has family) so this makes sense to me. He's also up for a promotion to with with the school planning part so it sounds like a great move.

Umm..his entire family (and his girlfriend) live in Ohio, and he committed to 2 years, but his plan was to get a job in school policy by the time the 2 years was up. Obviously, that did not happen.

[Anonymous]

Best not to believe anything Eyerman says about anything in that letter or otherwise. He is full of it. I hear therewad a lawsuit with Basis DC somehow involving SPED settled a week ago-have no idea if there is a correlation, but...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Best not to believe anything Eyerman says about anything in that letter or otherwise. He is full of it. I hear therewad a lawsuit with Basis DC somehow involving SPED settled a week ago-have no idea if there is a correlation, but...

Every school has lawsuits over special ed. All of them -- DCPS and charters. The agreements tend to be sealed so it's always whispers and rumors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So why can't BASIS HQ recruit a strong DC school leader who plans to stay at least 5 years, like at other good schools in this area? Come on, you can whitewash the situation without changing the fact that there are a good many well-liked DCPS and DCPCS principals who've been on the job for a decade or more. The revolving door BASIS DC head arrangement is old, really old. Enough already. Stabilize the leadership please, Arizona.

Why? Because NO Basis heads of school stay at one school for more than 2-3 years. As much as we may want it to be otherwise, the DC school is not going to be managed differently than all of their others.

Oh right, almost lost sight of the fast food franchise school model (the menu being uniform, total quality management not withstanding). If we could get a strong head to stay as long as 3 years, we'd cheer up a bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I taught at BASIS DC, lasted one year in that joyless building. Get back to us after several years with no library, gym, performance space, academic tracking outside math or outdoor space and several different heads, wealthy guy. Most of the strongest students are leaving before HS.

Actually my kid's freshman class has retained almost all of the kids who started in Algebra 1 in 5th grade. There are also plenty of students from wealthy families as well as middle class families and as well as poor families. It is very diverse.

BASIS is not perfect but I am satisfied with what he has learned the past 5 years. Freshman year is going well as well. Sure I wish the building was bigger and that there were more extra-curricular activities (but there is till a good amount of activities that my kid has participated in over the years there). As for activities we also do activities outside of school seeing as this is DC and there are a lot of activities here

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I taught at BASIS DC, lasted one year in that joyless building. Get back to us after several years with no library, gym, performance space, academic tracking outside math or outdoor space and several different heads, wealthy guy. Most of the strongest students are leaving before HS.

Actually my kid's freshman class has retained almost all of the kids who started in Algebra 1 in 5th grade. There are also plenty of students from wealthy families as well as middle class families and as well as poor families. It is very diverse.

BASIS is not perfect but I am satisfied with what he has learned the past 5 years. Freshman year is going well as well. Sure I wish the building was bigger and that there were more extra-curricular activities (but there is till a good amount of activities that my kid has participated in over the years there). As for activities we also do activities outside of school seeing as this is DC and there are a lot of activities here

No, they are not "plenty" of BASIS students from "wealthy families." There are hardly any. There are a good many students from upper middle class families where parents earn less than around 200K combined.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I taught at BASIS DC, lasted one year in that joyless building. Get back to us after several years with no library, gym, performance space, academic tracking outside math or outdoor space and several different heads, wealthy guy. Most of the strongest students are leaving before HS.

Actually my kid's freshman class has retained almost all of the kids who started in Algebra 1 in 5th grade. There are also plenty of students from wealthy families as well as middle class families and as well as poor families. It is very diverse.

BASIS is not perfect but I am satisfied with what he has learned the past 5 years. Freshman year is going well as well. Sure I wish the building was bigger and that there were more extra-curricular activities (but there is till a good amount of activities that my kid has participated in over the years there). As for activities we also do activities outside of school seeing as this is DC and there are a lot of activities here

No, they are not "plenty" of BASIS students from "wealthy families." There are hardly any. There are a good many students from upper middle class families where parents earn less than around 200K combined.

Oh, the horrors!

Well in our experience there are plenty of wealthy kids in my book.

[Anonymous]

Now we're criticizing BASIs for not being wealthy enough? Ok.

[Anonymous]

Only in DC and on DCUM would hhi of $200k not be condidered wealthy! I think the pp's point was that it is not a Title I school and that it is economically diverse. It may be the most naturally diverse school in DC at this point, which is what a lot of people claim to want.

[Anonymous]

Demographically BASIS DC is pretty interesting.

Black 38.9%
White 40.9%
Latino 6.7%
Asian 6.2%
Multiracial 7.2%

Female 50.3%
Male 49.7%

20% Economically disadvantaged.

Just very few students with IEPs -- 4.8%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Demographically BASIS DC is pretty interesting.

Black 38.9%
White 40.9%
Latino 6.7%
Asian 6.2%
Multiracial 7.2%

Female 50.3%
Male 49.7%

20% Economically disadvantaged.

Just very few students with IEPs -- 4.8%

That's a shocker...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I taught at BASIS DC, lasted one year in that joyless building. Get back to us after several years with no library, gym, performance space, academic tracking outside math or outdoor space and several different heads, wealthy guy. Most of the strongest students are leaving before HS.

Actually my kid's freshman class has retained almost all of the kids who started in Algebra 1 in 5th grade. There are also plenty of students from wealthy families as well as middle class families and as well as poor families. It is very diverse.

BASIS is not perfect but I am satisfied with what he has learned the past 5 years. Freshman year is going well as well. Sure I wish the building was bigger and that there were more extra-curricular activities (but there is till a good amount of activities that my kid has participated in over the years there). As for activities we also do activities outside of school seeing as this is DC and there are a lot of activities here

No, they are not "plenty" of BASIS students from "wealthy families." There are hardly any. There are a good many students from upper middle class families where parents earn less than around 200K combined.

Oh, the horrors!

Well in our experience there are plenty of wealthy kids in my book.

In your book, but not DC's. Plenty of parents in this town earn 250K, 300K, 400K combined,. They send their children to Sidwell, St. Albans, GDS, Holton Arms etc. not the BASIS cave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I taught at BASIS DC, lasted one year in that joyless building. Get back to us after several years with no library, gym, performance space, academic tracking outside math or outdoor space and several different heads, wealthy guy. Most of the strongest students are leaving before HS.

Actually my kid's freshman class has retained almost all of the kids who started in Algebra 1 in 5th grade. There are also plenty of students from wealthy families as well as middle class families and as well as poor families. It is very diverse.

BASIS is not perfect but I am satisfied with what he has learned the past 5 years. Freshman year is going well as well. Sure I wish the building was bigger and that there were more extra-curricular activities (but there is till a good amount of activities that my kid has participated in over the years there). As for activities we also do activities outside of school seeing as this is DC and there are a lot of activities here

No, they are not "plenty" of BASIS students from "wealthy families." There are hardly any. There are a good many students from upper middle class families where parents earn less than around 200K combined.

Oh, the horrors!

Well in our experience there are plenty of wealthy kids in my book.

In your book, but not DC's. Plenty of parents in this town earn 250K, 300K, 400K combined,. They send their children to Sidwell, St. Albans, GDS, Holton Arms etc. not the BASIS cave.

BASIS DC is a public school. They are "competing" against Deal, Hardy, Jefferson, SH, EH, DCI, Washington Latin, Wilson, SWW, Banneker, Coolidge, Roosevelt, MacFarland, Cap City, ITS, CMI, etc, etc.

They are holding their own against those other schools academically. They are very upfront about what they do, and what they don't do, and the advantages (ease of commute) and disadvanrages of their building. They allow any prospective student to shadow for an entire day so no one is surprised about that.

If you can afford to send your kid to a 30-40,000 per year middle or high school and they can get in, why wouldn't you do that? It's a no-brainer.

But I'm grateful that there is an academically challenging option for my middle class kid who doesn't live IB for Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I taught at BASIS DC, lasted one year in that joyless building. Get back to us after several years with no library, gym, performance space, academic tracking outside math or outdoor space and several different heads, wealthy guy. Most of the strongest students are leaving before HS.

Actually my kid's freshman class has retained almost all of the kids who started in Algebra 1 in 5th grade. There are also plenty of students from wealthy families as well as middle class families and as well as poor families. It is very diverse.

BASIS is not perfect but I am satisfied with what he has learned the past 5 years. Freshman year is going well as well. Sure I wish the building was bigger and that there were more extra-curricular activities (but there is till a good amount of activities that my kid has participated in over the years there). As for activities we also do activities outside of school seeing as this is DC and there are a lot of activities here

No, they are not "plenty" of BASIS students from "wealthy families." There are hardly any. There are a good many students from upper middle class families where parents earn less than around 200K combined.

Oh, the horrors!

Well in our experience there are plenty of wealthy kids in my book.

In your book, but not DC's. Plenty of parents in this town earn 250K, 300K, 400K combined,. They send their children to Sidwell, St. Albans, GDS, Holton Arms etc. not the BASIS cave.

So those of us who make $100, 000 to $200,000 are not wealthy enough for you??? I don't need to hang out with snobs like you who probably voted for Republicans and for Trump

[Anonymous]

Getting back to the original question here...

From conversations over the last couple of years with teachers, board members, students, and other parents, I don't think we're going to be missing much. The exiting HOS doesn't get positive reports from anyone.