Underwhelming appearance by Principal Martin at Wilson HS Open House

[Anonymous]

OK. I have kept this for myself for almost one week. Though I am an on and off DCUM user (normally I am in during the year before a new school cycle of one of my kids), I know how incendiary this Forum can be…

So last Wednesday I attended the Wilson HS open house. Great to see again families from our ex ES who are re-considering DCPS after charter or private middles schools!!
Everything went very well, the school infrastructure is always impressive, the school choir looked and sounded beautiful, the students were inspiring and the Assistant Principals sounded solid, dedicated and in control. So, all went well until… the new Principal Ms Kimberly Martin took the microphone (believe me when I say that I feel uncomfortable and sad in sharing my negative views about a professional who’s been entrusted with the task of steering the HS education of almost 2,000 students/year of the largest HS in the District of Columbia…).

She sounded by far the least articulated speaker of the group (including students). She sounded hesitant and non-articulated. She babbled at tract , with no words coming to her… Her answers to the parents' questions were no answers (Parent: “What about the discipline and crime inside the school?” Principal “Oh, it’s so much better than where I come from… Plus my son is here and he’s very happy”… Is this an answer? ). She looked uncomfortable. Regarding the overcrowding, she gave very wrong answers (“One hypothesis is that I think DCPS might consider withdrawing the feeder rights”) , which made some parents very concerned, and disoriented others. If she has insights from DCPS on this matter, well, that was not the arena to disclose them..If it was her personal guess, again, do not share it openly. That was wrong and stupid.

My impression is that she made parents puzzled and disoriented. Some got very nervous for the lack of content in her answers… I understand the pressure she was feeling from a large audience of (almost all white) demanding parents…and I also understand that she is new. However we felt that her performance was too much sub-standard and below everyone’s expectations.

I would like to know the impressions from others who have attended the open houses or visited the school recently. Are we missing something? Was it just a bad day for her?

More concerning: what are DCPS plan about the school? After having met her, I cannot but think that there must be a plan behind the removal of a strong and respected Principal to be replaced by such a weaker figure. I do not get it. And HS choice for us is just a few months away.

Thank you for reading and for your feedback.

[Anonymous]

And somewhere Principal Cahall is reading this and laughing his ass off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OK. I have kept this for myself for almost one week. Though I am an on and off DCUM user (normally I am in during the year before a new school cycle of one of my kids), I know how incendiary this Forum can be…

So last Wednesday I attended the Wilson HS open house. Great to see again families from our ex ES who are re-considering DCPS after charter or private middles schools!!
Everything went very well, the school infrastructure is always impressive, the school choir looked and sounded beautiful, the students were inspiring and the Assistant Principals sounded solid, dedicated and in control. So, all went well until… the new Principal Ms Kimberly Martin took the microphone (believe me when I say that I feel uncomfortable and sad in sharing my negative views about a professional who’s been entrusted with the task of steering the HS education of almost 2,000 students/year of the largest HS in the District of Columbia…).

She sounded by far the least articulated speaker of the group (including students). She sounded hesitant and non-articulated. She babbled at tract , with no words coming to her… Her answers to the parents' questions were no answers (Parent: “What about the discipline and crime inside the school?” Principal “Oh, it’s so much better than where I come from… Plus my son is here and he’s very happy”… Is this an answer? ). She looked uncomfortable. Regarding the overcrowding, she gave very wrong answers (“One hypothesis is that I think DCPS might consider withdrawing the feeder rights”) , which made some parents very concerned, and disoriented others. If she has insights from DCPS on this matter, well, that was not the arena to disclose them..If it was her personal guess, again, do not share it openly. That was wrong and stupid.

My impression is that she made parents puzzled and disoriented. Some got very nervous for the lack of content in her answers… I understand the pressure she was feeling from a large audience of (almost all white) demanding parents…and I also understand that she is new. However we felt that her performance was too much sub-standard and below everyone’s expectations.

I would like to know the impressions from others who have attended the open houses or visited the school recently. Are we missing something? Was it just a bad day for her?

More concerning: what are DCPS plan about the school? After having met her, I cannot but think that there must be a plan behind the removal of a strong and respected Principal to be replaced by such a weaker figure. I do not get it. And HS choice for us is just a few months away.

Thank you for reading and for your feedback.

Who in DCPS was responsible for selecting her? Kaya, I guess?

[Anonymous]

You referenced race and that seems to be your focus. Wilson, is the 2015 version of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. It is so sad what DC has become.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You referenced race and that seems to be your focus. Wilson, is the 2015 version of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. It is so sad what DC has become.

This is beside the kind of feedback you are looking for OP, but wish you hadn't mentioned the crowd was almost all white. It makes no difference to your post, what professional is leading Wilson, or anything related to the operation of the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You referenced race and that seems to be your focus. Wilson, is the 2015 version of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. It is so sad what DC has become.

actually OP wrote a long post describing reasons she feels the principal may be weak and except for the reference to the almost white audience (which I agree was unnecessary, even if it was a fact) there is no mention of race. she said that the principal was the least articulate speaker, she gave examples of unsatisfying answers or answers that puzzled the parents. it does not seem to me that race was the focus of OP's post at all. it seems to me that you are focusing on an unnecessary detail of OP's post to avoid facing the focus of OP's post, which is that the principal did not performed well at the open house. with a 5th grader in a Wilson feeder, we are not at the school yet but watching closely and seriously hope that whoever is in charge at Wilson is the right person (regardless of race/gender/sexual orientation/religion and what else)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And somewhere Principal Cahall is reading this and laughing his ass off.

He attended Homecoming this past weekend as if he belonged. However, I was happy to see him.

[Anonymous]

I think open is leading us...she writes principal's name, which. Clearly sounds black and she mentions audience is mostly white.

I think this is setting up an unfair character assassination against the principal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think open is leading us...she writes principal's name, which. Clearly sounds black and she mentions audience is mostly white.

I'm laughing out loud as I grew up with a Kimmy Martin who was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed white kid. The name Kimberly Martin does not "clearly sound black" to me at least.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You referenced race and that seems to be your focus. Wilson, is the 2015 version of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. It is so sad what DC has become.

actually OP wrote a long post describing reasons she feels the principal may be weak and except for the reference to the almost white audience (which I agree was unnecessary, even if it was a fact) there is no mention of race. she said that the principal was the least articulate speaker, she gave examples of unsatisfying answers or answers that puzzled the parents. it does not seem to me that race was the focus of OP's post at all. it seems to me that you are focusing on an unnecessary detail of OP's post to avoid facing the focus of OP's post, which is that the principal did not performed well at the open house. with a 5th grader in a Wilson feeder, we are not at the school yet but watching closely and seriously hope that whoever is in charge at Wilson is the right person (regardless of race/gender/sexual orientation/religion and what else)

+1. Previous PP sounds kinda crazy. White crazy, black crazy, who knows, but crazy crazy for sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think open is leading us...she writes principal's name, which. Clearly sounds black and she mentions audience is mostly white.

I'm laughing out loud as I grew up with a Kimmy Martin who was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed white kid. The name Kimberly Martin does not "clearly sound black" to me at least.

Ok so I'm not the only one who wondered what pp was talking about.

Kim Martin is no Bequita Jackson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think open is leading us...she writes principal's name, which. Clearly sounds black and she mentions audience is mostly white.

I'm laughing out loud as I grew up with a Kimmy Martin who was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed white kid. The name Kimberly Martin does not "clearly sound black" to me at least.

There rare definitely some names that are typically black names. Kimberly Martin is NOT one of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think open is leading us...she writes principal's name, which. Clearly sounds black and she mentions audience is mostly white.

I'm laughing out loud as I grew up with a Kimmy Martin who was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed white kid. The name Kimberly Martin does not "clearly sound black" to me at least.

There rare definitely some names that are typically black names. Kimberly Martin is NOT one of them.

I'm confused. Is she even black? It's not clear from the pics I've seen.

I hope the crazy race-obsessed PP is not a Wilson parent.

[Anonymous]

Let's move away from race. I have a question for the original poster.

What exactly are you trying to accomplish by posting here? If you are so concerned why not set up a meeting with the principal to discuss your concerns or dig deeper to get more information?

Trying to elicit a group response against the principal on an anonymous board is hardly the way to go about things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What exactly are you trying to accomplish by posting here? If you are so concerned why not set up a meeting with the principal to discuss your concerns or dig deeper to get more information?

This is what OP said:

I would like to know the impressions from others who have attended the open houses or visited the school recently. Are we missing something? Was it just a bad day for her?

Seems like a reasonable approach. Presumably this is not the only way OP is seeking information about the school.