Mad at the Board

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On January 28, the board will also announce a tuition increase. I hope they get their act together. I don’t think parents have much patience for high turnover in the HOS position at an expensive school.

So tone deaf. Why would the Board pick this year of all years to do a tuition increase? Unreal!

Raising tuition is assumed at all local independents. Rising operating costs have to be kept up with, standard of living/inflation adjustments need to be made, and Maret likely has some debt from buying Lorax Field, etc.

Specific to Maret, people on these forums express concern about faculty quality and consistency during the leadership shuffle, with several mid year changes already having occurred, and a fair amount of postings for next year already up.

Put that all together with higher than normal inflation in the last few years, and they're probably going to to have relatively higher wages to pay in the coming school year. That definitely requires a tuition increase.

If that increase is out of line with peer schools, that will certainly cause a ruckus.

Teachers are not necessarily leaving because they are unpaid. There might be other reasons (specially for those leaving mid year)

Nothing here says they're leaving because they're unpaid. Just that between turnover and economic conditions, the school will likely have more expensive total salaries to pay moving forward; another factor in raising tuition.

I meant underpaid. Some of the departures were actually fired teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Despite the vitriol in this thread, things are calm in the day to day operations at school. My kids are happy and learning, including my 9th grader (including this because there have been several references to the previous 8th grade class. The 9th grade group is great!).

Just another example of how DCUM/anonymous boards don’t always reflect reality. Talk to current parents/students if you are interested in the school.

I am a current parent and full of vitriol. I think the 9th grade group of kids and parents ARE great! I’ve never had an issue with the parents or the kids at the school, just the administration. I seriously hope that the happy ninth grade parent stays that way. There are tons of them and I’m sure it’s the majority of the class.


The parents who pulled their kids from the current 9th grade did so because of issues with the school administration, not the parents or other kids in the class. I would argue that that’s a bigger issue in the long-term. I am extremely relieved that the head of school is leaving and hope that the school can go back to where it was a few years ago with his departure. We used to be extremely happy with the school and until something goes wrong, many of the current families can continue to be very happy with the school. Unfortunately, one of the biggest tests of a school is how they manage when things go wrong. And, in my opinion, the past couple of years have been disastrous on that front.

[Anonymous]

I hope the board can get their act together. The HoS hire was not the only issue, it was also their complete lack of ability to manage the Head. Bosland mentioned that this Fall she had no idea that she would end up being the interim Head of School. So many people could see that this Head was struggling, yet they were resting on their laurels until it got so bad and a change had to happen suddenly? Either that or they hadn't asked him to sign a contract yet? Either way, that is bad management of a Head and bigger than just making a bad hire. Faculty have mentioned that they are happy the ahead is leaving but my sense is they have also lost a great deal of faith in this board for not acting on something that was glaring until it put the school at reputational risk. They literally had one job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Despite the vitriol in this thread, things are calm in the day to day operations at school. My kids are happy and learning, including my 9th grader (including this because there have been several references to the previous 8th grade class. The 9th grade group is great!).

Just another example of how DCUM/anonymous boards don’t always reflect reality. Talk to current parents/students if you are interested in the school.

I am a current parent and full of vitriol. I think the 9th grade group of kids and parents ARE great! I’ve never had an issue with the parents or the kids at the school, just the administration. I seriously hope that the happy ninth grade parent stays that way. There are tons of them and I’m sure it’s the majority of the class.


The parents who pulled their kids from the current 9th grade did so because of issues with the school administration, not the parents or other kids in the class. I would argue that that’s a bigger issue in the long-term. I am extremely relieved that the head of school is leaving and hope that the school can go back to where it was a few years ago with his departure. We used to be extremely happy with the school and until something goes wrong, many of the current families can continue to be very happy with the school. Unfortunately, one of the biggest tests of a school is how they manage when things go wrong. And, in my opinion, the past couple of years have been disastrous on that front.

What issues are you referring to? What “went wrong” and caused you to sour so much on the school all of a sudden?

[Anonymous]

In terms of the board, since that is the topic here- the community will be looking to the current board to make things right after a botched head search....

.....and that better not be a tuition increase any bigger than the rate of inflation, especially with what is going on in the economy and so many federal jobs being scrapped

If they raise it any higher, wow. Well then the next General Body Meeting is going to be even worse than the last one!

[Anonymous]

My guess is that they will raise the tuition more than inflation, but then I will adjust my donations accordingly.

I like to donate, but also my salary increases less than inflation.

[Anonymous]

Most schools raise tuition every year by about 2-5%. I think inflation has been around the low end of that range recently, but we've been at this with multiple kids at multiple schools for 10+ years and it's generally been the case that tuition increases have outpaced inflation historically. I'm not personally going to get worked up over where the annual increase falls below inflation, since the difference in a 2% or 3% increase is negligible. I'm more focused on the Board continuing to confirm that enrollment and giving are steady, and that tuition remains lower than peer schools, which will allow the school to maintain the socioeconomic diversity via financial aid that we think is really important. They signaled at the meeting in November that this all remains true, but that's what I'm keeping a close eye on as we move into this next phase with a new HoS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:On January 28, the board will also announce a tuition increase. I hope they get their act together. I don’t think parents have much patience for high turnover in the HOS position at an expensive school.

care to elaborate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most schools raise tuition every year by about 2-5%. I think inflation has been around the low end of that range recently, but we've been at this with multiple kids at multiple schools for 10+ years and it's generally been the case that tuition increases have outpaced inflation historically. I'm not personally going to get worked up over where the annual increase falls below inflation, since the difference in a 2% or 3% increase is negligible. I'm more focused on the Board continuing to confirm that enrollment and giving are steady, and that tuition remains lower than peer schools, which will allow the school to maintain the socioeconomic diversity via financial aid that we think is really important. They signaled at the meeting in November that this all remains true, but that's what I'm keeping a close eye on as we move into this next phase with a new HoS.

I don’t mind the tuition increase but I do mind the incompetence in managing a school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most schools raise tuition every year by about 2-5%. I think inflation has been around the low end of that range recently, but we've been at this with multiple kids at multiple schools for 10+ years and it's generally been the case that tuition increases have outpaced inflation historically. I'm not personally going to get worked up over where the annual increase falls below inflation, since the difference in a 2% or 3% increase is negligible. I'm more focused on the Board continuing to confirm that enrollment and giving are steady, and that tuition remains lower than peer schools, which will allow the school to maintain the socioeconomic diversity via financial aid that we think is really important. They signaled at the meeting in November that this all remains true, but that's what I'm keeping a close eye on as we move into this next phase with a new HoS.

I don’t mind the tuition increase but I do mind the incompetence in managing a school.

Yep. But after yesterday’s meeting with the interim head, I have at least some hope that they will get the HoS mess sorted out. She was a breath of fresh air in the midst of the drama around the current Head

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most schools raise tuition every year by about 2-5%. I think inflation has been around the low end of that range recently, but we've been at this with multiple kids at multiple schools for 10+ years and it's generally been the case that tuition increases have outpaced inflation historically. I'm not personally going to get worked up over where the annual increase falls below inflation, since the difference in a 2% or 3% increase is negligible. I'm more focused on the Board continuing to confirm that enrollment and giving are steady, and that tuition remains lower than peer schools, which will allow the school to maintain the socioeconomic diversity via financial aid that we think is really important. They signaled at the meeting in November that this all remains true, but that's what I'm keeping a close eye on as we move into this next phase with a new HoS.

I don’t mind the tuition increase but I do mind the incompetence in managing a school.

Yep. But after yesterday’s meeting with the interim head, I have at least some hope that they will get the HoS mess sorted out. She was a breath of fresh air in the midst of the drama around the current Head

A pity that she is staying only 1 year. Let’s hope the board learned a bit from their mistake. Sad that there is no trust, just hope.

[Anonymous]

I wonder why Mario -- who knew what it took to run the school - was so supportive of the decision to hire DB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder why Mario -- who knew what it took to run the school - was so supportive of the decision to hire DB.

Well don’t forget that at the end of the day it was the board decision. Maybe she didn’t want to end her career at maret with conflicts.

Also the board approved an exit bonus of 250k for her. It’s public information in pro publica.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder why Mario -- who knew what it took to run the school - was so supportive of the decision to hire DB.

Oh she tried to sway and influence and even brought in her own pet candidate who was awful. I’d rather have Dennis than anyone Marjo chose that’s for sure.

Dennis wasn’t a good fit, but by the end of her regime, the teachers didn’t love Marjo (except her lackeys who should be fired at this point) and a lot of the parents were turned off by Marjo as well- don’t romanticize the past.

She did plenty of truly messed up stuff, firing people she legally couldn’t fire, covering up sexual assaults cases, putting people on the board who should not be there to…she was far from perfect.

[Anonymous]

If Marjo had great influence on last search that is the Board’s fault. The Board is in charge of making the selection of the Head. The other two candidates went on to be Heads at other schools and don’t seem to be causing the chaos that is happening at Maret. The truth is this Board is a mess. They make decisions which are bewildering and have made things worse in conjunction with current Head. Incoming Interim Head is part of that current Board, which doesn’t add confidence. She said the right things at the parent meeting but she is coming from the group that allowed the issue of the running of the school to get out of hand.