What’s Something About Your School You Would Have LOVED To Know Before Enrolling

[Anonymous]

From a few years ago, I would have loved to know school was switching from a block schedule to a schedule with 7 periods a day. We were told this was because teachers thought it would mean more work done in class and less homework. It just meant no control over the timing of homework/our evening schedule. They did it for the convenience of sharing teachers across MS and HS for foreign language. No other comparable high schools do this.

[Anonymous]

Wish we had known GDS doesn’t have a HS cafeteria.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From a few years ago, I would have loved to know school was switching from a block schedule to a schedule with 7 periods a day. We were told this was because teachers thought it would mean more work done in class and less homework. It just meant no control over the timing of homework/our evening schedule. They did it for the convenience of sharing teachers across MS and HS for foreign language. No other comparable high schools do this.

Opposite. Ours switched to a block after reenrollment had already happened. My DD has early release 2 days/week which was negotiated as part of admissions. Going to the block schedule and having zero control over which classes landed in those afternoon blocks imploded her school schedule and activity schedule (live outside dmv, she trains with a club and is on the junior national team for her sport). This happened going into sophomore year and we were really stuck. Others felt that they had also been blindsided by the block schedule and would have chosen other schools had they known the school had been planning it for 18 months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That behind the scenes, the Board was moving in the direction that it ultimately took and blindsided parents by firing (“not renewing”) several veteran and excellent white staffers who had been doing a great job. These people, ultimately about %20 of the staff were replaced by Black staff. Then the school went all equity and woke, all the time. The curriculum was overhauled and they began doing classroom exercises like the “oppressor / oppressed sorting game”. Shakespeare was no longer on the reading list for the specific grade where it had been for years.



This was years before George Floyd. The school was early to the DEI party and started paying outside contractors large sums to consult.

Lordy. What school is that?

Sheridan

Patently false. Sheridan's board -- or any board -- cannot fire teachers. They only have oversight over the head of school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That behind the scenes, the Board was moving in the direction that it ultimately took and blindsided parents by firing (“not renewing”) several veteran and excellent white staffers who had been doing a great job. These people, ultimately about %20 of the staff were replaced by Black staff. Then the school went all equity and woke, all the time. The curriculum was overhauled and they began doing classroom exercises like the “oppressor / oppressed sorting game”. Shakespeare was no longer on the reading list for the specific grade where it had been for years.



This was years before George Floyd. The school was early to the DEI party and started paying outside contractors large sums to consult.

Lordy. What school is that?

Sheridan

Patently false. Sheridan's board -- or any board -- cannot fire teachers. They only have oversight over the head of school.

If you think boards have no influence over operational decisions made by heads of school, you are very naive.

[Anonymous]

I was on the board of our kid's school for six years, and we absolutely stayed away from weighing in on operational issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was on the board of our kid's school for six years, and we absolutely stayed away from weighing in on operational issues.

DP. Depends on the school. At certain schools yes they absolutely weigh in on things like getting friends admitted, weighing in if best friend's child is in trouble, setting a tone that if the school does not do what they and their club crowd friends wants to be done at the school then the HOS will get fired, expecting their kid to get into their first choice college. There are ways in which these messages are conveyed. Spouses also seem to have input. But the major factor is keeping the power of the governing board within their social circle. That is the one thing that has been really shocking. Board members are allowed to hand pick their replacement on the board when their term limit is finished.

[Anonymous]

Sheridan sounds like an absolute nightmare

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was on the board of our kid's school for six years, and we absolutely stayed away from weighing in on operational issues.

DP. Depends on the school. At certain schools yes they absolutely weigh in on things like getting friends admitted, weighing in if best friend's child is in trouble, setting a tone that if the school does not do what they and their club crowd friends wants to be done at the school then the HOS will get fired, expecting their kid to get into their first choice college. There are ways in which these messages are conveyed. Spouses also seem to have input. But the major factor is keeping the power of the governing board within their social circle. That is the one thing that has been really shocking. Board members are allowed to hand pick their replacement on the board when their term limit is finished.

Why shocking? And why only that one thing and not any of the other special treatment

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For our HS - that the college counseling office will limit the number of colleges that you can apply to. That certain classes are restricted in class size because of "equipment" issues and your child won't get the electives they want because of that.

Aren't all classes restricted in size? No one would want a 40 person class. Kids aren't guaranteed their first choice electives anywhere.

You can EASILY go through these high schools having never received your top 3 choices for any English or History class. Then you're paying $56K for super specialized stuff that your particular kid doesn't care about: a year of Asian history or a year of Shakespeare. My history loving kid is having to take African American Culture as a history class (which I'm sure will be great but this kid would have killed for a spot in an actual history class).

African-American history is American history, so your kid is taking an actual history class.

Slow down. They said "African-American Culture," not history. I wouldn't want my kid taking "American Culture" or "European Culture" when they could be taking American / European HISTORY. At the college level, sure, take classes in culture. In high school, they need the background knowledge.

[Anonymous]

I wish there was a way to predict cohort. Class above and below us=geographically and culturally diverse.

Our class= concentrated in 1-2 adult social groups and clubs and 2 neighborhoods. Much less diverse. We don’t fit in and our child doesn’t, either, but that was hard to predict based on the people we met during the open house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For our HS - that the college counseling office will limit the number of colleges that you can apply to. That certain classes are restricted in class size because of "equipment" issues and your child won't get the electives they want because of that.

This is pretty typical. I have kids at 2 different Big3 schools. Electives start in 11th and almost no one gets their choices in 11th. In 12th grade you maybe got one of your choices. One of my kids (now a senior) has the most random selection of courses ever. I sometimes worry that colleges are going to wonder "huh, why the heck would this kid take THIS history class and THIS English class? " Uh, because that's what she was given and there was no ability to switch (other sections were full or they would require her to switch a math section but this wasn't possible because other sections of the math class were full. These schools: WILL NOT add a kid to a class above the determined roster size. There is ZERO flexibility like in public. If the course size is 12, there will 12 students enrolled--doesn't matter if there is a desk in the room, etc.

Big3 course selection in our experience: "You get what you get and you don't get upset."

Which Big3 schools are these?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will go first. Would have loved to know that:

1) School does not allow students to take home their graded quizzes and exams. Student may only review them in class.

2) School does not allow students to view their grades at anytime. Grades are open and viewable for a couple of days per month and even viewable for less time for parents.

3). You get ONE grade for each class at the end of the year.

We would have still enrolled but these were interesting aspects that we were not aware of prior to enrollment. And, my DD loved it.

That our all girls school was reducing the number of coordinate classes with the brother school. One of the reasons we picked this school over another is that we were told about the coordinate offerings in high school. Feels like a bait and switch.

False. This is not true. The number is the same. The only thing that changed was the required 11th grade history will not be together anymore. Please stop positing false information. The number will be the exact same.

^^^^ misinformation. No, it won’t be the exact same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will go first. Would have loved to know that:

1) School does not allow students to take home their graded quizzes and exams. Student may only review them in class.

2) School does not allow students to view their grades at anytime. Grades are open and viewable for a couple of days per month and even viewable for less time for parents.

3). You get ONE grade for each class at the end of the year.

We would have still enrolled but these were interesting aspects that we were not aware of prior to enrollment. And, my DD loved it.

Wish I had known that there were so many vocal Trump supporting families and country club members.

+1 STA. Vocal in casual conversation. Have controlled the PA for years. Non-country club working moms not welcome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For our HS - that the college counseling office will limit the number of colleges that you can apply to. That certain classes are restricted in class size because of "equipment" issues and your child won't get the electives they want because of that.

This is pretty typical. I have kids at 2 different Big3 schools. Electives start in 11th and almost no one gets their choices in 11th. In 12th grade you maybe got one of your choices. One of my kids (now a senior) has the most random selection of courses ever. I sometimes worry that colleges are going to wonder "huh, why the heck would this kid take THIS history class and THIS English class? " Uh, because that's what she was given and there was no ability to switch (other sections were full or they would require her to switch a math section but this wasn't possible because other sections of the math class were full. These schools: WILL NOT add a kid to a class above the determined roster size. There is ZERO flexibility like in public. If the course size is 12, there will 12 students enrolled--doesn't matter if there is a desk in the room, etc.

Big3 course selection in our experience: "You get what you get and you don't get upset."

Which Big3 schools are these?

Why does it matter? It’s not like any of these parents would switch schools or pick a different one because of this.