Underwhelming appearance by Principal Martin at Wilson HS Open House

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the feedback about the Open House. I regret that my performance was less than you anticipated. The questions and answers I provided during the unscripted Q and A were somewhat vague, I agree, and in my perspective they were questions that I would typically answer in an email or individual conversation, but not in front of a large group, due to their complexity. For instance, "what do you anticipate being the biggest issue in the next five years" and "is your school safe?" (there was no question about discipline). In my view, those questions require a bit of background knowledge and, as I mentioned in my response to the group, have many variables to consider, which I'm not sure a group of parents who are largely unconnected to our school would understand. In fact, I hold monthly Parent Coffees, which are well attended by Wilson parents, and I often hear that these meetings are informative, thoughtful and productive. The parents who are present set the monthly agenda, however, we do not speak about issues like school safety, presumably because it is not an issue for parents who are insiders. In thinking about school safety: does the speaker want to know about our suspension rates? The number of fights in the school? The number of safety drills we have each month? The results of the student satisfaction survey? The results of the teacher survey? Or are there other factors that are important? Perhaps there is something more to the question, of which I am unaware? When I prompted the speaker for clarification, he stated, "does your school feel safe?" How am I to answer a questions about "feeling" without discussing how someone "feels," which is why I stated, "my son feels safe and students tell me they feel safe." I could have stated that our suspension rate has declined over the last several years, but does that mean a school is more or less safe in an outsiders' perspective? In relation to the questions about my biggest concern for the next five years, I am quite concerned about the boundary issues that have been discussed and analyzed over the last few months since I've arrived. Our school is the largest school in DCPS and as I mentioned in the Open House, we are 150 students over capacity THIS YEAR, but as our enrollment continues to increase....? When asked, "what will you do about it?" I explained that there are several possible solutions, none that has been determined to be THE solution as yet. Then I was asked, "what are the possible options for solving this problem?" I stated that there are several possible solutions that have been discussed, which include looking at our boundaries and making changes to our boundaries, as has been done within the last 12 months, and changes were already implemented last year. Then, "why is this a concern?" and yes, I stumbled, because I hesitate to say that our school may unwittingly exclude a specific demographic of students and yes, then the question of race came up. If there was concern from me about the presentation it was that I was being asked to answer to situations that are already and still occurring and in forums like this, I cannot share "what ifs" since my words are often distorted and those distortions are made as fact.
How my race plays into this conversation is another matter entirely and I will not comment on that in this forum or at any other time.
All the best,
Kim Martin

I can confirm that this was post came from a dc.gov IP address and that it does not appear to have been someone who has posted here previously. So I think there is a good chance that the message did come from the Principal, though I can't tell for sure.

Assuming it is a legitimate message, I want commend Principal Martin in the strongest possible terms. It takes some pretty thick skin to voluntarily enter this arena. I am very satisfied with the answers you have provided here and appreciate your making the effort to share your thoughts with us. As others have said, you will not satisfy everyone here and while some criticism is of value, there also some that simply has to be ignored.

I was out much of the day and this thread was fairly well along before I first saw it. Had I had the opportunity, I would have removed the posts dealing with your race. I apologize that I was unable to do that.

I hope that you and your staff will see DCUM as an asset and not merely as a source of frustration. Many of our participants are very well informed and strongly committed to improving DCPS.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the feedback about the Open House. I regret that my performance was less than you anticipated. The questions and answers I provided during the unscripted Q and A were somewhat vague, I agree, and in my perspective they were questions that I would typically answer in an email or individual conversation, but not in front of a large group, due to their complexity. For instance, "what do you anticipate being the biggest issue in the next five years" and "is your school safe?" (there was no question about discipline). In my view, those questions require a bit of background knowledge and, as I mentioned in my response to the group, have many variables to consider, which I'm not sure a group of parents who are largely unconnected to our school would understand. In fact, I hold monthly Parent Coffees, which are well attended by Wilson parents, and I often hear that these meetings are informative, thoughtful and productive. The parents who are present set the monthly agenda, however, we do not speak about issues like school safety, presumably because it is not an issue for parents who are insiders. In thinking about school safety: does the speaker want to know about our suspension rates? The number of fights in the school? The number of safety drills we have each month? The results of the student satisfaction survey? The results of the teacher survey? Or are there other factors that are important? Perhaps there is something more to the question, of which I am unaware? When I prompted the speaker for clarification, he stated, "does your school feel safe?" How am I to answer a questions about "feeling" without discussing how someone "feels," which is why I stated, "my son feels safe and students tell me they feel safe." I could have stated that our suspension rate has declined over the last several years, but does that mean a school is more or less safe in an outsiders' perspective? In relation to the questions about my biggest concern for the next five years, I am quite concerned about the boundary issues that have been discussed and analyzed over the last few months since I've arrived. Our school is the largest school in DCPS and as I mentioned in the Open House, we are 150 students over capacity THIS YEAR, but as our enrollment continues to increase....? When asked, "what will you do about it?" I explained that there are several possible solutions, none that has been determined to be THE solution as yet. Then I was asked, "what are the possible options for solving this problem?" I stated that there are several possible solutions that have been discussed, which include looking at our boundaries and making changes to our boundaries, as has been done within the last 12 months, and changes were already implemented last year. Then, "why is this a concern?" and yes, I stumbled, because I hesitate to say that our school may unwittingly exclude a specific demographic of students and yes, then the question of race came up. If there was concern from me about the presentation it was that I was being asked to answer to situations that are already and still occurring and in forums like this, I cannot share "what ifs" since my words are often distorted and those distortions are made as fact.
How my race plays into this conversation is another matter entirely and I will not comment on that in this forum or at any other time.
All the best,
Kim Martin

I can confirm that this was post came from a dc.gov IP address and that it does not appear to have been someone who has posted here previously. So I think there is a good chance that the message did come from the Principal, though I can't tell for sure.

Assuming it is a legitimate message, I want commend Principal Martin in the strongest possible terms. It takes some pretty thick skin to voluntarily enter this arena. I am very satisfied with the answers you have provided here and appreciate your making the effort to share your thoughts with us. As others have said, you will not satisfy everyone here and while some criticism is of value, there also some that simply has to be ignored.

I was out much of the day and this thread was fairly well along before I first saw it. Had I had the opportunity, I would have removed the posts dealing with your race. I apologize that I was unable to do that.

I hope that you and your staff will see DCUM as an asset and not merely as a source of frustration. Many of our participants are very well informed and strongly committed to improving DCPS.

Jeff,

Do you know how many people have dc.gov IP addresses?

And, do you really believe a school principal would write a message like the one above in a public forum? If it was a private message, sure, anyone can write random stuff, but this is a public message from the start

So, the investigation continues...maybe someone at WaPo or the Current can contact the school to ask if this was actually written by the principal and represents her views? Because, if not, and I strongly suspect not, someone is not making her any favor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the feedback about the Open House. I regret that my performance was less than you anticipated. The questions and answers I provided during the unscripted Q and A were somewhat vague, I agree, and in my perspective they were questions that I would typically answer in an email or individual conversation, but not in front of a large group, due to their complexity. For instance, "what do you anticipate being the biggest issue in the next five years" and "is your school safe?" (there was no question about discipline). In my view, those questions require a bit of background knowledge and, as I mentioned in my response to the group, have many variables to consider, which I'm not sure a group of parents who are largely unconnected to our school would understand. In fact, I hold monthly Parent Coffees, which are well attended by Wilson parents, and I often hear that these meetings are informative, thoughtful and productive. The parents who are present set the monthly agenda, however, we do not speak about issues like school safety, presumably because it is not an issue for parents who are insiders. In thinking about school safety: does the speaker want to know about our suspension rates? The number of fights in the school? The number of safety drills we have each month? The results of the student satisfaction survey? The results of the teacher survey? Or are there other factors that are important? Perhaps there is something more to the question, of which I am unaware? When I prompted the speaker for clarification, he stated, "does your school feel safe?" How am I to answer a questions about "feeling" without discussing how someone "feels," which is why I stated, "my son feels safe and students tell me they feel safe." I could have stated that our suspension rate has declined over the last several years, but does that mean a school is more or less safe in an outsiders' perspective? In relation to the questions about my biggest concern for the next five years, I am quite concerned about the boundary issues that have been discussed and analyzed over the last few months since I've arrived. Our school is the largest school in DCPS and as I mentioned in the Open House, we are 150 students over capacity THIS YEAR, but as our enrollment continues to increase....? When asked, "what will you do about it?" I explained that there are several possible solutions, none that has been determined to be THE solution as yet. Then I was asked, "what are the possible options for solving this problem?" I stated that there are several possible solutions that have been discussed, which include looking at our boundaries and making changes to our boundaries, as has been done within the last 12 months, and changes were already implemented last year. Then, "why is this a concern?" and yes, I stumbled, because I hesitate to say that our school may unwittingly exclude a specific demographic of students and yes, then the question of race came up. If there was concern from me about the presentation it was that I was being asked to answer to situations that are already and still occurring and in forums like this, I cannot share "what ifs" since my words are often distorted and those distortions are made as fact.
How my race plays into this conversation is another matter entirely and I will not comment on that in this forum or at any other time.
All the best,
Kim Martin

I can confirm that this was post came from a dc.gov IP address and that it does not appear to have been someone who has posted here previously. So I think there is a good chance that the message did come from the Principal, though I can't tell for sure.

Assuming it is a legitimate message, I want commend Principal Martin in the strongest possible terms. It takes some pretty thick skin to voluntarily enter this arena. I am very satisfied with the answers you have provided here and appreciate your making the effort to share your thoughts with us. As others have said, you will not satisfy everyone here and while some criticism is of value, there also some that simply has to be ignored.

I was out much of the day and this thread was fairly well along before I first saw it. Had I had the opportunity, I would have removed the posts dealing with your race. I apologize that I was unable to do that.

I hope that you and your staff will see DCUM as an asset and not merely as a source of frustration. Many of our participants are very well informed and strongly committed to improving DCPS.

Jeff,

Do you know how many people have dc.gov IP addresses?

And, do you really believe a school principal would write a message like the one above in a public forum? If it was a private message, sure, anyone can write random stuff, but this is a public message from the start

So, the investigation continues...maybe someone at WaPo or the Current can contact the school to ask if this was actually written by the principal and represents her views? Because, if not, and I strongly suspect not, someone is not making her any favor.

Yeah Jeff, pretty irresponsible of you. As you have seen the harpies have already used the post as yet another data point in their quest to prove that she is unfit for the job of running DC's largest high school.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the feedback about the Open House. I regret that my performance was less than you anticipated. The questions and answers I provided during the unscripted Q and A were somewhat vague, I agree, and in my perspective they were questions that I would typically answer in an email or individual conversation, but not in front of a large group, due to their complexity. For instance, "what do you anticipate being the biggest issue in the next five years" and "is your school safe?" (there was no question about discipline). In my view, those questions require a bit of background knowledge and, as I mentioned in my response to the group, have many variables to consider, which I'm not sure a group of parents who are largely unconnected to our school would understand. In fact, I hold monthly Parent Coffees, which are well attended by Wilson parents, and I often hear that these meetings are informative, thoughtful and productive. The parents who are present set the monthly agenda, however, we do not speak about issues like school safety, presumably because it is not an issue for parents who are insiders. In thinking about school safety: does the speaker want to know about our suspension rates? The number of fights in the school? The number of safety drills we have each month? The results of the student satisfaction survey? The results of the teacher survey? Or are there other factors that are important? Perhaps there is something more to the question, of which I am unaware? When I prompted the speaker for clarification, he stated, "does your school feel safe?" How am I to answer a questions about "feeling" without discussing how someone "feels," which is why I stated, "my son feels safe and students tell me they feel safe." I could have stated that our suspension rate has declined over the last several years, but does that mean a school is more or less safe in an outsiders' perspective? In relation to the questions about my biggest concern for the next five years, I am quite concerned about the boundary issues that have been discussed and analyzed over the last few months since I've arrived. Our school is the largest school in DCPS and as I mentioned in the Open House, we are 150 students over capacity THIS YEAR, but as our enrollment continues to increase....? When asked, "what will you do about it?" I explained that there are several possible solutions, none that has been determined to be THE solution as yet. Then I was asked, "what are the possible options for solving this problem?" I stated that there are several possible solutions that have been discussed, which include looking at our boundaries and making changes to our boundaries, as has been done within the last 12 months, and changes were already implemented last year. Then, "why is this a concern?" and yes, I stumbled, because I hesitate to say that our school may unwittingly exclude a specific demographic of students and yes, then the question of race came up. If there was concern from me about the presentation it was that I was being asked to answer to situations that are already and still occurring and in forums like this, I cannot share "what ifs" since my words are often distorted and those distortions are made as fact.
How my race plays into this conversation is another matter entirely and I will not comment on that in this forum or at any other time.
All the best,
Kim Martin

I can confirm that this was post came from a dc.gov IP address and that it does not appear to have been someone who has posted here previously. So I think there is a good chance that the message did come from the Principal, though I can't tell for sure.

Assuming it is a legitimate message, I want commend Principal Martin in the strongest possible terms. It takes some pretty thick skin to voluntarily enter this arena. I am very satisfied with the answers you have provided here and appreciate your making the effort to share your thoughts with us. As others have said, you will not satisfy everyone here and while some criticism is of value, there also some that simply has to be ignored.

I was out much of the day and this thread was fairly well along before I first saw it. Had I had the opportunity, I would have removed the posts dealing with your race. I apologize that I was unable to do that.

I hope that you and your staff will see DCUM as an asset and not merely as a source of frustration. Many of our participants are very well informed and strongly committed to improving DCPS.

Jeff,

Do you know how many people have dc.gov IP addresses?

And, do you really believe a school principal would write a message like the one above in a public forum? If it was a private message, sure, anyone can write random stuff, but this is a public message from the start

So, the investigation continues...maybe someone at WaPo or the Current can contact the school to ask if this was actually written by the principal and represents her views? Because, if not, and I strongly suspect not, someone is not making her any favor.

Yeah Jeff, pretty irresponsible of you. As you have seen the harpies have already used the post as yet another data point in their quest to prove that she is unfit for the job of running DC's largest high school.

I fully qualified my post. Given the content of the message, I think we can assume that whoever posted it was at least at the meeting and is familiar with Principal Martin's thinking. I can't confirm that the message is authentic, but I am pretty sure that it is not some a random troll.

I also strongly disagree with anyone who believes that the post would be an indication of a lack of fitness for her job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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)

OP can speak for herself, but I've often heard "white demanding parents" to describe a certain, well, stereotype in DC. However, if accurate, I would be concerned about why hardly anyone from 50% of the parent body demographics showed up at Wilson back to school night. That is very concerning.

NP - it wasn't back to school night. It was an open house for prospective parents.

Same question. Indeed, when folks across the city want like anything to get their kids into Wilson, why would parents of only one demographic group basically show up?

My guess is that OP was being dramatic by saying there were only white parents there. Also, let's not forget Wilson's new shrunk boundaries only include a very small amount of AA families now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the feedback about the Open House. I regret that my performance was less than you anticipated. The questions and answers I provided during the unscripted Q and A were somewhat vague, I agree, and in my perspective they were questions that I would typically answer in an email or individual conversation, but not in front of a large group, due to their complexity. For instance, "what do you anticipate being the biggest issue in the next five years" and "is your school safe?" (there was no question about discipline). In my view, those questions require a bit of background knowledge and, as I mentioned in my response to the group, have many variables to consider, which I'm not sure a group of parents who are largely unconnected to our school would understand. In fact, I hold monthly Parent Coffees, which are well attended by Wilson parents, and I often hear that these meetings are informative, thoughtful and productive. The parents who are present set the monthly agenda, however, we do not speak about issues like school safety, presumably because it is not an issue for parents who are insiders. In thinking about school safety: does the speaker want to know about our suspension rates? The number of fights in the school? The number of safety drills we have each month? The results of the student satisfaction survey? The results of the teacher survey? Or are there other factors that are important? Perhaps there is something more to the question, of which I am unaware? When I prompted the speaker for clarification, he stated, "does your school feel safe?" How am I to answer a questions about "feeling" without discussing how someone "feels," which is why I stated, "my son feels safe and students tell me they feel safe." I could have stated that our suspension rate has declined over the last several years, but does that mean a school is more or less safe in an outsiders' perspective? In relation to the questions about my biggest concern for the next five years, I am quite concerned about the boundary issues that have been discussed and analyzed over the last few months since I've arrived. Our school is the largest school in DCPS and as I mentioned in the Open House, we are 150 students over capacity THIS YEAR, but as our enrollment continues to increase....? When asked, "what will you do about it?" I explained that there are several possible solutions, none that has been determined to be THE solution as yet. Then I was asked, "what are the possible options for solving this problem?" I stated that there are several possible solutions that have been discussed, which include looking at our boundaries and making changes to our boundaries, as has been done within the last 12 months, and changes were already implemented last year. Then, "why is this a concern?" and yes, I stumbled, because I hesitate to say that our school may unwittingly exclude a specific demographic of students and yes, then the question of race came up. If there was concern from me about the presentation it was that I was being asked to answer to situations that are already and still occurring and in forums like this, I cannot share "what ifs" since my words are often distorted and those distortions are made as fact.
How my race plays into this conversation is another matter entirely and I will not comment on that in this forum or at any other time.
All the best,
Kim Martin

*if this is really the principal, which I assume it is*

APPLAUSE. great, thoughtful answers.

I doubt it can be her. Surely she knows the power of paragraphs?

Forget about paragraphs. The person who wrote that message lacks 10th-grade critical thinking skills. Perhaps some Wilson student trying to be cute? Note the message was written at 15.36.

Apparently the 10th graders at Wilson also lack critical thinking skills (see Wilson's dismal scores released today).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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)

OP can speak for herself, but I've often heard "white demanding parents" to describe a certain, well, stereotype in DC. However, if accurate, I would be concerned about why hardly anyone from 50% of the parent body demographics showed up at Wilson back to school night. That is very concerning.

NP - it wasn't back to school night. It was an open house for prospective parents.

Same question. Indeed, when folks across the city want like anything to get their kids into Wilson, why would parents of only one demographic group basically show up?

My guess is that OP was being dramatic by saying there were only white parents there. Also, let's not forget Wilson's new shrunk boundaries only include a very small amount of AA families now.

You forget the fact that Wilson's population comes through feeders, including Hardy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the feedback about the Open House. I regret that my performance was less than you anticipated. The questions and answers I provided during the unscripted Q and A were somewhat vague, I agree, and in my perspective they were questions that I would typically answer in an email or individual conversation, but not in front of a large group, due to their complexity. For instance, "what do you anticipate being the biggest issue in the next five years" and "is your school safe?" (there was no question about discipline). In my view, those questions require a bit of background knowledge and, as I mentioned in my response to the group, have many variables to consider, which I'm not sure a group of parents who are largely unconnected to our school would understand. In fact, I hold monthly Parent Coffees, which are well attended by Wilson parents, and I often hear that these meetings are informative, thoughtful and productive. The parents who are present set the monthly agenda, however, we do not speak about issues like school safety, presumably because it is not an issue for parents who are insiders. In thinking about school safety: does the speaker want to know about our suspension rates? The number of fights in the school? The number of safety drills we have each month? The results of the student satisfaction survey? The results of the teacher survey? Or are there other factors that are important? Perhaps there is something more to the question, of which I am unaware? When I prompted the speaker for clarification, he stated, "does your school feel safe?" How am I to answer a questions about "feeling" without discussing how someone "feels," which is why I stated, "my son feels safe and students tell me they feel safe." I could have stated that our suspension rate has declined over the last several years, but does that mean a school is more or less safe in an outsiders' perspective? In relation to the questions about my biggest concern for the next five years, I am quite concerned about the boundary issues that have been discussed and analyzed over the last few months since I've arrived. Our school is the largest school in DCPS and as I mentioned in the Open House, we are 150 students over capacity THIS YEAR, but as our enrollment continues to increase....? When asked, "what will you do about it?" I explained that there are several possible solutions, none that has been determined to be THE solution as yet. Then I was asked, "what are the possible options for solving this problem?" I stated that there are several possible solutions that have been discussed, which include looking at our boundaries and making changes to our boundaries, as has been done within the last 12 months, and changes were already implemented last year. Then, "why is this a concern?" and yes, I stumbled, because I hesitate to say that our school may unwittingly exclude a specific demographic of students and yes, then the question of race came up. If there was concern from me about the presentation it was that I was being asked to answer to situations that are already and still occurring and in forums like this, I cannot share "what ifs" since my words are often distorted and those distortions are made as fact.
How my race plays into this conversation is another matter entirely and I will not comment on that in this forum or at any other time.
All the best,
Kim Martin

*if this is really the principal, which I assume it is*

APPLAUSE. great, thoughtful answers.

+1

[Anonymous]

WTH, you guys? There wasn't anything wrong with her post, if it was indeed Ms. Martin posting. Some people don't use paragraphs; others make every sentence a new paragraph, perhaps for dramatic effect. Not sure why you all are the arbiters of such matters and immediately jumped all over the post.

I'm dismayed at the level of nitpicking here. I hope this is not representative of most Wilson parents.

-an AA mom zoned for Wilson

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the feedback about the Open House. I regret that my performance was less than you anticipated. The questions and answers I provided during the unscripted Q and A were somewhat vague, I agree, and in my perspective they were questions that I would typically answer in an email or individual conversation, but not in front of a large group, due to their complexity. For instance, "what do you anticipate being the biggest issue in the next five years" and "is your school safe?" (there was no question about discipline). In my view, those questions require a bit of background knowledge and, as I mentioned in my response to the group, have many variables to consider, which I'm not sure a group of parents who are largely unconnected to our school would understand. In fact, I hold monthly Parent Coffees, which are well attended by Wilson parents, and I often hear that these meetings are informative, thoughtful and productive. The parents who are present set the monthly agenda, however, we do not speak about issues like school safety, presumably because it is not an issue for parents who are insiders. In thinking about school safety: does the speaker want to know about our suspension rates? The number of fights in the school? The number of safety drills we have each month? The results of the student satisfaction survey? The results of the teacher survey? Or are there other factors that are important? Perhaps there is something more to the question, of which I am unaware? When I prompted the speaker for clarification, he stated, "does your school feel safe?" How am I to answer a questions about "feeling" without discussing how someone "feels," which is why I stated, "my son feels safe and students tell me they feel safe." I could have stated that our suspension rate has declined over the last several years, but does that mean a school is more or less safe in an outsiders' perspective? In relation to the questions about my biggest concern for the next five years, I am quite concerned about the boundary issues that have been discussed and analyzed over the last few months since I've arrived. Our school is the largest school in DCPS and as I mentioned in the Open House, we are 150 students over capacity THIS YEAR, but as our enrollment continues to increase....? When asked, "what will you do about it?" I explained that there are several possible solutions, none that has been determined to be THE solution as yet. Then I was asked, "what are the possible options for solving this problem?" I stated that there are several possible solutions that have been discussed, which include looking at our boundaries and making changes to our boundaries, as has been done within the last 12 months, and changes were already implemented last year. Then, "why is this a concern?" and yes, I stumbled, because I hesitate to say that our school may unwittingly exclude a specific demographic of students and yes, then the question of race came up. If there was concern from me about the presentation it was that I was being asked to answer to situations that are already and still occurring and in forums like this, I cannot share "what ifs" since my words are often distorted and those distortions are made as fact.
How my race plays into this conversation is another matter entirely and I will not comment on that in this forum or at any other time.
All the best,
Kim Martin

Thank you, Principal Martin, for sharing your thoughts. Although you certainly won't do yourself any "emotional good" by reading this forum, it was nonetheless very considerate of you to respond to what was being said. You certainly have your job cut out for you, given the fact that there is so much animosity out there largely due to what occurred last year at Wilson. I wish you the best in your work to keep things moving upwards at Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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)

OP can speak for herself, but I've often heard "white demanding parents" to describe a certain, well, stereotype in DC. However, if accurate, I would be concerned about why hardly anyone from 50% of the parent body demographics showed up at Wilson back to school night. That is very concerning.

NP - it wasn't back to school night. It was an open house for prospective parents.

Same question. Indeed, when folks across the city want like anything to get their kids into Wilson, why would parents of only one demographic group basically show up?

My guess is that OP was being dramatic by saying there were only white parents there. Also, let's not forget Wilson's new shrunk boundaries only include a very small amount of AA families now.

You forget the fact that Wilson's population comes through feeders, including Hardy.

Hardy has about 100 8th graders. This is only the first open house. Again, you're taking OP for her word that there were no AA faces there. I highly doubt that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the feedback about the Open House. I regret that my performance was less than you anticipated. The questions and answers I provided during the unscripted Q and A were somewhat vague, I agree, and in my perspective they were questions that I would typically answer in an email or individual conversation, but not in front of a large group, due to their complexity. For instance, "what do you anticipate being the biggest issue in the next five years" and "is your school safe?" (there was no question about discipline). In my view, those questions require a bit of background knowledge and, as I mentioned in my response to the group, have many variables to consider, which I'm not sure a group of parents who are largely unconnected to our school would understand. In fact, I hold monthly Parent Coffees, which are well attended by Wilson parents, and I often hear that these meetings are informative, thoughtful and productive. The parents who are present set the monthly agenda, however, we do not speak about issues like school safety, presumably because it is not an issue for parents who are insiders. In thinking about school safety: does the speaker want to know about our suspension rates? The number of fights in the school? The number of safety drills we have each month? The results of the student satisfaction survey? The results of the teacher survey? Or are there other factors that are important? Perhaps there is something more to the question, of which I am unaware? When I prompted the speaker for clarification, he stated, "does your school feel safe?" How am I to answer a questions about "feeling" without discussing how someone "feels," which is why I stated, "my son feels safe and students tell me they feel safe." I could have stated that our suspension rate has declined over the last several years, but does that mean a school is more or less safe in an outsiders' perspective? In relation to the questions about my biggest concern for the next five years, I am quite concerned about the boundary issues that have been discussed and analyzed over the last few months since I've arrived. Our school is the largest school in DCPS and as I mentioned in the Open House, we are 150 students over capacity THIS YEAR, but as our enrollment continues to increase....? When asked, "what will you do about it?" I explained that there are several possible solutions, none that has been determined to be THE solution as yet. Then I was asked, "what are the possible options for solving this problem?" I stated that there are several possible solutions that have been discussed, which include looking at our boundaries and making changes to our boundaries, as has been done within the last 12 months, and changes were already implemented last year. Then, "why is this a concern?" and yes, I stumbled, because I hesitate to say that our school may unwittingly exclude a specific demographic of students and yes, then the question of race came up. If there was concern from me about the presentation it was that I was being asked to answer to situations that are already and still occurring and in forums like this, I cannot share "what ifs" since my words are often distorted and those distortions are made as fact.
How my race plays into this conversation is another matter entirely and I will not comment on that in this forum or at any other time.
All the best,
Kim Martin

*if this is really the principal, which I assume it is*

APPLAUSE. great, thoughtful answers.

I doubt it can be her. Surely she knows the power of paragraphs?

Forget about paragraphs. The person who wrote that message lacks 10th-grade critical thinking skills. Perhaps some Wilson student trying to be cute? Note the message was written at 15.36.

Apparently the 10th graders at Wilson also lack critical thinking skills (see Wilson's dismal scores released today).

Challenge is, imagine you have as parents many of the folks posting here, especially those who believe it was actually the principal responding and that her response was superb. How could you develop any solid critical thinking skills?

Between this and the dismal PARCC results, I am indeed reconsidering whether our kids should go to Wilson, or take the hit and pay private.

[Anonymous]

Agree @ 18:30

I think it was great that the principal responded. I do not critique posts on social media and assume that's a testament to one's intelligence.

[Anonymous]

I'd guess that it's easier for parents who live close-by to attend the open houses than those who live far away
I have never made it to any Principal's coffee from elementary to high school as they are geared, imo, to SAHMs who can show up a 9am on a Wednesday or Thursday morning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the feedback about the Open House. I regret that my performance was less than you anticipated. The questions and answers I provided during the unscripted Q and A were somewhat vague, I agree, and in my perspective they were questions that I would typically answer in an email or individual conversation, but not in front of a large group, due to their complexity. For instance, "what do you anticipate being the biggest issue in the next five years" and "is your school safe?" (there was no question about discipline). In my view, those questions require a bit of background knowledge and, as I mentioned in my response to the group, have many variables to consider, which I'm not sure a group of parents who are largely unconnected to our school would understand. In fact, I hold monthly Parent Coffees, which are well attended by Wilson parents, and I often hear that these meetings are informative, thoughtful and productive. The parents who are present set the monthly agenda, however, we do not speak about issues like school safety, presumably because it is not an issue for parents who are insiders. In thinking about school safety: does the speaker want to know about our suspension rates? The number of fights in the school? The number of safety drills we have each month? The results of the student satisfaction survey? The results of the teacher survey? Or are there other factors that are important? Perhaps there is something more to the question, of which I am unaware? When I prompted the speaker for clarification, he stated, "does your school feel safe?" How am I to answer a questions about "feeling" without discussing how someone "feels," which is why I stated, "my son feels safe and students tell me they feel safe." I could have stated that our suspension rate has declined over the last several years, but does that mean a school is more or less safe in an outsiders' perspective? In relation to the questions about my biggest concern for the next five years, I am quite concerned about the boundary issues that have been discussed and analyzed over the last few months since I've arrived. Our school is the largest school in DCPS and as I mentioned in the Open House, we are 150 students over capacity THIS YEAR, but as our enrollment continues to increase....? When asked, "what will you do about it?" I explained that there are several possible solutions, none that has been determined to be THE solution as yet. Then I was asked, "what are the possible options for solving this problem?" I stated that there are several possible solutions that have been discussed, which include looking at our boundaries and making changes to our boundaries, as has been done within the last 12 months, and changes were already implemented last year. Then, "why is this a concern?" and yes, I stumbled, because I hesitate to say that our school may unwittingly exclude a specific demographic of students and yes, then the question of race came up. If there was concern from me about the presentation it was that I was being asked to answer to situations that are already and still occurring and in forums like this, I cannot share "what ifs" since my words are often distorted and those distortions are made as fact.
How my race plays into this conversation is another matter entirely and I will not comment on that in this forum or at any other time.
All the best,
Kim Martin

*if this is really the principal, which I assume it is*

APPLAUSE. great, thoughtful answers.

I doubt it can be her. Surely she knows the power of paragraphs?

Forget about paragraphs. The person who wrote that message lacks 10th-grade critical thinking skills. Perhaps some Wilson student trying to be cute? Note the message was written at 15.36.

Apparently the 10th graders at Wilson also lack critical thinking skills (see Wilson's dismal scores released today).

Challenge is, imagine you have as parents many of the folks posting here, especially those who believe it was actually the principal responding and that her response was superb. How could you develop any solid critical thinking skills?

Between this and the dismal PARCC results, I am indeed reconsidering whether our kids should go to Wilson, or take the hit and pay private.

go private, you'll be happier next year
you may be unable to pay your efc in a few years, though