The Sycamore School in Arlington???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are there really multiple parents from this small school posting here (or is this all sock-puppeting)? Very hard to tell with it being an anonymous board.

This is a typical DCUM troll attack; you will see them all over. Grab a dormant thread and resurrect it with a "parent's" post then former employees go bonkers with everything they can make up and throw, hoping that it sticks.

People reading here can decide for themselves what they think is true. Since there are virtually no specifics or details, it's just mudslinging when looked at as a package.

The cloak of anonymity means no one really knows who is who on here ever.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the definition of anonymity…

And honestly I expect admin to go this route.

What else can you do if your business is going under.

Deny deny deny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I"m the first poster from '24 here to defend the other parents. I should say that I think admin is posting as a teacher. Just yesterday, parents received notice that another fantastic teacher is leaving. My child came home in a funk. Maybe it's that, maybe it's something else. The situation with the HOS is "their way or the highway". And they are not always right and yes, often emotional. It is starting to be majority SN and yet they don't have the staff to support the kids/teachers. For example, while they've always had some HFA kids, there's a non-verbal one there now. How's a teacher to manage that along with 9 other kids? Easy, add a support staff w/ SPED cred. but that's not what TSS does. That's probably b/c it wasn't designed to be a SN school. It's still got it's place like you need to leave somewhere mid-cycle. Or your kid is really, really self-directed.

Isn’t the obvious answer here money. They took a student they really couldn’t help bc they just need to fill student seats so they have some income, any income, coming in. They can’t hire more staff bc it is unaffordable.

Like many of these small
private schools in the area they all want to start out at 1000% and rival what long established private schools are offering. Instead they need to focus and start small and build up small. Maybe thy never get a place where there facilities rival the bigger private schools but that doesn’t mean they can’t offer a solid program that parents will want to send their kids to.


I think of some of the smaller privates in VA that started small and steadily grew over years and years. Success and credibility for a private school takes a long time to build up and the founders have to go in accepting it might not be under their direction that the school grows larger and they have to be ok with that.

[Anonymous]

The truth is, there’s been a handful of news letters about teachers leaving, HOS is HR, many parents are unenrolling their students (mid-year and EOY), concerns are met with defensiveness which I experienced first hand, there’s an increase SN’s population that has behavioral problems, and little no information on curriculum beyond conferences/ show cases.

Making a statement about mudslinging doesn’t take away from the truth, truth that I assume as a current employee you are aware about.

Again, the mission of the school is applauded and so is your dedication to it, but the school itself is failing.

[Anonymous]

I posted as the first 24 poster and once more where I outed myself. I recognize one person's writing style and there's at least another real parent posting. I'm also pretty confident somebody who says they are a teacher there is. So no sock puppeting or not much. I think parents posting here wanted it to work out and it didn't and now we are trying to find another place and really hoping the new place works out. Change is hard but this school's demise has forced many hands.

There are also some families who are happy enough there. They don't come off as defensive IRL so I think it's admin posting all the hostile stuff, troll calling and other such nonsense.

[Anonymous]

If anyone is interested in the actual financial condition and progress at the school - not the mud version - it files open reports like all non-profits. Draw your own conclusions from the trends.

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/474551914

[Anonymous]

I don’t think this helps your cause… the head of school makes over a 100K but doesn’t have enough money to hire more teachers, provide bonuses, or keep up with inflation?

Also, why is the assistant head of school also a board member?

[Anonymous]

Thank you to the current poster. I was considering TSS as an option for HS for my rising 8th grader, but will take it off my list. I appreciate the honesty.

More and more, I am realizing that my DD will likely remain homeschooled through HS. I just can't seem to find something that is going to be the right fit for her.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]I don’t think this helps your cause… the head of school makes over a 100K but doesn’t have enough money to hire more teachers, provide bonuses, or keep up with inflation?

Also, why is the assistant head of school also a board member?
[/quote]

HOS got a 17k raise in one year… Assistant HOS also had a significant salary increase… upping tuition for 2024-2025 SY, but has not hired new teachers for the ones that left in the last few months.. what are parents paying for??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you to the current poster. I was considering TSS as an option for HS for my rising 8th grader, but will take it off my list. I appreciate the honesty.

More and more, I am realizing that my DD will likely remain homeschooled through HS. I just can't seem to find something that is going to be the right fit for her.

Great choice. Stay far away from here and let everyone know about the amateurs who run this school.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]Thank you to the current poster. I was considering TSS as an option for HS for my rising 8th grader, but will take it off my list. I appreciate the honesty.

More and more, I am realizing that my DD will likely remain homeschooled through HS. I just can't seem to find something that is going to be the right fit for her.[/quote]

I heard about TSS through a colleague of mine who sent her son, they ended up unenrolling mid year. My colleague’s son didn’t have the best experience with TSS, but despite her experience we thought to give it a try. We recently toured the school and thought the location was great, unfortunately after reading I am seeing a lot of connections between the current parent’s experiences and my colleague’s. We will continue our search for a private school placement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If anyone is interested in the actual financial condition and progress at the school - not the mud version - it files open reports like all non-profits. Draw your own conclusions from the trends.

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/474551914

not the worst i've seen. Needs more reserves. HOS being on the board but the assist-HOS is odd.

[Anonymous]

^^HOS on board = normal.
A-HOS, odd I think.

[Anonymous]

NP HERE;

And, if you are involved with the school, you have the opportunity to course correct. Fundraising breakfast is coming up. Make a pitch for better wages for staff. Pay for talent. And get an exec coach to help you better manage the team you have to improve retention. Nobody's being unhelpful in their criticism or unfair. Your salary is fine for the head of a $2M nonprofit. Can't you take out a loan against reserves to have some short term cash for hiring and retention bonuses? and coach? I haven't done the math on the interest v's current investment vehicle but since your interest interest in '23 was only 1.5K, it's probably in cash. MM paying out 4.5% right now. Maybe you need better board members?

[jsteele]

I keep getting reports about this thread and removed several posts in which posters were accusing each other of sock puppeting. Let me just speak to that. Since this thread was revived, there are only about 5 or 6 unique posters. Only one of those has made any effort to identify herself as a repeat poster and even she hasn't been perfect. The others have not exactly sock puppeted, but they have not made clear that they are a previous poster which gives the impression that they are a new poster. That is why there is surprise at the apparent number of posters in this thread. There really aren't that many.