Startling Creative Minds Vacancies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another member of the admin team resigned on Friday. It will probably not get announced to parents because it wasn a student facing role. So much good stuff is done behind the scenes and parents aren’t informed when those people leave because it looks bad - it IS bad. 20+ staff have left this school year. Not everything is terrible but the good stuff isn’t sustainable- just not worth the risk. So disappointing how PCSB doesn’t intervene in these moments to save a place with really great potential.

PP, you are outing yourself. I wish you would stop dragging the school down and get a life. My kids go to CMI and are thriving. I get it that you hate the school. Move on.

Yes, yes. Same one parent parent with thriving kids at CMI. We know you are also.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to the emergency town hall on staff retention at Cmi last night. Just this school year — in the middle of the school year— they lost 7 teachers and 6 administrators. The teachers at CMI are mostly great (except the ps 3 teacher who was too new and frazzled to handle a horrible mix of rowdy kids). The problem, however is the school’s founder/Director. Until she leaves, all the hr consultants in the world won’t make a difference. She is cold and toxic. That said, cmi is not a horrible school.. it’s going through growing pains and it’s showing big time. They need support and help. I’m confident that it can live up to its own standards again when the founder leaves .

NP here.

What problems have you had?

For me, she's spoke poorly about me multiple times to other parents, who have then come up to me to tell me how much they disliked it, but also told me that they wanted to stay on her "good" side. I've never heard of her doing this to other families. Ironically, her issue with me is that our child has severe special needs and she wanted us to move out of the school. I refused. She then started campaigning to get me out of the school. She is/was relentless.

Did you ever think she had your kids best interests in mind? Inclusion is not always the best placement. For us it wasn’t. CMI did everything they could to help DC succeed and in the end, we all came to the conclusion that DC would be better served in a private setting through public funding.

And CMI was willing to pay?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to the emergency town hall on staff retention at Cmi last night. Just this school year — in the middle of the school year— they lost 7 teachers and 6 administrators. The teachers at CMI are mostly great (except the ps 3 teacher who was too new and frazzled to handle a horrible mix of rowdy kids). The problem, however is the school’s founder/Director. Until she leaves, all the hr consultants in the world won’t make a difference. She is cold and toxic. That said, cmi is not a horrible school.. it’s going through growing pains and it’s showing big time. They need support and help. I’m confident that it can live up to its own standards again when the founder leaves .

NP here.

What problems have you had?

For me, she's spoke poorly about me multiple times to other parents, who have then come up to me to tell me how much they disliked it, but also told me that they wanted to stay on her "good" side. I've never heard of her doing this to other families. Ironically, her issue with me is that our child has severe special needs and she wanted us to move out of the school. I refused. She then started campaigning to get me out of the school. She is/was relentless.

Did you ever think she had your kids best interests in mind? Inclusion is not always the best placement. For us it wasn’t. CMI did everything they could to help DC succeed and in the end, we all came to the conclusion that DC would be better served in a private setting through public funding.

And CMI was willing to pay?

NP. OSSE pays. Same as it does for DCPS students who receive private placements.

The numbers of students from every LEA and what private schools they attend are publicly available in the enrollment audit report. https://osse.dc.gov/node/1306796

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to the emergency town hall on staff retention at Cmi last night. Just this school year — in the middle of the school year— they lost 7 teachers and 6 administrators. The teachers at CMI are mostly great (except the ps 3 teacher who was too new and frazzled to handle a horrible mix of rowdy kids). The problem, however is the school’s founder/Director. Until she leaves, all the hr consultants in the world won’t make a difference. She is cold and toxic. That said, cmi is not a horrible school.. it’s going through growing pains and it’s showing big time. They need support and help. I’m confident that it can live up to its own standards again when the founder leaves .

NP here.

What problems have you had?

For me, she's spoke poorly about me multiple times to other parents, who have then come up to me to tell me how much they disliked it, but also told me that they wanted to stay on her "good" side. I've never heard of her doing this to other families. Ironically, her issue with me is that our child has severe special needs and she wanted us to move out of the school. I refused. She then started campaigning to get me out of the school. She is/was relentless.

Did you ever think she had your kids best interests in mind? Inclusion is not always the best placement. For us it wasn’t. CMI did everything they could to help DC succeed and in the end, we all came to the conclusion that DC would be better served in a private setting through public funding.

And CMI was willing to pay?

NP. OSSE pays. Same as it does for DCPS students who receive private placements.

The numbers of students from every LEA and what private schools they attend are publicly available in the enrollment audit report. https://osse.dc.gov/node/1306796

Thanks for this. I can see how many private placements each LEA has, but I can't tell what school(s) the kids were placed in. Is that on this spreadsheet?

[Anonymous]

No it is in the report, not the spreadsheet.

So for Happy Valley charter you would see 300 students entries. Then a second line for them with one student enrolled at Accotink etc. That child at Accotink is a child who was placed there from Happy Valley.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to the emergency town hall on staff retention at Cmi last night. Just this school year — in the middle of the school year— they lost 7 teachers and 6 administrators. The teachers at CMI are mostly great (except the ps 3 teacher who was too new and frazzled to handle a horrible mix of rowdy kids). The problem, however is the school’s founder/Director. Until she leaves, all the hr consultants in the world won’t make a difference. She is cold and toxic. That said, cmi is not a horrible school.. it’s going through growing pains and it’s showing big time. They need support and help. I’m confident that it can live up to its own standards again when the founder leaves .

NP here.

What problems have you had?

For me, she's spoke poorly about me multiple times to other parents, who have then come up to me to tell me how much they disliked it, but also told me that they wanted to stay on her "good" side. I've never heard of her doing this to other families. Ironically, her issue with me is that our child has severe special needs and she wanted us to move out of the school. I refused. She then started campaigning to get me out of the school. She is/was relentless.

Did you ever think she had your kids best interests in mind? Inclusion is not always the best placement. For us it wasn’t. CMI did everything they could to help DC succeed and in the end, we all came to the conclusion that DC would be better served in a private setting through public funding.

And CMI was willing to pay?

NP. OSSE pays. Same as it does for DCPS students who receive private placements.

The numbers of students from every LEA and what private schools they attend are publicly available in the enrollment audit report. https://osse.dc.gov/node/1306796

Osse does pay but having the LEA on your side while writing the iep and requesting the placement makes the difference between a smooth transition and a lawsuit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to the emergency town hall on staff retention at Cmi last night. Just this school year — in the middle of the school year— they lost 7 teachers and 6 administrators. The teachers at CMI are mostly great (except the ps 3 teacher who was too new and frazzled to handle a horrible mix of rowdy kids). The problem, however is the school’s founder/Director. Until she leaves, all the hr consultants in the world won’t make a difference. She is cold and toxic. That said, cmi is not a horrible school.. it’s going through growing pains and it’s showing big time. They need support and help. I’m confident that it can live up to its own standards again when the founder leaves .

Wow an emergency town hall!!!

Can someone please describe the contents of the secret meeting? I couldn’t attend.

Someone sent out very detailed notes by email. If you were a CMI parent you would have gotten them.

To the people who say this is all Golnar’s fault: what do you mean? I have kids at CMI, have been there since the old building, and I have not had any problems with her. Granted I haven’t interacted with her all that much but I find all the bashing very opaque, vague, and mysterious.

I find the secrecy about the town hall meeting very strange given that this is a public school and parents who were deciding where to lottery have an interest in knowing what's going on at the school. Even the timing of the town hall, so that lottery lists functionally had to be fixed before any information could leak out...

Also a CMI parent here and I think you're paranoid. It was an emergency town hall because there was a lot of frustration about the lack of communication regarding staff turnover. The school responded fairly quickly with this town hall and detailed notes were sent out the next day. I definitely agree that the school is having problems with turnover, but the vilification of Golnar on this board is bizarre.

Whatever their issues are, huge kuddos to the school admins for holding an emergency town hall in response to families' frustration.

Wouldn't it have been great if it did not boil to that point. Regular communication that is open / honest / transparent goes a long way.

DC charters must have dulled my expectations.

Ha! The anti-charter troll has arrived. As if DCPS set anyone's expectations high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:LOL at cling to. Just like Obama said of Hillary voters in 2008.

When poor families want access to wealthier schools they're striving to do the best for their children and looking for better opportunities. When upper middle class families do so, they're "clinging."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to the emergency town hall on staff retention at Cmi last night. Just this school year — in the middle of the school year— they lost 7 teachers and 6 administrators. The teachers at CMI are mostly great (except the ps 3 teacher who was too new and frazzled to handle a horrible mix of rowdy kids). The problem, however is the school’s founder/Director. Until she leaves, all the hr consultants in the world won’t make a difference. She is cold and toxic. That said, cmi is not a horrible school.. it’s going through growing pains and it’s showing big time. They need support and help. I’m confident that it can live up to its own standards again when the founder leaves .

NP here.

What problems have you had?

For me, she's spoke poorly about me multiple times to other parents, who have then come up to me to tell me how much they disliked it, but also told me that they wanted to stay on her "good" side. I've never heard of her doing this to other families. Ironically, her issue with me is that our child has severe special needs and she wanted us to move out of the school. I refused. She then started campaigning to get me out of the school. She is/was relentless.

Did you ever think she had your kids best interests in mind? Inclusion is not always the best placement. For us it wasn’t. CMI did everything they could to help DC succeed and in the end, we all came to the conclusion that DC would be better served in a private setting through public funding.

And CMI was willing to pay?

NP. OSSE pays. Same as it does for DCPS students who receive private placements.

The numbers of students from every LEA and what private schools they attend are publicly available in the enrollment audit report. https://osse.dc.gov/node/1306796

Osse does pay but having the LEA on your side while writing the iep and requesting the placement makes the difference between a smooth transition and a lawsuit.

GOOD. Because DCPS has historically stacked the deck against families trying to get services for their children. It's why they lost a lawsuit and basically had to give away private school spots. They can't be trusted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another member of the admin team resigned on Friday. It will probably not get announced to parents because it wasn a student facing role. So much good stuff is done behind the scenes and parents aren’t informed when those people leave because it looks bad - it IS bad. 20+ staff have left this school year. Not everything is terrible but the good stuff isn’t sustainable- just not worth the risk. So disappointing how PCSB doesn’t intervene in these moments to save a place with really great potential.

PP, you are outing yourself. I wish you would stop dragging the school down and get a life. My kids go to CMI and are thriving. I get it that you hate the school. Move on.

Yes, yes. Same one parent parent with thriving kids at CMI. We know you are also.

I'm not even a CMI parent and I know a family with a kid who is thriving there.

[Anonymous]

Hee-hee.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to the emergency town hall on staff retention at Cmi last night. Just this school year — in the middle of the school year— they lost 7 teachers and 6 administrators. The teachers at CMI are mostly great (except the ps 3 teacher who was too new and frazzled to handle a horrible mix of rowdy kids). The problem, however is the school’s founder/Director. Until she leaves, all the hr consultants in the world won’t make a difference. She is cold and toxic. That said, cmi is not a horrible school.. it’s going through growing pains and it’s showing big time. They need support and help. I’m confident that it can live up to its own standards again when the founder leaves .

Wow an emergency town hall!!!

Can someone please describe the contents of the secret meeting? I couldn’t attend.

Someone sent out very detailed notes by email. If you were a CMI parent you would have gotten them.

To the people who say this is all Golnar’s fault: what do you mean? I have kids at CMI, have been there since the old building, and I have not had any problems with her. Granted I haven’t interacted with her all that much but I find all the bashing very opaque, vague, and mysterious.

I find the secrecy about the town hall meeting very strange given that this is a public school and parents who were deciding where to lottery have an interest in knowing what's going on at the school. Even the timing of the town hall, so that lottery lists functionally had to be fixed before any information could leak out...

Also a CMI parent here and I think you're paranoid. It was an emergency town hall because there was a lot of frustration about the lack of communication regarding staff turnover. The school responded fairly quickly with this town hall and detailed notes were sent out the next day. I definitely agree that the school is having problems with turnover, but the vilification of Golnar on this board is bizarre.

Agree

[Anonymous]

No vilification here but the fact remains that the school leader is not open to feedback from others and has a “my way or the highway” attitude as though she has achieved all knowledge there is to achieve about running a school. It is really a shame because CMI certainly has potential.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The school gave all teachers offers in February and then explained in a tactful email that there would be no negotiation because a great HR firm had been very thoughtful about the offers and thus no need for further conversations with employees. So, what happens when you give a bunch of under appreciated teachers below-market offers, strip away their negotiating power, and then give them 6 months to shop the offer around town? But sure, kuddos on the emergency town halls.

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No vilification here but the fact remains that the school leader is not open to feedback from others and has a “my way or the highway” attitude as though she has achieved all knowledge there is to achieve about running a school. It is really a shame because CMI certainly has potential.

I have no idea why I read this thread. There are way too many posts. The only person who made sense is pp above: CMI certainly has potential. Let's get behind it.