Whittle

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As an outside observer to both Whittle and Maret, but a seasoned professional in global education, I want to share an objective opinion on both situations. Whittle School was a dream unrealized and having personally witnessed it’s diverse student body, gave a global private education to students from all around this city. Something no other independent school can say. Maret, having struggled with supporting it’s students of color most likely chose Dennis Bisgaard due to his strength in diversity and his Whittle track record actually supports him in this regard. Bisgaard founded a leadership institute mentoring educators of color and carried that experience to Whittle, developing an extremely diverse founding faculty and founding student body. Clearly the Maret selection committee can see tremendous value in Dennis and likely hopes he supports diversity in their community too.

What is a "global private education" exactly? That's the sort of marketing-speak that is part of the smoke and mirrors "disruptors" enjoy using, but it doesn't mean anything. But the reality was that there was no thoughtful strategic curriculum and many kids wound up years behind their peers as the school fell apart but pretended to be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He's not dumb, he's just playing the game that wins in the super liberal education bubble (DC especially) - Play up your minority status and watch virtue signaling white liberals trip over themselves to give you whatever you want. Don't hate the player, hate the game!

This is true

[Anonymous]

Well, Maret is significantly more diverse (50+% kids of color) than the school he was at in CT for 12 years (32% kids of color). So perhaps he isn't as skilled at building communities of color after all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As an outside observer to both Whittle and Maret, but a seasoned professional in global education, I want to share an objective opinion on both situations. Whittle School was a dream unrealized and having personally witnessed it’s diverse student body, gave a global private education to students from all around this city. Something no other independent school can say. Maret, having struggled with supporting it’s students of color most likely chose Dennis Bisgaard due to his strength in diversity and his Whittle track record actually supports him in this regard. Bisgaard founded a leadership institute mentoring educators of color and carried that experience to Whittle, developing an extremely diverse founding faculty and founding student body. Clearly the Maret selection committee can see tremendous value in Dennis and likely hopes he supports diversity in their community too.

I am a PP but had to jump back in with this ridiculous post. If you are a “seasoned professional” then you should know that Chris Whittle is a criminal and has launched failing educational products since back in the 80’s. The fact that you think it was going to give a “global private education” tells me you are not “seasoned” but either very naive or frankly unemployed.

As for Maret, the selection committee was steamrolled. There was considerable opposition against Bisgaard that got ignored bc yes, some members wanted a person of color no matter what- even if he was mediocre compared to the other white candidates. Sad but true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As an outside observer to both Whittle and Maret, but a seasoned professional in global education, I want to share an objective opinion on both situations. Whittle School was a dream unrealized and having personally witnessed it’s diverse student body, gave a global private education to students from all around this city. Something no other independent school can say. Maret, having struggled with supporting it’s students of color most likely chose Dennis Bisgaard due to his strength in diversity and his Whittle track record actually supports him in this regard. Bisgaard founded a leadership institute mentoring educators of color and carried that experience to Whittle, developing an extremely diverse founding faculty and founding student body. Clearly the Maret selection committee can see tremendous value in Dennis and likely hopes he supports diversity in their community too.

What is a "global private education" exactly? That's the sort of marketing-speak that is part of the smoke and mirrors "disruptors" enjoy using, but it doesn't mean anything. But the reality was that there was no thoughtful strategic curriculum and many kids wound up years behind their peers as the school fell apart but pretended to be fine.

Back in the day, they called this "Geography."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maret unfortunately seems to be stuck with a turd in the punch bowl now.

It’ll just give the current HOS an excuse to not really retire, which nobody really believed she’d do anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How come no investugative journalists are nosing around? Seems like a juicy story and has potential for the Netflix treatment

I still think it was all a front for Chinese either for VISAs and/or the setting high on a crest of a hill for signals intercept

Why ?

Because maybe you can fool some DC area parents, but Chinese investors - far less so. The millions that they were willing to spend ( lose) on a rental property is the tell tale and I always thought the FBI should be investigating

" he is a con man" is very useful cover

Whittle selected the school’s site right next door to the Chinese embassy.

I would more view it as the Chinese investors - the ones who were willing to invest millions into a rental property at a school designed as a ponzy scheme- told whittle where his new school would be

Like the WSJ says, " follow the money"

Whittle is a known con man- very useful to the Chinese as a cover. Just like Trump was allowing Russians and Chinese to buy their US Green cards in return for " investing in his business" Their " investments" were purchases into his condo business

Whittle school is same formula: VISA fraud and signals intel . Cover is " failed school " . " nothing here to investigate but a con-man"

[Anonymous]

This is the story in many ways of institutional failure. With enormous money owed in order to get a permit,and not all requirements for the building met, DCRA looked the other way and permitted the building. With obvious fraud and numerous complaints filed to Racine's office the DC Attorney General turned a blind eye. With zero accountability controls in place, the Federal Government as well as Wells Fargo allowed fraudulent PPP loans to be submitted,funded and spent on anything. With tens of millions in lawsuits filed in NY, the court system is so backed up the cases have been sitting for over a year. With a Board that was either paid off, stupid or just ignorant, money was illegally transferred offshore while writs were attached to local bank accounts, and money was skimmed off the top and put into senior management hands with zero oversight. With an approval system that relies on paperwork without genuine human oversight, both Cognia and the IB Board certified and provided significant accreditation to a completely insolvent organization that had an unprecedented number of lawsuits against it. And we all know the media, in particular the Washington Post, did superficial lazy puff pieces that relied on quotes from "experts" that had been spun up by Chris Whittle's rhetoric and knew nothing of the actual situation. This was institutional failure on all counts while Whittle and friends took millions in loans and mortgages, got even more by begging for it from hard working families and literally lined their pockets. Shame on the Board, shame on Whittle and Rivera, shame on the backed up courts, the bloated PPP program, the ignorant Washington Post, the look-the-other-way Attorney General, and every investor, parent or "friend of Chris" that wrote their Whittle investment off--- but is just too embarrassed to stand up and tell the truth.and prevent this from happening again. "No Comment" is not ok --it's the cheap way out, when you have a serial fraudster on the loose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is the story in many ways of institutional failure. With enormous money owed in order to get a permit,and not all requirements for the building met, DCRA looked the other way and permitted the building. With obvious fraud and numerous complaints filed to Racine's office the DC Attorney General turned a blind eye. With zero accountability controls in place, the Federal Government as well as Wells Fargo allowed fraudulent PPP loans to be submitted,funded and spent on anything. With tens of millions in lawsuits filed in NY, the court system is so backed up the cases have been sitting for over a year. With a Board that was either paid off, stupid or just ignorant, money was illegally transferred offshore while writs were attached to local bank accounts, and money was skimmed off the top and put into senior management hands with zero oversight. With an approval system that relies on paperwork without genuine human oversight, both Cognia and the IB Board certified and provided significant accreditation to a completely insolvent organization that had an unprecedented number of lawsuits against it. And we all know the media, in particular the Washington Post, did superficial lazy puff pieces that relied on quotes from "experts" that had been spun up by Chris Whittle's rhetoric and knew nothing of the actual situation. This was institutional failure on all counts while Whittle and friends took millions in loans and mortgages, got even more by begging for it from hard working families and literally lined their pockets. Shame on the Board, shame on Whittle and Rivera, shame on the backed up courts, the bloated PPP program, the ignorant Washington Post, the look-the-other-way Attorney General, and every investor, parent or "friend of Chris" that wrote their Whittle investment off--- but is just too embarrassed to stand up and tell the truth.and prevent this from happening again. "No Comment" is not ok --it's the cheap way out, when you have a serial fraudster on the loose.

This is all correct, but in the world of sins and major problems, I'm not sure the failure to provide the education they promised to a group of kids who will still be ok is as significant as other scams out there. This isn't human trafficking or scamming old people out of all their retirement savings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, Maret is significantly more diverse (50+% kids of color) than the school he was at in CT for 12 years (32% kids of color). So perhaps he isn't as skilled at building communities of color after all.

Is 50% of the US not identifying as white?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the story in many ways of institutional failure. With enormous money owed in order to get a permit,and not all requirements for the building met, DCRA looked the other way and permitted the building. With obvious fraud and numerous complaints filed to Racine's office the DC Attorney General turned a blind eye. With zero accountability controls in place, the Federal Government as well as Wells Fargo allowed fraudulent PPP loans to be submitted,funded and spent on anything. With tens of millions in lawsuits filed in NY, the court system is so backed up the cases have been sitting for over a year. With a Board that was either paid off, stupid or just ignorant, money was illegally transferred offshore while writs were attached to local bank accounts, and money was skimmed off the top and put into senior management hands with zero oversight. With an approval system that relies on paperwork without genuine human oversight, both Cognia and the IB Board certified and provided significant accreditation to a completely insolvent organization that had an unprecedented number of lawsuits against it. And we all know the media, in particular the Washington Post, did superficial lazy puff pieces that relied on quotes from "experts" that had been spun up by Chris Whittle's rhetoric and knew nothing of the actual situation. This was institutional failure on all counts while Whittle and friends took millions in loans and mortgages, got even more by begging for it from hard working families and literally lined their pockets. Shame on the Board, shame on Whittle and Rivera, shame on the backed up courts, the bloated PPP program, the ignorant Washington Post, the look-the-other-way Attorney General, and every investor, parent or "friend of Chris" that wrote their Whittle investment off--- but is just too embarrassed to stand up and tell the truth.and prevent this from happening again. "No Comment" is not ok --it's the cheap way out, when you have a serial fraudster on the loose.

This is all correct, but in the world of sins and major problems, I'm not sure the failure to provide the education they promised to a group of kids who will still be ok is as significant as other scams out there. This isn't human trafficking or scamming old people out of all their retirement savings.

This is one of the biggest frauds to have been carried out in Washington DC --it is not at all about whether or not the education was provided as promised. Its about what happened to the money. And the misrepresentations that were made to some of the major players who went along with the false narrarive. It's a fraud case. The families are small players in it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Insider here. It's hilarious how deluded so many of the posts in this thread are. Last generation had "The Young and the Restless", this one has DCUM...

Unfortunately the real situation is much less exciting than the fantasies of our beloved Whittle soap opera aficionados. Nobody in the admin or parent committee was skimming anything. What was there to skim exactly? The school had been dead broke since December 2021. The admin was mostly going without pay, with lower level managers receiving partial salary. The reason Dennis left was because the school was literally furloughing large amounts of staff and cutting leadership/admin salaries in half. There was no "big payout". And lastly, the wealthy parents on the funding committee are the only reason the school was able to limp across the finish line. They paid teacher salaries, security, and insurance so their kids could graduate, helping the rest of the student body finish out the year by happenstance.

One final thing about Dennis... He's not some corrupt mastermind hell bent on running schools into the ground. He's a nice enough guy, but ultimately a diversity hire nincompoop. That's why Maret hired him!

No. They misled and used the parents of “the rest of the student body” so that their kids could graduate and move on to college without a hiccup. They were supposedly seeing and reviewing the mythical documents regarding new funding, that would enable the school to continue. That was the false premise they used to mislead and plead with other parents to pay extra and hang in there while Whittle got his new deal completed.

Can you point me to your source for this? Would love to see the facts of how they managed to pull this off. Thanks!

From the June 10 WBJ article:

"Indeed, a group of parents and other shareholders cobbled together some of the $2 million needed to make payroll until mid- January, according to another letter Chris Whittle sent Dec. 28, adding that two parents and one faculty member had formed a parent capital strategy committee to discuss the school’s needs with investors. Those representatives — Michael O’Neil, Paul Baldassari and Monica Bisgaard — had signed confidentiality agreements to protect 'highly sensitive' information, he wrote. Baldassari and Bisgaard did not respond to requests for comment; O’Neil was not available in time for publication.

"Chris Whittle then asked in that letter if any families would be willing to prepay tuition for January, February and March or for the following academic year to close the payroll gap. 'There is an element of risk here, i.e. the possibility that the planned, long-term capital transaction in mid-January does not close, Whittle said in the Dec. 28 letter. 'I believe that is remote, but it is not inconceivable.'"

[Anonymous]

"a planned long term capital transaction"? what was that ? A 9th mortgage on a property he no longer owned?

A bunch of frantic pitches to a cobbled together prospect list of random possible funders he was meeting for the first or second time?

Maybe someone who was inside the scramble for dimes could shed some light.

Did anyone have a view of what that supposed transaction actually was? It obviously was not a planned long term capital transaction

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Insider here. It's hilarious how deluded so many of the posts in this thread are. Last generation had "The Young and the Restless", this one has DCUM...

Unfortunately the real situation is much less exciting than the fantasies of our beloved Whittle soap opera aficionados. Nobody in the admin or parent committee was skimming anything. What was there to skim exactly? The school had been dead broke since December 2021. The admin was mostly going without pay, with lower level managers receiving partial salary. The reason Dennis left was because the school was literally furloughing large amounts of staff and cutting leadership/admin salaries in half. There was no "big payout". And lastly, the wealthy parents on the funding committee are the only reason the school was able to limp across the finish line. They paid teacher salaries, security, and insurance so their kids could graduate, helping the rest of the student body finish out the year by happenstance.

One final thing about Dennis... He's not some corrupt mastermind hell bent on running schools into the ground. He's a nice enough guy, but ultimately a diversity hire nincompoop. That's why Maret hired him!

No. They misled and used the parents of “the rest of the student body” so that their kids could graduate and move on to college without a hiccup. They were supposedly seeing and reviewing the mythical documents regarding new funding, that would enable the school to continue. That was the false premise they used to mislead and plead with other parents to pay extra and hang in there while Whittle got his new deal completed.

Can you point me to your source for this? Would love to see the facts of how they managed to pull this off. Thanks!

From the June 10 WBJ article:

"Indeed, a group of parents and other shareholders cobbled together some of the $2 million needed to make payroll until mid- January, according to another letter Chris Whittle sent Dec. 28, adding that two parents and one faculty member had formed a parent capital strategy committee to discuss the school’s needs with investors. Those representatives — Michael O’Neil, Paul Baldassari and Monica Bisgaard — had signed confidentiality agreements to protect 'highly sensitive' information, he wrote. Baldassari and Bisgaard did not respond to requests for comment; O’Neil was not available in time for publication.

"Chris Whittle then asked in that letter if any families would be willing to prepay tuition for January, February and March or for the following academic year to close the payroll gap. 'There is an element of risk here, i.e. the possibility that the planned, long-term capital transaction in mid-January does not close, Whittle said in the Dec. 28 letter. 'I believe that is remote, but it is not inconceivable.'"

None of that supports your allegation that the parent committee "misled and used the parents of 'the rest of the student body' so that their kids could graduate and move on to college without a hiccup". It merely says that a committee was formed. Where's your source for any wrongdoing by the committee?

[Anonymous]

As for Maret, the selection committee was steamrolled. There was considerable opposition against Bisgaard that got ignored bc yes, some members wanted a person of color no matter what- even if he was mediocre compared to the other white candidates. Sad but true.

Your pompous racism is showing when you call a successful head of school and nationally recognized leader mediocre. There is a saying in the black community that you have to be twice as good to get half as much. You are demonstrating that even though Dennis has gone to top tier schools for his education and been a head of school at other top tier schools (outside of Whittle), you refuse to recognize him as an equal. I hope if Maret families and leadership see this thread, they aren’t infected by the vile and vitriol that this poster and others anonymously spread due to their implicit bias.