Whittle

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Ha - bigger frauds are carried out in this city every day in the halls of Congress.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

As a former Whittle family member, I do have to agree that Bisgaard was mediocre even though he tried to be nice. However, the last HoS at Whittle, Manny made Bisgaard feel like a saint. Highly doubt that you were at any of the other schools Bisgaard was at. I have to agree with the Whittle insider’s assessment of Bisgaard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

I would agree with your second sentence only if the order of “twice” and “half” was switched. Even if Dennis was white, people would’ve thought he was mediocre. I am sure many other people on this thread feel this way, but it looks like the emphasis on diversity was at play here.

[Anonymous]

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.


I am a parent at Maret and a PoC. I did not think Bisgaard was the best choice for the new HoS and was very surprised when he was named head.

I personally think they should do a new search, and I am worried that this will affect applications and enrollment. When we applied, we were very happy that the Head was a woman and had a very good tenure. I doubt that people will see this new Head and want to apply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

It completely undermines the point--presumably yours--that the purpose of the committee was just to get the school across the finish line for this past academic year. As this quote makes clear, the claimed purpose was actually to help bring in investment for future years. Which, as your own comments acknowledge, was a ruse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

It completely undermines the point--presumably yours--that the purpose of the committee was just to get the school across the finish line for this past academic year. As this quote makes clear, the claimed purpose was actually to help bring in investment for future years. Which, as your own comments acknowledge, was a ruse.

Just because it failed its mission to bring in new investors doesn’t mean it was a ruse. It just means it failed. Again, where is your evidence of wrongdoing by this committee?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

I would agree with your second sentence only if the order of “twice” and “half” was switched. Even if Dennis was white, people would’ve thought he was mediocre. I am sure many other people on this thread feel this way, but it looks like the emphasis on diversity was at play here.

So you are saying that in the black community, you have to be half as good to get twice as much?? Is that really what you mean when you say the words should be switched?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

I would agree with your second sentence only if the order of “twice” and “half” was switched. Even if Dennis was white, people would’ve thought he was mediocre. I am sure many other people on this thread feel this way, but it looks like the emphasis on diversity was at play here.

So you are saying that in the black community, you have to be half as good to get twice as much?? Is that really what you mean when you say the words should be switched?

Everything in this thread is overly exaggerated and ridiculous, so it would be quite fitting if that’s exactly what the PP meant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[

Everything in this thread is overly exaggerated...

Lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[

Everything in this thread is overly exaggerated...

Lol

Agree 100% that this thread has become a hilarious joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Ha - bigger frauds are carried out in this city every day in the halls of Congress.

This is a blip on the radar and only just. It’ll never cease to amaze me how self-important the private school community is and how much it assumes the rest of the area knows or cares about it.

[Anonymous]

He told the Washington Post he had raised ( and spent) $900 million in 2019. Some blip.

[Anonymous]

I love that this strand oscillates between who the villains are: Dennis, Monica, Whittle, Maret board!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

It completely undermines the point--presumably yours--that the purpose of the committee was just to get the school across the finish line for this past academic year. As this quote makes clear, the claimed purpose was actually to help bring in investment for future years. Which, as your own comments acknowledge, was a ruse.

Just because it failed its mission to bring in new investors doesn’t mean it was a ruse. It just means it failed. Again, where is your evidence of wrongdoing by this committee?

That’s why it would be interesting to know more about what the Committee knew and expected.

At the time Whittle was asking for pre-paid tuition, would a prudent parent think there was a snowball’s chance in hell of the school surviving until next year if they had more full financial information rather than just rosy exhortations?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[

Everything in this thread is overly exaggerated...

Lol

Agree 100% that this thread has become a hilarious joke.

Then don’t waste your time here. Do you have any stakes in reading this thread? It is true that not everything posted here is useful, but does shed light on some past events.