ITS changed first day of school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many charters have half days one day a week.

Among them:
DC Bilingual
Bridges

Most of the rest we applied to.

I don't really care one way or the other that they changed the calendar. With all due respect, this is in no way a "last minute change." It's March.

You all are sounding kind of entitled.

By the way, at Inspired Teaching we don't usually air our dirty laundry on DCUM. We talk directly to each other and to the administration. If you need this much control, you may not be cut out for Charters.

Count me as another parent who hopes the administration doesn't cave on this.

But is there a charter that has half days with no aftercare? Because until ITS announces that there is aftercare, there isn't.

If the administration would respond to my emails I might be able to talk with them. The IFA is "trying" to figure out a way to work this into their obviously very busy and important meeting agenda. But they'll never stand up to the administration or question anything they're told.

This isn't about control. It's about the administration's rudeness in changing the calendar without an apology for their mistake, and for their indifference to the inconvenience they're imposing on parents. ITS already has the most inconvenient back-to-school phase-in week that I've been able to find in any DCPS elementary school that isn't Montessori. I was fine to put up with that, but this change is such a pain I feel I have to speak up.

Parents on DCUM are applying to ITS and should know that this is how the administration treats the families.

My DCPS PK kid’s schedule is even worse. Especially with older kid. I’d rather have at least have days than no school at all the first 3 days of school, well after camps are out.

What is the schedule exactly at your school and how is it worse?

All DCPS PK kids don’t start until 3 days after school starts for rest of students, Wed. Sept 3. For those of us with older kids that start 8/31, it’s not like we can be on vacation. We have to take 3 full days off of work just to be home with PK kids. If it were half days like ITS, at least I could try to figure out a telework situation or work half days.

Hmm. OK. So I have to take off Monday and Tuesday completely because there is no school at all those days at ITS and then there’s two days when I’m shuttling back and forth at 8:30, then 12:15, and then again at 3:30 to pick up my older kid and that’s better somehow??? Ok.

You guys start earlier. And yes, being able to work from 8:30-12 is better than not being able to work at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many charters have half days one day a week.

Among them:
DC Bilingual
Bridges

Most of the rest we applied to.

I don't really care one way or the other that they changed the calendar. With all due respect, this is in no way a "last minute change." It's March.

You all are sounding kind of entitled.

By the way, at Inspired Teaching we don't usually air our dirty laundry on DCUM. We talk directly to each other and to the administration. If you need this much control, you may not be cut out for Charters.

Count me as another parent who hopes the administration doesn't cave on this.

+1

Quiz time: How do schools with great promise continue to drop in quality an prestige over time?
Answer: By creating a culture of fear and reprisal with the tired old control mechanism that we should "keep it in-house".

ITS would have been much better off if there had been open and honest dialogue about things that were creating dissatisfaction. Instead they basically told people who had any constructive feedback to STFU and get out if they didn't like it. Be careful what you wish for ITS.

You ITS apologists aren't helping the cause, you are hurting it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let be very clear here. Itds did NOT release a full calendar then change it. They did changed the start date by moving it up 3 days.
So everyone complaining they "changed the calendar" you are creating a false narrative. The full calendar was not released and changed only the start date.

Huh? They published a start date and then changed it. How is that not the literal definition of having "changed the calendar"? That is quite literally what those words mean!!! Unless you feel the start date isn't material to the calendar? You fundamentally misunderstand what a "false narrative" is. This is neither a story nor false. It is a simple fact; start date published, start date changed after having been published.

P.S. Are you an ITS Board member or staffer?

[Anonymous]

Oh look another email from the administration making it crystal clear that they DGAF about parent input. And scolding us for thinking their email saying they can't promise half day childcare might mean there is not going to be childcare. What a joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh look another email from the administration making it crystal clear that they DGAF about parent input. And scolding us for thinking their email saying they can't promise half day childcare might mean there is not going to be childcare. What a joke.

Didn’t get an email. Confused.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh look another email from the administration making it crystal clear that they DGAF about parent input. And scolding us for thinking their email saying they can't promise half day childcare might mean there is not going to be childcare. What a joke.

Why would this do this AFTER lottery ends? Scandalous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh look another email from the administration making it crystal clear that they DGAF about parent input. And scolding us for thinking their email saying they can't promise half day childcare might mean there is not going to be childcare. What a joke.

Didn’t get an email. Confused.

We got one that seemed like it was to the whole school from K. K. She still has not answered the one I sent to her providing feedback, and reading this one, seems like I shouldn't expect anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh look another email from the administration making it crystal clear that they DGAF about parent input. And scolding us for thinking their email saying they can't promise half day childcare might mean there is not going to be childcare. What a joke.

Didn’t get an email. Confused.

We got one that seemed like it was to the whole school from K. K. She still has not answered the one I sent to her providing feedback, and reading this one, seems like I shouldn't expect anything.

Ding ding ding. They have acknowledged the parent feedback they did not ask for. They don’t care.

[Anonymous]

Correction: they have acknowledged that they *received* the parent feedback they did not ask for. They do not acknowledge that they maybe should have done anything differently.

How dare we not trust them!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Correction: they have acknowledged that they *received* the parent feedback they did not ask for. They do not acknowledge that they maybe should have done anything differently.

How dare we not trust them!

Seriously. I feel like we're being scolded. The first email said "While we can’t make any promises that there will be on-site childcare options on these days, we are looking into the possibilities." Call me crazy, but that made me think there might not be childcare. Now they say "Based on our history of always ensuring the availability of child care during professional development full days and half days, we hope you trust that school leadership is not ignoring the needs of students and families." That is not the history, especially for the THREE half days in the first week of school. So no, I do not trust that they are not ignoring our needs. Maybe responding to my email would be a great first step in not ignoring our needs.

[Anonymous]

Wow, y’all really need to find some bigger problems to be so outraged about. At this point, your anger seems performative and really out of scale to the severity of the issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, y’all really need to find some bigger problems to be so outraged about. At this point, your anger seems performative and really out of scale to the severity of the issue.

It's just grating how smug the ITS administration is about its own excellence and how they think they're so woke. Really they DGAF.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, y’all really need to find some bigger problems to be so outraged about. At this point, your anger seems performative and really out of scale to the severity of the issue.

It's just grating how smug the ITS administration is about its own excellence and how they think they're so woke. Really they DGAF.

If our head of school wrote a note saying childcare might not be available and followed with "we hope you trust that school leadership is not ignoring the needs of students and families" I'd be turned off. It's such pedantic wording, especially since they didn't start by saying we can't guarantee anything yet but are on the case. And makes "school leadership" sound so separated from everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, y’all really need to find some bigger problems to be so outraged about. At this point, your anger seems performative and really out of scale to the severity of the issue.

It's just grating how smug the ITS administration is about its own excellence and how they think they're so woke. Really they DGAF.

Yup. We got a spot last year, and the smugness was so repellent that we declined and stayed at our EOTP IB, where we are act so happy.

[Anonymous]

*actually so happy. Absolutely no regrets.