Christ Episcopal School
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Anonymous
NP. They sold a building based on the barking back and forth in this thread |
Anonymous
| I know this is an old thread but I was curious how the school is doing a year later. We strongly considered CES a couple of years ago and ultimately chose a different school. We may need to make a change soon and CES would be a top choice. Any current parents have input? I have both lower and upper school kids if that’s helpful. |
Anonymous
| To the 8/22/22 poster, we are in the Lower School now and are very happy. My kid is so excited for Monday and to be able to go back to school 🙂 It is a wonderful, nurturing environment and I think the financial troubles have been resolved. But we feel good about being there. |
Anonymous
| The school is thriving. It is a great school and we are so glad we opted to send DC here. Warm, happy environment, excellent academics, emphasis on values….a wonderful school. |
Anonymous
| I’m going to help you out here. First, be forewarned that the administration stalks this site. So take some, not all, of the positive comments with a grain of salt. Also, make sure you ask how many kids are in the grade you are thinking about putting your child into. There are some VERY, almost criminally tiny classes at this school - I’m talking 4-6 kids sometimes and even in those tiny classes there can be a gender imbalance. Do you want your kid to be the only boy/girl in a group of the opposite sex? Know this going into the application process. Nail them on the number and ignore the bit of hope they try to give you that they are “still enrolling” and might get more kids. They might. They also might not. And some of the middle school classes are absurdly small. Especially at that age kids need to a wider group of classmates. Ask questions! |
Anonymous
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Agreed. While the teachers and curriculum are stellar at this school, the small class size/gender imbalance became an issue for my child. We were sad to leave the school on account of this, but a socially unhappy kid is not going to access the curriculum no matter how great it is.
The teachers are lovely but with no guidance counselor, they were not equipped to deal with many social-emotional issues and often failed to consistently and fairly address bullying and harassing behavior. Consequences for student behavior were not doled out even-handedly. Be forewarned that a school of this size needs an inordinate amount of parental assistance beyond any school I have ever seen (volunteering, fundraising, marketing). The number of "asks" throughout the year is exhausting from soccer balls and diverse books to monthly teacher appreciation lunches, annual fund, volunteering at open houses, advertising the school within our networks etc....it just should not be this hard for a school that already charges $22,000/year. There is a lot of history between the church and school, and it would serve families well to understand it as it informs where the school is today and how well it operates. |
Anonymous
| Beware of the super tiny schools! There is no positive to this type of environment. Your child will be clawing their way out in short order. |
Anonymous
'Thriving' is their favorite word. |
Anonymous
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This farewell letter was recently sent by the interim church rector to the community. She describes what the past 2 years were like for her, and I think it speaks for itself.
Be forewarned that development of the Jefferson Building and townhouses around the school are going to further squeeze the school children in. Ask lots of questions. I hope the church can attract a new rector that views the school as a mission and not a piggy bank. Two Years: A Walk with Christ Church By Meg Ingalls When Robert Phillips called to ask if I were available to come to Christ Church and work alongside Carol Cole Flanagan (a suggestion made by Bishop Chilton Knudson), he told me that the church had the need to sell some of their real estate. He wanted to know if I could handle that? I said I had never done that for a church, but it didn’t sound too daunting. (I think he understated it a bit). Upon arrival the wardens took us on a walk-about. The nave had been cleared out and new floors were going in. A question of carpet was under discussion. On to the education wing…newly and beautifully renovated. News of closing the school was delivered along with issues around a capital campaign and needing 1.8 million to close down the school. There was a plan to sell off the Murdock and Hillstrom houses to use toward that cost. The houses were pointed out from the street. There were also issues with the staff which needed sorting. So much good news on a first blush walk with the wardens. (I now knew Robert had underestimated it a bit). The controversies we dealt with were great. First, we decided to live with the staff given us and make up our own minds about them. We did talk with them and discovered they felt threatened and feared constantly for their positions. One of our concerns was to make them feel comfortable as a staff team who could raise issues and not feel unheard. In finding out in a newsletter posting that the Murdock and Hillstrom houses were under contract without final vestry approval, and then discovering that the houses were being held as collateral for the Jefferson Building and selling them would not net any profit towards closing the school but would go straight to the mortgage on the Jefferson Building, and that the bank could then raid our endowment and bank accounts and even foreclose on the church to pay off that loan, led to a series of complications. The wardens resigned. The houses were withdrawn from sale. Lawsuit was averted. People talked. People left. People were unhappy, but the church was secured. Then, because of the 11th hour decision to close the school, the controversy of the Capital Campaign arose. Those on the school side who had seen their contributions go into the renovations of the education wing only to see that space withdrawn from their use were unhappy. That is putting it mildly. Again, there were rumors of lawsuits. We spent a great deal of time putting together profiles of the campaign, making calls, trying to allay fears and anger. Again, some people left. Paul Parker, who had come on in the summer of 2020 as Head of School, proposed to the vestry that the school have the opportunity to raise the funds it needed to complete the year and start the next. The vestry gave a two-month window. I don’t think anyone thought the school could manage it. But they did. In the midst of that, Paul Parker was let go, Nicole Stone moved up to Head of School, and Paul Parker subsequently died. With the achievement of the school, the vestry made the decision to align its mission more closely with that of the church. New strategies for tuition and enrollment proposed by Victor Ban were employed, multiple groups from church, school, board, and vestry gathered, and new handbooks and teachers manual written, new norms and a shifting of expectations made the school and the church grow closer. And the controversy of the capital campaign faded into the background. Of course, some who had wanted the school gone were not happy. Some even left. All the while, we were dealing with worship during COVID. We continued our services inside beginning All Saints Sunday 2020. We chose to do only one service and stream that service since only 12 people were allowed in the building at a time. Henry Mulzac and Jeremy Snider were instrumental in getting that service going. Johnny Lynch stepped in as our first technician. When he left, Sophia Sutton came on board, and when she moved, Brad Ingalls stepped in. Finally, this past year we have hired a firm to handle our streaming so it will be consistent. At Christmas we were stumped. There had always been a Children’s Christmas pageant on Christmas eve, but that was not allowed. Michele Craig came up with the awesome idea of a drive through living nativity pageant and receiving blessed communion at the end to take home and join with us for the streamed service at 9 pm. The kids came out to populate the scenes, wearing masks and being socially distanced. But some were unhappy that we used live animals in the scenes (they were from a family farm where they were viewed as pets). The tension ramped up over this service, and some left the church. Soon after Christmas Michele Craig went on a three-month medical sabbatical. Come July she made the decision to make it permanent. That was another shock to our system. No teachers were waiting in the wings. No curriculum was provided. The computer was wiped clean, and I was given a 2019 calendar of events to reboot the Christian formation program. Thankfully, Michelle Kang came along beside me and we ended up with a wonderful cadre of teachers and mentors for our kids, and the wonderful addition of Charlotte Snider as an aid for our program. When we were finally able to bring folks back into the church, we had seating arrangements and followed protocols, and some chose not to come back into public worship. A decision was made to continue the single service because we only had a couple of dozen folks in church in the beginning. Then came the cushion controversy. There was general agreement that carpet would not come back in to dampen the sound of the music. But as more and more people came back to church, those with issues around sitting on hard benches became more pronounced. Pew sitters mostly wanted them. Choir folks mostly didn’t. We compromised and put them every 6 pews. People would move them to their pews. Others would take them back. Then one of our staff members without consultation took them all out again and refused to return them. It became a bruhaha. We discussed this in staff nearly every week. week. Newsletters had articles. And finally, Carol (who did not particularly want them back) decided they would return. Some folks were unhappy. Some left. Others enjoyed sitting on cushions. And the latest controversy centers around the choir and our former choir director. While I am not at liberty to disclose a lot of information because this is a personnel issue, what may be said is that from the onset there had been issues around authority in liturgy which grew over time. We worked hard from November 2021 on to try to resolve those issues to no avail. It was only when we were told by our music director that we could not discuss anything with him without going through a lawyer that things came to a head. When you cannot meet to plan worship or have staff meetings, then things have come to an end. People have been unhappy. People have left. Some are waiting for the interims to leave. For me, I look back over the past two years and have discovered that it has brought me a feeling of satisfaction in the accomplishments we have managed. The Capital Campaign issues have been resolved. The school is operating in the black and even growing after having been right-sized and reorganized. The staff are happy working together as one in the parish house. We saved the Murdock and Hillstrom houses and have sold the Jefferson Building. We have a development company building 30 new residences for us to mine for school and church while also redeveloping Foley Park for us. Once the SWAP agreement is paid off (we hope sometime in October), both the church and the school will be debt free. We are in search for a new rector, music director, and Christian formation director. We have restarted our welcome program thanks to Moss Kendrix. We have wonderful programs that are working, such as our Outreach Program under Ben Shuman in which we continue our ESL Program, feeding the Women’s Shelter, and working with Habitat for Humanity. Our youth are now connected with two other churches, and we had a mission team go to Puerto Rico this summer. And that just scratches the surface. I want to give thanks for my cohort Carol Cole Flanagan+ who is a brilliant and lovable human being, for wardens Emily Pearce, Bayo Laniyonu, and Matthew Salter without whom we could not have managed this job (they are fabulous leaders as well as good friends), for Nicole Stone and Dave Scott and Jeff Whitman with whom I have walked most closely on our journey with the school, for all the vestry members who have been precious in my sight for the work they have done, and for our staff, school and church—but especially Judith who manages to put up with us all and still smile at the end of the day. I want to say a special thank you to Anna and Buzz Von Arx who have kept things going for worship, Donna Gentry whose gentleness and smarts are such a gift, for Allison Roulier whose charts and smarts are a blessing, for the Lin family who sang us through the pandemic, for Bill Thompson who gifts us with writing of icons, for Charlie Griffiths who got us through PPPS and more and is back at it, for the Corrells (they know why) and for so many others. This church—not the building but its people and those who make a difference in our world through their ministries—have touched my heart in a way I will never forget. Even through all the mess, I have loved you. As I leave, I pray all of you will find your way back to the pews. Other controversies will brew, but if you can survive the last two years and put it behind you and find grace in all of it, then you are the people I believe you to be. Be loved. Be blessed. Be happy. Come home. Meg Ingalls+ |
Anonymous
| Ummmm ^^ What. a. mess. |
Anonymous
| This is like a bad version of a family’s end of year Christmas card insert letter! |
Anonymous
And living this is as bad as it sounds. |
Anonymous
? What is an "Episcopal Curriculum" (and I had kids in episcopal school and attended Episcopal Church for 25 years. |
Anonymous
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“What is an "Episcopal Curriculum" (and I had kids in episcopal school and attended Episcopal Church for 25 years.”
Curriculum that teaches church traditions and the Bible, I assume. |
Anonymous
And it's MAESA. |