Whittle
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Anonymous
| I’ve talked to at least two. Both are in. Can’t wait. |
Anonymous
| Teachers have so many causes of action against the administrators and the parent committee (Bisgaard is both). Whittle, of course, too, but what’s the point of that one? |
Anonymous
| Manny Rivera the outgoing head of school and longtime Whittle partner in crime has completely cleansed his Linkedin profile of Whittle. He was at Whittle for 5 years. He lists it as one year now. He had a vibrant consulting business on the side. It's not listed. He told the Washington Business Journal in June of this year how excited he was about the increasing teacher rosters for the next year and how he was optimistic that millions were around the corner...yet it appears from his Linkedin that he had already resigned from Whittle at the time of his interview. |
Anonymous
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Is the school officially closed?
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Anonymous
Yes |
Anonymous
It's a darned short biography altogether. Not a word about his adventures back in the aughts when he and Whittle and Varkey were all together running "Nations" school and its various manifestations and its misguided investors into the ground. Getting sued for fraud together and so on. MR has quite a limited bio when he leaves out all the years he's spent lying for and with CW. |
Anonymous
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You can change the dates and the name of the venture from Nations Academy to Whittle, but the patterns are identical.
https://pdf4pro.com/amp/cdn/emet-investments-llc-et-al-v-nations-academy-llc-et-2ec63e.pdf |
Anonymous
| Have they filed for bankruptcy yet in DC or Delaware or Caymans or wherever they are technically based? |
Anonymous
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How do we think Monica and Dennis are feeling about the Maret gig?
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Anonymous
| OMG, this thread was downgraded to page 2! |
Anonymous
They should feel grateful that they landed a job they don’t deserve. BTW, Maret hired Dennis nor Monica so the parents will not be pleased if he is a packaged deal |
Anonymous
Can Chris afford a lawyer for the bankruptcy filing? |
Anonymous
| Hey, ya'll, we can't have our fave topic slip to page 2 again. |
Anonymous
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https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2022/08/17/whittle-school-teacher-pay-deadline-passes.html
Can't pay teachers any back pay, but he's opening two new campuses - one in Cyprus and one in China! |
Anonymous
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Chris Whittle gives update on Whittle School employee back pay as of self-imposed deadline
The CEO of the Whittle School & Studios is "optimistic" that steps he is taking to fund back pay for dozens of former teachers and staff in the District "may" be successful, though they had yet to come through as of the executive's own self-imposed deadline. The company, meanwhile, is working to hire for two new international campuses — jobs for which terminated teachers from the shuttered D.C. school have been invited to apply. Chris Whittle did not make his own Aug. 15 stated deadline to pay employees who were laid off in early July upon the for-profit, private school's D.C. campus suddenly closing, according to interviews with teachers and emails obtained by the Washington Business Journal. On Monday evening, Whittle sent an email to former faculty and staff saying he needed another day before he could share the status of their payments. On Tuesday, another email arrived, but with little new information. He declined to comment further on the pay issues for this story. "Each day, I continue to work upon a series of transactions which will hopefully provide us funds to help meet our obligations to you and others," Whittle wrote in his Tuesday email. "Though none of these are closed/funded, I am optimistic that some may occur." It’s been nearly six weeks since Chris Whittle told the 40 teachers and staff members and families of roughly 130 students at the Whittle School’s D.C. campus that it was closing immediately, citing a lack of funds to continue operations. Several employees who were terminated at that time said they are still missing at least three paychecks. Some who left before the announcement say they’re missing at least one paycheck from February and other promised bonuses. On Aug. 1, Chris Whittle told former employees in a note that the company would look to sell its D.C. assets, including intellectual property and fixtures and equipment left inside its former campus at 4000 Connecticut Ave. NW, to cover the paychecks it still owes them. Related: Read our recent cover story on the financial struggles faced by the Whittle School and its D.C. operations. Meanwhile, former employees say their financial struggles are adding up from working at the school without consistent pay. One former teacher who worked at the D.C. campus for two years left a few months before the campus closed, but said she's still waiting on at least one check from February, plus a promised retention bonus. She and two other former employees said they resigned from the school because they could no longer afford gas to drive to work, in addition to paying rent, groceries and other expenses and, months later, are still suffering from credit card debt. “I never asked to be a charity case. I just asked to be paid by my employer,” the former teacher said. “Financially, I don’t know how long it would take for me to rebuild. … I’m still trying to dig myself out of it.” Many former teachers told the Washington Business Journal that they’ve found jobs, including some who started looking for new employment during the 2021-2022 academic year because they were skeptical the school could reopen by this fall. Some stayed local, finding work at other private schools like the Madeira School in McLean and the Field School in D.C. Chris Whittle told the Washington Business Journal on July 25 that he and other leadership team members have been working to place former Whittle School teachers and staff with new jobs. It’s unclear how effective that’s been. On July 27, Manny Rivera, former head of school for the D.C. campus, sent an email to former Whittle School employees to pass along four “potential employment opportunities” in D.C. and beyond. Two of the listed opportunities were yet-to-open Whittle School campuses, in Suzhou, China, planned for a September opening, and in Cyprus, planned for a September 2023 opening, according to the email obtained by the Business Journal. Jessie Toh, whom Rivera noted in the email as the faculty and staff hiring lead for the planned Whittle School campus in Suzhou, declined to comment. The other recommendations from Rivera were the NEOM Community School in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, and D.C.'s Friendship Public Charter Schools, which Whittle co-founded with current school Chairman and former Friendship House Executive Director Donald Hense. The school hasn’t hired any former Whittle School employees, a Friendship Public Charter Schools spokesperson said. “While we do not currently employ any previous Whittle educators, we’ve heard that Whittle employed wonderful, caring teachers,” the Friendship spokesperson said in an email. “We are always eager to meet talented educators who can help us achieve our mission of providing a world-class education for our students.” Whittle School & Studios' only open campus is the one in Shenzhen, China. Chris Whittle declined to comment on plans for the two other future campuses. Corporation records for Whittle School & Studios (Washington) LLC, the foreign entity for its operations in D.C., are still active, according to filings with secretaries of state in D.C. and Delaware. |