Call to discuss the state of Hardy 05/15/23

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ughghghg...incoming Hardy parent here new to the forum.

Any chance incoming classes will be a little better, a little more pro-social, after having 2 straight years of ES after the pandemic?

Yes. But the pandemic has screwed an entire cohort of K-12. Hopefully stuff will get better.

I call BS. At what point will DCPS (and DC in general) stop allowing badly behaved kids to blame COVID? That period was a a year and a bit. Kids didn't forget how to be civilized in that period of time, they simply figured out that expectations were lowered and adjusted accordingly.

I agree on the BS part; but I certainly see parents using that as an excuse much more than DCPS, FWIW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid at Hardy. I asked them whether the interim principal or the other administrators had held an assembly or otherwise met with the students to introduce themselves and explain the transition. Apparently, there has been nothing. The teachers - perhaps unsurprisingly - haven’t told them anything either. If true, this is disappointing. DCPS and the new administration should have the respect for the students to at least keep them informed about such a major change at their school. Keeping them in the dark in this way is not a good look.

Our family does not feel kept in the dark. The entire Hardy community was invited to a DCPS Central Office zoom on the process for selecting a new principal, which was followed by this blast email:

Thank you for attending tonight’s info session about the principal selection process. As promised, I have included the presentation deck, info session recording, feedback link, Campus POC info, and my contact information. I look forward to supporting Hardy through the principal selection process. Should you have any questions do not hesitate to reach out.

Deck Link - ​pdf icon Hardy MS Info Session Deck.pdf

Info Session Recording Link - ​mp4 icon Hardy Principal Panel Community Info Session-20230530_173530-Meeting Recording.mp4

Feedback Link – https://bit.ly/hardyfeedback2324 Feedback link will close on June 6 at 11:59 pm
Campus POC – (deleted for DCUM)

My Contact Info – (deleted for DCUM)

I guess expecting DCUM posters to understand that students and their parents are distinct people was asking too much. Middle schoolers are old enough to be directly informed by the school. As a parent, I feel well enough informed. But I’m not the one directly affected by this, my kid is.

hahah this parent doesn't talk to their kid about what's going on at school but is criticizing the school for not talking to their kid for them. LOL so perfect for this thread.

Thanks for your concern, but it’s misguided. One thing I do talk to my kid about is the issues associated with second-hand information. And I’m sure that some parents missed the email and didn’t let their kids know. Ultimately, it’s just disrespectful for DCPS to not communicate this sudden change to the affected students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ughghghg...incoming Hardy parent here new to the forum.

Any chance incoming classes will be a little better, a little more pro-social, after having 2 straight years of ES after the pandemic?

Yes. But the pandemic has screwed an entire cohort of K-12. Hopefully stuff will get better.

I call BS. At what point will DCPS (and DC in general) stop allowing badly behaved kids to blame COVID? That period was a a year and a bit. Kids didn't forget how to be civilized in that period of time, they simply figured out that expectations were lowered and adjusted accordingly.

I agree on the BS part; but I certainly see parents using that as an excuse much more than DCPS, FWIW.

Fair point. I didn't mean to single out DCPS. This goes well beyond schools. Look at the excuses being made for the rash of car thefts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frustration about Johnson’s dismissal, and previous encounters with the group of parents, has compelled teachers to jump ship, the teacher told the Informer. As recently as last week, a well-regarded teacher left Hardy, which the teacher said has further weakened the sense of community at the school.

“It’s a sustained attack on teachers,” the Hardy instructor said. “Parents have collaborated with the community to get positions [cut out]. I’ve seen it about four or five times. Some teachers are scared or angry. It’s not all parents. It’s a group of extremely powerful parents who are bullies.”

https://www.washingtoninformer.com/leadership-shakeup-at-hardy-ms-raises-questions-about-race-privilege/

When will the parents believe us?

At least 10 teachers had "jumped ship" this year BEFORE the action was taken to remove Johnson. When he left there were at least 10 teacher vacancies, as I understand it. Seems more plausible to me that the decision to leave was more likely linked to the chaotic, inadequate leadership that they had to work under than its removal. In fact, timing would not allow that teachers' decisions to leave Hardy to be linked to Johnson's removal. As I'm sure you know, some of your colleagues are leaving for MacArthur. I realize that trying to claim that those vacancies were IN RESPONSE to Johnson's removal is convenient for your narrative.

Lol. Literally only one Hardy teacher is leaving for MacArthur. This forum exaggerates the most. And others leaving have nothing to do with Johnson. If you didn’t realize DC is a transient place. Life happens. People move.

[Anonymous]

It was pretty recent. You wouldnt necessarily know yet if teachers are seriously considering leaving.

[Anonymous]

Yes you would. Hiring for most schools has already happened. At this point in the year the only positions left are high need areas that are routinely difficult to staff. This Hardy teacher “exodus” isn’t a narrative that’s real.

[Anonymous]

Another ex-principal problem solved. Email from Mr. Hughes:

"On April 28th, Principal Johnson announced that Hardy would adopt a new academic schedule next year; however, after his transition, it became evident that he did not engage the teachers around the change. Therefore, I engaged in conversations with the Washington Teacher’s Union (WTU) Representative Mr. Wheat and the School Chapter Advisory Committee (SCAC), a group of teachers elected by their peers, about next year’s schedule. A survey was sent to all teachers, and I facilitated two meetings with the Local School Advisory Team (LSAT) (May 30th and June 6th) which focused on next year’s schedule. Based on the feedback gathered, Hardy will have an A/B block schedule in which students will take seven academic classes as well as one advisory over a two-day period.

The NEW schedule has many improvements over the current academic schedule including:

• Increases the number of academic classes a student will take.

• Increases the number of elective offerings available to students.

• Maintains a longer, uninterrupted planning block for teacher preparation.

• Decreases the frequency of advisory each week and the total number of advisory minutes each year.

• Decreases core class sizes (since more sections of a class will be taught, the class size will naturally be smaller).

• Decreases elective class sizes (since more electives and more sections will be offered, the class size will naturally be smaller).

• Decreases the number of minutes of each class."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another ex-principal problem solved. Email from Mr. Hughes:

"On April 28th, Principal Johnson announced that Hardy would adopt a new academic schedule next year; however, after his transition, it became evident that he did not engage the teachers around the change. Therefore, I engaged in conversations with the Washington Teacher’s Union (WTU) Representative Mr. Wheat and the School Chapter Advisory Committee (SCAC), a group of teachers elected by their peers, about next year’s schedule. A survey was sent to all teachers, and I facilitated two meetings with the Local School Advisory Team (LSAT) (May 30th and June 6th) which focused on next year’s schedule. Based on the feedback gathered, Hardy will have an A/B block schedule in which students will take seven academic classes as well as one advisory over a two-day period.

The NEW schedule has many improvements over the current academic schedule including:

• Increases the number of academic classes a student will take.

• Increases the number of elective offerings available to students.

• Maintains a longer, uninterrupted planning block for teacher preparation.

• Decreases the frequency of advisory each week and the total number of advisory minutes each year.

• Decreases core class sizes (since more sections of a class will be taught, the class size will naturally be smaller).

• Decreases elective class sizes (since more electives and more sections will be offered, the class size will naturally be smaller).

• Decreases the number of minutes of each class."

Monday morning quarterback. This Harry Hughes is a horrible person and worst leader. His job was to coach a brand new principal. If Harry was on his job, these changes would have been made back in March. HE IS THE ONE THAT APPROVES THE SCHEDULE. He should also be held accountable for ALL that took place at Hardy this year. He gets paid well over 200K to monitor his assigned schools. This guy is a joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another ex-principal problem solved. Email from Mr. Hughes:

"On April 28th, Principal Johnson announced that Hardy would adopt a new academic schedule next year; however, after his transition, it became evident that he did not engage the teachers around the change. Therefore, I engaged in conversations with the Washington Teacher’s Union (WTU) Representative Mr. Wheat and the School Chapter Advisory Committee (SCAC), a group of teachers elected by their peers, about next year’s schedule. A survey was sent to all teachers, and I facilitated two meetings with the Local School Advisory Team (LSAT) (May 30th and June 6th) which focused on next year’s schedule. Based on the feedback gathered, Hardy will have an A/B block schedule in which students will take seven academic classes as well as one advisory over a two-day period.

The NEW schedule has many improvements over the current academic schedule including:

• Increases the number of academic classes a student will take.

• Increases the number of elective offerings available to students.

• Maintains a longer, uninterrupted planning block for teacher preparation.

• Decreases the frequency of advisory each week and the total number of advisory minutes each year.

• Decreases core class sizes (since more sections of a class will be taught, the class size will naturally be smaller).

• Decreases elective class sizes (since more electives and more sections will be offered, the class size will naturally be smaller).

• Decreases the number of minutes of each class."

Monday morning quarterback. This Harry Hughes is a horrible person and worst leader. His job was to coach a brand new principal. If Harry was on his job, these changes would have been made back in March. HE IS THE ONE THAT APPROVES THE SCHEDULE. He should also be held accountable for ALL that took place at Hardy this year. He gets paid well over 200K to monitor his assigned schools. This guy is a joke.

Better late than never. I don't claim to know what he did or didn't do last Fall, but problems are getting solved now.

[Anonymous]

7 academic classes over two days: so 3 1/2 per day on average? Is that an improvement of half a class per day over this year's schedule? Weren't parents asking for 7 classes ***per day***?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:7 academic classes over two days: so 3 1/2 per day on average? Is that an improvement of half a class per day over this year's schedule? Weren't parents asking for 7 classes ***per day***?

The block schedule vs daily schedule was not the main issue.

The issue was the number of slots in the schedule. This past year--and the schedule originally proposed for the upcoming year--only allowed students to have a language + 0.5 year of pre-selected 'elective' (plus too much time in Advisory).

The new schedule continues to be a block schedule, but adds an additional slot. Students can take a language + 1.5 electives (and actually get to express a preference for electives!). Additionally, time for Advisory is reduced.

[Anonymous]

I would much prefer a daily schedule. I was not a fan of Principal Johnson and think the right outcome was reached with his removal, but I liked the schedule he was going to roll out next year with daily classes and much-reduced advisory time. The schedule that will now be implemented next year has a trivial reduction in advisory time compared to this year (as well as a reduction in all core class instructional time, which is not great). I personally don't view arts electives as a priority for middle schoolers. But that is on me for not joining the LSAT and advocating for my viewpoint.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would much prefer a daily schedule. I was not a fan of Principal Johnson and think the right outcome was reached with his removal, but I liked the schedule he was going to roll out next year with daily classes and much-reduced advisory time. The schedule that will now be implemented next year has a trivial reduction in advisory time compared to this year (as well as a reduction in all core class instructional time, which is not great). I personally don't view arts electives as a priority for middle schoolers. But that is on me for not joining the LSAT and advocating for my viewpoint.

fwiw, not only was the Advisory time reduced, but teachers are working on an actual, substantive curriculum for Advisory.

Also, I believe it was the teachers, not the parents/students generally, that preferred the block schedule.

And the arts programming is still less than what is required by DC law, so there's that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would much prefer a daily schedule. I was not a fan of Principal Johnson and think the right outcome was reached with his removal, but I liked the schedule he was going to roll out next year with daily classes and much-reduced advisory time. The schedule that will now be implemented next year has a trivial reduction in advisory time compared to this year (as well as a reduction in all core class instructional time, which is not great). I personally don't view arts electives as a priority for middle schoolers. But that is on me for not joining the LSAT and advocating for my viewpoint.

Can you explain your reasoning for preferring a daily schedule?

As a teacher at the middle school level, although not at hardy, block scheduling works much better for enabling students to work on depth of content, since there is a longer continuous period of time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid at Hardy. I asked them whether the interim principal or the other administrators had held an assembly or otherwise met with the students to introduce themselves and explain the transition. Apparently, there has been nothing. The teachers - perhaps unsurprisingly - haven’t told them anything either. If true, this is disappointing. DCPS and the new administration should have the respect for the students to at least keep them informed about such a major change at their school. Keeping them in the dark in this way is not a good look.

Our family does not feel kept in the dark. The entire Hardy community was invited to a DCPS Central Office zoom on the process for selecting a new principal, which was followed by this blast email:

Thank you for attending tonight’s info session about the principal selection process. As promised, I have included the presentation deck, info session recording, feedback link, Campus POC info, and my contact information. I look forward to supporting Hardy through the principal selection process. Should you have any questions do not hesitate to reach out.

Deck Link - ​pdf icon Hardy MS Info Session Deck.pdf

Info Session Recording Link - ​mp4 icon Hardy Principal Panel Community Info Session-20230530_173530-Meeting Recording.mp4

Feedback Link – https://bit.ly/hardyfeedback2324 Feedback link will close on June 6 at 11:59 pm
Campus POC – (deleted for DCUM)

My Contact Info – (deleted for DCUM)

I guess expecting DCUM posters to understand that students and their parents are distinct people was asking too much. Middle schoolers are old enough to be directly informed by the school. As a parent, I feel well enough informed. But I’m not the one directly affected by this, my kid is.

hahah this parent doesn't talk to their kid about what's going on at school but is criticizing the school for not talking to their kid for them. LOL so perfect for this thread.

this is the dcum mindset, right here