SSFS updates? We are thinking about it for a last minute HS switch

[Anonymous]

I'm another prospective new parent considering SSFS. My kid (rising 9th grader) loved what he saw on his shadow visit. But in this and other threads, I'm seeing so many cryptic references to "culture issues" that led to a mass exodus several years ago. Can anyone talk about what those culture issues were, or point me to other threads/sources that actually say what the culture issues were and if they're still happening?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm another prospective new parent considering SSFS. My kid (rising 9th grader) loved what he saw on his shadow visit. But in this and other threads, I'm seeing so many cryptic references to "culture issues" that led to a mass exodus several years ago. Can anyone talk about what those culture issues were, or point me to other threads/sources that actually say what the culture issues were and if they're still happening?

You’re not going to get a straight answer to that on any forum because it’s emotional and politically charged. But ask yourself if you really want to start high school now when regardless of wfst yiur kid saw during shadow visit it’s not going to be the same in the fall with such a small high school class.

I’d say make a list of the pros and cons of the different options you’re weighing, if ssfs really offers something you can’t find anywhere else and the possibility of the school going belly up or that ssfs experience you’re expecting becoming substandard isn’t a problem for you then you should come. Otherwise my advice would be stick with someplace not quite so much on shaky ground right now. Ssfs may well reinvent itself but not in the short term.

[Anonymous]

Then why did over 100 kids leave this year after he was gone?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm another prospective new parent considering SSFS. My kid (rising 9th grader) loved what he saw on his shadow visit. But in this and other threads, I'm seeing so many cryptic references to "culture issues" that led to a mass exodus several years ago. Can anyone talk about what those culture issues were, or point me to other threads/sources that actually say what the culture issues were and if they're still happening?

The culture issues were the cause of the former HOS who has been gone for over a year. And fwiw, my kids were immune to these culture issues. We remain happy and we are staying.

If your child is immune then you’re lucky. No one can know whether their kid will be immune or not. The point is if they aren’t the admin didn’t help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Then why did over 100 kids leave this year after he was gone?

Because fixing something that is broken takes time. Many people left because they got stuck last year. Similar to how the April closure announcement made it hard for people to leave after a thoughtful search. At least some of the 326 enrolled are staying cause they’re stuck and may leave next year.

Others left cause once something is broken - it’s not so easy to fix. Even if the one person who was a big part of the culture change left, the change is not a switch that goes off/on based on one person. The culture changes will take years to undo. Cause it was implemented by more than one person. Going back to what used to be wipe require active changes to undo the damage. On a year where there were interim admins all over the place, much of the culture change wasn’t undone. So things are still broken.

Another poster said “my kid was immune to the culture change so we’re happy” - so yes of you have a kid that isn’t perturbed by what all changed you’re happy and you’re one of the 326. Otherwise you looked to leave this year and that’s why they ended up on the brink in April. Nothing fundamentally changed this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Then why did over 100 kids leave this year after he was gone?

For one thing it is easier to destroy something but rebuilding can take years.

But fixing something requires 1. Acknowledge there is a problem 2. Getting the right people to fix it 3. Implementing fixes - all that takes years.

This year wasn’t simply a “problem hos is gone let’s fix it!” First the financials were in shambles. All the energy has been going into that. Interim hos, cfo, division heads - they were all barely trying to keep the school above water. They all failed by April. So “fixing” anything else wasn’t even on the todo list.

And then you have the fact that so many people refuse to even acknowledge there is a problem. You’re a hater, troll, racist, all kinds of things for even suggesting there might be something wrong. String denial is why parents who were struggling were met with a brick wall when they took concerns to admin in the 1st place. So it is still unclear that the school agrees there was a problem. No one gives a debrief of why students left. Not in the open at least.

So if admin is still in denial have they yet hired the right people to address the problems? Will any changes be implemented? No one knows.

So if you were an unfortunate victim of how the school atmosphere changed and affected your kid, you were alone and nothing got better all this year. So you left. That’s why they ended up in the red with enrollment in April.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Then why did over 100 kids leave this year after he was gone?

What we do know. None of the students that left before the closure announcement due to financial problems. How do we know? Because no one - including the board knew there WERE financial problems. That is the premise of the whole recovery effort. No one knew the school was in debt/on the brink of financial ruin.

So - no student left for financial problems. They all left for school quality issues. Not just one problem but many. School has never published the results of any exit surveys so we cant know (assuming people feel comfortable being honest in an existing survey which isn’t guaranteed) the breakdown of %student departure to problem type. All you can know is that NONE was related to 22 million in debt.

Ok come on now, this is just a flat out false blanket statement. I don't know how many families left due to job losses, but it was not a trivial number. I'm sure some (again, a non-trivial) number left because of issues with the school, but to say that EVERYONE left because of that is dishonest and is why people like yourself get called trolls. Also, the school had indicated financial issues last summer, although of course they didn't announce the extent of the issues, so it's also likely that some of the people who had planned to leave before the closure announcement did so because they weren't convinced the school was on solid footing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Then why did over 100 kids leave this year after he was gone?

What we do know. None of the students that left before the closure announcement due to financial problems. How do we know? Because no one - including the board knew there WERE financial problems. That is the premise of the whole recovery effort. No one knew the school was in debt/on the brink of financial ruin.

So - no student left for financial problems. They all left for school quality issues. Not just one problem but many. School has never published the results of any exit surveys so we cant know (assuming people feel comfortable being honest in an existing survey which isn’t guaranteed) the breakdown of %student departure to problem type. All you can know is that NONE was related to 22 million in debt.

Ok come on now, this is just a flat out false blanket statement. I don't know how many families left due to job losses, but it was not a trivial number. I'm sure some (again, a non-trivial) number left because of issues with the school, but to say that EVERYONE left because of that is dishonest and is why people like yourself get called trolls. Also, the school had indicated financial issues last summer, although of course they didn't announce the extent of the issues, so it's also likely that some of the people who had planned to leave before the closure announcement did so because they weren't convinced the school was on solid footing.

This is always the problem with this school. Heaven forbid you just use one word out of place, then the cheerleaders swoop in and negate the whole thing. Once a poster said how almost 100 kids left and the problem was it wasn’t almost 100 it was “only 75”.

Okay sure everyone didn’t leave for a quality issue. Some people left cause they lost their job, maybe some people moved. But ssfs isn’t the ONLY school in our area almost going out of business because of common issues that effect ALL schools. The majority of kids left due to quality issues. That’s why the enrollment tanked to the brink of closure.

So it’s not everyone. But it’s enough to be a problem. And the school has not published the exit survey.

If you want to make the argument that quality has nothing to do with why the school was going out of business then please share the arguments without attacking choice of words. Most (most not all!) families will make their family finances work to keep their kid in a school that is working well for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Then why did over 100 kids leave this year after he was gone?

What we do know. None of the students that left before the closure announcement due to financial problems. How do we know? Because no one - including the board knew there WERE financial problems. That is the premise of the whole recovery effort. No one knew the school was in debt/on the brink of financial ruin.

So - no student left for financial problems. They all left for school quality issues. Not just one problem but many. School has never published the results of any exit surveys so we cant know (assuming people feel comfortable being honest in an existing survey which isn’t guaranteed) the breakdown of %student departure to problem type. All you can know is that NONE was related to 22 million in debt.

Ok come on now, this is just a flat out false blanket statement. I don't know how many families left due to job losses, but it was not a trivial number. I'm sure some (again, a non-trivial) number left because of issues with the school, but to say that EVERYONE left because of that is dishonest and is why people like yourself get called trolls. Also, the school had indicated financial issues last summer, although of course they didn't announce the extent of the issues, so it's also likely that some of the people who had planned to leave before the closure announcement did so because they weren't convinced the school was on solid footing.

This is always the problem with this school. Heaven forbid you just use one word out of place, then the cheerleaders swoop in and negate the whole thing. Once a poster said how almost 100 kids left and the problem was it wasn’t almost 100 it was “only 75”.

Okay sure everyone didn’t leave for a quality issue. Some people left cause they lost their job, maybe some people moved. But ssfs isn’t the ONLY school in our area almost going out of business because of common issues that effect ALL schools. The majority of kids left due to quality issues. That’s why the enrollment tanked to the brink of closure.

So it’s not everyone. But it’s enough to be a problem. And the school has not published the exit survey.

If you want to make the argument that quality has nothing to do with why the school was going out of business then please share the arguments without attacking choice of words. Most (most not all!) families will make their family finances work to keep their kid in a school that is working well for them.

The Fox News School of posting - inflate the numbers by 25% but then call it "using one word out of place".
The Fox News School of posting - claim anything as "majority" even though you're basing it on yourself and perhaps a few others and then later conceded (halfheartedly), "sure not everyone"...

You are the problem, period.

[Anonymous]

This forum like all SSFS forums of the last year gets taken over by the disgruntled who then claim they are not allowed to speak negatively about the school. Yet, here they are again doing what? Speaking negatively about the school - over and over again.

This is not a place for solving problems. This is not a place to learn about the school. This, like most DCUM forums is just a place to vent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This forum like all SSFS forums of the last year gets taken over by the disgruntled who then claim they are not allowed to speak negatively about the school. Yet, here they are again doing what? Speaking negatively about the school - over and over again.

This is not a place for solving problems. This is not a place to learn about the school. This, like most DCUM forums is just a place to vent.

+1 The people that post the most are those who don't even attend. Move on. I'm sure your current school has a message board. I hear there's shocking turnover at GDS - yikes - I wonder what "problems" exist there. Check out that forum and post your opinions that don't matter. That was sarcasm for those who don't get it. Or try the one about which school has the mean girls or the forum that asks "are most private schools full of social climbers"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We already know the two major reasons for the decline in enrollment and what the school is doing about it.

1) The decline in international students post-COVID, especially from China. This is a known phenomenon affecting schools and colleges around the country. Xi Jinping doesn't want the upper class sending their kids to school overseas anymore. SSFS is going to try to keep their homestead program next year, but no dorm/boarding for the foreseeable future.

2) About 100 of the families who left did so between the 2023 and 2024 school years (if I'm not mistaken -- there was an old thread about it on DCUM last year with more details). We don't know all their reasons. However, we do know that a lot of parents were unhappy with the leadership and culture shift that happened in those years. Starting in the summer, SSFS will have a new head of school and new division heads who are committed to more positive and transparent community going forward.

Hopefully that satisfies your questions.

This. We are looking forward to the new leadership!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Then why did over 100 kids leave this year after he was gone?

What we do know. None of the students that left before the closure announcement due to financial problems. How do we know? Because no one - including the board knew there WERE financial problems. That is the premise of the whole recovery effort. No one knew the school was in debt/on the brink of financial ruin.

So - no student left for financial problems. They all left for school quality issues. Not just one problem but many. School has never published the results of any exit surveys so we cant know (assuming people feel comfortable being honest in an existing survey which isn’t guaranteed) the breakdown of %student departure to problem type. All you can know is that NONE was related to 22 million in debt.

Ok come on now, this is just a flat out false blanket statement. I don't know how many families left due to job losses, but it was not a trivial number. I'm sure some (again, a non-trivial) number left because of issues with the school, but to say that EVERYONE left because of that is dishonest and is why people like yourself get called trolls. Also, the school had indicated financial issues last summer, although of course they didn't announce the extent of the issues, so it's also likely that some of the people who had planned to leave before the closure announcement did so because they weren't convinced the school was on solid footing.

This is always the problem with this school. Heaven forbid you just use one word out of place, then the cheerleaders swoop in and negate the whole thing. Once a poster said how almost 100 kids left and the problem was it wasn’t almost 100 it was “only 75”.

Okay sure everyone didn’t leave for a quality issue. Some people left cause they lost their job, maybe some people moved. But ssfs isn’t the ONLY school in our area almost going out of business because of common issues that effect ALL schools. The majority of kids left due to quality issues. That’s why the enrollment tanked to the brink of closure.

So it’s not everyone. But it’s enough to be a problem. And the school has not published the exit survey.

If you want to make the argument that quality has nothing to do with why the school was going out of business then please share the arguments without attacking choice of words. Most (most not all!) families will make their family finances work to keep their kid in a school that is working well for them.

The Fox News School of posting - inflate the numbers by 25% but then call it "using one word out of place".
The Fox News School of posting - claim anything as "majority" even though you're basing it on yourself and perhaps a few others and then later conceded (halfheartedly), "sure not everyone"...

You are the problem, period.

Omg please shut down this tiresome thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Then why did over 100 kids leave this year after he was gone?

What we do know. None of the students that left before the closure announcement due to financial problems. How do we know? Because no one - including the board knew there WERE financial problems. That is the premise of the whole recovery effort. No one knew the school was in debt/on the brink of financial ruin.

So - no student left for financial problems. They all left for school quality issues. Not just one problem but many. School has never published the results of any exit surveys so we cant know (assuming people feel comfortable being honest in an existing survey which isn’t guaranteed) the breakdown of %student departure to problem type. All you can know is that NONE was related to 22 million in debt.

Ok come on now, this is just a flat out false blanket statement. I don't know how many families left due to job losses, but it was not a trivial number. I'm sure some (again, a non-trivial) number left because of issues with the school, but to say that EVERYONE left because of that is dishonest and is why people like yourself get called trolls. Also, the school had indicated financial issues last summer, although of course they didn't announce the extent of the issues, so it's also likely that some of the people who had planned to leave before the closure announcement did so because they weren't convinced the school was on solid footing.

This is always the problem with this school. Heaven forbid you just use one word out of place, then the cheerleaders swoop in and negate the whole thing. Once a poster said how almost 100 kids left and the problem was it wasn’t almost 100 it was “only 75”.

Okay sure everyone didn’t leave for a quality issue. Some people left cause they lost their job, maybe some people moved. But ssfs isn’t the ONLY school in our area almost going out of business because of common issues that effect ALL schools. The majority of kids left due to quality issues. That’s why the enrollment tanked to the brink of closure.

So it’s not everyone. But it’s enough to be a problem. And the school has not published the exit survey.

If you want to make the argument that quality has nothing to do with why the school was going out of business then please share the arguments without attacking choice of words. Most (most not all!) families will make their family finances work to keep their kid in a school that is working well for them.

The Fox News School of posting - inflate the numbers by 25% but then call it "using one word out of place".
The Fox News School of posting - claim anything as "majority" even though you're basing it on yourself and perhaps a few others and then later conceded (halfheartedly), "sure not everyone"...

You are the problem, period.

Omg please shut down this tiresome thread.

Happens every time

But if you find it tiresome why read it? Isn’t it easier to decide your actions than judge others?

[Anonymous]

I am a current parent whose family is staying. I was introduced to DCUM and the SSFS forums about a year ago when the HOS left. At times I find posts on the various SSFS forums comical but only in a cynical way. Mostly, I find it all to be a distressing reminder of how hyper politicized our society has become and how social media such as this solves no problems and only fuels division. I’m dismayed by the lack of civility. I’m dismayed that seemingly educated people can’t distinguish between fact and speculation. I’m dismayed at how easily and perhaps unknowingly people overgeneralize their personal narrative to a larger population – how we unwittingly communicate as propagandists.

In response to all this I have just two things to contribute that are personal to me, for what it’s worth:

First, stop hard-selling your take on SSFS. We already live in a world where it’s impossible to avoid advertising. Live your truth and whatever decision you make about where to send your kid(s) to school is the right answer...for you.

Second, regardless of your personal experience with SSFS, I believe that when you see through the melodrama of the last few years, something authentic happens on the SSFS campus.

I wish everyone a peaceful and joyful summer!