SSFS Will Stay Open

[Anonymous]

Large majority of pledges are less than a thousand dollars.

Anyway, BoT just sent an email sharing exactly who is newly appointed, who stepped down, and resigned. I honestly did not expect that level of detail to them, so kudos. So 7 people the dame, 3 new, and more new ones expected to be added soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So 7 people the dame, 3 new, and more new ones expected to be added soon.

*the same, sorry

[Anonymous]

We have a kid in upper school. Been on the fence about this. Have not signed a contract, but likely staying after many discussions this week. Kid loves the school, so let’s hope for good things for SSFS and the community going forward.

[Anonymous]

These changes on the BOT are exactly the exits we needed to see and just in time - shocked that they got this one mostly right and communicated it in time for those of us on the fence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a kid in upper school. Been on the fence about this. Have not signed a contract, but likely staying after many discussions this week. Kid loves the school, so let’s hope for good things for SSFS and the community going forward.

Fabulous news! Excited to re enroll with you 🩷

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These changes on the BOT are exactly the exits we needed to see and just in time - shocked that they got this one mostly right and communicated it in time for those of us on the fence.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From Admin Council email: Enrollment Numbers: We have reached 275 students committed–and counting! As of this morning, we have 77 students enrolled in the Lower School, 80 in the Middle School, and 118 in the Upper School.

As someone who has made the decision to leave, this is great news! I hope SSFS will get its footing back next year.

Enrolled for next year, maybe, but not 2026-2027. They're staying to buy a year for an intentional school search for their children, not one carried down during a crisis. Good luck to those who stay!

And what are you basing this on? What leads you to make such an assertion about a broad population of people?

My son's 10 person friend group. 5 are returning just to buy another year, 2 were leaving before this whole mess and 1 is undecided.

[Anonymous]

Not sure the change in BOT changes our mind since DD is a high schooler and will never see the long term changes. I wish the school well bc DD loved everything about SSFS. We just cannot deal with so much instability for high school. Perhaps if DD were in elementary school and college weren’t so close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From Admin Council email: Enrollment Numbers: We have reached 275 students committed–and counting! As of this morning, we have 77 students enrolled in the Lower School, 80 in the Middle School, and 118 in the Upper School.

As someone who has made the decision to leave, this is great news! I hope SSFS will get its footing back next year.

Enrolled for next year, maybe, but not 2026-2027. They're staying to buy a year for an intentional school search for their children, not one carried down during a crisis. Good luck to those who stay!

There’s a good chance many will stay through two years. some 10th graders plan to stay and graduate if all goes well next year. I assume that may be the same for current 6th graders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From Admin Council email: Enrollment Numbers: We have reached 275 students committed–and counting! As of this morning, we have 77 students enrolled in the Lower School, 80 in the Middle School, and 118 in the Upper School.

As someone who has made the decision to say, I'm happy with these numbers ..."and counting"! Any undecideds reading, turn off the noise of this board and slack and speak to other parents from the heart about your concerns because they are genuine and I think most parents care about you and your concerns and probably share them. Let's be in this together and do something amazing as an act of joy or perhaps as an act of resistance to all the crap going on in the world!!!

I am glad ssfs is turning around, after all that would have been a waste of a great campus.

But calling coming back to a school that screwed everyone over thru mismanagement, on the brink of financial ruin, hiding facts to everyone, saved by a random philanthropist an act of resistance literally made me laugh.

This. Power to the people! I mean, power to the private school parents who get bailed out by rich donors!

Do you troll all the private school forums or just this one?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From Admin Council email: Enrollment Numbers: We have reached 275 students committed–and counting! As of this morning, we have 77 students enrolled in the Lower School, 80 in the Middle School, and 118 in the Upper School.

As someone who has made the decision to leave, this is great news! I hope SSFS will get its footing back next year.

Enrolled for next year, maybe, but not 2026-2027. They're staying to buy a year for an intentional school search for their children, not one carried down during a crisis. Good luck to those who stay!

And what are you basing this on? What leads you to make such an assertion about a broad population of people?

My son's 10 person friend group. 5 are returning just to buy another year, 2 were leaving before this whole mess and 1 is undecided.

Well, good luck to your son's friend group. Hopefully within the first few weeks of the upcoming school year some or all of the returning 5 will change their minds to stay with the 2 that are apparently staying without reservation.

[Anonymous]

There's been more positive solution oriented action in the last month then what we've seen in the past 2 years. I still have concerns of course but this effort has been amazing. We are staying to be part of the movement and to remain with our friends. My kid is in upper school by the way and part of a 15 person friend group. All but 2 are staying and the 2 leaving were leaving before the announcement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People on Slack are jumping all over those questioning one particular board member but I still don't get it. As explained by the board itself, there's a long history of financial troubles at the school that ultimately culminated in the announced closure. Well, there's a board member who also has a long history (19 years to be exact) with the school in various decision making or at least witnessing capacities.

Coalition members are defending this person as being the only one to take responsibility and one of the few that has been receptive to the coalition. Maybe this person is just trying to save their reputation?

Who knows. More stuff that ordinary families just don't get to know. So oust as many board members as possible - that's what I say.

That person was not involved for all 19 years straight through. They recently re-joined the Board after having been away for several years, and walked into an impending crisis. They should not be blamed for the last five or so years. You know what my takeaway from all those Slack comments is? The Coalition says the reopening deal could not have happened without that person. They are in our corner 100%.

Let's stop assuming the worst of an individual who cares very deeply about the school. It looks like the whole Board won't be kicked out at this point, but they can change how they operate and make themselves open to more regular feedback going forward. I get it's disappointing but none of them want this to happen again.

I'm so tired of being accused of assuming the worst in people. As others have said, if you don't want parents to make an assumption about one of the worst decisions the school has ever made, then they should have done better to begin with and/or been more transparent before Monday. Yeah yeah yeah we know this person re-joined the board this year. And now, this person wasn't there for 19 years "straight" - 8 years as a board member, then a break, then 9 years as HOS, then a break, then back to being on the board. So? Are we to assume that it was only on those breaks in between that poor decisions were being made? I'm not trying to vilify anyone but the fact of the matter is that this person was there for the long history of bad decisions - they were part of the bad decision making at times and at other times they were witness to the bad decisions. It doesn't get any simpler than that. Sure, people can learn from their mistakes and I'm all for second and third chances. But it's not at all unreasonable for parents to be questioning this person's positionality during this long history of bad management. Again, if you or anyone else doesn't like that questioning too bad. Stop policing our thoughts. This whole experience is NOT normal and the decision to shut down a month ago and every thing since has sucked!

The intentions may have bean good but this board member’s execution of pretty much everything they had their hand on was disastrous. I hope at least this person won’t return as board? But seems like they’re one of the main spokesperson for the school right now and the coalition loves them so I guess they’ll stay?

I agree. This person shouldn't return as a board member. There are so many better ways this could be handled other than this person staying on while the coalition does damage control by telling those of us concerned that we are wrong and we are villifying, etc. This person could resign from the BOT and simply be part of the coalition or helpful in other ways. This person could announce now that they will be stepping down in 6 months or a year and that they are staying on because of their history to help the new BOT transition. Anything would be better than keeping the status quo and then criticizing those who question it.

This person is the new board clerk.

[Anonymous]

+1000

It has been inspiring as hell, particularly during a time when hope and community feel scarce in so many other aspects of life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People on Slack are jumping all over those questioning one particular board member but I still don't get it. As explained by the board itself, there's a long history of financial troubles at the school that ultimately culminated in the announced closure. Well, there's a board member who also has a long history (19 years to be exact) with the school in various decision making or at least witnessing capacities.

Coalition members are defending this person as being the only one to take responsibility and one of the few that has been receptive to the coalition. Maybe this person is just trying to save their reputation?

Who knows. More stuff that ordinary families just don't get to know. So oust as many board members as possible - that's what I say.

That person was not involved for all 19 years straight through. They recently re-joined the Board after having been away for several years, and walked into an impending crisis. They should not be blamed for the last five or so years. You know what my takeaway from all those Slack comments is? The Coalition says the reopening deal could not have happened without that person. They are in our corner 100%.

Let's stop assuming the worst of an individual who cares very deeply about the school. It looks like the whole Board won't be kicked out at this point, but they can change how they operate and make themselves open to more regular feedback going forward. I get it's disappointing but none of them want this to happen again.

I'm so tired of being accused of assuming the worst in people. As others have said, if you don't want parents to make an assumption about one of the worst decisions the school has ever made, then they should have done better to begin with and/or been more transparent before Monday. Yeah yeah yeah we know this person re-joined the board this year. And now, this person wasn't there for 19 years "straight" - 8 years as a board member, then a break, then 9 years as HOS, then a break, then back to being on the board. So? Are we to assume that it was only on those breaks in between that poor decisions were being made? I'm not trying to vilify anyone but the fact of the matter is that this person was there for the long history of bad decisions - they were part of the bad decision making at times and at other times they were witness to the bad decisions. It doesn't get any simpler than that. Sure, people can learn from their mistakes and I'm all for second and third chances. But it's not at all unreasonable for parents to be questioning this person's positionality during this long history of bad management. Again, if you or anyone else doesn't like that questioning too bad. Stop policing our thoughts. This whole experience is NOT normal and the decision to shut down a month ago and every thing since has sucked!

The intentions may have bean good but this board member’s execution of pretty much everything they had their hand on was disastrous. I hope at least this person won’t return as board? But seems like they’re one of the main spokesperson for the school right now and the coalition loves them so I guess they’ll stay?

I agree. This person shouldn't return as a board member. There are so many better ways this could be handled other than this person staying on while the coalition does damage control by telling those of us concerned that we are wrong and we are villifying, etc. This person could resign from the BOT and simply be part of the coalition or helpful in other ways. This person could announce now that they will be stepping down in 6 months or a year and that they are staying on because of their history to help the new BOT transition. Anything would be better than keeping the status quo and then criticizing those who question it.

This person is the new board clerk.

Yeah, I'm disappointed about this but not enough to make me leave. We are staying. I'm pleased with the 3 new members and as a parent I'll be paying a lot more attention to governance and BOT activity then I ever did in previous years.