SSFS Will Stay Open

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: This person is the new board clerk.

That can’t be true. Why?

Is Clerk a voting/decision making role? (If thr board even functions on voting, I know Quaker consensus and all)

[Anonymous]

Is it me, or are all of these comments proclaiming that their family’s staying… kinda suspicious? I feel like certain posters have been running a pressure campaign to influence people’s decisions to stay not just here but on Slack too. And all of this excitement over BOT changes, well, for me it’s tempered. Just because you can raise money doesn’t mean you can govern a private school.

Drag me if you must. We will all see what the final enrollment figures will be soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it me, or are all of these comments proclaiming that their family’s staying… kinda suspicious? I feel like certain posters have been running a pressure campaign to influence people’s decisions to stay not just here but on Slack too. And all of this excitement over BOT changes, well, for me it’s tempered. Just because you can raise money doesn’t mean you can govern a private school.

Drag me if you must. We will all see what the final enrollment figures will be soon.

Hard to know of course. I think the final numbers will cross 300. Not sure about crossing 400. That still doesn’t mean much for next year. Also with ultimately the same pool of people whether governance of the school will improve only time will tell. But we all have a reprieve and if we’re caught sleeping again and our kids are in a lurch again that will be on us. We obviously have been warned!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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 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?

I’m not the poster but I can see why the poster made a joke. Saving ssfs is certainly a worthy goal for families whose kids are in the lurch, but that anyone would say this is some kind of resistance movement is kind of silly. So I don’t blame the person for finding it a little over the top. I do too, I’m not a troll, I’m a parent of this school who had to come to a difficult decision to leave. But even I don’t think I’m taking a stand one way or another. Perspective. There are bigger problems plaguing people that my kids 40K private school problems. That’s all.

As if we don't know there aren't bigger problems plaguing people. Get over yourself. Many SSFS parents have lost their jobs and the whole world is imploding. People respond to such turmoil in different ways - escapism, meditation, rallying. And some of us here at SSFS have found the work of trying to save this school that we love as a way of responding to all the depressing things in the world. If you want to laugh at that or join in those laughing - have at it. Cynicism will always exist.

Wow. You’re making SSFS look bad -AGAIN! Of all the people that need to get off their high horse, it is you.

Let people make light in a really crummy situation. It’s okay. Your school is coming back next year.

Move on.

Only if you do. I only hope you’re not a decision maker at SSFS. You’re going out of your way to make the whole community look bad.

If there is one thing I did learn in the last years worth of chaos which drove me to this forum for the first time a year ago… there are plenty of toxic people at ssfs. I don’t know which are worse. The cultish supporters or the doomsday predictors. But it’s been hard just having a reasonable conversation with anyone (in person) at the school and this forum is obviously worse because of the anonymous nature. It’s like the school has no moderate people with whom you can just have a non judgmental conversation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it me, or are all of these comments proclaiming that their family’s staying… kinda suspicious?

Not really? I think are a lot of parents that were already participating in the thread, have been lurking for days or weeks, and were waiting for info to make a decision. And I guess details about the new Board was the tipping point for them. Whereas the boosters on Slack seem to have made up their minds a while ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I applaud your dedication and attitude.
I don’t have the time or energy to pay more attention to things I shouldn’t have to.

That's how I feel, sadly. It would have been a show of understanding and commitment than by having this person stay on. And, the person themselves, should recognize FOR THE GOOD OF THE COMMUNITY that they should step down. It is so weird that neither of those things are happening. We've decided to leave but for those that stay, please go to the BoT meetings, ask questions, and hold them accountable!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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 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?

I’m not the poster but I can see why the poster made a joke. Saving ssfs is certainly a worthy goal for families whose kids are in the lurch, but that anyone would say this is some kind of resistance movement is kind of silly. So I don’t blame the person for finding it a little over the top. I do too, I’m not a troll, I’m a parent of this school who had to come to a difficult decision to leave. But even I don’t think I’m taking a stand one way or another. Perspective. There are bigger problems plaguing people that my kids 40K private school problems. That’s all.

As if we don't know there aren't bigger problems plaguing people. Get over yourself. Many SSFS parents have lost their jobs and the whole world is imploding. People respond to such turmoil in different ways - escapism, meditation, rallying. And some of us here at SSFS have found the work of trying to save this school that we love as a way of responding to all the depressing things in the world. If you want to laugh at that or join in those laughing - have at it. Cynicism will always exist.

Omg the DRAMA. You’re exhausting.

Yet you're still here responding and assuming that all responses are coming from the same person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I applaud your dedication and attitude.
I don’t have the time or energy to pay more attention to things I shouldn’t have to.

That's how I feel, sadly. It would have been a show of understanding and commitment than by having this person stay on. And, the person themselves, should recognize FOR THE GOOD OF THE COMMUNITY that they should step down. It is so weird that neither of those things are happening. We've decided to leave but for those that stay, please go to the BoT meetings, ask questions, and hold them accountable!

That’s how I felt. For the good of the community they should have stepped down. Plenty of ways to stay involved to help the school without needing to be the face of the board. Too much baggage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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 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?

I’m not the poster but I can see why the poster made a joke. Saving ssfs is certainly a worthy goal for families whose kids are in the lurch, but that anyone would say this is some kind of resistance movement is kind of silly. So I don’t blame the person for finding it a little over the top. I do too, I’m not a troll, I’m a parent of this school who had to come to a difficult decision to leave. But even I don’t think I’m taking a stand one way or another. Perspective. There are bigger problems plaguing people that my kids 40K private school problems. That’s all.

As if we don't know there aren't bigger problems plaguing people. Get over yourself. Many SSFS parents have lost their jobs and the whole world is imploding. People respond to such turmoil in different ways - escapism, meditation, rallying. And some of us here at SSFS have found the work of trying to save this school that we love as a way of responding to all the depressing things in the world. If you want to laugh at that or join in those laughing - have at it. Cynicism will always exist.

Wow. You’re making SSFS look bad -AGAIN! Of all the people that need to get off their high horse, it is you.

Let people make light in a really crummy situation. It’s okay. Your school is coming back next year.

Move on.

Only if you do. I only hope you’re not a decision maker at SSFS. You’re going out of your way to make the whole community look bad.

If there is one thing I did learn in the last years worth of chaos which drove me to this forum for the first time a year ago… there are plenty of toxic people at ssfs. I don’t know which are worse. The cultish supporters or the doomsday predictors. But it’s been hard just having a reasonable conversation with anyone (in person) at the school and this forum is obviously worse because of the anonymous nature. It’s like the school has no moderate people with whom you can just have a non judgmental conversation.

I have found plenty of reasonable people in person to have conversations with. I'm sorry you haven't found the same. If there's one thing I learned over the past year which also introduced me to this forum it is to not put a lot of trust in this forum. I can tell you with confidence that there are many posters on her who aren't even affiliated with SSFS (past or present). If you glance at other forums where the topic is emotional or controversial you'll very easily see the same thing - plenty of trolls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it me, or are all of these comments proclaiming that their family’s staying… kinda suspicious? I feel like certain posters have been running a pressure campaign to influence people’s decisions to stay not just here but on Slack too. And all of this excitement over BOT changes, well, for me it’s tempered. Just because you can raise money doesn’t mean you can govern a private school.

Drag me if you must. We will all see what the final enrollment figures will be soon.

I don't know what forum you're reading but I feel the opposite. This forum has felt much more negative than positive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I applaud your dedication and attitude.
I don’t have the time or energy to pay more attention to things I shouldn’t have to.

That's how I feel, sadly. It would have been a show of understanding and commitment than by having this person stay on. And, the person themselves, should recognize FOR THE GOOD OF THE COMMUNITY that they should step down. It is so weird that neither of those things are happening. We've decided to leave but for those that stay, please go to the BoT meetings, ask questions, and hold them accountable!

That’s how I felt. For the good of the community they should have stepped down. Plenty of ways to stay involved to help the school without needing to be the face of the board. Too much baggage.

If they acknowledge mistakes were made multiple times to land where we are why do they think they can lead us out? Fresh blood! Almost seems like some kind of ego is at play. It’s fine to be dedicated but also true leadership recognizes when it’s time to let someone more capable take over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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 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?

I’m not the poster but I can see why the poster made a joke. Saving ssfs is certainly a worthy goal for families whose kids are in the lurch, but that anyone would say this is some kind of resistance movement is kind of silly. So I don’t blame the person for finding it a little over the top. I do too, I’m not a troll, I’m a parent of this school who had to come to a difficult decision to leave. But even I don’t think I’m taking a stand one way or another. Perspective. There are bigger problems plaguing people that my kids 40K private school problems. That’s all.

As if we don't know there aren't bigger problems plaguing people. Get over yourself. Many SSFS parents have lost their jobs and the whole world is imploding. People respond to such turmoil in different ways - escapism, meditation, rallying. And some of us here at SSFS have found the work of trying to save this school that we love as a way of responding to all the depressing things in the world. If you want to laugh at that or join in those laughing - have at it. Cynicism will always exist.

Wow. You’re making SSFS look bad -AGAIN! Of all the people that need to get off their high horse, it is you.

Let people make light in a really crummy situation. It’s okay. Your school is coming back next year.

Move on.

Only if you do. I only hope you’re not a decision maker at SSFS. You’re going out of your way to make the whole community look bad.

If there is one thing I did learn in the last years worth of chaos which drove me to this forum for the first time a year ago… there are plenty of toxic people at ssfs. I don’t know which are worse. The cultish supporters or the doomsday predictors. But it’s been hard just having a reasonable conversation with anyone (in person) at the school and this forum is obviously worse because of the anonymous nature. It’s like the school has no moderate people with whom you can just have a non judgmental conversation.

I have found plenty of reasonable people in person to have conversations with. I'm sorry you haven't found the same. If there's one thing I learned over the past year which also introduced me to this forum it is to not put a lot of trust in this forum. I can tell you with confidence that there are many posters on her who aren't even affiliated with SSFS (past or present). If you glance at other forums where the topic is emotional or controversial you'll very easily see the same thing - plenty of trolls.

Sorry not saying there aren’t reasonable people there. I’ve had some great conversations - but usually those are the 1:1 kind, the same people are not candid the same way in a group. I’ve felt the same way, voicing concerns always felt like I was committing blasphemy so largely I kept my thoughts to myself except during 1:1s. 1:1s with parents or teachers. That’s what I based my decision to leave. No judgement on people who are staying- everyone’s situation is different - but in my experience the behind closed doors ssfs is a very different place then the public facing ssfs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I applaud your dedication and attitude.
I don’t have the time or energy to pay more attention to things I shouldn’t have to.

That's how I feel, sadly. It would have been a show of understanding and commitment than by having this person stay on. And, the person themselves, should recognize FOR THE GOOD OF THE COMMUNITY that they should step down. It is so weird that neither of those things are happening. We've decided to leave but for those that stay, please go to the BoT meetings, ask questions, and hold them accountable!

That’s how I felt. For the good of the community they should have stepped down. Plenty of ways to stay involved to help the school without needing to be the face of the board. Too much baggage.

If they acknowledge mistakes were made multiple times to land where we are why do they think they can lead us out? Fresh blood! Almost seems like some kind of ego is at play. It’s fine to be dedicated but also true leadership recognizes when it’s time to let someone more capable take over.

+1 I'm really disappointed this person is staying. I would have accepted it better had the announcement indicated they were staying to help with the transition but then leaving at a specified date. We are still staying but I'm not letting up just yet on expressing my displeasure at this decision and my suspicions. And if the Angela Landsbury/Matlock wannabe on here who tried to intimidate another poster yesterday wants to accuse me of lacking empathy or being on a witch hunt, so be it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it me, or are all of these comments proclaiming that their family’s staying… kinda suspicious? I feel like certain posters have been running a pressure campaign to influence people’s decisions to stay not just here but on Slack too. And all of this excitement over BOT changes, well, for me it’s tempered. Just because you can raise money doesn’t mean you can govern a private school.

Drag me if you must. We will all see what the final enrollment figures will be soon.

I don't know what forum you're reading but I feel the opposite. This forum has felt much more negative than positive.

I think that was the point. Typically the enthusiasm here is less than like slack. Suddenly we have a flurry of “yay, the school is doing the right thing we’re staying gladly!” That’s why the poster felt it seemed suspicious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it me, or are all of these comments proclaiming that their family’s staying… kinda suspicious? I feel like certain posters have been running a pressure campaign to influence people’s decisions to stay not just here but on Slack too. And all of this excitement over BOT changes, well, for me it’s tempered. Just because you can raise money doesn’t mean you can govern a private school.

Drag me if you must. We will all see what the final enrollment figures will be soon.

I don't know what forum you're reading but I feel the opposite. This forum has felt much more negative than positive.

I think that was the point. Typically the enthusiasm here is less than like slack. Suddenly we have a flurry of “yay, the school is doing the right thing we’re staying gladly!” That’s why the poster felt it seemed suspicious.

Well, I simply don't agree. My interpretation is different. Any flurry that we saw last night or may see today is likely because the deadline is today. We've seen throughout this forum plenty of people who have announced they are leaving as well as those who left last year and of course those who seem to have no affiliation with the school whatsoever but for some reason find this entertaining.