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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

I'd never heard of Feynman School before this thread, but this just screams some couple's passion project. I see this all the time. They have no or little business experience, find a couple friends and family to round out the Board they are legally required to have, and proceed to operate their nonprofit like an absolute dumpster fire all while proclaiming how committed they are to their given cause. They think they're unique and special and doing someone no one else is doing, except there's 5 other well-established nonprofits already doing the same work (2 of those are well run, the other 3 have enough inertia to keep going despite batpoop governance and financial practices). And no amount of presenting market research, best practices, or even going over their financials will convince them otherwise. They all think some angel donor is going to magically appear and drop huge donations on them. Meanwhile, their finances are a mess, there's no oversight by the board, and they're loving in law la land until the harsh reality of "we can't pay this month's bills and there's no more money coming in" hits them square in the face.[/quote]

[b]Are you sure you aren't a Feynman parent? Because you couldn't have been more accurate[/b]. All of it down to the thinking an angel donor will magically appear. It is 100% their passion project. The head of school is a great educator, loves the kids, and definitely passionate, but has no executive function whatsoever. But we all put up with it because our kids were getting a great education tailored to his/her needs and were loving school. It also didn't start appearing like the dumpster fire of no executive function was a real problem until we were ambushed at back-to-school night with some aggressive fundraising pleas.[/quote]

I was going to say the same thing!

However, there must have been a nearly complete turnover of families and a pretty quiet rumor mill because real problems and aggressive fundraising were present long ago. Did anyone current ever hear how they made the down payment on River Road? And then ended up in a lawsuit and moving 2-3 more times? Guess how transparent that was? Guess how long they dragged out answering where the school would be when the Tilden building was reclaimed by MCPS? And what was happening with River Road and the money donated for it? 
I’m pretty sure there were missing 990s in that era.

I do get the happy kid argument. When you’re in it, that’s what you see, but the difference of a well-run school is night and day!
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