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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There were 4 "if you left BASIS" threads, and a whole bunch of "join my facebook listserv," "I can't believe 25 6th grader spots are gone and no one told us until it was too late" "chemistry candy gate" and "I am a Luddite" emails. She wrote a bunch of them, but unlikely all of them, but I say everyone drop it. The various points have been beaten to death, and this has gotten silly and ridiculous and it is time to move on.[/quote]

[b]I[/b] have an issue with the 25 spots and intend to try to bring it up at the next coffee hour.  I want to know why it happened, and how HOS intends to prevent it from happening in this year's lottery.  Bottom line is this is about money, people.  We do not get money for empty spots.  We can hardly ask to expand if we cannot fill our school.  I also agree that we all have neighborhood list serves we could have posted the openings on had we been told earlier. So:

Are you all going to boo me down or throw popcorn at me?  I agree that it is time to move on here, but I think you people ought to be ashamed of how far this went and in what direction.  It is not like she is a deranged dangerous person who has done permanent damage to the school.  Unless you are gullible enough to blame her for shutting down the list serve when they "had been thinking about it for some time" - read ante FB Luddite Candygate which were all in the same friggin [b]3[/b] emails.
[/quote]

There were more than 3 emails-a quick word search will tell you that-please drop it-also, the 25 slots WAS settled well before it was dropped-o. The Basis listserv, Jeff Jacobs listed something like 6 different dates where Basis parents received written notice about the 25 available spots, many of those dates in plenty of time for parents to do something about them. This has been mentioned to you or the other woman more than twice, yet you keep bringing it up, or making new threads asking why people left, whether people were leaving after 8th etc. Instead of lamenting the past which is now lost, lets do something about the future, and stop repelling people and doing more harm with this noise and excessive repetitive emails, ok?[/quote]

You seem to have an inability to grasp basic concepts, and then an inability to separate them out.  So let me help you here about the past, and about the future.  You usually use the past to learn about the future.  Because those who are now in 8th grade, the third graduating class, maybe just maybe will not have their "top students" leave.  If everyone gets on board and plays their cards right.  But the past, what made those students leave, is critical to my child's future happiness.  So respect it and kindly pipe down.

Finding out why the "top students" in our first and second graduating class left, even though when my child went to the expo it was clear they would have to repeat biology and world history, would be valuable "feedback," as our HOS calls it.  We are in an environment where, thanks to the multiple exit polls, we know exactly why some of these kids left.  Some of it we cannot fix (social environment, more extracurriculars, etc) but some of it we could - treating 8th graders like they have actually spent two years at Basis with the respect they deserve, as opposed to threatening all their grades because some (perhaps) innocent idiot ate some candy, and then when you finally grace them with your presence again, Dean and HOS, apologizing, and explaining fundamental Basis values.

[b]Neither of them did either of this.  They showed up and said your grades are safe, they never took responsibility, never apologized, never explained. So anytime the Dean is called all students will feel their grades are in danger.  We have such sensitive and effective leadership, it blows my mind  I am in absolute awe of their "messaging."[/b]

As the parent of a student in the upper school, the comment by the HOS, documented by the Boosters, that we lost some of our "top students" upset me.  I have a child going into these crucial grades and I am not sure how that child would feel if they lost most of their academically accelerated peer group.  Sad, no doubt.  Lonely, isolated, the list goes on ad infinitum.  Would we bail on Basis? No.  Do we want our child to keep their friends through high school?  Yes.  Otherwise high school may be a very lonely time.  Fortunately our child has other friends, from the neighborhood, from church.......

Why did we end up not filling these 6th grade slots?  No clue, and so far no answers.

[b]If we were given an answer that explained how they were going to not lose the opportunity to admit 25 additional 6th grade students next year, which we have the space for in our charter, please enlighten me, and I will cease to be a harpy[/b]

But you all seem to be so focused on when we knew what, and what this idiot woman knew when, both of which completely miss the point.  We had the opportunity to have 25 additional students in our 6th grade, students who wanted to be there (at least according to our wait list) and we fumbled the ball.

We probably had the ability to keep some of these "top" upper school students, had anyone spoken to them.  So now our first two graduating classes are not going to have the matriculation statistics that they would have had.  Please explain to me how not figuring out why these "top" students left is a great idea?  Or how trying to figure it out creates unecessary controversy?

Suffice it to say, the pyramid model in Arizona depends absolutely on completely filling the 5th and 6th grade classes, and the academic model depends absolutely on the "top students" staying for high school.  So, after 3 HOS in 3 years, an apparent inability to fill the 6th grade, and the loss of some of our "top students" in the Upper School, your proposal is what precisely?

That we all hide our heads in the sand and light lots of candles?  Not getting it, not buying it, and now believing that a bunch of parents don't even believe they have to list Basis as an option for 6th, because it is always an option before count day.This is why we needed a list serve.  Based on the posts from isolated and extremely vocal parents, many have said they do not want to join our school.  What do you people think you are doing here?  Recruiting?[/quote]

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