Reply to Lee 1st Impressions

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Let that issue die folks.  You are responding to something that is several days old, let's move on.[/quote]

It may be a few days old, but I don’t think it’s something your school should take lightly. It seems there's a contingent of parents at the school that are determined to be negative and do so in ways that could potentially hurt Lee.

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/410508.page

is definitely on my mind as a parent who is thinking about schools for next year.

It was amazing, and not in a good way, to see an incubator school rag so hard on its host school not even 3 weeks in to its first year in existence. The Presidential visit was not a Lee event, it was an IT event that occurred on IT grounds. It’s unfortunate that Lee closed school early, but that’s really the only reason Lee parents might have had to complain; it looks like from a previous post that was at least in part your administration's decision, and should have been taken up with your principal/staff.

Lee is an untried school, a good part of its cache this past year came from the relationship with Inspired. IT gave Lee an unspoken blessing in agreeing to share space, most folks I know who put IT on their lottery lists also put Lee in part because of that interpretation. There was a moment here for Lee to further that relationship by showing support of IT’s event and cheering for their great opportunity, even if it made an inconvenience for one day, and especially since Lee kids now have a playground right outside their door.

Instead, a number of parents decided to head down the road of negativity, publicly antagonizing the school they’ll share space with for the next 2 years, which makes the parent body seem at best difficult, and not savvy enough to realize that disparaging another organization’s success is not something most people want to be associated with or be around. I think this will tarnish Lee’s image, and[b] I’m sure it’s created a hard situation for your staff, who now have to work on rebuilding your reputation with the public (orgs you could partner with, neighborhoods you might move to) and with potential parents as well as salvaging the relationship with IT. Those are energies that will be diverted from supporting your teachers and students. [/b]

A lot of the comments Lee parents made on that thread were mean-spirited and backbiting. While it might seem a small thing, for some parents peer groups are very important. It’s unsettling to consider what kinds of attitudes the kids of those parents may bring to school now and as they get older – apples don’t fall far.

I’m sure there are some fabulous families at Lee, but currently they’re outshown by parents who are focused on the wrong things and seem capable of derailing the future success of the school. One thing that’s very clear in DC is that parents can make or break a school -- it doesn’t matter how great the staff or the building, if the parent community doesn’t have its act together it can sink the boat.

I’ll be honest in saying from what I’ve seen thus far Lee has moved from a top pick to maybe a safety school for our family; however, it’s still early on, hoping the parents can move forward in a positive manner and focus their energies on making Lee a really great school.[/quote]

I'm not going to argue that lee parents are coming off well on DCUM, but let's not overemphasize the world of DCUM.  There is no relationship to rebuild between the two schools because some parents bitched on an anonymous message board about IT's perceived role in closing their school for teh day.  There is no bad blood between the schools IRL!  As I posted in that thread, DCUM is NOT real life (time suck from real life that it may be). Everyone is as pleasant and happy and cooperative as can be IRL.  If you take this stuff too seriously, you a are kidding yourself about the way you spend your time.

I also wouldn't base school choices on posts on a anonymous message board - that is nuts.  Talk to real people![/quote]

Agree.  Also, I followed that other thread closely and it was pretty clear that it was just one or possibly two Lee parents that were upset about missing the afternoon of work.  There were more negative comments from people who had no connection from the school and several - perfectly natural comments, IMO - from people who were confused and just trying to get info.  I've talked to a lot of Lee parents and not one of them was upset in real life about this, and some of them also have children at IT.

I'd also add that I don't think that the ITS connection really played into the decision making process for parents in choosing a school, but I can only really talk for myself.

So please, 1) don't take what you read here to mean anything about the great community that is being built at Lee and between the two schools and 2) don't go reading too much into a couple of comments on a thread from last week and thinking that a couple of people venting has anything to do with the genuinely strong and welcoming community that is evolving at a brand new school.  [/quote]

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