Reply to Thoughts on Grace Episcopal Day School in Kensington

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[quote=Anonymous]Grace was in the minority when it made the decision to go virtual. Bullis, Norwood, St Andrews, Washington Episcopal, Sidwell and many more we’re moving forward with opening. DC-based schools still are. British International School opens Wednesday for full time, in person instruction. St Alban’s is going to be open.

I don’t understand what you mean about being unfair re: the financial situation. I believe my details are correct. My opinion, based on how I have seen the leadership behave and react is that the school is not positioning itself to weather this storm. It is the responsibility of the leadership, paid and volunteer, to ensure that the school is financially stable. This means dialing back on the discounts, figuring out how to keep families in the Pre-K program from leaving when their children are ready for kindergarten, doing some actual marketing, especially to families with more money. If the school’s financial situation has been truthfully portrayed by leadership, then it has been known for a long time that the school needed to make some changes if it was going to be able to establish an endowment, pay off its debt, pay its teacher’s competitively, etc. For goodness sake, the school is positioned right at the Beltway, where Chevy Chase, Rockville, Kensington and SS all meet, adjacent to neighborhoods that feed into huge, overcrowded elementary schools, it is tuition puts it in reach of middle class families, but it is still struggling to  increase enrollment?!? Something is out of whack when a school with as much going for it as Grace is struggling. I feel like the answer is known, but no one wants to accept it.

My spouse has been telling me since we enrolled that the school’s leadership wanted to save souls, not run a business. I kept trying to convince him that he was wrong, but the evidence is kind of piling up. Grace is a good school; but it wants  to be and rather is a charity school. Its mission and founding are rooted in charity. Nothing wrong with this unless you get so caught up in your mission to do good that you neglect to attend to the business that makes the good works possible.

And if ever there was a year that kids could use physical education, this it. It can be done outdoors so no PE teacher is inexcusable. Even if they just  hired Coach Stein to come in two days per week to get the kids outside and moving with purpose. [/quote]

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