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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The administration in general is the weak spot of GDS. With the lower school principal turnover and the high school principal's lack of experience it has been frustrating.

GDS' strengths are definitely the teachers but most programs run by the administration, especially in the high school, are lacking (DEI, college counseling, disciplinary). As a parent of a high school student many of the programs are great in theory but we find them lacking with very little accountability or transparency.

We have had several interactions and meetings with the HS principal and found her inexperienced and lacking empathy or interest. [/quote]

Similar here. Our interactions with HS principal have been the same. The people who report to her in administration - curriculum people, display people and CCO - seem entirely not empowered to make decisions and openly defer to her while grin f’ing the parent.

And yet she’s hard to reach and generally has been slow to respond on the few occasions we’ve escalated something unless we’ve basically gone 911 on our email over a serious school f-up. There was a really bad one a few years ago. And then I’ve had an immediate response from her.

Have heard from my kid that many faculty members despise her and speak openly about how bad a leader and decision maker she is. Maybe this is normal. Maybe not. I hear a lot of it though.

[b]On the disciplinary committee front, have heard from other parents that every decision made - even for minor *entirely* non DEI infractions - are dominated with a DEI restorative justice lens as how the kid needs to make amends. [/b]It’s very much on brand for the former head of DEI at dalton. One can google how that went at Dalton…

This too shall pass - but probably not in time for our kid’s tenure at the school. Like many 2020 and 2021 decisions, boards are seeing the reality of bad hires slowly. GDS’ board will be late to seeing this but will eventually. Pretty much can count on this. [/quote]

I have no skin in this game and am honestly not trying to stir up drama by asking, but if you had to guess, is there a chance she's not going to last very long in the role?

I find it troubling that the administration has had so much turnover in the last decade. That indicates larger problems.[/quote]

This unfortunate dei restorative justice disciplinary style is also very much in the middle school so I'm not sure it's specific to the high school principal. The administration doesn't seem to realize that they are creating unnecessary tension among the students through this uneven and unfair practice.[/quote]

My MSer has experienced zero tension or stress. Maybe your kid shouldn't get in trouble so much?[/quote]

Goodness. People on this board are ruthless. I hope your child never makes a mistake.

I'm a GDS parent with a student in the high school. An A student, never in trouble in the 10 years we've been at GDS, and very active in the school. My high schooler made a poor judgement call but did not harm anyone and learned their lesson very quickly. The administration and principal decided it required disciplinary action and prioritized restorative justice disciplinary policies to an extreme including a hearing amongst student peers to determine consequences, several essays, lessons plans on what lessons were learned, apology letters and other restorative actions along with the threat of suspension and reporting to colleges. Parents are only informed of the results but are not allowed to be a part of the process. There is also no opportunity to appeal. This dragged on for weeks and when we finally had the opportunity to discuss with the HS principal she informed us she wasn't privy to the details and passed us back to another individual in the high school to get more information. We love GDS but because we've never been a part of the disciplinary process we were shocked on how this was handled and we fault the administration but mainly the principal as this is under her purview. At our child's request, we didn't push our situation further out of fear of risking what could be reported to colleges. [/quote]

Would you have preferred jumping straight to suspension? That's the point of restorative justice -- give the offender a chance to learn something and make amends, instead of jumping to punishment.[/quote]

Sounds like the preference would have been to talk with the HS principal up front to convince her that no punishment is warranted because child is an A student, has never been in trouble in the prior 10 years at GDS, no one was harmed, lesson was learned quickly, and it was just poor judgment, and if the HS principal didn't agree, they would appeal to the HOS.

[/quote]

I'm the previous poster re: the disciplinary action of our GDS high schooler. It's hard to explain the entire situation while remaining anonymous and brief on a message board. I think the point is the focus was so much on implementing restorative justice while not actually addressing the issue and looking at the student. And that the HS principal oversees these policies but when requested to meet with us to discuss she absolved herself from any responsibility and in all honest was not interested in talking with us. We are also very well aware, like other posters have mentioned, there's no consistency. Some students receive disciplinary action while others do not for similar or worse actions. [/quote]

In what way were the essays and apology letters not addressing the issues? Who were the apology letters to, if no one was hurt?

It sounds like someone was hurt and you and your child weren't allowed to minimize it as you would have preferred.[/quote]

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