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[quote=Anonymous][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]

We had a similar experience here last year. No one in administration seems to take ownership. We met w/ her and the HS principal says it's not hers to own and she knows no details. The grade dean says its not his or hers to own. The advisors know nothing. So no one knows anything yet our kid is somehow magically at the committee.

At some point last year, for something very minor (not drugs, violence, language) our kid did, I became *that* parent and called every senior administrator until i figured out who owns the process and could tell us what had happened . Even that liar seemed to deny they knew anything until I would not let up until they read me everything in the files.

I've got to say having gone through this last year, the lack of transparency as to how the school runs this process, and to who truly owns it was shocking. This person kept saying "the students run the process" - that's false. My kid knows many of the kids on the discipline committee. The students all say that 2 or 3 administrators run the whole thing and in fact those admins recommend the punishments and often overrule the kids who think nothing should be done for minor things to their peers.

It's a classic GDS farce. They create some process. Claim a moral high-ground and lack of knowlege and then hide behind that process. Are then totally opaque about how it REALLY works. And then leave the kids wondering for WEEKS as to their fate. When *all along* the administrators were the ones deciding the punishment and what even goes to committee in the first place. Meanwhile, they all deny that they are involved, To a one, every single person until that last guy i got hold of after i went postal bc no one was replying to my kid, finally admitted that they in fact run the process and have all the info.

Here's what I think actually happens - the grade deans and this administrator and the HS principal actually decide what comes to the committee and they have pre-planned the punishments. The whole farce of peers questioning and voting is classic GDS thing to make everyone feel included. Also the grade deans and HS principal all deny they are in the know so they dont get non stop calls from parents and kids.

I've been at this school so long as a parnet of multiple kids that I know before the callbacks now the grinf*cks and the glad handing the admins will give me, The nice nice act they wil put on and then deliver bad news via an email later. I know all of their moves, I feel bad for them all since it must suck having those jobs and feeling like a low paid cog in the GDS machine

The teachers are mostly good to amazing. The administrators are mostly horrific. In fact, we had one kid at another DC Big 3 and it was FAR better there than at GDS in terms of transparency. something about adhering to the GDS kindness thing makes all of these admins act like neutered noobs. I often want to scream - tell me the f-in truth. BTW same exact thing in college process where they are opaque about list building, no access to SCOIR or Naviance even though they have it and wont even show kids o parents. Lies about AP testing and SAT/ACT.

I wanted to scream like many other parenrs - tell my kid the g-d truth that 35 kids are applying to U-M or USC this year and they wont make the cut. Instead it was all in code words like "if it's in your heart to apply, then you should" - jesus christ, just tell me how i stack up. Plus they limiit to 10 or 12 college apps total so WTAF? Each slot is critical, tell us upfront.

I'm glad we are almost done here and I so badly wish we had sent all our kids to cathedral schools.
[/quote]

This is so bizarre.  I understand why you can’t say what was done, but I’m so curious what type of incident warrants all that work, honestly.  I can’t imagine that it’s cheating related as that doesn’t seem like it should go through peers.  But in thinking about this, nothing should go through peers.  What about your kids privacy?  What is going to stop the student panel from telling others about this and then potential bullying occur?  Also, what type of students sign up to be on this panel.  Why would you want to punish your peers?  Did parents have a say in this policy?[/quote]

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