Reply to Bullis concerns

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[quote=Anonymous]Current parent of a Bullis senior here. DC has been at Bullis since 7th grade and is a former MCPS student. For this interested in my reflections on the pros and cons of the school, in case they are helpful, they are as follows:

Pros:

Small classes and close relationships with teachers. This is what we are paying for. You cannot get this in public school...if your kid needs it. Many do not. If ours didn’t need it, our DC would be fine in MCPS.

College counselors and the college counseling program blow out of the water what is offered in public school. The ratio is about 30 kids to a counselor, and the students start working with their designated counselor at the beginning of junior year. Public schools simply don’t have these resources (or college counselors who have been there more than 15 years! Students have no choice but to develop a strong relationship with their counselor, and the counselor can help the kids devise a realistic, diverse, and meaningful college application list. They steer kids AND PARENTS away from unrealistic schools. Some tough conversations take place, but the result is impressive success matching kids to colleges (while taking into account family finances). Real pros.

Both serious students and top athletes are at home at Bullis and have plenty of resources. Our DC is part of the serious academic cadre, but many friends are amazing athletes who began committing to top universities and SLACs in their junior year. Unlike top DC privates, there are also many kids of varying capabilities and motivations, which accounts for Bullis’s reputation as the “public school you pay for.” Some are under-represented minorities, who are benefiting from being at Bullis over their local public schools. But this gives Bullis more diversity than our local public schools, from which our student has benefited. It also makes Bullis more balanced and less of a pressure-cooker than top DC privates. Many Bullis kids attend Ivies, and many do not.

There are some amazing teachers, particularly in the 7th grade and in the upper school.
They typically teach the honors and AP courses.

Some of the kids are very strong on character. You would want to adopt them as your own. Our DC has benefited from having them as friends.

The administration informed parents early on and cracked down on vaping before MCPS did. Did it solve the problem? Not at all. But the administration has continued to make it a priority and to suspend kids for it. They have also suspended (and expelled) kids for underage drinking, even off the premises and in private homes (if cited by the police or wearing school logos in social media while drinking). Public schools can’t do that, I believe, because the kids don’t sign a contract acknowledging such consequences.

The administration has fired or moved underperforming teachers while our student has attended. Public schools can’t do that easily, if at all, because of teachers’ contracts. Both teachers were in important subjects—math and physics—and the replacements were excellent.

Cons:
Price. Ridiculous. Absurd.

A Culture of entitlement. While this can be found in local MCPS schools as well, the problem is more serious at Bullis. It affects the way some students treat their peers, teachers and coaches, and it creates other challenges for students (drinking parties with parents present or actively hosting; makes developing a strong work ethic more difficult; it undermines character, and paradoxically it can fuel anxiety and depression in students). Kids are wearing $3,000 watches to school, regularly taking luxury vacations, and accustomed to living a lifestyle that goes with million-dollar-plus mansions. Students who do not come from this background may find it intimidating or feel insecure around it. I will not cry tears when my DC graduates, as I personally few more at home in MCPS. But that wasn’t a good fit for my student.

Leadership/administration - Bullis opted for a bright shiny new STEM building, which was a poor decision that put the school in the red. That money should go to higher teacher salaries to pay for more top-notch teachers and to incentivize them to stick around. Budget management is improving, and a new head of school, who seems very strong, has been selected. I think this will help turn around the temporary budget shortfall and usher in an era of better decision-making at the top.

Learning disabilities - The school markets itself as helping kids with learning challenges. Overall, it does not. Our student has some disabilities, and DC has to function fairly autonomously at Bullis. Only the US counselor is strong among the counseling staff we came into contact with. The US learning specialist is also very good. But middle school counseling was abysmal. And some teachers, just like in MCPS, will ignore accommodations unless the student advocates for themself. That said, the small classes are extremely helpful, and students have direct and immediate access to teachers. In that sense, Bullis is a better alternative than public schools with much larger classes for students who need extra support.

Too much focus on athletics at the expense of performing arts and academics. This isn’t as dire as I may make it sound, and there is a vibrant group of students in the performing arts, such as theater, the jazz band (stellar), and visual arts. But the culture of athletics is very much in your face (as it is in public high schools). I don’t blame the school entirely, however. I blame American universities. I have been appalled at what I see as a drastic change since I attended college—the lowering of academic standards at elite universities and SLACs to recruit top high school athletes. That was always the case to some degree at many large universities. But it is much more prevalent now at elite universities/colleges than it used to be, incentivizing students (and their parents) to pour resources and time into sports, especially lacrosse, at Bullis (and outside of school). Until American universities alter this practice, many students with a finite amount of time will allocate less to academics and more to athletics. Athletes get accepted earlier through the “commitment” process and usually with some financial aid. And Bullis has had numerous students commit to Ivies and elite SLACs that some students otherwise would not have qualified for. British and Canadian universities do not do this.
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