Reply to Brent and SWS

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I would recommend calling Brent and request a meeting to speak directly with the principal.  Ask how many rising 5th Graders are forecasted be returning next year and try to extrapolate that to the larger classes following behind.  Young may not be perfect but in spite of the fact he has only been a principal for five years, he is finally willing to acknowledge and openly discuss the areas in which Brent has fallen short and has now gone all in on a strategic plan designed to strengthen academics across the board.  So you can nitpick about communications and continue bitching about misteps taken in one classroom assignment two years ago or look the overall quality of the teachers he has been able to hire as the school has grown during his tenure.  I won't name teachers but can point to the recent hires for First, Second, Fourth and Fifth Grads, not to mention one of the recent Third Grade hires and the music teacher.  I would argue that Brent is actually much stronger now than it ever was under his predecessor and that attention is finally being paid to upper grade academics.  [/quote]

It's tough to extrapolate with the MS charter development trajectory as the wild card, and SH coming along slowly but surely.  Longtime Hill DCPS parents here keep better tabs on all this than Young.  Who knows what will happen with newish middle school charters like BASIS, DC Global and DCI - they may take off, and add spots, and they may not.   Moreover, SH may or may not become a lot more popular with Hill families in the next five years or so.

Young has absolutely done good things at Brent, but it's not nitpicking to point out that he doesn't go to bat for families with concerns.  He looks worried parents in the eye and lies, or shrugs, and does so routinely.  I can point to his crappy treatment of any number of lower grades families who've hit the road partly as a result, including those with SNs kids.  All the smart hires and strategic planning being done cannot alter this calculus - Young is callous, in over his head half the time, and has strong authoritarian tendencies born of insecurity (which you aren't going to hear him "acknowledge or openly discuss").  He's proven a divider as a leader meaning that, increasingly, Brent families want him to go if DCPS would work with them to find a better school leader.

By contrast, the SWS leadership team is beloved of parents, known for being cohesive, thoughtful, progressive but practical, kind and responsive.   Knowing this, I could live with more basic facilities and specials, fewer pullout groups, and less strategic planning than at Brent.[/quote]

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