Reply to Parents of former Basis students - where did you go, and why

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Wow, just wow 19:06:  Maybe rethink the approach to "attracting and retaining" parents by calling them elitist, narcissistic racists if they don't agree with you about how much you think Basis needs to change, and to flog and scream at supportive and otherwise happy parents to shut and go crawl under a rock.   :roll:

[b]well, let's see, I wasn't looking to hear from happy and supportive BASIS parents (see title of thread) and their happiness sounds, from the posts by people who have left, and the dismissive and intolerant comments made on this thread and at the school on Thursday, at least a little bit deluded - elitist, narcissistic (me and my kids are the center of the universe so nothing could happen to them at BASIS because it is always someone's fault, and it will never be mine), and racist (you can be racist against your own kind)

aka, that could never happen to my child because she is not in the 8th grade, not in Boron, and that would never happen here.  My child is not allowed to speak during lunch today and it is ok because.........

silent lunches for arbitrarily imposed tardies and having an administrator threaten an entire 8th grade chemistry class with a bad grade because no one had the courage to fess up to stealing the teacher's candy bar after the conciliatory comment "you mess with her stuff, I'll mess with your grades" was ok because..........
 
while we think theft should be expected because honesty begins at home and the real problem is that all these whiny parents are not "instructing their children properly," silent lunches reinforces BASIS core values and creates positive peer pressure......

- and anyone whose kid panicked when allegedly told they might get a zero for the year in Chemistry is a wimp, because, given all of their fair non arbitrary experiences at BASIS.........

they should never have taken the comment from a person in authority "you mess with her stuff, I'll mess with your grades" seriously because..............

although I teach my children to keep their hands all over their personal property even while going to the bathroom, because of all the riff raff that is the product of bad parenting...............

I do not teach my kids respect for all the administrators within my schools hallowed walls because.............

since DC is so much like Arizona, and Arizona would never stand for it, it just could not have happened that way....
and if it did, Arizona will fix it right up anyway.  I'm not stupid, maybe we just need our fourth Head of School in four years............

And it was the third who apologised and said that he had been truly wrong about one thing - Arizona and DC are not alike at all............

"It's all fine and good to be well intentioned in soliciting thoughts on what you think should change - to an extent - but ultimately, we also need to recognize and acknowledge that ultimately parents/boosters are not school directors and have limited input - we as parents, can, should and do certainly suggest any small changes as appropriate, and I've seen Basis be responsive to many such suggestions over the last 2 years, but on the flip side, we also need to recognize that any major or fundamental change to Basis DC substantially divergent from their other Basis schools and model isn't going to happen, i.e. curriculum, comps, policy, APs, discipline, et cetera."

Well, let's take a long hard look at that hypothesis.

We are now at the point where the curriculum should no longer be watered down for the kids in the lowest grade in upper school - 8th.   Kids in Washington DC are so behind in math that a) they created a lower math class for them than Saxon 7/8, which does not exist in other schools  and b) have a program of PreCalculus that is designed to go on for two years, and c) instituted a "mastery defense program" in math that is not used at other BASIS schools.

All of this in the hopes that somehow our kids who want to stay will be able to meet the graduation requirement of taking and passing Calculus.  And remember, as at other BASIS schools, you can fail your math comp and/or math class, and even if you fail again you

Furthermore, there are some kids who are so behind in math they do not even take Physics in 6th grade.  Is that still true?  Is that true at other BASIS schools?

How many other BASIS schools have a Special Ed Coordinator, and all these learning specialists as a result of being found guilty of violating the rights of children with IEPs and 504s their first year - violating the two federal laws to protect them , and being required by the office of Civil Rights to offer "compensatory education" to all of those children who could prove cause and effect and the illegal dumping of all the SPED kids into one section by the first Head of School?

Since they do not list SPED kids as part of the their student population in AZ, and will not have to accommodate them in their private schools, I am guessing............. zero?

In other BASIS schools, are they offering extra credit to those students who do not use a bathroom pass all grading period?  Do they have silent lunches?  An escalating tardy system where 3 gets you a silent lunch, 6 gets you Friday private reflection, and 9 gets you Saturday detention?

Do you think that possibly the BASIS wide change of the History sequence is so that fewer students will be taking the AP in 8th, now that we have US History in 7th?  Given their expansion into DC and San Antonio.....?  What about the universal abandonment of the GSCE's (The former O levels in the UK)?

We know that we are the only FARMS school, we are the only school that qualifies for additional help with OSSE because of it, we might still be the only majority minority school in the BASIS network, but I think we have a lot of kids whose stories are very different from those in the rest of the BASIS constellation.  Several people moved across the country and had home schooled their kids.  On the flip side, we have kids who have been homeless but are remarkably bright, probably quite a few "at risk" students, and we kicked everyone's assumptions by doing so well on the DC CAS.

Do you think we are the only ones with a school psychologist?  Are we the only ones without a school nurse?

And why can't BASIS ed give us more veteran teachers like Mr. Davison?  Offer them hardship pay, and do an additional week of training about class room control?

We know that we are the pilot school for the tables program, and do it well.  I do not think it compensates for LEAP chemistry only getting 3 days of instruction, not 5.  And we know we have attrition at the top of the pyramid which was not what they had hoped for for, and the 25 spaces in 6th are a hit financially,

"As with that sudden flurry of similar posts on the listserv, this thread has tragically gone off the deep end into the surreal.  Thankfully most of us parents are a bit more calm, pragmatic and grounded than that.   Hopefully posters can be mindful to take a few deeeeep breaths before clicking on the "submit" button next time."

The posts on the list serve were not similar, and they have all been deleted, much to my chagrin.
We have gone off track, gotten back on, and gone off track again.

I honestly think that this thread was derailed by present Basis parents, to whom it was not addressed, who just could not contain themselves, and did not breathe deeply enough before pressing the submit button.  So we move off hopefully to a real exit interview and more civility.  Thank you for all the former Basis parents who responded here.  Sorry some of you got slammed....

Any genuinely *positive and constructive* suggestions are always welcome - but I think we can all do without the accusations and attacks.

Peace out.[/quote]

Well, I think the Boosters started by making assumptions about why people left, and they were wrong about the fact that the kids were academically struggling, and then they had nothing else substantive to say except mention "test anxiety" and their approval of silent lunches.

Peace out.  Please think before you pile on again.  You did sound elitist, mean, and in denial about what goes on at the school.[/quote]

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