Anonymous wrote:Could it have been better to have drafted a letter to the principal requesting that he resign?

Anonymous wrote:Hate to say I told you so but those of us who were skeptical of the new principal was right. Just look at past threads on here about Hardy and the new principal before he came on.

But lots of Hardy boosters on here who fails to acknowledge publicly the many issues and enable the status quo.

Anonymous wrote:Hate to say I told you so but those of us who were skeptical of the new principal was right. Just look at past threads on here about Hardy and the new principal before he came on.

But lots of Hardy boosters on here who fails to acknowledge publicly the many issues and enable the status quo.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I meant is it seems things have been building up for a long time. Why not try to rally support from the community earlier? State the issues, get ideas from others on how to intervene, pressure the school for answers, etc, way before this.

I've seen the emails one of the parents that spoke last night wrote to the Council and DCPS back in January. The emails were calling out for help and sharing what was happening at the school as they stood by and pretended all was fine. Back then, the culprit wasn't clear. Things were wrong, but the author didn't know why. And the author was naturally skeptical. Things just kept getting worse and worse.

This sounds so frustrating! Do you know what DCPS replied? How do they keep letting this happen? Is Hardy new principal a cousin of someone in DCPS or something? I wonder if it could be at all possible for Hardy PTO to request a meeting with DCPS administration, if they just ignore the emails?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I meant is it seems things have been building up for a long time. Why not try to rally support from the community earlier? State the issues, get ideas from others on how to intervene, pressure the school for answers, etc, way before this.

I've seen the emails one of the parents that spoke last night wrote to the Council and DCPS back in January. The emails were calling out for help and sharing what was happening at the school as they stood by and pretended all was fine. Back then, the culprit wasn't clear. Things were wrong, but the author didn't know why. And the author was naturally skeptical. Things just kept getting worse and worse.

This sounds so frustrating! Do you know what DCPS replied? How do they keep letting this happen? Is Hardy new principal a cousin of someone in DCPS or something? I wonder if it could be at all possible for Hardy PTO to request a meeting with DCPS administration, if they just ignore the emails?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I meant is it seems things have been building up for a long time. Why not try to rally support from the community earlier? State the issues, get ideas from others on how to intervene, pressure the school for answers, etc, way before this.

I've seen the emails one of the parents that spoke last night wrote to the Council and DCPS back in January. The emails were calling out for help and sharing what was happening at the school as they stood by and pretended all was fine. Back then, the culprit wasn't clear. Things were wrong, but the author didn't know why. And the author was naturally skeptical. Things just kept getting worse and worse.

Anonymous wrote:What I meant is it seems things have been building up for a long time. Why not try to rally support from the community earlier? State the issues, get ideas from others on how to intervene, pressure the school for answers, etc, way before this.

Anonymous wrote:First: It was the school's responsibility to notify parents on incidents of safety and security. If you are just now finding out about these things it's because (1) the school failed in it's duty to tell you and (2) other parents in a position to know are jumping in to tell you.

Let's be appreciative of those parents for speaking up rather than critiquing them for the timing of what should not be their responsibility.

Second: It sounds like parent leaders have been trying to work with the school and DCPS *all year* on issues of safety and security, behavior, academics, staff management, school planning, culture, etc.

What they've seen and what they've been hearing from other parents finally reached a tipping point. In the past couple of weeks, there was...
-- a security incident for which the principal swept under the rug;
-- the surprise news that the recent budget+staffing decisions by the principal means that Hardy will be short the target number of teachers next year and, once again, 'electives' will be limited and "pre-selected."
-- the prospect that a few good teachers will be leaving.
-- uncertainty about the 8th grade end of year events (dues collected, plans missing, or something pike that)

Those straws broke the camels back, I think.

The problems have been happening along different vectors, and the various people who deal with these things -- the LSAT, the PTO, the parent liaisons, etc -- have been trying to address them through the usual ways. And it's been fruitless on all fronts.

If you haven't heard your kid complaining about fights or excited because they watched another movie in their too-long-to-focus classes, then you are lucky. Listen to what these other parents have to say and realize that the

TLDR: These parents are taking extraordinary steps to fix a multitude of problems that the school admin hasn't before another school year starts.

My child has been complaining all year and I've been too wrapped up in other life to do more than write a couple of emails. I, for one, am *very* thankful for the huge time and effort that these parents have put in to try to effect some needed change.

Anonymous wrote:

As a parent of a current 8th grader, I had no clue about what was shared prior to this meeting. Considering the seriousness of the issues that were mentioned tonight, the larger parent body should have been alerted WAY sooner.