Anonymous wrote:I think the majority of unhappy parents aren't looking for her to get fired, but just want to see some small changes.

Can we flip this issue on its head-- what can we do as a community to:
1) heal this parent discontent
2) help this principal respond to the community more productively?

What are the concrete examples of problems and proposed solutions? All I hear is crazy ranting but no specifics.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the majority of unhappy parents aren't looking for her to get fired, but just want to see some small changes.

Can we flip this issue on its head-- what can we do as a community to:
1) heal this parent discontent
2) help this principal respond to the community more productively?

This lady holds office hours for all parents to come in. That's unheard of.
It's the community that needs fixed.

Ok. How do we do that?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope, the noisy detractors who spread rumors are a small minority at th school.

You may want to check your sources. They are shockingly uninformed or willingfully ignorant. I suggest casting a wider net (say more than a handful of friends on the HSA) and see what you find.

Aside from first hand experience everything else is rumor, secondhand and biased by the person sharing the information. Those who make decisions based on information they did not experience first hand are the problem.

Anonymous wrote:I think the majority of unhappy parents aren't looking for her to get fired, but just want to see some small changes.

Can we flip this issue on its head-- what can we do as a community to:
1) heal this parent discontent
2) help this principal respond to the community more productively?

This lady holds office hours for all parents to come in. That's unheard of.
It's the community that needs fixed.

I think the majority of unhappy parents aren't looking for her to get fired, but just want to see some small changes.

Can we flip this issue on its head-- what can we do as a community to:
1) heal this parent discontent
2) help this principal respond to the community more productively?

Anonymous wrote:This was our first year at the school, and I'm still wondering what the hell all of this mysterious horrible stuff is? Parents in a large public school system who are overly entitled and think they can control everything seem hell-bent on ruining the Principal's tenure. I really hope those parents figure out how to get their snowflakes into a charter, or start their own charter, go private. With the DeVoss vouchers, you should be able to (ha!) I don't agree with the principal on everything, but I don't agree with ANYONE about everything. I sure as hell wouldn't want her job though, dealing with all of our insanity, plus kids and teachers and the DCPS system. Not sure what the problem is - but would like concrete evidence of *something* beyond nasty, over-personalized fear-mongering. Opaque editorials in the Post do not count.

+100. We've had a really good first year. Almost went private, decided to check it out, and are keeping our child at Lafayette for the foreseeable future. It's really big overall, but well managed, great classroom sizes, great, engaged and responsive teacher. I've been pretty involved, gone to PTC meetings, gone to meet with the principal 1-on-1, talked to other parents, etc this year, too... I get that the old teachers must have been well regarded by this old guard, but I just can't see how the current admin has inflicted such awful awful damage.

What basis do these select parents have to have her removed!?
Principals at other schools are dragging kids down the hallway by their hair, drinking on the job, etc. Lafayette is still a DCPS school here people. Would you rather have an outsider come in?

I seriously don't understand what you people have against her.

This was our first year at the school, and I'm still wondering what the hell all of this mysterious horrible stuff is? Parents in a large public school system who are overly entitled and think they can control everything seem hell-bent on ruining the Principal's tenure. I really hope those parents figure out how to get their snowflakes into a charter, or start their own charter, go private. With the DeVoss vouchers, you should be able to (ha!) I don't agree with the principal on everything, but I don't agree with ANYONE about everything. I sure as hell wouldn't want her job though, dealing with all of our insanity, plus kids and teachers and the DCPS system. Not sure what the problem is - but would like concrete evidence of *something* beyond nasty, over-personalized fear-mongering. Opaque editorials in the Post do not count.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New, Inexperienced teachers?

Our sons K teacher is new to Lafayette, but not her first year teaching. She is, hands down, 100x's better than our daughters "older, experienced" teacher that she had in K. Our son is reading above grade level, excelling in math, and loving science.

If these are the teachers Dr. B. is hiring, please, GIVE US MORE!

Agree with this!! We are new to Lafayette and have had nothing but wonderful experiences with our K teacher and the school overall. Maybe because we are new to the community, we have not experienced any of the negativity that some on this board speak of. I generally don't respond to the anti-Lafayette threads, but I don't think it's fair to only hear the opinions of parents who feel the need to trash a school that we love (maybe this will change as our kid progresses, but it's true for now.)

Love the school, love our daughter's teacher, think most of the staff is great, love the community, but acknowledge where there is smoke there is often fire and know some good people who have been at the receiving end of the message police. Very unfortunate to watch happen.

Anonymous wrote:Must be hard to be this privileged.

You do understand that DCPS can give you an administrator that doesn't bow down,
And can't be bought, right?

Sure... can't be bought by the select few, but at what cost to the rest of us? Division and message control (often trembling red faced with anger) apparently rule the day at Lafayette. Seems anyone can believe the lines they are being fed if they repeat it enough and never bother to engage or compare notes with others. Makes our national politics seem downright quaint... though I hear professional spin doctors have to be morally nimble like that before getting into the profession anyway. Regardless, no one likes being constantly lied to and manipulated to get to an outcome that appears to only suit the ambitions and agenda of a single individual and their limited allies. The manipulation of "advisory committees", wanton disregard for stakeholder opinions, and other disingenuous messaging and slight of hand is telling. The damage to the community that this administration has inflicted is awful.

Anonymous wrote:New, Inexperienced teachers?

Our sons K teacher is new to Lafayette, but not her first year teaching. She is, hands down, 100x's better than our daughters "older, experienced" teacher that she had in K. Our son is reading above grade level, excelling in math, and loving science.

If these are the teachers Dr. B. is hiring, please, GIVE US MORE!

Agree with this!! We are new to Lafayette and have had nothing but wonderful experiences with our K teacher and the school overall. Maybe because we are new to the community, we have not experienced any of the negativity that some on this board speak of. I generally don't respond to the anti-Lafayette threads, but I don't think it's fair to only hear the opinions of parents who feel the need to trash a school that we love (maybe this will change as our kid progresses, but it's true for now.)