Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A free charter is not the same as a small break on $50k tuition.

You can try out the free thing easier than the still 30-40k thing.

Parents who try charter schools are not typically wealthy. For those with very high net worths, perhaps 50K isn't a big deal.

The difference is that those people have many great alternatives. Why would I try Whittle if I could get GDS or Sidwell or a New England boarding school or whatever? Charter schools are drawing kids where the parents don't like the current options.

I'd consider Whittle if I wanted my kids to get to know hundreds of Chinese princelings.

Thanks but not a priority. If we think many Big 3 kids are spoiled...those princelings are in a different league.

Yet another example of how many people who use this board don’t actually stop to think about what they are saying and how infantile they sound...

And racist too.

Every time someone mentions race =/= racism

Princelings in China is a thing, and obviously to be called a princeling would put you in a spoiled category.

I wish I cared enough to show up for the meetings and ask the very same questions. How awkward and nefarious sounding. I’m certain that this ends with unhappy parents and probably some folks in cuffs and stripes. Just not sure if it’s a Ponzi scheme, some kind of foreign intervention, a Chris Whittle self-enrichment gig or, more likely, all of the above. Can’t wait for Alex Gibney to do a documentary.

I was at the information session today and asked some basic questions about corporate structure, financial transparency, identification of investors and mechanisms for accountability that one finds with all non-profit and public school systems. The administrators said that Whittle was a private company and that they would not provide this information (specifically financial statements and the identity of investors) to prospective parents. Then a staff member sitting in the audience quickly posed unrelated questions changing the subject and shut down the discussion. It's clear that they feel very sensitive and vulnerable about these issues and do not have meaningful answers. These are basic relevant questions any prospective parent should ask and information which the school should be willing to provide openly, especially because it is a start-up and with close ties to China.

I was also informed that enrollment is currently less than 200 families with hopes of having only one class per grade level this year. By any standard, that situation does not bode well for early students at the school.

In general, all I saw was a large group of over qualified administration consultant types in very nice clothes and fancy offices, bragging about all of their advanced degrees and trying to sell a very expensive and speculative pie in the sky deal. None of them had any experience in starting or running a successful, for profit school system. There were no teachers present. And there are no classrooms ready for the coming school year.

On the bright side, they said that they will fly their teachers from DC and China to Switzerland this summer for a week of training how to teach kids one-on-one. Sounds like a nice trip!

Anonymous wrote:Sticking to the story of opening on September 5. Would anyone like to buy a bridge I have for sale?

https://www.foresthillsconnection.com/news/neighborhood-in-the-news-whittle-school-expects-to-be-punctual-rock-n-roll-burger-king-still-here/

No but they probably have one to sell to you

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone have updates on their "very brief" delay that won't impact the opening?

The standard process for getting a demo permit takes 5-6 months in the normal course.. Given that they were flouting requirements and were working without the correct permits in place, I cannot imagine their retroactive application will be fast tracked... Seems like some aggressive spin to claim it is a “brief delay”. Brief in the cosmic sense perhaps

Given the level of corruption in DC politics, I wouldn't be surprised if Whittle opened as scheduled, and with a 30-story-high skycraper tower imported from China.

+1

The operator in question here has a long track record of big promises and under / no performance. A brief google search reveals a lot..

Sticking to the story of opening on September 5. Would anyone like to buy a bridge I have for sale?

https://www.foresthillsconnection.com/news/neighborhood-in-the-news-whittle-school-expects-to-be-punctual-rock-n-roll-burger-king-still-here/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone have updates on their "very brief" delay that won't impact the opening?

The standard process for getting a demo permit takes 5-6 months in the normal course.. Given that they were flouting requirements and were working without the correct permits in place, I cannot imagine their retroactive application will be fast tracked... Seems like some aggressive spin to claim it is a “brief delay”. Brief in the cosmic sense perhaps

Given the level of corruption in DC politics, I wouldn't be surprised if Whittle opened as scheduled, and with a 30-story-high skycraper tower imported from China.

Anonymous wrote:Anyone have updates on their "very brief" delay that won't impact the opening?

The standard process for getting a demo permit takes 5-6 months in the normal course.. Given that they were flouting requirements and were working without the correct permits in place, I cannot imagine their retroactive application will be fast tracked... Seems like some aggressive spin to claim it is a “brief delay”. Brief in the cosmic sense perhaps

Anyone have updates on their "very brief" delay that won't impact the opening?

The silver lining is that no one can accuse them of being for-profit

Well, it’s not in Geiorgetown. But, the point is broadly correct. It’s a virtual certainty that they had to put up tens of millions as a deposit before getting the lease. No commercial real estate owner is going to take any kind of risk on Whittle, so the securitization had to be intense and cash heavy. Again, only a nation state or irrational investor (seeking alpha through something other than money) would even consider it.

Anonymous wrote:That link is interesting but doesn't really address who is financing the $185M in renovation. To be clear, the article puts a valuation of $110M on the real estate but says that Whittle is putting $185M into renovating it (which seems preposterous).

No rational investor seeking financial return is going to put up $185M for a school renovation. It's absurd. Again, near as I can tell, they don't even own the building. So if they don't pay their rent, they lose the money. There is no way that the building landlords ponied up $185M in tenant improvement money.

The money absolutely had to come from someone motivated by something other than a financial return and that has the deepest of deep pockets. Hard to see this as someone other than a nation state or quasi-government investment arm.

The PP’s point about lack of financial motivation is an interesting one.. I also cannot get my head around the math unless the investors / nation state backers / quasi government investment arms care little about financial returns...

Rental rates in the Georgetown area average between $46 and $54 per sq/ft (https://www.squarefoot.com/dc/washington/office-space)! Given the size of the building, that implies well over $30 million a year to the landlord, and that’s before expenses for faculty, staff, electricity, transportation, catering, recreation. It will take a lot of undiscounted tuition paying kids or financial backers who are content to keep pouring money in to to cover those kinds of expenses

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I received an email today about an

Bot

Not.

I hit save by accident and got distracted. As I was saying... I received an email today about attending a parent info session. They are still recruiting for 2019-20.

That was a joke.

Really they’re not as creepy as everyone here thinks. I’m amazed none of the people on waitlists are considering them, especially as they’re giving tuition breaks for the first few years.

It doesn't matter how much they charge or what kind of break they are giving. No one wants to make their kids the guinea pigs in a new, unaccredited institution.

Well, some people do. Lots of folks lined up to try new charter schools, a gamble that often paid off very well.

Charter schools are FREE. Different customer

Parents who have 50K / kid a year to burn have that money for a reason and Dc Privates are a social climbing vehicle for them. Whittle offers them Zero in that regard

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A free charter is not the same as a small break on $50k tuition.

You can try out the free thing easier than the still 30-40k thing.

Parents who try charter schools are not typically wealthy. For those with very high net worths, perhaps 50K isn't a big deal.

The difference is that those people have many great alternatives. Why would I try Whittle if I could get GDS or Sidwell or a New England boarding school or whatever? Charter schools are drawing kids where the parents don't like the current options.

I'd consider Whittle if I wanted my kids to get to know hundreds of Chinese princelings.

Thanks but not a priority. If we think many Big 3 kids are spoiled...those princelings are in a different league.

Yet another example of how many people who use this board don’t actually stop to think about what they are saying and how infantile they sound...

Hi infantile!

Look up the lifestyle of Chinese princelings in Vancouver and the backlash it created, both in Canada and in China.

Not everyone is as ignorant as you are. And not everyone who knows a bit more is a racist.

Anonymous wrote:What’s racist about talking about billionaires versus millionaire?

+1