Flora Singer has an excellent principal.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love the CCES principal.

(and will now duck all the rotten tomatoes coming my way)

I’m genuinely curious what you like about her. I have found her to say all the right things with very little follow-up, so the things she commits to don’t actually happen.

I like that she is super teacher-focused. I’ve been around elementary schools my whole life and in my experience, the principals who really care about and stand up for their teachers make for a much better school experience for our kids than the principals that focus on pleasing parents. CCES has amazing, amazing teachers and great retention. She’s not the greatest parent-facing principal I’ve ever seen (obviously - see PP about being the most hated principal in MoCo), but who cares? I don’t need special snowflake treatment or attention paid to me. I need the focus to be on the kids and their experience.

Kinda funny that three of the principals getting rave reviews here are named Stacey/Stacy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are all good, it is the bad parents that make it seem like they are not good.

+1000

If you have never experienced a bad principal good for you. I have, and it had nothing to do with the parents.

+1. I work in MCPS and I can tell you they are not all the same and it’s not about the parents. The way my principal communicates with parents is so different from the way my daughter’s ES principal communicate with us. My principal is so approachable and my daughter’s principal communicates to parents as if they are 6 years old.

Jae Lee at Carderock. Love him.

Anonymous wrote:Oakland Terrace

Great attitude, approachable, doesn’t take herself too seriously, and sends parents a detailed weekly newsletter.

DP and agreed. I know the previous principal was very popular, but I like our "new" one better. She's more approachable.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are all good, it is the bad parents that make it seem like they are not good.

+1000

If you have never experienced a bad principal good for you. I have, and it had nothing to do with the parents.

Anonymous wrote:Ritchie Park - he is phenomenal, a great communicator, always present and visible, student friendly, collaborates with all, has changed the culture of the school since he has arrived which was challenging with Covid. Amazing in so many ways!

Oh I’m so glad to hear this! That school was in desperate need of good leadership.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College Gardens

+1

I should have also added that in our experience, I also really enjoyed JW's principal and the new RM principal has been fantastic too.

I am sure there will be people who disagree but I've enjoyed all the principals we've had in that cluster.

I would agree with this.

I mean this in a non snarky way. What do you like about the new RM principal? I find her aloof, stand offish, unhelpful, and the exact opposite of the old principal. She passes things off to her team and is not engaged with the community at all. I have a terrible impression of her.

I think we underestimate how hard it is to run a major high school, especially one as high-performing and front-facing as RM. Even if you don't agree with her, it takes time to grow into that role, and every leader in a new situation wants to not only delegate but get to know the building -- raise capacity of the people around them, if you will. She brings more seriousness to the table than her predecessor, a "grown up in the room" vibe, instead of promoting literally every daily happening on social media. I also love her focus on including Spanish speakers and supporting non-major activities (aka anything that isn't IB, football, etc). So far, no complaints.

That’s interesting. I have zero impression of her because I haven’t seen her do anything. I’m wondering if I’m not engaged in the same way you are because I’m not seeing this at all. It’s not that I don’t agree with her, I don’t see her doing anything.

What do you mean you haven't seen her do anything?

Small detail for me but I appreciate her weekly principal emails so much more than the old principal's. For my needs, she includes more important dates that I felt the old newsletters did not include. I remember last year, there were a few important dates that weren't advertised/many people did not know about but I didn't have that problem this year. I appreciate her business approach to those newsletters where I felt like the old principal had a different tone.

I do see her involved in activities. My child plays a fall sport and I do recall seeing her at a least one game. She tweets a lot about the arts happening at RM/other activities that may not get as much love. True, her tweets are constantly about IB.

I've only met her briefly once. She wasn't stand-offish in the least bit. I found her to be rather friendly.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College Gardens

+1

+ another. We've been really happy with her and how she handled covid and communications.

Anonymous wrote:Ritchie Park - he is phenomenal, a great communicator, always present and visible, student friendly, collaborates with all, has changed the culture of the school since he has arrived which was challenging with Covid. Amazing in so many ways!

Glad to hear that. I know RP was not happy with the former person.

Ritchie Park - he is phenomenal, a great communicator, always present and visible, student friendly, collaborates with all, has changed the culture of the school since he has arrived which was challenging with Covid. Amazing in so many ways!

Anonymous wrote:They are all good, it is the bad parents that make it seem like they are not good.

+1000

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Burnt Mills has a strong leader who recently won an MCPS award. Really changed the climate since I was there.

+1 BMES principal is amazing. Dr. A is true leader and deeply committed educator. Could go on - she’s incredible.

Yup! She's probably waiting for the new building to be complete before she makes any moves to the Director spot. Central Office pulls at her constantly, she won't be there for long.

But they're able to do so much good once at the CO! We need more CO leaders like this!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Burnt Mills has a strong leader who recently won an MCPS award. Really changed the climate since I was there.

+1 BMES principal is amazing. Dr. A is true leader and deeply committed educator. Could go on - she’s incredible.

Yup! She's probably waiting for the new building to be complete before she makes any moves to the Director spot. Central Office pulls at her constantly, she won't be there for long.