Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are leaving as numerous staff members have done before (not just last year, but in the middle of this year too) because the administration does not treat them with respect and it is an unhealthy work environment. I am not going to expand on this statement and I am not going to say how I know because I would have to reveal my connection to SELA, but this is something I am positive about. I would not send your children here. Outside appearances are deceiving. This has been a long time coming.

This sounds like one of those fake quotes from the parody threads ("I know major terrible things, but will not tell you what they are, who they involve, or how I know. But you can trust me.") This is ridiculous. Stop randomly slandering schools on these boards with just abstract claims. Why in the world would we trust this post??

FWIW I am not a Sela parent but have neighbors whose kids go there and the kids (and parents) seem quite happy.

We are either current or former employers of Sela. Better? If you don't want to believe us,that's fine with us. However, given that we care about children as we chose the profession of working with them, we wanted to let potential parents know that things are not always as they seem. It is not normal for such a large percentage of teachers to leave a school at one time. And no, many of the Hebrew teachers are permanent residents in the U.S. Their time did not "expire." And some of the 3 or so teachers who are here on visas intentionally chose not to extend them because of administration. You don't have to believe me. It makes no difference to us. Your children are the ones who have to live with it.

Anonymous wrote:They are leaving as numerous staff members have done before (not just last year, but in the middle of this year too) because the administration does not treat them with respect and it is an unhealthy work environment. I am not going to expand on this statement and I am not going to say how I know because I would have to reveal my connection to SELA, but this is something I am positive about. I would not send your children here. Outside appearances are deceiving. This has been a long time coming.

This sounds like one of those fake quotes from the parody threads ("I know major terrible things, but will not tell you what they are, who they involve, or how I know. But you can trust me.") This is ridiculous. Stop randomly slandering schools on these boards with just abstract claims. Why in the world would we trust this post??

FWIW I am not a Sela parent but have neighbors whose kids go there and the kids (and parents) seem quite happy.

Hate when anonymous DCUM writers slam a school.

--not a Sela parent . IJS

Anonymous wrote:This is hilarious. Another school was just the source of gossip last week at DCUM:

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/476406.page

The parents had the exact same reaction on that forum as this one. But in the end, no parents pulled their kids out of CMI -- the school is bigger than the teachers who leave for a VARIETY of reasons and while trolls say that the admin was terrible, the parents at CMI know Golnar and she is wonderful (just like the parents at Sela know Dr. Natalie Arthurs and all have great things to say about her).

One thing that interests me is how the "people in the know" don't even know that the Hebrew teachers ARE mostly here on j-1 visas (HB1) to teach at the school for a year and their year is over so they ARE supposed to go home. Look at the job listings on Idealist.org for some of the most "established" charter schools -- it's a mile long! DC is a transient city and the schools are new -- everyone expects it.

I've heard nothing but great things about Sela (and for that matter, CMI) so take this anonymous forum with a grain of salt.

I am not a SELA parent, I do not have a dog in this fight, I have no idea if it is true that 60-70% of the teachers are leaving and I know that some turnover is normal at any school. if I was a SELA parent for sure I would try to find out if the max exodus is true. your flippant attitude does not seem reasonable. any reasonable parent would consider a significant number of teachers leaving a problem, and more so on a school that was only recently created and is not fully established. I find especially appalling that you seem to confirm that the Hebrew teachers are foreigners here on a one year visa. I frankly would never send my child to a school where every year the teachers change. if this is the model adopted by SELA (Hebrew teachers hired for a year and each year having new teachers), then what you say would turn me off much more than if what OP said is true.

This is hilarious. Another school was just the source of gossip last week at DCUM:

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/476406.page

The parents had the exact same reaction on that forum as this one. But in the end, no parents pulled their kids out of CMI -- the school is bigger than the teachers who leave for a VARIETY of reasons and while trolls say that the admin was terrible, the parents at CMI know Golnar and she is wonderful (just like the parents at Sela know Dr. Natalie Arthurs and all have great things to say about her).

One thing that interests me is how the "people in the know" don't even know that the Hebrew teachers ARE mostly here on j-1 visas (HB1) to teach at the school for a year and their year is over so they ARE supposed to go home. Look at the job listings on Idealist.org for some of the most "established" charter schools -- it's a mile long! DC is a transient city and the schools are new -- everyone expects it.

I've heard nothing but great things about Sela (and for that matter, CMI) so take this anonymous forum with a grain of salt.

Why don't they expand their model and add arabic? Seems like it would be a good match in all sorts of ways.

Thank you. We just received a call for PreK3. Called but no return response. Not our top choice but considered it as a beginning school option. Think we might pass on this one!

A good head of school supports teachers, speaks professionally to them, and sees what s/he can do to make them more effective in their positions. None of the above apply to either head of school that SELA has had. They were just good with appearances. And don't blame the teachers. They are hard-working, but there's only so much belittlement, disrespect, and negativity one can handle. It is nearly impossible for even the best teacher to be as effective as her potential if she is not supported by administration.

I thought they had a great Head of School.

Anonymous wrote:They are leaving as numerous staff members have done before (not just last year, but in the middle of this year too) because the administration does not treat them with respect and it is an unhealthy work environment. I am not going to expand on this statement and I am not going to say how I know because I would have to reveal my connection to SELA, but this is something I am positive about. I would not send your children here. Outside appearances are deceiving. This has been a long time coming.

Yes this is definitely why teachers are leaving they are VERY Unhappy and treated very poorly. I too wouldn't want to say how I know, but I do! More importantly SELA is completely out of compliance there is currently no Special Ed teacher working for the school servicing the special Ed students. This person has left in the middle of March! The parents have yet to be informed! Let's think about this, that makes the school completely out of compliance! This is a serious issue! And it is very sad that it is this way! Well good luck to those that stay at SELA. If you have the choice I would chose to not go there!

They are leaving as numerous staff members have done before (not just last year, but in the middle of this year too) because the administration does not treat them with respect and it is an unhealthy work environment. I am not going to expand on this statement and I am not going to say how I know because I would have to reveal my connection to SELA, but this is something I am positive about. I would not send your children here. Outside appearances are deceiving. This has been a long time coming.

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]They might be able to make do with a program where Hebrew teachers only stayed a year or two (think about the IT/Appletree model, where there are teaching fellows), IF they get a strong principal and a core staff that stays longer. There are lots of Israelis who might like a year or two teaching experience in the US--after military service, as a sabbatical from teaching in Israel, recent college grads, etc.[/quote]

Maybe some Brandeis delet fellows.[/quote]

That can work but would require the school to create some sort of exchange or fellowship, or go through an H1B type process to enable foreign nationals to work here after proving that efforts to recruit qualified U.S. citizens failed. Can be done but takes a while and comes with associated legal fees etc.[/quote]

Agreed that it's complicated. Another option would be to recruit recent American grads from colleges like Brandeis, Yeshiva University, etc. Three challenges: getting native-level proficiency in Hebrew, making sure that the curriculum stays secular, finding people with enough education background/experience and mentoring them well. It really would come down to getting a few excellent mentor teachers (IT and Appletree seem to accomplish this) and then rotating the Hebrew teachers through.

One more possibility is to get teachers from Jewish day schools/preschools--some may not want to deal with teaching in an urban school (the commute, mostly--I know yeshiva teachers and any behavior problems at Sela are probably no worse than they already experience!) but if Sela pays more they could probably find a few. They really only need a few Hebrew speakers since the school is so small.

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]They might be able to make do with a program where Hebrew teachers only stayed a year or two (think about the IT/Appletree model, where there are teaching fellows), IF they get a strong principal and a core staff that stays longer. There are lots of Israelis who might like a year or two teaching experience in the US--after military service, as a sabbatical from teaching in Israel, recent college grads, etc.[/quote]

Maybe some Brandeis delet fellows.[/quote]

That can work but would require the school to create some sort of exchange or fellowship, or go through an H1B type process to enable foreign nationals to work here after proving that efforts to recruit qualified U.S. citizens failed. Can be done but takes a while and comes with associated legal fees etc.

[quote=Anonymous]They might be able to make do with a program where Hebrew teachers only stayed a year or two (think about the IT/Appletree model, where there are teaching fellows), IF they get a strong principal and a core staff that stays longer. There are lots of Israelis who might like a year or two teaching experience in the US--after military service, as a sabbatical from teaching in Israel, recent college grads, etc.[/quote]

Maybe some Brandeis delet fellows.

Good point.