Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Hyde Schools
Hyde-DC splits from the Hyde Foundation
Ursus:
Apparently, Hyde School - DC has opted to sever their relationship with the Hyde Foundation. Does anyone know why?
Did someone at the Hyde Foundation step on some DC toes, to the degree that Joe Gauld did a few years ago (at the time calling for or necessitating an apology letter)?
Ursus:
Here's a press release:
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Welcome to Perry Street Prep! Hyde Leadership Public Charter School Amends Its Charter to Intensify Focus on Academic Rigor and College Prep
WASHINGTON, July 5, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Hyde Leadership Public Charter School of Washington, DC is now Perry Street Preparatory Public Charter School!
The new name was announced following a public hearing before the DC Public Charter School Board to consider the school's charter amendment application. PCSB voted to approve the school's revised mission and educational plan at the end of June.
The new name is intended to reflect the college-readiness mission and the location of the school. In January 2011, Hyde Leadership Public Charter School relocated from 101 T St. NE to a newly-renovated, state-of-the-art facility at 1800 Perry Street, NE (site of the former Taft Vocational Center) in the Woodridge community.
Established in 1999 by Hyde Schools' founder, Joseph W. Gauld, the school has grown to become one of the District's largest charter schools, serving more than 700 students, Pre-K-12, from every ward in the city.
For the past three years, a consulting contract with the Hyde Foundation had permitted the school to use the Hyde name and Hyde character education and family renewal programs. The Board of Trustees voted in April to end the school's 12-year relationship with the Hyde Foundation.
"It is our belief, as the school's trustees, that this decision best supports our heightened focus on academic rigor and college preparation," said Joseph A. Fanone, president of the Board of Trustees.
The mission of Perry Street Prep is to be "a community of diverse learners that builds relationships with families to empower students to become college-ready and to thrive in a global society."
All financial and human resources can now be realigned to implement the charter school's blueprint to provide a 21st century, college preparatory education to each student, Pre-K-12.
"Schools that simply prepare students to be college-eligible are doing them a disservice. At Perry Street Prep, we plan to use rigorous academic instruction, a safe and secure learning environment and strong family and community relationships to empower our students to be ready to enter to college, ready to succeed in college and ready to thrive in a global society," said Dr. Jo Ann Cason, head of school.
Perry Street Prep has ended its contract with the Hyde Foundation, but not its belief in the importance of character or its belief that schools work best when parents are invested and involved in the educational process.
The amended charter details how administrators, teachers and staff will immerse all students, Pre-K-12, in a college-bound curriculum and culture. A Parent Academy will help forge strong relationships with parents and guardians by providing activities and opportunities that inform families how to support their children's educational success. To maintain a positive and safe school culture, faculty, staff and parents will promote the importance of character by emphasizing Respect, Responsibility and Perseverance.
"Our name has changed, but not our commitment to our students and to their families. Perry Street Prep intends to become the city's top college preparatory public charter school. Every student, Pre-K-12, who enters 1800 Perry Street will be placed on a path that prepares them to graduate college and to thrive in a global society," Dr. Cason said.
Perry Street Preparatory Public Charter School (1800 Perry St., NE, Washington, DC 20018) offers a quality college preparatory education to every student, Pre-K through Grade 12. Located in a newly-renovated, high-tech school building, Perry Street Prep is a community of diverse learners that builds relationships with families to empower students to become college-ready and to thrive in a global society. Students who are residents of DC do not pay tuition. For additional information, visit http://www.pspdc.org or call the school at 202.529.4400.
Media Contact: Holly Cherico
office: 202.551.0804 cell: 202.570.8494
http://www.pspdc.org
Copyright © 2011 PR Newswire Association LLC.
Ursus:
Geez. Four charters like Hyde-DC and the Hyde Foundation rakes in close to a million for "services." And who says they're not in the charter binnis just to give disenfranchised kids in desperate impoverished neighborhoods a better chance, and strictly out of the goodness in their hearts? :D
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Examiner.com
Hyde charter school breaks with founder
Mark Lerner, DC Charter Schools Examiner
June 29, 2011
Bill Turque of the Washington Post wrote a blog post the other day about the decision by the Public Charter School Board Monday night to allow Hyde Public Charter School to end their relationship with the school's foundation, which was charging the charter $233,000 a year for its services. What did these services entail? A program of character development for its students by founder Joseph Gauld, Does this expenditure of public funds for this purpose drive anyone else but me up the wall? If this type of payment has been going on annually at Hyde it makes me wonder what else is going on out there.
School leadership said they are making the change due to financial concerns and because they want to focus more on academics. Both goals are important. In 2010 reading proficiency at the charter was 36 percent with math at 41 percent. Why didn't someone on the charter board move to close this institution with those test results after being around for 12 years? The school is renaming itself Perry Street Preparatory as recognition of the modification of its mission.
Finally, I'm just wondering why the board had to approve the break with Mr. Gauld. Is this an example of the board extending its authority beyond its legal limits? It appears to me that the school's board could have made this decision on their own. The only thing they needed to go to the PCSB about was the new name.
Copyright © Clarity Digital Group LLC d/b/a Examiner.com.
Ursus:
Not only are the test scores from Hyde-DC still in the toilet after a dozen years, but all the hoopla about the "100% college admission rate" is effectively only so much pablum in the face of... a 20% college graduation rate.
Of course, Joe Gauld is gonna try to blame all this on Hyde-DC/Perry Street Prep now, despite the fact that the Hyde boarding schools also seem to have this same problem of "college graduation rates." And this despite the fact that the average socio-economic background of the average Hyde boarding school student is significantly less disadvantaged ... than that of the average Hyde-DC/Perry Street Prep student.
:o Maybe the Hyde School "curriculum" is just not a good choice for those kids planning on furthering their education?
Ursus:
This piece below comes from the Washington Post blog, D.C. Schools Insider, linked to in Mark Lerner's Examiner.com piece above:
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D.C. Schools Insider
Posted at 01:00 PM ET, 06/28/2011
Hyde charter school swaps 'character' for college prep
By Bill Turque
For 12 years, Hyde Leadership Public Charter School has infused its academic program with "character education," stressing attributes such as humility, conscience and honesty. But when school officials came to the D.C. Public Charter School Board Monday night with a proposal to re-focus Hyde's mission, their fidelity to those principles was challenged by parents and at least two board members.
The board voted 5-2 to approve a messy divorce--a decision by Hyde Leadership PCS to end a 12-year affiliation with its founder, Joseph Gauld, a former math teacher whose Maine-based group of schools emphasize character education and family renewal. Hyde Leadership officials told the charter school board that those ideas will remain a part of the pre-K-12 school, but that they wanted to re-focus its mission on academic rigor and college preparation. The school will be re-named Perry Street Preparatory, reflecting the address at its newly-renovated building, the former DCPS Taft Vocational Center on Perry Street N.E.
DC CAS scores, at the school, which serves more than 700 students, have not been good. Reading proficiency was 36 percent in 2010; math was 40 percent. Jo Ann Cason, Hyde's head of school, told the board that fewer than 20 percent of alumni have graduated college, a reflection of the school's emphasis on college eligibility rather than college readiness.
"This is simply unacceptable," Cason said.
Money was also a factor in the split. Hyde Leadership's board of trustees wanted out from under what it said was $233,000 a year in consulting fees and other payments to Gauld's Hyde Foundation.
But a group of parents assailed the trustees' decision, which they said was presented to them this spring as a done deal, without any opportunity for discussion. They said the character development piece of the program, which includes activities that help students confront negative attitudes and poor decision making, was a major reason they were drawn to Hyde.
"I don't understand how this decision can be made without us at the table," said Traci Felder, who added that she and most other parents made their decision to re-enroll without knowing about the shift in mission.
Eileen Harrington, a member of the board of trustees, said the decisions that led to the split with the Hyde Foundation went to "our fiduciary responsibilities and were not ones of the sort you put out for a vote."
Gauld, who opened his first school in 1966, said the split culminated a long dispute over the quality of the school. In an interview after the hearing, he said that he had delivered an "ultimatum" to the trustees, demanding that they submit to an in-depth evaluation by the Hyde Foundation or risk losing the Hyde name.
Charter board vice chairman Skip McKoy said the lack of transparency on the part of the trustees concerned him, and that what he saw was "not an open and honest process."
But board member Will Marshall, reflecting the majority view, said the board was there to judge academic results, not process. The board voted 5-2 to approve the change in the school's charter, with McKoy and Darren Woodruff opposing.
By Bill Turque | 01:00 PM ET, 06/28/2011
© 2011 The Washington Post Company
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