Thanks for your help. I've read on this site that the charter schools are a different breed altogether. Any thoughts?
It's very hard to know whether the charter schools are cut from a different cloth. I've not visited them. Based on my experience with the boarding schools, I'm deeply skeptical of major aspects of the Hyde model. I have the impression it works much better with kids who are basically defiant and works much less well with kids who are coping with major mental health and substance abuse problems. At the boarding schools many of the kids have serious mental health and substance abuse problems, but I don't think Hyde is set up to deal effectively with these problems. Also, I've been amazed at how inexperienced an untrained so many Hyde staff are. There are some Hyde staff who have been there a long time and seem to be "married" to the school; many others are young, struggling with issues in their own lives, and I think ill equipped to deal with the very challenging student population. That explains why so many people are not happy with Hyde.
I'd like to know what kinds of kids the charter schools are getting, the extent to which the staff are well trained, how staff respond to the kids' behavioral challenges, whether Joe Gauld is involved (in my view that's a major problem at the boarding schools), etc.