Arlington Baptist School Corrupt Christian School baltimore Maryland

The Principal of ABS Mrs. Kimberlee Parsons notified parents 2 weeks prior to the opening of the school that they have made a decision to combine the K3 and K4 classes. My daughter who was a student was scheduled to enter the K4 class from K3 by the end of August 2013.

We  asked Mrs. Parsons after receiving the letter on August 8, 2013, “what is the plan to make the combination of these classes work”? Mrs. Parsons stated that when Mrs. Davis (former K3 teacher) is teaching K4, the K3 students will be moved to a corner of the room
and vice versa. I found this statement disturbing.

I then requested for the complaint procedure of ABS on August 9,2013 and August 12, 2013 via eagles@arlingtonbaptist.org
but did not receive a response back.  I proceeded to write a letter to Ms. Parsons on August 12, 2013 informing her of
my concern and requesting that she provide me with the curriculum for K3 and K4 since the classes were going to be merged.

Mrs. Parsons provided me with curriculum objectives which were similar to class lessons that I paid for my daughter’s K3 class via Kparsons@arlingtonbaptist.org. I replied to her email that I was expecting the curriculum and I offered to stop by the school to pick them up as I may not be able to attend the back to school night. She replied that the Objectives should be sufficient for now as she is preparing her teachers for back to school. I believed if the curriculum objectives were available then a curriculum should be available as majority of schools post their curriculum on their websites. Up until this point, Mrs. Parsons excuses for the curriculum have been “I do not know where they are, they do not exist, they are objectives and they are a box of teacher cards”.

When Mrs. Parsons refused to provide a structured plan for the combination of classes and a qualified teacher (Mrs. Davis stated she asked that the school should consider cancelling the K3 class that had three registered students as she would be overwhelmed with a combined class) I sent a complaint to the President of Middle States Association Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Schools Mr. Henry Cram outlining that Arlington Baptist School is not in compliance of the following standards of The Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Schools:

Standard#:

2.17 The school leadership maintains appropriate and constructive relations with families, students, staff, the community, and with each other in the interest of serving the needs of the students. (ABS does not seek input by parents when making decisions, I have attached letter from Mrs. Parsons informing parents about the merger of K3 and K4 as one example)

2.46 Governance and leadership promote respect and collaboration among all members of the school’s “faith”community.

6.4 Administrative, instructional, and support staffs are qualified, competent, and sufficient in number to meet the needs of the total educational program, student services, and student activities.

8.1 Written curriculum guides identify program objectives and define the scope and sequence of the educational program. The guides are functional, available, and in use. ( Have not received a curriculum as far back as last year. I have attached email from Mrs. Parsons which indicate that the K3 curriculum is a box of teacher cards).

8.15 The educational program and its expectations for learning are understood and supported by the school’s stakeholders.

8.17 Families have opportunities to  give input into curriculum development.

The result of my compliant was Mrs. Parsons calling an Oversight committee meeting on August 23, 2013 in which my wife attended and they attempted to intimidate her by informing her that she was recorded stating that she was satisfied at the first meeting she attended with receiving the objectives; Mrs. Parsons then presented her with a prefilled withdrawal form for her to sign, when she refused to sign it without first reading it at home Mrs. Parsons proceeded to hand her a forced withdrawal letter of my child from the school indicating that the tuition and re-registration fee would be refunded. Until we sign the withdrawal form (although I have a withdrawal letter from the school) we are unable to receive the folowwing refund just because we complained outside the school when Mrs. Parsons and the school Oversight committee refused to hear us:

$250.00 re-registration fee $10.00 enrollment fee (unsure what this was for) $2,138 partial year tuition
Totaling: $2,398.00

We received a call from Arlington Baptist School that they will not be able to send back any refund without her signing the pre-filled withdrawal letter. I am not sure why they want to present a picture that we voluntarily withdrew our child from the school but I can only sum it up
by a review of a former student on the greatschools.org website “ I had been in Arlington for my whole life, k5-9th, until last year. And up until last year, it was a pretty good school. The new administration is corrupted.

Most of the best teachers left, including my mom, and the ones who stayed did so only because they did not have any other option. The good teachers who stayed I know personally, and they would do anything to help your kids. Arlington used to also have better extracurricular activities. The level of the athletic teams used to be way higher. And any parent who thinks Arlington Baptist School is a good school is not very involved with the school”.

—Submitted by Sam Thompson, a former student 

I did not believe that the Administration of a Christian school could be corrupt but based on my experience, with a heavy heart, I now believe so.