Capital City closed all week

[Anonymous]

Capital City is having heating problems and has gone virtual at the last minute for Wednesday - Friday of this week, after having decided to go virtual the first week back after the holidays. Why couldn't they work on the heat then? This school is clearly not for families that work or need school support, and all their supposed commitment to equity and underserved communities is just a bunch of talk. Can't believe OSSE hasn't gotten involved.

[Anonymous]

I saw several teachers talking about how their school didn't have heat this week, but they didn't mention the school. I hope it's Cap City for no other reason than because then we wouldn't have two schools that don't have heat this week.

So awful. I don't anything about how charters handle their facilities, but my experience with DCPS isn't great. It's always very depressing to me how hard it is for us as a society to make sure schools are, at a minimum, a livable space for the people who work and learn there. It honestly wouldn't even take that much money if you did it right. It would just require not cutting every freaking corner every chance you get.

[Anonymous]

I agree that OSSE needs to get involved. Capital City does not deserve to call itself a school after the hell it has put its students through for the past 2 years. They are a disgrace and should be forced to close permanently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I saw several teachers talking about how their school didn't have heat this week, but they didn't mention the school. I hope it's Cap City for no other reason than because then we wouldn't have two schools that don't have heat this week.

So awful. I don't anything about how charters handle their facilities, but my experience with DCPS isn't great. It's always very depressing to me how hard it is for us as a society to make sure schools are, at a minimum, a livable space for the people who work and learn there. It honestly wouldn't even take that much money if you did it right. It would just require not cutting every freaking corner every chance you get.

Many schools have been having heating problems this week. Eastern and Payne to name a few.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree that OSSE needs to get involved. Capital City does not deserve to call itself a school after the hell it has put its students through for the past 2 years. They are a disgrace and should be forced to close permanently.

What hell is that?

[Anonymous]

Or they're pretending to close for heating issues so parents don't raise heck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Or they're pretending to close for heating issues so parents don't raise heck.

This actually seems the most likely. Maybe one day for this but three days (after being virtual all last week when they could have dealt with it) just feels like an excuse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree that OSSE needs to get involved. Capital City does not deserve to call itself a school after the hell it has put its students through for the past 2 years. They are a disgrace and should be forced to close permanently.

What hell is that?

Also interested in some background here.

[Anonymous]

Ridiculous. Our kids are at Cap City and were VERY angry that they never opened their doors during the last academic year. However, the suggestion that the school was hell for the past 2 years is waaaayyyyyy off base. Our kids loved the school - and so did we - prior to the pandemic. Way more positives than negatives. This is a poster who comes here regularly because they are angry about last year and they are clearly no longer at the school. The poster has obviously moved on and should stop trashing a school that still serves 1000 students. Do something positive if you want to help. The heat is a real issue - not made up. And, while I had MANY issues with Cap City not opening at all last year when they could have and should have in the spring and it has made us much more circumspect about their leadership, their plan last week for the return from winter break was far more sensible and orderly than the DCPS plan and we actually appreciated it. As with the rest of the city, the percentage of students who tested positive was quite high and we were appreciative that this was caught. Makes the building safer for everyone. Give credit where credit is due. It was a bad decision to stay completely shuttered last Spring but that does not mean that every decision is a bad one - or that people can not learn and grow from their mistakes. Or that they are lying about the heat problem. Kids can’t be in a school building without adequate heat and staff can not work in those conditions. My own employer (non-profit) has sent us home periodically because of heat problems in the building. Shit happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree that OSSE needs to get involved. Capital City does not deserve to call itself a school after the hell it has put its students through for the past 2 years. They are a disgrace and should be forced to close permanently.

What hell is that?

Also interested in some background here.

They never opened. They still quarantine entire classroom for no reason. They operate out of fear and not reason. They are underserving their students. They don’t operate full school days even when they are open. Anyone who feels they are doing an adequate job has their head in the sand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ridiculous. Our kids are at Cap City and were VERY angry that they never opened their doors during the last academic year. However, the suggestion that the school was hell for the past 2 years is waaaayyyyyy off base. Our kids loved the school - and so did we - prior to the pandemic. Way more positives than negatives. This is a poster who comes here regularly because they are angry about last year and they are clearly no longer at the school. The poster has obviously moved on and should stop trashing a school that still serves 1000 students. Do something positive if you want to help. The heat is a real issue - not made up. And, while I had MANY issues with Cap City not opening at all last year when they could have and should have in the spring and it has made us much more circumspect about their leadership, their plan last week for the return from winter break was far more sensible and orderly than the DCPS plan and we actually appreciated it. As with the rest of the city, the percentage of students who tested positive was quite high and we were appreciative that this was caught. Makes the building safer for everyone. Give credit where credit is due. It was a bad decision to stay completely shuttered last Spring but that does not mean that every decision is a bad one - or that people can not learn and grow from their mistakes. Or that they are lying about the heat problem. Kids can’t be in a school building without adequate heat and staff can not work in those conditions. My own employer (non-profit) has sent us home periodically because of heat problems in the building. Shit happens.

Not opening AT ALL should prompt the most serious concern on behalf of parents. And just brushing that off in hopes of learning and growing from mistakes is extremely naïve.

[Anonymous]

The building is the old Rabault and very old. It is also VERY hard to find superintendents to service these old buildings as many of the issues with heating and plumbing are unique.

Many of these DC school buildings have been retrofitted over and over and over again, most of these buildings were never gutted out as it would be entirely too expensive.

They are required by law to close the building if electric, water, or heating is non operable in 50% or more of the building.

I wouldn't hold it against them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids can’t be in a school building without adequate heat and staff can not work in those conditions. My own employer (non-profit) has sent us home periodically because of heat problems in the building. Shit happens.

I completely agree with this and that those schools that were closed last week for testing, retrospectively (given snow etc. etc.) didn't make a bad choice.

What worries me is that now, and relatively newly, schools can just close and instead of being required to make up the lost instructional days, then instead say they will be virtual and those days are counted just like an in person school day. There is now PLENTY of evidence that asking kids to look at some materials at home and dialing in with their teachers over zoom for a small portion of the day is not really educating them.

What I'd like to see is closures like this treated as they were in the past ... as lost school days that need to be made up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids can’t be in a school building without adequate heat and staff can not work in those conditions. My own employer (non-profit) has sent us home periodically because of heat problems in the building. Shit happens.

I completely agree with this and that those schools that were closed last week for testing, retrospectively (given snow etc. etc.) didn't make a bad choice.

What worries me is that now, and relatively newly, schools can just close and instead of being required to make up the lost instructional days, then instead say they will be virtual and those days are counted just like an in person school day. There is now PLENTY of evidence that asking kids to look at some materials at home and dialing in with their teachers over zoom for a small portion of the day is not really educating them.

What I'd like to see is closures like this treated as they were in the past ... as lost school days that need to be made up.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids can’t be in a school building without adequate heat and staff can not work in those conditions. My own employer (non-profit) has sent us home periodically because of heat problems in the building. Shit happens.

I completely agree with this and that those schools that were closed last week for testing, retrospectively (given snow etc. etc.) didn't make a bad choice.

What worries me is that now, and relatively newly, schools can just close and instead of being required to make up the lost instructional days, then instead say they will be virtual and those days are counted just like an in person school day. There is now PLENTY of evidence that asking kids to look at some materials at home and dialing in with their teachers over zoom for a small portion of the day is not really educating them.

What I'd like to see is closures like this treated as they were in the past ... as lost school days that need to be made up.

+1

+100. Virtual is not 1:1 in person.