Oyster relocating?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The problem is that it is inconvenient for the principal. As she and the faculty have made clear, that's really all they care about. Screw the kids and the parents.

It's not like the dual campus system was a surprise when she took the job. It annoys me that it's an objection now. Maybe DCPS should have thought about increased costs for facilities, faculty and administration when they agreed to split the campus YEARS ago.

[Anonymous]

Any WL movement for Pre-k ?

[Anonymous]

The Principal does seem to be very concerned about the inconvenience of two campuses. She wants to save herself time but I wonder if she has considered moving her residence? She chose to live in Chevy Chase near the Maryland line and signed herself up for a long commute to Oyster Adams. Compared to that, Oyster and Adams campuses are almost next door to each other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Principal does seem to be very concerned about the inconvenience of two campuses. She wants to save herself time but I wonder if she has considered moving her residence? She chose to live in Chevy Chase near the Maryland line and signed herself up for a long commute to Oyster Adams. Compared to that, Oyster and Adams campuses are almost next door to each other.

If that is true, do her kids have the right to attend the school? Spanish-dominant, she is not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: the SD rule at Oyster (google it—the definition for SD at Oyster does exist),

Is this the OA rule for Spanish dominant? It's what I found, and looks right.

"A child is considered "Spanish-dominant" if his or her native tongue is Spanish,
meaning that Spanish is the principal language spoken in the child's home and the child is
demonstrably more comfortable speaking Spanish than speaking any other language. In
addition, to be considered "Spanish-dominant" a child must demonstrate age-appropriate
language and linguistic development in Spanish.”

This is very interesting to me, because we come from a mixed family (parents both fluent in Spanish, only one native speaker), but deliberately only had Spanish speaking (no English) nannies because we wanted our kids to be bilingual. So Spanish was NOT the principal language spoken in our home when we were home, although certainly our child had "age-appropriate and linguistic development in Spanish". What made me so happy was that Early Intervention (child was a preemie, no lasting problems) identified dc2 as Spanish dominant. Once my kids started their English only schools, they continued to understand Spanish but would answer in English unless corrected. Including to the nanny and me (and we both continued to speak to them exclusively in Spanish). Then they started to forget it once they moved on to K and full time school and we let go of our child care. Had they started Oyster early that would not have happened, just not an option for us.

But my oldest dc, who has now completed two years of Latin first at Washington Latin and then Basis this year, will be taking Spanish next year as a non-native speaker (at BASIS they also have a track for native speakers who don't know how to read and write Spanish or Chinese, which was the case with my dh who grew up partially in his native Latin American country, with Spanish as a first language, but you would never know it now.)

And even after two years of Latin, dc1's Spanish has come back and is more grammatically correct. We have high hopes because it was basically the first language, and the only one spoken by dcs caretakers until they all went to preschool. I really admire you all who had the wherewithal to get your kids into bilingual schools. We did what we could, and the studies show that if a child speaks any two languages before a certain age (6?7?) it alters the neurotransmitters in their brains so that they can pick up the old native language they lost, or that one and another easier than monolingual children. My dc did really well in Mandarin when it was offered as an extracurric at her DCPS, and Latin (the language) has been a breeze, I think partially because of her prior Spanish.

So I just wanted to say that definitions aren't everything. Had we started at Oyster, we would not have qualified technically as Spanish dominant, even though that is what our kids were at that time.

I know nothing about the principal and her possible ulterior motives or whatever. I just wanted to say that technical definitions are not everything.

Why do you think that your children would not have qualified as Spanish dominant? I don't think that's the case.. Btw, if both you and your husband are fluent, why didn't you speak Spanish to your children? No judgement, I'm just curious since you both went through the extra effort of hiring only Spanish speaking caregivers.

To be honest, once dc1 got old enough to talk about really advanced ideas - like photosynthesis, or fractions, neither of us had the Spanish vocabulary, so we made the deliberate decision to deal with dc on dc's own very advanced level in the only language that we knew how to do that....

[Anonymous]

I don't mind if the Principal's kids go to Oyster-Adams although the family lives out of boundary,
it might help the Principal's motivation. But wrapped up in the Principal's one campus dream is a lack of understanding
of why a neighborhood school and neighborhoods are so important to many Oyster-Adams families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't mind if the Principal's kids go to Oyster-Adams although the family lives out of boundary,
it might help the Principal's motivation. But wrapped up in the Principal's one campus dream is a lack of understanding
of why a neighborhood school and neighborhoods are so important to many Oyster-Adams families.

So, the admission rules only apply to some, not to others? That may explain her "motivation" to do whatever she pleases, instead of representing and leading a whole community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't mind if the Principal's kids go to Oyster-Adams although the family lives out of boundary,
it might help the Principal's motivation. But wrapped up in the Principal's one campus dream is a lack of understanding
of why a neighborhood school and neighborhoods are so important to many Oyster-Adams families.

So, the admission rules only apply to some, not to others? That may explain her "motivation" to do whatever she pleases, instead of representing and leading a whole community.

This entire issue is a systemic problem. If DCPS would pay attention (to the demand for bilingual education, the benefits for all (English and Spanish dominant), and the higher 8th grade scores for bilinguals, on and on), it would have figured out Oyster II and Oyster III with overlapping maps to ensure balance of english and spanish language dominance (however poorly defined), a long time ago. They completely renovated H.D. Cooke in 2005-06 and had an opportunity to make it Oyster II (could have been a feeder to Adams), and didn't...many more strategic higher level plans DCPS could be considering and isn't...

[Anonymous]

Oyster principal clearly has deep political ties in the lousy reformed DCPS system, if there were proper oversight she'd be long gone. She should fire herself, damn it. A good leader can certainly figure out how to make these two campuses work together -- then again, look at the decrepit old windows, the nasty crumbling unkempt stairway...she's just buying time and in place till Oyster is ruined.