Centro Nia

[cgelb]

Does anyone have any experience with Centro Nia for Pre K?

[Anonymous]

For Pre-K 3, CentroNia runs a daycare program and separately a bilingual public charter school called DC Bilingual. Both have very high demand. 100 on pre-k 3 waitlist this year. We didn't get in, but every parent I know has good things to say about pre-k3 and pre-k4. The charter school itself is still pretty new - started in 2005. But they have decades of daycare experience.

Hope this helps. Interested to hear other's views

[Anonymous]

My son currently attends CentroNia. Please contact me at [e-mail] and I will share our experience to date.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

cgelb wrote:Does anyone have any experience with Centro Nia for Pre K?

The school has improved quite a bit since opening in 2005. They have gone through a lot of teachers but the Pre-K 3 team teachers remains the same and they seem to get better and better each new year. My kids were happy there and we're generally happy with DC Bilingual over all. There isn't much encouragement for parents to be involved and even the Parent Encouragement Group is disorganized and the meetings agonizing with nothing really getting done. The director seems hesitant and guarded toward parents getting involved in general which I find really frustrating. I will say, they are responsive to individual case needs and are quick to schedule meetings when needed.

The new batch of teachers especially for K and Pre-K 4 are fantastic and we hope they will remain. My concern is handling children who are more advanced. They have created an Advanced Learning Options group for each grade, but I don't really know how much my child really was enriched and challenged by being a part of that group. The curriculum def. caters to the middle and often times attention from classroom teachers and inclusion teachers is given to the children who are behind grade level. They employ a reward system which can be motivating. But many times now, my child won't do something unless there is a 'prize' involved or some kind of trophy. This is hte consequence of their reward system. Every week my child came home with sticker books, erasers, pencils, even lip gloss and little toys in addition to the regular deluge of certificates and medals. I think it's a little much.

Right now we do enjoy the dual immersion program which just last year was revamped. It's an interesting community -- generally friendly, but not very tight knit. There is a great divide between the Hispanic families and the non-hispanic and the school does not do a good job of bridging the 2 general groupings together.

All this said. It is relatively new and we have confidence in the new directors leadership in most aspects. The CEO of Centro Nia is the person we have hte most confidence in and hope her leadership and vision will be more imposed on DC Bilingual -- their charter school arm. The board just approved a middle school program just this past summer which is good in any dual immersion program...consistency.

Hope this helps. I'd be curious to hear what other people think who are at DC Bilingual as well. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I just read in the DC Charter Board report that DC Bilingual has been placed on charter warning status as a result of its preliminary review. What does this mean?

[Anonymous]

We did the PreS/PreK-only program (called "universal PreK" not DC Bilingual) for our kids and have nothing but good things to say about it. But, I agree - they tried to have parents nights, but I didn't really feel like I got to know anyone.