Watkins Parents: How pleased are you? How optimistic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for correcting me -- 39 wait listed proves my point even more.

How can that be when my impression of Watkins and the Cluster School wars from 2006 indicate that no one inbounds would ever attend or want to attend Watkins???

Im not sure how much wait list numbers prove much. There are 40 waitlisted for my super under perfoming, title 1 school. For all you know, its the 11th choice for folks on the waitlist. They only end up there out of desperation.

HA... It was my 11th choice...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for correcting me -- 39 wait listed proves my point even more.

How can that be when my impression of Watkins and the Cluster School wars from 2006 indicate that no one inbounds would ever attend or want to attend Watkins???

Im not sure how much wait list numbers prove much. There are 40 waitlisted for my super under perfoming, title 1 school. For all you know, its the 11th choice for folks on the waitlist. They only end up there out of desperation.

HA... It was my 11th choice...

What was your 11th choice?

[Anonymous]

What do the parents of current Watkins students think of what PP at 12:36 said? If all that is true, how has it impacted either your child or yourself?

[Anonymous]

I am a parent of a first grader at Watkins and we have not experienced any bullying or violence. The school has always been very responsive to us.

[Anonymous]

The fifth grade math/science teacher who quit THIS SCHOOL YEAR (February 2015) has been replaced with a sub. There were no plans to find a permanent replacement. 5th grade is a benchmark year. All of the prerequisites needed for 6th grade must be mastered here. Thank goodness PARCC scores do not count.

[Anonymous]

It looks like Watkins enrollment went down this past year: http://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/Watkins+Elementary+School

Is that reflecting the loss of a first-grade class? As the classes in the other grades also get moved down to 4, should we expect next year's enrollment number to be much lower?

[Anonymous]

Watkins had 527 students in 2014 and now has 500 enrolled in 2015. The numbers are really dropping! What does this mean?

[Anonymous]

It means the school is strategically choosing smaller grade cohorts to match up with their coming modernization which will result in fewer, larger classrooms.

[Anonymous]

smaller grades + fully modernized building + 100% in-bounds Peabody - current admin = a very different Watkins in the next few years

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It means the school is strategically choosing smaller grade cohorts to match up with their coming modernization which will result in fewer, larger classrooms.

I assume this will push-up the number of inbounds, not to mention the coming modernization....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:smaller grades + fully modernized building + 100% in-bounds Peabody - current admin = a very different Watkins in the next few years

Impossible!!! The DCUM posters know better. Cluster wars are forever, as are their opinions. No child will ever go from Peabody to Watkins. I know, cause posters to DCUM say so regularly.

[Anonymous]

When will Watkins be fully modernized?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is comparing Watkins to Brent apples to apples? I thought Watkins was really big so it 'crowded out' IB kids with tons out OOB kids, whose parents also comprised the parent leadership.

Can someone familiar with the current Watkins explain the number of classes for each grade, how Watkins is right-sizing itself to better accommodate a feed from Peabody, etc? I'd like to know myself.

Disclaimer: I'm not quite sure about this, as I can't find it where I read it, so hopefully someone else will either confirm or correct, but I believe that there are currently four classes in most grades and five classes in a few grades. I also think that the plan is to shrink the number of classrooms as part of the renovations, so that there would be four classes in all five grades. And yes (at least in first grade), there are two sets of two classrooms, with one teacher specializing in math/science and the other in reading/humanities; the kids switch classrooms for a few hours each day.

To all those naysayers, I also note that there are four Classes In each grade at Peabody, so, if Peabody students do indeed go to Watkins, there's no reason why Watkins' size would prevent it from becoming majority inbound.

I further note that the demographics in the neighborhood have changed a lot, even since we bought our inbound house. There are something like 33 inbound families waitlisted for Peabody PS3 this year--those families have to send their kids somewhere.

And the renovations to Watkins will only help attract families.

Now let's hope for a good new principal.

I think it's unclear as to whether every grade at Watkins is 4 classes. If they start increasing to 5 in the upper grades, then I'd have to think that would let more OOB kids.

So that you're clear. Currently Watkins has four classes at grades 1, 3, and 5. There are 5 classes at grades 2 and 4. Next year, Watkins will have 4 classes at each grade level. There is no plan to increase the number of classes at the upper levels in order to accommodate OOB students. In response to some parents' concerns about class size, the current Watkins administration, under the auspices of Principal Clemens, has been working to decrease student population by limiting the number of available seats on the lottery. The administration has planned for student attrition at grade 5.

Thanks, PP. How many kids are in each class in grade 2 and 3? Just wondering how they shrink what was 5 classes into 4. Are the class sizes in grade 3 significantly larger?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:smaller grades + fully modernized building + 100% in-bounds Peabody - current admin = a very different Watkins in the next few years

Impossible!!! The DCUM posters know better. Cluster wars are forever, as are their opinions. No child will ever go from Peabody to Watkins. I know, cause posters to DCUM say so regularly.

Luckily, this naysayer is wrong.

Signed, parent of a current Peabody Kindergartner who will be going to Watkins next year (despite entrance to a HRCS beloved by DCUM), and the financial ability to buy a house inbound for Brent, in upper NW, or the close-in burbs.

And the modernization, I believe, will be complete in fall 2016 (though others know details better). I think they're changing windows or something this summer. Real modernization won't begin for a year, though one can see the plans -- looks nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:smaller grades + fully modernized building + 100% in-bounds Peabody - current admin = a very different Watkins in the next few years

Impossible!!! The DCUM posters know better. Cluster wars are forever, as are their opinions. No child will ever go from Peabody to Watkins. I know, cause posters to DCUM say so regularly.

Luckily, this naysayer is wrong.

Signed, parent of a current Peabody Kindergartner who will be going to Watkins next year (despite entrance to a HRCS beloved by DCUM), and the financial ability to buy a house inbound for Brent, in upper NW, or the close-in burbs.

And the modernization, I believe, will be complete in fall 2016 (though others know details better). I think they're changing windows or something this summer. Real modernization won't begin for a year, though one can see the plans -- looks nice.

Come back and talk to us in 2-3 years.