Secret report shows ‘special’ treatment for public officials in D.C. school lottery

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To be fair, I am pretty sure that Ross and Brent aren't the only schools that have students with deaf parents...

True, but I can believe that Brent, given its proximity to Gaulludet, might have a bigger or better organized proportion of kids fluent in ASL with deaf parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. This article, and the report itself, makes Henderson look horrible. She turned down the request of a deaf student and also a teacher at a school where she granted another transfer request (Snowden) - the email excerpt is damning.

You gotta hand it to Bowser and Henderson- rather than own up to any mistakes, they are doubling down and defending he preferential treatment. That takes some serious chutzpah!

The last paragraph of the article being all self righteous worth the teacher who requested the transfer for her kid so her kid could attend the school she was teaching at. Henderson sounds like a horrible human being.

I was one of those people who basically agreed with Henderson that if they didn't want her to use discretion they should not have crafted rules that permitted her to do so. And I stand by that position...but OMG! The self righteous email to the CHML teacher is beyond the pale. She is not qualified to sit on the board of Robin Hood or be involved in any school program or system. What a scumbag.

They gave her discretion because she is supposed to use it for the benefit of kids, like that kid whose mom wanted her with other children of deaf adults. Not so she could hand out favors to the 1%, who want BOTH their 6 bedroom house in Brentwood AND to be in-bounds for Murch.

more like 4-5%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fenty did it a second time because there wasn't enough uproar the first time. If there aren't consequences, nothing will change. And, no, bitching on this board is not a consequence (obviously - see Fenty). So all you community organizing types, who has some kind of action or formal petition for action in the works. Do we want these people fired, do we want a complete report for the last 5 years and all children of government officials who received a special placement removed from school (let the parents buy a friggin house IB if they want their kids in)?

I'm not that interested in tarring and feathering the individual parents- their names are out there and it's embarassing. I think they should be required to re-enter the lottery and not be permitted to re-enroll in the schools (I guess at this point it's too late for '17-'18 school year lottery).

Bowser needs to be held accountable. Not much you can do with Henderson- she's gone.

What do you mean it's too late for 17-18? Nope. It's not. Make identifying any special allowances made a priority and anyone that found needs to disenroll and enroll for their IB school.

Punish the kids for the actions of their parents?

NP: Kids bear the consequences of the parents' choices all the time. The problem here is that it would be kids bearing the consequences of Kaya's bad choices.

I really don't blame the parents for asking. I blame Kaya for applying horrendous values to her exercise of discretion.

[Anonymous]

How soon do we forget. Kyra was always fine as long as she was doing the bidding for the Ward 3 and the other elites. She has always been ethically challenged along with Mayor Bowser. Now the two appeared to be joined at the hip in trying to have it both ways. Bowser's cabinet is full of people who live by the motto "judge others by their actions, but judge me by my intentions. It's time to DRAIN THE SWAMP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fenty did it a second time because there wasn't enough uproar the first time. If there aren't consequences, nothing will change. And, no, bitching on this board is not a consequence (obviously - see Fenty). So all you community organizing types, who has some kind of action or formal petition for action in the works. Do we want these people fired, do we want a complete report for the last 5 years and all children of government officials who received a special placement removed from school (let the parents buy a friggin house IB if they want their kids in)?

I'm not that interested in tarring and feathering the individual parents- their names are out there and it's embarassing. I think they should be required to re-enter the lottery and not be permitted to re-enroll in the schools (I guess at this point it's too late for '17-'18 school year lottery).

Bowser needs to be held accountable. Not much you can do with Henderson- she's gone.

What do you mean it's too late for 17-18? Nope. It's not. Make identifying any special allowances made a priority and anyone that found needs to disenroll and enroll for their IB school.

Punish the kids for the actions of their parents?

sounds like all the parents can afford to live IB or good NW schools, so it is up to the parents to mitigate those consequences whoever caused them. THAT is what parents who love their kids do. So move Snowden lady.

NP: Kids bear the consequences of the parents' choices all the time. The problem here is that it would be kids bearing the consequences of Kaya's bad choices.

I really don't blame the parents for asking. I blame Kaya for applying horrendous values to her exercise of discretion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fenty did it a second time because there wasn't enough uproar the first time. If there aren't consequences, nothing will change. And, no, bitching on this board is not a consequence (obviously - see Fenty). So all you community organizing types, who has some kind of action or formal petition for action in the works. Do we want these people fired, do we want a complete report for the last 5 years and all children of government officials who received a special placement removed from school (let the parents buy a friggin house IB if they want their kids in)?

I'm not that interested in tarring and feathering the individual parents- their names are out there and it's embarassing. I think they should be required to re-enter the lottery and not be permitted to re-enroll in the schools (I guess at this point it's too late for '17-'18 school year lottery).

Bowser needs to be held accountable. Not much you can do with Henderson- she's gone.

What do you mean it's too late for 17-18? Nope. It's not. Make identifying any special allowances made a priority and anyone that found needs to disenroll and enroll for their IB school.

Punish the kids for the actions of their parents?

NP: Kids bear the consequences of the parents' choices all the time. The problem here is that it would be kids bearing the consequences of Kaya's bad choices.

I really don't blame the parents for asking. I blame Kaya for applying horrendous values to her exercise of discretion.

No, you should definitely blame the gov't bureaucrats for pushing an unethical decision to get their kids admitted to better schools. Kaya probably did what she did to stay in their good graces; otherwise she might have gotten fired. I don't think she admitted their kids because it felt good or like the right thing to do; she would have done it for self-preservation.

[Anonymous]

Wow-look at what City Administrator Rashad Young tweeted out regarding the exception he got for his kids to attend Murch. Amazing that none of these people seem to realize that they received exceptional treatment.
http://dcist.com/2017/05/wapo_gets_its_hands_on_school_lotte.php

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fenty did it a second time because there wasn't enough uproar the first time. If there aren't consequences, nothing will change. And, no, bitching on this board is not a consequence (obviously - see Fenty). So all you community organizing types, who has some kind of action or formal petition for action in the works. Do we want these people fired, do we want a complete report for the last 5 years and all children of government officials who received a special placement removed from school (let the parents buy a friggin house IB if they want their kids in)?

I'm not that interested in tarring and feathering the individual parents- their names are out there and it's embarassing. I think they should be required to re-enter the lottery and not be permitted to re-enroll in the schools (I guess at this point it's too late for '17-'18 school year lottery).

Bowser needs to be held accountable. Not much you can do with Henderson- she's gone.

What do you mean it's too late for 17-18? Nope. It's not. Make identifying any special allowances made a priority and anyone that found needs to disenroll and enroll for their IB school.

Punish the kids for the actions of their parents?

Yes, I also see Kayla as the lackey here. Perhaps that explains the arrogance of her email. Kiss up and kick down - the kicking down being psychological gratifying for all the kissing up. She wasn't a strong leader and was in the positions he was in for exactly that reason. I think of Bowser much the same way. Tools of the powerful. In any case, we need a full record of all improper placements by high level government officials and those kids need to be out at the end of the year.

NP: Kids bear the consequences of the parents' choices all the time. The problem here is that it would be kids bearing the consequences of Kaya's bad choices.

I really don't blame the parents for asking. I blame Kaya for applying horrendous values to her exercise of discretion.

No, you should definitely blame the gov't bureaucrats for pushing an unethical decision to get their kids admitted to better schools. Kaya probably did what she did to stay in their good graces; otherwise she might have gotten fired. I don't think she admitted their kids because it felt good or like the right thing to do; she would have done it for self-preservation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To be fair, I am pretty sure that Ross and Brent aren't the only schools that have students with deaf parents...

True, but I can believe that Brent, given its proximity to Gaulludet, might have a bigger or better organized proportion of kids fluent in ASL with deaf parents.

I hate to detract from the main point of this thread which is to skewer DC officials for their blatant corruption BUT ...

Brent is nowhere near Gallaudet. There are like 5 other elementary schools that are closer.

[Anonymous]

In the 2016-2017 Murch directory the Young family doesn't list an address and an out of state cell phone number but of course his city email address.

JFYI

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
This is something I just don't understand. Even the cruddy apartments in the Deal boundary are not cheap. Nor is the house on Capitol Hill or in Wesley Heights. If you have the money to live in those places and rent a secondary apartment, you can afford by far a house in Deal's boundary. And, as a bonus, you don't have to schlep a kid(s) from Capitol Hill to upper NW, which sounds like a twice a day nightmare. Why would you choose the path of most resistance rather than just moving?

Under the current DCPS rules, once you enroll in a school IB you can stay in the school if you move OOB all the way through the feeder pattern. So you only have to rent an apartment long enough to get admitted and establish your IB rights. Maybe six months tops.

If you are a homeowner, moving is expensive. Between real estate commissions, transfer taxes and moving expenses figure on 10% of the sales price by the time you're done. If you're in a million dollar home, we're talking six figures. Fifteen or twenty grand for six months rent isn't so bad against that backdrop.

Note that if you move IB, you run the risk of your school being rezoned and losing your IB status. Once you're OOB -- even if you got that status from moving from IB -- you have a better guarantee than the IB families do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To be fair, I am pretty sure that Ross and Brent aren't the only schools that have students with deaf parents...

True, but I can believe that Brent, given its proximity to Gaulludet, might have a bigger or better organized proportion of kids fluent in ASL with deaf parents.

I hate to detract from the main point of this thread which is to skewer DC officials for their blatant corruption BUT ...

Brent is nowhere near Gallaudet. There are like 5 other elementary schools that are closer.

You beat me to it! Welcome to DCUM, where knowing anything isn't a prerequisite to stating an opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
No, you should definitely blame the gov't bureaucrats for pushing an unethical decision to get their kids admitted to better schools. Kaya probably did what she did to stay in their good graces; otherwise she might have gotten fired. I don't think she admitted their kids because it felt good or like the right thing to do; she would have done it for self-preservation.

100 percent agree. They knew what they were doing and put Henderson in a spot where she had to go along or put up with their ire for the rest of her tenure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To be fair, I am pretty sure that Ross and Brent aren't the only schools that have students with deaf parents...

True, but I can believe that Brent, given its proximity to Gaulludet, might have a bigger or better organized proportion of kids fluent in ASL with deaf parents.

I hate to detract from the main point of this thread which is to skewer DC officials for their blatant corruption BUT ...

Brent is nowhere near Gallaudet. There are like 5 other elementary schools that are closer.

You beat me to it! Welcome to DCUM, where knowing anything isn't a prerequisite to stating an opinion.

some of those schools have Gallaudet families too. Brent isn't that far. Much more accessible than Ross.

[Anonymous]

In what catchment do the Young kids actually live?