Capital City closed all week

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Same. I'm another Cap City parent who doesn't want kids or staff freezing at the school, but they just seem to see virtual as something that is no problem to pivot to, repeatedly and for long periods of time, and that worries me. So while each event makes sense in isolation, it adds up to a lot of lost time in school for kids, and its showing in lack of progress this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Same. I'm another Cap City parent who doesn't want kids or staff freezing at the school, but they just seem to see virtual as something that is no problem to pivot to, repeatedly and for long periods of time, and that worries me. So while each event makes sense in isolation, it adds up to a lot of lost time in school for kids, and its showing in lack of progress this year.

EXACTLY. This school is delusional about the quality of their virtual option. There needs to be an investigation. There need to be consequences. The kids are definitely pay the price.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Same. I'm another Cap City parent who doesn't want kids or staff freezing at the school, but they just seem to see virtual as something that is no problem to pivot to, repeatedly and for long periods of time, and that worries me. So while each event makes sense in isolation, it adds up to a lot of lost time in school for kids, and its showing in lack of progress this year.

EXACTLY. This school is delusional about the quality of their virtual option. There needs to be an investigation. There need to be consequences. The kids are definitely pay the price.

You should get right on that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Same. I'm another Cap City parent who doesn't want kids or staff freezing at the school, but they just seem to see virtual as something that is no problem to pivot to, repeatedly and for long periods of time, and that worries me. So while each event makes sense in isolation, it adds up to a lot of lost time in school for kids, and its showing in lack of progress this year.

EXACTLY. This school is delusional about the quality of their virtual option. There needs to be an investigation. There need to be consequences. The kids are definitely pay the price.

You should get right on that.

I wish i could! The best I can do is advise families to avoid this school if at all possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Same. I'm another Cap City parent who doesn't want kids or staff freezing at the school, but they just seem to see virtual as something that is no problem to pivot to, repeatedly and for long periods of time, and that worries me. So while each event makes sense in isolation, it adds up to a lot of lost time in school for kids, and its showing in lack of progress this year.

EXACTLY. This school is delusional about the quality of their virtual option. There needs to be an investigation. There need to be consequences. The kids are definitely pay the price.

You should get right on that.

I wish i could! The best I can do is advise families to avoid this school if at all possible.

Sounds like a really hard position to be in. Have you tried writing directly to Cap City's board of directors? Or, seeing if you can participate in their meetings, which are now required to be open to the public?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Same. I'm another Cap City parent who doesn't want kids or staff freezing at the school, but they just seem to see virtual as something that is no problem to pivot to, repeatedly and for long periods of time, and that worries me. So while each event makes sense in isolation, it adds up to a lot of lost time in school for kids, and its showing in lack of progress this year.

EXACTLY. This school is delusional about the quality of their virtual option. There needs to be an investigation. There need to be consequences. The kids are definitely pay the price.

You should get right on that.

I wish i could! The best I can do is advise families to avoid this school if at all possible.

Sounds like a really hard position to be in. Have you tried writing directly to Cap City's board of directors? Or, seeing if you can participate in their meetings, which are now required to be open to the public?

I have. The board is uninterested in holding the school to account. Honestly, unless there is evidence of embezzlement or some other financial crime I don't see anything ever happening to improve things at this school. The only people suffering are the children and families. The only thing that will make a difference is if their enrollment drops precipitously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Sounds like a really hard position to be in. Have you tried writing directly to Cap City's board of directors? Or, seeing if you can participate in their meetings, which are now required to be open to the public?

I have. The board is uninterested in holding the school to account. Honestly, unless there is evidence of embezzlement or some other financial crime I don't see anything ever happening to improve things at this school. The only people suffering are the children and families. The only thing that will make a difference is if their enrollment drops precipitously.

The only thing that is going to change anything at Cap City is a change in leadership (Head of School). She micro-manages the school and needs to be involved with the smallest decisions. Teachers are not empowered to do things as she needs to be involved in every element of programming. It is toxic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

I thought they did a complete replacement of the systems when they took over the building in 2011.

[Anonymous]

The heat challenges in the school appear to be related to the additional burden of new safety standards requiring them to reheat fresh air from outside instead of recirculating it. I'm as disheartened as anyone to have my kid at home because of it, but I think the school doing all they can to deal with something unfortunate that happened in part due to their good faith attempt to make the building safe inside.

We've had kids at Cap City for years and are thankful for their experience. Like others, I was disappointed that they stayed virtual last year, but their fall reopening plan was definitely more thoughtful than DCPS. They do weekly PCR testing of every single student (instead of the 10 percent random testing that DCPS did until recently, and even now they are using rapid tests which are not as sensitive). I don't like virtual instruction either nor do I think it's nearly as good as in person school, but it's a better alternative than what most DCPS schools offer when kids have to isolate.

I also agree that there one or two disgruntled posters who never pass up a chance to throw shade at the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The heat challenges in the school appear to be related to the additional burden of new safety standards requiring them to reheat fresh air from outside instead of recirculating it. I'm as disheartened as anyone to have my kid at home because of it, but I think the school doing all they can to deal with something unfortunate that happened in part due to their good faith attempt to make the building safe inside.

We've had kids at Cap City for years and are thankful for their experience. Like others, I was disappointed that they stayed virtual last year, but their fall reopening plan was definitely more thoughtful than DCPS. They do weekly PCR testing of every single student (instead of the 10 percent random testing that DCPS did until recently, and even now they are using rapid tests which are not as sensitive). I don't like virtual instruction either nor do I think it's nearly as good as in person school, but it's a better alternative than what most DCPS schools offer when kids have to isolate.

I also agree that there one or two disgruntled posters who never pass up a chance to throw shade at the school.

It's not throwing shade so much as feeling the need to warn others. We, too, were once happy at Capital City. However since we moved to DCPS we are so much happier. I didn't realize just how bad Capital City was until we moved. I think DCPS has done a way better job this year. My child has not been quarantined or had to isolate at all. In person every single day for full day instruction. You may be happy at Capital City, and i do hope it works out for your kids, but I also hope you are fully aware of the fact that they are not providing adequate services because they just aren't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

I thought they did a complete replacement of the systems when they took over the building in 2011.

A complete overhaul and renovation is not quite as in the weeds as one would think. Most of the updates were aesthetic (painting, drywall, electric in some cases) However heating and plumbing in an old building is never as neatly packaged as "systems replacement", its normally retrofitting, which requires ongoing upkeep and monitoring over time. Ten years makes a substantial difference if there was no consistency with the servicers of overlapping heating and plumbing systems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

I thought they did a complete replacement of the systems when they took over the building in 2011.

A complete overhaul and renovation is not quite as in the weeds as one would think. Most of the updates were aesthetic (painting, drywall, electric in some cases) However heating and plumbing in an old building is never as neatly packaged as "systems replacement", its normally retrofitting, which requires ongoing upkeep and monitoring over time. Ten years makes a substantial difference if there was no consistency with the servicers of overlapping heating and plumbing systems.

[Anonymous]

Is everything fixed now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is everything fixed now?

It's open again this week, but I've lost all confidence in the administration to prioritize keeping kids in person.