Lee Montessori open slots for 1st and 2nd

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm really confused as to why Lee has openings in 1st and 2nd. I just looked at their waitlist data on the MSDC site.

For 1st, they had no open spots at the time of the lottery and had a waitlist of 55. They made no offers by June and 6 by August. I get that waitlists move quickly after school starts because families often don't want to move their kid after school starts. But how many kids did they leave at that point? Enough to go through nearly 50 people on the waitlist and still have openings? That's odd to me. Also, why were enrolled students leaving so late in the summer or in September? Usually this happens because students are offered spots at other schools. To me it is a red flag that families are jumping on late offers from other schools in August/September -- that indicates a lot of motivation to leave.

For 2nd, they had no open spots at the time of the lottery and waitlist of 28 (normal for waitlist size to be smaller as grade level goes up). But then no offers at all before August and now they have open spots? Again, why are people leaving, and most specifically -- why are they leaving so late in the year?

Either there is dissatisfaction with Lee among families OR the school is doing weird mismanagement of their enrollment/waitlists.

It just doesn't make sense that Lee apparently reenrolled their entire 1st and 2nd grade class in the spring (thus no open lottery seats), made very few offers over the summer, and suddenly has open seats. Something does not add up.

I would think a lot of people are declining wait list offers, or getting off the list before receiving an offer at all.

Waitlists move fast in late August through early October. Burning through a waitlist of 28 for 2nd isn't really unusual or concerning. It's the empty seats that are concerning, for budget reasons.

PP here and I agree that fast waitlists in September aren't unusual but what is unusual is for a school that appeals to the demographic that tends to gravitate to Lee (high SES parents), it's very weird to leave the school in August or September. That kind of ship jumping is common at crowded DCPS schools, Title 1 schools (or any school with a large FARMS population), or other schools that may be more challenging for parents in this demographic to navigate. It's unusual at these niche charters with specialty programming and nice facilities. Especially weird for Lee to be losing students at this stage when schools like ITS, LAMB, CHMS, and Two Rivers (which tend to attract the same people in the lottery) still have waitlists for those grades. You would expect Lee to have few issues filling the spots given that schools that attract similar students still have people trying and failing to get spots. It would be weird, for instance, that none of the 50+ families on the CHMS waitlist for 1st would also be trying to get into Lee and be willing to take a spot there given that CHMS's waitlist isn't moving at all.

Well, ITS is on the Short Waitlists thing too and so is Two Rivers, for a few grades.

I think the total number of students in the public school system has dipped a little bit, and that should lead to shorter waitlists because each kid in the system can join a lot of waitlists. And with less kids, some schools are going to come up a bit short, and it's likely to be the schools with lower performance and/or lower parent satisfaction. It's interesting that Lee is one of them, previously it had a pretty good reputation but maybe people are looking more critically at it now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm really confused as to why Lee has openings in 1st and 2nd. I just looked at their waitlist data on the MSDC site.

For 1st, they had no open spots at the time of the lottery and had a waitlist of 55. They made no offers by June and 6 by August. I get that waitlists move quickly after school starts because families often don't want to move their kid after school starts. But how many kids did they leave at that point? Enough to go through nearly 50 people on the waitlist and still have openings? That's odd to me. Also, why were enrolled students leaving so late in the summer or in September? Usually this happens because students are offered spots at other schools. To me it is a red flag that families are jumping on late offers from other schools in August/September -- that indicates a lot of motivation to leave.

For 2nd, they had no open spots at the time of the lottery and waitlist of 28 (normal for waitlist size to be smaller as grade level goes up). But then no offers at all before August and now they have open spots? Again, why are people leaving, and most specifically -- why are they leaving so late in the year?

Either there is dissatisfaction with Lee among families OR the school is doing weird mismanagement of their enrollment/waitlists.

It just doesn't make sense that Lee apparently reenrolled their entire 1st and 2nd grade class in the spring (thus no open lottery seats), made very few offers over the summer, and suddenly has open seats. Something does not add up.

I would think a lot of people are declining wait list offers, or getting off the list before receiving an offer at all.

Waitlists move fast in late August through early October. Burning through a waitlist of 28 for 2nd isn't really unusual or concerning. It's the empty seats that are concerning, for budget reasons.

PP here and I agree that fast waitlists in September aren't unusual but what is unusual is for a school that appeals to the demographic that tends to gravitate to Lee (high SES parents), it's very weird to leave the school in August or September. That kind of ship jumping is common at crowded DCPS schools, Title 1 schools (or any school with a large FARMS population), or other schools that may be more challenging for parents in this demographic to navigate. It's unusual at these niche charters with specialty programming and nice facilities. Especially weird for Lee to be losing students at this stage when schools like ITS, LAMB, CHMS, and Two Rivers (which tend to attract the same people in the lottery) still have waitlists for those grades. You would expect Lee to have few issues filling the spots given that schools that attract similar students still have people trying and failing to get spots. It would be weird, for instance, that none of the 50+ families on the CHMS waitlist for 1st would also be trying to get into Lee and be willing to take a spot there given that CHMS's waitlist isn't moving at all.

Well, ITS is on the Short Waitlists thing too and so is Two Rivers, for a few grades.

I think the total number of students in the public school system has dipped a little bit, and that should lead to shorter waitlists because each kid in the system can join a lot of waitlists. And with less kids, some schools are going to come up a bit short, and it's likely to be the schools with lower performance and/or lower parent satisfaction. It's interesting that Lee is one of them, previously it had a pretty good reputation but maybe people are looking more critically at it now.

ITS has a shortwaitlist for 1st (9 people) which again makes Lee's open spots strange -- there are 9 people who have stuck around on the ITS waitlist (meaning they didn't get a spot at a school they ranked higher) but Lee has open seats available. I'd normally expect those folks to be looking closely at Lee.

And the other short waitlist for either school are for grade 5. That's normal because of the MSs that start at 5th -- a family could love an ES but still choose to leave at 5th if they get a spot at Latin or BASIS. Leaving in 1st grade is a different deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Montessori students gain valuable skills learning how to be independent and take care of themselves at an early age. The fine motor skills that are practiced in Montessori help the students with handwriting (they learn cursive starting in PK3).

So they can write "I am failing math" in cursive?

Anyone who thinks that knows nothing about how the Montessori math curriculum works. It’s incredible and Montessori kids end up several grade levels ahead of their traditional school peers with an excellent foundation in math.

Except at Lee where most 3rd-5th graders are working below grade level in math.

That certainly depends on how you measure it. If you go into the classroom and see those kids working on long division, algebra and how to determine area for their entire classroom you won’t think they are behind. If you look at the test scores for a school that is anti testing, sure you can conclude that. The depth of knowledge there can not be measured by PARRC.

What if you see 4-5 children doing advanced math and other children doing almost no math at all? Without a way to measure what kids are learning (if you have to just disregard PARCC because you don’t think it’s a good measure), how do you know how the school does on this point on average. Most schools have outlier kids who are working above grade level. But as a prospective parent, you might want to know how the school does with kids who are average or below average. Even if your child is advanced in some areas, most kids have areas where they struggle.

You are asking parents to take it on faith that their child will get the education they need, based purely on belief in Montessori methods. If that’s the expectation, it’s unsurprising that the school loses many families after ECE because even among people who like Montessori, it is hard to just assume it will all work out for your child specifically. My guess is that these fears were compounded this year by several well-liked teachers leaving the school. It leaves a lot of unknowns.

I’m not a fan of PARCC but I’m at a loss for what to do with a school that doesn’t believe in any form of standardized assessment. High SES families might do okay there but this is sketchy for MC and poor kids who are not guaranteed the same level of resources and support in the future. And I’m not sure that public funds should be going to a school that doesn’t serve low-Income kids well and doesn’t believe they need to be assessed on the same metrics as other public schools.

The beauty of Montessori is that every kid has an individualized education plan. They meet the kids where they are at. Some kids will excel in some areas and with limits (they can’t do math 100 percent of the time if they want for example) they can go wherever they are ready. Other kids will need extra help and they get that too. [b]If you leave before the three year cycle iis up you don’t see the full rewards.

This sounds like something Bernie Madoff said to his investors.

Well played. It's an entire model built on the the Emperor's New Clothes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm really confused as to why Lee has openings in 1st and 2nd. I just looked at their waitlist data on the MSDC site.

For 1st, they had no open spots at the time of the lottery and had a waitlist of 55. They made no offers by June and 6 by August. I get that waitlists move quickly after school starts because families often don't want to move their kid after school starts. But how many kids did they leave at that point? Enough to go through nearly 50 people on the waitlist and still have openings? That's odd to me. Also, why were enrolled students leaving so late in the summer or in September? Usually this happens because students are offered spots at other schools. To me it is a red flag that families are jumping on late offers from other schools in August/September -- that indicates a lot of motivation to leave.

For 2nd, they had no open spots at the time of the lottery and waitlist of 28 (normal for waitlist size to be smaller as grade level goes up). But then no offers at all before August and now they have open spots? Again, why are people leaving, and most specifically -- why are they leaving so late in the year?

Either there is dissatisfaction with Lee among families OR the school is doing weird mismanagement of their enrollment/waitlists.

It just doesn't make sense that Lee apparently reenrolled their entire 1st and 2nd grade class in the spring (thus no open lottery seats), made very few offers over the summer, and suddenly has open seats. Something does not add up.

I would think a lot of people are declining wait list offers, or getting off the list before receiving an offer at all.

Waitlists move fast in late August through early October. Burning through a waitlist of 28 for 2nd isn't really unusual or concerning. It's the empty seats that are concerning, for budget reasons.

PP here and I agree that fast waitlists in September aren't unusual but what is unusual is for a school that appeals to the demographic that tends to gravitate to Lee (high SES parents), it's very weird to leave the school in August or September. That kind of ship jumping is common at crowded DCPS schools, Title 1 schools (or any school with a large FARMS population), or other schools that may be more challenging for parents in this demographic to navigate. It's unusual at these niche charters with specialty programming and nice facilities. Especially weird for Lee to be losing students at this stage when schools like ITS, LAMB, CHMS, and Two Rivers (which tend to attract the same people in the lottery) still have waitlists for those grades. You would expect Lee to have few issues filling the spots given that schools that attract similar students still have people trying and failing to get spots. It would be weird, for instance, that none of the 50+ families on the CHMS waitlist for 1st would also be trying to get into Lee and be willing to take a spot there given that CHMS's waitlist isn't moving at all.

Well, ITS is on the Short Waitlists thing too and so is Two Rivers, for a few grades.

I think the total number of students in the public school system has dipped a little bit, and that should lead to shorter waitlists because each kid in the system can join a lot of waitlists. And with less kids, some schools are going to come up a bit short, and it's likely to be the schools with lower performance and/or lower parent satisfaction. It's interesting that Lee is one of them, previously it had a pretty good reputation but maybe people are looking more critically at it now.

ITS has a shortwaitlist for 1st (9 people) which again makes Lee's open spots strange -- there are 9 people who have stuck around on the ITS waitlist (meaning they didn't get a spot at a school they ranked higher) but Lee has open seats available. I'd normally expect those folks to be looking closely at Lee.

And the other short waitlist for either school are for grade 5. That's normal because of the MSs that start at 5th -- a family could love an ES but still choose to leave at 5th if they get a spot at Latin or BASIS. Leaving in 1st grade is a different deal.

That's really not how it works. Families that want Montessori but don't get into Lee for ECE go to Breakthrough, SSMA, or CHML. Families that want a crunchy school with very solid academics go to ITS, and they aren't gonna trade that in to enter Montessori in 1st. People from SSMA or CHML might go to Lee for 1st, and it's interesting that they haven't, but entering Montessori for the first time in 1st grade is rare. I'm an ITS parent and I've never heard of anyone leaving for Lee after preschool or K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm really confused as to why Lee has openings in 1st and 2nd. I just looked at their waitlist data on the MSDC site.

For 1st, they had no open spots at the time of the lottery and had a waitlist of 55. They made no offers by June and 6 by August. I get that waitlists move quickly after school starts because families often don't want to move their kid after school starts. But how many kids did they leave at that point? Enough to go through nearly 50 people on the waitlist and still have openings? That's odd to me. Also, why were enrolled students leaving so late in the summer or in September? Usually this happens because students are offered spots at other schools. To me it is a red flag that families are jumping on late offers from other schools in August/September -- that indicates a lot of motivation to leave.

For 2nd, they had no open spots at the time of the lottery and waitlist of 28 (normal for waitlist size to be smaller as grade level goes up). But then no offers at all before August and now they have open spots? Again, why are people leaving, and most specifically -- why are they leaving so late in the year?

Either there is dissatisfaction with Lee among families OR the school is doing weird mismanagement of their enrollment/waitlists.

It just doesn't make sense that Lee apparently reenrolled their entire 1st and 2nd grade class in the spring (thus no open lottery seats), made very few offers over the summer, and suddenly has open seats. Something does not add up.

I would think a lot of people are declining wait list offers, or getting off the list before receiving an offer at all.

Waitlists move fast in late August through early October. Burning through a waitlist of 28 for 2nd isn't really unusual or concerning. It's the empty seats that are concerning, for budget reasons.

PP here and I agree that fast waitlists in September aren't unusual but what is unusual is for a school that appeals to the demographic that tends to gravitate to Lee (high SES parents), it's very weird to leave the school in August or September. That kind of ship jumping is common at crowded DCPS schools, Title 1 schools (or any school with a large FARMS population), or other schools that may be more challenging for parents in this demographic to navigate. It's unusual at these niche charters with specialty programming and nice facilities. Especially weird for Lee to be losing students at this stage when schools like ITS, LAMB, CHMS, and Two Rivers (which tend to attract the same people in the lottery) still have waitlists for those grades. You would expect Lee to have few issues filling the spots given that schools that attract similar students still have people trying and failing to get spots. It would be weird, for instance, that none of the 50+ families on the CHMS waitlist for 1st would also be trying to get into Lee and be willing to take a spot there given that CHMS's waitlist isn't moving at all.

Well, ITS is on the Short Waitlists thing too and so is Two Rivers, for a few grades.

I think the total number of students in the public school system has dipped a little bit, and that should lead to shorter waitlists because each kid in the system can join a lot of waitlists. And with less kids, some schools are going to come up a bit short, and it's likely to be the schools with lower performance and/or lower parent satisfaction. It's interesting that Lee is one of them, previously it had a pretty good reputation but maybe people are looking more critically at it now.

ITS has a shortwaitlist for 1st (9 people) which again makes Lee's open spots strange -- there are 9 people who have stuck around on the ITS waitlist (meaning they didn't get a spot at a school they ranked higher) but Lee has open seats available. I'd normally expect those folks to be looking closely at Lee.

And the other short waitlist for either school are for grade 5. That's normal because of the MSs that start at 5th -- a family could love an ES but still choose to leave at 5th if they get a spot at Latin or BASIS. Leaving in 1st grade is a different deal.

That's really not how it works. Families that want Montessori but don't get into Lee for ECE go to Breakthrough, SSMA, or CHML. Families that want a crunchy school with very solid academics go to ITS, and they aren't gonna trade that in to enter Montessori in 1st. People from SSMA or CHML might go to Lee for 1st, and it's interesting that they haven't, but entering Montessori for the first time in 1st grade is rare. I'm an ITS parent and I've never heard of anyone leaving for Lee after preschool or K.

Huh, I definitely know people who have entered Montessori or even immersion at 1st or later. Generally it's people who struck out on the PK lottery and spent ECE at their IB or at another school that they are not very happy with and then lottery for any school that seems acceptable to them. It's not ideal but then neither is staying at your IB when you don't like it and you've gotten poor lottery draws every other year.

But maybe that's changing, I don't know. There are so many charters now that maybe it's easier to find a spot for PK or K that you are happy with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm really confused as to why Lee has openings in 1st and 2nd. I just looked at their waitlist data on the MSDC site.

For 1st, they had no open spots at the time of the lottery and had a waitlist of 55. They made no offers by June and 6 by August. I get that waitlists move quickly after school starts because families often don't want to move their kid after school starts. But how many kids did they leave at that point? Enough to go through nearly 50 people on the waitlist and still have openings? That's odd to me. Also, why were enrolled students leaving so late in the summer or in September? Usually this happens because students are offered spots at other schools. To me it is a red flag that families are jumping on late offers from other schools in August/September -- that indicates a lot of motivation to leave.

For 2nd, they had no open spots at the time of the lottery and waitlist of 28 (normal for waitlist size to be smaller as grade level goes up). But then no offers at all before August and now they have open spots? Again, why are people leaving, and most specifically -- why are they leaving so late in the year?

Either there is dissatisfaction with Lee among families OR the school is doing weird mismanagement of their enrollment/waitlists.

It just doesn't make sense that Lee apparently reenrolled their entire 1st and 2nd grade class in the spring (thus no open lottery seats), made very few offers over the summer, and suddenly has open seats. Something does not add up.

I would think a lot of people are declining wait list offers, or getting off the list before receiving an offer at all.

Waitlists move fast in late August through early October. Burning through a waitlist of 28 for 2nd isn't really unusual or concerning. It's the empty seats that are concerning, for budget reasons.

PP here and I agree that fast waitlists in September aren't unusual but what is unusual is for a school that appeals to the demographic that tends to gravitate to Lee (high SES parents), it's very weird to leave the school in August or September. That kind of ship jumping is common at crowded DCPS schools, Title 1 schools (or any school with a large FARMS population), or other schools that may be more challenging for parents in this demographic to navigate. It's unusual at these niche charters with specialty programming and nice facilities. Especially weird for Lee to be losing students at this stage when schools like ITS, LAMB, CHMS, and Two Rivers (which tend to attract the same people in the lottery) still have waitlists for those grades. You would expect Lee to have few issues filling the spots given that schools that attract similar students still have people trying and failing to get spots. It would be weird, for instance, that none of the 50+ families on the CHMS waitlist for 1st would also be trying to get into Lee and be willing to take a spot there given that CHMS's waitlist isn't moving at all.

Well, ITS is on the Short Waitlists thing too and so is Two Rivers, for a few grades.

I think the total number of students in the public school system has dipped a little bit, and that should lead to shorter waitlists because each kid in the system can join a lot of waitlists. And with less kids, some schools are going to come up a bit short, and it's likely to be the schools with lower performance and/or lower parent satisfaction. It's interesting that Lee is one of them, previously it had a pretty good reputation but maybe people are looking more critically at it now.

ITS has a shortwaitlist for 1st (9 people) which again makes Lee's open spots strange -- there are 9 people who have stuck around on the ITS waitlist (meaning they didn't get a spot at a school they ranked higher) but Lee has open seats available. I'd normally expect those folks to be looking closely at Lee.

And the other short waitlist for either school are for grade 5. That's normal because of the MSs that start at 5th -- a family could love an ES but still choose to leave at 5th if they get a spot at Latin or BASIS. Leaving in 1st grade is a different deal.

That's really not how it works. Families that want Montessori but don't get into Lee for ECE go to Breakthrough, SSMA, or CHML. Families that want a crunchy school with very solid academics go to ITS, and they aren't gonna trade that in to enter Montessori in 1st. People from SSMA or CHML might go to Lee for 1st, and it's interesting that they haven't, but entering Montessori for the first time in 1st grade is rare. I'm an ITS parent and I've never heard of anyone leaving for Lee after preschool or K.

PP here and the point is not that you'd expect current ITS families to leave for Lee. It's that you'd expect families that are waitlisted for ITS at 1st or 2nd grade to jump at a spot at Lee since these are, by definition, people who are looking for a new school.

People don't jump around between charters often but they DO jump between DCPS and charters and it's common to make this jump in early elementary.

[Anonymous]

One of the reasons that Lee probably has low math test scores is that while higher level math concepts are learned earlier and more intuitively at younger grades with great materials, the students don't really learn how to apply math concepts to different contexts and critically think through things like word problems. The low reading test scores are probably because once students learn the fundamentals of how to read and write, they don't focus much on reading comprehension and writing skills.

[Anonymous]

I was just cleaning out my email folders and discovered an email from Lee from last Friday letting me know that the East End campus has space in PK3, PK4, K, 1st, and 2nd (we received because we are waitlisted for Lee Brookland). Not sure if this still applies given that count day has passed, but it does say that people who added late for one of these spots would be given a lottery preference to switch to the Brookland campus next year.

We will not be taking advantage both because we don't feel comfortable moving our kid at this stage in the game and also because we are much closer to the Brookland campus and would not want to switch schools twice to get a spot there. But posting here unless someone else is interested.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was just cleaning out my email folders and discovered an email from Lee from last Friday letting me know that the East End campus has space in PK3, PK4, K, 1st, and 2nd (we received because we are waitlisted for Lee Brookland). Not sure if this still applies given that count day has passed, but it does say that people who added late for one of these spots would be given a lottery preference to switch to the Brookland campus next year.

We will not be taking advantage both because we don't feel comfortable moving our kid at this stage in the game and also because we are much closer to the Brookland campus and would not want to switch schools twice to get a spot there. But posting here unless someone else is interested.

Wow. That's gotta be financially painful, to have that many open seats.

I thought they weren't allowed to make the second campus into a transfer bullpen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was just cleaning out my email folders and discovered an email from Lee from last Friday letting me know that the East End campus has space in PK3, PK4, K, 1st, and 2nd (we received because we are waitlisted for Lee Brookland). Not sure if this still applies given that count day has passed, but it does say that people who added late for one of these spots would be given a lottery preference to switch to the Brookland campus next year.

We will not be taking advantage both because we don't feel comfortable moving our kid at this stage in the game and also because we are much closer to the Brookland campus and would not want to switch schools twice to get a spot there. But posting here unless someone else is interested.

Wow. That's gotta be financially painful, to have that many open seats.

I thought they weren't allowed to make the second campus into a transfer bullpen.

Don't know what was in their charter approval, but as of now transfer is NOT on the published Lottery Preference list for Lee - Brookland. They seem to be making commitments in writing to something that isn't yet formally in place. Not sure what recourse parents have if Lee doesn't honor that email next year.

https://www.myschooldc.org/schools/profile/207/ - Brookland - Transfer is NOT on the Lottery Preference list
https://www.myschooldc.org/schools/profile/430 - East End - Transfer is on the Lottery Preference list

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was just cleaning out my email folders and discovered an email from Lee from last Friday letting me know that the East End campus has space in PK3, PK4, K, 1st, and 2nd (we received because we are waitlisted for Lee Brookland). Not sure if this still applies given that count day has passed, but it does say that people who added late for one of these spots would be given a lottery preference to switch to the Brookland campus next year.

We will not be taking advantage both because we don't feel comfortable moving our kid at this stage in the game and also because we are much closer to the Brookland campus and would not want to switch schools twice to get a spot there. But posting here unless someone else is interested.

Wow. That's gotta be financially painful, to have that many open seats.

I thought they weren't allowed to make the second campus into a transfer bullpen.

Don't know what was in their charter approval, but as of now transfer is NOT on the published Lottery Preference list for Lee - Brookland. They seem to be making commitments in writing to something that isn't yet formally in place. Not sure what recourse parents have if Lee doesn't honor that email next year.

https://www.myschooldc.org/schools/profile/207/ - Brookland - Transfer is NOT on the Lottery Preference list
https://www.myschooldc.org/schools/profile/430 - East End - Transfer is on the Lottery Preference list

I think this kind of transfer is really disfavored by the PCSB. Second campuses, especially EOTR campuses, are not supposed to be a place where people pay their dues before getting into the first campus. That destabilizes the second campus and makes it more difficult for the school to succeed. And lottery preferences are not supposed to be handed out to individuals as enrollment incentives. That's super sketch and Lee must be pretty desperate to do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was just cleaning out my email folders and discovered an email from Lee from last Friday letting me know that the East End campus has space in PK3, PK4, K, 1st, and 2nd (we received because we are waitlisted for Lee Brookland). Not sure if this still applies given that count day has passed, but it does say that people who added late for one of these spots would be given a lottery preference to switch to the Brookland campus next year.

We will not be taking advantage both because we don't feel comfortable moving our kid at this stage in the game and also because we are much closer to the Brookland campus and would not want to switch schools twice to get a spot there. But posting here unless someone else is interested.

Wow. That's gotta be financially painful, to have that many open seats.

I thought they weren't allowed to make the second campus into a transfer bullpen.

Don't know what was in their charter approval, but as of now transfer is NOT on the published Lottery Preference list for Lee - Brookland. They seem to be making commitments in writing to something that isn't yet formally in place. Not sure what recourse parents have if Lee doesn't honor that email next year.

https://www.myschooldc.org/schools/profile/207/ - Brookland - Transfer is NOT on the Lottery Preference list
https://www.myschooldc.org/schools/profile/430 - East End - Transfer is on the Lottery Preference list

I think this kind of transfer is really disfavored by the PCSB. Second campuses, especially EOTR campuses, are not supposed to be a place where people pay their dues before getting into the first campus. That destabilizes the second campus and makes it more difficult for the school to succeed. And lottery preferences are not supposed to be handed out to individuals as enrollment incentives. That's super sketch and Lee must be pretty desperate to do it.

I disagree with nothing you wrote. The fact that they are making written commitments that contravene the current formal policy could create big problems going forward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was just cleaning out my email folders and discovered an email from Lee from last Friday letting me know that the East End campus has space in PK3, PK4, K, 1st, and 2nd (we received because we are waitlisted for Lee Brookland). Not sure if this still applies given that count day has passed, but it does say that people who added late for one of these spots would be given a lottery preference to switch to the Brookland campus next year.

We will not be taking advantage both because we don't feel comfortable moving our kid at this stage in the game and also because we are much closer to the Brookland campus and would not want to switch schools twice to get a spot there. But posting here unless someone else is interested.

Wow. That's gotta be financially painful, to have that many open seats.

I thought they weren't allowed to make the second campus into a transfer bullpen.

Don't know what was in their charter approval, but as of now transfer is NOT on the published Lottery Preference list for Lee - Brookland. They seem to be making commitments in writing to something that isn't yet formally in place. Not sure what recourse parents have if Lee doesn't honor that email next year.

https://www.myschooldc.org/schools/profile/207/ - Brookland - Transfer is NOT on the Lottery Preference list
https://www.myschooldc.org/schools/profile/430 - East End - Transfer is on the Lottery Preference list

I think this kind of transfer is really disfavored by the PCSB. Second campuses, especially EOTR campuses, are not supposed to be a place where people pay their dues before getting into the first campus. That destabilizes the second campus and makes it more difficult for the school to succeed. And lottery preferences are not supposed to be handed out to individuals as enrollment incentives. That's super sketch and Lee must be pretty desperate to do it.

I disagree with nothing you wrote. The fact that they are making written commitments that contravene the current formal policy could create big problems going forward.

Also, this school only offers PK3 through 2nd. So what that email says is that they currently have empty spots in ALL of their grades. (Despite an initial waitlist of 20+ kids for K, 1st, and 2nd!). They're kicking the can down the road with this dubious preference offer-- it's just going to worsen next year's attrition! So they must be pretty desperate. Feels like a Hail Mary.

[Anonymous]

As someone who was interested in Montessori for prek3, I didn’t think Lee did a very good job at open houses this past year. We are new to town and were specifically looking for a Montessori school, didn’t depend much on test scores, and still didn’t rank Lee.

[Anonymous]

Lee has had some truly amazing staff, but unfortunately, many of them left over the last few years. As a result of this and other changes, there have been several recent challenges there.

It seems like all of the DC charter schools that expanded to a second campus have become stretched too thin with growing pains and lost some of their previously wonderful environment.