Discussion, is Spingarn HS closing?

[Anonymous]

I was at a mtg at Woodson and the rumblings were about Woodson's potential increased enrollment for next year. The influx if students are supposedly are to matriculate from Spingarn. I would like to pause but if our charter schools are public schools then why isn't Friendship and/or Chavez available choices?

Closing of Spingarn due to low enrollment is okay with me and to utilize the campus for the upcoming trolley operation makes damn good sense. But to shuttle kids past perfectly good charter schools with good facilities and academic programs is horrendous.

Also, if I am able to walk to Spingarn then it is pretty likely that I can walk to Eastern but there's no discussion about Eastern absorbing some of Spingarn's population. Just saying Ward 5 students shipped off to a Ward 7 school but many are closer neighborhood wise to a Ward 6 school. Is it because Ward 7 is a poor cluster and Ward 6 is a Hill East cluster?

Let me grab a cup of coffee, so we can discuss. Be right back!

[Anonymous]

Anyone can apply to a charter, but students can't be "assigned" there.

[Anonymous]

That's a good point re: Eastern, which is much closer than Woodson!

Did Spingarn and the neighborhood along Maryland Ave get gerrymandered into Ward 5? I always thought that was in Ward 6. No big deal. Just curious.

[Anonymous]

Charters in that area will thrive, as long as parents realize they have to apply and there is room there.

Posts like this will start the education process. by informing involved parents about this option.

[Anonymous]

Remember, Eastern will only be 9th and 10th next year. That probably isn't the only reason, but sending all of Spingarn's students there couldn't really happen until they're back to having all four grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That's a good point re: Eastern, which is much closer than Woodson!

Did Spingarn and the neighborhood along Maryland Ave get gerrymandered into Ward 5? I always thought that was in Ward 6. No big deal. Just curious.

No - the area north of Benning Rd and Florida Ave has always been Ward 5. So, Spingarn (and Carver Terrace/Langston dwellings) is JUST NORTH of ward 6.

[Anonymous]

At least in the last round of school closures, DCPS practice was to assign all kids from the closed school to the most under-enrolled nearby school. Unsurprisingly, the most under-enrolled schools happen to be the least desireable & have the lowest test scores. No attempt was made to consider individual addresses' closeness to the receiving school--the entire in-bounds area was assigned to the worst remaining school, even though in many cases better schools are much closer.

If experience is any guide, DCPS & elected officials may say that kids from the closed school could be assigned to a better/nicer school (in this case, Eastern over Woodson), or that some students will be able to go to whichever school is closer to their home. But this will not, in fact, happen.

[Anonymous]

I am back. The applying to charters routine always irked me. Merely because when charters kicks a student out for any reason, they are sent back to their neighborhood school, no questions asked. Yes, Eastern is only accepting 9th and 10th but that is Woodson's argument. New 9th graders and rising 10th graders who are of the walking distance should be given priority placement at Eastern. They shouldn't have to rely on public transportation to go to Woodson.

What was also quite clear that if Woodson had to solely field this burden then they wanted Spingarn's principal at the helm of Woodson. I understand that he is a good principal.

[Anonymous]

Charters are not allowed to just "kick kids out". The charter in which a child is enrolled is, for all intents and purposes, that child's home school. The only way for a child to be forcibly removed is though expulsion. Even in that case, the child must still be educated and the charter is responsible for helping to figure out a plan. Poorly informed parents are lulled into thinking otherwise by unscrupulous charters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was at a mtg at Woodson and the rumblings were about Woodson's potential increased enrollment for next year. The influx if students are supposedly are to matriculate from Spingarn. I would like to pause but if our charter schools are public schools then why isn't Friendship and/or Chavez available choices?

Closing of Spingarn due to low enrollment is okay with me and to utilize the campus for the upcoming trolley operation makes damn good sense. But to shuttle kids past perfectly good charter schools with good facilities and academic programs is horrendous.

Also, if I am able to walk to Spingarn then it is pretty likely that I can walk to Eastern but there's no discussion about Eastern absorbing some of Spingarn's population. Just saying Ward 5 students shipped off to a Ward 7 school but many are closer neighborhood wise to a Ward 6 school. Is it because Ward 7 is a poor cluster and Ward 6 is a Hill East cluster?

Let me grab a cup of coffee, so we can discuss. Be right back!

Assuming they're not oversubscribed, they are available choices. All parents have to do in that case is enroll. The reason that DCPS isn't automatically re-assigning to those schools, is because they're charters and DCPS has to give the students a new neighborhood option. If I were a parent at Springarn, I would absolutely check out both of those options as well as Eastern.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Charters are not allowed to just "kick kids out". The charter in which a child is enrolled is, for all intents and purposes, that child's home school. The only way for a child to be forcibly removed is though expulsion. Even in that case, the child must still be educated and the charter is responsible for helping to figure out a plan. Poorly informed parents are lulled into thinking otherwise by unscrupulous charters.

Let's rephrase that then to "make it difficult to remain enrolled. Or how about this: "become ineligible for enrollment." There are ways...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Charters are not allowed to just "kick kids out". The charter in which a child is enrolled is, for all intents and purposes, that child's home school. The only way for a child to be forcibly removed is though expulsion. Even in that case, the child must still be educated and the charter is responsible for helping to figure out a plan. Poorly informed parents are lulled into thinking otherwise by unscrupulous charters.

Let's rephrase that then to "make it difficult to remain enrolled. Or how about this: "become ineligible for enrollment." There are ways...

There have been in the past, true, but that ship has sailed. Charters are going to be facing a lot more scrutiny with regard to how they treat children with academic difficulties and children with special needs.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the scrutiny about Charter schools. The charter schools are seemingly having a whole new attitude in regards to neighborhood students. I do believe there's a post discussing this vary issue.

On the other hand this is the best/worst kept secret regarding Spingarn. When I inquire about it at DCPS headquarters, it is denial. Yet Spingarn faculty are showing up to job fairs for excessed teachers.